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NWN 1

For the last few days, I've been struggling w...

April 30, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

For the last few days, I've been struggling with a weird bug where Heather and Daniel wouldn't equip their drum and flute as expected. I cursed the coding gods and couldn't figure out why my perfectly reasonable commands were being ignored.

I finally figured it out this morning. I was doing everything right, but right before I played a song, I stopped any existing one. Unfortunately this unequipped the drum and flute, and generally screwed things up. It's nice to have things working normally again.

I ended up making a "mini dialog" box specifically for Lute Hero. The normal NWN1-style dialog box is pretty big and looks weird on the screen. I've made it so that you can hide it under the Lute Hero GUI and you can pretend it's not there. The reason I still need it visible is that there are a few NWN1-style dialogs the player can still trigger and I at least want it to be workable. It would be vastly frustrating if they started using the SAGE system and suddenly they were locked in an invisible dialog, unable to exit.

I continue to feel perpetually behind. I have the basics in place for a Lute Hero installer, but have yet to test it. Paul recorded some dialog that I've yet to attach to anything. I got the last of Vicki's dialog in the game. Yesterday I started in on the "Sketch Artist" module. There's a fairly huge exterior area that involves light houses, wrecked ships, and lots of things to convert from the prototype. We'll see how far I get today.

My plan is still to test out Lute Hero multiplayer soon and make sure the installer works, then get it to testers. As expected, it's taken some time away from Dark Waters, but hopefully there's value in a steady trickle of releases, rather than the usual long delay between each act.

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Sometimes I fear I've switched from being the...

April 28, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

Sometimes I fear I've switched from being the Dark Waters developer to the Lute Hero developer. Hopefully my little detour is worthwhile. At the moment I'm focused on getting Lute Hero polished up for a possible solo release. I still need to get some scripting issues figured out and actually test the thing in multiplayer. Part of that entails making a stand-alone version as it's a pain to do multiplayer tests when a single module is part of a campaign.

The only downside is that it means other things have been put on hold. I have voice actors I need to get back to, areas to convert from the prototype, and lots of dialog to write. We'll see how it goes.

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I added six more songs, doubling the number t...

April 28, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I added six more songs, doubling the number that are in the game. Trogdor by Strong Bad is my new favorite. It's now theoretically multiplayer, with all the necessary script references now changed. People should be able to play in different areas of the module. No dueling guitars, but they can play on different stages.

I'm still seeing some funky bugs, probably due to my script updates. More testing tonight, perhaps.

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I don't normally double-post, but I have a Fr...

April 25, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I don't normally double-post, but I have a Friday treat for everyone. Here's a movie of the current early technical demo for Lute Hero. There are issues and bugs that you'll see (why is Heather blowing her gun and Daniel banging swords together?), but the game looks far better when you're not looking at screenshots.

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Yesterday was really busy, so I didn't get as...

April 25, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

Yesterday was really busy, so I didn't get as much time to work on things as I'd like. I did get Vicki's sound files, and massaged them into the game properly. I was worried about the sound quality a little, but it actually turned out reasonably well. During testing I noticed a few quirks, such as the wings detatching during the conversation, but the voice itself sounded pretty good.

This morning I took a bunch of movies of Lute Hero, as static screen shots don't really do it justice. I continue to ponder whether or not to do a stand-alone version of the game. I still think it would be cool, especially if it were multiplayer. I'd absolutely have to fix the code and add more songs, though. We'll see how enthusiastic my morning coffee makes me.

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It seems my crash fix solved at least one per...

April 24, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

It seems my crash fix solved at least one person's problem. It would be nice to figure out what's causing it, as it continues to remain a mystery.

I worked more on Lute Hero yesterday. The background of the GUI changes depending on which guitar you're playing with, which looks rather snazzy. I also updated the score, note streak, power level, and a bar that builds up until you play eight good notes in a row (after which it unleashes an effect). I also cleaned up a couple misbehaving cameras, added more effects for the practice session, fixed the textures on the "Madness" lute, and generally polished things up.

I got an email request to turn Lute Hero into a stand-alone game like I did with Pirate Cards. The main issue at the moment is that the game is fairly limited. I'd want to add more than six songs. I'd want to make sure it works with multiplayer and persistent worlds. Still, I like the idea and may spend some time working on that today. I think all the other modules are jealous of how much attention this one has been getting.

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I may have a potential workaround for the cra...

April 23, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I may have a potential workaround for the crash bug some people have been experiencing. Basically what I'm doing is replacing the "bad" High Seas module with a "good" clean version on the fly. Here are the steps that seemed to work:

* Download the clean version of the High Seas module here.
* Find your save game from right before the crash and copy the file into it.

At this point, I've only tested it with a sample bad version of the module. I'm still unsure what might be causing it. There seemed to be an unusually high amount of heartbeat AI loops using some of the debug commands, but it's hard to know what's going on.

