Neverending Nights

So last night – Adam and I got to talking and we decided on something. We’re actually going to be continuing Neverending Nights Season 2 with Bioware’s game engine of Neverwinter Nights.

And it was for a number of reasons. While Neverwinter Nights 2 has a superior toolset (it’s SO amazing), and more emotes on the Beta Set (we learned later that there’s only about 10 to 12 on the release version, so they knocked out about 15 emotes!) – there were other factors to consider. First, we couldn’t find “the right look” for Peter and Grayson in NWN2. We came close, but it just didn’t feel right. And I think that’s important – having a look that matches that characters personality and voice. And none of them jumped out at us, when we tried to remake them in NWN2. And then of course, we’d have to remake everyone else (Andrea, Daniel, the goblins, etc). Another thing was, the entire set is already COMPLETELY built for Season 2 in the NWN1 toolset. So we’re saving ourselves time, trying to rebuild each set between episodes and causing more of a delay. And the final thing, that I think sealed it for me was – Season 2 was written with NWN1’s toolset in mind, so there’s creatures and what not available through NWN1’s toolset and CEP that are not yet available in NWN2. So those episodes would have to be reworked completely.

So what’s this mean? Well this means that the first episode of Season 2 should be coming out in about a week or two. (We’re going to enjoy this long weekend we’re given here in the US of A!) We need to film and grab everyone’s line for audio. Thankfully, just about every voice is local to us (only a few might provide a wee problem) – so the audio should be fairly easy to start getting done. And then the filming and editing – and we’re off and running!

Will we ever film in NWN2 for NeN…? I don’t know, but I’d say … I don’t think so. We’re going to save the “Neverending Daze” stuff for the NWN2 toolset. And you can look forward to a few more of those at least in the near future. (Atari still has Episode 05, and has for like a week now, and has not yet released it – so it’s up them when they let those episodes become available to the public)!

Well, Episode 05 is ready – and in its current, super secret location, waiting for ATARI to come grab it and throw it on their site to make it available!

Due to some limits in the way NWN2 handles things, some of it did not turn out as good as I had hoped, so some things got dropped or changed! But I think it still came out pretty interesting! In this episode, we tried to show case (and yet still make an episode) about how you can scale ANYTHING in the NWN2 toolset… (There’s a scaled house, giant, even tress and rocks – scaled to mountain size!)

So bug the folks of ATARI and tell them to hurry up and make it available!

Well, for the sponsors we have been trying to give a little bit here and there (as we slowly plunge into filming Season 2 and working with NWN2’s game engine and differences from NWN1). We gave a look at some things sent into the Machinima 2006 Film Festival, we have given a sneek peak at what Peter will be looking like in Season 2 (in the NWN2 toolset), well – this time, our severely underpaid resident music talent and creator of music for Neverending Daze as well as Neverending Nights (Season 2), Travis Richards has been hard at work delivering some great music for us to have in Season 2. Well, he has come up with the idea of allowing sponsors to get a taste of one of the songs that will be in Season 2. In this case, it happens to be “Andrea’s Theme Song.” That’s right, the bad ass bitch has her own theme song. Evil always has it’s own theme song! It’s what really makes them so evil! I mean, would Darth Vader ever have been as popular (and evil!) as he was without “The Imperial March” – I think not! So for you sponsor people, keep your eyes peeled in the Sponsor Section of the forum for this free and very tasty download!

No, not really another update. While Adam continues to try and work around the lack of DMJump for NWN2, and from some of the comments in the Sponsor section about the sneak peek to Peter’s NWN2 version – I started thinking, “I wonder what people would prefer that Season 2 be filmed in? The original Neverwinter Nights, since this is the look that everyone has gotten to know the characters as – or Neverwinter Nights 2, which offers more in customizing in character and builds for areas?”

Do flashy graphics like NWN2 matter, or is it one of those “I prefer the classics – because what isn’t broken doesn’t need to be fixed” things?

We have opened a poll, and I am curious to hear what you guys have to say.

You can view and vote on the poll by heading over here.

That’s right! If you have sponsored FNBH Productions (Neverending Nights) – you have access to the special sponsor forum. So what, you ask? Well normally not a big deal, other than helping us take the brunt of paying for the site, bandwidth, etc. From time to time we release a sponsor only video, which is usually just a preview. With Season 2, we will be giving Sponsors access to all the episodes first, just as a way of saying thanks.

Well, there’s a small bit of thanks already available for sponsors right now. Peter the Ranger has been converted to NWN2. And those of you who are sponsors can pop into the sponsor forum and download the video of Peter the Ranger, stuck in a featureless toolset. (I am pretty sure Peter was in the woods and got lost, and took a wrong turn and ended up on the featureless toolset… it wouldn’t surprise me in the least)!

So head on over and take a look at Peter the Ranger in Hi-Def!