New Black Hound Interview

[metadigital]

I would bet it's a pretty free job when it comes to working hours. At least I know that's how it is in one of the development houses in my town (NO NAMES NO NAMES). They can practically come strolling in at noon (some weird coders just can't get their asses out of bed in the mornings), but if they produce the results they're supposed to and put in 40 hours per week, then it's ok. The problem is that they can be tough to get hold of for the other members of the team if they only work at night or something so I would assume they have some unwritten rules about that. But that's just my own guess.

 

That goes for alot of places as far as I am aware.

... And also for a lot of industries, such as creative types in the film industry, too.

[Aegeri]

I'm never ceased to be impressed about how much plain sense he makes when he says things. I really like how this sounds and can't wait to play it.

[Girias_Solo]

I am looking forward to this mod more than virtually all the games coming up. Irony central.

[Cantousent]

And some of these responses would be a legitimate reason for Obsidian to lend some support to the project. Oh, neither anything official nor something that constitutes a significant investment, but maybe being a little free with talent, letting JE take some time to work on the project, and maybe providing easy access to computers and equipment. Even if Obsidian only provides minimal aid, they'll be able to take a lot of the credit if the mod turns out to be high quality. It will increase Sawyer's street cred, which also benefits the company.

 

No, I'm not saying that Obsidian will do any of this, but I've heard of companies who encourage their talent to do these kinds of projects and provide support of varying degrees as well. It makes sense. None of these things really costs Obsidian all that much, but a well received mod not only promotes their title, but it also promotes their designer and gives them a some prestige.

Edited February 15, 2007 by Cantousent

[CoM_Solaufein]

I am looking forward to this mod more than virtually all the games coming up. Irony central.

Same here. A lot of games in production don't really have my interest. Can't wait to play it.

[Pope]

My only hope is that it actually manages to see the light of day.

 

With everything surrounding TBH being cursed and all that...

[Cantousent]

There's no curse and no fate. It can be done and I believe Sawyer will do it. No distancing himself from this particular project. For good or ill, it will be his. It may or may not be exactly what he wanted, but the Black Hound buck will start and stop with Sawyer. :Eldar's wolfish grin icon:

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I personally percieve Josh as one of the best designers in regards of CRPG's currently active in the industry. This project is the kinda thing i have wanted to see from Josh for a long time, making something at a company always requires that designers, programmers, and artists comprimise to make the most viable product for the market place, this is different, money isn't involved, which means that as far as is possible the vision will be as pure as possible. Something which is rare.

[Slowtrain]

I personally percieve Josh as one of the best designers in regards of CRPG's currently active in the industry.

 

On what possible grounds are you basing that claim? Josh is a fun guy to talk with on the boards and he always seems to have ideas and he MAY turn out to be the greatest crpg designer ever, but at the moment he doesn't any particular track record of creating awesome games, unless you consider a string of unfinished games and half-finished games and mediocre rehashings of a great track record.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I personally percieve Josh as one of the best designers in regards of CRPG's currently active in the industry.

 

On what possible grounds are you basing that claim? Josh is a fun guy to talk with on the boards and he always seems to have ideas and he MAY turn out to be the greatest crpg designer ever, but at the moment he doesn't any particular track record of creating awesome games, unless you consider a string of unfinished games and half-finished games and mediocre rehashings of a great track record.

 

I'm sorry if you got the impression I was making a statement that Josh is the best games designer ever, Josh wouldn't make it, and I wouldn't... I've followed his efforts for many years mostly because I've been waiting to see ideas that he's had, implemented. Note that implementation is usually partaken by someone other than the Designer. I can't think of a Designer who's had ideas, which constantly challenge and push against the boundaries of a games genre, Josh atleast attempts to do this.

 

He has talent, as do many people working at Obsidian, a project like this is good because people will get to see the extent of that talent.

 

Oh and if I ever play a game which is finished I'll let you know, and it's certainly fair to say that Josh has worked on a bunch of unreleased games, of which may i add is no fault of his own. That's a daily occurance in the games biz period.

 

So lets go over what i said, I (that's me, nobody else, just my humble self), personally percieve (Oh look I am stating an opinion held, by myself)Josh (I think we know who he is now) as one of the best (he's not alone there are OTHERS!!!) in regards of CRPG's (Just the one genre) currently active in the industry (he is active in the industry, he's working on projects)

 

I hope you can now come to the greater and englightend understanding that I am simply saying, from all my vast knowledge and experience, that Josh has some good ideas! DUH!

Edited February 16, 2007 by @\NightandtheShape/@

[aVENGER]

Our game logic was constructed very carefully to allow for virtually anything that D&D rules allow.

 

Hmm, this little bit of info has really got me thinking. Were you guys, per chance, planning a working implementation of flying, swimming and mounted combat way back then? If so, than kudos to you. I hope you manage to accomplish similar things with a few NWN2 expansions and in time, use them for TBH, should its design require such features of course.

[J.E. Sawyer]

Not all of those, but we were working on implementing flying (which was really hovering, but could be done across chasms), jumping, and climbing. They weren't particularly great implementations, but oh well. The big things we were working on for rules were data management and encapsulating effects in larger effect trees. Sounds pretty boring, I know, but it would have allowed for really a lot of flexibility for spells and abilities.

[aVENGER]

Not all of those, but we were working on implementing flying (which was really hovering, but could be done across chasms), jumping, and climbing.

 

Wow, that sounds pretty sweet. Out of curiosity, would you guys consider implementing similar features once again if you were to design an in-house engine from scratch?

