Alex "Hugie" Hugon's Blog

300th (and final) post - updated!

2008-04-06T11:29:00.003-05:00

!UPDATE! - Hey all, my laptop's motherboard completely died last Friday, so I've been without a computer for the past week. This means I haven't been able to work on the new blog much (though I did almost finish it in the brief time I had to create the thing), let alone work on NWN2.

My new laptop is on its way, so hopefully I'll have that soon and will be able to finish my blogging software and continue to work on Moonshadows, etc. I'll keep you updated here. - !UPDATED!

Well, this marks my 300th blog post using the Blogger software, and it will be my final one. Using Blogger, that is -- don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. ;) It's just that I've decided that I'd rather code up my own blogging software so that I'm not limited to the pre-determined themes and such. So over the next few weeks I'll be working on coding my own blog -- you may not hear much from me before then, but if you keep checking back you'll be pleasantly surprised by a new look and a (hopefully) functional custom blog! Wish me luck. :)

Voting for Module of the Year 2007 Ends Today!

2008-04-05T13:38:00.001-05:00

Make sure that you vote for Module of the Year 2007 over at the NWVault if you haven't already! The polls close later today, so time is of the essence! :)

Around the Community

2008-04-04T06:39:00.003-05:00

Quick Hits:

Module of the Year 2007

Voting for MotY 2007 for both NWN1 and NWN2 closes on Saturday, so make sure to vote for your favorite module for each game!

Academy of Modding Excellence

The AME has announced that the nominations phase for the 2007 Golden Dragon awards is closing, meaning that the finalists for all this year's categories (for NWN2, at least) should be released soon! Keep an eye out on their site for more details.

Cowface at it Again

My brother was kind enough to make me a logo for Chapter Two of Moonshadows--let's just say that there is lots of symbolic meaning in this image that will be more obvious once one has played the game:

Miscellaneous Ramblings

While I have my second midterm for linear algebra coming up on Tuesday, I still should be able to do some good development work this weekend, particularly since I'm now finished with my second paper for political theory. I'm in one of those "modding moods"--I'll take advantage of this and make sure to get writing, as it seems I drift towards area design every time I open the toolset. :)

Hilary Drops Out!

2008-04-01T14:57:00.001-05:00

Hilary has dropped out of the 2008 presidential election!!!!

Mysteries of Westgate on page 88 of May 08 PC Gamer

2008-03-31T13:37:00.002-05:00

It's not a scored review, but it's the next best thing--RPG reviewer Desslock of PC Gamer describes his playthrough of Mysteries of Westgate (page 88 of May 08 issue), and it appears he enjoyed himself a lot! I personally can't wait for this game to be released so you can all have the same pleasure. :)

Sir Elric launches Blog!

2008-03-27T18:44:00.002-05:00

Fellow Ossian mate Sir Elric (Technical Designer) has hopped aboard the blog-o-train and launched his own blog! Give it a look, add it to your favorites, etc., etc. :)

New screenshots from Chapter Two!

2008-03-27T09:26:00.003-05:00

I spent all day yesterday creating the largest exterior area I've made thus far for NWN2, and I actually think I did a pretty darn good job! I was going for an overcast, gloomy/foreboding mood in a ravine/mountainous setting, and I think I nailed it. I'll be tweaking lighting, clouds and water color, but the structure, textures, grass, trees and placeables are all done. Now it's just a matter of adding sound and it'll be done! I can't believe I did it all in one day. :)

Oh, I also created a large interior from scratch and took care of the wall/floor textures and tinting therein. However, I haven't actually gotten around to decorating that one quite yet. In any event, enjoy the screenshots from the ravine.

Oh, and before I forget, don't you forget to vote in the 2007 Module of the Year contest before it ends on April 5th! Also, keep an eye on the Academy of Modding Excellence site over the course of the next few weeks, as they've announced that the finalists for the Golden Dragon Awards for 2007 -- or, at least the NWN2 ones -- will be announced within April.

2 new screenshots

2008-03-25T22:31:00.003-05:00

Well, I polished and completed the entire interlude today, which included running through it a bunch of times, fixing all the bugs that cropped up, tweaking things, and building two interior areas from scratch. I also created the two modules that I'll be working on from now on, since the interlude is now done, and I added those each to the campaign. Finally, I wrote a bit of dialogue. Tomorrow will likely be a dialogue and area-design day, possibly with some blueprint creation tossed in.

