So, as you all know, I commute from my hometown to Manhattan everyday. Thankfully, I have a manager who remembers what it was like to be human and a grunt, that lets me stay home from work one day a week. It also helps that I actually take care of my business without question. In fact, I am sort of in a cushy position right now...

At this point, I am the most senior developer on my team, in terms of my knowledge of our codebase and system. Any questions are always filtered to me at some point. This gives me the ability to really dictate what I do at the company. Let's face... They need me... I know it, they know it... Which is probably the reason why I can work from home.

It's funny, because in their eyes, I'm like Superman. Every other day, I have to explain to some random person about how I commute 4 hours a day, blah blah blah. "How do you do it? I could never do that..." I have heard that more times than I can remember. Anyway, it allows me to gain the respect of everyone at the office. Interestingly enough, I'm just a statistic when it comes to commuting... Hell, it's not like I invented it:) Anyway, I am obviously going to use my "power" at the office to remain comfortable as possible for the longest amount of time.

Anyway, I was working like a madman today. Of course, there were a ton of new bugs out of nowhere, although, with one fix, I was able to close like 4 of them. I love those types of bugs (dupes). I have to admit, my workday was a bit weird though. I didn't actually start working until 2:00 pm, though I didn't finish until about 11:00 pm, with breaks scattered throughout. That's the great thing about working from home!

Till tomorrow...

You know, it's funny... Everytime my co-worker and I have 10 or less bugs, our QA department immediately finds 10 more... Everytime... Even funnier, it always happens on the day of our bug meetings. Most are nitpicking bugs, things that even the Product manager doesn't think are anything we need to be spending our time on.

Lately, I have been talking with some people, and they have informed me that it is just the classic example of someone trying to show their worth. For instance, my job is to deliver products on time. I show my worth by accomplishing this task.

Now, the Product manager shows their worth by making sure everything is organized, writing specs, etc., and when the product is delivered on time, their worth is shown as well, as upper management gives them more credit than the developers...

Now, with QA, apparantly, they show their worth by finding bugs... Makes sense... Except, when there really aren't bugs to find, and they just find little ones to show that they are doing something, that they are doing their job. I have been talking to many people who say it is a common thing for them to make it look like they are doing a bunch of stuff, when in reality, they are not.

Now, this obviously doesn't only happen with QA, but I am bringing it up, because they have been breaking our balls for the past 3 weeks. At the time of this update, I have 4 bugs left, though 2 of them are really bugs, and my co-worker has 3 left. I bet we'll have 20 tomorrow:) And, I bet I will close all 20 is invalid:)

Till tomorrow...

So, while on the train these past few days, I have been quite bored:) I got so used to working on the game for the past 30 months, that I forgot what it was like to just sit on the train, and listen to music. Well, the way home, I am usually able to fall asleep quite fast, but on the way there, I am always wide awake.

I decided to use this opportunity to play through the entire Rose of Eternity series, just for the hell of it. It's been a very long time since I played The Coming, and I feel it's always good to do this every once in a while, so I can remember the things that made the game special, and the things that made it horrible.

I gotta tell you, even though I haven't even left Aribine yet, I can already see how far I have come, in terms of design skills. There are just things that I did where I was going, "Why the hell did I do that?!". I know this is a normal thing, but still... Another thing is my grammar. Hell, I already found enough issues where I wanted to actually go and fix them. Nothing major, but just minor things that Jason imbedded in my brain over the past year, things that I would never do anymore.

On the plus side, I like reading the dialogue, especially the parts with Clopon. It's funny to see how she starts out treating Aramus, as I know how far she will have come at the end of Cry The Beloved.

But, the real reason I am doing this is because one day, I will have to revisit all of this with NWN2 (maybe...), so better to start having an understanding of what I want to do different. For one, the various quests in Aribine will be slightly re-done, to make them more unique, and not just the standard fetch quests. I got dinged by some early reviewers, like Berliad & Alazander, for the simplicity of the quests, and the fact that the game got a lot better once those were all done. Going through it now, I now realize they were right:) Ah well, you live and you learn...

I just hope that I can restrain myself from making any fixes, and just enjoy it...

Till tomorrow...

...Right... So yeah, even though I haven't begun any real development, I have been messing around with the toolset every few days or so, just to sort of stay on top of things. As for the OC, I just can't make myself play it anymore. For its target audience, I am sure it is a thrilling game. Sadly, my tastes are different. Oh well, to each their own. I am in no position to knock the work they did, just because it is not my style of game. to be honest, I wasn't surprised with how I felt about the OC, considering I never even finished it for NWN1. In fact, I actually bought the game when it initially came out, started playing, found out I couldn't have more than 1 henchman (what the fu** is a henchman, I want a party member!), and promptly returned it for Dungeon Siege:)

But, back to the toolset! So, as I mentioned before, I imported all of my scripts from Cry The Beloved, and besides a color script that I am using, everything compiled fine. I then decided that the first thing I was going to do was import the Sword of Galladoran, and see if Illuminate would work. As expected, the import process didn't really work. The main reason is because the sword used CEP models, that NWN2 obviously doesn't know about. Looks like I will be doing a lot of manual creation of items:( Oh yeah, and at this point, I was sort of frustrated, so I decided to do something else:) Ah, the beauties of not having a deadline:)

On the music front, I haven't been really listening to anything that will be put into the game. However, I have been listening to the soundtrack for a game called, Battle Arena Toshinden 2. I am too busy to talk about the impact this game series had on me when it was first released back on the original Playstation back in 1995. I do have a plea for any music enthusists out there. I DESPERATELY need the soundtrack to the first game, Battle Arena Toshinden 1. Back in the day of the PS1, you could literally take the game CD, put it in a CD player, and listen to the music. I did just that, and made some tapes of it, but could never find it. At any rate, who uses tapes anymore! I want it digital! But yeah, if someone could point me in the right direction, I would be much obliged...

