Votes

Well, I was looking through my Vault module submissions (dang, there are a lot :) ) and I noticed that today, Moonshadows' vote count surpassed that of my NWN1 module with the most votes, Tale of a Mage, Chapter 1 - The Uvudry Threat. Considering that one has been out since 2005 and the other has been out since mid-September, that only goes to show how vibrant this early NWN2 community is, and, if I may say so myself, perhaps how much people have enjoyed Moonshadows. :) I think it's pretty wild to think of how much better Moonshadows is compared to ToM 1...and yet the scores are wildly different (and speak to the contrary). Ah, NWN1 vote inflation, how I miss thee (just kidding!). ;) Seriously though, it's nice to see the Voting Guidelines over on the Vault working nicely--I feel like scores are a lot more reasonable this time around, and one can only hope that it remains that way for awhile to come.

Let's see, what else...well, Perchance to Dream should enter HoF this month, and I have a sneaking suspicion it might also be in the running for an AME award (shh, don't tell anyone) judging by a few people who have voted for it recently... ;) Just a suspicion though, nothing more. Also, I submitted Moonshadows for review by the NWVault Reviewers'--here's hoping it will fare nicely! I'll admit I'd be super-psyched for a reviewers' award... :) Heheh, so maybe I'm greedy. Too bad!

It's good to be a Boston sports fan...

Yeah...Red Sox are World Series Champions AGAIN, after having swept the Colorado Rockies 4-0. It was basically a blowout...so yeah, we win again. W00t. Also, the New England Patriots are ridiculously good this season--they're even more dominant than usual. I went to yesterday's game, and I left after the score surpassed 50-0 Patriots, at the end of the 3rd quarter. I mean, that's not even fun any more! In any event, it's pretty neat to have such great teams in your hometown--and I'm ignoring the Celtics, who have their own terrible trio of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paullllllllll PIERCE! (though a rather weak bench). The only teams missing are the NE Revolution (no idea) and the, er, Boston Bruins, who no one follows anymore anyways. So yeah, Boston sports fans ftw!!!

New Adventure Pack Forum!

Again, life is pretty busy...Moonshadows may take a back seat for a little bit. However, I have been keeping up to date with affairs in the new NWN2 Adventure Pack BioWare forum, and just to answer any questions you might have in advance: Maybe. ;)

Seriously though, my role at the moment is going to be more of an "active community member" than a builder, at least until MoW is out the door and I get some free time.

Perchance to Dream hits 2500 downloads!!!

Ok, I'll admit it--I was the 2500th downloader. But that's just because I couldn't stand another minute of watching it hovering at 2499...it was KILLING ME! :) In any event, this means that all my NWN1 modules will soon be in the Hall of Fame, which is pretty cool! Though I just realized that PtD was submitted under my "Alex Hugon" account rather than my "Hugie" account, meaning that it will be sorted near the start of the Hall of Fame list due to the default being to sort alphabetically by author's name. Sweeeet. ;)

Anyhow, life continues to be hella-busy. No updates on Moonshadows.

Busy

Life is complicated, in a good way. Mysteries of Westgate is announced, which is exciting. I have an 8 page paper due Thursday which I need to get writing, and a CompSci problem set due Friday that I need to zip through. Ah, college. :)

FINALLY -- OSSIAN "SECRET PROJECT" ANNOUNCED

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the time has arrived. NWN2fr has published a report on NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate, Atari's first Adventure Pack developed by Ossian Studios. Here's the english version of the announcement:

Atari Announces Neverwinter Nights™ 2
Adventure Pack DIGITAL DOWNLOAD COMING AUTUMN 2007
- ‘Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate’ Delivers New Story, Quests, Characters, Music and More to the Community -
LYON, FRANCE – 22 October 2007 – Atari today announced the forthcoming launch of the first Neverwinter Nights™ 2 Adventure Pack to be available exclusively via digital download, bringing a wealth of new content to the Neverwinter Nights 2 experience and growing the franchise still further. Created by Atari and some of the most prominent members of the Neverwinter Nights 2 communities, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate provides hours of additional entertainment with all new engrossing storylines, professional voice acting, enchanting musical scores, new in-game content, and much more. Neverwinter Nights 2 is set in the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® Forgotten Realms® universe created by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS). DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is under license from HPG, the licensing division of Hasbro.

