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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. :)

New screenshots from Chapter Two!

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

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!

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!

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. :)

Finished BioShock!

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!

Paper writing, planning for Chapter Two

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.

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!

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

New screens

Cutscene done(???)

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*

Two new screenshots

Editing

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!

2007 Module of the Year kicking off!

It's finally here--the voting for the 2007 Module of the Year contest on the NWVault is going to kick off starting February 25th, after the entries have been finalized. You can read the announcement here, on the VN Boards...at the time of this post, the Vault hasn't yet been updated, but I'm assuming that announcement is forthcoming. :)

Also, I've been making progress on Chapter Two of Moonshadows, including blueprint design, cutscene creation, scripting and custom vfx work. Here's a screenshot for your troubles:

Long weekend approaching...

...and that means I'm going to be doing a lot of work on Moonshadows 2! Yee-hah! I'm anticipating some conversation writing, some blueprint creation, and some scripting...probably not a whole lot in the ways of area design.

10k!

It's official: Moonshadows - Chapter One has surpassed the 10,000 download mark! I want to say a big 'thank you' to everyone who has downloaded, played and (hopefully) enjoyed my work; your feedback continues to be inspiring and much appreciated. I hope to have some new screenshots from Chapter Two soon...just as soon as I finish my homework for my class on the Old Testament, that is. ;)

Moonshadows approaching 10,000...

The title says it all--only ~25 more downloads until I hit 5 digits!!!!! My only other release to ever breach the 10k milestone was Tale of a Mage, Chapter 1 - The Uvudry Threat, which has of course now come to a standstill of sorts around 11,500. I'm exciteddddd... :)

On a different note, I made another area for Chapter Two yesterday, one where the branching central plot actually branches off. I don't know what it is about this area, but something about it--what it represents in the plot, as well as in the gameworld--just got me really pumped about development. I think it brings back some memories of Summoner, which is probably part of it...but it also kind of feels to me like something one might find in Chapter Two of Tale of a Mage, which some would say was my "best" release to date. In any event, I'll try to make what actually happens in this area relatively exciting so that I'm not the only one who derives enjoyment from its existence. ;)

Another Screenshot

Cutscene work

I did some work on a cutscene yesterday--the sequence is now functional, but not of particularly good quality. I'll need to edit the dialogue and adjust the timing for some of the nodes before I move on to bigger and better things. ;)

Also, I filled out a set of interview questions from the Academy of Modding Excellence this morning, and I suspect that'll be posted up on either the Vault or on their forums at some point soon; I'll link to it when I see it.

A Single Screenshot

Moonshadows 2 screens coming soon!

Classes are getting going again, so free time is becoming a bit more scarce. The courses I'm going to be taking are shaping up to be quite fascinating this semester, though, so I'll be busy in a good way. I did have some time to work a little bit on Moonshadows 2 yesterday: I did a bit of blueprint work, as well as some brushing up on a major outdoor area. Additionally, I placed several static cameras for use in a cutscene that I haven't had time to script yet--that'll be next.

On another note, I'm about a hundred pages into Dune, which I'm enjoying immensely. I'm finding the plot and characters very similar to The Wheel of Time...with the obvious difference, of course, that this is sci-fi where WoT is fantasy. But yeah, I'm really liking it so far!

Academy of Modding Excellence Blogroll

If you run a blog dedicated to NWN1/NWN2, you should check out the Academy of Modding Excellence's new Blogroll listing on their site, http://ame.nwvault.ign.com . Basically, they've made it so that non-members can have their blogs listed there provided the blogger has a link to the AME site on their own blog and that the blog features appropriate and pertinent content. Take a peek!

In other news, Raith Veldrin's Sands of Solvheil I: The Ruins of Kazatharis had an official Vault review posted up today, and Moonshadows - Chapter One hit 9000 downloads. W00t!

Academy of Modding Excellence: new site, 2007 awards cycle

AME's New Site

As you may have noticed, I've been adding a few links under the "NWN2 Blogroll" sidebar over the course of the past week or so as I discover other community members' development journals (JClef's Ravenloft blog, Raith Veldrin with Sands of Solvheil, LadyElvenStar with A Time to Die, GamingParentsStudio with NHiN2 [among other things], etc.). My most recent addition to the list, though, is a link to the new website for the Academy of Modding Excellence, an organization dedicated to handing out Oscar-like awards for NWN and NWN2 content.