Till tomorrow...

I forgot to mention that last night, me, my girlfriend, one of my best friends, his wife, his brother, his cousin, and his cousin's girlfriend went out to Banana's comedy club to see Charlie Murphy.

Up until 3 years ago, you knew him as Eddie Murphy's brother (hey, he said it, not me!). But, most people know him from the Dave Chappelle show.

As expected, he was funny as hell. It really was the perfect way to top the Thanksgiving holiday. This was probably the best Thanksgiving break in a long time. Know why?

NO STRESSING OVER ROSE OF ETERNITY. Seriously though, checkout what I was doing last Thanksgiving (click here). I had ZERO time for friends/family/etc. As an aside, it really is great to go back and re-read what was going through my mind a year ago...

But yeah, obviously, not having to worry about creating a game for the past month and a half has been great. I used to always say things like "I want my life back!" It's been great to have it back for so long...

However, I am going to make the most of it, because eventually, I am going to have to go back to doing what it is God put me on this earth to do...

Till tomorrow...

So, while shopping yesterday, I ended up picking up the new Jay-Z album, Kingdom Come. For any of you rap fans out there, this was obviously something we have been waiting for for a long, long time. The rap game has been questionable as of late, so it's great that someone could come in and fill the void.

What's that you ask? How does Leonard, the lover of instrumentals, listen to rap. Shrug, I'm an ecletic type of guy, I guess... Seriously though, I am a big rap fan, and will argue the merits of it to anyone, anywhere, anytime...

I'm quite tired of people stereotyping hip hop in general, so I tend to get a little sensitive about it. Here's a funny story. At my office, we have various artists that we make deals with to sell their ringtones. Well, the first day I showed up at the office when we first merged, they thought I was some rapper, since I had on some jeans, timbs, and an ENYCE shirt. I'm like, "No people, I'm a programmer... Sheesh... Damn stereotypes..."

Then, when people find out I make games, it blows their fu***** socks off. Then, when they learn about the real me, they then get another perception of me. So, when they find out I listen to rap just as much as I do instrumental music, it shocks them once again. I'm just a shocking guy, I guess:)

Till tomorrow...

So today, I just lounged around the house for a while. I contemplayed getting a haircut, but I knew I could just go on Saturday, so I put the plans off. It's nice to have this day off, because for the longest time, when I worked in retail, I had to work. Yep, that's right. In every retail job I have had, the rule was, if you didn't work on Black Friday, you didn't get paid 8 hours of time for Thanksgiving. It was their way of making sure people worked, since it is obviously the busiest shopping day of the year.

In the afternoon, my girlfriend and I decided to go out to the mall, and we ended up taking our 3 year old niece with us.

Now, I am an only child, and I never really had any young cousins, so let's just say that I am no good with kids. I have just never really been one of those people that sees a newborn baby and immediately starts talking in baby talk. Furthermore, I don't know how to hold them, etc. People always make fun of me because I don't know how to interact with them:)

So, I have this policy. I don't start talking to them until they can talk:) Now, my niece is 3 years old, and she is the cutest thing ever (yeah, I know, I am contradicting my earlier statement, but hell, she is 3, not newborn!). We really get along great, and she loves her "Uncle Leonard". So yeah, I am starting to like kids and whatnot, although, as I get older, I guess it is what was supposed to happen:) By the time I have a son one day, I should be all set!

Till tomorrow...

So, the events of the day went exactly as they have for the past 8 years. I wake up, BS around the house, and eventually find my way to my girlfriend's house around noon when her and her extended (and I mean extended, sheesh!) family are about to serve Thanksgiving dinner, err, lunch...

After that, I went to my mother's house with my girlfriend for round 2. Somewhere in between all of this, I caught up with a lot of people I hadn't seen since her uncle Johnny passed away over the summer (R.I.P.). All in all, a typical, if not pretty fun day.

Till tomorrow...

I have to say, I love my company's flexibility when it comes to working from home. Actually, I shouldn't say my company, but rather, my boss. He is very much a worker's manager, as he seems to remember what it was like to be a lowe level grunt.

Although, I have to say that my old boss tried to work out a similiar thing for me, but the plans fell through. My current boss really got the ball rolling on it though, so mad props to him for that. Hell, he even got me my 2nd raise in 6 months. Much respect!

Till tomorrow...

So, today was a pretty good day at work. If I haven't mentioned it already, we are in the QA iterations for the new features my team created for our Mapquest Mobile app. Most of the bugs are minor ones that can be fixed pretty easily. There are others that came up unexepectedly that may result in the Product team having to change the original design.

This sort of thing is common place, expecially when you have developers going into a vast code base that is unknown to them, which was the case with Mapquest. The original app was released in like 2002 or so, and all the original people who worked on it have since left. So, it was up to a co-worker and I to sift our way through the code, and understand. For what it's worth, we did a good job.

