At this point in the game, the player will be experiencing a lot of story development, and when I can't just show it via the standard NWN dialog interface, I will be using cut-scenes. Since it will be so late in the game, I think people will be forgiving for it, because frankly, they will be caught up in the story so much that they won't mind watching these cut-scenes. Now, I am not saying I am going to have like 10 5 minute cut-scenes in a row. Nothing near that. However, there are really only certain ways for me to let the player see certain events, and the normal dialog interface wouldn't cut it. I mean, I am trying to make a cinematic style game, and we all know how those can be towards the end. I really want the final sequences to be things people will remember while I work on Rose Of Eternity - Chapter 3 - ??????????.

Till tomorrow...

A lot of the monkey work included the work of gluing a lot of the sequences I have been working on together. That in itself is easy enough, but I ran into a lot of bugs that I introduced with the last bunch of work I did. So, I had to test it, find bugs, squash them, rinse, repeat. Not very fun...

Well, as a reward for a long day of monkey work, I am going to cut this update short, and go through some more edits. As boring as it might seem, I actually like doing them. At least it gets me away from the bugs:)

Till tomorrow...

Jason had edited all of the journal entries for the game, so I went through them and fixed them when I was waiting for code to compile at work, or when I was running some job. It was a nice change of pace.

After work, we took out one of our co-workers for drinks, and dinner afterwards. It was sad to see yet another close friend leave, but alas, that is the world we live in.

I really hope to get a lot of work done tomorrow, since I slipped up today. At least I didn't not work today because I knew in the back of my head I had a vacation coming up:)

Till tomorrow...

As for what I did today, well, there is no way for me to talk about it without giving spoilers, so I can't really comment:( I probably won't get that much done tomorrow night, as yet another co-worker is leaving the company, and we are taking him out for drinks tomorrow night. I am going to bed now so I can at least finish up some dev work on the train tomorrow.

Till tomorrow...

I decided to revisit the AI code that has party members using ranged weapons to run away from monsters. I had it working a few days ago, and then, I made some changes, and totally broke the entire system. So, I was trying to repair that system today, and well, it just wouldn't work. The way I am, when I am trying to script something, and it doesn't work, I keep trying. As in staying up until 2:00 am to get it to work. I really get obsessed over that stuff, even though I know I shouldn't. Well, after 3 hours or so at home tonight, I finally fixed everything. I have only tested out combat with 1 party member, had the enemy get close to said party member, and confirm that they run away to a safer place to use their ranged weapons. Let me tell you, I felt a lot better after that.

Now for some even better news: My boss is allowing me to take 3 weeks of vacation time, start next  week! Yes people, I will have 3 weeks of uninterrupted dev time on Cry The Beloved. It really is like a dream come true. Considering how fast I have been knocking things out lately, I am confident I will get tons of work done. It's easier said than done, but I really hope to keep getting up early, and getting in at least 8 hours or more a day of dev work. Yeah, yeah, some people think I am crazy to take 3 weeks off to work on some damn game. Well, I have no argument against that. It is what I am doing, nonetheless:)

Till tomorrow...

Taking a different approach today, I actually worked on 1 dialog the entire time. Yes, that's right, I said I worked on 1 dialog the entire day. This was by and large the longest dialog that I have ever written. And you know what? I actually had fun writing it! This piece of dialog involves 8 different people, along with various options for Aramus. The important thing however is that this is one of the most important sequences in the game. And hell, I didn't even make it a cut-scene, although I wanted to:) I also have to admit, my writing has gotten a little better. I know for damn sure that because of Jason, my grammar is:)

Tomorrow, I will finish the scripts that need to run after said conversation. As I said yesterday, I am really ahead of where I wanted to be at this point. I just need to keep up the pace until the damn game is released! Oh, and it is official. My 2 week vacation starts next week. However, being the sly dog I am, I am going to try to get 3 weeks out of my manager. I have all the vacation days saved up, I am just not sure if they want to let me go for so long. I think he will say yes, but I will find out tomorrow morning. Man, having 3 weeks of pure development, not having to go to work, dealing with the commute, would be great. I really do my best when I am not distracted, so here's hoping:)

Till tomorrow...

