AL4 on indefinite hold

It's been a very long time since I posted anything substantial about AL4: The Blades of Netheril. If I'm honest with myself, I've been putting off the inevitable. It saddens me to write this, but AL4 is now on indefinite hold. By that, I mean it isn't 100%, non-irrevocably certain never to be released. It's just highly unlikely.

Some background might help.

Shortly after releasing AL3: Tyrants of the Moonsea for NWN1 in the middle of 2006, I joined Ossian Studios and we began planning our next project. My intention had been to move on to AL4 immediately, but working with Alan Miranda and the rest of the team on another commercial project so soon after the cancellation of AL3 made too much sense to turn down. Between the Ossian work, a full-time day job and getting married in March 2007, I had no time to work on AL4.

When a window of opportunity did arise just after Mysteries of Westgate had entered purgatory, I seized it. A handful of fantastic area designers provided me with upwards of 60 maps in the space of little more than two months. At the same time, I'd written something like 50,000 words of dialogue in 6 weeks. By the end of October 2007, the project was steaming along. Then Ossian signed up to work on stuff for the Witcher, and because I was also working a day job, this reduced my free time to zilch. Or, it would be more accurate to say my appetite for working on AL4 in lieu of relaxing in what little time I did have was slim.

When the Witcher project came to a halt in the middle of 2008, I had time to reevaluate AL4. What I saw didn't please me very much. It was my fault; I'd gone overboard on trying to fit in as much custom content as possible and the story was uncomfortably rooted in Forgotten Realms lore. I'd committed the same crime as the official NWN campaign, and tried to fit in as much stuff as I could from the source material. The story resembled A Grand Tour of the Realms. Go to this cool place and do this; go to another and do that. The premise for doing so was not good enough in retrospect, and the design didn't please me. I probably make it sound worse than it was, but when a project that requires 1,000+ hours still has 500+ hours of investment needed, one needs to be committed to the vision. I wasn't. And I felt really bad about it, because the area designers had been kind enough to provide such great work on my behalf.

At the same time, the Westgate debacle lingered on and brought my appetite for game creation to an all-time low. I didn't touch AL4 for a long time. I went back to the module in 2009 and had some great ideas on how to revise it. Unfortunately, my drive to do so wasn't equal to the work involved. At that point, NWN2 had emerged as a much better platform to do the things I wanted to do -- at the cost of exponentially more work.

As late as last year, I was determined to finish the module and see it released. It had been a monkey on my back. I've always hated it when modders promise the world and then disappear. I didn't want to disappoint fans of the series. However, what I've found is this: the more game design I've done, the more my tastes have evolved and my perspective on what constitutes an acceptable level of work has altered. It doesn't matter that AL4 is a free mod and other projects are commercial work. If anything, the passion and dedication to quality needs to be greater for the former, to see it over the finish line in the absence of some remuneration for all the work involved.

I can't get AL4 to a place I'm happy with; not with the NWN1 toolset. I briefly considered, heavily considered, creating a module in NWN2 -- Blood of the Reaver, which I mentioned in this blog post. That would take place some years after the events of my NWN modules as a semi-connected sequel of sorts. I still believe the concept for this module would make a terrific game. But it's the work involved. Time, if I'm honest, I'd rather spend learning another language or writing a novel or channeling into a project that will contribute to the costs of living.

I'm disappointed that those fans eagerly awaiting AL4 probably won't see it come to light. It wasn't for want of trying. The NWN community was a fantastic one that enabled me to get to know a great many talented, supportive and awesome individuals -- pretty much all of whom I still remember (and some of whom I met during the Dragon Age Toolset event). I didn't want to slink away from the NWN scene without clarifying what was happening with, for many, their reason for visiting this blog. 

Sorry, guys.