The game itself seems to be running. The log file continues to be updated and I can hit ~ and run debug commands. I was even able to close some of the GUI screens and see the map and chat window. Unfortunately neither seemed to work.

Basically it seems like something got stuck in these bad versions of the modules. I might poke around a little more to see what's going on, or perhaps add more debug tools so I can better diagnose the issue in the future.

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Sadly my earrings did nothing to cause the ga...

April 22, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

Sadly my earrings did nothing to cause the game to crash. The crash bugs are annoying in that I can't pin them down to any particular issue. I'm going to start looking at people's saved games in hopes of tracking down the problem. We'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, I typed up a bunch of dialog and semi-finished one more quest area. I still need journal entries and some special items for a store, but it's slowly approach a testing stage. I still have a ton to do, but it's nice to make progress.

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The bug reports continue to come in for DW2, ...

April 21, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

The bug reports continue to come in for DW2, including a possible workaround for the infamous crash bug. Theoretically dropping earrings before making the transition fixes the problem, though I've yet to verify it.

I also spent a bunch of time yesterday on DW3. Three of the four map piece quests are roughly finished. The Isle of Flesh is nearly done. I tweaked the visual effect for my Flesh Elementals, making them even more wet and meaty than before. I was stuck in a boring meeting and ended up scribbling down some dialog for the main quest of the area. With a little editing, I can throw together a little quest and cross that one of my massive to do list. It's awful fun to use the word "sphincter" liberally throughout a conversation.

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Lute Hero is approaching the magical "finishe...

April 20, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

Lute Hero is approaching the magical "finished" stage, at least finished enough to send on for testing. I need to make sure I can get from beginning to end. I tried a couple times yesterday, but got stuck on silly little issues that kept me from moving on.

I recorded my Death lines this morning, though they need to be added to the game. I worked on the QA item for DW3 as well, making sure I can jump around to the various places I need to get to.

Though Lute Hero has been a lot of fun to put together, I'm looking forward to doing something else for a change.

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I decided to be a good boy and work on some b...

April 19, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I decided to be a good boy and work on some bugs that had previously been reported. I've spent a couple hours today trying to fix the magic card deck quest. It's been frustrating at one level, with most of my problems due to the fact that campaign scripts don't compile unless I open all the relevant ones and compile them with the module scripts.

I did have some rather epic battles against my Woodhaven card playing foe. He gets an extra 50 hit points, which makes for the occasionally nail-biting games. In one game, he summoned a Hellspawn, which got me down to 16 hit points, but I managed to hold on and kill it and then finish him off.

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It's taken far longer than I ever imagined, b...

April 18, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

It's taken far longer than I ever imagined, but Lute Hero has turned from a crazy idea into something that might actually be called a game. I tested out both the practice sessions and the combat, and it seems to generally work. The camera no longer wildly moves around in crazy directions, but has more of an "American Bandstand" feel, panning around the area as the lights flash and effects go off. I'm still having some problems with the combat effects, so that's next on my list to work on.

Unbeknownst to me, a version of NWN2 for the Mac was released. Of course, my installer won't work on a Mac, so I've got to put together an installer for those folks. Busy, busy!

Update: For any Mac users out there, you can try this download. It includes all the lastest patching I've done, which hopefully is a good thing. I'd consider this fairly beta as no one has tested it to make sure my instructions work or if I've included all the right files.

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I continue to plug away at Lute Hero

April 17, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I continue to plug away at Lute Hero. I hopefully cleaned up some of the misbehaving camera motions and added a few more. You now have to find songs before you can play them, giving a fairly standard progression of difficulty and rewards. I also added some assorted treasure along the way, though I still think it needs more.

Finally, I ended up making some rather pretty Chinese paper lanterns this morning. They look very nice, especially with a glow map. I should probably make them tintable as well, though I've yet to get around to it.

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There's a new voice actor by the name of Jame...

April 16, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

There's a new voice actor by the name of James Gray who's been helping out as of late. It's always fun to hear an actor's take on my dialog, and they often bring out feelings or humor unique to their reading. James has been voicing dialog for some of the deities. Even lines I thought were a little dull manage to sound greatly amusing. Here's a few samples of his work.

As for me, I just finished turning all of James' dialog into properly formatted sound files. Now I need to hunker down and attach them to the dialog itself.

Lute Hero continues to be polished. All the areas a pretty much done, though I need to make a treasure pass and sprinkle appropriate loot throughout the areas. The Lute Hero system itself needs some tweaks and bug fixing, but generally works. It's hard to believe I've sunk so much time in this one module out of the many in the third Act. Hopefully it'll be a fun experience for folks, and markedly different than other NWN2 modules they've played.

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My son is getting into building with the Orie...

