| 8/31/05 - Wednesday: YOU SOMETIMES HAVE TO BE HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU HAVE... |
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What is up with the title you ask? Well, I have been watching the news concerning what has happened concerning the Hurricane (Katrina) that hit Louisiana, and I am just speechless. I assumed it was going to be your normal hurricane, and that was that. Now, they say thousands may have died. It is the worst disaster in the history of the the U.S.A. Or, as the mayor of a town of 40,000 that is totally submerged in water stated, it is "America's Tsunami".
Okay, just had to get that off my chest. Back to business...
So, I have been exhausted everyday that I am on the train, both going to and from Manhattan. That might be a sign that I have been working too hard. Seeing as I am stubborn, I am just going to start drinking some Red Bulls perhaps and trudge along. I have to get Cry The Beloved out before people stop caring about NWN:) |
| Today, I began creating the events that occur before the first big fight of the module. I have to get this perfect, as it is going to set the tone for the rest of the boss fights. I have also been adding little conversations between the party members to flesh out the stories even further. There is so much back story, and I am having a difficult time presenting it to the user without having them scroll through dialog for 5 minutes straight. I also worked on a new cut-scene. It's funny, because every time I start a cut-scene I end up getting frustrated. At the end however, they always end up coming out quite nice with little work. I truly appreciate the experience I received from The Coming when it comes to creating them.
I received another edited conversation from my editor and added it to it's respective NPC. I know I have been saying this for a long time, but I will say it again:) I love not having to worry about writing that many dialogues. It really gives me the time to work on the things I excel at. I might have to postpone Cry The Beloved indefinitely if I ever lost my writers and editor:)
Tomorrow, I hope to finish up the big boss fight, and move on to another new area. Or I might start work on yet another custom ability system. Decisions, decisions... |
8/30/05 - Tuesday: FINALLY RESTED...
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Well, getting to sleep earlier actually paid off. I didn't completely pass out when I get on the train this morning:)
Again, I did some tinkering with some of the new custom abilities I gave Challseus & Aramus. So far, so good. I am getting really excited about participating in huge fights with the entire party, using all of their custom abilities. Anyone who played The Coming will remember that by the chance everyone was level 3, and Aramus/Clopon had Whirlwind Heal , the Chapter was practically over. Yeah, you could have gone back to South Shinkara Forest to fight some Worgs, but that was about it. Now is the time for the real fighting fun to begin...
Additionally, I started adding a new area, along with various roleplaying opportunities. I am also about to start laying down the foundation for the 1st boss fight of the game. That will be fun... |
| Today, I began creating the events that occur before the first big fight of the module. I have to get this perfect, as it is going to set the tone for the rest of the boss fights. I have also been adding little conversations between the party members to flesh out the stories even further. There is so much back story, and I am having a difficult time presenting it to the user without having them scroll through dialog for 5 minutes straight. I also worked on a new cut-scene. It's funny, because every time I start a cut-scene I end up getting frustrated. At the end however, they always end up coming out quite nice with little work. I truly appreciate the experience I received from The Coming when it comes to creating them.
I received another edited conversation from my editor and added it to it's respective NPC. I know I have been saying this for a long time, but I will say it again:) I love not having to worry about writing that many dialogues. It really gives me the time to work on the things I excel at. I might have to postpone Cry The Beloved indefinitely if I ever lost my writers and editor:)
Tomorrow, I hope to finish up the big boss fight, and move on to another new area. Or I might start work on yet another custom ability system. Decisions, decisions... |
8/29/05 - Monday: SLOW DAY...
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It was a rough morning...I woke up late, and had to rush just to catch the late train. Of course, as I was pulling into the parking lot, a construction truck pulled in front of me, which was only going like 10 MPH. Once I finally got a parking spot, I relived my old high school days of being on the track team, as I had to sprint what felt like 1/2 a mile to the train. So, with only 5 hours of sleep mixed with being out of breath from my long run, I basically passed out as soon as I found my seat on the train. Well, I edited a conversation I received the night before first...
On the train ride home, I fixed some issues with the new custom ability system I implemented. Again, I am amazed at how it seamlessly works with the NWN combat engine. Though it appears to be a simple concept on the outside, new strategies are opened up. Well, it is 10:57 EST, and I am going to sleep now so that I can get at least 7 hours of sleep. |
| When I get on the train tomorrow, I plan to make revisions to the new ability system, add a couple more abilities to Clopon, and do a lot of testing while fighting various enemies. I have mentioned it before, but what I am really trying for is EVERY party member contributing something unique to every battle or situation. Think about the whole concept of how you dealt with Shinkara Shadows in North Shinkara Forest , and then think about it on a bigger scale with multiple party members...
