The Future

After such a long period of quiet here and on the Khalidine web site, I've been getting a lot of questions.  Well - really, I've been getting one question phrased a lot of different ways. 

" Is Khalidine dead?"

Khalidine has definitely been in a state of hibernation these last couple of months, so your concerns and questions are understandable.  And I've done that action I hate most when taken by others - that is, no action at all.  I've let this slumbering beast lie without giving much explanation to anybody. Not even to allay concerns about possible abandonment. 

So... here's the explanation, delayed as it is.  And the answer to that question.

(This gets kind of long-winded, so if you want to grab some tea or coffee... I'll be here when you get back.)

Back in August, things at work got... well, to call them "bats**t crazy" wouldn't be too far off the mark.  I was able to keep up somewhat during that time - at least to keep popping in on the forums, giving some direction to the team, etc. By the end of October, things were even busier - bursts of 12 to 14 hours a day which continued up into December.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, my wife and I learned that we're expecting child - due in June.  (Yay!)

Anyway, I had a nice, long vacation in December.  Two and a half weeks, during which I figured to get everything up to date and start things rolling again.  But as I discovered at that time -- I was completely burned out. On work, on NWN2, on computers.  The majority of my time was spent ... *gasp* away from computers!  I looked in on the web site to make sure nothing urgent had come up, lingered in chat without actually being there, and checked in with my regular nerd news sources -- but for the most part I spent time with my wife, got a lot done around the house, watched a lot of bad movies. In other words, I +relaxed.   

The more astute of you may notice that these sound like excuses - surely I could have taken two minutes to brief post of explanation, along with some reassurances that we're going to continue on. Yet... I didn't do that. do that.

That's because you're right - they are excuses.  I didn't realize it myself at first - there were many nights when I said to myself, "When I get home tonight, I'm going to make a quick blog post to keep people posted." Then I would get home and think... "Well, I can do that tomorrow night."

Here's you all:

"GF? What's going on? When are we going to release? Are we still going to finish?"

Here's me:

"..."

And here's why. I was asking myself the same questions.  Until I could answer them for myself, I did not want to post an answer that might be a lie.  And to be honest, into late December,  I did not want to admit even to myself that I didn't know-- which is why I kept putting off making that post.

Over the course of vacation I've had time to do a lot of thinking -- impending fatherhood has caused me to take a very close look at things. Here's some of what I realized. 

• NWN2 is a huge time sink
• I've given over a massive amount of time to NWN2 and Khalidine.
• Given the silence from Atari, it's very unlikely NWN2 will be getting any additional expansion packs
• I've got other interests - not the least of which is a child on the way, which will surely consume much of my time.
  

Here's some more of what I realized:

• We have a great community here - both Khalidine, and the larger NWN2 community. The former is particularly impressive, because this is in spite of the fact that we've never fully gotten off the ground.  
• A lot of talented people have spent a lot of time bringing Khalidine together.  By "a lot" I mean thousands of hours. 
  
• Khalidine is very close to being ready. While there is plenty more systems work to do in the longer term,  there is very little needed to make it enjoyable and playable in the short term, while that work continues.
• I've got stories untold - stories I've been planning to see play out in-game for years now - and if I don't let them out somewhere, they may fester and do indescribable things to my brain.

Khalidine is going to make it live. I've no intention of leaving her in a half-finished state.

But for a dash of reality: I no longer have the same time and energy to commit that i have in the past -- and in just a few months, I'll have even less.  Clearly then, my previous method of trying to stay on top of every little detail while somehow managing not to give any solid direction isn't going to work (and as many of you have gleefully pointed out, it wasn't working all that well to begin with...)

The most important place to start -- in spite of my urge to dive in and start scripting half a dozen different things, or to start flinging task assignments around will ye nill ye -- is to clearly define where Khalidine is going and how she's going to get there.  

For the team members who have helped to turn this vague vision into a reality: many, many thanks.  Your time was not wasted.  For those of you on the team and in the community who have seen it through this far: thanks for you patience.  For those who haven't... well, maybe you'll want to come back and give us another shot pretty soon.

More will be posted this weekend.