April 15, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

My son is getting into building with the Oriental Construction Kit. He's decided to spend his hour of computer time each day not playing games, but instead creating elaborate structures. I suppose it's borderline educational, as he's learning about Asian architecture and advanced GUI standards like multi-selecting objects with the Shift key.

In any case, I spent a ton of time working on the Lute Hero module yesterday. Most of the "afterlife" areas are finished. I tested out the basic mechanics and it seems to work fairly well. Eventually I need to play all the way through, as I think you theoretically can now.

This morning I put together the camera motions for the practice session. It's pretty fun, and I suspect lots of players may just hang out with Death, playing guitar and watching the undead dance around.

As for today, I want to work on getting some of the new voices in the game. James sent along a bunch of stuff that I need to process. I need to create some creatures and treasures for Lute Hero. I did some bug fixing for DW1 and 2 yesterday, but it could always use some more. Busy, busy.

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I downloaded and integrated the Oriental Cons...

April 14, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I downloaded and integrated the Oriental Construction Kit on Friday and have been working hard to integrate it into the module. I have a Celestial Bureauracracy level that is supposed to have a beautiful Asian-themed environment. The construction kit is challenging to work with, but produces amazing results and is very flexible. My son is enamored with it and has been working away making little buildings. I broke out the cherry petal falling effect from my Dreamcatcher days and adapted it for NWN2.

I have a ton of work ahead of me, from writing dialog to fixing bugs in DW1 and DW2. We'll see how much I manage today.

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I've had the kids this weekend, but have man...

April 13, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I've had the kids this weekend, but have managed to sneak in a little time here and there. My battle areas for Lute Hero are slowly coming together. I try to keep reminding myself that this isn't a full module and I should keep this "little" side quest relatively simple. Unfortunately I keep doing silly little things, such as making these RPG-themed inspirational paintings.

The entire Lute Hero section needs more polish, but it's turned out extremely well considering just how crazy the concept is. It's still surprisingly fun to play a song and click on frets to lay waste to your enemies.

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I've been hunkering down and getting some wri...

April 11, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I've been hunkering down and getting some writing done yesterday and this morning. I had my daughter read the very short "Princess of Lies" dialog. The entire Isle of the Dead area is turning out to be highly comedic, hopefully not too much so for the tone of the campaign. It's hard to resist playing up the humor when the player is rocking their way through the afterlives, magical lute in hand.

In terms of the gameplay itself, I'm slowly getting the kinks worked out. Being attacked while playing is currently somewhat fatal, as the dialog that drives your playing fails and you get swarmed by enemies. I think I have a workaround for that, basically clearing your combat state and starting the dialog again. It was working fairly well this morning.

The battle effects need some more refinement, though admittedly my focus when playing is watching the frets. I may end up using my "camera companion" approach to try and get interesting shots of the battle. We'll see how it turns out.

As for today, I need to finish my dialog and get it to the voice actors. I have a couple who are itching to work on something fairly soon.

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Half the fun of Lute Hero is looking and soun...

April 09, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

Half the fun of Lute Hero is looking and sounding cool. Because of this, the player will have several lutes to choose from, including this rather nifty demonic-looking one.

The other day I sweated bullets getting the scripting in place for Lute Hero. You can now teleport to the afterlife and play your lute. There's lots of bugs to fix, but you can sort of smite foes with your music. The big issue at the moment is that if you get attacked in any way, the dialog used to capture keystrokes fails. I might be able to make it uninterruptable or somehow make the player invulnerable to direct attacks. Still, it's nice to see the game mechanic in action.

As for today, I'm writing dialog. I have a bunch of voice actors ready to go, but without something to read, it's not very useful. I've been working on some of the characters in the afterlife. Odin is fairly amusing in a brash sort of way, and I wrote a short one for the Princess of Lies. Good times.

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I got the last of six songs in the game

April 08, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I got the last of six songs in the game. The title is "Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny", which is exactly as awesome as you might suspect. The song itself is hard to play, but fun. My first time through, it turns out some double notes made it in the game, which are impossible to play using my wacky dialog method.

There's now visual confirmation when you play a note correctly. I'm also tracking notes played correctly, a score multiplier, the score, and a "power" rating. If you play eight notes, an effect is played. In practice mode, these are just nice visuals. When in combat, the effect will damage opponents. If you've played flawlessly, the damage will be increased depending on the score multiplier.

Different songs will have different special effects. There's also some nice choices to the player. With a simple song, it's easier to play it well, which increases the power of the effect. With more complex songs, it's harder to keep your power multiplier up, but there are lots more notes and the effects happen more quickly. Hopefully today I can actually get some of that worked out.

I continue to work on a patch for DW2. James Gray voiced one of the missing NPCs, actually managing to pull off a Jamaican accent. He's also done a couple characters for the Alphabet Assault module, which is relatively finished.

