BioWare Writing Contest Interview with Adam Miller at NWVault

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NWVault has interviewed Adam Miller, the author of the winning module entitled Firestarter, which is a preview of his Dark Water series. Here's an excerpt:

1) Congratulations on winning the BioWare Writing Contest! Could you tell us more about your entry?
Firestarter is one of the main quests from the second module in the Dark Waters campaign. It was actually my second contest submission. After finishing the first one, Chronomancer, I wasn't happy with the linear narritive and limited choices. Firestarter was a move in the opposite direction, giving the player a huge number of options and many opportunities to alter their alignment. Strangely, dialog was in some ways secondary to the exploration and puzzle nature of the module. I was going for the "Scooby Doo" mystery solving approach, letting the player look through burning buildings, dig up graves, and generally poke about.
I blew most of my word count budget on a repeating conversation that was an homage to the first Monkey Island game. In the original, the player could keep running into headhunters and getting recaptured. Each time they slipped out of the hut and were captured again, the door would change from wood to iron to some high-tech version that flashed ARMED. In Firestarter, poor Chuck keeps piling odd things in front of the tower door in hopes to keep you from escaping.

So, either there are a lot of Monkey Island fans out there, or it was the multiple endings, the quirky characters, and the odd things you could do in the quest that got people's attention.

Read the rest at NWVault. There's also an extend version freshly released and ready for download.