So, on the train ride home, I sat and listened to the music that is going to play in the next cut-scene for about an hour.  I often do this as a way of sketching out in my head how I want a scene to play out.  I even went so far as into go into the area (in game) the cut-scene takes place in, and just run around, changing the camera angle, to see the best way that I can present it.  I don't always do this, but sometimes, it really helps...

When I got home, I began laying out the foundation of the cut-scene, including waypoints, and the majority of the scripting.  I also changed the part of the area where the cut-scene will take place.

Till tomorrow...

That said, I uploaded a new version of the ALPHA and sent the links to 2 gentleman that were not in on the 1st round of testing.  For everyone else who initially tested, I will be writing up a lengthy ReadMe which will just describe all of the fixed issues, as well as some other useful tidbits.

I also have to finish up an interview for community member Steve Savicki.  I have been putting it off for a while, but I just have to buckle down and finish it.

Till tomorrow...I can FINALLY start on those lovely cut-scenes and other story elements.

While not attempting to get a tissue, I was yet again going through the module, and trying like hell to break it.  Fortunately, I broke it once, and it was a very quick fix.  I am getting closer...Unfortunately, because of my condition, I had to eventually shut down the laptop and get some sleep, if only for 20 minutes before arriving at Grand Central Station.

On the ride home, I was so exhausted from the day, that I simply passed the hell out:)  I did wake up about 20 minutes before my stop, so I took that time to start converting some new MP3's to BMU's.  These are 2 new tracks that I will be using exclusively in the cut-scenes I really wanted to start on today.  

After eating dinner, I sat down and began to sift through the countless e-mails I couldn't answer today at work (wow, couldn't answer personal e-mails at work.  What a concept:) ).  Most were just replies to many of the testers confirming that I will have a new ALPHA tomorrow if my play through works out tomorrow...

I did however receive a surprising e-mail from our new artist, Olaia Ferrando.  Pictured to the left is the beginning of some concept art for Clopon.  Even though this is very preliminary, I am very excited about where it will be going.

In fact, I am thinking that I might end up adding a new page to this website.  Something like Concept Art or something, where I can put all of Olaia's work.  It isn't high priority, but it will be easy to do, so perhaps I can even fit it in on a lunch break...

So tomorrow, I really hope I can put the 1st phase of the ALPHA behind me and move on to bigger and better things.  Again, a big thank you to all who helped with the ALPHA:)

Till tomorrow...

So, for whatever reason, I decided to start doing stupid things.  Stupid things that might break the module.  Guess what?  It broke...Countless times...So, I literally spent the entire day breaking the module, fixing the bug that broke the module, rinse, repeat. In a weird way, it felt good to be getting rid of these types of bugs.  Again, I couldn't have done it without the testers. 

The main thing about this module is that you are not exactly told where to go, and when.  I mean, you have a general idea, but getting there is up to you.  Because of said freedom, more checks have to be in place, like for example...Say Challseus & Clopon are in your party.  Now, lets say that for plot reasons, they cannot enter a certain part of a town.  I of course have to set up a check when the party tries to transition into that particular part of town.  

However, there might be only a certain time in the module when they can't enter this particular place, so that check has to go in as well.  Then, what happens if they are not in the party when Aramus tries to go into this part of town.  Now, by itself, the logic is not that difficult.  But, it is so small a detail that it can get lost among the more complicated scripts I write, such as the Unison Ability system.  At any rate, I believe I have fixed all of those bugs, and I will take the module through another run through on the train ride into work tomorrow.

Till tomorrow...

So what did I accomplish?  Who the hell knows...I didn't actually implement that many new things today, but I did fix many, if not all of the reported bugs from the ongoing ALPHA.   I have just to publicly say again that all of the testers did a wonderful job.  In fact (I don't have the rights to use the person's name), one gentleman AND his little boy helped find many bugs.  His kid!  Now that's dedication.  Hmm, perhaps I need to have some kids so they can test my modules:)

I plan on taking a run through the module, and trying like hell to break it.  Essentially, I will do everything the testers did, and make sure everything is fixed...

Once that is done, I will upload the new version of the ALPHA.  Then, anyone is free to download it, although I won't be aggressively fixing bugs as I was the past week.  Well, unless someone finds any more major ones *knocks on wood*.  I have other plans for tomorrow as a matter of fact...

