Tired & Lots of Homework

Argh. Very busy, very tired. Nothing to report, really.

My brother the Logo-Maker

Well, I was wicked-super busy yesterday with homework, unsurprisingly, so I don't have much to report pertaining to my own projects. However, I thought I'd draw attention to this news announcement on the NWVault, which I helped my little brother to create:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=nwn2communitynews.Detail&id=126

My brother is an aspiring 2-D artist who's pretty talented using Photoshop and Illustrator, and I finally convinced him to use some publicity to see if anyone might like one of his logos for their own module. The replies on the news announcement in the comment section (as per his instructions) so far have been encouraging, and I figured giving him a plug here couldn't hurt. :)

School starts again

Well, 'twas a nice, long, relaxing, enjoyable break while it lasted...but all good things must come to an end, and it was nice to go back to classes today. I'm taking a bunch of interesting ones and my teachers are superb, so I'm excited.

For the next few weeks, the Ossian work will take precedence in terms of what I spend my free time on; there aren't enough hours in the day for me to work on Ossian, Moonshadows, and do my homework, go to classes, and run. No big deal--I'm not rushing on Moonshadows anyways. I want to make sure it's as good as I envision it being before letting it loose on the world! *insert evil laugh*

Anyhow, nothing to report videogame-wise. If Alazander is reading this, however, he will be happy to know that my brother is working on his logo as we speak! ;)

The Matrix

Well, I did some really good work today. I engaged in some writing for Ossian in the morning, then split my time between snacking, watching the final four, reading Dante Alleghieri's Inferno, and developing Moonshadows. I designed a bunch of blueprints, wrote some conversations, and scripted the last few events that needed to be programmed for the sidequest I've been working on. Apart from designing a few non-plot-specific blueprints and writing their conversation, I'm officially done with this first quest, which is relatively long and complex compared to others in the game! :) So that's good news.

I also decided I wanted to add another official sidequest to the game, half of which was already implemented as non-quest-specific content, so it doesn't mean I'll be adding significantly to development time.

On the ride home from Vermont, my brother and I watched The Matrix. While he had seen it before, it was my first time watching it (I'm not a big movie-go'er), and I gotta say, I found it really well done. It had a surprisingly intellectually-stimulating backstory for a movie so focused on (awesome!) action scenes. Anyhow, I really enjoyed it.

Ossian & Moonshadows

I've done a lot of good work on Ossian and Moonshadows today. Obviously, I can't elaborate about the former, but the latter involved wrapping up the first sidequest in the game. I just need to design a few more blueprints and a few more scripts involving those as-of-yet un-created creatures, then I'll need to place the creatures I haven't placed yet, and I'll be done with the quest! I wrote a bunch of dialogue, designed a small interior, and reworked some of the journal entries to reflect a small change I made in the quest at the last minute so that it can be solved several ways. I did a few scripts as well, so it was a good "all-around" design day.

Tonight, I need to do some more Ossian work. After that's done, I'll finish this first quest and move on to bigger, better things! :)

Some work on Moonshadows

So after releasing A Serious Problem...Seriously yesterday afternoon, I worked for the rest of the evening on Moonshadows so that I could at least feel as though I had accomplished something of value. I did a bit of tweaking to a quest whose start was a bit generic, something that I'd like to avoid, and I went through every blueprint in the game and verified that they had the appropriate scripts attached to them so that they would, you know, do stuff. On my first run through A Serious Problem, the supposedly-vicious whopper-bopper wielding clowns didn't even react to my slaughtering of them or their friends, and I realized that some critters in Moonshadows might have the same problem.

So, I went back through the blueprints and updated instances of creatures that were broken. I also rewrote a few journal entries and wrote about 750 words of dialogue for the first quest giver in the game, as well as wrote up a few short "play animation" scripts just for flavor.

I hope to do some good design work today, as I have nothing at all to do; I'm taking today and tomorrow off from running and then going light on Monday so that I'll be invigorated for my first track practice on Tuesday.