So, I have been debugging and testing a particular boss fight scene for a while. It started out quite normal, but as I normally do, I have been adding custom abilities and Last Resorts, to make the fight as unique as possible. As always, I don't want players to feel like they have been doing the same thing over and over again.

I also toyed with the AI of certain ranged party members, to attempt to have them run away from enemies when too close. I was obviously prompted by the discussion that occurred at the Cry The Beloved forums yesterday. I was content to leave it, but while at work, I got to thinking about how cool it would be for that to be an option the player could pick, via the party member's dialog interface. So far, so good:)

Till tomorrow...

Funny enough, a month ago, I was planning on using the 2 weeks off to finish what I was able to finish this week! Now, don't think I am skimping on the implementation, because I have been able to get everything I wanted in, and even more. Better to under promise, than to over promise I guess.

So, tomorrow will be an easy day. I just need to begin to glue all of the pieces of work over the past week together. This includes transitions, dialogs, and other minor details. Not hard at all, but obviously essential...

An interesting topic popped up on the Cry The Beloved forums today. Once of the testers (obviously didn't get permissions to use their name) was pointing out the fact that when he would tell some party members to use ranged weapons, when the enemy got within melee range, they didn't run away. This is one of my main gripes with not being able to directly control party members...

I am not even going to beat around the bush. I will not be trying to change the AI of party members. A year ago, I attempted to implement a way of having party members (i.e. Challseus) run from close enemies, but I never got it down. Say for example, he is surrounded by enemies on ALL sides. When he runs away, all he will do is run into another enemy, and as he runs, enemies will have Attack Of Opportunity on him. Perhaps someone has something more stable than my attempt. Either way, keeping the enemies away from party members like Challseus will just take strategic play. Let's not forget about the Rose Of Courage, which allows you to elicit the enemy towards you, away from other party members. Then, there is Illuminate. Really, when designing the custom combat, I already took all of those factors into consideration, so those who are used to Rose Of Eternity combat will be skilled enough at a certain point to rarely get into those situations. And if that particular tester is reading this, I will rewrite this, and a lot more at the forums tomorrow morning. I need to go to sleep quite early tonight, as I have a meeting early on in the day tomorrow.

Finally, I am very proud to announce that I have found the perfect track that will play during the final boss sequence in the game. This piece is actually a variation of another track that will be played during another particular fight scene. It is very epic sounding, and definitely the piece of music I want people to remember when they think of the end fight. As always, I can't wait to get it in game!

Till tomorrow...

As far as development goes, today was a pretty decent day. As I look back and reflect, it seems that I didn't do much, as there isn't that much new content. On the contrary however, most of my time was spent dealing with a few scripts, and not much more.

I have to say that I am amazed at the speed I have been knocking things out. I am at least 2 days ahead of where I want to be, which is always a good thing. Once I finish the current scene, I will glue all the pieces of the various scenes I have been working on this past week together. I will probably leave the gluing until Monday, since it is basic, generic stuff that is very repetitive, and does not require much of my brain power.

Till tomorrow...

Late in the afternoon, my company paid for everyone to go see the movie, Nacho Libre. Please don't laugh...I would have never paid to see this movie on my own. Anyway, after that, we took out one of my co-workers for drinks, as it was his last day. It's always a pain going out to bar/clubs in Manhattan, because I am constantly looking at my watch, wondering when I can catch the next train. I really need to pack up and get an apartment down there very soon.

Interestingly enough, when I finally go to the train station, after getting some bottled water, I turned around, and saw a girl that look familiar. After both of us staring for a minute, I realized it was a girl named Barb, who I used to work with at Marshalls back up north where I lived. Talk about being a small world. She was there for a Mets game. Even weirder, another girl named Jodie, who I also worked with for 2 years, was there. It was really a blast from the past. The other people who were there were Barb's boyfriend, her brother, and cousin. After talking for a bit, I was trying to sneak away to get on my train, knowing I wanted to get a good seat. Then, they asked me what train I was taking, and lo and behold, we ended up getting on the same train. As you can imagine, I didn't get any work done, as we were talking back and forth the entire ride. I was a pleasant change from the normal train ride. It just means I have to work harder tomorrow!