The screenshot above is a small (I stress the word small) glimpse at what I have in the works. Enjoy:) |
8/28/05 - Sunday: THIS IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT:)
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As the title suggests, today was a VERY good development day. I had lots of fun (for once). Where to start...
So, I had just come off of a very productive day implementing the new combat animations. Again, just have to shout out Ragnarok for this lovely work. It truly is amazing. So amazing in fact, that I am definitely going to add it to The Coming this week . I am also adding in a feature so that the player can skip the intro cut-scene if they so choose. I hope to have this new update out by next week...
Moving on, lets see.. I FINALLY started work on the new ability systems. I cannot go into details about it at this time, but it is going to be major, just like Last Resorts & Unison Abilities. I essentially set up the scripting system, and refactored a lot of it so that I can
easily create new types for different party members. |
| I added 1 of the new custom abilities to Aramus, Challseus, and another character who I will not reveal at this time (although most probably know who it is). I have a little area I have set up where I test all of the new abilities and I have to say, I am having SO MUCH FUN with the new custom system. Fighting is more fun than ever.
Although many have praised The Coming for it's music and story, I really went into it trying to create a group fighting system that was ALWAYS fun. It's hard to explain, but the games that really delivered the tactical feeling was the Baulder's Gate series, as well as Final Fantasy Tactics for PS1. So, in the process of trying to create the module where people loved to fight, I ended up trying to make everything (sound, area design, story) perfect, and therefore could not do what I wanted to. I will achieve this in Cry The Beloved.
It is really sad that you cannot control each party member individually, muck like Baulder's Gate, but I will make due. Expect to go to areas where you must pick the right party member to join you. Not only will you pick them according to their fighting skills, but also due to other non-combat skills. Well, I better stop before I spoil too much.
As another small spoiler, as you can see by the screenshot, Aramus will not always have to take the GOOD path. Oh, how things change... |
8/27/05 - Saturday: MORE RESEARCH...
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So, after implementing some manager scripts for Additional Animations by Vaei , I was really excited about getting Alternate Animations by Ragnarok_mr4 working. Fortunately, everything worked out perfectly. The screenshot you see is Aramus standing in his new barbarian stance. I just love it. I love them so much that I am going to go back to The Coming (again...) and add them in, as well as spice up the cut-scenes with the additional animations from Vaei.
As for as things in Dematol, being the perfectionist that I am, I have come up with about 2 new ideas for things to implement...And I thought I was done with Dematol:) I don't actually have to implement these things now, so I am considering putting it on the back burner for a while. Did another test run, and cleaned up some more bug/issues. It is coming along just fine. |
| As far as research goes, I started toying around with a new tileset by Chandigar (I am in a rush, so I will post links later). It looks promising so far...
The writers continue to crank out conversations, faster than I can send them to the editor and implement. I also have somebody creating the logo for The Rose Of Eternity. I have wanted one for so long, so I am excited about that. Another gentleman has offered to help me create some maps of the world, so people can finally get an overview of the areas they have been adventuring in. |
8/26/05 - Friday: A RESEARCH DAY...
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Hello all. I have to start out by saying I am surprised that I am being able to upload this new update. For the past couple weeks, I have not had any internet access to my laptop. So, I have been posting updates when I get to work. To my surprise, it just worked, so here we go.
So, today was more of a research day. I finally decided to take a closer look at the Additional Animations by Vaei . I ended up making an "animate_manager" script that would contain all of the constants for his new animations, as well as some utility functions to make using them easier. I also added them to about 4 cut-scenes, which make them come to life ever more. I have to say that I a very impressed with them so far. I also started looking at Alternate Animations by Ragnarok_mr4 .
On the implementation front, I did a test run from the beginning of the module to the current playable state. |
| I of course found various bugs, so I began to work my way down my trusty bug notepad, hammering them out as they come. Wasn't too much work, thankfully. I am also beginning of the designing phase of the next big area. I think people are really going to be surprised with where I am going with Cry The Beloved.
Until next time...I leave you with a screenshot of Aramus perform a jump animation. |
8/25/05 - Thursday: ALMOST THERE...
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Well, after little over a month of development, I am just about happy enough with the current condition of Dematol. I am no where near done with all of the implementation, but I feel that there is enough in it to move the plot along. Essentially, I need to move on to some other things.