I will begin work on a new cut-scene, and I hope to at least figure out all of the shots that I want.  I already have the music picked out, so that is not problem.  In fact, there are 2 cut-scenes I want to finish.  Once I do that, I will begin polishing things up again for another round of ALPHA testing.  Now for my thoughts on Neverwinter Nights 2 .

Anyhow who read my update from yesterday may have remembered me saying something along the lines of the fact that I might create an entirely new campaign for it.  Long story short, my reasoning is this:  I want mass appeal.  I just won't get that forcing people to use a pre-generated character.  Let look at the facts...

In about 4 1/2 months, The Coming has about 6200 downloads, with 119 votes.  Not a bad situation to be at all.  Me being the perfectionist I am, I am always wondering what the number would be like had I allowed people to bring their own characters into the game...It boggles the mind.  And to reiterate (I really shouldn't have to say this anymore), I am not selling out or anything like that.  I want mass appeal so that I have a better chance of being discovered, point blank.  Trust me, if I have my own development studio, I would be making Rose Of Eternity the way I have always envisioned it.  Unfortunately, I have to do what I have to do in the mean time to get to that point.

I already have a few ideas in my head, such as different starting cities, depending on your race/class.  I would definitely keep my style of game play alive, along with the presentation, but the player would have more freedom.  Again, all of this is preliminary stuff still in my head, and who knows, maybe Cry The Beloved will be more successful than The Coming.  Then perhaps Chapter 3 will see the light of day.  Or maybe I am just rambling because I had a very stressful Thanksgiving break...Let see how I feel in a few days:)

Till tomorrow...

So, this shouldn't really come as a surprise to me, but getting a playable version of the game out to folks early was a very smart move.  All of the testers did things I NEVER would have done during my own play testing.  I was lucky in that I was able to fix all of the bugs that the testers found.  Interestingly enough, a lot of the bug reports were very similar.  So, if I fixed all of the bugs for one tester, I essentially fixed all of the bugs from another one:)

After adding another 2 conversations that Amy Laurin created, I will upload the newest version of the ALPHA for those that still want to test it.  I also did a lot of thinking today, but not about the ALPHA.

I sat for a long time and pondered the future of Cry The Beloved.  I have no doubt that it will surpass The Coming in every aspect, but for some reason, I am getting a feeling that it won't be as well received...Why, I don't know...I am very pessimistic, yet this feeling has been with me for a while.  

One reason is because I just plain don't understand the community as much as I wish I could.  First off, I am very much a quality over quantity person.  One quibble people had with The Coming was its length.  It took me around 15 months to create a game that last roughly 8-10 hours between both the Aramus & Challseus quests.  Damn, why do I have to be different?

More specifically, the reason it took me so long was essentially because of all the custom systems I created.  Just for clarity, there are:

• Last Resort System
• Unison Ability System
• Custom Death System for Party Members
• Tons of High Quality Cut-scenes
• Many Custom Scripted Items/Abilities (i.e. Illumination)
• Custom Favor System
• Item Upgrade System
• TONS OF DOCUMENTATION (i.e. The very page you are reading now, duh:) )

Now, if I spent 15 months working on a module without adding anything like the above, then I probably could have created a module that was 30+ hours:)  Hell, people might have liked it too:)  I mean, don't get me wrong, my module has been well received, a lot more than I anticipated.  I had done my research well before releasing The Coming, and I knew that if I got 1000 downloads, or at least 10 votes, I would be in good shape...

However, there are SO MANY little things that I did in The Coming that no one ever mentions.  One such thing is the creation of the Fleetness Tonics, which after a certain amount of time, actually drain some life from you, making the player use strategy when drinking one.  Another is the Amulet Of Healing Aura & Amulet Of Fire, which Lenin & Lenina get in the Challseus quest.  Whenever in combat, anyone within 5 meters will either be healed, or take fire damage, accordingly.  Finally, there are so many custom special effects in the game, such as the mirrored goblin images when they perform Flurry Attack, when Kain uses his spell to kill the mayor, and especially the one when Aramus & Clopon perform Whirlwind Heal.  There are many more examples of these little additions that made the development time a lot longer than even I anticipated.

