I'm not quite dead!

Argh. I see it has been almost two months since my last update. In those two months, I regret to say there has been a neglible amount of modding. My job swallowed almost all of my time. So I'm basically at the same point as at my last post.

The good news is that I have a two-week break now, and I'm going to try to pick up where I left off. The bad news... well, actually there is no bad news :-)

Inspiration onslaught

While I thought I would just wrap Chapter 1 up nicely as planned, I couldn't help getting lots of inspiration as I worked on this bit. I decided to add 3 extra areas, plus a couple of sidequests. The main story is complete now, there are two major dialogues to write and all of the companion dialogue. Plus lots of smaller ideas, a worldmap, history feats and lots more.

Not to spoil anything, but I like the end areas. They give me a good Buffy feeling.

I will probably release chapter 1 separately from the later chapters, because those will cost lots of time too. So I inadvertantly started a series again. This one, however, will actually consist of multiple parts, unlike my previous attempt (being Azaelus).

Mysteries of Westgate

Just finished Mysteries of Westgate. I'm currently sick, so I had some time to spare. While I enjoyed it very much, for those in the know it will be no surprise that this means that Rose and Blood will have a lot to live up to. The comparison is almost unavoidable...

Mysteries of Westgate was very well done. The area design was superb, dialogues were witty, lots of plot twists, etc. etc. etc. Still, there are some aspects about Rose and Blood that I still think are cool . I just hope I'll be able to polish it to a level that the comparison won´t put people off, which is a risk.

Back to bed now.

Cutscenes for Chapter 1

After testing the first half of this chapter, I have set to work on the second half. This includes making cutscenes to tie the story together. Since I've been having a fair load of complaints about the storyline for Howls in the Dark, it seemed like a good idea to make what's happening clearer.

Furthermore, it also helps me to see where I want to go with this story, and adds character to the antagonists. And on top of that, it's nice and easy. No wondering about dialogue trees, checking whether available responses cover the entire range of player styles, none of that. Everything is under my control, bwahahahaha! Errm, forget that last bit, it's late and I should probably go to bed soon.

I've made about six of these cutscenes now, and I think they work well. When I'm done, I'll work some more on the buildup to the conclusion for Chapter 1, and after that it's time for my favorite chore: the fleshing out of the player's companions.

Working on part 2 of Chapter 1

Finally, I ironed out all the bugs I found in my first test round. Undoubtedly there are many more, but wel'll leave that until round 2. Today I had an entire day to devote to modding, a rare treat for me. The last time I had this much to work with has to be years ago.

Made some good progress, too. The first round of testing gave me many ideas to build up to chapter 2, which works quite nicely. Worked on a couple of cutscenes today, that turned out to be nice and dramatic. I'm pretty happy with the result :-)

It's interesting how some characters start to live their own lives in my head. Sometimes they just develop all by themselves, without much effort on my part. Hopefully you'll know what I'm talking about if I ever get this baby done ;-)

That's all for now.

Testing part 1 of Chapter 1: Finished

Completed testing of part 1 of chapter 1. I've got a couple of pages of improvements, bug fixes et cetera to do. Most of them have to do with oversights, balance issues, toning down treasure (I have a Monty Haul mindset) and improvements to areas, dialogues and all that. So the next couple of days (weeks?) I'll be fixing those issues. After that, it's time for part 2 of chapter 1 :-)

Testing part 1 of Chapter 1

Currently I am testing if everything works as I have planned it. I'm half done, and so far I've been playing for about four hours. And, of course, I have accumulated about three pages of bugs that need to be fixed, lots of new ideas and many other improvements.

This is my most expansive module yet, I must say it's fun to test in this way. Parts of the mod I hadn't seen in months, and I encountered some bugs that I thought I'd fixed a long time ago.

Somehow seeing everything come together gives me loads of new ideas, some to improve the part that's already done, some for the next part and even some for chapter 2. I still have far to go until it's complete, but at least there is a lot of stuff in the mod that I'm happy with right now.

Added a treat for the Discworld fans

First post: Rose and Blood

It's been about a year now since I've uploaded Howls in the Dark, and I've been working on a new module off and on now. Since I won't be able to finish it anytime soon, I thought I'd start a development blog so that those of you who are interested can get regular updates on my progress.

The new module, which goes by the working title of "Rose and Blood" will take quite some time to finish. This has two reasons:

1. I am pretty busy with non-mod related things too. I have a demanding job, I am working hard to be able to get my shodan in aikido within a year (after about six years of training), and I reserve time for my girlfriend.
2. Rose and Blood will be a fairly complicated mod. I am planning for two chapters and a prelude, about six companions to choose from (all of whom will have specific likes and dislikes), scripted combat (like vampires using their gaseous form ability to be better able to annoy you), custom content and an engaging storyline.

Right now I'm working on the second half of chapter 1. What I'm trying to do is put up the whole module skeleton first, and devote time to flesh out characters, design cutscenes, touch up dialogue and insert random ideas at a later stage.

So, since I don't want to give away too much, I'll end on this note. I've put up some screenshots for your viewing pleasure, and when I have passed a significant milestone I'll let you all know.