I was fortunate enough to net one of their awards last year with Perchance to Dream (Best Action 06), and so, as an awards' whore, I'm keenly interested in the way the 2007 NWN2 awards cycle will play out. :) The organization's new site, hosted by the NWVault, looks fantastic, and they've got some shiny new forums that I know I'll certainly be checking fairly regularly!

Moonshadows 2

I was able to get some really solid area design work done yesterday, as well as quite a bit of writing (not all of it for Moonshadows, but still). Today will consist mostly of studying for my only final exam in multivariable calculus, which I have tomorrow, but I'm already feeling decently comfortable with the material. Still, I'll probably spend today studying, because after tomorrow's test, I'm home free! Wheeeee! :)

Awards List on Vault now (sort of) working

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but the Award's column of the NWN2 modules Top Rated list wasn't working until quite recently; it was showing only Hall of Fame badges, not other awards (like the Reviewers' Award that Moonshadows and Mask of the Betrayer won). Now, the Reviewers' Awards are showing up...as are some other random Golden Dragon ones on seemingly-random peoples' mods. :P I'm sure Maximus'll sort things out soon.

(Edit: Seems to be fixed! :) )

Progress on Moonshadows

I've been making great progress on Moonshadows - Chapter Two! Specifically, I've been doing some area design, which (in addition to fiddling around with the custom VFX editor) has become probably my favorite part of mod design (though it's definitely not what I'm best at!). Anyways, the area I've been making is the first I've designed using the new MotB terrain, texture, grass, and other toolset content, and I think it looks wicked cool. I'm particularly pleased with the new placed effects available from MotB, and I'm using a bunch of them to spice this area up. I'll see about some screenshots at some point soon. :)

More Screens from Chapter 2

Well, I've spent the past few days working almost non-stop on my final project for my computer science class (designing a website for the satire magazine I'm part of, including submission forms for articles, headlines, fake personal ads, and a bunch of page templates which load information from databases dynamically--it's fun!). I've been working on it for a long time, and my demo of it is tomorrow, and I just finished making the last few features "work"--there'll be time to fancy things up later, after I've showed people that it all at least works. :)

In addition to working on the website and doing a good bit of running, I've tried out BioShock, and I'm completely hooked. It's fantastic! I'm not one for shooters, usually, but this is just outstanding. In the first 5 minutes of the game, I gasped aloud in awe for the first time in my gaming career!

And, in all the rest of my free time ( :P ), I've even done a little bit of work on Moonshadows. I've put a few new(ish) screenshots up, so enjoy the eye-candy.

Moonshadows - Chapter One hits HoF!

Hooooooorayyyyyyyyy! :) :) :) :) :) :)

Badge has been added to page, but not to my custom nametag yet. Still, hooray!

Away all weekend

Away--Not much progress

So I spent all day yesterday (and will be spending all day today, and most of tomorrow) re-visiting my old stomping grounds--my high school, Phillips Academy in Andover, MA. This means, of course, I won't be making progress on Moonshadows 2...but that's alright, as I'm in no hurry, and with MoW's release imminent, there's no lack of upcoming content for the community to sink their teeth into.

Now, I'm fairly certain I haven't announced this yet, but allow me to do so now: Moonshadows 2 will feature a fork in the road early on which will allow for a "good" path and an "evil" path, so to speak. Each path will be approximately the same length, due to the pseudo-mirror-image nature of the story, but will of course be for the most part completely unique and apart from one another (though they do overlap in several places). This should add to both the replayability and the roleplaying in Chapter Two, which were the two aspects I wanted to focus on improving. Thus far, I'm very pleased with the attention I've given to conversation options, and I'm optimistic that players will be, too.

Awards...!?!?

The wait is killing me. I keep checking the Vault to see if the January Hall of Fame inductions have been made........and they haven't. AHHHH. :) Of course, no word on either the AME or MotY either (the latter of which is what I think is probably distracting Maximus from whipping together the HoF, ironically). Whatevvvv.

Screens from Chapter Two!

I made great progress on Moonshadows - Chapter Two after writing yesterday's blog entry. It was a painstaking process, because it was basically all cutscene work, but I think it was worth it. This is, after all, basically one of the single most important cutscenes in the entire Moonshadows campaign...check out the screens, and you may (probably will) recognize the event, and hopefully agree with me that it looks wicked cool. :)

Happy 2008!