My point is, these are just the little things that I added to make the game that much better, quality wise.  Now, since no one has ever commented on them, how do I know if anyone even noticed, or cares?  Perhaps I could have spent more time on advancing the plot.  In general, my take on the community is this.  They want a well written module, with good RP aspects (whatever the hell that means...), and choices...Lots of choices...Oh, and they want a long game:)

They don't seem to care if the music in a cut-scene corresponds exactly to what is going (i.e. rising dramatically during high tension areas), or if there are custom visual effects, or if elegant console style game design patterns are used (i.e. Illumination both scaring off wolves/shadows, as well stunning others...).  Okay, I know some care, as I have tons of votes...But, what if I took all of those things away, and made the module longer?  Would people still care?  My point is, since I don't get many comments anymore these days, I have to assume that the people who did like the module saw all of these little implicit additions, and liked them.

That said, I still won't compromise my stance on quality over quantity.  That is how I have always been, and I don't see myself changing anytime soon.  Also, since I came out the gate with the quality of The Coming, I can't just leave out all of those special things (I hope people think they are special) just to make Cry The Beloved longer...However, in order to ensure Cry The Beloved is better than The Coming, I HAVE to make it longer...This is where all of my stress has been coming from these past couple of months...It is going to be a tough couple of months, but I believe I will get through it.  The question is, will all of my work be in vein...

TOMORROW'S TOPIC:  My thoughts on NWN2, and how I might create a new campaign.  Yes, that is right, a new campaign...As a little tidbit, my reasoning's are this...I want to be able to have mass-appeal modules, so that I may be noticed by the game industry.  Right now, Rose Of Eternity forces the player to use a pre-determined character.  Now, in this hypothetical new campaign, I would go back to the basics, and allow the player to bring in any character/race/alignment they want.  I thought I had it bad enough creating custom abilities for Aramus.  I don't even want to think about doing it for over 10 classes...There goes that quality thing again:)

I did however read through a lot of e-mails from the ALPHA testers.  All I know is that I will definitely be spending all of tomorrow looking at the issues the testers told me about...

Till tomorrow...

But boy oh boy, work was very interesting today...I come in, and right off the bat, I am being moved from one room to another one.  Management thinks that things will be better if people who are part of a team sit in the same room.  On the outside, it does seem like a good idea, except the fact that I feel as if I worked better with the current people I was sitting with.  Oh well, it isn't my place to argue...

Right after that, the Director of my team pulls me inside of a small room, and tells me that she just put her 2 weeks notice in.  Sigh...So, out of 12-13 people from my original company, only 3 are left, and I know that 2 more won't be sticking around much longer.

I really don't know what to make of this situation.  It looks like I am going to be the only person left who knows a little bit about the system architecture that has been in place for the past 5 years.  And when I say a little, I really mean a little.  Simply put, the system is big, but there was never a problem before, because everyone that was working there had been there for at least 4 years.  I just came up on my 1st year...

So, in short, I don't know what is going to happen with my current team, but it doesn't look good.  Things have gone from bad to worse in about the stretch of a month.  Oh well, what can I do.  I really hope I can get into the Video Game industry soon...

Till tomorrow...

Luckily, I was able to fix this on the train ride home this evening.  I purposely did not do much work when I got home, as I really need to go to sleep early, so I can get up early, so I can get to work early, because I have a lot of stuff to finish before going on Thanksgiving vacation.  Damn real world priorities...

I'm not worried that I missed a day however, because I will have all night tomorrow, as well as during the day on Thursday/Friday.

Till tomorrow...

So, after all of that hard work in getting the ALPHA ready, I decided I deserved a little break.  So, I slept on the train ride this morning, as well as on the way back.

Upon getting home, I had some preliminary feedback from one of the testers.  Just simple stuff really, like text going to fast during cut-scenes, and some typos.  I plan on letting them build up a bit, and then knocking them out early in the morning on Thanksgiving, before I start going to various places to eat.

I also began to fix something that totally slipped my mind.  Once you got into this particular dungeon, there was no way to get out:)  There are some minor issues to iron out, but I will take care of that tomorrow morning, as I plan to get some work done since I will be going to sleep quite early.

This week also has the potential to be bug, as I am beginning work on 2 key cut-scenes that are very dramatic and which will definitely pull the player into the story even more.  Again, these are cut-scenes that I have had in my head for a year or so, so to actually get it done is a big thing to me.  Also, anyone thinking, "Damn Challseus, another big cut-scene?  I hope it isn't long, and if so, I better be able to skip it".  Well, the cut-scene skipping functionality is looking better...And that is all I will say about that:)

Finally, even though I just had a vacation, I still have 14 days of vacation time left:)  I honestly can't wait, because I got so much done last week, and I can only imagine what I can get done with another 14 days of hassle free development.  will post later when it is determined when I will go.