...Seriously.

Ok, well, I've uploaded the piece of trash...I mean module...to the Vault. I won't post the mod description here since it'll be available for download *cringes* in a few hours...but here's a screenshot to scare away those too faint of heart for such an adventure.



It's silly to the point of utter stupidity. Anyways, enjoy, if at all possible. Hopefully it'll cheer a few people up.

A Serious Problem...

Hah! A pun in the title! That should get this update off to a jolly-good start...you don't get the pun yet, but you will, soon!

So today I spent the morning on Ossian secret stuff and some time in the evening on Ossian secret stuff; in between, I did a teensy bit of Moonshadows, then decided to take a break. Then, I thought to myself, wouldn't it be fun to release a short parody module just for kicks'n'giggles? So I took the rest of the day off from Moonshadows *ducks* and have already almost finished this mini adventure. I hope to have it done by Monday. It will not be beta-tested (no need) and it will use a pregenerated character named Ricardo. The module is called..."A Serious Problem." Hence the update title...I didn't run into any problems, of course, unless you consider me taking a few days off from Moonshadows a problem, in which case I'd say, "uh, too bad!" :)

I'll post a blurb tomorrow for your enjoyment. I think it's pretty entertaining (if completely ridiculous and immature) at the moment, so hopefully people with senses of humor similar to my own will get some laughs from this. :)

Cheers!

General design work

I spent this morning putting the finishing touches on yesterday's exterior area. I added a few more trees, that kind of thing...I also did some work on the second level of the Endless Caverns in terms of placeables, lighting, and some neat effects in terms of vfx's and scripts. Hopefully it'll all look really good in-game.

I also started finally placing a few of the completely-finished NPC's whose conversations are written and who were basically ready to go. It's finally starting to look like a module rather than a series of empty, abandoned-looking areas! ;) I'm still a good ways from being done, of course, but it is nice to be making visible progress.

Later on in the day, after going shopping for dress clothes, eating lunch, and going on a run, I built three interior areas (which accompany the one exterior that I built yesterday) and added some placeables to them. They're far from done, with no sounds or creatures in them (except one), but it's something to work with at least. I still need to add two more interiors to that sequence of the game before I really start polishing it up.

In terms of the rest of the module, I have two small interiors to make (both of which may end up as "fake" interiors--exteriors disguised as interiors, I mean) and one larger interior that will be more time-consuming. It will be a "real" interior--a crypt, as it so happens. While it was never really part of the plan, per se, this first module in the series is crawling with undead, so keep that in mind for character choices. The rest of the series will feature a more diverse array of enemies; there will be more "evil NPC's" and fewer "monsters," if that makes any sense.

So, today was more general design than any one thing in particular. Tomorrow will be much more focused on writing, both for the secret project and for Moonshadows. I'm happy with the quality of the writing I've done so far, and I'm going to try to maintain this high standard throughout the rest of my work. You have no idea how eager I am to see how this module is received by the community!

Oh, also, more screenshots coming soon of those new areas, perhaps. I'll have to see.

Plot expansion

I've added to the central plot of the module leading up to the Star Mounts. I felt that it was possible to skip too much of the module, to go too far forward too fast. With this "required" quest added in, the player will be better prepared for the rest of the module and will be more likely to go off and do sidequests afterwards, for a variety of reasons, if they weren't planning on doing so originally. This addition to the plot has also allowed me to do some nice Realmslore-implementation (with some brainstorming help from Alazander--thanks again!), and to add a few famous Realms-folk into the earlier stages of the game. Let's just say that players who have played some of my more recent releases will particularly enjoy this encounter. :)

So, I did all the writing for this main-plot-sidequest today; it was several thousand words overall, so it wasn't too bad. I also built the one exterior area that the quest required be made in its entirety; I still have several interiors and a few creature blueprints to do as well. Then I have several trivial scripts to write and the quest will be done. :)

After that's finished, I intend to continue implementing the High Forest optional sidequests. These, for the record, are the real meat of the module, and it is my hope that every player takes part in them. What's the point of playing a long, exploration-based adventure if you rush through the main plot, after all?

