Neverwinter Nights Forum News

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(Originally posted by chevalier)

Here are today's Neverwinter Nights forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Rob Bartel, Co Lead Designer

Witch's Wake 2: Don't worry, I'm still in firm control of the fate of the Witch's Wake series. The story and overall gameplay focus will continue according to my original plans, regardless of whether or not it falls within the DD framework. I did have to sacrifice the use of community content, which is unfortunate, but it doesn't jeapordize the overall integrity of the series. I am also rethinking some of my original decisions such as the complete absence of combat XP but I was already heading down that path long before the DD plans had even occurred to me. As for marketability, remember that the original saw over half a million downloads. If we can get even a fraction of that number via the DD system, we'll be very pleased. Don't worry. If it sucks, it'll be my fault, no one else's.

Georg Zoeller, Designer

Publishers:

Quote: I guess that means that the publisher has some say in how long you are able to support the game from here on out?

They control how much time we have on a project prior to release. We also can't make any move without their agreement: they and the license holder have to approve everything. One assumes that we could put together a team and work on HotU even if the publisher didn't offer to foot the bill, but that's unlikely to happen... we already have the live team working continuously on NWN as a whole, and like Darcy already said they'll work on ironing out the single player game before they even consider tackling such a huge thing as multiplayer support.

Quote: Is the publisher, in this case, able to benefit from the revenue you would generate doing the pay-for-download model of game updates as discussed here, even though those offerings would come stright from you?

Sorry, I can't comment on that nor on how our publisher would be involved.

Quote: I was always under the impression that the developer contracts with the publisher to get the game out in the retail world. You make it sound like the publisher is the one footing the bill for all the development, and Bioware is just the shop that made the game for them.

The involvement of the publisher varies according to the deal. In most cases, the publisher actually does foot some or most of the bill during development... most smaller publishers could not, in fact, make a game any other way. There are exceptions, but it's rarely just a case of a developer "contracting out" a publisher even when the developer has made the entire game already... the publisher is, after all, taking a lot of financial risk in publishing a game even if they didn't finance its production. I believe Bioware is in a place where we can be more independant in our operations (the Live Team for NWN would not exist otherwise, I suspect), but that doesn't mean the publisher still doesn't hold a lot of power over things like release dates and support... especially when a license is involved.