Building towns is not hard, just boring. I have been thinking about it for the past couple days, and I would rather work on the new elements (i.e. new custom abilities) of the game, because 1) It is more interesting and 2) I have never implemented anything like it, so it might be a challenge. Better to get the challenging things out of the way early...
On the plus side, I recently received 2 more conversations from my writers (1 of the writers is new), and I am still in awe. Where were these guys when I was developing The Coming:) |
8/24/05 - Wednesday: MY SUPERVISOR AT WORK WOULD BE SO PROUD OF ME...
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What a busy day...And most of it had nothing to do with any actual implementation. I was so tired this morning that I decided to spend 45 minutes sleeping on the train today, which cut down on the time I had to build this morning. Before I fell asleep however, I did what I have been doing all week: More work on NPC's and their quests. I keep telling myself that if I just keeping knocking them out everyday, I can eventually move on to better things.
The rest of the day was actually spent coordinating different parts of the team. It is amazing how much work goes into this, and I know my supervisor would be proud to see that I am getting a small sense of what his job is like.
As an example, when the writers are ready for a new conversation to create, I send them an e-mail full of requirements, such as gender, age, personality, what is going on in their lives, etc. Then, usually 1 day later, I get a 1st draft, which I add to the respective NPC and make sure that it all makes sense. |
| I usually add/remove things here and there so that it fits with the overall scheme of things. Once that is done, I send it to my editor, Jason Melancon, who does a superb job I must say. He is big on consistency (small example is ALWAYS using the same color for skill checks), so he is definitely a good person to have. Plus, I loathe doing that myself:) Once he sends me his corrections, I add it to the correct NPC, do a final review, and then start adding the back-end scripts that run the conversation. It might not seem like much, but when I have 3 of these on 1 day, it gets a little hairy trying to sort through all of the various e-mails. I should also mention that I am doing this while I am at the office attempting to do real work...(my boss would not actually be proud of this...)
And then there is the back and forth with the team about all of the new custom abilities, but that is a story better left for another time...
I plan on getting to sleep a bit early tonight so I will be fully rested so I can get back to building on the train ride into Manhattan tomorrow. |
8/23/05 - Tuesday: I DON'T THINK I CAN COME UP WITH NEW TITLES EVERY DAY:)
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Nothing exceptional happened today as far as actual implementation. I took some dialog written by one of my writers, Amy Laurin , and added it to the respective NPC. Threw in some skill checks, and that was that. I also put the finishing touches on a very emotional and dramatic cut-scene that will occur while in Dematol.
I am very excited about what is happening on the design front. Anyone who had been to the download page at NWVault when I 1st released The Coming would have noticed community members DaNippers & ShrikeKnight giving me suggestions on new Unison Abilities and Last Resorts. Well, these have been hashed out even further, and I believe the community will be happy with what they get. As mentioned before, your party members will get to a point where they have multiple Last Resorts to choose from, and each one will be good in different situations. Everyone has a different play style, so allowing them to pick which Last Resorts they use is a good idea in my eyes. |
Also mentioned before, there will be plenty of Unison Abilities that do not involve Aramus, and I am also working on an innovative way in which to show them when they are used. More to come on that subject later...
As if that wasn't enough, I can confirm that there are 2 new custom ability systems in the works. I cannot give too much away, as things have been changing everyday, but I can say that I am getting closer to the elusive Infinite Engine tactical combat system. |
8/22/05 - Monday: I GUESS I "CAN" GET A PRODUCTIVE DAY:)
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As the title suggests, I feel like I accomplished much today. On the train ride into work, I finished up the majority of the functionality that will be used when Aramus is traveling around Dematol. It was a lot easier than I anticipated.
Creating various quests that you get from conversations has been very easy as well, as I have people writing the dialogues for me. In fact, all I have to do is create a generic template that I can use when testing, and then when I get the conversation file, I just have to move around the scripts. It is quite convenient.
I ended up falling asleep on the train ride home for about 30 minutes, yet I was able to work at home to finish up some more NPC implementation and such. I am getting closer and closer to putting the finishing touches on Dematol (for the time being that is...). |
| More specifically, I will put the finishing touches on the parts of Dematol needed to advance the plot. I am no where near done with the entire implementation of Dematol.
Lastly, I came across a new hakpak that I will definitely implement in Cry The Beloved. It is a hakpak called Additional Animations by Vaei that adds 10 custom animations that I can use via scripts, such as a new pointing animation, as well as a jumping animation. That's right, a jumping animation. Oh, the possibilities are endless. These animations will breathe some new life into this series, and make it stand out from the rest just a bit more...
