Chapter One Underway

Progress is good on the first of the mods intended to make up the series, where the player will take on the role of a Dwarven Fighter returning to his local tavern in his home town of Kerral. As this is an introduction to Relbonia, several opportunities are taken to present the player with information regarding the world, provided in a manner that doesn't intefere with the telling of the story. Such opportunities can present themselves in books or character conversations among other things.

My first ever cutscene is complete, which gave me quite a buzz having never done one before. I'm quite close to needing to start work on my second, although this one will require more work. So much so in fact that I'm considering doing away with it and replacing it with an intro movie instead, in which case I'll have to split the mod into two parts.

It's funny how much bigger the project becomes as playtesting what's currently complete brings different issues to light. At the moment, the main plot involves having to leave Kerral (where plague is said to have surfaced) via ship. During a test run it became apparent that it was possible to visit the ship in a diseased condition, whereupon I thought "Hang on a minute, this place is said to be suffering the ravages of plague. Would this captain allow a diseased person on board ship?" The answer is of course no, so I had to implement another conversation node that would deny access if the player character looked unwell. Of course, after that, I had to make sure denied passage wasn't a show stopper and that a cure was possible, even if the character couldn't afford it. As you can imagine, the whole process leads to more work, but the end result is quite satisfying, even if a majority of players are likely to miss the fact that being diseased presents a further problem in leaving.

Well, that's about all I can say on progress for the moment, although it did occur to me that sound placement within a home grown mod can be an art form in itself. So much so that I might just create a tips article aimed at the subject. Stay tuned!