Update

So I worked for 4+ hours on the secret project. When I get home today, I'll be doing writing, writing, and...hmm...yeah, more writing, both for Mr. Secret and for Moonshadows. I went through and created all the conversation files themselves, and it seems I have 15 or so to write for Moonshadows, which will be fun. I intend for there to be a lot of interaction--not too much, so as to not overwhelm the character, but enough so that characters have real personalities and quest-givers are more than just...uh...quest givers. :)

This week's outlook

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! It's not a little ironic that area building has become the most fun part of the process for me, considering that it's what I was dreading the most when I first picked up the toolset. Thanks to the useful Cave Roof placeable on the Vault, I've been able to fake a few of my interiors as exteriors instead, which is something I never thought I'd want to do. :) I think I've done a really good job duplicating NWN1 tilesets using NWN2 so far, particularly the forest tileset in one of my areas and the underdark tileset in my more recent Endless Caverns. The Dire Wood and The Sisters have their own charm, as do my first few Star Mounts areas--towards the top, one area in particular reminded me a ton of the first area you step into after beating Xantam the Beholder in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on the PS2. It was mountainous, a blend of dirt and stone, and there were ogres and gnolls everywhere. Bet you can't guess what kinds of creatures you'll be fighting in that area! ;)

So let's see...apart from making pretty areas, I've created almost all the blueprints for the game. I can think of 4 more that need to be done for various sidequests, and then I have a few to do for the latter part of the main quest for Chapter 1. I also have three more interior areas to create, but two of them are really quite small. I did a good bit of scripting yesterday to give a few of my areas some interesting flare; things like slipping on slick, wet cavern floors near waterfalls and setting off unique elven traps in a tomb of Earlann...without these, it would just be a lot of combat with exploration, but I'm going to add as many points of interest to my areas as I can so as to spice them up as much as possible.

There remains, of course, the matter of writing a bunch of conversations. That's really what I should focus on this week. So, today I hope to finish up (or at least get some good work done on) some stuff for the secret project, then I want to make those two quick interiors and do some other miscellaneous work that needs doing. I don't anticipate having many new screenshots this week, but hey, there are over 80 in the gallery, so y'all shouldn't be running out any time soon. I will have new ones before release, of a few of my interiors in particular, but those won't be for awhile.

Interiors

So I wasn't able to run today because of the nasty snow and ice on the ground. Instead, I found my exercise fix in the form of...shoveling. Huzzah--I think I've found my new calling.

Anyhow, after clearing the walks AND our ginormous driveway (yes, I shoveled THE DRIVEWAY, you read that correctly), I came inside and continued my development marathon. I did some work finishing up a few more blueprints, then I moved on to a little bit of nifty scripting and then did some interior area design. Then, it struck me: the cave areas I had built the night before were crappy, and they dragged down the quality of the module. I mean, as far as interiors go, they probably were perfectly fine. But I just don't like the cave interior that shipped with the game; it didn't create the effect I wanted. So, I deleted those areas and started making them with terrain instead of tiles (exteriors disguised as interiors, effectively). I gotta say, the one that I've almost finished looks SO much more like what I had in mind for the Endless Caverns. :) So anyways, I'll be sticking with this new method for the other cavern area. I'll use the tiles for a few of the smaller caves in the mod, and I'm still using tiles for a crypt and that kind of thing...but it's good to know I can always do this if I need to. :)

Blueprints & Hasty Pudding

I spent a lot of time today designing a large number of blueprints for use in Moonshadows. I'm going through each area and creating a varied and logical set of critters to populate them; I have a feeling combat will be tough in the first few areas of the module, but then again, I haven't actually played NWN2 yet and I don't plan on doing so any time soon, so I'll let my playtesters be the judge of difficulty when that time comes. :) I'm taking ideas from some of my favorite games and blending them into the kind of adventure I would enjoy playing; combat should be rewarding both literally (loot & experience will be plentiful) and figuratively (the player will hopefully feel like they have accomplished something at the end of a quest or excursion).