Till tomorrow...

Anyway, after taking care of a few things, I heard someone pounding on the door. I go to the door, and I am surprised to find out it is someone from DHL. I am even more surprised to find out they are returning my laptop from Dell. Now, this is amazing, because I just shipped it out on Monday. Man, talk about speedy service:)

So, it was great to have my old laptop back. Yeah, the screen on the one I have been using for the past few weeks is big as hell, but well, I don't know...I just missed my old  laptop. And now it's back!

After setting everything up on it, I dove head first into development. Man, let me tell you, I have never spent so much time on what particular scene for so long...Ever...I literally worked on and off from about 12:00pm to 11:00pm. It is a very detailed scene, and there are tons of moving parts, so to speak. Then, there is the combat, which I must have play tested for half the time. As I have mentioned earlier, I have been trying to make things are strategic as possible, and well, it is easier said then done. Everything is about placement, and who to attack first. The hope is that players go through the battle a few times before they realize the key to finishing it. Of course, the difficulty is the hardest part to test. I mean, if I can't beat it, then the players won't. But, I don't want it to be too easy. There are so many factors, and that is what is taking so long. On the plus side however, I had the entire day to work on this, which I hadn't anticipated. So, I am actually very far ahead of schedule:)

Till tomorrow...

Now, this thing has to be very difficult. I want people to have a hard time with it, unless they go at it strategically. Lately, when I have been creating such fights, I have been remembering my days playing one of my favorite games, Final Fantasy Tactics. Man, I really miss games like that:)

At any rate, one of the reason I got so much done was because I ended up working till 12:45 am. With that said, I need to go to sleep now, so I can at least get 5 hours if sleep:(

Till tomorrow...

The only thing was, at the time of the post, I only had the early, raw idea. In fact, I wasn't even sure if this sort of thing was even implemented in DnD NWN. Remember, I never actually played any of the commercial campaigns. Luckily, Jason helped me understand things a bit better, and I realized it was something that was very feasible. Again, like I mentioned earlier, implementation was the least of my worries. The design was the key...

Last night, after some careful testing (on the train mind you), I got the final confirmation that this new idea could definitely be implemented, without any weird glitches and whatnot. Well, when I got home, I wrote a somewhat lengthy post about what my ideas were for the design part.

When I got into work this morning, I noticed a post by Rick Sanderson, which took what I sort of came up with on the fly, and expanded it even more. This new ability will now be able to be more customized by the end user, making everyone's experience even more different. There are still some kinks to be worked out, but I am sure we will figure it all out. Really great to have co-conspirators working with me:)

So, when I got home, I began to work on this one particular cut-scene. Now, this is all new to me, because of the pacing of it. You see, historically, every cut-scene has more or less had a slower pace to it, with long, sweeping angles, and lots of spinning around. Yeah, I am tired of the spinning shot too:) Anyway, this new one is more fast paced, with lots of different shots within seconds of each other. I have to admit, I have been wanting to do these types of shots for a while, and there is no better time than now. I really need to expand my skill set, and this will be one more notch on the belt. I hope peeps like the cut-scene too:) Hey, look at it this way...It can't be too long, since there are so many various shots within seconds of each other:)

I have to admit, it was a bit of a struggle trying to get the timing right, as well as the perfect looking angles, but I finally got something I was happy with. One problem with me is that when I am working on something that isn't working, I will stay up an extra 2 hours until it works. I hate going to sleep knowing something is unfinished...Yeah, I'm weird...Well, off to sleep now, as I am currently happy with what I have.

Till tomorrow...

So, this morning, since I knew what I have been working on is very involved, and something I need more time to, I decided to focus on the little things. One such thing was some editing Jason did for me this past weekend. Now, editing in itself isn't a small think, but actually implementing his changes was something I knew I could knock out. I have to say, I was very happy to find out that he was even editing cut-scene scripts with grammar changes. Usually, it has been regular dialog files, so it was a nice change of pace. I must drive him crazy, because I keep getting nicked for he same grammar over and over again...Sigh, writing just isn't my forte...

