July 27 Livestream Recap

“New character models in NWN:EE are going to look really good, players will love them!” ~ Alan Miranda

During last week’s livestream Beamdog CEO Trent Oster and Studio Director Phillip Daigle talked about studio news and plans on Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. Alan Miranda, CEO of Ossian Studios, joined the stream to share stories about the original Neverwinter Nights, creating Darkness Over Daggerford, and enhancing DoD as a Premium Module for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition.

Missed the stream ? It's on YouTube and Twitch! Here's a quick summary of the highlights:

• July, 27 was the birthday of Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons. Your legacy will stay forever, Gary!
• Beamdog is going to PAX West! During a special announcement panel on September, 1 we’ll be talking about some D&D stuff, but the main focus will be on a new game - something we haven’t announced yet. We’ll also be answering your questions, so come by if you’re at PAX West, or tune on Twitch!
• We’ll also be at Edmonton Expo in September, so if you’re in Edmonton, come say hi!
• Sign up for the Beamdog newsletter! If 500 people sign up for our newsletter this week, Phil will write the next newsletter himself!
• We’re still hiring! If you’re a programmer, a technical artist, or a web developer - apply!

“Neverwinter Nights was all about the democratization of game design” ~ Trent

• We’re actively working on bringing Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition to GOG. We want to upgrade the old CD Key system to make it work with GOG Galaxy and manually downloaded NWN:EE versions.
• We continue to work on the tablet version of NWN:EE. “NWSync”- an upcoming feature for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition which will provide an auto hak and tlk's downloader once you connect to a server in the game - will help not only PC players, but also tablet players.
• Dynamic UI scaling for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is currently in code review. We’re looking into additional fun things like a font size slider, or allowing players to drag windows.
• We’ve had a lot of discussions about making our own persistent world. We haven't ruled it out but we don't have any plans to make something like that soon.
• We’re trying to find a good partner to help us build the Collector’s Edition of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. Once we do that, we’ll discuss with them ideas the community is sharing on our forums. Let us know about what you want to see in the Collector’s Edition here!

“It was a nice thing for Darkness Over Daggerford to finally become a Premium module after all these years” ~ Alan Miranda

• Alan Miranda worked on the original Neverwinter Nights as both an audio producer and localization producer. Before starting on Neverwinter Nights, he was a producer on Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. After leaving BioWare Alan formed his own company, Ossian Studios.
• At GDC 2005 Alan approached BioWare joint CEO Greg Zeschuk to discuss the possibility of Ossian Studios developing a premium module for Neverwinter Nights. BioWare approved that proposal, but later in 2006, Atari, Neverwinter Nights’, publisher cancelled the premium module program. Alan and his team decided to finish Darkness Over Daggerford anyway, and it was released free of charge on Neverwinter Nights Vault.
• In 2018 Ossian Studios was finally able to complete Darkness Over Daggerford as the Premium Module they originally envisioned. This enhanced version has more than 500 gameplay improvements over the original Darkness Over Daggerford. You can find the full of changes in the Enhanced Edition of Darkness Over Daggerford here.
• According to Alan, the real strength of Darkness Over Daggerford is the world exploration, a feature inspired by Baldur’s Gate.
• Among other prominent features are dynamic level scaling and random encounters which happen during the world map travelling.
• Right now Ossian Studios is working on new character models for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. According to Alan, they’re preserving the style of original Neverwinter Nights outfits and looks.
• We’ll be bringing more people from the community to talk to during our livestreams. Stay tuned!

Excited for what’s next? Come and join the next livestream this Friday!