Oh, and it looks like Dark Waters 1 won the Bronze award for last year's Module of the Year contest. Many thanks to all of you who voted. I'm thinking DW2 is a stronger contestent for this year, and hopefully DW3 will be well received as well. Though I'm sure I'd carry on regardless, it's nice to get these little moments of recognition.

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It's always amazing when something goes from ...

April 07, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

It's always amazing when something goes from a concept to something that's actually fun. I finally got the module so that it recognizes missed notes if you don't play anything or play the wrong note. It keeps track of how many notes you've got right in a row, which will tie into the power of each effect. Eventually I'll put together some kind of scoring system just for fun. I also changed the way the songs are selected. They're on the side and disappear after a selection, which lets the player see the screen better. Finally, I have five of six songs in the game and working properly. The last one plays, but no notes appear.

The good news is that after slaving away for hours this weekend, I was testing and would keep playing past the point I needed to. The tunes were catchy and it was surprisingly fun to pretend to play along with it.

There's still tons to do. I need to set up the non-practice areas. There's camera movements that have to be created, as well as lighting and animation. It's lots of hard work, but I think the most technically challenging part is over now.

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Work on Lute Hero continues

April 06, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

Work on Lute Hero continues. The game is slowly becoming a reality. The basic game mechanic basically works, though I worry a little how well it'll fare on slower PCs. I have the note playing tied to the effects system, so you can play the song and watch flames shoot out from either side of the stage. There's also a practice mode and a battle mode, at least in theory. Players can come back to entertain the undead even after completing the quest.

It's still very rough and needs lots of attention. I made icons to allow switching between the songs, though I'm not entirely happy with the mechanism. Right now I have six songs planned, which is fine for the little quest, but more would be good. The fret icons are now colored, which helps with visibility. Slowly getting there.

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I've been fiddling with Lute Hero and the Isl...

April 05, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I've been fiddling with Lute Hero and the Isle of the Dead. My little play put on by the Troupe of the Damned is pretty funny. My daughter wanted to watch it over and over, as she liked the silly voices.

I continue to work on Lute Hero. I was wanting to make it work anywhere in the campaign, but due to the inability to create sound objects on the fly, I think it'll be limited to the Isle of the Dead.

I found a bug that caused the sound effects to be off by a little. I'm also working on getting a second song in the game. The notes and song don't seem completely lined up, so I continue to work on the basic scripts. It's hard work, but I'm hoping it turns out well.

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I managed a fair bit of miscellaneous work ye...

April 03, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I managed a fair bit of miscellaneous work yesterday. The Isle of the Dead is more than a flat grassy plain. Hopefully it's appropriately ominous, which the giant skull carved out of rock tends to help. Even better, I took my old recording for the Troupe of the Damned and chopped it up so that it can be added to the game. I had to make a bit of custom content for the occasion as well.

I still find the dialog for the play hysterically funny, a spoof on those French farces from long ago. The fact that it's Death, wearing a giant demon mask and entertaining his undead horde, makes it doubly funny.

I made a bunch of progress in other areas yesterday. I added several new gems for the SAGE system, suitably powerful for the final act in the game. I finished up one of the Port Brighton side quests, though I may still tweak it more. Today I'm going to try and work on Lute Hero some more, see if I can put together an actual game. Fun, fun!

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One of my favorite April Fool's jokes was Bli...

April 02, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

One of my favorite April Fool's jokes was Blizzard's new Bard class. Ironically a lot of the tone and humor is exactly what I'd like to do for Lute Hero. We'll see if I can pull it off.

I still have a bunch of e-mails in my InBox that I'm slowly going through. If I haven't gotten back to you, I suppose I'm ignoring you, but at least you're in good company.

I'm itching to get cracking on DW3, balanced by my desire to keep working on patches for DW2. We'll see which urge wins today.

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I've been working away at my little side ques...

April 01, 2008 by Adam in NWN2

I've been working away at my little side quest, trying to make Port Brighton an interesting place to explore. My goal is to continue to tie together all the various themes and story lines so that as the player continues to have those "Aha! So that's why . . . " moments.

This morning I whipped up four new set items known as Death's Vestments. Death is such a fun character in the game that I decided to have some special equipment that went with the Death theme.

Coming back to work after four days off, I'll likely be crazy busy for awhile. Hopefully I can finish up my current side quest and get to other things.

Update: And it looks like my podcast is posted now.

Yet another update: I posted a beta patch for DW1 and DW2. You can find them here, as usual. I haven't tried to fix all the issues. I'm getting reports of crashes around the docks, for some odd reason. The big fix with this version is the Pirate Card "card vanishing" issue. You can find the other bug fixes here.

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About Me

I've won multiple awards for my Neverwinter Nights modules, which I've been working on since the year 2000. In the real world, I'm a web developer for a healthcare organization. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.