Till tomorrow...

I am so happy that this will be a short work week. Hell, I remember the days when I was forced to work on Black Friday when I worked retail for like 9 years. Now that I have my nice 9-5 office job, I obvioulsy get that day off. Even better, I plan on working from home on Wednesday, and hell, maybe I will work from home next Monday!

Besides visiting with family, I plan to finish off Final Fantasy XII, and get a Wii. Toolset wise, I am going to import Gestalt's cutscene library, and see if it translates in NWN2 well. I am hoping it does, as it is obvious one of the main foundations of my games...

Till tomorrow...

So, let me preface this by saying that I did not pick up a Wii today... If I had gotten to Best Buy by 5:00 am, I would have been one of the lucky people in line to pick it up. All of that said, I was just too damn lazy to do so, and in the grand scheme of things, I wasn't in a rush. Hell, I still need to beat Final Fantasy XII. Yep, I haven't played it since I lost those 2 hours:(

Luckily, one of my best friends from way back in 3rd grade (1988) braved the cold to do so, so I was able to go to his house, and check it out for myself.

We played Wii Sports first, to get the rundown on what it is like to use the motion sensor controllers. I first played Tennis, and after the first couple of minutes, my friend was shaking head, telling me, and I quote, "You are doing it all wrong... Do you hold a tennis racket like that in real life". Once I adjusted my grip to hold the controller like a racket, I was easily returning hits, lobbing the ball, and even performing backhand slices. I was amazed at how realistic it was. Yeah, the graphics are horrible, but I was there for the gameplay, not the graphics!

After playing through some more, we jumped to the main event: The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess. Yep, the only game I had been anticipating as much as Final Fantasy XII for the past 4-5 years. In a word: AMAZING!!! The controls were super intuitive, and after about 20 minutes of play, I was controlling like with the Wii Remote and the Wii Nunchucks without even thinking about it. It was all natural. I was also brought back to my childhood, as I hadn't really played a console game with my friend in literally 13 years. It was cool to figure out things together over the 2 hours that we played it. He started it out, then, when he got a phone call, I took things over. We continued to put our brains together, solving the little puzzles here and there, which was what we used to do with our old NES games back when we were kids. Ninendo continues to invoke this feeling in me, that I cannot describe, time and time again.

So yeah, I need to finish up Final Fantasy XII really fast, so I can pick up a Wii. It doesn't seem like there will be many shortages, so I should have no problem picking one up.

Till tomorrow...

Let's get one thing straight. Development hasn't started on anything at the moment. Don't want any crazy rumors going around:(

That said, now that I have my new box, I have been able to attempt to check it out again. On my laptop, the game is runnable, but that is if I turn down all the settings. Now, there have been threads on the NWN2 forums about how the game looks worse than NWN1. Well, that is true, if you are playing on an outdated machine. In other words, the graphics don't scale well. Oh well, I knew that going in, so I wasn't in for any surprises. Interestingly enough, the toolset is a bit more runnable, although I had a very small mod, with 3 areas, and some scripts. I'm sure if I had a 50 MB mod, things wouldn't be so fast.

OC

So, the first thing I did with my new machine was load up the OC, which starts out with a tutorial. I had already tried it out on my laptop, but I wanted to see how well my new rig ran it. Let me tell you that I was truly amazed. I was able to play at a decent resolution, with all settings turned up, except for shadows. Anyway, yeah, the graphics are GREAT. Rose Of Eternity will look great using the new engine. As for playing that actual game, well, you all know how I am. I'm just not interested in these types of games, so I expect I will spend 98% of my time in the toolset. Speaking of which...

TOOLSET

So, you have all heard people complaining about how complex and different the toolset is. Well, they're right:) That said, once I started playing around it, I began to really appreciate the changes. One cool feature is that ALL windows are now dockable, and can be switched to with ease. In other words, you can have a script editor open, while having an area open at the same time. Then, you can put those windows wherever you like. I plan on getting a new 20" widescreen monitor so that I can go dual monitor while I develop. We do this at work with our various IDE's, and since the new toolset is becoming more and more like something I use at work, it only makes sense.

There are lots of other cool things here and there, but my time is limited, so I'll just finish by saying that I am very, very glad they took the next step towards giving us professional like tools.

Till tomorrow...

So, not sure if I mentioned it before, but since my father upgraded his desktop, I got all of his spare parts. This translates to a new machine for myself, with the following specs:

P4 3.0
1.25 GB Ram
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

It's been a while since my main rig was a desktop, but it's not bad, since I can finally make use of my computer desk, which I bought 4 years ago, again.

Till tomorrow...

Okay, I still love Final Fantasy XII, but damn, could I please get a save point in this long ass dungeon, since the developers still don't want to adopt the whole "I can save wherever I want" paradigm from PC RPG's...

So, I'm in this dungeon for like 2 hours, and I know I need to leave in 30 minutes or so, and since they decided not to put a save point anywhere that I have traveled to so far, I needed to make the long trek back to just outside of it. Too bad we had a power outage before I could do so. Yep, 2 hours of my life wasted. It really isn't anyone's fault, but damn, I really wish I could save anywhere...

