Entry 19: Post-Mortem

The only thing I have left to do now is render out the final video.  There were MASSIVE technical hold-backs with getting the video done, all due to converting issues.  It took about 3 hours to Fraps the perfect shots I needed to cut together a sort of machinima piece to summarize the narrative in my mod.  Then came the awesome part.  I wanted to make the video in iMovie, because, hey, it's for stupid people so it's easy.  Oops, I mean user-friendly.  Anyway, iMovie refuses to recognize .avi format, one of the most common movie formats out there.  So I spent an additional 3 hours trying to find a converter that wouldn't cost me money, leave a watermark, compress the video to look like shit, make my videos green, etc.  Yes, I experienced all of the above.  Except the costing money part.  I finally found one and then I spent a considerable amount of time figuring out the proper settings for exporting the movies.  Blech.

Moving on... here's a condensed post-mortem.

Goals I Set at the Beginning of the Project
1. Build a mod that includes a narrative from exposition to resolution with motivating conflict
2. Build a world in the mod that looks finished and believable
3. Record and implement custom voice acting
4. Add balanced combat to make gameplay more interesting than just running around talking to NPCs
5. Convey the concepts that non-magic users depend on magic-users in this world, and that the conflict presented in the mod is a world-wide issue
6. Make the mod playable all the way through and bug-free

Goals I Met
1. All of the above except #5
2. "Cheating"' the NWN conversation editor to mimic the Mass Effect dialogue structure, thereby solving the issue of the "silent protagonist"
3.  Setting up variable quest lines in the mod
4. Learning a considerable amount more about the tool set than I thought I would
5. Set dressed all environments, both interior and exterior

Goals I Did Not Meet (But didn't set for myself at the beginning unless noted)
1.  #5
2. Professional quality sound recordings of the voice acting
3. Custom battle sounds and perhaps custom music
4. Longer investigatory quest line
5. MORE combat!
6. Better level design