Till tomorrow...

I am very critical of my work, and I am always very scared of others and what they think of my work.  I can remember 9-10 months ago when I began the internal BETA with the Order Of Honorable Module Testers.  After all of my worrying however, the testimonies from those in the guild was very positive.  I'm not even going to go into my sleepless night, the night I released The Coming.  

So what exactly are the testers going to get you ask?  Well, first off, they will get to see how the story unfolds upon Aramus, Clopon, & Challseus entering Dematol.  Thought they will not know the entire scope of the story, a huge plot thread will begin towards the end of the ALPHA.

Another thing they will see is many of the new custom systems of the game.  I obviously am not going to go into detail here (I have to keep some secrets you know...), but I am very confident with what myself and community member ShrikeKnight came up with.  Speaking of which, ShrikeKnight hasn't see any of these new systems in action yet, so I really can't wait for his feedback...

Also, there are currently 13 new custom tracks so far.  This will definitely be expanded as the module continues to grow, but the magnificent thing about it is, since using my new compression methods, the combined file size is only 11 MB or so!  Very nice indeed...

Essentially, the tester will get a sampling of everything from exploring a little bit of Dematol, to trying out some of the new custom systems, to hearing some wonderful new music, to seeing the 1st couple of floors of a new dungeon.  In fact, this ALPHA could be called a DEMO, but since I have been calling it an ALPHA, I will try to stay consistent.

I plan on resting tomorrow...And I definitely deserve it.  I busted my butt all week, and I actually met a deadline.  I don't want to get burned out again, so I plan on sleeping on the train tomorrow, both from and to work.  Perhaps I will work on something tomorrow night when I get home.

Till tomorrow...

I once again ran through the game, compiling a page and a half of issues in the process.  I easily knocked them out early in the afternoon.  I have to admit that some of these issues were not major, and most people wouldn't have noticed, but I am quite anal about certain things, so I just took care of them when I found them.  Nothing wrong with striving for perfection, right? :)

It is really hard to pinpoint what I did today, as the majority of it was polishing, and I can't give away too much of the story...

I am also curious as to how big the current file will be.  Since I came up with the new way of compressing music files, it should be a lot smaller than I had an anticipated a few months ago, but I will just have to wait and see...

Till tomorrow...

The main goal was to have a playable version of the module from start to finish (the amount of the game that is done so far that is...), with an average amount of polish.  I achieved that goal, and then some.  It was lucky that I was feeling motivated all week, or I think I might have fallen behind on plans.

My second goal was to get back into the swing of things in terms of dealing with the various writers.  Well, I couldn't be happier.  As I mentioned earlier this week, Amy Laurin sent me not one, but 2 new conversations to add to the game.  She has been the go to person for the dialog for most of the NPC's in the game.  She has a great feel for adding roleplaying options, and I definitely couldn't have gotten this far without her.

If that wasn't enough, another writer, Daniel Swingle, who I hadn't talked to in a while just delivered me a fresh new conversation as well.  He deals more with the main character conversations, and I must say, he has definitely been able to expand on that tension between Aramus & Clopon.  It feels good to have others be able to take personalities I developed over 6 years ago, and expand on them.

Now, with everything that occurred, I really couldn't have asked for anything else.  Then, along comes Olaia Ferrando, who magnificently creates the official logo for The Rose Of Eternity.  Things are really starting to fall in place, and my excitement level is sky high.  I can't wait to see what type of character art Olaia comes up with.  I would love to see how Olaia depicts Aramus...

So today, I took another run through the module.  Unfortunately, about half way through, I ran into a show stopping bug (very small issue I fixed right away), but I had more than enough issues to deal with.  After I fixed said issues, I took another run through.  This time went perfect, and the only issues I have written down are ideas for better placeable placement, sound effect placement, etc.

Tomorrow, I will spend half the day polishing up some more stuff, and then I want to start putting together the ALPHA package, including the ReadMe, and the list of people who signed up.  Speaking of which, if you would like to take part in this internal ALPHA , drop me a line at either gamecoder@optonline.net or bedner@vindigo.com

Hopefully, after a week or so, all the ALPHA testers will start bombarding me with e-mails.  Although I hope they find little bugs doing things I would never do, I am more interested in other things, such as how they liked the new custom systems, or how difficult they found the game.  In fact, there are so many new things about Cry The Beloved that I can't talk about, things that I can't wait for people to try out.  I have high hopes for things...

