Faithless: The Making of an NWN2 Module

I recently found out that the Neverwinter Vault had closed for good about a month ago. Although I had already said farewell to Neverwinter Nights a couple of years back, I feel as if a part of me had just died. Quite a few of my creative efforts were at the Vault – some 3D models, a couple of scripts, and my piece de resistance , the popular and highly rated Battle of the Builds module. I should also add that I had contributed a short but atmospheric adventure to BouncyRock's Halloween campaign, another popular mod that also garnered high ratings. All those contributions amounted to several months of my life. Now they're gone, all gone. To me, the death of the Vault marks the passing of an era, a golden age of prolific modding that I had never known before or since. It was through modding Neverwinter Nights that I learned how to program combat AI and create 3D models. I had helped and been helped by fellow modders at the official forums. It was a wonderful experience, and I w...

Rejoice, players of NWN2, rejoice, for the Halloween 2008 campaign from BouncyRock Entertainment is now available at the Vault. This campaign is packed with delightful tales of horror from over twenty module makers. Decapitated heads, blood all over the floor, entrails from a corpse -- what's there not to like? My son says that this is the most fun he has ever had with a computer game. Isn't he the most precocious three-year-old?

Yesterday, I submitted my Halloween horror module to Jclef of Bouncy Rock. A few hours ago, he sent me feedback on my module. Here's what he had to say about it: Dear Frank, Played through last night with no bugs/issues. The module had an intuitive system, and the gameplay was scary and fun. Oh yes... they will scream. Frankly, that was frankin' amazing - Great work, buddy! I felt really good about Jclef's feedback, particularly since I poured a lot of effort into my module. I was worried at first that it might be too frustrating to play, but Jclef dispelled those concerns. It's especially good to know that my horror module is actually scary. Trying to elicit chills and thrills without resorting to splatterpunk gore isn't easy, but it can be done even in a computer game. Here's hoping that the Bouncy Rock Halloween Campaign will give us NWN2 players a fun and scary experience. Now that that's done, I shall be working on Faithless once more.

My little contribution to Bouncy Rock's Halloween campaign will be the first (and perhaps only) module that will feature me as a voice actor. Since my alter ego, Elysius, will be greeting player characters at the door, there was really no question as to who would lend his voice to the role. Of course, I could have settled for having all conversations play silently, but I felt that my module would have made more of an impact if it had actual voice overs. Over a span of three days, I recorded, edited, and finalized thirty sound files to be played during the conversations with Elysius. It wasn't easy. Each sound file is the product of several recording takes, from which I chose the best segments to splice together. To make matters worse, I have an awful voice and a bit of an accent. I wasn't too worried about my accent, which I felt may lend an air of mystery to my character. It was my voice that needed fixing. I wanted Elysius to sound sinister, but my voice normally sounds ...

My Halloween module is almost done, but there seem to be a million and one details to take care of before I can declare it completed. There are bugs to be squashed, placeables to be retextured, sound effects to be added, and who knows what else. I've playtested the module repeatedly, and each time, I find something new to add to my list of tasks. Considering that I've been working on the Halloween module for about a month, I find it somewhat appalling that I can play it from start to finish in a matter of minutes. At the start of my Halloween module, player characters will meet my alter ego, Elysius. This NPC resembles my avatar at the official Neverwinter Nights boards. I'm seriously considering recording a full set of voice overs for the conversations with Elysius. The advantage of this NPC's costume is that his helmet hides his mouth, which means I won't have to worry about synchronizing his lip movements with the voice overs. Nevertheless, voice work takes a lot...

This is my third post on the Halloween module that I'm making for the Bouncy Rock campaign. Yes, it's the third successive week that I haven't been working on Faithless, but it looks like I will be able to finish the Halloween module by the end of this week. After that, I'll be plugging away at Faithless once more. Although I've made several rooms for this module, I'm showing only a couple of in-game shots in this post. I'd like to keep the rest of my areas under wraps if only to retain some element of surprise for players. The picture on the right is a view of the kitchen, one of the most important rooms in this game. Anyone who hopes to complete this module must know their way around a kitchen. Those who can't tell a potholder from a panhandler need not worry. There will be recipes scattered around the house, all of which will be simple to follow. The design of this module is similar to those of adventure games such as The Longest Journey and Syberia ...

My upcoming module, Faithless, is still taking a backseat to another module I'm making for Bouncy Rock's Halloween campaign. I have less than three weeks to complete my little mod of horror, but I'm hoping to wrap it up by next week at the latest. I'm not going to say much about what my module is about. I'd rather have players find out for themselves when Bouncy Rock releases the entire campaign. To compensate for my reticence, I present the following pictures, each of which is worth a thousand words.

I haven't done any work on Faithless over the past week. Instead, I've been working on another module that will be part of Bouncy Rock's Halloween campaign . Deadline for module submissions is less than a month from now, so I'm prioritizing my Halloween module over Faithless. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a few teaser screenshots of this new module over the next few days.