Although, it does make for some pretty thrilling situations in the game. The way it works, when you find a save crystal, all of your HP/MP are replenished. This may sound cheap, but damn, when you have been playing for an hour, and half of your party is dead, it really comes in handy. There have been so many times that I have been down to like 4 people in my party, with limited supplies, trying to get to a save crystal I can see on the map... But I repeat, it is a bit annoying that if you play for 2 hours without finding a save point, and you die, well, in the immortal words of Porky Pig, "That's all folks...".

Till tomorrow...

So, some of you may remember me ranting about the work I have been doing on Mapquest Mobile, at my real job. As a short re-cap, I had a new product manager who didn't seem to have faith in me, or the other software engineer working on the project with me. Time and time again, she would question what we were doing, freak out if there was some little bug, even when we were still in development. Yeah, go figure, bugs in a product during development:)

As an aside, I think my real job really added more stress during the final month of development on Cry The Beloved. I was trying to polish things, and fix bugs in Mapquest during the day, and then come home and do it for another 6 hours in Cry The Beloved. Lesson learned...

Anyway, after all the stuff that went on, we still delivered our code on time. In your face, product team! Yes, I am a spiteful SOB... I love proving people wrong, especially when they doubted me. Hell, I wish I could find those people from the forums that doubted me when I first released information about Rose Of Eternity back in the fall of 2004. "Everyone hates pre-gen, don't waste your time!" "This is NWN! Why don't you do your game in a DnD setting?" "Those are nice screenshots. Too bad you probably spent no where as much time on the gameplay"

Another lesson learned... Just because some guy on an internet forum acts as if everyone else shares his opinion, it isn't so:) Remember, I had never really been a part of an internet community before, so I figured what he was saying was true. Good thing I decided to listen to my instinct...

Okay, back on topic... So, now we are in the real QA iteration, and I am sure Product will flip out when they see tons of bugs. At the time I am writing this, there are about 25, and 13 or so of them are mine. I of course will knock out half of those Friday morning, but that won't stop Product from coming by my desk to nag me anyway... Gotta love the office politics:)

Till tomorrow...

So, I just realized that this past Sunday, Cry The Beloved had been out for exactly one month. Man, time really flies. For the longest time, I couldn't wait to be done with it, and here I am, one month after it has been released...

Well, I am happy to say that so far, everything I said I was going to do has happened. For instance, I was really looking forward to getting Final Fantasy XII, and that happened. I was really looking forward to seeing some of my old friends, and hell, I just got back from visiting a friend in Baltimore. So far, so good. My hiatus has been more or less what I dreamed it would be...

Still, old habits don't die so fast. I still find myself checking all the usual forums, just out of habit... It seems that I'm not really used to all this extra time I have, so when I find myself with nothing to do, I go back to what I know. I'm slowly getting better. One example is the fact that I am just writing this update (11/14/06) on 11/17/06:) Good thing I have a good memory, and can remember what I wanted to talk about. But yeah, I have been finding it harder and harder to actually write these damn things on time, mostly because I am not working on anything at the moment (or, at least nothing I can talk about right now) besides putting together the music for Chapter 3.

Either way, in the long run, it will be good that I am on hiatus. I just don't want to deal with that stress anymore... The plan is to not do anything for so long that I am just itching to get back to development. Add in the fact that I won't be trying to rush a game out (remember, I wanted to get Chapter 2 out before NWN2), and I think I will have a relatively less stressful time next time. Plus, I do learn from my mistakes, so I won't do things, like alienate the outside world for another 15 months:)

Till tomorrow...

So, since I got in late last night, I decided to stay home from work today. I had lots of stuff to do for work from home, so I was tied up with that during the first part of the day.

Afterwards, I was able to relax, and enjoy the day. It feels good to be able to just lie down, and not have to worry about opening up the toolset and trying to finish something.

I just wonder how long this will last...

Till tomorrow...

MUSIC (PART 7)

So, as I mentioned on Friday, I have recently come across a particular CD that I am simply in love with (what else is new!). The CD only has 12 tracks on it, and I am thinking about using 5 more tracks from it. Why do I say more, you ask? Well, I actually used one of the tracks from it on Cry The Beloved, though I didn't know there was an entire CD filled with this type of music by this particular artist.

As usual, I had this on repeat for many days in a row. The beauty of this CD was that it was very easy to come up with various scenarios. It actually reminds me of the soundtrack to Braveheart, but with less of a Scottish feeling... That said, here are some of the ways these tracks may be used:

LOVE THEME 1

I don't know who's love theme it could be, but if there was ever a song to use, this is it. In typical fashion, the song is only 1:30 long. I say typical fashion, because it seems that all the good songs are very short, in general, especially rap songs. 2 particular tracks on Nas' critically acclaimed CD, Stillmatic, were some of my favorite, and yet they ended very quickly... Oh well:) At any rate, I will find some use for this track somewhere. Hell, I may even have to make up a love story...

SOLEMN THEME

When I hear this particular track, I think of a scene where everyone is quiet, perhaps after some battle where many people were killed. I can only hear 2 instruments in it: A Piano, and a flute. Sometimes, less is more, especially in this case. More interesting is the fact that the melody that plays is the same melody that plays in the song I used in Cry The Beloved. In fact, the majroty of the songs on the CD have that particular melody.

<INSERT SOME CHARACTER'S NAME>'s THEME SONG

You all know I am big on having theme songs for a lot of the important characters in the game. Well, the only thought that has come into my mind this past weekend while listening to this song is that it should be someone's theme. Who, I don't know... As always, I will figure it out when I start developing.

