Sir Elric launches Blog!

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 tags on BioWare forums; trick-or-treat'ing

So I dressed up in a toga and went trick-or-treating yesterday. Yes, I'm 18 years old. Yes, I went trick or treat'ing. Yes, I monty-hauled the candy as if I were a character in MotB and gold/overpowered items were edible. It was awesome.

Also, Ossian team members now have special "Ossian Studios" tags on the BioWare forums--they're like Moderator or BioWare tags, but with a much cooler logo. ;) It makes me feel REALLY cool to go post on the forums now! A chicken I am no longer!

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.

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... ;)

Ossian Work

So this past day was Ossian work all day long; I was literally busy from 9 in the morning until 9 at night, with breaks to eat and run. It was brilliant. :) No Moonshadows news to report.

So Far, So Good!

In addition to going on an 8 mile run today after having been forced to take the day off yesterday (rain & town excursion), I had a very, very productive day as far as Moonshadows was concerned. I was a scripting madman--I wrote custom item activation powers for four different items (all of which I created, as well), and I wrote a bunch of new parameter-template-style scripts for use across the entire campaign. I spent a lot of time in the VFX plugin scouting out VFX's to use and creating a few new ones, and I did a bunch of area work. Wshew! And it's only 8:30! Oh, also, I wrote about 500 words of dialogue for a few cutscenes as well as scripted the cutscene content (after getting a little bit of help from my buddy and co-worker Challseus--thanks!). For the next 2-3 hours, I'll be doing more convo/cutscene work...but what I've already done is substantial, and I'm pleased with it!

I also did some Ossian stuff in tandem with Challseus, which I think came out very well, but I obviously can't talk about that.

So I had a busy weekend which consisted chiefly of driving to the Cape, hanging out with friends there for the day, and driving back. Then I woke up on Sunday, mowed the lawn, drove to Vermont, took a nap, tanned, read a little, played a little videogames, and went to bed. Now it is Monday, and I have done not much of anything productive apart from some Ossian work today.

I've made no real progress on Moonshadows recently due to various summer activities...but I'll probably get "the itch" again soon. I'll also get back to writing my short novel once my muse decides to visit again. ;)

So yeah. Not a lot to report!

Another productive day

I had another pretty productive day. After going out to brunch with a friend, I went and did a 6x200 speed workout on the local track, which was fun (first 5 were in the 28 second range, last one was 24.9. I can go faster, but it was still overall a good workout). After the workout, I came home and did some Ossian work...and I can say no more on that matter. Next, I did a bunch of stuff for Moonshadows, from scripting to placing creatures, to tweaking areas, to designing items...it was pretty fun, and I got a lot done. I'm getting there, slowly but surely...and while I don't plan on releasing anything until the whole campaign is complete (this is just the first chunk of 2 or 3 we're talking about), it'll be good to have something done that I can start testing/tweaking.

Exciting!

Exciting things are happening that I am not allowed to talk about. That is all.

BWAHAHAHAHA!!! :)

Nice long run, substantial dev work

I got a lot done today! After waking up and having a hearty breakfast, I went out for what would become an 8 mile run, my first of that length since cross country back in the fall. :) I did it in about an hour (~1:04/1:05), so around 8 minute/mile pace, and I felt pretty good! So that was fun. Now, to keep you interested in this blog entry, I shall proceed to post an entertaining picture.

If you're still reading this, the picture trick worked. Hah! After running etc., I proceeded to eat two different lunches and to do a bunch of Ossian and Moonshadows work; for the former, I can say nothing; for the latter, I placed a bunch of creatures, and created a few items. Placing creatures makes me feel as though the game is really coming together...I still have a few little interior (cave) areas to make and furnish, and then some sidequest stuff to finish up and some cutscenes to script...then there's testing, of course, of which I've done none...but from a purely developmental point of view, things are looking good. No promises on ETA, but suffice to say that I'm pleased with the way things are shaping up.

Productive Day

Today was a fairly productive day for me, considering that I'm now officially on vacation and could theoretically have just slept through the day. I woke up and took care of some outstanding things pertaining to college...then I jogged down to the track, where I practiced with some friends from my middle school track days and did a speed workout with them. While it was short, it was pretty effective and it was basically what I had wanted to do today, so that was fun.

