An opportunity to conclude Witch Wake
Matthieu
Member Posts: 386
Hello, just saw this game was being remade.
I have a question, Witch Wake (as well as others) was never concluded because of WotC issues with non Forgotten Realms contents for NWN. Do we have an opportunity to see them concluded?
I remember WW was writen by Gaider, didn't he join Beamdog recently? Are the stars aligned?
PS: I loved Witch Wake
I have a question, Witch Wake (as well as others) was never concluded because of WotC issues with non Forgotten Realms contents for NWN. Do we have an opportunity to see them concluded?
I remember WW was writen by Gaider, didn't he join Beamdog recently? Are the stars aligned?
PS: I loved Witch Wake
6
Comments
Here is a little more information too about the design and direction of the module.
IGNPC: Alright, now that that's done -- tell us a bit about The Witch's Wake and how it fits in to the usual development structure at BioWare.
Rob Bartel: Uh... it doesn't. Honestly, BioWare's never had a dedicated Live Team like this before and we'd never have considered pursuing such a hare-brained idea as The Witch's Wake within our usual development structure. It was basically something that I really wanted to do and that we felt met some important needs, both within the Neverwinter Nights community and within the Live Team itself. Resources were tight so we all agreed that I should just step into the breach and see what I could come up with. Normally, something like this would have been handled as an expansion pack and we would have dumped a lot more money into it, been a lot more cautious, and focused a lot more on coloring within the lines of our pre-established titles rather than drawing something completely new and different like this. Instead, I've been given a lot of free reign and creative license and have been able to throw some of that caution to the wind and see what happens.
IGNPC: What's the setting for The Witch's Wake? You're creating an entirely new location outside of the regular D&D realms, right?
Rob Bartel: Yes, the game will take place in an all-new setting that I've created specifically for this series. The setting will grow and adapt as the series progresses but you'll begin in a northern region, far from civilization, with Brogan's Arm, a village of Barrow Dwarves, a couple of days' journey to the south. I love working with licensed properties such as Forgotten Realms or MDK but it just didn't make sense to add a complicated approval process, licensing fees, and so forth, to a series of individual modules like this. That kind of licensing arrangement is more appropriate to larger projects like expansions and full releases.
IGNPC: What can you tell us about the story?
Rob Bartel: You are a soldier far from home and, after falling unconscious during a ferocious battle, you awake to find your entire company slaughtered. Lost and alone, you must make the journey home, unraveling the truth of what has brought you to this place as you go. The story's a little darker than some of what I've done in the past (I unleashed Noober and Larry/Darryl/Darryl on the unsuspecting public in Baldur's Gate 1, after all) and wrapped in a lot more mystery (even I don't know how it will end, though I have a few ideas at this point). The beta testers are really pumped about how the story is introduced in the first module.
IGNPC: Is this being designed as a stand-alone single player or a DM-run multiplayer scenario? Is it hard to merge both experiences?
Rob Bartel: The Witch's Wake is fully playable in both modes. The bulk of the testers have been playing it in single player but my favorite is always the multiplayer experience. Personally, I haven't found it to be that hard to merge the two game modes. It just requires some out-of-the-box thinking while you're designing it. I use some slight-of-hand in my cutscenes, for instance, so that players are actually speaking to an invisible object that's been custom-spawned just for them, rather than to the single NPC that would blow up if it to run multiple conversations simultaneously. It's seamless to the player and not that hard, but took a bit of jiggery in the background to make it work. Also, if you're going to have Dungeon Masters running your module, you've got to provide some decent documentation on what the heck is going on. For help with that, I drew on some community resources, as well, and some help from my own pen-and-paper DM who just so happens to work in the testing department here.
EDIT: that being said Kingmaker and ShadowGuard also deserve more love.
EDIT: maybe you meant they weren't localized.