The Codex NWN2 interview
The Codex NWN2 interview
Interview - posted by Vault Dweller on Fri 27 April 2007, 15:54:12
Tags: Neverwinter Nights 2; Obsidian EntertainmentWe asked Josh Sawyer a few questions about Neverwinter Nights 2:
2. If you had a chance to lead the development from the beginning, what would you have done differently? An inquiring mind wants to know.
Beware those who come bearing high-minded ideals of what they would do in retrospect. But, since you asked...
In terms of designing the OC, I would have gone for something a lot more open-ended, more about exploration and optional content/companions than critical path game length. I also think I would have asked for engineering to focus on revising game logic roadblocks that prevent modders from extending the ruleset. For example, revising the custom spell list data. Revisions to the resource system and the addition of a manager also would have helped a lot.
And though I know it would have resulted in a lot of resistance and probably less attention from the media, I would have pushed back as much as possible against replacing the renderer. I just don't think we had the time to do it completely and well. It also really screwed up all of our GUI code and changed all of the art asset pipelines throughout production.
But again, this is all in retrospect.Looking forward to Josh's next project.
2. If you had a chance to lead the development from the beginning, what would you have done differently? An inquiring mind wants to know.
Beware those who come bearing high-minded ideals of what they would do in retrospect. But, since you asked...
In terms of designing the OC, I would have gone for something a lot more open-ended, more about exploration and optional content/companions than critical path game length. I also think I would have asked for engineering to focus on revising game logic roadblocks that prevent modders from extending the ruleset. For example, revising the custom spell list data. Revisions to the resource system and the addition of a manager also would have helped a lot.
And though I know it would have resulted in a lot of resistance and probably less attention from the media, I would have pushed back as much as possible against replacing the renderer. I just don't think we had the time to do it completely and well. It also really screwed up all of our GUI code and changed all of the art asset pipelines throughout production.
But again, this is all in retrospect.
