40 réponses à ce sujet

[Greg the Mad]

 I never have made a modul with the NWN Toolset, nor do I have the DAO Toolset. But I have written some of my own games, and I sometimes working on my own engine, so I might can help. (I never finished stuff I have to admid :innocent:)

Anyway, plan you story and write down what you will need, and then try them out.
For example, imagen you need quests, traps and a boat trip.
Now start a test modul, and work on a quest. Ignor everything else till you know how quest work. Also make some different approaches, try all that stuff that you might later need.
Once you're happy with the quest, create a quest that involves a trap. You should have any problems with the quest anymore, so you now can focuse on the trap. Again, make some different traps, multiple traps, etc.
And later you make a little lake and try to let the player ride the boat.

You might end up with a NPC (Questgiver), Bunny (Trap) and a Lake and Boat. So no big modul, but you can just creat a nother modul and start you adventure right away. You may still have some stuff to learn and gain some skills, but at this time you may already have a basic understanding of the toolset as a whole.


Hope that helps. And by the way, don't waist time at the beginning, writing great design documents, just start the toolset and play around. If you work alone, and you have the design in you head, you don't need any documents.


</br>Greg
</br>

Modifié par Greg the Mad, 15 octobre 2009 - 09:14 .

[Proleric]

Maria Caliban wrote...

I decided to check on the wiki to see if it would help me with this important question: "I want to build a module, what do I do now?"

I found "Here's some tutorials that are not so much about the toolset itself, but about how you can organize your use of it when working on a project:
Project Tutorial." It's not very helpful.

That section of the wiki has been deleted, because I wasn't able to finish it in time for the social site launch.

I've been resting, following a serious illness.

Once I'm able to resume work, I have it in mind to publish it as a Project, rather than a wiki entry.

[Awildawn]

No great advice but sometimes it's good to have music playing while you work.

When writing down dialogs or creating areas, listening to music that have the mood you would like to transmit can be a good thing.

When scripting or working on mechanics : anything that you like so that the experience is less tedious (I'm not a scripter).

[Lord Thing]

GraniteWardrobe wrote...

Imagine that, say, five people have just volunteered to help you build your project. Right off, they all have just one question: "What do you want us to do?"

Well, write down what you will tell them.

This is good advice ^^.

Basic rule for a game plan is once you're finished with it, you should be able to hand it to someone who knows nothing about you module and have them create it.  Better yet is a plan that you can give to two people who then turn it into near identical modules.

This will be kind of difficult to do effectively until you're aware of the toolset's limitations though.

[Kemor]

My 2 cents:



1) Start very small. At first you want something that you can do fast while learning how to do it properly. Come up with a short story that would fit easily on a A4 page.



2) Try to include some dialogs into it, one or two cutscenes, couple of combat situations, some special effects: a bit of everything but no need to overdo it.



3) Define your characters: Before you even begin using the toolset you want to have a good idea of every single character that the player will encounter. Put these ideas on paper, on sheet per character. Every time you get a little idea or some kind of dialog for that character, write it down on that sheet. Same thing for character traits, look, feel, background.



4) Define your areas: Start with just one or two. Avoid a full town at first. I'd advise having for example 1 little village surrounded by some forest and one cave like area. Draw some kind of map on paper, again, one sheet per. On these sheets, mark down what each location is.



5) Define your plot: How does it start and how will it end. What comes in the middle is the next step. Make your beginning and ending as simple and clear as possible. No need to start with a module having 100 different origins and 100000 endings.



6) Define your plotline: Personnally I like using some kind Data flow diagrams to layout my plotlines. Any google search will give you an idea of what it looks like. Each important encounter (be it combat, cutscene, dialog, etc) had special colour/shape coding and using this I layout the entire module then expand around it as imagination runs amok.



7) If you start now, you should be able to have this done by the release of the game. Next step is to play it a LOT so that you can see what can be done.



8)Refine your ideas based on what you saw in the game.



9) Lockdown your brain! At some point, you need to STOP thinking and go with what you have or you'll end up NEVER EVER finishing anything. If you're like me, this is the hardest part since I have ideas pouring into my brain constantly and it's very hard ignoring them to focus on what I already layed down.