I also found time to add some dialogue that Preston wrote for me, which was very easy to integrate. All in all, it was a very relaxing, yet productive morning. I actually felt like I had accomplished something on the train.

On the train ride home, I was messing around with some scripts to add a new party member to the infrastructure. As you all may or may not know, I have one unified party member set of scripts that is very general. I have 1 sort of config file, called cast_manager.nss where I need to add in the respective party member. Once I make my changes there, everything is complete. It is a very robust system, and I am glad I made the changes last winter. Interestingly enough, this particular party member wasn't even supposed to join the team. When I began thinking about it at work, I wasn't sure if I wanted to fully implement them as a party member, or make them some generic henchman (shudder...). I then realized that I couldn't sell myself short, and since the infrastructure was there, I decided to add them. At this point in the game, when the player finds out this person is joining the team, I am sure their jaws will drop, and they will jump for joy! I would:)

When I got home, after a pretty big dinner, I got back to work on the bigger stuff, namely, the new sequence. More specifically, I began to script the opening cut-scene for the new area. I won't be doing anything I have never done in this cut-scene, so I don't anticipate it take too long. In fact, I already scripted the first minute and 20 seconds of it. It just so happens that the climax of the music that plays during the scene is at 70 seconds, so it was easy to coordinate everything up till that point. I am not entirely sure what I will do in the second half, but as always, something will come to me while I listen to music when I got to bed tonight:)

Till tomorrow...

Today was really the quintessential day for development. I started around 12:00 pm, and I more or less worked until 11:00 pm. I mean, I took mild breaks in between and had dinner for 30 minutes or so, but for the most part, I just worked the entire time...Which is a good thing:)

In all of this time, I must have tested various fighting situations at least half the time. It was crazy. The good thing is, the more I test it now, the less I have to do it some other time, and what better time than when I can focus all of my energy on it? After balancing everything as good as I could for the time being, I just finished some minor scripting, and moved on to the next area.

So, I should just get this out of the way right now. This sequence I have been working on is the climax of the game. Now, The Coming didn't really have a climax, due to the fact that it was so short, so I have been waiting for a long time to create this scene. As always, I know what the intro cut-scene for the new area will be like, I just need to create the damn thing. But before I can do that, I need to prep the area. What that means is, I need to set the lighting, placeables, sound effects, NPC's, etc. I was able to do most of that today, along with some light scripting. The scene itself is too grand to work on during train rides to/from work, so it will have to wait until after work, or on the weekends.

What I will do on the train however is knock out some editing changes submitted to me by Jason Melancon. The man went crazy this weekend, giving me all sorts of edits. Hell, he even edited the journals for me:) The thing that makes me happy is that he took the initiative to do this, as I was only going to send him some dialogue to edit. At any rate, it will make the game better overall, and I am very appreciative. This will keep me busy at least for tomorrow on the train. When I get home, I will get back to the aforementioned climax scene.

I won't even give any predictions on when it will be done, but obviously, the earlier, the better:)

Till tomorrow...

That time will hopefully be coming in the next month or so. I really am eager to get feedback from as many people as possible, and yet, and I a bit apprehensive at the same time. No mater how good I think something is that I have done, in the back of my mind, I am always dreading the 2-3 people who hate what I do, and LOVE to be vocal about it. Ah, such is the life of a modder...

Till tomorrow...

What I was able to do today was test the combat. And, I mean really test it. As I have mentioned before, every different player will have different abilities/items, and I need to account for all of it. It isn't as complex as trying to balance things for all races/classes as most DnD modules, but it is still a pain. Speaking of which, I have nothing but the utmost respect for those builders that do allow all races/classes and balance for the game for all of them. I know things can't be perfectly balanced, but for those that try, I tip my hat towards you.

Anyway, I think it is more or less done with the first section. I have a mini-boss type fight that I started scripting as well during my lunch break at work today. I didn't get to test the actual fight out yet, but it is really just an extension of the fights I have been testing these past few days, so I more or less know what to look for. It would be super cool if I could finish the one area off by the end of tomorrow. It seems I will have all of Sunday to myself for once, so being able to put a dent in the next area would be great. And I would definitely need that, for as usual, there are tons of custom scripts to create...Joy!

