Neverwinter Nights – Turns 20!

Here are some other posts about it –

• BGP Hughes – Happy Birthday NWN
• Andarian Publishing – Happy Birthday NWN
• Neverwinter Vault – Happy Birthday NWN
  • Forum Replies

Neverwinter Nights has turned 20. Where did the time go? That means in two years Neverending Nights will officially turn 20, as our series started two years after the release of the game.

But I remembered being on AOL, and playing that version of Neverwinter Nights (I was already a huge fan of D&D and the SSI games). But when Bioware’s version of Neverwinter Nights came out – it was a literal game changer. Not only was it a massive game that welcomed online playability – but it also had the toolset to create your own maps, adventures, weapons, classes, you name it – this game made it possible. And the modding community for it was huge!

I think it was the second or third episode of the Halo machinma Red vs. Blue where Adam and I – who worked together at the time – got together and thought that we should get in on this. A metric ton of other Halo themed machinima were coming out almost daily, it felt like and so by the time we’d figured out how we could pull this off – we both decided we did not want to do a Halo machinima, because the internet was already flooded with them.

I’d recommended Neverwinter Nigths as a possibility – not only because I love fantasy more than I do science fiction, but also because I was in the middle of trying to build my own world with quests – and I knew you could use the “DM Jump” option to take control of anything – and thus, be able to move multiple characters how we needed, since we both owned a copy of Neverwinter Nights.

The first problem to overcome was the camera – we needed a way to take control and for the camera man to be invisible. But even casting invisibility on the character didn’t work out that well, because there was a swirling magical effect. We tried a “chicken cam” (DM controlling a chicken) which worked better, but restricted the height of the camera. However, the answer came on the Neverwinter Nights forum, because sure enough, Netriak gave us the answer we needed! He gave us a code that turns the “camera man” invisible on spawn, without the magical effect. Now we were in business.

We moved to using Fraps for the video capture which improved the quality, considerably. We were still using cheap $9.99 mics that we picked up at some random computer store for the audio. But I was now using Goldwave for the audio editing.

To my surprise, PC GAMER UK had contacted me on our website and asked if they could put the first five episodes on one of their DVDs that ships with their magazine. I was skeptical at first that it was even legit – but what did I have to lose? Adam and I threw together a quick intro episode, made specially for PC GAMER UK and sent it on the way. Sure enough, it turned out to be quite legit – and NeN appeared on the Jan 2005 Cover Disc – as well as having a small writing up about the series within the magazine itself! It was incredible to see our material in print! (You can view the NeN PC Gamer UK Thread on their website). NOTE: The link no longer works; they were bought out by another company and it redirects to their site. It can be found on Archive.org.

Absolutely floored that PC GAMER UK had even heard of us (though I was, admittedly, promoting us pretty hard around the web) – I figured I’d try to kick it one level higher. It was time to get a hold of BIOWARE and say, “Hey! Look at what we’re doing!”

Grabbing a few email address I found for folks who worked at Bioware, I let them know about us and that we had been picked in PC GAMER UK in Jan 2005. Much to my surprise, I was contacted by Jay Watamaniuk, who was one of the Community Leaders of Bioware. Jay mentioned being interested in finding out more about NeN – and I answered all every question tossed my way. Eventually we landed an interview with Jay in March of 2005, which appeared on the Bioware forum, including some pictures sent to Bioware, as well as the infamous “map” of the series. (Bioware has since redesigned their site, so the original link does not work but here it is on Archive.org.  I also captured it back in the day and here is a screenshot, should anything ever happen to Archive.org).

That was an absolutely amazing thing to happen! We were floored by the kindness and willingness to show support for what the Bioware fans and community were doing with their games! Not just Bioware staff – but the entire community!  NOTE: Due to Bioware redesigning their site, the original link does not work, but like most other things I’ve referenced, can be seen on Archive.org.

We knew at this point, that we really had to sit down and write out the other episodes and plan things out – so we got together and brain stormed the rest of the season which we planned to be 21 episode.