Till tomorrow... |
8/21/05 - Sunday: CAN I EVER JUST GET 1 PRODUCTIVE DAY?
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Sunday ended up being much like Saturday in terms of what I got done, the only difference being that I didn't try to fool myself into thinking I would accomplish much...Guess what? I was correct...
After about an hour into development, I decided to check the downloads page for The Coming for questions and such. So, I get this bug report from someone who just downloaded version 1.5. I'm thinking "great, more work for The Coming...". Every time I think I can let it go, I have to make an update:) Oh well, guess I will just get used to it. The finding of the bug, rebuilding of the full/lite versions of the module along with updates to the ReadMe and website took about 2 hours of my day...It's actually good that he found this bug, as it could have gotten me into a lot more trouble later on... |
| After the aforementioned issue, I again tested all of the different ways the player could complete the initial quests you receive in Dematol. I was lucky that there were no bugs (that I found anyways). I then began working on the different ways Aramus will be able to move around in Dematol. Since Dematol is now overrun with the Defenders Of Legacy, it isn't like he can just walk around without anyone noticing. So, all of those situations need to be taken care of. Besides that, no new progress to report. I am still looking forward to working on anything not involving Dematol:)
On a brighter note, another alpha tester has joined the team, and that is always good. |
8/20/05 - Saturday: JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS...
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So, Saturdays are always supposed to be big development days. I don't have to work, so theoretically, I should be able to get a lot done. Sadly this has never been the case...For some reason, when I am on the train ride home, I can get up to 2 hours of uninterrupted work done. At home however, I am enticed by surfing the NWVault to see what is the newest it file being released. Then there are the wonderful World War II documentaries that the History Channel only seems to show when I am at home...Oh well...
Don't let the above paragraph confuse you however. I did get some work done, but just not as much as I wanted to. Today was the day when there are about 8 different things I can work on, and I just cannot seem to focus on just one.
One such situation is the various roleplaying options the player will have in Dematol. |
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When I was developing The Coming I could knock quests out in like 2 hours tops. These were of course the "1 way to complete" quests...Now I am knee deep in the "6 ways to complete various quests that are all tied together with other ones" quests. Not to say the latter is difficult, but it just takes more than 2 hours:) Then there is the testing...I would not be lying if I said the part of development I hate the most is town building. Although I feel I can do it quite well, I really feel that I excel at creating cut-scenes, custom abilities, and interesting custom enemies. I have had ideas bubbling in my head for the past year on an area involving Clopon, and I cannot wait to actually implement it. Speaking of custom abilities (Last Resorts, Unison Abilities, etc.), I really believe people are going to be surprised with how these are going to be refined in Cry The Beloved, as well as be surprised with the new abilities that will be introduced.
So, in a nutshell, today amounted to me putting the finishing touches on about 4 quests that are somewhat intertwined with things that happen in Dematol. Not too exciting, but something that just has to be done... |
8/19/05 - Friday: AND IT BEGINS...
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Well, here is my 1st entry for daily updates (hopefully continuing to be daily). I will continue to post big news on the main Cry The Beloved Status page, while jotting down everything else here.
So, I have been talking about Dematol all throughout The Coming. Now, I have to actually build the damn town:( Why did I have such grand plans...All jokes aside, the implementation has been coming along just fine. I have various NPC's through the town, and with the help of my writers Joseph Portello & Amy Laurin , as well as my editor Jason Melancon , their conversations have been fleshed out a lot better than I could do myself. Much respect goes out to them. I really feel that the dialogue they have been writing easily beats the writing I did in The Coming. I am really feeling this whole team concept, and I hope it continues to grow from here. By the way, anyone wanting to join should shoot over to the Job Opportunity page. |
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One of the main concerns with players who like The Coming was the lack of roleplaying options. I am addressing that in Cry The Beloved. All of the quests I have created involve at last 4 different ways to finish them, with alignment changes and everything. Although you are forced to use the Aramus supplied character (from which you hopefully imported from The Coming ), choices you make should effect things much more.
Well, I am about to leave the office (I work in Manhattan as a Software Engineer and commute from Poughkeepsie everyday...), so this is it for today. As always, I will continue to grind away on development on the train ride home (about 2 hour trip). I will have much more to talk about in my entry on Saturday. Also, expect the format of these entries to change up as I decide the best way to write everything...For now, here is a screenshot of an early looking version of Dematol. |
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