|
|
I stayed up late and put in some serious debu...
May 31, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I stayed up late and put in some serious debugging time last night. Regina, one of our QA staff, earned her keep over the weekend and documented a long list of bugs for me to go over. I think I have most of them resolved and can start in on working on the third level.
One of the things I snuck in was an earlier fiddling of mine. It's a ball game of sorts, though to be honest I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the thing. For some odd reason I just like wacking the ball around. It's broken, of course. It doesn't rebound appropriately. I think I'll pass it along to Sunjammer as he has lots of experience with reflection after his work on the mirror puzzle.
|
permalink| comment
|
More bug fixing this morning
May 29, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 More bug fixing this morning. I've been wanting to get a nicer cutscene system in place as I've been currently just using the raw cutscene functions. It's a little clunky and it turns out Sunjammer wrote a cutscene system that incorporates some of the best from Gestalt and Bioware's ones. I installed it this morning and tested it out on a cutscene that QA had reported as broken.
It turns out the problem had nothing to do with the cutscene code and everything to do with me being silly and placing a second cable car with the same tag. Poor Heather was trying to walk off the edge of the world to get there. Still, the new cutscene code worked fine. It's now abortable, which is somewhat convenient, as well as having a slightly different camera angle that I prefer.
|
permalink| comment
|
I'm finally feeling caught up, having spent a...
May 28, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm finally feeling caught up, having spent a good chunk of time yesterday to respond to all the threads on the AMPP project. I got to play with a pre-beta of Sunjammer's socket system, which is fun to play with. Hopefully it makes magic items more interesting than the usual fare.
I also received a new sound clip from one of the voice actors, the one I'll probably put in as the Proctor character. Every time I hear one of the voice actors I get terribly excited. Having written words come to life is a fun experience as a writer.
I also worked more on bug fixing and adding in some new cutscenes yesterday. The third level is slowly coming together and turning into an actual playable area.
|
permalink| comment
|
Well, yesterday was completely packed and I h...
May 27, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 Well, yesterday was completely packed and I hardly had a chance to touch the toolset, let along jump into the AMPP discussion boards and see what everyone is up to. I did manage to get some of the music into the prototype this morning. It adds considerably to the atmosphere and I can't wait for everyone else on the team to have a listen.
Hopefully today I can start communicating with the team again as well as responding to some e-mails that have been piling up.
|
permalink| comment
|
Well, I'm back homing, having arrived at midn...
May 26, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
Well, I'm back homing, having arrived at midnight last night. I'm still groggy and have a ton of stuff to do, but I managed to use the trip's wait time to get things accomplished. I wrote a couple lengthy dialogs several thousand feet above the ground. I also eventually found a plug at the Seattle airport and did some toolset work.
Pretty soon I need to make some decisions about how to manage the party splitting up. In NWN2, it should be very easy as there's full henchman control. With NWN, the options are somewhat limited.
|
permalink| comment
|
My hotel network connection stopped working (...
May 25, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
My hotel network connection stopped working (I'm using the kiosk in the lobby). Progress continues in between meetings and team dinners. I worked more on what I'm calling the first phase of level three. So far it's pretty easy, though it'll soon get more complicated.
I'd also like to apologize to everyone who hasn't heard from me in a few days. I have a few e-mails piling up that I haven't been able to answer yet. I'm especially apologetic to the AMPP team, as I haven't checked the boards in a couple days now.
|
permalink| comment
|
I'm on a business trip for a couple days
May 24, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
I'm on a business trip for a couple days. Strangely enough that's given me more time than usual to work on things, waiting in airports and motel rooms.
I whipped up a new "brass plaque" placeable to put on walls. I also wrote a few conversations and started work on the third level of the main dungeon. The only thing I haven't been able to do is get the game itself running, so I've put off debugging for the moment.
Sunjammer is doing some amazing work with the new scripting systems. I'm really excited to play with his new socket system, which is what's used for enchanted items. Hopefully it gives people more flexibility than what they're used to.
|
permalink| comment
|
I'm typing this from a hotel room as I'm off ...
May 24, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
I'm typing this from a hotel room as I'm off on a business trip for a few days. I avoid them like the plague, but I've been shanghaied and had little choice in the matter.
I got some writing done while waiting in airports. It's the start of a dialog for the second module so I can break into sea farin' talk a bit more. It's very fun to write and hopefully the voice actors will get into it as well.
|
permalink| comment
|
I did some more tileset work
May 22, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I did some more tileset work. Sometimes the story calls for something that I can't quite do with the existing tileset. In this case it was a broken bridge. I spent about fifteen minutes fiddling around with vertexes and whipped up something that looked nicer.