Around Episode 10 or so, Adam built a home made studio within his garage and we purchased a pair of rather expensive SHURE mics, as well as an audio/digital converter that helped with the audio. Episode 10 is where we had really found our groove.

In August of 2005, Jay Watamaniuk interviewed Hugh Hancock who worked on Machinima.com, as well as his own company called Strange Company which was working on an epic sized NWN Machinima Movie entitled Bloodspell. We were quite surprised when Jay asked Hugh what he had thought of our machinima during the interview! We had both assumed they had interviewed us and forgotten us! Not so! That was quite flattering! And Hugh had some nice comments about us! As you might guess – NOTE: Due to Bioware changing their site, the original interview with Hugh can be found on Archive.org.

Surprisingly, Neverending Nights was also nominated for the 2005 Machinima Film Festival at the Museum of the Moving Image. Realizing this was a once in a life time chance, both Adam and myself flew ourselves to New York City to be there. We got to meet a number of our peers, and other Machinima folks, including the folks who make FRAPS, the folks who run Machinima.com, the folks of RedvsBlue, Purple Hearts/Silver Stars, and many, many more! It was such an incredible time and such a fun experience to be a part of! While NeN, in the end, did not win for Best New Comedy or anything – it was still something I will cherish forever! NOTE: I am beginning to feel really old, because here’s another one where the site is no longer up, but can be seen on Archive.org about the Machinima Festival.

In April of 2006, Maverick Shane, the Community Manager of the soon to be release Neverwinter Nights 2, by the folks at Obsidian Entertainment got a hold of me and inquired if Adam and I would be interested in creating a NWN2 based machinima to promote the release of NWN2. To say that we were floored to be officially contacted by the folks of Obsidian Entertainment and Atari would have been a severe understatement. Naturally, we agreed in a heartbeat.

Shane informed me that some of the corporate big wigs and creative folks from ATARI would like to meet Adam and I in person – at E3. So under ATARI’s badge, Adam and I were invited to E3. With our badges, we gained “backstage” access to ATARI’s booth area – which had this incredible tropical theme, with free food, drinks, the works. Meeting the ATARI folks was quite an experience. We shared some ideas that we had wanted to do with the NWN2 Machinima, and they seemed pretty impressed by what we had to offer.

After some discussion, Adam and I went to the offices of Obsidian Entertainment to see NWN2 in development – by the programers themselves! They let Adam and I tinker around with the NWN2 toolset to see how it worked and showed us the amazing things that it could do that the original toolset in NWN1 could not. The landscapes were breath taking. You could resize any object to make it impossibly small to giant sized! The possibilities were rather endless! We were sent home with BETA copies of NWN2 to begin using and piecing together Machinima ideas. In October of 2006 the new series, Neverending Daze was released. (NOTE: Yes, once again – another one that’s on Archive.org due to Bioware redesigning their site). It proved to be quite an experience working with the BETA copies of the game. While we would try to do certain things, or build things, we were naturally stumbling across bugs within the game. But it was incredible working directly with Obsidian because as soon as we found something – they were fixing it and sending us a new patched version of the BETA disc! To say Obsidian Entertainment was fun to work with during this whole process would not be doing them justice! There is a handful of them that I couldn’t even begin to thank enough! Neverending Daze, which featured brand new characters with a difference from Neverending Nights – NeN, each episode tied into the next to make an ongoing story. With NeD we wanted each episode to stand on it’s own – yet feature the same characters. We wanted to go more with a whole “Bugs Bunny” kind of thing – where characters could die one episode, and be alive and fine the next!

On March 16th, 2007 I made an official Neverending Nights Youtube Channel, and within two weeks we ranked as the 4th most subscribed comedy channel! On September 4th, 2007, Hugh Hancock informed me that we had a mention within the Machinima for Dummies book he had co-written. Also in 2007, we did an interview with the folks from The Movies On Air Radio Show. You can listen to Part 1 and Part 2. We also did a video version of those interviews.

