Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate - Development

Development

Soon after the release of Darkness over Daggerford, Ossian Studios' previous game, discussion began over the possibility of the company creating another expansion for Neverwinter Nights 2. Ossian officially proposed the game to Atari and Wizards of the Coast, the owners of the Dungeons & Dragons license, in the fall of 2006, with production beginning in January 2007. When asked about why the Dungeons & Dragons setting appealed to the company, Ossian Studios CEO Alan Miranda said, "All of our team members are fans, so developing a game seemed like a great opportunity."

During the game's early development stages, it was set in the Forgotten Realms nation of Rashemen. The location was changed because Obsidian Studios' Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer was to take place in the same area. At lead designer Luke Scull's suggestion, Westgate became the new setting for the game. Ossian wanted the game's setting to differentiate itself from both Neverwinter Nights and the Baldur's Gate series of games. They found Westgate, situated in another area of the Forgotten Realms setting, to be ideal. Miranda compared Westgate to a city-sized version of Star Wars's Mos Eisley Cantina; a "melting pot" of creatures from everywhere in the setting. Ossian said they decided to make Mysteries of Westgate exclusively single-player in order to improve the game experience.

David John, who had also worked on expansion packs for the original Neverwinter Nights, composed the score for Mysteries of Westgate, which took several months. In an interview soon after the game's release, Scull said "Some of tracks are so good, I actually listen to them alongside my usual eclectic mix." Mysteries of Westgate's voice acting was recorded in Edmonton, Canada, with over 12,000 words of new voice-over material. The cast included some of the same people who previously acted in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark and other BioWare games. Brian Dunn and Brian Watson, both of whom had also worked on Darkness over Daggerford, created the game's artwork and graphics.

Development of Mysteries of Westgate ended in September 2007, but Atari delayed the pack's release, because the digital rights management they wanted to use was not ready. The delay was also caused by coordination problems between Ossian, Obsidian, and Atari. The game was officially announced on October 22, 2007, with an estimated release date of "fall 2007". In May 2008, IGN reported that the game was scheduled for release that June, but it was further delayed, finally being released on April 29, 2009. Development of Mysteries of Westgate continued during the delays, to ensure the game's compatibility with the expansions and patches for Neverwinter Nights 2 that were released after the game's completion. Scull said, "Kevin Smith, our Lead Technical Designer ... had to bug fix and create new builds of the game with each ."

When IGN's Steve Butts asked Miranda why the game was made available only through download, he replied, "From a financial perspective, digital distribution makes a lot of sense. It allows us to sell the Adventure Pack at a lower price point while still providing players with the same high quality gameplay and content that they've come to expect from NWN2 products.". Some of the game's voice-overs, monsters, music, and objects were released to the Neverwinter Nights 2 community for free, for use in building custom adventures, without needing to purchase the game itself.