Till tomorrow...

Anyway, even though I didn't make any significant changes to the area I have been working on for a while, I did tons of scripting for it. It is apparently my MO to always do things I have never done before:) I keep telling myself that I will eventually have a library full of code from The Coming and Cry The Beloved that I will never have to write any more new scripts ever again...Yeah right... :)

The good thing is, once I am done with this last bit of scripting, all I have to do is worry about one thing...Combat...Glorious, strategic, dynamic combat. It is great, for so many reasons. Because of the varying abilities the players will have at this point, it's possible for many people to have various experiences, so I don't have to worry about that as much. Another thing is that I don't have to worry about writing tons of dialogue. Yes, that's right! No dialogue for a while:)

Seriously though, I can honestly say that combat will be the focus of my energy for at least the next 2 weeks. This is the one thing I always feel confident doing, and it doesn't get too frustrating. I already know what I want, so I just need to implement it, and move on in life:) Annoyingly enough, I still haven't been able to convert this one piece of music that I need for this entire sequence. Every other track has been working fine, except this one...It is quite annoying...I am sure I will figure it out, but it is annoying to play the piece of music in iTunes while turning the music off in the game, to simulate it during the test fights I have been doing these past few days...Oh well...

Till tomorrow...

After getting home, I had to stop at my Mom's house for what was supposed to be a short visit, but ended up being a 2 hour visit. Long story short, she had computer issues, and since I make video games, she thinks I know everything about hardware, when I really don't:) Tomorrow, I hope to finish up my brainstorming, and get to more implementation.

Till tomorrow...

Later in the day, I started getting some interesting IM's. One in particular was from David Timmons, who was stuck on one of the floors of the dungeon (I believe I mentioned this yesterday). After having him tell me his path from the beginning of the game until the point he was at, I was able to help him with no problems. It was great to get another perspective on game flow. Since things are open ended a bit, not everyone will do things the same way, so it was great to find someone doing things in ways I never imagined. The best part was that he was playing it in windowed mode, so as he was playing, I was getting his reactions to all of the new stuff he was seeing. Hell, he was even reporting bugs.

Even better, since I had my laptop next to me in the office, I actually opened up the toolset and began to squash some of the bugs right as he was reporting them. It was great! I could tell he was having fun, and that is all I want people to feel when they play it.

Interestingly enough, Amy , who I had been chatting with was about to start playing through it as well. Unfortunately, she ran into a game break bug, which was a VERY good catch. Essentially, to get past a specific door, a check on a local variable is made on a particular party member. As all of you who played The Coming know, when you level up a party member, the current one is destroyed, and a new one is spawned in. Well, what must have happened is that the variable was set on said party member, she gained a level, and when the new party member was spawned, the local variable wasn't carried over. Now, I already have scripts to copy over certain local variables, so I just had to plug in the variable name, and it was all good. However, it was a very good find, because it made me do a check in the game for more local variables that I was forgetting to transfer over. Luckily, that was the only one I found, but I need to remember to add them to the script as they are created. So, thanks Amy, and sorry:(

Going back to David for a second, due to his play style, I think I might have to implement my first real nerf...For those that don't know what that is, it is basically when you take a previously powerful attack/ability, and weaken it. It has been known to cause riots in the MMORPG  worlds, but I think I will be safe from the bloodshed. Essentially, the whirlwind ability you get in The Coming pushes enemies away when they are hit with it. Apparently, it looks as if people can take advantage of this, by spamming it over and over again. Now, I am going to post a thread at the forums to discuss it before I take action. One solution would be to only allow enemies to be pushed away every 30 seconds or so. Perhaps 5 times a day...Perhaps the push distance starts out very small (i.e. 2 meters), but increases as Aramus gains levels...Not sure how to rectify the situation, but I am sure we will come up with something.

