cal1s
12.02.06, 16:12
We have a special interview today with Jon Galloway, Atari's Senior Producer, as well as Darren Monahan, Obsidian's Executive Producer, on the subject of support for the Neverwinter Nights franchise. There have been concerns about how much Atari would support NWN2, as well as what effect their financial situation would have. Well we've asked those questions as well as ones on documentation, website updates and more.
1) Could you please introduce yourselves and your responsibilities at Atari?
My Name is Jon Galloway. I am currently a Senior Producer at Atari, where I am the 'custodian' of the NWN franchise and the D&D brand, which is largely focused on Neverwinter Nights 2 at the moment.. As a producer I work closely with the people taking care of many areas of the game both internally, as well as being the primary point of contact with the developer. I've been a PnP 'dice slayer' in the past, and have always been a fan of both paper gaming and computer gaming since my youth. My love of games combined with 13+ years of game development and publishing experience make me a good fit for a game such as Neverwinter Nights.
2) There was a strong feeling in the community, when the premium module program was first cancelled, that Atari was dropping support for NWN. Could you tell us more what happened exactly?
Atari is strongly devoted to working with Wizards of the Coast in continuing support and development for the Neverwinter Nights brand, and the Dungeon's and Dragons property as a whole. The truth is that Neverwinter Nights 2 and other games of this nature are a major undertaking to develop and produce and focusing on the release of the sequel is what is best for the fans, the community and the brand.
Continuing to manage the release of new content for a game which was originally released now over 4 years ago has some amount of diminishing return in many regards. The most simple explanation simply boils down to the launch of Neverwinter Nights 2 largely requiring a shift on our part.
In fact there are many contributing factors to the decision, but we have not discontinued support for NWN, fans and community, or many of the user created projects out there - and this was never our intent - these we hope will continue to live and grow as long as the active community is in support of them.
3) What happened between the time that the premium module program was cancelled and the release of Wyvern Crown of Cormyr by DLA?
This release happened for many reasons. There was a large response from the fans, and we also took into account what the developer DLA had to say. Also the quality of the content in Wyvern Crown of Cormyr is great and was at a stage nearing completion; it would have been unfortunate for DLA to have been unable to finish their project for release to the public after so much work was put into it. We felt in the end that this was something the fans would appreciate and wanted to help get it out there. We feel similarly about other modules and projects, we were happy to see other quality module releases such as Darkness over Daggerford happen, although we have had to draw on line on what Atari is able to continue to support commercially.
4) In what ways does Atari plan on supporting NWN1?
The real question in my mind is how will Atari support the Neverwinter franchise moving forward and most importantly the players and builders who have been so loyal to the property over the years. Everything has a lifecycle, and NWN1 has defiantly had one for the history books. It's because of this and our dedication to the people that have been so supportive of it over the years that we have really attempted to support the community in as many ways as we can. Such as keeping the scripting language the same and being able to import not just that but your dialogue from NWN1 into NWN2. We believe its things like this that let the community know that we continue to appreciate the work they have put into the franchise in the past and that we are excited to see them continue with it into the future.
5) One of the biggest concerns in the community now is that there will be very limited support for NWN2? What are the current plans to support the game?
Both Atari and Obsidian have ongoing plans to support the game and community. Supporting the title is an ongoing effort, and a game like Neverwinter Nights 2 is not fire-and-forget and really requires us to help support and manage the efforts surrounding the community. The official Neverwinter Nights 2 forums will remain at: http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/.
Members of the team at Atari and Obsidian as well as our community managers will remain active participants in these forums, and where we urge fans to seek information and updates on Neverwinter Nights 2.
6) BioWare has been releasing patches for NWN1 for nearly four years now. Do you have any estimates on what kind of patch support Atari will have for NWN2?
We have plans for the future that include several product patches and new content for release. In fact, the first patch should already be available to users, which , along with several bug fixes also included content elements such as the DM Client among others.7) Are there any plans to release the tools that Obsidian used but that won't ship with the game? Such as modeling tools, file formats, etc?
I'd like to have Obsidian answer this question directly, so I have asked Darren Monahan the internal Executive Producer from Obsidian to respond. Darren: In planning out our next few patch releases, one topic that has been discussed internally is releasing our internal tools and documentation to the community for their use in an SDK release. I can't confirm for sure that this is happening, but there's been a lot of traffic back and forth, and hopefully we'll have more info on that soon. We will be releasing more technical information to the community over the coming weeks, including new script documentation - please check in to the Official Forums from time to time!
8) Will the NWN2.com website be updated as often as BioWare site? For example, features such as community spotlights, as well as feeds for the top rated modules.
NWN2.com (http://nwn2.com/) will be going through some changes in the near future. It is the plan for Obsidian and our Community Managers to have much more access and control over the site. Henceforth we will be able to make better use of the website going forward. Admittedly, up until this point it's primarily been a marketing driven site and all parties agree that its best use going forward is to tailor it more towards the community, and information. We're still hammering out things like community spotlights and guilds but they are defiantly things we want to do.9) Atari is going through a difficult financial period right now. How much does that affect decisions for Neverwinter Nights 2?
Without going into the details of accountants and spreadsheets and all the fun stuff that goes along with the day-to-day dealings of running a company lets just say that Neverwinter Nights and D&D are "tentpole" franchises for Atari. Neverwinter is doing VERY well for us and is one of the highest reviewed games we've published. It's our intention to support it fully.
10) Anything else you'd like to add?
