Entry 4: Having Problems Killing Skeletons?

I searched Savannah up and down, and apparently NWN 2 is just not trending right now.  Couldn't find it anywhere!  So I kinda sort downloaded an "illegitimate" copy, for the time being, just so I could get a feel for it.  Unfortunately, it doesn't run so well with my OS, it's buggy, hates its own patches, etc.

So I went and bought NWN, Diamond.  It was the last copy at Best Buy.  Currently patching it and getting all of the community content into the tool set, which is super keen considering there are about a thousand new things I can do with it now.

In other news, I'm having a hard time figuring out my scope.  This is mostly due to my unfamiliarity with the media, and also just how far I can take my narrative in this world that's already been created.  I've compiled a list of questions to answer that will help make my world more coherent, ie. why can magic-users use magic?  How does that factor into politics?  Etc.  You get the picture.

More later when I've geeked out enough with the tool set.

Entry 3: Why Didn't I Think of That?

I finally presented in class yesterday, first, much to my friends' approval.  My pitches were as follows:

1. Ode to Deadwood - a non-digital board game that translates the power-play between people in a struggling pioneer town into real life game mechanics.  I didn't want to steal the IP of Deadwood, but use the "fight to the death", if you will, as inspiration for game play and pitting players against each other.  Cookson, surprisingly, liked this one best, at least at first.

2.  Mage's Disease - I'll have to come up with some smashingly catchy name for this one.  It's a world that depends on magic-users to uphold the system and provide conveniences.  For example, relying on them to bring rain to water crops, keep an advanced transportation system running smoothly, murder criminals, calm politicians, provide cures for illnesses, etc.  The mages, however, begin contracting and spreading a disease throughout their society that renders their powers useless.  Society begins to fall apart, chaos ensues, blah blah blah.  The job of the player is to find the cause and cure of the disease.

3.  Write a quest in the NWN 2 tool set.

So, I wasn't sure what media I wanted to use to execute the second idea, until Loren Hernandez brilliantly suggested that I use the NWN 2 tool set.  DUH.  Why didn't I think of that?  The class pretty unanimously agreed that Idea 2 was best (with the exception of Harald, who liked Idea 1; thanks Barb).  Cookson was wary of my inexperience with the engine but I told him I'd talked to Alyssa and she said I wasn't too dumb to figure it out.  I'm off to Best Buy in the next hour or so to purchase it and start dicking around with it. Excitement and pandemonium!

If all else fails, and I do end up being too stupid to use it, which is highly unlikely, Cookson said I should go with Idea 1, which is fine with me since I'm a total Deadwood fan girl.  "Can you let me go to hell the way I want to?"

Entry 2: Hindsight is always 20/20

I expected to present on the first day of presentations, but unfortunately, didn't.  It was suggested to me the day before powerpoints were due that I make a mod in either the Never Winter Nights or Never Winter Nights 2 tool set.  I wanted to speak with a friend, Alyssa, about it first before making any decisions because she has modded using both tool sets several times.  After speaking with her, I'm sad that I didn't include this option in my pitches.  I've never worked with either tool set before, but I'm really excited to begin.  Plus, it's a requirement for employment at Bioware (far off dreams and wishes), so why not?

Additionally, Harald can exercise his programming skills in the NWN 2 tool set.  This would also allow me to customize the quest I write even more.  Sounds good to me.  Hopefully Cookson will approve, but we'll see.  Looking through my portfolio, I've written so much but applied so little to actual games.  Working on that.

To be honest, I've been incredibly frustrated at SCAD.  I came in thinking I'd be a concept artist (who doesn't?) but found out I just don't give enough of a shit to keep a sketch book constantly.  So I floundered about for a bit before I realized writing is what I really want to do.  And of course, I want to apply it to games.  But, hey, here's the catch, there's ONE writing class in the Game Design curriculum.  So I've been supplementing with writing classes in the English/Creative Writing dept.  Wonderful, except Faulkner never worked on MGS.  As Alyssa says, the curse of the undergrad.

And on the first day...

This blog henceforth serves the purpose of recording my journey through Studio I, under the guidance of Prof. Cookson, at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

So, I'm an art student in my senior year.  My major is Game Design and my art is Narrative Design.  For those of you not familiar with the term, it is the responsibility of a narrative designer to create game worlds and the characters that fill them, among other things. 

Apart from narrative design I've also delved into designing mechanics for non-digital games (ie. board games and card games).  I will most likely be drawing upon these skills in this course, though I'm not yet sure what I want to work on.  I'll be grouping with friend and contemporary, Harald Hagen, to complete this project.  We're both narrative designers, though Barb, as I call him, has skills in programming far superior to mine.  We may be utilizing those.  Wink wink.

Besides the skills I've gained within my major curriculum, I'll be using my knowledge of anthropology to aid me in creating a new world with new cultures.  Anthropology is an awesome tool for understanding the factors that affect differences in cultures, giving rise to ethnocentrism.  Ever watched a National Geographic special and thought, "Why does a small contingency of rural Italian farmers enjoy eating maggot cheese so much?  They must be weird."  Anthropology will help you understand why.

So, that's it!  I'm off to brainstorm with good ole' Barb.  Find his blog here.