Another thing I have to do is get more music on my Mom's laptop. Currently, I only have about 17 tracks, as  I didn't want to put a lot of extra junk on her machine. However, I might stab myself in the eye if I have to listen to any of these tracks anymore...I know  I can use my iPod, but it is more convenient to listen to them via iTunes when I am actually using the damn laptop.

Back on topic, as for what I have to do, well, I will keep on implementing the sequence I started working on last night. I got a decent amount of work done on the train ride into work, contrary to the fact that I was tired as all hell. In fact, I still do not know how I forced myself to stay up...While at home, I worked on some of the AI for a party member, and also tweaked the statistics of a new enemy. I haven't given said enemy any custom abilities yet, as I still need to think that through.

Finally, I was very pleased that Pokstair took it upon himself to write a detailed walkthrough of the new floors I created for the often mentioned dungeon of mine, and post it at the forums. Besides the fact that it gave me something else to do, it was great to see how others handled it. All in all, things are going great.

Till tomorrow...

Till tomorrow...

On a more positive note, things involving the ALPHA have been pretty smooth so far. As expected, people are posting at the forums again, and surprisingly enough, I only got 1 major bug, and it is one that was already known to me (which I thought I fixed). So, all in all, pretty good so far. I have to say, it's pretty cool to have the whole gang back in action, so to speak. I got to ask lots of dumb questions about DnD related stuff (i.e. the difference between DEX and Attack Bonus), and got lots of various answers, helping me understand it more.

Keeping in line with my other goals, Phil is revising some dialogue for me, and David has delivered a new set of dialogue for me as well. Jason has some time in his busy life, so I can send him some more stuff to edit. Although she doesn't know it, I am going to ask Amy if she can help me with some more poem like content. Pokstair seemingly flew through the ALPHA, and gave me some detailed info on a particular enemy that might have to have its special abilities toned down. I suspected as much, so I figured I would leave it in, and see what the actual players had to say. Heh, Bjarne is actually going to go through The Coming to have a fresh character for the ALPHA. I feel so bad for him, especially since he will have to sit through all of those cut-scenes again:(

Best of all however, was the fact that I got an e-mail from David saying he was having some issues with the revised dungeon I had been working on last month. You would think that it is a problem, but it is not, because since it is completely optional, I wanted it to be difficult. I just hope it isn't something too hard, that most people will end up hating...

Tomorrow morning, I will begin to work on the sequence I put on the shelf a month ago when my laptop broke. Now that I am using an even faster one, there should be no problems. For those wondering when I will be done, this next sequence (even though it will be quite long) will be the last one...Minus some polishing and side quests, in terms of the main plotline, this it...This is it folks...I can smell it...

Till tomorrow...

EDIT - Okay, apparently, the website came up sooner than I anticipated:)

I also had a very interesting morning, as I mentioned yesterday, I met my old boss and mentor for breakfast. It was great to be able to catch up and see what he was doing in life. As usual, he is just as busy, if not more than I am with his various projects and what not. Oh yeah, and he has a loving wife and 2 kids to take care of, so his plate is definitely bigger than mine, so to speak:)

On the train ride into work tomorrow, I will focus on some design work, mostly some new dialogues that need to be written, as well as a new side quest.

Till tomorrow...

This includes packaging up all of the new music files I have added since the last one, as well as the module file, and perhaps a hak or 2 (I cannot remember if I added anything new...). Once that stuff is packaged up, I will upload it to my online hard rive, and post a link at the official Cry The Beloved forums. I will feel very good once I can put this behind me, and move on. And move on, I must...

The first thing I will do is try to stir up some activity at the forums. I have been disconnected from everyone for the past month, as I have been feverishly trying to get as much done on the game as possible. I feel so horrible, so I think I need to spend at least half a day on that.