It feels a little strange making something that will get thrown away for the final version. Still, the giant column at the end of the existing tile was bugging me.
|
permalink| comment
|
Well, you can now get through the flashback, ...
May 21, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
Well, you can now get through the flashback, the fan puzzle, and down to the mysterious 3rd level. It's not perfect. Everything still needs multiple passes for quality, but it's playable. The war sequence is still pretty tough and everything isn't working quite the way I wanted. I did some more testing and polishing this morning.
I think it's time to move on to a new area for awhile. It's always refreshing doing something new.
|
permalink| comment
|
I'm continuing to work on the war scene, tryi...
May 20, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm continuing to work on the war scene, trying to fix all the odd little bugs. Strangely it was fun to test it last night, but perhaps because I enjoy watching people set on fire. The new targeting system for the flame troops works really well, and it's fun to watch in action.
Sadly there's still some odd issues where the commands I'm issuing aren't being followed. Time to make it more robust.
|
permalink| comment
|
I'm posting a bit later than usual
May 19, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
I'm posting a bit later than usual. Progress is going well. I spent some time on a big fight scene. It's endlessly complicated, unfortunately. I improved the targeting of magic using troops, added more specialized troops, and generally made things more robust.
Hopefully tonight I can test the thing.
|
permalink| comment
|
Well, I think the fan puzzle is finally worki...
May 18, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 Well, I think the fan puzzle is finally working, which makes me quite happy. I have one other cutscene to wrap around it and I should be able to switch to a new level. Oh, and I should fix the placeables.2da file as instead of spawning the proper gems it was putting in other weird objects. I suspect Sunjammer's placeables.2da file and mine didn't quite match. Easy enough to fix.
I also spent some time last night indulging myself. I added some unnecessary touches to a couple areas, some water-filled areas and a gas light that really have no place being in a rough prototype. Still, it looked weird without them so I felt good about the addition.
Finally, I mapped out the third level yesterday and feel pretty good about the way it works. I'm leaving some empty areas for later expansion so hopefully I can think of something creative.
|
permalink| comment
|
I'm slowly and painfully integrating the fan ...
May 17, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
I'm slowly and painfully integrating the fan puzzle into the main prototype. My cutscene "glue" seems to be coming apart from time to time. I'm trying to move the party from one point to another and things aren't always working as smoothly as I'd like. Still, I'm making progress however slowly.
|
permalink| comment
|
You'd think after working on the end of Demon...
May 16, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 You'd think after working on the end of Demon I'd learn to stay away from big battle scenes. Too many things can go wrong and there's usually unpredictable outcomes that go and ruin everything. In any case, I've been working on a new battle scene. Hopefully it won't drive me mad.
There's some great new music pieces coming out from the team. One of the musicians seems to have captured the essence of pirate music perfectly. Sunjammer's nearly done with the gem system. It's the basis of enchantments in the game and has turned into a rather elegant system.
I'm hoping today I can integrate the fan puzzle. In theory the story has reached that point. Soon enough I'll need to start mapping a new level. It feels good to make progress.
|
permalink| comment
|
Lots of miscellaneous work yesterday - some m...
May 14, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
Lots of miscellaneous work yesterday - some more tweaking of the mushroom models, chatting with the team, and writing up a lengthy project plan. The prototype got some more attention, mostly just adding some goodies for use by the testers.
|
permalink| comment
|
I spent a lot of time yesterday doing project...
May 13, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
I spent a lot of time yesterday doing project management work. There seems to be endless details to go over and plan for. One of the things on the top of my to do list is to write up a fairly detailed project plan to share with everyone else. Hopefully it'll let me eventually offload some of the organizational work to others.
I also started getting sound clips from one of the voice actors. It's very inspirational to have my little scribblings turned into something you can hear. I'm also starting to realize that the post-production work with the sound is going to potentially be a big deal. When it comes to removing artifacts and balancing things, I'm a bit over my head. Hopefully that's a task I can pass to someone on the team that's more knowledgeable.
|
permalink| comment
|
Work on the flashback continue
May 12, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
Work on the flashback continue. I'm also starting to get the first of the voice actor lines coming through. It's terribly exciting hearing people say what I've written.
