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Neverwinter Nights 2 Interview - Page Two |
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GB: Do you intend on making any changes to how henchmen will work in NWN 2? Any plans to use any of the henchmen from the original?
CA: We tried to make the companions more player-friendly, giving the player the option to directly control them or not – and when not being controlled, they will act accordingly to their personalities, which can lead to all sorts of fun combat and non-combat situations. We aren’t using any of the henchmen from previous games (but expect some cameos!), and considering the amount of effort that’s been placed on making the companions part of the critical path, with side quests, vision quests, and more, we don’t even call them henchmen anymore – they’re more like other players you’re adventuring with. We also made an effort to transfer over and expand the influence system from Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords, giving the player the option of how deeply they want to delve into a companion’s personality – or how much they want to grind their lives beneath your heel until they can’t take anymore.
GB: How much of the original Neverwinter Nights content do you intend to use (if any) - spells, magic items, skills, feats, etc?
JM: Well, since most of Neverwinter Nights was based directly on 3rd Edition D&D rules, there are going to be some fundamental rule changes as we upgrade to 3.5 edition. We typically look at the core spells, feats, and skills in the books and find the ones that seem like they would be most useful or translate well into the game environment and go from there. We are using some of the unique rules inherent to the first game in order to keep a sense of continuity of world and because some of them were just good implementations of D&D ideas. But since we are using a different base ruleset, there are going to be several noticeable changes.
GB: Should a green light be given to Star Wars: KotOR III or Neverwinter Nights 3 in the distant future, would Obsidian Entertainment be able to head development on them automatically, or could a third installment end up back in BioWare's hands?
JM: It is completely up to the publishers in those cases since they own the rights. They could offer them to us or another company, it's just a matter of which direction they want to take and how our schedules match up.
GB: We've heard a rumor that you may have acquired the Icewind Dale license from Interplay. Is there any truth to this?
JM: Feargus had the foresight to buy several assets from Interplay as it collapsed. It's a great opportunity for some of that work and effort to shine when otherwise it might not ever see the light of day.
GB: To conclude, where would you like to take Obsidian Entertainment over the next 5 years? Any particular games you have on your "wish list" for the future, such as a new Planescape RPG or maybe a new post-apocalyptic title?
JM: Obsidian Entertainment is finding its place in the industry and is growing at just the right pace for our tastes. I see the company only slightly bigger in the future because when you reach a certain size, you have to hire extra people to manage it and keep the general bureaucracy of the company going. Where we're at now feels like a large circle of friends where everyone knows everyone else and we genuinely enjoy spending time with each other, both at work and after-hours. It becomes more difficult to keep that unity going when you reach that ambiguous size as you start to get people who rarely interact with each other simply because they have no need to or there's just not enough time. We'd like to avoid that and find the sweet-spot where we are able to maintain a few projects at a time, in different stages of development, and keep making games on our own terms without having to worry about all that nasty game development red-tape.
We appreciate your time, guys. Thanks for answering our questions!
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| Article Details |
| Interviewed John Morgan,
Ferret Baudoin, &
Chris Avellone of
Obsidian Entertainment
Interviewer Jon "Buck" Birnbaum
Published 05/12/05 |
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