EITHER ENDING TRACK OR ??

So, this track can only be used two ways. One, it could be the ending theme that could play when the player beats the game. Or, it could be used for a scene that I have thought about doing since 1994 or so. Even before Rose of Eternity was born, I used to imagine doing a particular scene in a video game, and this may be the perfect music for it. The only thing is that this scene wasn't supposed to show up for sometime, so, we'll see...

OPENING INTRO

I won't go into much detail about the opening intro of the game, as I want to dedicate an entire daily update to it. Needless to say, I may have my music. I was going to go for a more known track, but this track is just as good, and I am sure not that many people have heard it.

Till tomorrow..

So, the friend I went to visit in Baltimore is in the police academy (I will try to withold the stupid reference jokes to the movie of the same name). Anyway, we ended up going out to a bunch of bars, where we were to meet up with his friends who are training with him.

Long story short, it is quite funny to really talk to people who are going to protect us citizens. Heh, I guess they are real people too:)

Till tomorrow...

So, my girlfriend and I are going away to Baltimore to visit one of my best friends and his wife, and will be returning Sunday.

I don't know if I'll have access to the internet (on my laptop that is), so that will explain my abscence (if it happens).

As far as new things going on, I have recently burned a particular CD which might damn near define Chapter 3. I'm talking about the intro music scene, the trailer music, hell the damn Main Theme (which I have never really had) for the series as a whole. It's that good... But, you all will have to wait for my next update to get my full feeling for it:)

Till sometime in the near future...

MUSIC (PART 6)

So, at this point, Rose of Eternity has 69 tracks total. The way things are looking so far, by the end of Chapter 3, the player will have heard well over 100, closer to 150. It's amazing to think that far ahead in the future, but I know that is what will likely happen. Heh, I feel bad for the person who has to download all of it at once (i.e. new to the series) :)

I am also beginning to think about Rose of Eternity post NWN2. You know, when I eventually do it commercially. Everything will fall into place, as I will have figured out all the systems/items/etc. by then...

Except for, of course, the music. I will obviously not be able to use this custom music in a commercially released game. It scares me to think that one of the trademarks of this game may suffer. No offense to him, but I wouldn't want someone like Jeremy Soule to do the music. His style, which is heavily used in Western RPG's is just not my style. The thing that kills me the most is that the majority of the pieces are only 1:00 to 1:30 long. Just not my style. And yes, I know I used his music in Cry The Beloved, but I wouldn't want him for an entire game:)

I don't know... It is obvious that music is an afterthought with those types of game, whereas music is one of the most important things to me. I use the music to create scenes, not just apply the music afterwards. I expect to be borrowing a TON of money from someone (bank, investor, etc.) to get a good composer, and most likely not someone who does the standard western style RPG's... I wonder how much Nobuo Uematsu would cost:)

Till tomorrow...

MUSIC (PART 5)

So, there has been some music I have wanted to get in the game for a while, and it is music that I have had for damn near 10 years. It was also one of first examples of instrumental music (besides video games) that I was introduced to. No, I won't give it away, but I now know I will be finally using it:)

PEACEFUL TOWN MUSIC

So, I was able to get away with this in The Coming, at least, in the beginning. In Cry The Beloved, there was no way in hell:)

Now that the players will be visiting new places that aren't overun with Defenders of Legacy, I can finally use this particular piece.

I DON'T KNOW WHERE, BUT I MUST USE THIS PIECE OF MUSIC #1

There are many pieces of music that I hear where I am in love with it, but I just can't figure out where I want to use it. This particular piece might be used in a town, although it seems to grand for that, so perhaps a huge and bustling city? It has a calmness to it that really soothes my after work tensions. It might also work inside of a castle. Decisions, decisions...

I DON'T KNOW WHERE, BUT I MUST USE THIS PIECE OF MUSIC #2

Yep, another piece of music that will go in the game, somewhere! It's very similiar in style to the preceding piece I talked about, and it can be used in the same situations. The one thing that distinguishes itself is the last 30 seconds. It's just beautiful... As with the above piece, I have some decisions I will be needing to make in the future.

Till tomorrow...

MUSIC (PART 4)

So, besides popular ones like Nobuo Uematsu, Yasonuri Mitsuda, and Hitoshi Sakimoto, I would say the next composer I am most familiar with is Noriyuki Iwadare. His pieces are simply classic JRPG style, and very distinctive (IMHO), or so I thought:)

I alwasy remembered his pieces being of the "happy go lucky" style, but recently, I have been listening to some of his old stuff, and realized I may have put him in too much of a confined category.

Thus, I will be making use of his pieces for my next game...

SORROW

I may have a few generic sorrow style pieces in the game, and this will be one of them. When I say sorrow, think of the piece that plays during the execution scene in Dematol in Cry The Beloved. This particular piece could also perhaps be used as someone's theme song, so we'll see. It just has that sorrowful feeling, with the violins and soft piano playing in the background. Just classic...

<INSERT POWERFUL GENERAL'S THEME> THEME SONG

I had this particular piece on repeat for a few days right after I released Cry The Beloved. It has an upbeat pomp and cirmcustamce feel to it, but above all, when used with the right camera angles in a cut-scene, it will make this particular person seems as if he/she is the most important leader in the world. I'm not sure if I will only use this in the cut-scene when you first meet them, or everywhere else, but as always, we'll see...

