Thursday 24 May 2007

The Plan

Looking forwards I have quite a lot of different projects lined up including a Planescape based Trilogy, a Ravenloft module and a couple of other bits So many ideas and not enough time!

At the moment my priorities are:

"Cry Wolf 1.03"
This is the post-competition release. Thankfully, there were no major bugs in the competition release, so I didn't change much. Really, this just adds a little extra guidance for players on the puzzle elements and re balances a few of the magic items to be more useful. Also, the scoring system has had a slight rework to give a bonus for completing puzzle elements. It is all coded and (nearly) tested so the release should come soon after the contest freeze is lifted.

"/Shout Wolf"
This is my working title for a multi player version of "Cry Wolf". It differs quite a lot in that most of the cut scenes are stripped out, and many scripts have been reworked. The intention is for this to be playable with or without a DM, but preferably with. It will include lots of custom tools to help a DM run the module, and some encounters not present in the single player version. My main hope here is to give the DM module playing community something to chew on (there isn't much out there at the moment) and to get some multi-player experience so I can more easily convert my next mods. Am about half way through re-scripting. Am guestimating about 2 weeks work left on this, but as always we shall see.

"LAISI"
Lorft's AI Scripting Interface is basically a way to assign interesting actions to NPC AI. Unlike most other AIs, it is not generic, with each individual AI type having it's own script set controlled by variables. The end product should be able to do some pretty amazing stuff, and include a little C# application to make new script sets. The original idea was to integrate this into a mini module based on Rorkes Drift. However, this mini mod has been absorbed into the second in the Planescape series which is where the final LAISI will be released. An early version of LAISI will be present in Planescape: Legacy though. This is currently in testing.

"Planescape: Legacy"
This is the first in a planned trilogy of Planesape mods. It acts to introduce the player to the Planescape setting and starts the overall plot arc. In short it is about Power, Brothers and Betrayal although there is a lot more to it than that. It should pan out at threeish hours of play, concentrating on story and tactical combat. It will be a lot less linear than "Cry Wolf", but not total free-form. Currently the areas are (nearly) finished, and the first few are scripted.

Hope that this whets some appetites, have fun all!

Availible Now!

At the time of posting, I have already released a couple of things.

"Cry Wolf"
A humorous entry for the April 2007 NWN2 Grimm module contest. It is aimed at a single player of level 6-8 , and lasts around one ninety minutes of play time. The content is a mix of story, tactical party based combat and puzzles. It includes a lot of fun stuff, including a scoring system and and load of hidden Easter eggs. Check out the links to my work over on the right for a full list of features on the vault page.

Currently it is sitting on the "top modules" list, and has received generally positive feedback. However, there are a lot of people playing, and not many commenting, so why not take a look and tell me what you think?

"Alternate NWN2 ending"
The way that NWN2 ended felt a little rushed, so I decided to do my own take on the ending cut scene just for a bit of amusement. It has received quite a bit of interest, but i warn you that it was a project completed in about three hours - so don't expect a masterpiece!


Welcome.

Welcome to the *SHIVER* Blog of the game developer known to the community as Lorft.

Now, some may ask "why the shiver?". Well, I have been around the Internet for quite a few years, and I have always found the thought of people posting random junk about themselves wholly boring. Years ago it was home pages, then personal BBS and lately Blogs. I hated the idea, and vowed never to write one.

What changed my mind? Well, things have matured and there are now a large number of brilliant writers using the powers of the blog to actually present useful information! With my recent entry into the
NWN2 community, I decided that I needed an area to act as a repository for my work, and a place to keep people informed about what I am working on.

So here we are, a blog high on information and low on introspection. Except, ironically this particular message. Oh well :)