We at Atari would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support. We know we've asked allot from the fans this past year to trust us to put out a great game. The Neverwinter franchise is beloved by many and we want everyone to know that we really appreciate what the community does for Neverwinter and for D&D. We really think this is best community in gaming, and hope the passion surrounding this title continues with everyone developer, publisher and especially with you fans.
1) Could you please introduce yourselves and your responsibilities at Atari?
My Name is Jon Galloway. I am currently a Senior Producer at Atari, where I am the 'custodian' of the NWN franchise and the D&D brand, which is largely focused on Neverwinter Nights 2 at the moment.. As a producer I work closely with the people taking care of many areas of the game both internally, as well as being the primary point of contact with the developer. I've been a PnP 'dice slayer' in the past, and have always been a fan of both paper gaming and computer gaming since my youth. My love of games combined with 13+ years of game development and publishing experience make me a good fit for a game such as Neverwinter Nights.
2) There was a strong feeling in the community, when the premium module program was first cancelled, that Atari was dropping support for NWN. Could you tell us more what happened exactly?
Atari is strongly devoted to working with Wizards of the Coast in continuing support and development for the Neverwinter Nights brand, and the Dungeon's and Dragons property as a whole. The truth is that Neverwinter Nights 2 and other games of this nature are a major undertaking to develop and produce and focusing on the release of the sequel is what is best for the fans, the community and the brand.
Continuing to manage the release of new content for a game which was originally released now over 4 years ago has some amount of diminishing return in many regards. The most simple explanation simply boils down to the launch of Neverwinter Nights 2 largely requiring a shift on our part.
In fact there are many contributing factors to the decision, but we have not discontinued support for NWN, fans and community, or many of the user created projects out there - and this was never our intent - these we hope will continue to live and grow as long as the active community is in support of them.
3) What happened between the time that the premium module program was cancelled and the release of Wyvern Crown of Cormyr by DLA?
This release happened for many reasons. There was a large response from the fans, and we also took into account what the developer DLA had to say. Also the quality of the content in Wyvern Crown of Cormyr is great and was at a stage nearing completion; it would have been unfortunate for DLA to have been unable to finish their project for release to the public after so much work was put into it. We felt in the end that this was something the fans would appreciate and wanted to help get it out there. We feel similarly about other modules and projects, we were happy to see other quality module releases such as Darkness over Daggerford happen, although we have had to draw on line on what Atari is able to continue to support commercially.
4) In what ways does Atari plan on supporting NWN1?
The real question in my mind is how will Atari support the Neverwinter franchise moving forward and most importantly the players and builders who have been so loyal to the property over the years. Everything has a lifecycle, and NWN1 has defiantly had one for the history books. It's because of this and our dedication to the people that have been so supportive of it over the years that we have really attempted to support the community in as many ways as we can. Such as keeping the scripting language the same and being able to import not just that but your dialogue from NWN1 into NWN2. We believe its things like this that let the community know that we continue to appreciate the work they have put into the franchise in the past and that we are excited to see them continue with it into the future.
5) One of the biggest concerns in the community now is that there will be very limited support for NWN2? What are the current plans to support the game?
Both Atari and Obsidian have ongoing plans to support the game and community. Supporting the title is an ongoing effort, and a game like Neverwinter Nights 2 is not fire-and-forget and really requires us to help support and manage the efforts surrounding the community. The official Neverwinter Nights 2 forums will remain at: http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/.
Members of the team at Atari and Obsidian as well as our community managers will remain active participants in these forums, and where we urge fans to seek information and updates on Neverwinter Nights 2.
6) BioWare has been releasing patches for NWN1 for nearly four years now. Do you have any estimates on what kind of patch support Atari will have for NWN2?
We have plans for the future that include several product patches and new content for release. In fact, the first patch should already be available to users, which , along with several bug fixes also included content elements such as the DM Client among others.7) Are there any plans to release the tools that Obsidian used but that won't ship with the game? Such as modeling tools, file formats, etc?
I'd like to have Obsidian answer this question directly, so I have asked Darren Monahan the internal Executive Producer from Obsidian to respond. Darren: In planning out our next few patch releases, one topic that has been discussed internally is releasing our internal tools and documentation to the community for their use in an SDK release. I can't confirm for sure that this is happening, but there's been a lot of traffic back and forth, and hopefully we'll have more info on that soon. We will be releasing more technical information to the community over the coming weeks, including new script documentation - please check in to the Official Forums from time to time!
8) Will the NWN2.com website be updated as often as BioWare site? For example, features such as community spotlights, as well as feeds for the top rated modules.
NWN2.com (http://nwn2.com/) will be going through some changes in the near future. It is the plan for Obsidian and our Community Managers to have much more access and control over the site. Henceforth we will be able to make better use of the website going forward. Admittedly, up until this point it's primarily been a marketing driven site and all parties agree that its best use going forward is to tailor it more towards the community, and information. We're still hammering out things like community spotlights and guilds but they are defiantly things we want to do.9) Atari is going through a difficult financial period right now. How much does that affect decisions for Neverwinter Nights 2?
Without going into the details of accountants and spreadsheets and all the fun stuff that goes along with the day-to-day dealings of running a company lets just say that Neverwinter Nights and D&D are "tentpole" franchises for Atari. Neverwinter is doing VERY well for us and is one of the highest reviewed games we've published. It's our intention to support it fully.
10) Anything else you'd like to add?
We at Atari would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support. We know we've asked allot from the fans this past year to trust us to put out a great game. The Neverwinter franchise is beloved by many and we want everyone to know that we really appreciate what the community does for Neverwinter and for D&D. We really think this is best community in gaming, and hope the passion surrounding this title continues with everyone developer, publisher and especially with you fans.