Having a new ALPHA will naturally get some more posts on the forums, as I assume people will find various bugs doing things I never even thought of. I also have a lot of questions to post as well, in our Brainstorming section. In fact, I will probably personally e-mail every single person who is a part of the team, to let them know I am alive and well (finally!). It's a weird thing to have people giving their own time to help me, so when I don't hear from them in a while, I totally understand. Hell, they aren't getting paid. Hopefully, all of them will have a little time on their hands to help out old Chally boy:)

Before I even get to that stuff tomorrow however, I will have to do other things. One thing that is very important to me is having breakfast with my mentor, and old boss, Ron Coleman . For those that don't know, he is the CTO of a company named Informeta , where I used to intern. In fact, that was my first experience as a software engineer in the commercial field. I will never forget my days at Informeta, or everything he has done for me. It will be great to sit with him and talk about everything that has happened since we last had breakfast (last October or so...). I am sure he will want me to go speak to his students at the local college where he teaches Game Design. As always, I will try to get out of it:) I am also curious as to how the company has been doing as well...I haven't heard much, and there wasn't much when I googled it, but I guess I will get the answers from the source in just a few hours. Speaking of which, it is getting late, so...

...Till tomorrow...

EDIT - I am anticipating a lot of e-mails tomorrow, so anyone who has been waiting, it's almost over!

However, as of late, I have been re-thinking how I feel about these comments. At first, it used to piss me off...A lot...Then, I just stopped caring about them...Now, I actually take it as a compliment. It should be no secret that I am a big fan of movies in general, but what most people don't really know is that I sort of had aspirations on becoming a movie director. Maybe not aspirations, but I definitely day dreamed about it a lot:)

Back to cut-scenes, in game movies, or whatever the hell people want to call it, I am still a big fan. Don't get me wrong, I have listened to what people say in terms of things that could be improved, and I have listened. I feel I know my target audience now, and I am not going to do something radically different, something I would have done if this were a console game. However, in my heart, I know once I start working on console RPG's, my creativity will be let loose. There are some key things that people aren't doing in console RPG's, besides perhaps Squaresoft. 

Any fan of Final Fantasy knows the dramatic change the franchise took when it released Final Fantasy 7 for the PS1. CGI movies were all the craze, and after the series ended up becoming the best selling one in the series, they ran with the whole CGI thing (in fact, most companies that made games for the PS1 early on jumped on the opening CGI movie bandwagon). However, things started to take a turn for the worse. Companies were more interested in creating pretty CGI and in game cut-scenes, and players were left looking for some actual game play. This really soured things, and now, besides for games like Metal Gear Solid, in game cut-scenes are getting a bad rep everywhere... I don't have the magazine with me right now, but Cliff Belinski, the lead designer of the Unreal Tournament series and the upcoming X-BOX 360 game, Gears Of War, has openly stated that he hates cut-scenes, and that he wants no part of them in his games. The developers of Half Life 2 took the same approach. You will notice that when you play, when people are talking to you, it is all in real time, so if you don't want to listen to them, you can walk away. Dramatic sequences occur in real time, so if you aren't at the right place at the right time, things can go sour very fast. The explanation is always the same...They don't want to take the player out of the action...

Well, I am a hard headed SOB, so I have a different perspective, which I stand by firmly. I think that if the cut-scene is directed to perfection (or as good as it gets), with the right story line, they can really get a reaction of the player that say, some normal text. I look at it like this. Video games are a visual medium, as are movies. I personally would rather watch a well directed cut-scene with full speech talk, then to read some dialog with someone describing to me what happens. Now, not everything has to be in a cut-scene (I know better now!), but if they are spread out accordingly, they can really serve their purpose. Plus, technology is getting better, so facial expressions are becoming more realistic, so with the right set of animators, whatever emotion you are trying to express to the end user is that much better.

And let's not forget about the game play, because I still believe it is more important than cut-scenes. My point is, the game play has to be there, AND it has to be great. I know it is hard to juggle all those things at once, so I in no way blame developers. I have enough stress in my life with game development, and I am doing it for free. I have no idea what it must feel like to have to know what you are making has to make money for someone...That said, I think if a player goes through 2 hours of real game play, the type of game play that is as good as it gets, they won't mind watching a 5 minute beautifully directed cut-scene, showing the aftermath of whatever the player was just going through.

Not sure if I ever explicitly mentioned this, but when I began designing Rose Of Eternity, I always imagined every scene as if it was in a movie. Not sure if this is the right approach to game design, but then, is there really one way to design an RPG? So, when it came to create certain sequences, it was already a no brainer that simple dialogs screen wouldn't do it justice. I don't know, maybe I am just dreaming again, and this isn't the future of console RPG's. But then again, I could be right. So, as everyone comes to the fork in the road and goes left or right, I will just continue to go straight...