One thing I liked about Dungeon Siege II, for example, was the fact that mini-bosses were fairly common. It was fun to fight monsters that differed from the standard fare of fodder--even if it was just a unique name, appearance and item set, it really added a level to the game for me, albeit a subtle one. So, I'm scattering "mini-bosses" of sorts throughout the game where they would make sense, so it's not just the player wading through nameless orcs. I feel that doing this will just make the combat more interesting; it takes a little more effort on my part, but hopefully it'll be worthwhile. :) It also gives me the opportunity to sprinkle all sorts of unique items into the mod outside of boring treasure chests.

So, outside of blueprints, I went out with the family to see Harvard's Hasty Pudding performance for this year, and I've gotta say, it was spectacular! It's like Monty Python, except cruder: it's all male actors, and the parts are equally spread between males and female roles, which makes for some interesting situations to say the least! So yeah, it was a lot of fun, even though the curtain got stuck in the middle of the second act and they had to entertain us for 15 minutes while they tried to fix it. Luckily, there's an ultra-talented student band that supports the play (it's a musical, after all), so they made the awkwardness seamless, really. It was basically a free jam session--some guys from the audience even came down and did some solos to keep the masses happy. :)

Anyhow, I've really got to do some writing tomorrow, as well as finish up a few blueprints. More info tomorrow.

A new site look and some area design

As you have most likely already guessed, I got bored of the same-old-same-old black'n'white theme and decided to shake it up a bit. I sort of like the parchment color (sorry, "ochre", duh!)...it's just more interesting. :)

So today was more eventful than usual; for the past week or so, I've been waking up around 9, eating breakfast, building, eating lunch, building, running, showering, building, eating dinner, and going to bed late. I know, I know, you're envious--it's been awesome. Today, however, I woke up late and *gasp* went out for brunch with my folks. We ran some errands and I decided to pick up Gothic 3, a game that I've been wanting to check out for some time but couldn't run on my laptop. Now, with my new laptop, I can run anything, so I'll install it and report back with impressions if I have time (gotta finish chapter 1 of Moonshadows first!).

After getting home and taking care of some emails and such, I got down to work and made the last exterior area (it was a breeze), as well as the first two interior areas that I've ever made. I'm pretty happy with both of them so far, and thanks to some help from fellow Ossian team member Shadovar and community member Berliad, I was able to quickly acquaint myself with this new kind of area design. It's definitely not as fun as building exteriors...I may look into that recent hak that was released on the Vault to give exteriors a cave roof and "faking it." :) I'll have to play around with it and see if it's really worth it...

Finally, I watched the end of Casino Royale, the new James Bond film. I can't say I'm crazy about it--I mean, it was fine on its own merit, but from the perspective of one of the (relatively, of course) few people who read the original book by Ian Flemming, it's not at all a remake. I personally liked the story told in the book better...still, the film did seem to have its moments, inaccurate as it was.

So, I'm unsure of what to do next. I obviously have this secret project going on which, of course, I have to continue taking care of. But for my own project(s), I have a gut feeling that I need a short break from the Forgotten Realms. The amount of research and planning and brainstorming I've been doing in the past few days, paired with the actual building I've done, has left me with a bit of a headache. I may do some work on The Lynncairen Saga tomorrow, for a change...then again, I might not. :) I hopped over to Adam Miller's Dark Waters homepage and read the short premises of his planned campaign--the short blurbs (particularly the first one, about the door in the mountain), the quotes, and the pictures always inspire me. Anyhow, I think I'm going to head off to bed--tomorrow will be a day full of writing.