I've got two new screenshots for ya:

Back!

2008-03-24T22:25:00.002-05:00

Just got back from Florida--now it's time to get down to business. And by business I mean modding and homework, of course.

Spring Break!

2008-03-20T21:54:00.004-05:00

Well, I survived my last week of class and am now on SPRING BREAK!!! until the 31st. I'm going on a brief family vacation until the 25th, after which I'll be settling down to do some serious design work, most likely starting with some exterior area work.

A few miscellaneous things to cover in the community: Mysteries of Westgate received a nice review on the front of Games for Windows. There should be a few more of these coming--this one was unscored, though I believe that won't be the case for all of them. The 2007 Mod of the Year contests are still going, though votes are starting to slow to a trickle. I'm optimistic that Moonshadows is going to be able to snag the Silver award for NWN2--knock on wood. :) If I get really lucky, maybe I could eek out gold...

In other news, Dark Waters 2 is kicking rear and taking names as far as score goes--no surprises there. I've also continued playing Morrowind, and I'm making great progress (level 8, almost 9)--it's a lot of fun! I've posted up a couple of screenshots for your enjoyment. :)

Morrowind!

2008-03-16T12:10:00.002-05:00

So, after finishing up converting my hand-written summary of Moonshadows 2 to text-document format, I was in the mood for playing something. That something was Morrowind, possibly my favorite game of all-time. :) I started fresh with neither expansion pack installed, and this time around I'm not cheating! ;) I used to insert all sorts of custom items and spells into the game, and to use the console constantly to heal myself (when necessary) and to jump around from area to area and avoid travel of any sort (cheapppp) using the COC (center on cell) commands. Anyhow, I'm enjoying my *real* playthrough--already level 4 and well on my way to becoming a master thief/assassin/adventurer. :) Here are some screenshots of my travels:

Adam Miller releases Dark Waters 2!

2008-03-15T10:33:00.003-05:00

Dark Waters 2, the second installment in Adam Miller's NWN2 series, has been uploaded to the Vault! I've been reading Adam's blog since pre-Dark Waters 1-release, and his ingenuity with the toolset and determination have never ceased to motivate and amaze me. :)

Finished BioShock!

2008-03-14T16:25:00.002-05:00

Well I just finished BioShock and it was AWESOME (though the final battle was a bit on the easy side). Everyone play it. Really. It was my first FPS, and it will *not* be my last. :) I really enjoyed myself, and it's the kind of game that everyone will think is super cool (story-wise, setting-wise, visuals-wise, gameplay-wise--everything!).

Anyways, uh, back to Moonshadows now! :) Also, don't forget to vote for Module of the Year 2007 over at the vault if you haven't yet!

MoW Intro Movie!

2008-03-13T08:11:00.002-05:00

The Mysteries of Westgate introductory movie was released today, and I personally think it looks fantastic! MoW isn't the only impending release in the NWN2 community, though--judging by the posts on his daily updates, it seems that Adam Miller is very close to uploading Dark Waters 2 - Beyond the Sea, which I'm sure is going to be a massive hit.

In any event, I have my last midterm tomorrow, so I know what I'm doing all day... :) After Friday, I need to do a lot of reading and a little bit of writing. I doubt I'll really get any development work done this weekend as I simply have other things to take care of...spring break is coming up, though, and I always go development-crazy over break! ;)

Paper writing, planning for Chapter Two

2008-03-09T11:47:00.002-05:00

Now that the interlude for Moonshadows is done (it's just a bunch of interlinked cutscenes, no actual play) and the rest of the series has been roughly planned out, I took it upon myself to sit down and expand the design doc I had written up. I really like the way things are shaping up, and having an actual design doc to work with should speed development significantly once I switch gears from planning back to designing.

Of course, it's going to be a little while before that happens. This weekend/upcoming week is going to be hell--I have 2 midterm exams, a CS problem set (I think), and a paper due Monday. Plus reading. And normal homework. Hip hip, hooray!

Wowzers.

