Neverwinter Nights 2 Team Q&A #2

RPG Vault’s second team Q&A for Neverwinter Nights 2 is now available, which once again features answers from Obsidian’s Tony Evans, Brock Heinz, and Andrea Bobick.

Q: Do you have a couple of particularly memorable moments you had while developing, playing or testing the game that you’re willing to share with us?

Tony Evans: The most memorable moment for me was when Neverwinter Nights 2 was released. I don’t know exactly what being pregnant is like, but it seems like developing a game is somewhat similar…

I, and the rest of Obsidian, carried the Neverwinter Nights 2 fetus to term for over two years. Along the way, there was a lot of joy and pain… and weight gain. Now that our big baby is out in the world, I feel a mixture of relief, apprehension and hope. I hope that the world loves Neverwinter Nights 2 at least as much as we do at Obsidian. How it is raised will be largely dependent on its fans, but I look forward to helping “parent” NWN2 for as long as I can.

Also, I need to drop some of my pregnancy pounds…

Brock Heinz: At one point early in development, we were getting some of the new creatures in the game, and also getting the spell casting systems back on line. To test something I was working on, I put a succubus on an empty test map. The succubus AI was stuck on casting spells, and for some reason the only one that the succubus would cast was Summon Creature.

At that time, this spell would only summon succubi, which would immediately go hostile to me and start casting spells… you can see where this is going. After a few rounds, the map was covered with succubi, like something out of the Matrix. Every time I encounter one in the game, I imagine Faerun being carpeted with ornery demon women.

Andrea Bobick: To tell the truth, I had a nasty habit of force killing everything and everyone in the game when playing multiplayer. Those were good times… but the point at which the game and the story seemed to come to life for me was when the voice-overs were finally implemented, and all aspects of Crossroad Keep were fully operational. It was like an entirely different game.