Till tomorrow...

EDIT - I do realize that a lot of RPG's already have tons of movie like cut-scenes, but I haven't seen many that have the game play to back it up. Again, just my thoughts. Then again, this is MY blog:)

For instance, I know I have already stated this, but I know my rating won't be as high as my other module, for reasons that baffle me, reasons that I don't want to go into right now. However, I am lucky enough to not care as much for my rating. You see, the only reason I care was for visibility. Most people say, "Ratings mean nothing".

If they weren't trying to get a job in the game industry, that makes sense. However, for me, visibility is key. For instance, I probably wouldn't have ever gotten an e-mail from Brett Todd about including my module in the top 5 NWN modules, which was published in PC Gamer, if my module wasn't in the Top Rated list . My module would have never been on his radar, because let's face it... The professionals have stuff to do, and they aren't as deep in the community as everyone else, so that word of mouth stuff just doesn't fly. Just because 1000 people e-mail you saying they think your game is the best thing they ever played isn't good enough (not that I don't like that. In fact, I LOVE those e-mails, so please don't stop!). If they don't vote, getting you some visibility, it is all for naught.

Luckily, I have garnered enough attention to not have to worry about it anymore. One thing that is guaranteed is downloads. How many people like my module is not known however, because technically speaking, even though I have 12000+ downloads, only 178 people have voted. How do I know if people really liked my game. Maybe only 500 out of that 12000 did...It's hard to tell in the community, but I guess votes are like the Nielsen ratings (which I don't really agree with, but oh well). Or worse, those damn Presidential polls that only a small % of people actually partake in, which determine how much the entire country likes/dislikes said President. Okay, sorry for that little tangent:)

Going back a bit, I just want to touch on the release date of this module. I would be stabbing myself in the neck with a switch blade if I gave a hard date, so I won't. I do want to apologize however, because anyone who has been following the progress of this game must have noticed the way I have been silently pushing back the release date. On the downloads page, it used to say Winter 2005. I changed that to Winter 2006, and hoped no one would notice, or assume it was a typo:) Then, it changed to Spring 2006. In short, this thing is a lot bigger than I anticipated. Maybe not so much in length (although the length is 2 times bigger than The Coming ), but more so in the amount of custom content. And when I say custom content, I don't mean new cloak models, or horses, or something like that. I mean custom systems, essentially making this game vastly different from any NWN module. In fact, I really don't want to even refer to it as a NWN module anymore. I want to call it an RPG created using the Aurora Engine. Any reference to NWN will just screw up how the player will view the game. We'll see how long that lasts:) 

So, literally 10 months into production, and where am I, you ask? Well, after I make it through the last ALPHA release, I will begin the task of putting everything together. I still have to create the final sequences, which has to blow the player away. I have an assortment of sub-quests to finish up. Hell, I still have to find generic music for those that don't want to download the custom music (not really looking forward to that...). Then, there is the insane amount of polishing that has to be done. Luckily, I have been polishing a lot as I go (remember, I had 5 pages of stuff from the last play through), so it shouldn't be as bad as last time. I still have some more custom skills to create. I still have a lot of dialogue that need to be written by various writers, as well as a lot of stuff that has to be edited .I think the thing that makes me believe I can get all of this done relatively soon is the fact that none of it will be anything new that I haven't done before, besides the final sequences. I have already killed myself with innovative implementations earlier in the production, so that I could just focus on easy things the last few months of development. Well, there is one thing that will be innovative...One thing that I haven't done before. There is still a particular scene that has to be done...One particular scene that will define Cry The Beloved, much like the opening sequence in The Coming defined it. This one scene is definitely going to take me a week to do, but  I might be able to cut that time down if I do it when I take my 2 week vacation. I am actually looking forward to creating this scene, as well as reading what people  have to say about it. It's been a few years coming, but it's almost here. I can see it...It's the home stretch...Can I do it?

Till tomorrow...