Writing

Yesterday, I did some writing for the project-which-can-not-be-named for a couple of hours. I also spent a great deal of time brainstorming with what to do about a certain quest; when the game was for level 20 characters, it wasn't going to be an issue at all, but after scaling down the level range to 7-8, this quest suddenly became completely not plausible for the player to be undertaking. So, I had to figure out how to deal with it... I ultimately came up with a satisfactory solution, but it took me far longer than I would have liked. :P

Anyhow, all of the sidequests in chapter 1 have now been planned out, and I have one more teeny exterior area and then several interior areas to take care of before implementation of the quests really begins. I'm not anticipating that this is going to take all that much longer; I very well might end up with a beta build by the end of my 2 week vacation, depending on how hard it is to build interiors! :)

I'll post again later today after I've gotten some stuff done.

...MORE screenies... :)

If all these new areas are happening too fast and boring you guys, just let me know and I can slow down. ;) I've added two new mini-galleries to the main screenshot gallery; check them out, I'm pretty pleased with my areas at this point. :) I now have ONE exterior area left in the entire first chapter (and it's a small and relatively-easy one), then I have a bunch of interiors and the actual design to do (NPC's, many convos, scripts, etc.). I really like the way this game is shaping up--there're lots of places to go to explore, and there are a whole bunch of quests to do--I can think of 5 off the top of my head and I'm sure I'm forgetting one, and that's before the main quest even begins!

Anyhow, back to work with me. Perhaps I'll post more tonight. :)

More screenies

I mentioned in yesterday's progress update that I had desgined two areas; well, I put the finishing touches decoration-wise on the one I didn't post screenshots of this morning, and I've added some new screenies of the finished area to the gallery.



Enjoy! I plan on doing some non-area-related work for the rest of the day.

Logos and non-Moonshadows work

First of all, since it seems to be something my teammates have mentioned recently, I better put something on the table in case there are people that read this blog who don't already know. I've been hired as a writer for Ossian Studios, and I'm currently devoting time to a "sketchy secret project" (as Berliad so aptly phrased it) as well as my own private endeavors (Moonshadows and The Lynncairen Saga). So, when I don't have something to report on some days, it's not because I'm being idle. It's just that other things must take priority sometimes. Vacation is nice because I have plenty of time to spend on both activities. :)

So, onto other things. I would like the opinion of my loyal readers (all 3 of you). ;) My little brother, who does all my artwork (ie logos for all my NWN1 and NWN2 projects so far), went on a rampage tonight and made some alternate logos for the Moonshadows campaign. I personally like the original the most, with the wisps coming off the letters, but I figured I would post the others here and get peoples' inputs on which they like best. Leave a comment and tell me what you think! The original is, of course, at the top of this page.

NUMBER 1:

NUMBER 2:

NUMBER 3:

NUMBER 4:

So leave a comment! I'd love to hear which you like best.

Another day, another two areas

So I seem to be moving at a pace of one to two completed areas per day...since I only have two more exterior areas to do in "chapter 1" of the Moonshadows Campaign, that's a good thing! After those are done, I'll move on to designing the actual game itself; there's some stuff already in place, but I have more quests to implement, NPC's to design, that kind of thing. Then there's the matter of doing interior areas, which may take awhile--I haven't done a single one yet.


Anyhow, I've restructured the screenshot gallery for Moonshadows; it's now split into five different galleries, one for each area. I'm up above 60 screenshots total at this point, not counting another 20 or so that I haven't posted up yet, and it was getting annoying to have them all on one page. Speaking of screenshots, I've added 14 new ones to the gallery. :) I also have the second area to explore and take pictures of, which I haven't done yet...it's basically the opposite from the one pictured above in terms of general mood...you'll see tomorrow, when I post screens. :)

Alazander has a blog!!!

