Posted by Nepenthe(IMM) on September 18, 2000 at 13:32:44:
In Reply to: Just out of total curiosity, how much time did an area like that take to make? n/t posted by Daishan(VIP) on September 18, 2000 at 03:01:36:
The short answer would be that I started thinking about the area and jotting down notes around January 1998 and started actually writing the area around June 1998. That's misleading, though. Like most people, sometimes I was busy with school/work or had other things going on at my life during that 2-3 years. There were a few several-month periods in there wherein it wasn't touched at all. Sometimes it was because I couldn't get motivated -- there was always so much more to do to bring it in line with my vision. Other times I just couldn't think of a way to design a particular part of it or make a certain puzzle idea work in a way I was happy with. . .and so the area would sit, untouched, for a while until one day weeks or months later when I would spontaneously come up with the idea I was missing. Even still, there are a handful of things I had in mind for the area that aren't part of it yet and still plan to add. Fair warning to all, things will change with time and get more interesting. These changes include (but are not limited to) a smaller second area that logically pairs with NI. Maybe after that I'll start on the Ruins of Chreth-na or maybe the Deep Ysigrath. I hadn't planned to write such areas, but in the course of quests I've run the players have tried to go there so many times I figure I might as well let them.