Halloween

I'm more or less finished with the essentials of my Halloween mod, and it's been pretty thoroughly play-tested. That said, there is still one slight issue I have to deal with. Essentially, I need to check at the exit to my house to verify the player doesn't have any of my companions attached and remove them if they do. There might be a slight logic /continuity issue if they start my little adventure, leave to go do some other houses, and then come back, but I think I may opt for the simplest approach and just have the player "start over" if that happens. After all, I have no idea what may happen outside my little environ.

So, there's that one little script and then I want to add some extensions to a couple of the dialogs... in essence, I want the companions to joke around a little bit more. I may then add one or two extra rooms to Dracula's Castle with a couple "script-lite" encounters. Then finally, I have 7 more play-throughs from scratch (one for each of the possible companion cominations), and I'm done. The deadline is Oct. 13th, but I don't envision working on this past next Sunday Oct. 5th.

Once I ship the final version, I'll post a much more extensive write-up of exactly what I've done.

Halloween Mod in the Crosshair!

Maimed God progress since last post = nada

Of the three projects I mentioned last time:

I'm mostly finished with the proposal and will be completely after tonight. Check that one off the list.

My pictures have been organized and identified. I still need to do some filing.

Now what the NWN community is probably more interested in. The Halloween "item" for Bouncy Rock is shaping up nicely. In general, I'll be submitting a short sidequest that begins in my "house" in the main village. There won't be much in the way of combat, although there will be some, but it will be puzzle-heavy. Unlike all the rest of my work, it will also break the so-called "fourth wall" with regularity. It will be rather light fare, hopefully with a lot of humor and inside jokes for the NWN community.

I'll post specifics later, but it will feature most of the traditional gothic villains: Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, etc., and the main point will be to advance through a series of puzzles in Dracula's castle. If anyone remembers the old game "The 7th Guest," it'll be a bit like that, although nothing nearly as elaborate. Right now, there are three puzzles, though I may add more if I get all the scripting for these finished and playtested and still have some time before the Oct. 13th deadline. To aid you, there'll be three companions who may give clues to the puzlzles if you're stumped. The identities of these companions may be a bit of a surprise... but I'll save that for next time.

Quick Update

I decided that I would allow myself the Labor Day weekend to work on Maimed God as much as possible and that I would thereafter turn to other projects with more immediate deadlines. As of last Monday, when I put TMGS down, I was mostly (80%) done with the Act III scripting and had done a significant amount of playtesting on Act III as well (maybe ~40%). I've done a ton of bug-squashing on Act III, and the first two-thirds of it is pretty polished.

The last part of Act III is fairly cutscene-intense as the story comes to a close. Once those individual scenes are scripted, there won't be many bugs to hunt down. Overall, I'd say Act III is pretty close.

However, since Monday, I've turned my attention to three projects, two of them non-NWN-related, that I simply must finish before returning to Maimed God. First, I'm going to categorize, annotate, and file the 400+ pictures I took in Europe. I'll make a post with some of my favorites when that's done. Second, I have a round of proposals for my own private business due on September 28th, so I need to knuckle down on that. Third, I have agreed to submit something for Bouncy Rock's Halloween project, and that's due October 13th. My idea is set, and I've finished a fair portion of it, but I'll wait until later to provide further details.

So it doesn't look like much progress will be made on TMGS until Oct 13th (or earlier if I can finish the Bouncy Rock stuff ahead of schedule).

OK, So I'm Back

Actually, I've been back well over a week now, but I didn't want to post until I had something useful to report. First, though, a tribute to this little guy.


Those familiar with Brussels will recognize him as Manneken Pis, but I like to refer to him as The Little Pisser. The day we went to see him, they had him dressed up as a tour guide or bell hop. Hey, whatever; I traveled halfway around the world to see a 2 foot tall statue of a peeing boy dressed as a tour guide and wearing a rain coat... and I wasn't alone. There were hundreds crowded into that street.

More about my trip later when I organize all the pictures a bit more. For now, it's on to:

The Maimed God's Saga
So I was standing in St. Michael's Cathedral in Brussels on the first full day of my trip, and a strange thing happened. I began to hear in my head the main theme for The Maimed God's Saga. Some people may call that "insanity," but I prefer to call it "inspiration." I have to admit that my motivation was slipping just prior to my trip, but as I stared up at the vaulted ceilings of the gothic interior that day, I found myself rejuvenated, and I couldn't wait to go to work again on TMGS... only I still had 2+ weeks of my vacation left. Bummer... OK, not really.

So when I got home I started seriously kicking ass, and the recent advent of tropical storm Fay, which has basically hovered over my house the last two days, has meant much canceled work and lots of Maimed God time. The tasks I have completed since my last update are:

1. All Act III dialogs (~ 50,000 words total) and Campaign dialogs ( an additional 3500 words) finished
2. All Act II and Act III journals (~ 5000 words) finished
3. The map updates I discussed last time finished
4. The Act III scripting is about 35% finished

In addition to all that, I laid out a story board for the beginning and ending movies, wrote the scripts, and approached someone about drawing fifteen 2D drawings. He agreed to try one to see if everything would work. Hopefully, it will go smoothly, but I won't reveal who it is until I'm 100% sure it will. I'm a little stoked because this means for the only time in the development, there are two parts of the campaign being developed in parallel. This, of course, equated to faster progress.