Well, the holidays have come and gone, and 2007 is now officially history! Let's see...first things first:

NWN2 OC

I finished the OC a few days back, after Christmas--I haven't uploaded my last batch of (~100 more) screenshots, but I will when I'm on a better connection. I must say, I was completely blown away by the quality of this game. After so many people trashed on it on the forums early on, I guess I had low expectations...but even had I not had lower expectations, I'm fairly certain I would have been extremely impressed. The companions were, hands-down, fantastic. The economic balance was terrific, apart from the loot in the final dungeon, which was sort of overkill if you ask me (with every corpse all around the dungeon usable and containing mundane loot). Combat was super-well-balanced with a Favored Soul, and even though I found the final battle a bit anti-climactic story-wise, I found it quite well balanced. After I finished the OC, I jumped right into...

MotB

Ok, let me just say, this game is not my style at all. I am a big fan of good ol' fashioned magical items, and I despise the presence of hundreds upon hundreds of stupid essences on every single creature's corpse. I mean, honestly? That's laziness, not a cool feature. Loot is very important to me in keeping the game interesting, and from an in-game logic standpoint, how often should a regular adventurer be expected to make their own weapon instead of, oh, finding one, or buying one, or stealing one? Crafting is for the legendary dwarven smiths with their magical forges, not for the average player to be expected to use. The essences in lieu of normal loot is gripe number one.

Gripe number two is that the combat is simply sort of ridiculous. I understand that once I've descended into the lower level of the Death God's Vault, things are supposed to get really, really deadly...that's totally fine. I sort of raised an eyebrow when my party descended some stairs only to be wiped out by a lich king, two vampire ancients, two death lords, and two hoary mummified priests. Still, I re-loaded, prepared better, and ultimately took care of them. Then, I backtracked to better search the ruins once I hit the Betrayer's Gate, and upon cleaning out that first central room--the one with the cursed urns--I bashed one of the two heavily-locked doors. I begin to buff my party to move forward. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, five--FIVE--vampire ancients appear and start wreaking havoc on my party. I do not know where they came from, but they came from behind, and there was nowhere to come from behind my party. They killed everyone, then started to kill me, and I was forced to cheat to get through the encounter because I hadn't saved post-lich-king fight and I didn't want to lose that progress. After I dueled mano-a-mano with ALL FIVE vampire ancients with my pitiful greatsword +5 in god mode, I stopped, saved, and quit. We'll see if I start playing again, I'm not sure I will. I mean, I think I've already guessed the entire plotline--that Akachi was the Betrayer, and that his big secret punishment that Myrkhul bestowed upon him was *gasp* the spirit-eater, the very curse you're afflicted with! And that I'll probably end up having to either confront Myrkhul or Akachi's ghost or something in order to rid myself of the curse.

On that note, the spirit eater doesn't bother me--in fact, I think it's totally cool. It not only adds valuable, meaningful roleplaying opportunities to the game, but it's also honestly not all that important to deal with. It's kind of like an extra companion who needs checking up on once in awhile. Anyhow, on to other things.

New Games

Two Worlds, BioShock, and The Witcher--w00t! :) I already tried Two Worlds, though, and was somewhat disappointed. The graphics are all well and good, and gameplay is fine, but it reminds me a lot of Gothic 3, which I thought was going to be really good, but which ended up just being kinda meh. BioShock and The Witcher I haven't tried, yet, but I suspect those are going to be better. I'm especially looking forward to BioShock at this point, as I've heard the Witcher's translation can be lacking at points, which I suspect is going to detract a bit from the experience. But yeah, Two Worlds is great if you like Gothic 3 and vice versa. I'll keep you updated on my thoughts vis-a-vis BioShock and The Witcher as I start them.

Moonshadows - Chapter Two

It's been awhile, but I actually started back into developing this after finishing the NWN2 OC and dropping MotB for the time-being, and I've made superb progress. The NWN2 OC has taught me a lot about what I should and should not do in a conversation--for instance, that some descriptive text is fine, but that what I was doing before can get overkill very quickly--including that I should definitely be offering more dialogue options in conversations. I think you'll find the roleplaying much more satisfactory and substantial in Chapter Two, particularly after Chapter One's complete dirth of them. But yes, progress has been actually really good, from a writing, design, and cutscene standpoint. Soon I'll be done with the opening sequence of cutscenes and will be able to move on to actual playable content! I definitely have the builder's bug back--the NWN2 OC must have done it. :)

Awards (HoF, MotY)