Till tomorrow...

Yes folks, someone named Olaia Ferrando was nice enough to start working on an official logo for me.  Now, I am not an art critic, but I know what I like, and this, I likes:)

So, going from top to bottom, the 1st is an idea for a more generic logo.  The 2nd one would be used for The Coming, and the last one would be used for Cry The Beloved.  

The process was very easy.  Essentially, I told Olaia the general idea of what I wanted, and after a few back and forths, I got these sent to me in an e-mail.  A very nice way for me to wake up, I must say:)

I just have to say, that I am so astounded by the creativity and niceness of people from the community.  Especially when they are not getting paid.  This sort of stuff just never ceases to amaze me, and I hope it continues.

I just want to use this time to give a big THANK YOU to everyone who has been contributing to the development of Cry The Beloved.  I never, never, EVER thought that I would get so many volunteers, and I especially didn't think that I would end up becoming an ad-hoc project manager:)  At least I have been responding to e-mails the same day now:)

Besides getting these nice concepts for official logos, I accomplished a lot more polishing as well...

First and foremost, I was on a placeable kick today.  What that means is, I was taking areas I threw together months ago, and began add many placeables and such to flesh them out.  I have to say, taking 2 hours out of my day to add placeables really makes the areas look that much better.  I mean, when I was testing a month ago, I used to always think to myself "Wow, these areas just seem to be lacking something."  Well, after this afternoon, I am now saying "Wow, I can't wait until people play this game!".  It really is like the difference between night and day...

I also did some minor work to the interfaces of the party members.  Since there will be many new abilities for them in this game, I figured I would mark these as a different color.  For example, in The Coming, when you talked to Clopon, you would get different choices of what to do, such as setting Last Resorts, and casting spells.  Now, any new ability that is under this same menu will be marked a different color, with an ! in front of it.  This will make it easy for people to see what is new.  Of course, after you select it, it will default to the same color as all the other abilities.  Again, not a major thing to do, but it is the little touches that make game special....In my opinion anyways...

All in all, this was a very productive day.  I wasn't bothered by any outside distractions, and I stayed away from the History Channel, mostly because nothing interesting was on:)

Till tomorrow...

First off, I didn't even go to sleep until 5:00 am this morning.  The plan was to get up at 12:00 pm, and get right into development.  Then, the unimaginable happened.  I received a call from one of my best friends at 8:30 am telling me I had to pick them up and go somewhere with them (won't get into personal details right now).  Long story short, I didn't even get home until 2:00 pm.  Now, bear in mind I only had 3 hours of sleep under my belt.  

After taking a shower and eating, I began to start working around 4:00 pm.  Then, I got the same feeling I get when I am on the train coming home from work.  Dead tiredness!!! :)

Tomorrow, I will most likely focus on adding some more placeables and such to some areas I created a couple of months ago.  As of now, these areas are very boring, and they don't even have any sound effects yet...Hopefully, I can develop tomorrow distraction free...

Till tomorrow...

Things seem to be moving at a brisk pace.  There were many things that I wanted to do in Dematol a while back, but I honestly didn't even want to think about the damn town anymore at the time.  Now that I have my mojo back, I was able to knock out  A LOT of those small issues.  It felt really good to give Dematol the treatment it deserves.  It is finally starting to look like how I pictured it so many long years ago...

Another big part of my day was brainstorming with my co-conspirator, Brian Rhodes.  As Always, I presented him an idea, and he made it better.  In the case of what I proposed to him last night, he REALLY made it better.  I simply love how he does that:)

Tomorrow, I will forge ahead with adding more content to Dematol, and I might be able to start on a new cut-scene towards the end of the day...Maybe...  I have a birthday party to go to later in the day, but that shouldn't take up too much of my time.  Damn people being born on the same day that I would rather be developing:)

Till tomorrow...

As I imagined, I turned to the History Channel many times, but I was lucky that there was nothing interesting on today.  In fact, the only thing I really watched was a special on Super Mario Bros. on the show Icons, on G4 Tech TV.

As far as development went, just more boring polish.  I did also create another one of my patented intro cut-scenes for a new area.  I have create so many cut-scenes, that I feel like I could create them in my sleep:)

 I also created the NPC that will get 1 of the conversations that Amy Laurin is creating for me.

Till tomorrow...

Besides that little incident, the rest of the day went fine.  I continued to knock out bugs and issues, and continuing the overall process of polishing up the module.