After the speed workout, I ran home and did some development on Moonshadows as well as finished some Ossian stuff. As far as Moonshadows is concerned, this was main-quest stuff; it involved a bit of area building and some dialogue writing.

Busy weekend

My weekend was totally jam-packed. I had my last track meet EVER on Friday, which went ok...it was pretty dang hot out (97 F), which wasn't ideal, so I wasn't able to get any PR's. Still, I had a good time and it was fun hanging out with the team. I left directly from the meet and spent Saturday night and all day Sunday in Vermont--on Sunday, I spent some time doing Moonshadows development between finishing my final english paper, reading The Dante Club, and eating. ;) I also played videogames for the first time in months...it was at least for the first time in 2007. I played Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith on the PS2, then did a bit of Dynasty Warriors 5 too, which brought back some great memories. I had forgotten how much fun it was to wipe out 1200 mindless peons by spamming awesome charge attacks, and the music in the game is outstanding.

Anyhow, I have some important Ossian work to get done in the next few days; I'll also try to do some Moonshadows.

Busy!

The last few days have been exceedingly busy & tiring, mostly due to AP exams. Luckily, I'm done with them now...and it's raining, so practice is cancelled, which means that I'll have a chance this afternoon to catch up on Ossian stuff and to do some work on one of my two personal projects ("The Beach" and Moonshadows at the moment). Sorry about the lack of juicy, substantial information in these posts of late; I've just been busy being a senior who's about to graduate from high school. :(

All Work and No Play blahblahblah

Well, it's been a little while since my last post...as you can most likely guess, things've been busy. I've had a lot of "senior" stuff going on--class barbecues, that kind of thing. Plus, track practices (and the workouts I do afterwards) take up a good deal of time...and that doesn't take into account homework or preparing for AP's, which are this week.

Somehow, in between "real life", I've found time to get some videogame stuff done. :) I made an entire indoor/outdoor area (exterior disguised as indoor), complete with decorations and such, and I designed a few scripts, items, and creatures to go along with it for what should be a cool little sequence of the game. Can't say any more than that, unfortunately. That's for Moonshadows, by the way. For Ossian I did a little bit of, "uh...secret stuff" (to quote my co-worker Tiberius. ;) ).

Anyhow, I don't have any new screenshots to post up or anything, though I do have material that I could theoretically procure screenshots of. Just don't have time to get out of the toolset and into the game these days. :-P

Senior Spooning!

Yesterday was the first day of Senior Spooning, a tag-like game that the senior class organizes every year in May. The basic premise is that each member of the senior class receives a "target" via a spoon with another senior's name written on it in their mailboxes; their job is to tag their target with that spoon between 8am and 8pm. The rules are that a tag may only take place outdoors, that one can't be tagged during sports practices, and that you must trust NO ONE! Ok, I made that last one up...but I have good reason! I was outwitted by a postgraduate student (blast!), and was basically stealth-killed in a tag that basically nullified my speed. I was not a happy boy, let me tell you... >_<

Anyhow, now that that's already over with, I can get back to videogame stuff. Still have some Ossian work to do, and I'm feeling like doing some serious Moonshadows work (or at least some NWN2 project work) as well.

Busy day

After going out for brunch this morning, I settled down and worked all day long. I did a good deal of Ossian stuff (though some remains to be done tomorrow), and I had a decent amount of homework and other school stuff to get done. So, busy, but not altogether interesting for you readers, I guess. :) I did manage to devote a little bit of time during the evening to working on that beach area I posted a screenshot of earlier; it's starting to look better and significantly more mystical, I think, which is what I'm going for...again, the following screenshot is taken in the toolset, so the finished product will look better in-game once the pixel shader kicks in on the textures and terrain.