It's that time of year! The Module of the Year 2007 contest is going to be kicking off sometime soon, and I'm really excited to see how the contest goes this year. I'm hopeful that Moonshadows - Chapter One will be a contender for something...not really expecting to beat the heavy-hitters like Night Howls in Nestlehaven or Harp & Chrysanthemum, but I'm hopeful that I might be able to edge out a few of the older favorites like Dark Water 1 and Tragedy in Tragidor--basically, I'm hoping for the Top Rated list to speak for itself, and expecting the non-modules like romance modifications and character creators to fall away. We shall see! Then there's the matter of Moonshadows - Chapter One making Hall of Fame for NWN2, which should happen any day now depending on when Maximus does the next batch of inaugurations for January. Maybe that'll boost visibility a bit in preparation for the MotY voting...the spot amongst the Top 5 HoF modules sidebar list should certainly help! :) Finally, on this topic, the Academy of Modding Excellence will probably be getting going on their own 2007 Golden Dragon Award-worthy content search. No idea what their timetable is, but it's another thing to look forward to.

FR Source Books

I managed to get my hands on a few of the Forgotten Realms/D&D sourcebooks yesterday, and I skimmed through them, paying special attention to the chapter on Netheril in Lost Empires of Faerun. I was thrilled to 1) actually see an official reference to the spell Ioulaum's Longevity (for you Moonshadows players), and 2) see that I had interpreted it correctly. ;) I'm now looking to get a hand on some source material on epic spells, or spells that existed that were level 10 or above (before Mystra's ban on magic was imposed). If anyone can tell me which sourcebook or source I could use to find info like that, I'd much appreciate it.

Coming Up Soon

Well, I go back to school soon for finals, but because Harvard does things funny and my own schedule works out that way, I only have one exam, and it's (I think) the 17th. In the meantime, I have no classes, and while I have one 10-page paper to make revisions on (1 day of work prior to the 7th) and a website to put the finishing touches on (a few days of tinkering), I'm going to have a lot of free time before I have to buckle down and study for my math final. This is perfect, because it means I should be able to get LOTS of work done on Chapter Two, and other miscellaneous activities that need my attention at this time. Finally, look forward to my boatload of upcoming screenshots from my NWN2 OC playthrough...I tried to capture a whole lot of fun, memorable moments in the game, and I think I did a fairly good job of it.

Until next time!

Moonshadows on the Vault

I've noticed over the past week or so that Moonshadows - Chapter One's score on the Vault has been slowly but steadily increasing! From fluctuating between 9.04-9.06 a few weeks back, it has now been mounting thanks to a series of excellent votes, and just last night it rose from 9.07 to 9.08! This puts me at 6th overall on the Top Rated list, but of actual "modules", it's 3rd behind Ossian mate Maerduin's evidently-exemplary recently-released Harp & Chrysanthemum and Jackyo123's long-time "bestseller," Night Howls in Nestlehaven. Adam Miller's Pirate Cards, which is sort of a module but only kinda, is also ahead, as are Heroic Dream, a training mod, and Tank's Prefab World, which is, as you might guess, a prefab world.

I must say I'm thrilled with Moonshadows's current placement on the Top Rated list, and I have high hopes for it in the upcoming Module of the Year Contest for NWN2 2007! Word on the streets is that any module with a rating of 8.00 or above will be eligible in the MotY election, which makes sense--it also means I'm lucky enough to have Moonshadows eligible despite it not being Hall of Fame until this upcoming round of inaugurations, at the New Year (simply due to the 3 month limit...). Perhaps the HoF induction will garner some attention to the mod as voting starts...that would be excellent. :) In any event, contests like these are always fun, so I'm looking forward to MotY eagerly.

HoF Interview for PtD

Steve Savicki was kind enough to offer me yet another Hall of Fame interview, this time for Perchance to Dream. Read it here. :)

On the topic of progress, I actually got a lot of cutscene work done during Thanksgiving break. From area design to custom VFX work to scripting and writing, there was a bit of everything...I'm starting to get back in the modding swing after that post-release lapse of Moonshadows - Chapter One. Woohoo!

Moonshadows Earns Reviewers' Award!

Moonshadows was recently reveiwed by the Vault Reviewer Admin, Dormammu, and it scored highly enough (8.07 final score) to earn a much-coveted Reviewers' Award!!! I am so psyched about this, particularly with it coming right on the heels of Hall of Fame for Perchance to Dream and 5000 downloads for Moonshadows...hopefully NWN2 Hall of Fame will soon come to pass as well..! :)

I must say that I am a bit of an award-addict...it's kinda sad, but at the same time, it is really gratifying to see that others are enjoying what I worked for so long to produce. So, next up in our "to-daydream-about-getting" list...a Golden Dragon award, and Mod of the Year award! ;)

(Click on the award to read the review)

Moonshadows Hits 5000!

