GamingNexus: There have been critiques about the single player portion of the original game. What can you tell our readers that may alleviate their concerns about the story portion of the game? Do you have an estimate on how long it will take someone to complete the single player campaign?
Ryan Rucinski: The single player game is really focused on the story and making the player seem like they truly are the hero. There are side missions that can be accomplished or forgotten about completely but it is not open-ended. When you beat NWN2 you will definitely know it is over.
I can’t really speculate how long it will take a person to play the game. Some people like to do every little side quest, get every hidden object, or do everything just right. Others don’t. I personally play a game like NWN2 more than once. It seems that the first time I play through I discover that I missed a lot of content and want to go back for it. I also play a game like this differently knowing that there are multiple endings… Just how evil can I really be before saying to myself “Man, you are a jerk. Rad!” Now that we have seen some people play the game, including QA and the Design team, we have a lot more and longer of a game than we expected.
GamingNexus: Will we be able to use our characters from the first game in Neverwinter Nights 2 or will we have to start from scratch?
Ryan Rucinski: The player will have to start from scratch. The story of NWN2 has some revisiting characters and locations from NWN1 but the main character is not the same person carried over.
GamingNexus: Can we expect the same great experience and ease of DMing a live game in Neverwinter Nights 2?
Ryan Rucinski: It should be a very similar experience. We are trying a few things that will potentially make the DM easier to use but we are currently testing them out to see if they are worth it.
GamingNexus: There have been some great modules developed by the community with the first game. How excited are you to see what the people out there will do with your game? Do you think you'll be able to release some toolsets before the official game is release so some modders can start generating content for the game?
Ryan Rucinski: I am actually very excited about see what the community can do with our Tools. Every time we do a demo or a behind the scenes sort of thing we always get “Holy Jeez” type of response. We aren’t holding anything back from the public. Everything that we used to create the game will be included in retail. You will have the exact same ToolSet we used to make our levels and the content within.
As for the release of the ToolSet, that is unknown at this time. So that is a maybe.
GamingNexus: With the increase complexity of the engine and from the screenshots the more natural looking outdoor environments, how hard or easy will it be for MOD makers to generate professional looking environments?
Ryan Rucinski: I think that once people get into the ToolSet and start to become familiar with it, it won’t be that long. I will admit that there is a ton of new things that you can do with the ToolSet. A metric F-Ton, actually. I can picture entire teams of folks getting together and working on modules. However, initially as people will be conquering the learning curve (people with previous experience in creating a NWN module will have an advantage) I think there will be more of a sharing of information and techniques.
GamingNexus: The premium content has really been a great addition to the series offering some great content. Do you see Neverwinter Nights 2 continuing it?
Ryan Rucinski: I personally would love to see additional content created and distributed this way, but we are still looking into the logistics of this. However, once we know the results, we will definitely make a public announcement about it.
GamingNexus would like to thank Ryan for taking the time to answer our questions and to Brandon for helping to coordinate the interview.
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