 

The big things we were working on for rules were data management and encapsulating effects in larger effect trees. Sounds pretty boring, I know, but it would have allowed for really a lot of flexibility for spells and abilities.

 

Actually, it doesn't. I'd certainly welcome if some of that flexibility would be implemented in the NWN2 Toolset. Right now, it's unnecessarily difficult to create unique (non-preset) magical item properties as well as custom potions and spells. For example, I wanted to create a standard D&D Antitoxin and then realized that I also needed to create an entirely new spell in order to accomplish that. Allowing users to manually enter the percentile probability chances and the DCs of certain effects like Sleep, Stun and Poison would also help a lot. BTW, I realize that those issues are not directly Obsidian's fault since they're probably code leftovers from the underlying Aurora ruleset, but it would be great if you guys could tweak that thing a bit further.

[Slowtrain]

Well, I'm hoping the Alien crpg will give JOsh the feather in his cap he desrves after getting the shaft on a couple projects. The mod I'm not to sure on. Most large mods never get finished. Which Josh knows perfectly well of course, so maybe this will be different.

[Slowtrain]

I personally percieve Josh as one of the best designers in regards of CRPG's currently active in the industry.

 

On what possible grounds are you basing that claim? Josh is a fun guy to talk with on the boards and he always seems to have ideas and he MAY turn out to be the greatest crpg designer ever, but at the moment he doesn't any particular track record of creating awesome games, unless you consider a string of unfinished games and half-finished games and mediocre rehashings of a great track record.

 

I'm sorry if you got the impression I was making a statement that Josh is the best games designer ever, Josh wouldn't make it, and I wouldn't... I've followed his efforts for many years mostly because I've been waiting to see ideas that he's had, implemented. Note that implementation is usually partaken by someone other than the Designer. I can't think of a Designer who's had ideas, which constantly challenge and push against the boundaries of a games genre, Josh atleast attempts to do this.

 

He has talent, as do many people working at Obsidian, a project like this is good because people will get to see the extent of that talent.

 

Oh and if I ever play a game which is finished I'll let you know, and it's certainly fair to say that Josh has worked on a bunch of unreleased games, of which may i add is no fault of his own. That's a daily occurance in the games biz period.

 

So lets go over what i said, I (that's me, nobody else, just my humble self), personally percieve (Oh look I am stating an opinion held, by myself)Josh (I think we know who he is now) as one of the best (he's not alone there are OTHERS!!!) in regards of CRPG's (Just the one genre) currently active in the industry (he is active in the industry, he's working on projects)

 

I hope you can now come to the greater and englightend understanding that I am simply saying, from all my vast knowledge and experience, that Josh has some good ideas! DUH!

 

what?

[Schazzwozzer]

That interview is my first glimpse into the actual story behind Black Hound and I'm pleased to hear that the narrative revolves around a character (May Farrow), instead of some great magical macguffin.

Edited February 16, 2007 by Schazzwozzer

[metadigital]

Not all of those, but we were working on implementing flying (which was really hovering, but could be done across chasms), jumping, and climbing. They weren't particularly great implementations, but oh well. The big things we were working on for rules were data management and encapsulating effects in larger effect trees. Sounds pretty boring, I know, but it would have allowed for really a lot of flexibility for spells and abilities.

I remember "flying" in NwN ... my familiar could "fly" ... well, it could float above the ground, but not traverse chasms like those found in the first dungeon of HotU. So it couldn't attack the goblins until my PC had triggered the gate.

[Junai]

Make it a IWD 1 add-on please..

[Atreides]

I'm really eager to see the game that doesn't compromise to meet rating requirements.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Make it a IWD 1 add-on please..

Heh good idea.

[Aegeri]

That interview is my first glimpse into the actual story behind Black Hound and I'm pleased to hear that the narrative revolves around a character (May Farrow), instead of some great magical macguffin.

At least it's an interesting change of pace for a game to focus quite heavily on the level 1-9 sort of region, rather than trying to go the whole way. I like the plots concept quite a lot.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I personally percieve Josh as one of the best designers in regards of CRPG's currently active in the industry.

 

On what possible grounds are you basing that claim? Josh is a fun guy to talk with on the boards and he always seems to have ideas and he MAY turn out to be the greatest crpg designer ever, but at the moment he doesn't any particular track record of creating awesome games, unless you consider a string of unfinished games and half-finished games and mediocre rehashings of a great track record.

 

I'm sorry if you got the impression I was making a statement that Josh is the best games designer ever, Josh wouldn't make it, and I wouldn't... I've followed his efforts for many years mostly because I've been waiting to see ideas that he's had, implemented. Note that implementation is usually partaken by someone other than the Designer. I can't think of a Designer who's had ideas, which constantly challenge and push against the boundaries of a games genre, Josh atleast attempts to do this.

 

He has talent, as do many people working at Obsidian, a project like this is good because people will get to see the extent of that talent.

 

Oh and if I ever play a game which is finished I'll let you know, and it's certainly fair to say that Josh has worked on a bunch of unreleased games, of which may i add is no fault of his own. That's a daily occurance in the games biz period.

 

So lets go over what i said, I (that's me, nobody else, just my humble self), personally percieve (Oh look I am stating an opinion held, by myself)Josh (I think we know who he is now) as one of the best (he's not alone there are OTHERS!!!) in regards of CRPG's (Just the one genre) currently active in the industry (he is active in the industry, he's working on projects)

 

I hope you can now come to the greater and englightend understanding that I am simply saying, from all my vast knowledge and experience, that Josh has some good ideas! DUH!

 

what?

 

In brief? Simple as I can manage - Don't be daft, I never said what you think i did.