I also did something that I haven't done in about a month or so...I actually sent over some new personalities to Amy Laurin, who is one of the writers.  The best part is the fact that since she has been writing for me since the very beginning, she knows the general story just as much as I do.  What this means is she can have more autonomy when creating the dialogs for the various NPC's in the game.  Since I don't like to micro manage people, that is a godsend for me.  

Till tomorrow...

When I got home, I could barely feel any part of my body, as I haven't had this type of exercise since High School.  Man, only 25 years old, and I am already feeling like an old man:)

It was also a pleasant way to spend a Saturday, as I would usually be working on Cry The Beloved for 7-9 hours or so...

Till tomorrow...

For some reason, I felt very energized after talking to this friend.  I mean, we didn't even speak about Rose Of Eternity at all, but I left with a new found feeling of motivation.  So, I am not one to argue with something like that, so I just went with it.  I'm still not to the point of having extreme fun when developing, but it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was yesterday...

I knocked A LOT of bugs/issues today on both rides to/from work.  Usually, I would start to get sleepy and nod off to sleep, but I actually help my own ground today, which I am very proud of.

In fact, I almost see the upcoming week of development as 75% design, and 25% implementation.  I plan on having many back and forths with the writers ( I MEAN IT THIS TIME... ), and in general, polishing the hell out of Cry The Beloved.  

Hopefully, this new found energy will bleed over into next week.

Till tomorrow...

In all seriousness though, I am burnt out.  Does this mean I am going to stop working on Cry The Beloved?  Of course not!  It just means that at this point in the development, it is more of a 2nd job than something I look forward to after my 1st job.  

Fear not though, because with a year and a half development time experience, I know that these things happen.  For instance...

...I went through a similar thing when creating The Coming.  Back in December 2004, I started working on the Challseus quest.  About half way through, I just lost all will to continue... 

In fact, I actually stopped development for a couple of weeks.  I was having too much fun playing World Of Warcraft and other games.  I think that when I got my laptop, I started getting back into the swing of things.  After about  3 weeks, I regained my confidence, and moved on.

So in short, I have history on my side.  I have been through this before, so I know it won't last forever.  That most annoying thing however is the fact that I go on vacation all next week.  Now, I know all of you level-headed people out there are thinking that having a week off of work would be the best thing for someone who is burnt out.  Perhaps it is, but in my mind, I really want to use all of this time for development. 

Till tomorrow...

P.S.  In case some did not get the point of this post, I did not accomplish much if anything today:)

Now that I know it is stable, I can start going into polish mode.  It won't be a complete polish, but it will be good enough for the ALPHA testers.

As I stated earlier, since I have all of next week off, I should be able to just focus on the polishing effort.  Of course, I will have to learn how to NOT watch the History Channel while at home...It will be tough, but I must stay focused...

Till tomorrow...

So today, I dealt with some initialization problems.  I thought I had it finished up last night, but apparantly I am not a good programmer when I am dead tired:)

Due to the fact that I was so damn tired, I decided to go to bed early.  So in short, not much was done today...

So today was pretty slow...I finished a lot of the minor issues of my initialization work, and began to work on a short 15 second intro cut-scene that runs before you start a conversation with a main character.  Even though the cut-scene is only 15 seconds, it is shot in a way that makes it a bit more difficult than normal.  Hopefully, I can get to bed early tonight, so I can finish more on the train tomorrow...

Till tomorrow...

So, nothing magical really happened today.  I continued with my initialization work, as expected.  There is now a DM like area where certain checks will be made on the incoming character.  The main one will be have they completed The Coming.  That is easy to check, as I use the NWN Database to carry variables over from The Coming to Cry The Beloved.  

I am also now successfully handling the issue I talked about yesterday concerning the Gem Of Law & Gem Of Chaos.  I am quite pleased with the result, as it literally came to me while watching my beloved NY Giant beat the San Francisco 49ers.

It doesn't just stop with that however.  There are also many local variables that are set on all party members.  Instead of having to go through each blueprint and set static values, I set all of these variables upon initialization, which again, is more efficient.

Going back to the DM area, I just have some placeholder text for the DM for the moment, but I will be contacting one of the writers to clean it up.  I came up with a very clever way the DM should talk to the player.  Well, at least I think it is clever...Tomorrow, I will be cleaning up the small issues, and moving on to something else, though I am not sure what....  Also, I am taking my 1st week off from work in one week.  Hopefully, I can get the ALPHA out by the end of that week...