On June 30th, 2008 I finished the final episode of the second season. 2008 proved to be a rough year for Neverending Nights. October 1st, 2008 the external hard drive that had all of NeN’s data – crashed. With a program I found from local San Diego folks, called BadCopy Pro I was able to recover some of the data (as well as some of my own personal data stored on that external drive). I decided, rather than carrying NeN to five seasons, as we originally planned, I’d make the 3rd season, the final one. In the meantime, Adam and I agreed to take a break – and during this time, he married his new wife, Amanda (Host) Freese. I had planned to at least begin Season 3 by June of 2009, since our last Episode of Season 2 was released June of 2008. But between distractions and life – that got delayed. Now, here I am writing the episodes out for the third and final season. I am hopeful that everyone enjoys the conclusion of Neverending Nights – an experience that will forever be one of the brightest moments in my life.

In October of 2009, I was interviewed by Neverwinter Connections which can be found here. NOTE: You probably know what I am about to say right? The site’s gone, but you can find it here on Archive.org. Roughly around the same time, both Travis Richards and I were interviewed on NWNPodCast Episode 117. (And yes, here it is on Archive.org). Their site is gone, but I have it available on our site. In November, Travis Richards was called back to interview with the folks of NWNPodCast for Episode 119 (and here’s that on Archive.org) to talk about the music he’s created, not only for Neverending Nights, but for the Neverwinter Nights Community. Their site is gone but I have the MP3 available on our site.

On March 5, 2010 – the first Episode of Season 3 was launched after nearly two years of a hiatus!

In March 2010 – I brought on the incredible talent of Lindsay Archer who has done some work for Margaret Weis Productions, including art for the Supernatural and Serenity RPG (as well as some Dragonlance, among others!) Keeping up with the special guest stars in Season 3, July 20, 2010 I saw none other than Al Lowe, the creator of the Leisure Suit Larry series, honored us with agreeing to do a voice. Al Lowe appears in Neverending Nights – Episode 55: All Time ‘Lowe.’ Having Al Lowe do a voice and be a part of Neverending Nights, highlights one of the greatest landmarks of the series – but it didn’t stop there! I also got Greg Johnson of Toejam & Earl fame to lend a voice for us! Another amazing highlight for Neverending Nights’ expanding history!

Tawmis was recently interviewed and briefly appears in the Pioneers in Machinima: The Grass Roots of Virtual Production.

On Jan 17, 2013 – I finished the final Episode of Season 3 (Episode 65) and wrapped up the Neverending Nights storyline.

Beginning in February 2016, I decided I would revisit the series and re-film the entire series in 1080p HD, re-releasing each episode every Saturday; available as a download, Youtube, and Facebook. On March 15, 2021 – Episode 65 (in 1080p) was released, completing my remake of the entire series.

A year or two ago, I learned that the “Neverwinter Nights Podcast” had closed down – and their site vanished. I reached out to them and got their permission to host all the files if I had them – I had all but two, and yet again, the community came through and got me the last two files I’d needed to host them here on my site.

I feel very charmed and blessed because of all the things that came about because of Neverwinter Nights. It wasn’t just a game. It was an outlet for me to tell a story and bring so many others along with me – that, to my surprise got the attention of PC Gamer UK, then Bioware, then Atari – and blessed to have childhood icons like Al Lowe and Greg Johnson be a part of it – and the magic of including all of my friends at the time, to become voices for the show. This was so incredible.

It’s hard to believe – this all originally started in 2004, and it took until 2013 to finish 65 episodes. In 2015, I got it in my head that I would redo the series in 1080p (because when we originally started this in 2004, episodes were in 800×600 then 1024×786, and it was all over the map; a free video editor, horrible video quality) – the series has always been near and dear to me – so getting it done in proper 1080p was something I wanted to do. In 2021, six years later, I finally finished Episode 65 in 1080p. In total, I’ve spent over 15 years on this series. And I absolutely have zero regrets.

Signed,
– Tawmis