Well, it's November 6th, 52 days after Moonshadows - Chapter One was released on the NWVault on September 16th...and the 5000 download mark has been reached! I must say that I am super-excited about this; it's been a good few weeks for milestones, what with Perchance to Dream qualifiying & being inducted into the Hall of Fame for NWN1, and now Moonshadows breaching the 5000 d/l barrier, as well as going back above 9.00 for a rating...I'm not sure whether or not it'll be inducted in the NWN2 Hall of Fame for December...but I'm kinda hoping it will be, because that would make it qualify for Mod of the Year for 2007 for NWN2, which is something that I would be really excited to see Moonshadows participate in! In any event, thanks to everyone for their support of my NWN1 and NWN2 projects thus far, and thanks in advance for your continued support! It's much appreciated. :)

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. :)

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. :)

Back to PA

So I went back to my high school yesterday and today to practice and race (respectively) with my old XC team, and to hang out with all my friends that are still at PA. It was a good time, but very tiring. I've got a bazillion new comments on Moonshadows--better get on that! :)

Chapter 2 continues

Work on Chapter 2 continued yesterday; it turns out that I designed a full area for what I thought would be a cutscene, but it turns out I decided to switch things up after I finished it and set the cutscene somewhere else. :P So I designed a new area from scratch, and now I have to add static cameras and create the cutscen itself. Good progress!

1.10 released, Moonshadows updated accordingly.

The title says it all; Moonshadows has been updated and is now compatible with the recently-released official 1.10 patch. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALAZANDER!!!

As you may have guessed from the title, it's Hall of Fame author & Ossian partner-in-crime Alazander's birthday! Hurray! :)



In other news, school is great, free time is abundant, and progress on Chapter 2 is decent. I have good vibes about the cutscene I began last night. In fact, I just have good vibes about Chapter 2 in general. Chapter 1 hasn't been received quite as strongly as I was hoping for score-wise (not that I really care at this point), but I think Chapter 2 will fare better in that department. In the end, as long as I deliver a fun gaming experience/story, I'll be satisfied...and I think that once this series is complete, it will definitely deliver a worthwhile story. :)


Also, it seems that official patch 1.10 is to be released today! I'm going to try to make Moonshadows compatible with the new patch as soon as I can!

Chapter 2

Sorry 'bout the missing post yesterday; I had a pretty busy schedule. Today, on the other hand, I have no classes, and this might just be the case for the entire semester... :) So, I went and did stadium-stair repeats in the morning, along with breakfast, ab workout & pushups, and now I've got some errands to run. I'm going to do homework after that, then tonight I'll do some work on Chapter 2. Speaking of which, last night I built a cutscene area in Chapter 2, and I think it looks pretty sweet! I'll try to make the cutscene itself tonight. The beginning of Chapter 2 is going to be extremely linear, which should make it fairly easy to design. Once plot development slows down a bit, things will take on the feel of a city adventure (of sorts)... ;)

Morning update, busy day

Well, after an update this morning and between fielding various emails/comments/feedback throughout the day, I managed to go on a 6 mile run, to read&highlight 40 pages for my freshman seminar on the decipherment of lost languages, and to attend a 1.5 hour intro class for Shotokan karate, which was totally awesome! :) I've been stretching a lot these past few days, and it's actually paying off--I'm much more limber and I had no issues with flexibility today, unlike in my intro taekwondo session. I think I'm going to stick with Shotokan karate though; it was much more fun.

Anyhow, classes start "for real" tomorrow, so things might be busy for awhile...but I'll try to update on a relatively-daily basis, and to get some work in on Chapter 2 after a brief "avoid-burnout" break! :)

Whew.

Well, I awoke this morning to find the Vault page for Moonshadows all aflame with reports of CrashToDesktop issues loading the module/campaign. So, after responding to about 15 reports on the Vault, I repackaged and recreated the entire Campaign, reassociated the modules with it, converted the mod directories to .mods, and basically made installation a lot easier and fixed the campaign. All is well now, but it was hectic for an hour or so there. :P

Also, yesterday was a rocking-good day d/l-wise! I went from ~950 to about 1300; w00t! Hopefully that pace will keep itself up (or something like that) for a long time to come! :) Also, I'm now listed on the Top Modules sidebar, which will hopefully grant me some added visibity (always a plus). I might run a screenshot contest or something once I'm sure the campaign is completely bug-free...but we'll see. Any feedback on that idea would be welcome!