I've also been debugging endlessly it seems. I managed to break the mirror puzzle the other day, which is hopefully fixed again. I've also got some rather tricky troop movement problems to consider.
I'm also trying hard to offload some of the project management work on some poor sots talented team members. Hopefully that'll free up more of my time for building.
|
permalink| comment
|
I made a ton of progress yesterday, getting m...
May 11, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
I made a ton of progress yesterday, getting most of an elaborate flashback in the game and debugged. Hopefully I can get that fairly finished today and move the players on to the fan puzzle, which Sunjammer has been working on. After that, it's off to a new dungeon level which I've been itching to work on.
|
permalink| comment
|
As usual, I'm feeling the lack of time to get...
May 10, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 As usual, I'm feeling the lack of time to get to everything I want to. Yesterday I started organizing all the voice actors, sending out a lengthy e-mail talking about next steps. I also managed to pop in some mushrooms into the prototype. It's getting to the point where I'll need them shortly.
I'm going to try hard to steal a couple hours today to make some progress on the prototype. I have a long list of things to do and now I just need to do them.
|
permalink| comment
|
Yesterday I spent working on dialogs, trying ...
May 09, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
Yesterday I spent working on dialogs, trying to finish up the conversations for some of the smaller NPCs. I also fixed a few bugs, such as a door that wouldn't open when using a certain wall switch.
I also just finished sending out an e-mail to the voice actors, hoping to get some of that work started. It's admittedly somewhat early but my plan is to get some experience with the process before we have to do larger amounts of the work.
The team continues to grow. I think we're well over 20 people now. If there's a project manager who wants to volunteer their time to coordinate all of this, I'd certainly love to hear from you.
|
permalink| comment
|
I slept for ten hours last night, feeling muc...
May 07, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
I slept for ten hours last night, feeling much better this morning. I made some pretty good progress yesterday as well. More conversations, several new scripts, and a new smallish area. When I went to test it out, virtually everything worked great the first time. Pretty neat.
Now I just need to find some time today to send out an e-mail to all the voice actors . . .
|
permalink| comment
|
I was sick as a dog yesterday
May 05, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
I was sick as a dog yesterday. I think I got three or four hours of sleep in between the coughing. The most I managed on the project was cursing the fan, trying to figure out why the blades wouldn't animate properly.
Fortunately the rest of the team has been slaving away without me. Christian has a new battle theme, Razvan has a new texture, and Sunjammer continues work on several scripting systems.
I've also gotten some voice actors to volunteer their time. I really appreciate your help and will e-mail everyone shortly. There's still plenty of NPCs to voice, so feel free join up if you'd like.
|
permalink| comment
|
Work continues
May 04, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 Work continues. I took Sunjammer's mirror puzzle and integrated it with the main prototype. I've also started work on a fairly complicated sort of interplay between a few different objects. I'm trying hard to picture myself playing the game, making sure I don't make this section too complicated. The challenge of puzzles is to get that fine line between entertaining and frustrating the player. I'm hoping for the best.
|
permalink| comment
|
More modeling
May 03, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 More modeling. I worked on the fan last night, one of the plot related pieces I need for the game. I also decided on a whim to make an alternate forest tile, though it's pretty silly for me to put that much detail into something I'm going to eventually throw away.
Periodically I freak out about how much work there is to do. I've got to work on a spec document for the focus gem system to pass along to Sunjammer soon. There's also several puzzles to integrate in there. Busy, busy.
Update: I'm starting to get fairly serious about casting voice actors. If anyone is interested in lending their voice to this little project, please let me know. While the main NPC roles are a fairly big commitment, there are lots of smaller roles that can be done quickly. All you need is a microphone and a willingness to embarrass yourself.
|
permalink| comment
|
I'm continuing to polish the entrance level, ...
May 02, 2005 by Adam in NWN2
 I'm continuing to polish the entrance level, adding in lots of little details. For the players who like to search every nook and cranny, there should be lots of things for them to find. I'm discovering that the first area is mostly about history, puzzles, and hidden loot, with combat occuring a bit later on. It reminds me somewhat of Dreamcatcher 3, starting the player out with next to nothing, nervous about what lies around the next corner.
|
permalink| comment
|
Older Posts
|
Links
Dragon Age
Dragon Age Central
Interviews, etc.
Why We Fight
About Me
I've won multiple awards for my Neverwinter Nights modules, which I've been working on since the year 2000.
In the real world, I'm a web developer for a healthcare organization. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
|