Anyway, the new matrix as of right now is as follows:


I changed the journals so that they are all technically campaign journals, which explains the difference in reporting, but the important thing is that they're all done.

Three major groups of tasks remain. First, the scripting. Second, the extraneous art content (movies and music). Third, the testing. My plan is to bang out the scripting while "anonymous" works on the movie art. Whenever the 15 frames are completed, I'll do the magic to "movie-fy" them and check that off. Otherwise, I'll just script until I can do my own internal alpha-testing. Once I'm pretty good with all that, I'll send the module out for beta-testing while I nail down the music. At that point, I'll alternate music and bug fixing until both are done. Lastly, I'll do a final pass through the haks, one more round of testing, and release. With this coming weekend fairly open and next weekend a four-day holiday for me, I should have plenty of time to crank on the scripting... only football season is again approaching ominously on the horizon...

I also cruised the hak packs again and found some very interesting art content I'm going to add, but I'm going to do it in one big update to all the maps after the scripting and maybe alpha-testing is done, so I can incorporate in whatever new art content comes with Storm of Zehir. These include the vines and splatter pack, cobwebs, and mystic runes.

And that's it for the update: short, but dense.

I'm Out!

As I noted a month or so ago, I'm heading to Europe in the very near term - like tomorrow, so this is going to be my last post for a while. Regular readers will want to check back in mid-August.

What have I been doing? Well, I ain't gonna lie. Real life can be a pain; in addition to everything I've previously mentioned, I run my own R&D company on the side, and our first major contract is coming to a close. In fact, it will technically end while I'm in Europe, so I've been hecticly trying to wrap some things up while handing control of what's left over to my second-in-command.

As for the Maimed God's Saga, I have still been plugging away, though not nearly as fast as I would like. I've been chugging through dialogs, and I am now at 39,133 words, or 80.92% of what I'll need for Act III. In addition, I have another 7296 words - almost right on 15% - in various states of completion from Word document to partial transfer to the toolset. So the light is definitely at the end of the tunnel in this regard.

As I've written dialogs, I've come to see that I'll need to make slight modifications to three of the maps. Nothing big; I just need to add some placeables that can be interacted with via dialog, but then I need to do clean up and testing on that as well. Probably about 1 to 1.5 hours of work total.

Load Screen Sunday, no Monday, no Tuesday...
It's been a while since I posted one of my new loadscreens. This is another one that should look a bit familiar to long-time readers, but I really like this shot. It's the load screen for the lower floor of the VanGhaunt mansion. I might play with the picture a bit; it's a little dark, but I think it gives a good representation of the mansion.

And now... auf wiedersehen!

The Tudors

OK, so following Michele aka Liso's recommendation during my NWN Podcast interview a couple months back, I picked up the first season DVDs of the Tudors and finally finished the ten episodes this weekend... just in time to scrounge around for season two I guess. When I first heard about it, I was dubious to say the least, but the show turned out to be quite impressive. It actually managed to hold my interest (i.e. someone who knows quite a bit about the subject) while also holding my wife's interest (i.e. someone who's interested but not interested enough to read a book about it).

I was pleased to see that the show concentrated on the broad picture of what was happening. Too often in movies on the subject - the two most notable examples being Anne of theThousand Days and The Other Boleyn Girl - focus almost exclusively on Henry's and Anne's relationship. Other major characters, such as Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More, and Catherine of Aragon, are relegated to caricatures focusing on their perceived principle trait: Wolsey is either conniving, corrupt, or (in this matter) ineffective, More is sanctimonious and conscientious, and Catherine is frumpy and resigned. Other characters, such as Francis I of France, Charles V of Spain, or Pope Clement VII, are obliquely referred to or not mentioned at all. Still others, such as Charles Brandon, Bessie Blount, or Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, are not seen period. And yet all these people - not just Henry and Anne - played a role in the great drama that unfolded between about 1530 and 1533, and The Tudors does a good job of showing how they all fit together. I think anyone watching would come away with a solid understanding of the period.

Two performances I was especially taken with are Sam Neill's Cardinal Wolsey and Maria Doyle Kennedy's Catherine of Aragon. I was not initially taken with Neill in the role of Wolsey; I simply kept imagining him running away from a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but I was eventually brought over. Neill showed that he is a terrific actor, as he deftly depicts the Cardinal's slow fall from power. In one moment he is terrified, the next he is desperate, and then his arrogance resurfaces. The moment where Henry first accuses the Cardinal of working against him particularly stands out, as Wolsey collapses to his knees in terror, desperate to assure the King that he is his loyal servant. Care was also taken in some of the dialogue. The line uttered as he is finally dragged away by the guards to be taken to London: "If I had served my God as dilligently as I did my king, he would not have abandoned me in my grey hairs," was actually said to be one of Wolsey's last words (if not his last).