9) Open up the toolset, the toolset wiki and any forums you find then start creating



Have fun

[Greg the Mad]

Awildawn wrote...

No great advice but sometimes it's good to have music playing while you work.<br />
When writing down dialogs or creating areas, listening to music that have the mood you would like to transmit can be a good thing.<br />
When scripting or working on mechanics : anything that you like so that the experience is less tedious (I'm not a scripter).
</br>

There you see the difference of people. I would advice the complet opposit.
Don't play any musik. I helps you focus on the sceen you're working on. Focus on the mood of the current line, the importans of the stones you're placing somewhere near the road, to see all consequenses of a choice, etc.

Music sets a mood, yes, but the mood you need for a sceen can change faster then the music. 


Greg

[Lord Thing]

hehe, so much conflicting information, I think the general consensus is "Do what works for you", lol

[Rawdog1]

I want to start real simple IE one piece of gear or one player stat

[Greg the Mad]

Lord Thing wrote...

hehe, so much conflicting information, I think the general consensus is "Do what works for you", lol

Hey, this is a community after all. If you want answers google it.


Greg

[Tekbear]

thanks guys - you just made me realize i should go for something small before i start on what i had in mind originally as hard as it may be...

[Astorax]

I'll echo the one important piece of advice I heard here so far:



Start small.



Do NOT start on the epic adventure you want to tell first. Until you have a good grasp of what it takes to do something small and contained, doing something big is just going to be frustrating.



From a technical standpoint, one of the first questions you'll need to answer is: Do I need something not present in-game already to make my story work? If the answer is yes, then you need to either a) Learn the steps you need to create and import whatever it is, or Find someone else that can do it for you.



That's going to be a major hurdle to creating your vision. If everything you need is already in-game for you, then you just need to learn the tools. Which as I said, is best done starting small.



Not even creating a module or quest per se, but just create an area. Put some people in it with random conversations that don't necessarily DO anything...put some with conversations that trigger some event to happen.



Basically, sandbox...play with the toolset and figure out what it can do. Read the forums a LOT. As release hits, and more folks start experimenting, people will be asking a LOT of very specific questions like "I have a box that needs to be able to trigger an NPC to come in and do xyz". Then read the answers. Take the script and tweak it in some way to do something slightly different.



That's the best way to learn by the way. Steal someone else's stuff, and alter it to do what you need it to. No need to reinvent the wheel when someone else has already created it. And above all, when in doubt, ask ask ask. BUT, have specific questions in mind. It's easier to get specific answers than general ones (as you can see here from the breadth of answers you're getting to "what now?").

[Thirdpres]

[quote]Proleric1 wrote...


That section of the wiki has been deleted, because I wasn't able to finish it in time for the social site launch.

I've been resting, following a serious illness.

Once I'm able to resume work, I have it in mind to publish it as a Project, rather than a wiki entry.[/quote]
[/quote]I read about your illness on your forums. I hope you make a full recovery, and soon.

8)

[EvilEdison]

I have to agree with the "start small" crowd. Even if you just make a module that takes an hour or two to play, finishing something and getting it posted on the social site will A) give you a sense of accomplishment that can propel you through a bigger project and attract others to the cause, which you will absolutely need to complete a large module. I'm sure, as was the case with NWN2, you will hear about dozens of epic projects that are "in the works". Some will be completed (and they will be AWESOME!) but the vast majority of them will dwindle and die or won't be finished before the next big thing comes along. Finishing a module, even a small, underwhelming one, will give you credibility in the community.

[Niko Daemon]

Awesome responses for a forum (except mayb Mistress9Nine's dumb axe). So much relevant info for a newb question taken seriously with open arms. GJ.



Maria, and other beginners, can really benefit from this thread to craft something remarkable.

[Falmung]

Impressive. This thread is so helpful. I yesterday finally did my first mod. I felt happy when I saw my ingame character with the helmet I made in his inventory. This is only the beginning for me.

[Mordaedil]

Good to hear Falmung.