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Mostly I've been writing dialog for the last ...
July 30, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
Mostly I've been writing dialog for the last couple days, so sadly no pretty pictures.
I've decided that the true masters of dialog are able to convey what they need in as few words as possible, much like the Japanese sumi-e style of painting a landscape with a few brush strokes. I find myself compelled to ramble and fill in the details. Perhaps some day I can boil it down into a series of two-word sentences and a few grunts.
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The zombie fun continues
July 28, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 The zombie fun continues. The village is essentially finished, and I made ten or so villagers for ambiance. I have a fair bit of dialog writing and scripting to do, but hopefully that should go quickly.
Of course the big excitement is with what's below the village. That'll take a fair bit more planning, though I have a pretty firm idea as to how it'll work. In theory, it'll be one of the bigger fights in the game.
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Once I have the proper inspiration, I find my...
July 27, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 Once I have the proper inspiration, I find myself compelled to turn it into reality. I wasn't happy with the rural buildings as part of my primitive island paradise, so I took apart the lighthouse roof and the fort walls to create some huts. They're fairly large, but look reasonably good. In the background you can see one of the guard towers you can climb, along with the Veil that marks the end of the normal world.
When I get a little time today, I'll probably finish up the village and work a little on scripting. I'm not fond of the way this place looks during the day, so I'll likely change it to night for the proper creepy zombie ambiance.
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I woke up this morning and knew exactly what ...
July 27, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I woke up this morning and knew exactly what I wanted to do with Daniel's romance, his remembrances, and a fun zombie-themed side quest for Serpent Isle. Right now I'm working on the island itself, putting up an extremely long wall around most of the island. I also did a guard tower test to make sure the player could get up to it and back down again. The pesky zombies have an annoying habit of walking through solid walls, though I think I know how to fix that particular issue.
The current plan is to put quite a few zombies in the area at once, though I'm going to simplify their AI as much as possible. Most of the combats in Dark Water are against small groups of monsters. It's fun to set up fights that have a dozen or more creatures coming after you at once.
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I finished up the Fairy Tale side quest, thou...
July 24, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I finished up the Fairy Tale side quest, though I've yet to test it all. My favorite part was giving out the rewards, which are somewhat non-traditional. My favorite is the Blade of Ending, which is destined to bring about the ending of the world. Until then, it's a reasonably powerful magic weapon that can be used in most situations.
The best part is that it goes around complaining when attacking "lesser" opponents. It has a fair number of snooty remarks it makes about foes being beneath him, and why can't the player get on with bringing about the apocalypse? Of course, when it does face a truly challenging opponent, it gets special powers and is a great weapon for these occasional boss battles.
I'm falling behind with my correspondence, and hopefully can get to that today. It's looking like there might be issues with the version of DW1 posted on the Vault, and the Mac version may need a bit more cleanup. Busy, busy.
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I opted for a Tarot-themed ending for the fai...
July 23, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I opted for a Tarot-themed ending for the fairy tale module. Instead of going with the witches and fairies sort of reward, breaking out the cryptic and mysterious seemed a more apt finale. I didn't have a proper Hanged Man placeable, so I rotated one of the corpses around a bit and stuck him to a tree.
Of course, now I've got three unique magic items I need to work on, but hopefully it won't take too much time. Next I need to script the transition between the book to the story and back again. Then I can declare this side quest finished and move on to something else.
Oh, and I fixed the lamp issue. No longer is the flame sticking out in a weird place.
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I got a little bored yesterday and whipped up...
July 22, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I got a little bored yesterday and whipped up a lamp for the player to get while in this little fairy tale side quest. There's an odd problem, namely a candle flame that mysterious appears above it. I haven't quite figured out how it got there, except perhaps it came over when I copied the candle item.
I made the last area in the side quest, which I think will mostly be place to get loot with maybe a minor puzzle or two. Last night I tested out the game from the start to where I finished yesterday. After a few significant bug fixes, it seems to be playable. Mostly I think that people who have never played a text adventure game may have some difficulty adjusting. These days, the thought of typing every command into a box seems foreign and strange.