Hall of Fame author Alazander, creator of the famous AL series and fellow Ossian Studios teammate, has started a blog to track his progress of AL4: Blades of Netheril, which he'll be completing in NWN1! I've chatted with Alazander often about the NWN1 vs. NWN2 development decision for our various side-projects, and I definitely see why he's choosing to finish the AL series in NWN1. I was able to give him a few pointers on cool tilesets to use (WoRm's seasonal tileset, which I had been using for The Lynncairen Saga), and I'm confident that this module is going to be fantastic.

Anyhow, hope on over to the new blog now! I've added it to the sidebar of this blog as well for easy linkage in the future. :)

God I'm good.

And I'm modest too! ;) Seriously though, I just finished my first ever forest area by decorating it with trees, and I'm psyched with how it turned out. It looks like the forest tileset for NWN1 (my goal), except with better graphics and cooler textures. Anyhow, I'm excited. I added 15 new screenshots to the Moonshadows Gallery for your enjoyment, so...enjoy! I'd love to hear what you think.

Apart from area work, I restructured the one quest I had designed before switching from TSM to Moonshadows (it was a quest which had changed drastically, so it needed to be completely re-done). I wrote about 1500 words of dialogue all-in-all. I hope to do some more work on that quest for the rest of the day--I already went on my run for the day (first in 2 weeks, it hurt :P ), so I'm home free. ;)

Area design

First of all, I'm excited because I'm ON VACATION!!1!11!!!1! (for two weeks). Pwnerized, as Zorkamoff would say (obscure Hugie reference for you avid fans).

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business. I spent a couple of hours today building my first forest area, and I must say I'm quite pleased. I've done terrain and textures and some placeables; I still need to add (duh) the trees, at which point the area will be ready for screenshotage (sounds will be added afterwards, and aren't necessary for screenshotage, silly goose). So, expect more pics to be added to the gallery in the next few days.

PS: My new theorem (Hugie's Law of Area Building) still applied beautifully to even a forest area! ;) Stone/cliff texture is where it's at!

Some non-story-related changes

So, today was another revision day. I didn't edit the plotline, per se; I adjusted the way the module will function. It's no longer for spellcasters only, and it's no longer for level 20 characters. Now, it's for any class, levels 7-8. The reason I did this is that, due to the large expansion of the game in terms of hours of play and opportunities to do sidequests and explore, I decided that allowing character development (which would have been nonexistent in a game for lvl 20 chars) would be important. So, expect to go from level 7-8 to 20-ish. :)
Additionally, I've started mapping out a list of every area, as well as what will be included in terms of creatures, sidequests, and various other "note to self" type things. Everything has its roots in my Forgotten Realms campaign setting, so it's all as accurate as can be...and the beauty is that the storyline is an original creation at the same time. I'm really quite pleased with how nicely my story mixes and "plays nice" with the Forgotten Realms history and canon.

Screenshots by the bushel!

As promised, 33 new screenshots of the three exterior areas I've been working on for the past few days. They're not populated with creatures yet, but from a terrain/placeable perspective I think they're about in final state, which is exciting. :)

http://www.hugiegames.com/moonshadows/moonshadows_gallery.html

A personal favorite:

"Hugie's Law of Area Design"

I spent all morning polishing (and sometimes drastically altering) my existing exterior areas to make them more realistic. I've come away with the following, which I will call Hugie's Law of Area Design: When in doubt, add stone.

Seriously. The cliff texture looks SO GOOD in NWN2; all of my areas so far use it extremely often. Water also looks totally sweet, especially after tweaking its color (I've created an emerald pool high in the mountains, and the life-draining waters of the Dire Wood are going to be really cool to design!). I created another exterior area today; there are going to be a whole boatload of'em in the adventure, so it's gonna be a whopping huge download, but I think it'll be worth it. :)

Screenshots soon, I promise! First gotta go take this Computer Science final exam... :)