Till tomorrow...

With that out of the way, I moved on to some initialization work.  By that, I mean, how to handle the beginning of Cry The Beloved.  More specifically, what should happen if the user starts the game with an exported level 5 Aramus?  Well for one, I have to make sure I generate a level 5 Clopon to compliment them.  What if they are level 2?  Well, to make balancing easier, I will raise them to level 3.  This is just a small example of it.

Till tomorrow...

Anyhow, as a test, I converted all of the music files from The Coming, and the results were astounding, to say the least.  Originally clocking in at 37.3 MB.  After the conversion, it dropped to 21.18 MB!  Why I waited so long to do this, I don't know, but I am glad I finally got it to work.

The next thing to do was listen to all of the tracks to make sure the quality wasn't horrible.  So, while working today, I simply went through all of the songs, and labeled the ones that wouldn't be good enough at the current bit rate.

This will also be good, as I am beginning to package up the ALPHA for the testers...I didn't want anyone downloading 40 MB worth of files just to test this damn thing:)

Till tomorrow...

So I reached one goal today.  I actually developed the entire time on the train ride this morning.  Usually, I work for about the 1st 45-60 minutes, and then I sleep the next 30-45 minutes.  Today, I was so focused, that I fought off the sleep that was trying to take over my body.  Although I will most likely pay for it later tonight:)

Anyways, I actually did some non-dungeon related work this morning.  As I had previously stated, I had accumulated a very large list of bugs/issues over the past month.  I was not looking forward to dealing with them, but I just jumped in head first.

With that little situation out of the way, I began to clear many more.  I made a lot of headway, and I think that the entire game (well, everything that has been built) can be played from beginning to end without any show stopping issues.  I'm so close to the ALPHA that I can smell it:)

One more thing.  I am attempting to find out how much it would cost to actually license the Aurora Engine to make commercial games, sort of how the company that is making The Witcher did.  I have some ideas that I will explain later if the cost isn't that much.  When I say not that much, I mean not more than a bank would loan me...

Till tomorrow...

On a more serious note, what does Hall Of Fame status really mean?  Well, this is obviously different for many people.  Hall Of Fame inductee Bruce Nielson, known for his The Light Reborn module series was my sort of my unofficial mentor when I 1st released this module.  Being my 1st module I had ever released, I had many questions for him, such as what are typical download rates, how do I deal with people who vote low for no reason, etc.  He left me with these words (more or less):  "I couldn't wait for Hall Of Fame status.  After I received it, I then realized it meant nothing...".  Now, that might be true sometime down the road, but for me, I have a different perspective...

Obviously, making RPG's is what I want to do for the rest of my life (do I really need to keep making this statement?).  This is not some hobby or fad project that I do when I have the time.  I eat, sleep, and breathe The Rose Of Eternity...

Why am I blabbing on about all of this you ask?  Because, for the past 6 years, I knew what I wanted to do.  However, I didn't know if I was good at it.   Getting Hall Of Fame truly cements the fact that I DO in fact have the potential to make a great game, given the right resources.  I mean, I was truly a stranger in this world you people call DnD.  I have to admit that I didn't know what Roleplaying was.  I didn't know people really got engrossed in the characters that they play.  I love RPG's as much as the next person, but I never got that deep.  As long as it had a great story, a intuitive and deep combat system, and great music, I was sold.  In fact, I don't think I will ever truly understand what Roleplaying is.  That was just the tip of the iceberg.  I was truly in a whole new world.

So the fact that I went in and created something totally different, and succeeded, gives me great pride.  Some of my co-workers call it big-headedness, but if they were finally seeing the fruits of their 6 years of labor, they would feel the same as I do.  However, this is just the beginning.  This is just another small step towards reaching my ultimate goal: Creating the best RPG in the world.  I truly wish I could talk about it, but The Coming is such a small fraction of the plans I have for The Rose Of Eternity.  For instance, the 1st chapter that I always planned for the Rose Of Eternity (when I had the delusion of grandeur of creating it for the Gamecube ) would have lasted roughly 8 times as long as The Coming.  I get many e-mails from people asking how many chapters I will release until I finish the story, and I always tell them that I don't think I would be alive that long if I had to continue to make them as NWN modules by myself:)  It is definitely something that would have to be built from the ground up, and not a simple module using the NWN toolset.