Maria Doyle Kennedy puts in the second surprise performance. Far from the matronly cast-off Catherine is normally portrayed as, Kennedy comes across as classy, elegant, and assured. Her plea to Henry on bended knees during the trial followed by her dramatic exit from the chamber is both historically accurate and fantastically used to demonstrate her sharp mind, quick wit, and political acumen. Yet it is not just a game to her; rather, she is firmly convinced that, in time, Henry will see his folly, tire of Anne, and return to her. Her facial expressions in the scene towards the end when she tries to convince Henry (for the hundreth time) that she was a virgin at the time of their marriage and Henry turns to her and essentially says "yes, and so what?" was especially poignant. She finally realizes that Henry knows she is telling the truth, but the whole matter isn't really about that... and therefore Henry will never be coming back.

So these two actually became complete characters in The Tudors. Others, such as Charles Brandon... well, I guess I should be happy he's there at all. I'm less than enamored with Henry Caville's acting. Nick Dunning's Thomas Boleyn fares little better. Jeremy Northam's Thomas More dangerously flirts with the traditional sanctimonious portrayal, but the harsher aspect brought forth in the final episode as he starts the burning of heretics - an unfortunate event that would continue for the next forty or so years - adds some additional color to the character. James Frain's Thomas Cromwell shows initial promise as a double-crossing zealot, but Cromwell will really only rise to the fore during the events depicted next season, so I'll reserve judgment until then.

So now we get to the principles: Henry and Anne. As with Wolsey, I was not at all optimistic with either of these two. Natalie Dormer could reasonably pass for Anne physically, I guess. She was never supposed to be a great beauty; Anne's allure was (according to contemporaries) in her personality and slightly exotic look. I guess I don't see any of those qualities in Dormer, but it's a matter of personal preference. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is simply too young to depict Henry accurately during these years. The show claims to want to show Henry as a young man, but he was over 40 at the time of his divorce from Catherine. Nevertheless, both Rhys Meyers and Dormer do justice to their subjects as well as they can. Henry's unbounded energy and ambition, his notorious fickleness, and his horrific temper are well-depicted, and Dormer has softened Anne's traditional conniving qualities significantly, adding a new layer to the character, though she's picking up steam as the season progresses. As with Cromwell, the events of next season are where Anne's going to get really interesting, and it will be then that Dormer either puts her stamp on the role or else falls flat on her face.

The production values are also all very high. The costumes are brilliant, though one of the DVD extras indicates that some of them are slightly anachronistic. However, this kind of detail is not something I'd catch; I'll just take their word for it, but they look fantastic. The scenery,both indoors and outdoors is generally supurb, and the music is both dignified and understated for the most part.

So how was the historical accuracy? Well, readers will probably not be surprised at this point to see that I was quite pleased at just how historically accurate the series is. That's not to say there weren't certain errors, but there was an awful lot of truth there. Most of the errors, with a few exceptions outlined below, fall into the category of improper timing. As already stated, Henry should have been about 40 during the climactic events of season one. Also, his daughter by Catherine of Aragon, Mary, was 16 or so. Henry Fitzroy, Henry VIII's illegitimate son by Bessie Blount, did die of the sweating sickness, but he was 17 when it happened, not 4 or so as depicted here. The Field of Cloth of Gold festival, which seems to be only a year or so before Henry's divorce, was actually more than fifteen years prior. And there are many others, but these kinds of errors are inconsequential because the essence of the events are still true. Namely, there was a Field of Cloth of Gold festival that went more or less as depicted, Henry Fitzroy was an illegitimate son by Bessie Blount, he did die of sweating sickness as mentioned, and so forth.

Slightly more problematic are the following substantive disagreements with history.

• The Duke of Buckingham actually was beheaded, ostensibly for treason, but the charges are historically regarded as being largely trumped-up while the series shows the charges as being true. Also, the rivalry between Buckingham and Henry is probably overplayed by a couple orders of magnitude; I seriously doubt that Buckingham ever thought he should be king over Henry, though he probably thought he was next in line in case anything happened.
• Henry had two sisters: Margaret and Mary. The series only shows one. They use the name Margaret but the events in her life are mostly those of Mary, though Mary married the aged King of France and not Portugal. In another of those timeline errors, the French King she married was actually the predecessor (and cousin I believe) of the French King depicted in the series.
• Cardinal Wolsey most definitely did not commit suicide. He had been sick for some time and died of natural causes en-route to London after having been arrested near York.

But I admit that most of these are nitpicks. To be sure, I would definitely recommend The Tudors to anyone who's a fan of the subject matter.

Life Sucks Sometimes

Yes, I haven't updated in a couple weeks, and won't for a little while longer. There was a death in the family, and other issues have also sapped my time. Combined with Mrs. Tiberius' clutziness and the resulting extra chores, I just don't have it in me right now. A little progress on TMGS since last time, but not much. 'Til later.