http://www.slayweb.com/ Home of Slayer Software and Bob en-gb Tue, 6 July 2010 18:23:04 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss brendan@slayweb.com brendan@slayweb.com http://www.slayweb.com/rss/bob.png http://www.slayweb.com Slayweb News http://www.slayweb.com/other/wallpaper.php Added a new page for wallpapers, only one at the moment but maybe more in the future. Tue, 6 July 2010 18:22:52 GMT Moments of Gaming http://www.slayweb.com/momentsofgaming/#june2010 New episode of Moments of Gaming now availiable on my You Tube channel. This month including Alien Breed: Impact, Alpha Protocol, Borderlands, Eve Online, Jade Empire, Magic The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Torchlight, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 and Wolfenstein 3D. Thu, 1 July 2010 16:17:44 GMT Moments of Gaming http://www.slayweb.com/momentsofgaming/#may2010 New episode of Moments of Gaming now availiable on my You Tube channel. This month including Eve Online, Just Cause 2, Mass Effect 2 and Torchlight. Mon, 31 May 2010 17:26:44 GMT NWN2 Designer Diary http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/diary/#20100520 As I recently mentioned on my general blog I intend to rekindle my unfinished Neverwinter Nights 2 projects and get at least one of them finished by the end of the year. So to start with I have to familiarize myself with my setting again. Other than the city of Neverwinter and the Sword Coast I don't know a lot about the Forgotten Realms. For this reason I decided to create my own DnD-esque world rather than use the existing setting. Looking back this may have been the wrong choice. It gives me greater control over everything but it's also a lot more work to create. I have to know the back story for the whole world and create all the texture for the setting. It would probably have been quicker to learn some more about the Forgotten Realms rather than to start from scratch like that. I'll stick with what I've got now that I'm part way though but I've just got to make the effort to use it all more than once so that time can be considered more productive overall. Thu, 20 May 2010 02:57:44 GMT NWN2 Designer Diary http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/diary/#20091108 I hadn't realised quite how long it had been since I last wrote on the page until I came to post this, at least I've managed to make it less than a year, just! As may be obvious from the title of the post, the reason I'm thinking about role playing games again is "Dragon Age: Origins". Bioware have done a great job with this game and I've been enjoying it a lot so far. However it's made me consider my unfinished NWN2 projects, which have taken a back seat for the last few months. I have to decide if I should abandon them completely or make a renewed effort to finish them. As an added complication Bioware have released a toolset for creating modules for Dragon Age which sounds tempting and I expect a lot of builders will make the switch. What I've decided is to stick with NWN2 for now and try to finish my projects. The main reason for that being familiarity, it's what I currently know the most about, also my current pc is getting below average framerate in DA:O (must be time for an upgrade!). I'm sure I'll give the Dragon Age editor a try at some point, but not just yet. So for now it's back to work in the NWN2 toolset. In my last post I said I was going to add SOZ placeables to SLS2, that'll be the first job then. I should probably get the latest patch! Sun, 8 Nov 2009 04:44:44 GMT Slayweb News http://www.slayweb.com/findme/ Added a new page of links to online profiles and such, all you'd need to find me online. Thu, 13 Feb 2009 04:05:27 GMT NWN2 Designer Diary http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/diary/#20081216 It's been a busy time of year for PC gamers, I've been playing too much of Fallout 3, Red Alert 3 & Left 4 Dead to properly devote much time to Storm of Zehir. I've enjoyed most of what I've played so far, but I don't think I'm very far though it yet. My party is fairly basic consisting of: a Human Swashbuckler, an Aasimar Paladin, a Halfling Rogue and a Drow Warlock. The game runs fine and is enjoyable but I think the main probably is that it isn't quite what I was expecting. For example I was expecting high adventure in the jungles of Chult, but instead I quickly found myself (spoiler:see page). I don't exactly consider this a problem, it was just unexpected. Another unexpected aspect is the frequency of encounters on the overland map. I didn't realize I was going to need some kind of stealth in my party. Luckily my Rogue can 'Move Silently' past most things, but I have to pause at most area transitions and make sure she is selected before we're swamped by bandits and ogres. A few quibbles and concerns but overall a pretty good game, but for me the main reason for purchasing was getting more creatures and placeables for my own mods. My next goal on that front is an updated version of SLS2 including the new placeables from SOZ, which will probably appear shortly after christmas. Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:21:24 GMT NWN2 Designer Diary http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/diary/#20081002 I've been working on The Seal of Yamarl again, progress is slow at the moment. Currently there's a lot of dialogue to be written which is my weakest skill. The campaign currently consists of six areas which will take your charactor from level one to level three. Chapter one, once complete, should see you finishing around level six. I've posted a few new shots from the module, just a small cave area. I don't want to post any shots of my main area at the moment due to plot spoilers. Aside from this module I've also had an idea for a new NWN2 project. This will be very heavy on the scripting side of things which is more my area of expertise. It's still in the early stages so I won't talk much about it yet but I'll give it a basic description: A stand-alone social/alternative module which supports multiple parties but is not persistant. Thu, 2 Oct 2008 22:23:04 GMT NWN2 Designer Diary http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/diary/#20080925 SLS2 has finally been released after many delays. The response to the release has been pretty uninspiring, only 6 downloads so far and no comments. I was expecting interest to be low at this point, nearly two years since the original game was released and still a month away from the next expansion. I have to admit though I was hoping for a little more. At least now it's done I can install it in my own module and get on with that! Tue, 25 Sep 2008 16:58:05 GMT Neverwinter Nights 2 http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/sls2.php The new version of my lighting control system for Neverwinter Nights 2 is now available for download. Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:05:10 GMT NWN2 Designer Diary http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/diary/#20080917 I've been pulled away from the world of Neverwinter by work and real life for a while now. The time has come for that to change! I've recently started working on SLS2 again with the aim of releasing as soon as possible, certainly before the Storm of Zehir hits. There's only a handful of things to finish now and then the documentation to write. More SLS2 info sometime next month. Tue, 17 Sep 2008 20:38:31 GMT Slayweb News http://www.slayweb.com/levels/spore.php A new small section added to Slayweb, my Spore creature showcase. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:01:14 GMT NWN2 Designer Diary http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/diary/#20080226 It's never happened to me before but due to an autosave error my entire SLS2 test mod directory was wiped! I was pretty lucky that I still had my main area and script open in the toolset so they could be re-saved. My last backup was a week old, that'll teach me for being complacent! Combining the re-save and the backup has restored a decent ammount, but I've lost a lot of support scripts and about half an area (and I kinda wanted to redo that area anyway!). I just wanted to post this to remind builders out there to regularly backup your modules. Everybody says this, but if I'm any indication not everybody does it. Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:20:31 GMT NWN2 Designer Diary http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/diary/#20080218 I get easily distracted when working on my pc. There's always a webpage or forum to read, or there's a new idea for something to create that I end up starting to work on. At the moment there's two NWN related distractions. While working on my module I realized that a new version of SLS was required, knowing a lot more about the scripting system now I found there was a lot of scope for improvements and new features. So for now most of my NWN development is going towards this so I can get it done and use it in my own module. The other project that's distracting me I'm not going to say much about yet. I need to figure where it's going and if it'll even get completed, but I will say it's a tool that should be useful to developers and player alike. Look out for SLS2 sometime before the end of the month and more info on the other project later. Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:10:03 GMT NWN2 Designer Diary http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/diary/#20080129 I'm not new to the world of module creation. I did have a module in development for the original Neverwinter Nights (it never got to a releasable state though). One thing I suffered from a lot while building for NWN1 was what I'll call 'runaway area building syndrome'. I'd keep building area after area without stopping to add anything else; dialog, scripts, npcs, etc. Though very easy to do thanks to the tileset system, this made the process get a bit daunting when there was suddenly a crap load of conversations to write. It was all about going to have a look in at the area in game rather than actually thinking about building a whole module. With my new NWN2 module I figured I'd try the opposite approach, sticking with one area until it's was virtually complete in all areas. So far it definitely feels better, there's added variety in the work that needs doing and you can properly play the module (the beginning at least). Feels like I'm actually building a module, though having a plan helps with that too. Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:28:03 GMT NWN2 Designer Diary http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/diary/ I have decided to keep a log of my thoughts and experiences while building a module for Neverwinter Nights 2. The plan for this module started before the game was released, it's taken a little time to get around to actually making it! After creating SLS I found I lacked the time to properly devote to a whole module, until now. So, I've gathered up all the random notes and scribbles of maps I've made over the last year of thinking about this and work has begun. My first area is pretty much to a point where I'm happy with it and I've put some screenshots on the main module page. Mon, 21 Jan 2008 22:33:34 GMT Neverwinter Nights 2 http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/sls.php First project for NWN2 is complete, SLS version 1.00 is now available. A lighting control system for module builders. Mon, 13 Nov 2006 15:37:10 GMT Neverwinter Nights 2 http://www.slayweb.com/nwn2/ A new section has been added dedicated to my projects for the game Neverwinter Nights 2 Mon, 13 Nov 2006 15:35:10 GMT Neverwinter Nights 2 http://www.slayweb.com/levels/nwn2.php The presale toolset for people who pre-ordered Neverwinter Nights 2 has been released. I've been experimenting with it and here are a few screenshots of my work so far. Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:58:10 GMT Slayer Software http://www.slayweb.com/games/tictacbob.php Originally written for PHP 3, Tic Tac Bob has now been updated to run on PHP 4 & 5 Sun, 17 Sep 2006 03:10:30 GMT Slayer Software http://www.slayweb.com/games/history.php New page added detailing the history of Slayer Software and Bob Sun, 17 Sep 2006 03:10:30 GMT Slayweb News http://www.slayweb.com/ Slayweb.com updated to be W3C standards compliant and this new RSS feed added. Sun, 17 Sep 2006 03:10:30 GMT