Steve Bokkes on the Heart of Winter Expansion
by MageDragon - May 8, 2001
I had the extreme honor to ask Steve Bokkes, Designer for Icewind Dale and Heart of Winter, a few questions about the free Heart of Winter Downloadable Dungeon Set. New areas, a new monster, and all for free to owners of Heart of Winter. There will also be bug fixes that were missed or new since the patch 1.41. For those who wish not to learn anything about it until it is available, hit your back button now. For those who are ready to feel the love, put your pointy hats on and away we go...
Who came up with the idea to do a free, downloadable expansion for Heart of Winter, and who is working on the project?
I believe the initial idea came from Feargus "El Presidente" Urquhart. He wanted us to put together a few extra levels that we could offer on our website as a freebie. He passed the ball to Darren, who in turn rounded up the usual suspects and made the "expansion expansion" an official project. Aside from a few members who have moved onto other projects, the team is still pretty much the same group of guys that worked on the original Icewind Dale and Heart of Winter.
Is the team solely working on this project, or are they doing it on the side?
Several members of the Icewind team are helping out part-time on TORN, but for rest of us, the downloadable expansion is a full-time gig.
Has the expansion been given a name? If so, what is it?
Ah, the name. It was only recently decided that the project would have an official title. I guess we just got tired of calling it the "Heart of Winter Downloadable Dungeon Set." So, for the past week or so, I've been compiling a list of potential titles that will be passed around to the team. Whichever one gets the most votes will become the new official title. Democracy at its finest.
Broadband is king and a lot of people have it, but there are plenty still stuck with dialup. How large do you expect the download to be? If people wish to purchase the expansion on CD-ROM, will this be made available to them?
We expect the overall size of the free download to be within the range of 75-100 MB. As far as I know, there are currently no plans for any retail versions, so those who are still stuck with dialup will have to be patient or find some way to pass the time during the lengthy download.
There was a contest on the message boards for unique items with histories. How many made the cut into the game?
Out of all the submissions, I picked five items for implementation. With size being a factor, we originally planned for a grand total of twenty new items. There may be room for a few more, but we'll have to wait and see.
Will we face more Dragons?
Sorry, no dragons this time. The animation files associated with dragons and other "super-sized" monsters are huge, so we've chosen new critters that were of a more modest size.
Will more funny scripted moments make their way into the expansion (like the Hosttower squad)?
Tom and I had a blast putting together the Hosttower encounter. We laughed harder and harder with each new revision. I think it's safe to expect more scripted encounters like it in the downloadable expansion.
Jason Manley will paint how many portraits and of what types for the expansion?
Jason has painted six new portraits, and they look awesome. Four of the six are males. They include two fighter types, a cleric, and a mage. The other two are females--one a druid, and the other a "thiefy/ranger" type. All six are of human or half-elven stock.
How long do you estimate will it take to complete the expansion?
Well, let's see. Most of the art for the new areas has been completed. We've only have one or two more levels to do, plus some 2D touchup. The story and individual level designs have been pretty much nailed down. Right now, we're cranking away at full steam, populating areas and implementing items, spells, and scripts. If all goes well, I'd say we should be ready to release the expansion sometime in early June.
How many full screen areas and dungeon levels comprise the expansion? How dastardly are their design?
There are a total of nineteen new areas in the expansion. Most of them are above ground locations. However, four of the levels are huge, subterranean dungeon environments that are each about 36 screens in size. John Deiley and I are working to ensure that each level is chock full of nastiness. One of the levels, which I've dubbed "the Crypts of Eternity," is perhaps my most dastardly design yet. I don't want to give away too much, but I will say that parties that enter this crypt expecting a straightforward dungeon sweep are in for a big surprise.
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