So where do I go from here?  Well obviously, Cry The Beloved is currently under development.  The fact that I have Hall Of Fame status might possibly look good to possible employers when they read my resume.  Perhaps Bioware will take notice of me *cough*cough*cough*... I am already making plans for Neverwinter Nights 2 in case I haven't gotten a job in the industry by that time...  I am also looking to possibly move out to California, since everything video game related seems to be out there.  All we have in Manhattan are banks and other finance related companies:(  I also have done 1 more thing to get closer to my goal..

Anyone remember the stretch of time where I was totally focused on updating The Coming?  I spent about 10 days total in September doing this.  Well, besides giving The Coming the face lift it needed, I was also preparing to enter my module into the IGF Modding Competition.

In a nutshell, getting to the finals of it could be the boost I need to.  Some community members have speculated that it was a scam to just get people's money, and that it wasn't worth it.  Again, I see it from another perspective.  If I am lucky enough to make it to the finals, I will have the chance to demo The Coming in front of some very important people.  There is a $2500 prize for winning, but when it comes down it, that isn't a lot of money...Who cares...I would gladly split up the money amongst the people who created the custom content I used, such as the CEP and such.  I don't care about the money...I want the EXPOSURE .  I would gladly pay $500 of MY OWN money to be able to go to the conference and have the chance to meet some important people.  Some may say that the chances are low, but I will never know if I don't try.  You have to take chances in life, and the way I look at it, the risk is low, and the reward is high, so I am going for it.

So, do I think I will reach the finals?  Yes, and no...What I mean is, it all depends on the judges.  This is going to come out the wrong, but I don't know how else to say it.  When some people play NWN modules, they are only looking at it as being a DnD RPG.  The word on the street is that some of the judges will be from the NWN community.  So, if I get judges who are judging The Rose Of Eternity as being a good RPG, I think I have the potential to make it to the finals.  One of the things they are looking for is innovations, and this module is full of them.  I want them to look at my game is say "Damn, he did all of that with the Aurora Toolset.  Who the hell cares if his grammar is horrible, and the cut-scenes were long.  Just imagine what he could do if he was working with an entire professional team, and had better resources."  However, if I get the judges who are looking for the best DnD RPG, I might be screwed.  This is in no way a slight to those particular judges, but it is just one of my concerns.  I guess I will have to wait and see what happens...

In conclusion, I really want to thank everyone who has supported myself and my efforts.  From the creators of the custom content used in my module, to the people who download and vote on my module, to the ones who send me e-mails talking about how much fun you had with The Coming, thank you.  It is a very old and bad cliché, but I really couldn't have done it without you guys.  It is the community itself that keeps myself motivated.  Hopefully, I can write another update like this in the near future after Cry The Beloved is released:)

Till tomorrow...

P.S.  And yes, I did work on Cry The Beloved today, but I feel that I have written enough for 1 day:)

Seriously though, I am a perfectionist, so it is okay.  So what did I accomplish?  Well, a lot more than work on the dungeon.  I make significant updates to the Last Resort system, I added 3 new custom systems, and I expanded the current Summoning System.  Hell, I REWROTE the entire Summoning System:)  So, I can't say I did nothing but work on the dungeon.

So what are my plans for this month?  Simple, get a playable ALPHA released.  More specifically, I need to do the following...

Next up is getting back in touch with my writers.  Since I was focused on creating new systems as well as the dungeon, I haven't done anything related to Dematol for the past month.  That said, when I stopped development on it, I knew I would have to come back to it eventually.  Well, it is almost about that time.  In fact, once I succeed in getting an ALPHA to those who have been patiently waiting, I really want to begin to focus on the dialog again.  I just hope my writers haven't gone anywhere:)  Also, to streamline things, I am thinking about putting up a password protected page on this very website that only developers of Cry The Beloved can go to.  This page will have everything related to Cry The Beloved on it, including the current story, all of the dialogues that have been written, as well as bio's on all important characters.  I believe that by doing this, it will be easier for the writers to create dialogue without having so much input from me.  For instance, if someone was writing some dialogue for Clopon, they could go to this page, look at her bio, and also see everything that she will go through in Cry The Beloved.   Anyways, not sure if this will happen, as I am busy enough as it is, but it is definitely something I am interested in. 

Okay, back to what I accomplished today...Well, not much with the game.  I knocked out a few bugs this morning on the train ride into work.  When I got home, I focused on getting back in tough with the writers, to see where everything stands.  And of course, I wrote this daily update:)

Till tomorrow...