Developed by Ossian Studios, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate is the first full featured Adventure Pack available from Atari. Set in the infamous Forgotten Realms city of Westgate, players find themselves in possession of a powerful but cursed treasure that threatens to destroy them. Linked to the underworld organization known as the Night Masks, the treasure will draw players into a city-spanning clash between warring factions. Players must choose their allegiance in order to break the curse and ultimately uncover a plot that threatens Westgate itself.

“Neverwinter Nights 2 and the influence of this phenomenal brand continues to grow through the tremendous work done by the committed and highly active fan community who have mastered Obsidian’s toolset to create deeply involving new adventures,” said Mathias Hautefort, Executive Vice President of publishing and production, Atari. “Our successful work with independent developer Obsidian in creating the original game is now being enhanced by our collaborative efforts with these highly talented and emerging studios such as Ossian Studios, and the result is nothing less than the fans would expect of Neverwinter Nights: high production values, engrossing storylines, and long, involving campaigns.”

From the creators of the critically-acclaimed Neverwinter Nights module, Darkness over Daggerford, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate will feature a non-linear, open-ended single-player campaign with numerous side quests covering more than 15 hours of game play. Atari’s new Adventure Pack will also feature 3 new companions; an entirely new underground sewers tile set themed after the seedy underbelly of Westgate; a host of new monsters to do battle with, including some truly epic foes; an exciting new and original musical score; as well as thousands of new lines of professionally recorded dialogue.
-more-

The Neverwinter Nights franchise has sold more than three million copies worldwide, is translated into 10 languages, sold in more than 40 countries and features one of the largest and most active fan communities in all of gaming. To date, fans of the franchise, which includes Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide™, Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark™ and Neverwinter Nights 2, have created more than 5,000 modifications to the original game using the award-winning toolset included with the full game that allows players to create their own universes, quests and storylines.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate is scheduled for release in autumn 2007. The new Mysteries of Westgate, as well as future adventure packs, require the original game and will be made available for purchase and download directly from Atari. More information about Neverwinter Nights 2 can be found at www.nwn2.com, which includes user forums, project news, development updates and more.

Busy!

It's midterm week, and I'm still swamped. Sorry for lack of updates; I haven't done any work on Moonshadows since last week. However, I did just hit 100 votes, which is pretty cool! :-D

Busyyyyy

SO MUCH WORK THIS WEEK OMG OMG OMG I'M DROWNING IN MULTIVARIABLE CALCULUS! THE VECTORS--THEY'RE EVERYWHERRRRRRE!

Actually, it's not so bad, as I've been studying my hiney off for math. But this week is ridonkulously busy. Apologies for short updates.

Watch the video I helped to create this past Saturday here. It's kind of random, but could provide some entertainment. It's funnier if you know the people involved--take my word for it. :)

24 Hour Film Festival

I participated in a team effort to script, cast, film, score and edit a 3-minute masterpiece of film yesterday as an entry in the Insomnia Film Festival hosted by Apple.com. We woke up at 7am, began to plan, got our prompt at 9am, then spent until 11pm(!) filming...needless to say, it was a draining process. Luckily, our fearless leader stayed up until 8am this morning editing and scoring and submitted the video 1 hour before the deadline. I haven't seen the finished project yet, as our leader is currently still asleep, but I'm hoping it's good! :) In the meantime, I didn't get any work (homework or Moonshadows) done yesterday, so I'm doing HW all day, possibly at the expense of both a Satire meeting and a karate practice...though I may still make it to the Satire meeting. Thing is, I also have a math review session tonight, so it's going to be a pretty hectic afternoon. WOOHOO!

Stuffs

I did a bit of work on Moonshadows 2 yesterday--more specifically, I designed an area from scratch. I'm going to be fairly busy today with a film project (for fun, not for a class), but I may be able to do a bit of work on it in the evening...if I do get around to Moonshadows, it'll be some NPC design, methinks. :)

Me & Master Chief

They say that the best thing about Harvard is the people you will meet, and I can confirm that this is absolutely true.