2008-03-06T15:57:00.002-05:00

Moonshadows - Chapter One passed Tale of a Mage, Chapter 1 - The Uvudry Threat, my first ever module release for NWN1, in downloads today! If this doesn't demonstrate to those few nay-sayers how much more vibrant the NWN2 playing community is than NWN1's, I don't know what does. :)

In other news, Moonshadows is faring well in the Mod of the Year contest--it's in 3rd, just 1 vote behind Pool of Radiance, at the time of this writing. Thanks to all of you who have voted, and if you haven't yet, please do, regardless of which mod you vote for!

Also, I put the finishing touches on the dual-storyline design doc (which I hand-wrote ;) ) for Moonshadows 2, which, now that I know exactly where I'm going with it, I can start working more on in earnest!

Voting is open!

2008-03-05T07:15:00.001-05:00

Voting for Module of the Year 2007 is open at the Vault! Cast your vote for Moonshadows!!! :)

http://nwvault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=38567

Gary Gygax Fails Fortitude Save versus Death

2008-03-04T14:59:00.001-05:00

I'm a terrible person for thinking of that.

MotY Voting?

2008-03-04T08:31:00.002-05:00

I held off posting anything all yesterday in favor of waiting for the voting for Module of the Year 2007 to begin over at the Vault; it was advertised that this year's awards would kick-off on the 3rd. It seems that voting has not started after all, so I'm not really sure what's up with that. I'll provide a link when I see one.

In other news, I had a strange episode with BioShock/SecuROM over the weekend; basically, there was a bug in the SecuROM software accompanying my BioShock install, so it cut me off from playing (which, when I am at Prometheus Point chasing Fontaine, was not exactly my idea of "cool"...luckily, customer support from both BioWare and SecuROM were remarkably helpful and prompt with their replies via email, so big kudos to them both. Ironically, the issue just outright vanished when I loaded up the game to try out their fix (figures...), so I didn't even get to actually try said fix out, but hey, I'm not complaining! So, BioShock is back working for me. :)

Ok, off to hand in my Gov paper and take a math midterm...matrices are funnnn. ;)

New screens

2008-03-02T15:27:00.002-05:00

Cutscene done(???)

2008-03-02T09:52:00.002-05:00

After finishing my gov paper yesterday, I was able to sneak in a few hours of work on a cutscene I've been building over the past week or so, and I think it should be just about finished now. Of course, I haven't tested the thing...but I've gotten pretty used to this whole "development" thing, so I'm hoping that there won't be many (any?) issues once I fire up NWN2 and give it a shot. ;) I'll see if I can snap a screenshot or two once I have it working.

For those of you who are interested, this cutscene wraps up what you could term is the "interlude" between Chapters One and Two; at the end of this cutscene (which is the last of a series of cutscenes), the dual paths of the central plot finally split, which is kind of exciting... :)

A few things to bring to your attention: Hall of Fame and Golden Dragon Award-winning NWN1 module author Berra has started a blog on blogspot, which I've linked to on the left sidebar. Additionally, NWN2 mod author Raith Veldrin of Solvheil fame has released the second installment in his Sands of Solvheil series, Beneath the Hearleforne, which you can find and download here. Congrats to Raith on release! Finally, MotY voting starts tomorrow.................. *winkety wink nudgety nudge*

Busy weekend coming up

2008-02-29T17:28:00.003-05:00

I was able to do a solid amount of cutscene work this week, but for the next three days I doubt I'll be touching the toolset: 5 page gov paper + math midterm on Tuesday are basically going to devour my weekend & Monday. Luckily, this means I'll be busy and distracted from the MotY voting which begins on Monday. :)

VOTE MOONSHADOWS!

;)

Two new screenshots

2008-02-26T11:26:00.001-05:00

Alazander's Blog Relaunched

2008-02-24T20:13:00.002-05:00

Fellow Ossian mate and community member Alazander has relaunched his blog at alazander.blogspot.com ! I personally am thrilled about this, as it means that one of the stops on my "must-read blog rounds" has been restored (Adam Miller->Alazander->Berliad ->Challseus->Enoa4->Maerduin->Tiberius)! :)

Three cheers for Alazander coming back to the dark side! Three cheers for blogging! ;)

Editing

2008-02-22T18:39:00.002-05:00

So I did a bunch of editing on the opening sequence of Chapter Two of Moonshadows; basically, I had someone play through it, and I realized there was way, way too much expositional information that was being force-fed to the player. Basically, the pacing was off: things should have been moving faster.

Long story short, now they are. ;) Back to making progress!