300

I saw 300 last night as a pump-up movie for today's track meet. My expectations were pretty much right-on; it was totally insane hack'n'slash with the occasional cliche speech by Leonidas, all of which said more or less the same thing. Much pwnage, much gore, little plot, little anything else. My favorite scene was probably the last one, where we see the guy who's been narrating the whole movie (the one who lost an eye and went home before the final conflict) giving a speech to the Spartans 100 years later against the re-invading Persian army; "For Leonidas, and the brave 300! TO VICTORY!" Yeah, that was cool. I also liked the slow-motion interspersed with fast-motion combat scenes with the scimitar & shield-wielding duo of Spartans that fought back to back against, iirc, the immortals. Brought back some great Prince of Persia - Warrior Within memories. All the fighting (and much of the visuals--like the colors of the outfits and the sky, even) seemed ripped right from Warrior Within, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing...I just found the yellowish-blackish sky got a bit boring after an hour straight of seeing it. Anyhow, I'd give it an overall 6.5 out of 10. Next week, hopefully we'll see Dodgeball. :)

Regarding the meet itself, which I just got home from, my goal was to beat my previous 1500 time of 4:32; I went 4:24, so that was really exciting for me. :) My 800 was slightly slower than usual (2:12 high as opposed to 2:09), but I was pretty tired after the 1500. I really wanted to run the 4x400, but wasn't able to this week; we have 5 guys currently going after 4 spots, and I was the odd man out this week. It'll get even worse next week, when our number 1 400 runner comes back after injury...ah well, I'll just have to make a difference elsewhere. :)

I plan on spending the rest of the day doing some homework, but mostly doing Ossian stuff.

Track meet results and other stuff

While our team was pulverized in yesterday's track meet against Milton, St. Paul's, and Exeter, there were still a few high notes for various individuals throughout the meet...so it wasn't all for naught. We had a bunch of PR's, I myself running a personal best 400 (54.7) and a personal best 1500 (4:32). My next goal is to bring that 1500 down below 4:30, which I think should be no problem at all, as I pulled back significantly in the last 2 laps in order to save some energy for the shortly-thereafter-400. I was also our opening leg for the 4x400, which we won(!), so that was a great way to finish the day even though we lost overall by over 30 points. :-P

Regarding Moonshadows, I don't think I've done any real new work since that custom VFX stuff, and I certainly won't have time to do any more this weekend. Ossian takes priority, first of all, and even more importantly, I have a really long history paper that I need to write today. I've got a bunch of notes I took this morning, luckily, and it looks like it shouldn't be too bad to write, but I've still gotta do it, and it's still 10 pages. ;) The next step in Moonshadows, however, is to design some custom items for a certain area in the game. Not sure when I'll get a chance to do this, but I hope to soon.

Urban Ninja

Well, I did some work for Ossian tonight...and then, I decided to procrastinate and watch some urban ninja videos on YouTube. If you haven't seen these, you must watch them immediately--they're SO cool, and the two mockeries are absolutely hilarious.

Watch them in this order:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW3aCiWHSak (awesome)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2kJZOfq7zk (awesomest)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVlGm-s7Lz8 (hilarious)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9nVENReGBY (hilariousest)

Enjoy. :)

A little bit of work, and a new idea

I spent yesterday catching up on homework--I didn't have a chance to do any Moonshadows development. The day before, however, I decorated an area, placed a creature in it, and created a bunch of scripts and a conversation to be associated with a placeable which should greatly add to immersiveness (if that's even a word) in the area. I haven't done a lot with Moonshadows over the past week or so due to a variety of factors, not least among them that I haven't really been feeling the presence of my "muse", if you know what I mean. However, I think my muse may be returning after a brief vacation, because I got an idea for a good sidequest this morning which should be fun for the player. Also, I have some Ossian work to do in the next few days which will hopefully rekindle the creative flame inside of me. I've had a relatively long break from Moonshadows, so I'm ready to go back to work on it at this point.

Snow!

I can't believe it--it's April 5th, and it looks like a winter wonderland outside. Just a few days ago I was sporting shorts, flip-flops, and a t-shirt...and now I've been forced to don once again my socks, shoes, and coat(s)! We ran a tempo run yesterday while it was snowing like crazy...it was an interesting experience, to say the least. Ah well, this is New England, I guess!

I'm hoping to be able to do some work on Moonshadows this weekend, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen or not. This term looks like it's going to be one of my more rigorous in terms of academics out of my entire high school career, which is fine, enjoyable even, but it means development time will be fewer and farther between.

The first Obsidian-run NWN2 module contest was just announced as well; I won't be taking part, and in fact won't even be paying attention. I just don't have the time or inclination to play any of the entries that will doubtless start popping up. With my work with Ossian Studios as well as Moonshadows, my NWN2 schedule is booked for a good, long while!

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! ;)

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! :)

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!

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.