HugieGames gets a facelift

Well, I decided that HugieGames.com was looking a bit dated, so I gave it a bit of a facelift today, as well as made some fixes this morning to Moonshadows to resolve what was a weird hanging issue when people would hit 'Start Campaign'. Not much to report aside from that!

Post #200 and an OOC Area

Well, it's my 200th post! WOOHOO! Heheh, exciting as that may be, I do have an actual reason for posting this. I just finished uploading an update to Moonshadows--except this is more of a content addition than a bugfix. Here's the scoop; by popular demand, the module now includes a new OOC area at the start for equipping a character suitably for the adventure. This OOC area handles experience/level as well as gear, so you can fully prepare your PC here before proceeding into the game. Just wanted to let you all know.

XC Tryouts, 10-vote barrier broken!

I had XC tryouts @Harvard today, as well as my first meeting of my freshman seminar in cryptology and decipherment of lost languages, like the Easter Island Romborombo & other such things. It was really interesting; I'm definitely looking forward to learning more about these ancient cultures & languages as the term progresses.

XC tryouts were rough for me. I ran 3 miles in 17 flat (~5:40 mile pace), but relative to the other runners, I didn't measure up all that strongly. Ah well.

Also, broke the 10 vote barrier today, so Moonshadows is headed to the top rated list tomorrow! W00T!!! :D

More bugfixing...approaching completely stable version(?)

Bugs don't seem to be coming all the often...I'm optimistic that I squashed all the issues with the game in the first few hectic days of release thanks to a few intrepid players who were willing to report bugs in a detailed manner. Thanks to everyone who has helped out and left feedback so far!

I spent this morning resolving the resurrection issue in one of the Star Mount sidequests--it was a bit tricky, but I got it working eventually. I also realized the holding area at the end of the module wasn't baked (duh), which was crashing the game(!).

Anyhow, Moonshadows just breached 700 downloads--still on track to hit 1000 by/before Sunday night, I hope! :) Now I'm eager for votes to start coming in...

More Updates

I have been periodically updating Moonshadows over the past 2 days as bug reports come in; I'm hoping to eliminate everything early so that by the time I get a spotlight on Friday, it's just about bug-free. I ran the whole adventure through a spellchecker and fixed all the typos in the module, which was good for quality-control...so yeah, just trying to be responsive to reports/feedback. So far, I'm definitely satisfied, and I'm optimistic that I'll be able to hit 1000 downloads by the end of a week (my initial goal).

Anyhow, cheers! I'm excited for more votes to start coming in as more people finish the mod...if you played it, please vote!

So far, so good!

Well, thus far, there's only been one bug report, and that was because I was missing a simple local variable adjustment to prevent milking of a certain enhancement available somewhere in the game. That has been fixed, and I've added a note to the module description and readme addressing the issue of starting characters; PC's should arrive already equipped for Moonshadows. After all, it would be pretty silly to set off into the High Forest with no equipment/gear, right? That's asking to be killed. So you're expected to already have what you need equipment-wise upon entering the module. Level/Experience can be tweaked, but there is nowhere to outfit your character (obviously--you're in the middle of the wilderness! Let's be realistic here... ;) ).

Anyhow, I'm excited! Release is such a fun time. :)

HOORAY

IT'S HERE!!!

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2ModulesEnglish.Detail&id=185

HOORAY!!!

I just hope there isn't a gamebreaking bug waiting for me tomorrow morning. :D

RELEASE

Well, ladies & gents, it is uploaded! Moonshadows - Chapter One is now pending approval on the NWVault. I'll update this post as soon as I see that the entry has been approved! Gosh, I hope I didn't do anything absurdly stupid... :)

Anyhow, it's been a long time coming, but let me tell ya, it felt GOOD to press that "Submit" button again...now I just hope people enjoy my little creation as much as I enjoyed making it!

To bed,

Alex

Tiberius209 beats me to the punch

Fellow Ossian mate Tiberius209 was kind enough to take the initiative and start a "hype" thread for Moonshadows in the Modules forum--I am very, very appreciative. Thanks Tiberius!