ANGELIC WOMEN SINGING

Okay, I am a sucker for these pieces, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone:) This piece will be the next in the long line of these types of pieces. If you will remember, the only other times I had music like this was in both of the intros on the first 2 chapters, as well as when you first met Kira Allendry. The difference in this song is that no one is actually singing actual words. Instead, it is just a bunch of women harmonizing. Still, it's great, and will be the piece of music that plays when the player is re-introduced to a particular member of the cast...

Till tomorrow...

MUSIC (PART 3)

Today, I wanted to briefly touch on something that I think is very important, when it comes to picking music through a series of games.

Essentially, consistency. What I mean is, there has to be some pieces of muisc that you keep coming back to, especially if a series is broken up over many years, if not decades. The classic example is Star Wars. It didn't make a difference if you were watching it back in 1983, or 1999. When you heard that opening theme, you felt that tingling feeling inside. You felt right at home. This is something I am big on with Rose Of Eternity.

A perfect example is the music that plays when Auden joins your group in Cry The Beloved. It is the same piece of music that played when Clopon joined your group in The Coming. Well, I had received an e-mail a few weeks ago, and one of the things the person said to me was how great it was to hear that music, as she could fondly remember it when she played The Coming over a year ago. In a small way, I was accomplishing my longtime goal.

Another example is from The Legend Of Zelda. It doesn't matter if you are playing A Link To The Past, or Majora's Mask. Whenever you solve a riddle, you hear the standard jingle. I don't know why it's cool, but it is:) The last example is from the Final Fantasy series. Since the very first one, it has had this recurring theme throughout the entire series (crystal theme) that is always slightly re-worked for every new chapter in the series. Again, I can't describe why it is cool, but for me, it is:)

Long story short, look for recurring themes in the game. For instance, all the theme songs for all the major characters will be intact, as well as the music when you gain a new party member, gain a very special item, etc. There are more examples, but I just can't think of them right now...

Till tomorrow...

MUSIC (PART 2)

Today, I continue the listing of tracks of I have currently have lined up, where they came from, and how they will be used in the game:

FEEL GOOD POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE

Players of the Final Fantasy series know what I mean when I talk about this. Envision the music that plays after you win a fight. You know, the piece they have used in every FF since the first one....

Well, the piece I have lined up isn't exactly the same, but it will play after a long and grueling fight sequence. Remember, in another update, I talked about having less sequences in the game, but making them epic 2 hour long sequences. Well, after said sequence, I have the perfect music to make the player feel very good. Again, it isn't the music that plays right after the fight, but it will be a theme that plays in the next sequence, and I think people will really like it.

Oh yeah, this comes from RPGFan Radio as well!

REVELATIONS

This next piece of music will play during another key sequence in the game, which I hope will last at least and hour and a half. It's another somber tpye of music that will be the perfect soundtrack to play when a particular character is learning something of their past...

OVERWORLD CUT-SCENE THEME

The following piece is from a cult classic game that came out for the Sega Dreamcast, in which the trilogy was never finished... Anyway, it's not 100% that this will show up in the game, as the only way I can see it being used is in a cut-scene that is showing the player a certain part of the landscape for the first time. We'll see...

There are some other pieces I have recently downloaded, but they may be too "happy happy let's have fun" sounding for the game. This isn't going to turn into one of those standard issue Japanese RPG's with the hokey dokey music:) As always, as I listen to them more, I may or may not find a place for them...

Till tomorrow...

Right... So, because of other obligations I cannot get into right now, I ended up picking up Neverwinter Nights 2 today... Before anyone gets too excited, this doesn't mean I am back from my hiatus, my retirement, if you will:) Yeah, I have been talking for weeks about my plans, but I am purposely not getting into implementation. Hell, I haven't been to the ROE forums in a while, because I know I will get dragged back into development:) The team understands I am not committing myself right now, as should everyone else...

That said, I couldn't just get Neverwinter Nights 2, and not do anything with it:) The install went fine, as did the patch. So far, so good...

When I tried to load it up, it took forever. *Shrug* I didn't panic, because, well, I wasn't really too concerned with it working or not, because unlike most people you see complaining at the NWN2 forums, I didn't come into it with any pre-conceived idea of what it was supposed to be. I guess as a game developer, I have a different point of view towards these things now.

Anyway, long story short, it plays like crap on my laptop, which I suspected it would. Luckily, all I need to do is get a case, and perhaps a power supply, and I can use all the spare parts from my Father's older computer. So, it looks like I will do the majority of the development at home this time around. I can always use the toolset on my laptop to do minor things like scripting and whatnot, but again, I'm not really worrying about it. Heh, I'm still retired:)

The main reason I picked it up was to take a look at the scripting system in the toolset, and more specifically, import all my scripts from Cry The Beloved, and see if they compiled. This was a way to teach myself about the changes they made to the scripting system. Fortunately, the only compilation errors I had were related to this one custom script I used to create the various colors in the text you would see in the game (i.e. <Aramus> ). Seems it didn't like some of the constants that were defined in it, which means that they must be defined somewhere else in the game. Heh, maybe they have their own string_colors.nss file, so I won't need this custom one anymore.

As far as the toolset goes, yeah, that things is very different from what I am used to. Again, I could go to the NWN2 forums and complain about it, or I could just evolve. I mean damn, things change, and you gotta stick with the times. Gotta keep things moving... Yeah, I'm sure it will be a difficult learning curve, but nothing I can't overcome...