Busy

Yesterday was a rather busy day for yours truly--I didn't have time to even open the toolset! Homework, club meetings, classes, eating, etc... it all piles up. ;) I probably won't have much to report for today, either--we shall see.

Cutscene work & area/character design

Yesterday I spent some time messing with custom vfx's, as well as designing one very significant NPC and his corresponding area. I hope to make the accompanying cutscene a memorable one... :)


I also scripted one entire cutscene which I had already written, and I did a bit of area decoration and NPC-creation for that cutscene as well. Not a lot that I can talk about, but it was fairly productive. :)

No modules qualified for HoF this month...

So I was just looking at the Top Rated list for NWN2 modules, and it seems that another month will pass without any new modules being inducted into the Hall of Fame...that's sorta depressing! :( Still, I know there's a lot in the works to be excited about for the NWN2 community, like Adam Miller's Dark Waters 2, Markus "Wayne" Schwegel's Pool of Radiance 3, Tiberius209's The Maimed God's Saga, and, hopefully, my own Moonshadows 2. ;)

Another (Awesome) Screenshot

Apologies for the lack of an update yesterday--I spaced out. :) I had an early morning run, then an ultimate frisbee match (we won, 8-3!), after which I engaged in some high-quality "hanging out" with some friends. I spent a whole bunch of time working on a compsci problem set (done now) and on Chapter 2 of Moonshadows. I did some custom VFX work yesterday for a certain plot-specific forbidden spell, and I'm pretty pleased with the end result (see screenshot)....

First Chapter 2 screenshot...!

I did some great cutscene work today, as well as went to the doctor's and got a haircut (my first since just before arriving at college... :P ). I've basically got the first two intro cutscenes of the game ironed out; there were several weird things going on, from lag to actors not moving when they were supposed to to hovering items, but I got to the bottom of all of them and I feel like I've got a pretty nifty and compelling set of cutscenes now.

Also, as promised, a screenshot from Chapter 2!

Fixes of the Fast Travel System

Today I uploaded a few quick fixes to the map/fast-travel system in Moonshadows; there was a missing "g" in "Stronghold" in the map's dialogue, and one of the "travel" options was pointing to a waypoint with an incorrect tag. I fixed both those little issues, and added a notification system in which the player is told when a new fast-travel location has been added to their map. Woohoo! :)

In other news, I got 6 hours of sleep last night (about 2 less than usual), so I napped for 2 hours today, from 3-5pm. It was glorious.

Map feature added to Moonshadows!

I went ahead and took 3 hours last night to fully integrate a map feature into Moonshadows - Chapter One. You can now "fast travel" from most every area in the game--there are a few from which fast travel is deactivated temporarily, for story/logical reasons--which should cut down on the majority of the potentially bothersome backtracking in the adventure for players who wish to speed things up rather than take in all the sights and sounds of the High Forest/Star Mounts. Basically, it's there for those who want it; for those who would rather take their time and wander, there's never any need to employ the map. :)

One thing I forgot to add was a little message each time a new map location is added. That should be a quick fix.

More work on Chapter 2

I got a bit of work done on Chapter 2 yesterday evening. It was mostly area design, but I also was able to do some placing of static cameras and waypoints for a cutscene (which I still haven't written out...). The cutscene itself should take about 2 seconds to write and script; I'll try to get it done sooner rather than later, because it should be pretty cool. After the cutscene is done, I'll move on to more area design, though I may take some time to draw out the areas on paper first just so I'm not improvising as I go along. Anyhow, that's about all I've got to report!

New version of Moonshadows available

I uploaded a quick update of Moonshadows today to address the messed-up-meta-tiles in the cave tileset caused by 1.07beta. In addition to resolving that issue, I tweaked the only real "shop" in the module to have a bit more gold for buying loot, and fewer overly-expensive/-powerful items for sale for the sake of in-game economy and combat balance. I haven't had a whole lot of time to work on Chapter 2 over the past few days, but hopefully I'll have some time to do so sometime this week(end). I'll keep you updated!

In the meantime, my new promo ad is up on the Vault's front page, so hopefully the image will draw more players than the last one (basic logo) did. :)