As far as Moonshadows news goes, it is just about ready to go. I have a few little short things left to test to make sure my fixes worked. The readme is written, and a walkthrough, while it would certainly be useful, won't be released at the same time as the module (I'll write a detailed one up in the coming weeks). Then I have to do a little bit of stuff with Chapter 2 to make sure the player is left in a satisfactory state at the end of this first adventure (with a little "endgame" dialogue), and I'll be all done, just in time for classes starting!!! :)

Here are a few never-before-seen screenshots as a post-release treat! :)

Last Stretch!

Over the course of the next 3 days, I want to get Moonshadows released. That means packaging it up, drafting up a readme, uploading the files and (first) finishing a last playthrough (I got through a lot yesterday, but not all of it). I'll keep you guys updated--in the meantime, I also need to start advertising and getting some hype going. :)

Some work

I did some tweaking last night on Moonshadows in an attempt to make part of the game clearer; as it was, it was really easy to miss one of the more in-depth (cool) sidequests in the game, one whose exclusion would make a few of the other quests make less sense and, in some cases, impossible to even access. So I added in another quick sidequest last night that basically ties things together; I think it should do the trick. :) Now I'm working on finishing it up, then I'll test it one last time, then I'll release!

Beta Testing Feedback

Well, I received some great feedback today from Luke "Alazander" Scull of AL & Ossian fame; he was kind enough to play through a beta version of Moonshadows for me this past week. I'm quite pleased with what he had to say, and I've already fixed all the bugs and unbalances he brought up, as well as made a variety of other tweaks and enhancements to the module. After testing it once through myself to get a final playtime prediction and verify that everything's working, I'll right up a readme, package it all together, and upload this baby to the Vault! That's right, I've decided (thanks to Luke's words of wisdom) that I'll be releasing it chapter by chapter after all. Particularly with college setting in, I feel it will be good to get this off my chest so I can work on chapter 2 at my own pace, without feeling the need to finish it really fast so chapter 1 can be unleashed on the unsuspective populace. So hopefully I'll be ready to release by the beginning of next week, monday/tuesday-ish. Get excited! ;)

Back in Business

Well, I got back yesterday from my week-long backpacking adventure in the Presidential mountains--we summitted Clay, Adams, Jefferson, Washington, and then descended Tuckerman Ravine and climbed Bootspur before heading ~10+ miles through easier trails to the end of our trip. It was an absolute BLAST, and I made a bunch of really good friends. Anyhow, I'm now in my DORM ROOM! at Harvard, and my roommates are fantastic, and I know a bunch of people, so overall it's going really great. I woke up early for a nice run along the Charles River this morning--it was good to rediscover my old routes/haunts from summer session last summer (during which time you might recall that I was working on/releasing Art of Death for NWN1). I'm pretty darn busy over the course of the next 2 weeks with orientation/freshman week/get-togethers/college life, so the toolset probably won't see much use...but I can tell you that Moonshadows is in good shape. I finished a playable (I hope) beta version and it is being played by one lucky individual, so hopefully I will hear back from them soon...but regardless, I'm really in no huge hurry. As I settle into college life, I'll eventually accustom myself to the new time management situation, and I'll figure out how modding will fit in. Ossian work will take priority, but I will definitely keep doing Moonshadows on the side!

Anyhow, off to brunch with the roommates and some other buds. Cheers!

Another day dedicated to testing.

Well, I spent all of yesterday testing. I'm not exagerrating. All day. All of it. It was glorious. Best part is I made it to the end of the game (before a mixup with a two triggers--they each did what the other was supposed to :P ) screwed me over and didn't let me make it to the VERY end (climax) of the module. Bah. In any event, I took a few a bunch of screenshots for your enjoyment--here are two of them.

In any event, I will be leaving today for a one-week backpacking preorientation trip for Harvard with my new classmates. :) I'll be arriving back in Cambridge on the 8th, so until then, it goes without saying that I won't be able to update this. Let me just say that I could not have picked a worse week to not have access to a computer. It's going to be a very, very, very exciting week...but how can that possibly be without your blog posts to rely on, Alex? you might ask. Well, I'm not going to answer that. Use your imagination.

And on that wonderful cliffhanger of a note, adieu until the 8th. Oh, what a different world it shall be when I return... ;)

September!