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I've been working away at the Fairy Tale side...
July 22, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been working away at the Fairy Tale side quest. It's coming together relatively well, and hopefully has the appropriate number of text adventure references for us old folks. As with all these side areas, I'm trying hard to keep it optional and fun for everyone.
Hopefully I can wrap it up fairly soon, as I have tons of other areas I need to work on.
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I've been doing more stuff with voice, gettin...
July 19, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I've been doing more stuff with voice, getting the Fae Queen's dialog in the game and working properly. I think it all turned out okay. I opted for an echo effect that compliments things nicely.
As for today, it's my birthday. I may do a little work, but I suspect I'll be reveling in chocolate cake and doing fun things.
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I managed to get all the tattoos in the game ...
July 17, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I managed to get all the tattoos in the game yesterday, complete with icons, tattoo patterns, and special effects. The tattoos are much more powerful this time around, hopefully not overly so. They have a constant effect, in addition to a very powerful, short-duration effect that uses up the tattoo. I suspect some people might just leave the tattoos alone and never use them, but they have the potential for helping immensely in a fight.
I keep waffling back and forth about the ending. Players want to defeat the villain, save the world, and get the girl. Sometimes, though, it's better to give them what they need. Watching the Vault Dweller walk off into the desert was a more powerful and poignant ending than simply returning to his cheering friends. I'll probably cheat and provide multiple endings, some following the traditional path and others more nuanced.
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I'm being fickle, switching back to the Mered...
July 15, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
I'm being fickle, switching back to the Meredith quest in Port Brighton. I got some great voice clips from my sister the other day and I had lots of fun making them sound vaguely ghostly in Audacity. Since before it was a simple "creature attacks the party" encounter, I had to make a lot of changes in order to support the new dialog. The quest is much stronger, though, and I even managed to slip in a line as suggested by PJJ.
I also need to go back and add a bunch more tattoo patterns, again making sure I have adequate piratey items in the game. In DW2, some of the tattoos seemed a little weak and I'm hoping to spruce it up with some more impressive ones. The plan is to give some with constant effects, in addition to a big effect which results in the destruction of the tattoo. If the player wants protection from fire, they can get a Burning Man tatto and it will always be active. If they use tattoo, they'll get a flaming damage shield that's hopefully entertaining to play with.
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I drifted over to another side quest, one tha...
July 14, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I drifted over to another side quest, one that I'm doing out of love. Unfortunately I keep managing to destroy the module and lose progress periodically, so I find myself redoing things. I suppose the good news is that I've gotten fairly good at it at this point, so this third version is more polished than the older ones.
The Fairy Tale module is essentially a text adventure. It'll likely be very short, entirely optional, and more of an homage to the genre. I have fond memories of a kid typing "go north" and "get lamp". I've written a few simple text parses over the years. I'm trying to keep this one extremely simple and not take weeks to get working right.
Yesterday I fiddled with the GUI so it looks more book-like. I also had all sorts of problems parsing out text strings, though hopefully that's fixed now.
It's been fun working on this system, which reminds me of the good ol' days when graphics meant ASCII characters on the screen and sound effects were various beeps coming from your computer speaker.
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Progress continues
July 13, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
Progress continues.
Yesterday I had my son and sister record some more lines. My sister was the sultry Silver from DW2, and I wanted to give her some more adventure hooks for DW3. I also added some dialog to a side quest NPC. Before they just attacked, but as PJJ pointed out, some additional dialog would be poignant and amusing.
I've also been working on other miscellaneous things. The Vault is getting lit and polished. Lighting always looks so much better when you add a bunch of placeable lights. I realized I once again lost the XML file that was part of my text adventure side quest. This will be the third time I've created it, so hopefully it'll go fast.
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One of the things that's required in a pirate...