Well, nothing else to really point out, because as soon as I found out the compilation errors, I closed it, and went back to Final Fantasy XII:) My next step is to create an empty area, and put the Sword of Galladoran on the floor for the PC (I wonder which PC:) ) to pick up. Once I do that, I will try to figure out how the system that allows me to run custom scripts when an item is activated, works. Yep, I want to get Illuminate working, just as a test.

Again, I REPEAT, I am not starting the implementation of my next game. I am merely teaching myself for the time being. But, if I am going to teach myself, what better way than to do things I will need one day. Plus, I am not rushing this process at all. Hell, Cry The Beloved hasn't even been out a month yet... I don't know, we'll see how things go from here. I'm not trying to put any pressure on myself right now. I'm not in any rush to have the first hit game for NWN2. It's not about how gets out the gate first, but who does it the best. Hehe, you Sega fans out there know what I mean:)

Till tomorrow..

MUSIC (PART 1)

I have said this many times, but if there is one thing I can be openly cocky about, it's this:) And, I don't make any qualms about it! Even from the beginnings of the world of Rose Of Eternity, music was inspiring the various situations you all have played through. Long story short, I have music on lock, and I have absolutely no worries at all.

However, that doesn't mean that I don't think about it... At this point in time, I have various tracks for the following situations:

TRAVELING THROUGH THE PLAINS OF AURORA

This is a piece of music I found while listening to RPGFan Radio. I won't spoil what the track is, but I can say that it was made around 1996-1997. Anyway, it has a sound like Hitoshi Sakimoto's music from Final Fantasy Tactics, if only for a few seconds. It is an upbeat song, but not overly so, if that makes sense:) As always, I have already brainstormed a few scenarios for Aramus & Clopon as they travel through the plains of Aurora. It was one of the first songs I downloaded after listening to RPGFan Radio, but it wouldn't be the last...

SOMBER CAVE MUSIC

I don't think I ever did a scenario in Rose Of Eternity that used the cave tileset, but when I heard this particular piece of music, I knew I had to do something. It comes from the same author as the piece above, and rightfully so, it has the same melody. So, it only makes sense that this cave would be somewhere along the plains of Aurora:)

EPIC BOSS MUSIC 1

The funny thing about listening to RPGFan Radio is, you never know when a really good piece will come on. If I ever heard some of this particular piece, I would stop everything I was doing, and think up a scenario, because I never knew when I would hear it again. I was also having issues finding a place to download it from, hence the reason why I would always hope to hear it on the radio.

Anyway, once I did find the song on the internet, I had it on repeat for like 4 days in a row! This is one of the most epic sounding songs I have ever heard, and I just know that this will definitely go into the game, as some sort of boss music. I am not sure if it will be normal bosses, or special ones, but it will be in the game nonetheless...

EPIC BOSS MUSIC 2

This piece came from one of the most unlikely places, considering the quality of the soundtrack it comes from. I won't hide anything at all... This is from Final Fantasy XII. As most reviews have pointed out, the music is just good enough. There are not that many pieces that stick out in your head. It just gets the job done, but there haven't been many places where I just sit and listen to the music. What's funny is, this particular track was one that I had heard many times before. For whatever reason, while listening to it last, something clicked. There is this part towards the middle of the song where it gets very epic. I don't know why I never realized it before, but after hearing it, I immediately downloaded the track, and it will now have a home in my next game:)

Well, there is more I want to talk about, but I will get to that over the weekend.

Till tomorrow...

KEEPING UP WITH THE CAST

So, with The Coming, it was easy to keep up with everyone in the game because let's face it, the game was short and sweet. Now, with Cry The Beloved, I did what I wanted, and I added a lot of backstories for a lot of characters. Now, I have the arduous task of keep up with all of this. For reference, let's go down the list of everyone I need to keep track of:

***CRAZY SPOILERS***

Aramus & Clopon

This is the most obvious one, so this isn't a problem. These two are obviously on their way to Stramadon, and since the game will center around that, it will be impossible to forget about them.

Challseus

As you all know, he is being held prisoner in Stramadon. At some point, the player is going to wonder about how he is doing, so I will need to keep his story going, obviously through the use of cut-scenes.

Auden & Raina

As mentioned yesterday, these 2 are off on the mission they were given my Lord Montolio & Kira Allendry. I would like to have their part of the story playable, but if not, then again, through the use of cut-scenes, I will keep people informed about what they are up to.

Lord Montolio, Kira Allendry, & Arik Lannen

After the battle at Fort Brigance, we all know that Lord Montolio was taken prisoner by Arik. Again (broken record!), through the use of cut-scenes, as well as other events, I will need to convey their story to the player, because it is really important. Especially Kira...

Claudian

Claudian is the snake that gets around:) He will of course be up to his plotting again, so I need to make sure the player sees this, or at least feels the effect of it.

Adelas, Murik, & Evania

At the end of Chapter 2, they were about to invade the latest town and add it to the might of Lesaria. Adelas' backstory will finally get fleshed out for the player, so the exact events of what happens there will be very important in the game.

Castias

Man, I love this guy! Hands down my favorite character in the game:) He needs his own spinoff game! Anyway, he's important enough that I will spend as much time on him as possible.

