Saturday, July 21, 2007

Chapter 1 released

OK, after umm-ing and ahh-ing about how to release this, I've put a final release of Chapter 1 up on the vault. It's one way of getting more feedback (hopefully), and it's pretty close to finished (I might try and inject more life in ot the village, but I'll probably come back to do that in Chapter 3 when it's more relevant). I was really pleased with the feedback I got, affirming my ideas, so it's a great shot-in-the-arm for me to get cracking on the rrest of the campaign. Plan now is to work on Chapters 2-4, and hopefully release around Christmas (so add on a months or so and look for late January).

Seems pretty daunting, sitting here in mid-July... It'll be interesting t osee what the state of the community is like by then - Granny released and more content available, Mask of the Betrayer will be out, the big community projects like Purgatorio will be out - the bar will be higher and much things could be quite amazing. I just hope it does scare off the humble modder who wants to dabble - that was me back in January. Never played a NWN1 player module, but avid player of the NWN/BG series - with NWN2 I had some time off work, played a few modules that were released, saw that I could work out how to do 90% of what I saw in the toolset, and now I've got 4 modules out there. And I still look at the other guys producing stuff and think I've a long way to go. It's be sad to think that if I'd come to the community a year later, then I'd have felt too daunted - and likely not have found out how much i enjoy the toolset and building, for myself as much as anything.

Something i touched on in the Dark Avenger ReadME, I wanted to stress here - a big thanks must go to the other modders out there - not so much for hands on help, although the forums are great, but for providing scripts/ideas to cannabilise, and inspiration. The wilderness area I did for Chapter 1 was on the back of me seeing other peoples screenshots and thinking "Right, I want to do an exterior I can be proud of" - two days solid texturing on and building, which was pretty exhausting and I think I made a step forward over my other areas. There's a definite art to it, tho, and moving up from a amateur rank to a Constable landscape will take quite a few more steps I think. But back on track, it's seeing other people creativity that can really spark your own, so I'd like to thank the other builders for doing what they do. It's just a pity I dont get time to play through all their stuff out there all the way through as much as I'd like.

12 comments:

Zach Holbrook said...

Congratulations on the release, Wyrin!

Ernie Noa said...

Congratz on the release. It's a lot of work to get a mod out the door.

Wyrin said...

Thanks guys! Good to feel like I'm making some progress and suddenyl fiinishing the whole campaign feels a tinsy bit less daunting! ;)

Shawn said...

Markshire will be using this prefab. Thank you for offering this to the community, and good luck in your modules.

BTP
_________________________
Website: www.markshire.com
Server: www.markshire.net:5121
Markshire is building in preparation for NWN2

potatocubed said...

I kind of agree on your comments about the way the community raises expectations. It's going to take so long to finish my project (me and my ambition...) that I worry something will come along and make it obsolete while I'm still working on it.

Oh well. That's the risk you take, I guess.

Lorft said...

First of all, congrats on the release Wyrind!

In general, I wouldn't worry too much about the community expectations. If it is good, people will play it.

Personally, I think 3ish hours is a good enough length for a periodic series. Enough to occupy most people for an entire play session.

My favorite NWN1 author's work (Stephan Gange) was generally about this length and it didn't harm him.

10+ hour story based modules are unrealistic for the majority of solo builders. Apart from anything else, testing becomes exponentially harder the more content you have.

Amraphael said...

Kudos to you for taking the step to release your mod. I'm looking forward to play this first part. It's very hard to decide when it's time to do a release and even harder when you know there's an audience out there wait impatiantly.

I had a hard time to decide if I should go public with my project. If I did the pressure on me would raise with the expecations (especially when doing a conversion of a classic). But it would also give me input and push me forward. If a keept the project a secret until the public test-phase nothing would force me to make progress and finish the work or it would go very slow.

I choosed to go public and have recieved lots of support - and some mail saying: "I hope there's at least 25 hours gameplay" and "The Cyclops must have red loincloth otherwise I don't play it." and "You will certainly fail to make this great story right." (Ok, some exaggeration here).

Keep up the good work!

Wyrin said...

THanks for all the comments guys! Part of my reasoning behind releasing chapter 1 now was my fear that i might never finish the whole series, and at least this could see the light of day.

Feedbacks been great so far - and as I'm in a bit of toolset-burnout I need a bit of a shot in the arm/remotivation to press on

Ernie Noa said...

You said; I'm in a bit of toolset-burnout I need a bit of a shot in the arm/remotivation to press on

Holy cow I was feeling major burnout when I released my first module. I thought that was truly it, and I'd never write again, but sure enough with some a little time and some very kind feedback and encouragement I'm back at it.

Take a break... recharge the batteries. You'll be back at it when the time is write. I don't know about you but I can't stay away from this stuff.

Wyrin said...

Yeah I'm planning on a break and playing more of the rest of he content out there - never got round to trying subtlty of thay, and enjoying that so far. But mostly i'm going to enjoy having weekends in the sun for a while!

Lariam said...

Congrats on your release, Wyrin! 8)

The mod seems really interesting, cool, and well-received. I've downloaded it, and I'm looking forward to playing it. (Could take a while before I get the chance to do that, though.)

Cheers!

Wyrin said...

Hi Lariam - thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoy it. If you don't get to play it right away - I'm hoping to do an update next weekend for some fixes (nothing impacting on gameplay too much)