Story revisions

After getting some superb feedback and suggestions on the plot of Moonshadows from my friend and fellow builder and Ossian team member Alazander, I spent a few hours today revising some of the plot of my chef-d'oeuvre. ;) Lots of pieces tie together very nicely now, and while it wasn't bad before, now some of the parts which weren't quite so strong are really good. I basically added another dimension to the central story, a subplot that just makes everthing more interesting...I also elaborated the personalities and motivations of a few of the main characters, including the eventual final villain of the adventure, and I clarified some aspects of the plot that weren't easy to understand at first...overall, just good brainstorming for what I truly believe will be a really enjoyable epic adventure. :)

In related news, I got the screenshot page up and running for Moonshadows--check it out. People that have been following this blog for awhile may notice that all the screenies of those early rural areas, the first I released, aren't there--that's because the areas those screenshots were of have been recreated now that I have a better understanding of the toolset and how to do area design. :) I'll have pics for the new areas in the near future, and will announce additions to that page here.

Moonshadows Announced

Ok, the logo's done, so it can now be announced: what was formerly called "The Star Mounts" is, henceforth, "Moonshadows." Read all about it at www.hugiegames.com/moonshadows/moonshadows_home.html . There's a link there to an "under construction" screenshot gallery; my project for the next week or so is to get an up-and-running gallery there (I'm using a new website editor, so I'm still learning my way around).

Anyhow, I'm excited; I spent several hours today finishing up a core story/plot draft, which my little brother has miraculously approved (the ultimate compliment!). ;) It's 7 pages long, single spaced, size 10 font...and it's only the main plot, there will be a slew of sidequests I've started planning. So yeah, it's gonna be a nice long high-adventure game. :)

Story brainstorming...and a new title.

I spent a good deal of time today brainstorming for what was, until this moment, known as The Star Mounts. I decided that my first release for NWN2 is not going to be a wimply little short standalone thing--it's going to be a much longer, drawn-out epic with a much more detailed and Realmslore-rich story. This means that development time is going to be significantly longer, but I figure that there's no need to rush through this. I want to craft a masterpiece, and, on this project at least, I'm on no one's schedule but my own. ;)

With this change of scope and story comes several other related changes: the title for what was previously "The Star Mounts" has been changed. I'm going to hold off announcing it until I have an appropriate logo designed (oh little brother, where art thou?!)...I'm pretty certain that I know what the title is going to be, but I don't want to jump the gun.

So, as a summary: the beginning has been greatly expanded to provide a much richer, more enjoyable high-adventure experience, and to allow the player to ease into the module instead of being dropped in deep water right away like it was designed before. The name of the module has changed in accordance with the shift in plot and theme; while the Star Mounts still feature in the module, they are no longer the center of attention for the adventure. The mod now features many more diverse locales, which should give me ample opportunity to fully explore the depth and breadth of the toolset's area-making capabilities (which I've decided is one of the most fun parts of design, despite how time-consuming it is). The plot takes a much more sweeping, epic, big-picture approach than it did earlier, and the title, as I said, has changed to reflect that by taking on a more abstract and memorable tone.

I'll have more screenies available in a few days of the other area I built this weekend, as well as updated ones as I go through and revamp my areas I've already built. I'm really excited about this new turn of events! :)

Screenshots galore!

As promised, I've uploaded 17 screenshots of one of the two new areas I built in the past 2 days. It's a bit spoilerific if you think about it too much, and the area fog is a bit too dense (that'll be changed), but I still think they're nice to look at. :) Enjoy!

Oodles of progress

As the title of this post suggests, progress has been good over the past few days on The Star Mounts. I designed two new exterior areas, and decorated them fully; one of them still needs to be populated, of course, but still, it's good progress nevertheless.

I'll be posting up like 20 screenshots tomorrow, after I've saved them as smaller-sized images. Get excited!

Busy again

Had another busy day homework-wise...I got some writing done, but not much else. I hope to do some serious area design tomorrow though, so perhaps I'll have some fun screenshots to show of that. :)