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[Kaeloree]

Our first interview this year is with Sir BillyBob and leahnkain, the hardworking developers behind the Total Conversion "Classic Adventures." Both have been around for years here at SHS, and I'm glad that we were given the chance to interview them!

A big thanks to Bluenose for conducting the interview and to Sir BillyBob and leahnkain for sparing a moment of their time!



- Liam/K'aeloree

[Kaeloree]

Bluenose: When did you join the modding community?
Sir BillyBob: I joined sometime during the early days of TeamBG for their DSotSC mod. I came across several bugs and would post messages to the team asking about what was happening. I was never sure if it was me or the mod. As I watched them add more to the mod, I became more and more interested in modding but never really did anything beyond ShadowGate and other hacking tools. Once I started beta testing The Big Picture, I was completely hooked on modding the IE engine.
Leahnkain: I have been around since 1999/2000. I remember when all of the modding tools were being released. I also remember using a hex editor to mod. I took a break from modding around 2003 and I returned to help Sir BillyBob create Classic Adventures in 2005.


Bluenose: What's the history behind CA?
L: I will let SBB answer this one.
SBB: CA was an idea that I had started to create after making the Secret of Bonehill mods for Baldur's Gate. I used the old paper mods because I am both lazy and I liked playing those games when I was a kid (back when Gary Gygax was still with TSR). To get some fresh ideas for a new mod, I decided to hit the bookstores and bought some new mods I had never seen before. At the same time, I got an email from Leahnkain asking about teaming up to work on a new mod together. Since I don't really like to write dialogs (dungeon crawls are fine with me), the idea of passing that work onto someone else sounded great. We decided it had to be a total conversion. The regular BG2 storyline already has way too many mods now and after several years of doing TBP and BGT, I was really tired of the Bhaal story.


Bluenose: What inspires you to mod?
SBB: The goal of one day completing this project. To be honest, back when I started this, I worked from home in a technical sales job. I didn't travel much and there were times where I stayed home for weeks on end and got really good money for it. Times have changed and now I don't have more than 12 hours a week to commit to CA. I know I am the reason this project has gone slowly and I am sorry for that but I do hope to keep working at it and get the story developed up to at least the Q1 mod (the Lloth mod).
L: To finish CA, I think after all of the effort we have put into CA, I only want to see it finished and to one day see modders modding Classic Adventures.

Bluenose: What would your dream mod be?
L: I haven?t played BG in quite a while. I guess my dream mod would be something different and creative. Definitely not another romance or romance option for a bioware NPC.

SBB: One I am not involved in? I am not really sure anymore. I haven't played any other mods in over a year now.


Bluenose: Favorite mod?
L: Classic Adventures of course, other mods which I have really enjoyed have been Hubelpot and The Glory of Istar (sadly The Glory of Istar will never be finished).
SBB: I love Horred's original idea of blending 3 big mods together into the BG2 game. The challenge that must have been incredible.


Bluenose: What advice would you give first-time modders?
SBB: Have patience. It isn't easy to learn all the things you need to know and even with all the tutorials out there, there are lots of areas of the IE engine that just aren't documented well enough for first-timers. Try some basic changes to the engine before attempting something bigger. I am amazed at some of the emails I have gotten before where the new modder was attempting to do something almost as big as CA. It just isn't going to happen. Give yourself some time to learn.

L: The best advice I can give is you can get help from outside of the community. Almost all of CA?s art comes from professional artist who have never played the game, some of the soundsets have come from real voices actors.


Bluenose: Some of your mod is based on PnP modules. How did you decide which ones to use, and was it based on what was possible in the Infinity Engine?
SBB:
Mods are selected based on several things -

What monsters we can utilize given the animation limitations

What movement, concepts, storylines are really able to do in the IE engine.

What changes need to be made (both major and minor).


Bluenose: How much of the mod was planned before you started it, and how much of that planning did you deviate from when it came to the actual mod?
L: We always had a basic idea of what modules we were definitely going to include. Other modules have been added to make the story more balanced and to allow more options for the player.


Bluenose: With regard to your NPCs, are any of them based on people you've known in real life or on characters from fiction or other media?
L: The NPC personalities have come from what we needed to fit into the storyline. Very few NPC?s came from my old pen and paper campaign. (Aesdale and Vildamyr used to be characters I played over 15 years ago.)


Bluenose: Since this is a collaborative project, does someone have the final say in what's included or do you work it out together?
L: In the beginning it started off with Sir BillyBob having final say in everything which was done. After we added Celestine to our team it became a collaboration of the three of us. Now CA is a collaboration between SBB and myself. We have added other team members (Solar?s Harper,Lysan Lurraxol and Sam.) to help us with the heavy workload of creating such a huge TC.


Bluenose: What's the future for Classic Adventures? Do you have firm plans for converting particular PnP modules, or will you work out what to do when you need to?
SBB: As for future works, we are hoping to add in the Giants series. Also the whole Drow mod series. There will be some other single mods but these are the series of mods that are planned. I have tons of mods, both electronic and paper to go through and decide what can or cannot be done and how we can include them into the story. Collaboration is the biggest part but the final decision really has to go with the person that must link the parts together. That usually is me. Leahnkain has tons of ideas and I usually have to filter them down to real possibilities and realities of what I can or cannot do with the IE engine. I will gladly pass that decision on to other members if they have a solution. But if I am expected to make the scripts or situations that other members what included, I will stop it if I can't design it into the game.
L: We do have firm plans for many modules, our biggest restraint has been time. We have always planned to do the Giant series, the Drow Series and the Queen of the Demonweb pits. We are adding Castle Amber because of the strong demand.


Bluenose: Have you had to make many compromises with the ones you did use? By which I mean, if the mod used a particular type of creature (such as Twig Blights) did you decide not to use the mod or did you substitute something that approximated what it called for?

SBB: The limitations of the 2D game engine and low number of available animation slots forces us to modify the stories so we can use creatures we already have. In the case of some creatures, like the Twig Blights, the description of them was close to a standard animation. We just had to change the color so it was not seen as a small troll. Some plots involve levitation, swimming, flying, etc and that just isn't possible with the IE engine. So we have to change the mod. The last U series mod was done this way. In the real U3 mod, the Sahuagin lair has one level completely under water. The PnP party is supposed to have rings or potions to help them get air. That doesn't really work in the IE engine so I just placed water areas on the floor to look like pools of water. It was the only thing I could think of to do.


Bluenose: So eventually there?s going to be a face-off with Lolth. That seems like a fitting end to an adventurers career (one way or the other), is that the main motivation?
L: The storyline will take many twists and turns, you will have to keep playing Classic Adventures it to find out.

Edited by leahnkain, 26 December 2008 - 10:41 PM.