It's September, and Moonshadows Chapter 1 is looking great. :) Yesterday I spent all day testing, and I'm now done testing High Forest quests. One of them went really smoothly--the other had some complicated scripts (a "listener", for example, for those scripters among you--though that part I actually had working on my first try! :) ) in place. You know, it's happened to me a few times, but I almost feel like I'm playing Morrowind when I play this game. There's something about the inventory screen/icons, the looks of the environments (though Morrowind's graphics were better and crisper)...they just remind me of that Elder Scrolls masterpiece, which is a good thing.

In any event, I spent yesterday testing and fixing a whole slew of bugs, from writing to scripting, to combat balance to loot balance. I still have to rename a few placeables and finish going through this last High Forest sidequest before I can truly move on into the Star Mounts...but it's definitely looking good.

Oh, another thing. I decided at around 11:30 last night that I didn't like the way The Sisters looked compared to the rest of my module. See, it looked nice...it was an area I made before I got good with textures and terrain and stuff, but it was good enough that I didn't scrap it when I re-did all my other areas...but at this point, I knew I could do SO much better. And so, I did. :) The Sisters now truly lives up to its reputation as one of the prettiest, lushest, most scenic/picturesque locations in the Realms, I think. :) It makes much better use of trees, grass, and placeables, as well as changes in elevation and even water! Overall I think it's a huge improvement, and I'm glad I took the time to redo it. I'll have to update The Sisters' screenshots (I believe there's one in the gallery right now from the old area)...

Anyhow, today I'm going to go on a run in the morning and then come back and finish testing this last quest. Then I'll either run through all the High Forest quests or jump into the Star Mounts. Regardless of what I choose to do, hopefully this (see picture above) won't happen all that often... ;)

Insane testing

Wow. I spent so long testing yesterday, it's ridiculous. I took a bunch of screenshots too, but none of them are worth sharing. :P In any event, I think I FINALLY sorted out all the issues I encountered by the time I turned in for bed...I still have four sidequests to test and the latter half of the main quest, and I think I have about five to six hours of playtime thus far...so Chapter 1 should hopefully weigh in around 10+? We shall see. :)

About to head back in-game for some more testing, and hopefully for some screenshot-taking too!

More Testing, More Fixing, More Screenshots.

Well, I spent ALL DAY (apart from a quick run) playtesting a second sidequest and a good chunk of the main quest for Moonshadows. At this point everything on my list is "checked off", so it'll be onward and upward (literally--into the Star Mounts ;) ) tomorrow. A few more screenies for your enjoyment...

I personally am a big fan of both of these screenshots. I think they do a good job of conveying some nice action scenes/visuals of the mod.

Anyhow, that's it for today! More to come tomorrow. :)

New Logo by joriandrake

So I just got an email from community member joriandrake who generously took it upon himself to design a new logo for Moonshadows! At first I was wary to replace my little brother's but then jorian scrapped his original and adapted my brother's instead, so no feelings were hurt--I didn't want to trod on family toes, yaknow? ;) So, the new logo now features prominently on the header of this blog, and will replace other instances of the old logo as well...as I find them, heh.

In the meantime, I've updated the photo gallery after some testing/screenshot-taking today. Check it out! Also, I should mention that I played through one of the sidequests, almost all the way to the end (a door wasn't working, meaning I couldn't make it back to the reward giver), but that one sidequest alone, played with a cleric7/fighter1, took exactly 2 hours. That's no main quest, and none of the other...um...7 sidequests in the game. So it should be quite a doozy of a game time-wise once all's said and done! And that's just chapter 1! So I hope when everything is assembled, it'll be a monster. ;)


I must say, after encountering quite a few bugs in previous playthroughs, the game is beginning to feel a lot neater. Bugs are being squashed, tweaks are being made, combats are becoming well-balanced, and loot is...well, loot is still a bit uber-common, so I may have to adjust that. But that shouldn't be too hard.

>
So, that's it for this eye-candy-filled update! I'll be heading back in-game now to do some more testing. :)

Development day

So today was definitely a development day; I wrote several thousand words of dialogue and did some area design. I also drove around a ton, from hanging out with friends (45 mins away) to chauffeuring my brother EVERYWHERE a bazillion times. No screenshot today, since I was in the toolset working on Chapter 2 the whole time. Hopefully I'll do some testing on Chap 1 tomorrow...

Testing, Fixing, Developing--Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

The title says it all. Today was a testing day for Moonshadows, during which I found a bunch of issues (several of them show-stoppers); I'm in the process of fixing them right now, as well as designing new content for Chapter 2! :) Here are a few screenies for your enjoyment.