Mathewin

Don't think you have seen the last of him! Perhaps he will put on some clothes this time:) Mathewin has a very interesting backstory, and I need to interweave it among all the other characters in the game. Going to be a bit tougher than usual, but...

Sinteres

If you read the name of his epilogue cut-scene, you will know why he will be playing an importanrt role...

Kain and Aloia Sigerthur

This should be a no brainer. Kain is just as important to the story as Aramus, and Aloia, to a smaller degree. Will Aramus ever accept the fact that him and Aloia were lovers? You'll have to wait and see, and trust me, it won't be like you expect it to be...

Lenin & Lenina

Yep, these 2 traitors to Challseus will be back, and will play more of an important role.

Orelle

He made an appearence at the end of Chapter 1, and then was never seen in Chapter 2. It's high time he made an appearence again, because he is without a doubt a very important character as well.

Jarl Thuvik

The crazed riddler who is the arch nemesis of Challseus... Yeah, with Challseus locked up in Stramadon, expect to see more of him...

So, as you can see, there are a lot of existing people I need to keep track of, and what's more, there will be even more new faces which I can't really go into at this point. Yes people, we are back to the point of secrets again:) As an aside, I am proud of myself for keep all the major features of the game a secret until I launched the new website! But yeah, it's going to be a struggle to make sure everyone gets equal screentime. But, I'll do my best:)

Till tomorrow...

So, before I start, I just need to brag about Final Fantasy XII again:) Seriously, I am having so much fun, and every morning, I contemplate not going into work for at least 5 minutes before I come to my senses. It's just one of those games that you don't want to stop playing. Last night was very interesting, to say the least...

So, I am in these catacombs beneath this castle, and I have 4 people in my group (1 of whom is an uncontrollable guest). Up to this point, combat hasn't been too difficult, which makes sense, as the developers obviously want people to get used to the new fighting engine. Oh, and for reference, I was at the 4 hour mark.

Anyway, while in these catacombs, I got my first taste of difficult (but fun as hell!!!!) combat. I ended up dying for the first time to an enemy I first remember fighting back in 1991. Any fan of Final Fantasy will remember the bomb enemy that will explode right before you are able to kill it. Well, I was running to a save point, got into a fight with it, a few minutes later, my entire party lay face on the ground. After that, I was consistently getting my ass handed to me, and at this point, I knew I had to start micro managing the entire party myself, and start to use strategies. So, here is a bit about how the flow of battle works.

Much like NWN, when you see an enemy, the combat occurs in real time. Keeping with FF standards, spells are cast using magic points. As you run around, your magic points regerate, which is pretty cool, because dammit, at this level, I am constantly running out. Here's an example. The way I am developing all the party members, I am making them very skilled in one thing, so I have a girl who can use a sword and shield very well, and I give her access to white magic (healing magic). Another party member will focus on using their bow and arrow, as well as green magic (buffing/debuffing magic). It's pretty cool how you can customize them. Most PC users complain about the lack of this feature in older FF games, so this might change bring more fans to the series that would normally not play it.

Anyway, my main healer has about 44 magic points. Casting cure 1 (or, Heal Minor Wounds) costs about 8 magic points. As you can imagine, after casting it 5 times, they will be basically out of magic points. Well, in these battles I was fighting in, they would go through their magicvery fast, as in happening during 1 fight! At this point, I realzed that I needed to have some others learn at least the first level of white magic, as well as green magic. Once I did this, and started directly controlling the party members that used ranged weapons, things start to go smoother. The battles were still hard, but were now doable. Yeah, I was pissed when I died, but the satisfaction I got when I further cusrtomized everyone in my party was greater. I must have played for 5 hours last night, and spent at least 1 hour customizing each party member. It's that deep:) Can't wait to do it tomorrow!

MULTI-BRANCHED STORIES

Remember these? The thing I started with in The Coming but later ditched in Cry The Beloved? For the record, I didn't just do it because I didn't want to, I just plain ran out of time. You see, the original design of the game assumed the player would be able to play any perspective with any character in the game. So, there would be sections where you played as Aramus, and then perhaps somewhere else, you would play as Auden (if he was somewhere else in the world). Since this wasn't possible in NWN, I came up with the solution to just basically create 2 different games in the same mod file. It was a nice experiment, and though people seemed to like the Aramus story over the Challseus one (which makes sense!), it was something people liked. I haven't played NWN2 yet, so I am not sure if you can for instance start controlling a party member that is in some area where the PC isn't. If not, I may have to revert to the way I did it before.

Now, why would I have to do this, you ask? Simple. If you beat the game, you know that Auden & Raina go on a separate path from Aramus & Clopon. Auden and Raina get into some interesting situations, and I would really like to be able to have the player experience it. Regardless of how I do it, the question is, should I do it. To me, the Aramus quest was so much better because I was able to really focus on it, and only it. I already know the story I want to tell with regards to Aramus in The Last Petal, but I am not sure if I want to compromise the quality of it by trying to focus on what would essentially be 2 separate games. It really all comes down to how much time I have. Plus, let's not forget that I may have to redo the first 2 chapters:(

At any rate, these are things I am going to have to think about. However it worked, I wouldn't even think of starting another branched story until the Aramus one was done first. Maybe my grand plans will just have to wait until a later time, perhaps when I release this thing commercially (if I keep syaing it, it will happen!).

Anyway, this is what will be on my mind for the next couple of weeks easily...

Till tomorrow (and back to more FFXII!)...