July 11, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 One of the things that's required in a pirate-themed game like Dark Waters is making sure I have the appropriate number of pirate elements. I sometimes imagine a little Pirate-O-Meter attached to the campaign, with me tossing in piratey fuel to raise the gage into the red. I've got eye patches, hook hands, flintlock pistols, sailing ships, and now the traditional ghost pirate. Sure, he's a gnome, but I think that counts.
In any case, I finished Isle Diablo for good, testing out the final area to make sure everything worked smoothly. It's very much a side quest island, a result of getting a treasure map while on your adventures.
As for today, I've got to get back to the rest of the adventure. I have voice clips to process, dialog to write, and some bugs with the Mac version of the campaign that I need to sort out.
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It was back to the hot and ashen Isle Diablo ...
July 10, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 It was back to the hot and ashen Isle Diablo yesterday. I verified that I could dig for the treasure and it would drop me into the cavern as planned. I also have the automata working, along with implementing their special weakness. The chest puzzle works as well.
I just finished writing and scripting the dialog for the final "boss battle". Of course, a little diplomacy or lying will get you out of the fight. Fun, fun.
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I think I've got the fountain/lever puzzle wo...
July 09, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I think I've got the fountain/lever puzzle working the way I wanted. I'm always amazed at how long it takes to debug scripts, as it seems so simple when I think of it. My little side quest island is turning into a bit of a distraction, but hopefully the remaining puzzles will be easy to crank out.
As is usual when returning from vacation, my life is intensely busy. My apologies if I don't respond to an e-mail as quickly as I'd like.
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I'm back
July 08, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm back. I didn't get quite as much writing time as I would have liked, but I did manage to crank out a number of pages in a key dialog. I'm pretty happy how it turned out, with various past choices and player skills influencing the outcome. Branching always takes more work than I think, but it really supports player choice and replayability.
This morning I focused on bug fixing in my new volcanic island. Players should burst into flames as appropriate when hanging out near volcanic vents. I also tested the main fight of the island, which is quite difficult. I try to sprinkle in a few optional, challenging combats and this looks like one of them.
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My volcanic island continues to shape up nicely
July 03, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 My volcanic island continues to shape up nicely. Volcanic vents spew hot gas and fire on a periodic basis, providing hazards to the unwary traveler. I also added some interesting foes, which I may fiddle with a bit more before I'm done.
Paul passed along some voice clip files for me to work on. He recorded the sketch artist voice, and I encouraged him to go with a thick French accent. I'm fond of the variety of accents in the game, as it gives it an international flair.
I'd like to finish off my island today and get to the voice clips. I'm also going to be going on vacation for a few days for my anniversary. Often they turn into great writing opportunities when I'm stuck in a car or waiting for people to wake up.
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I finished up all the achivement scripts, GUI...
July 02, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I finished up all the achivement scripts, GUI elements, and graphics yesterday. I'll probably do a bit more work as I get more things to track, but it felt good to mostly get that out of the way.
When my son was at fencing and my daughter was playing with another girl, I was stuck in an empty room with only a pen and paper. Fortunately I turned it into an opportunity, scribbling down the basics of a gnomish treasure side-quest. The puzzles ended up embodying the virtues of gnomish values, strangely enough. It amused me that the player had to think like a gnome in order to get through.
Once I finished scribbling out my quest, I realized I needed a place to put it. I've long felt that I wanted a variety of islands that were interesting, but not directly connected to the main quest. The tricky part is to spend enough time on these islands so that they're worth visiting, but not enough that it bogs down the development process.
In any case, I ended up making a volcanic island yesterday. My favorite part is the ash that falls around it. I'll likely have some combat and maybe a small puzzle, plus the treasure, if you know where to dig.
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I was really sick last night, but fortunately...
July 01, 2008 by Adam in NWN2
 I was really sick last night, but fortunately recovered completely and have gotten back into the swing of development. Today I've gotten the last of the psionic polish in place and I ended up working on achivements. Normally it's one of the last things I do, but since I was already working on the GUI that shows them, I figured I might as well put together the graphics, tracking the statistics, and so on.
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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.
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