Expectations & Wishes

I've got some questions and aspects on making a Zork I conversion, both IRL and from the world around, and I think it's the right time to talk about my intentions with it. Expectations and demands can be high and with too high expectations come great disapointment (just take a look at the financial news on TV). So to settle this here's a list that comes to my mind righ now. I just love bullet-lists.

• A NWN2 version isn't a Text Adventure. It can be but what fun would it be? I'll use this amazing game development tool to represent MY image of The Great Underground Empire (which in fact is rather small to be called Great).
• It will not be a clone with every small fun but useless detail (there's hundreds of them). It would be of nostalgic interest for a few but not from a gameplay aspect. I'll implement lots of them but not everyone.
• It will contain items, objects, beings and places that isn't in the original game. Reading the orignal code many, many times have made me think the descriptions of the surroundings are sparse and thin but leave a lot to the mind and inner eye. In a graphic game it works completly different - you very much play and feel what you see. Therefore I'll mix in some new things that connects to the Zork universe and places that make the GUI feel more real.
• Zork as multiplayer - is it blasphemy? Not at all think of Zork's predecessor, Colossal Cave Adventure and the MUD implementation of it. Multiplayer is fun, and playing together is always the funniest. For now I restrict the mod to be single party co-op but if I'll find a way to do it without disturbing the game mecanics I may do competetive play possible. I could be fun to kill your buddies to get the crystal trident first.
• Text input for every "Examine the tree", "Eat the sack", "Jump and shout" and "Throw the burning torch at the fence and run west" would not be possible and if it was I wouldn't implement it anyway. NWN2 is a click-n-play game, it's what it makes best and so it should be. I'm almost certain that if the authors Blank, Lebling, Daniels and Anderson would have written Zork this summer they would have gone MORPG with full visual joy and thousands of players but the same great background story.
• I don't have any clue of how many hours of gameplay it will give the player. I suppose you can rush it through in 20-25 minutes if you have the walkthrough and plan your moves well. Any normal exploring adventurer may squeeze anything between 1 - 10 hours out of it. Maybe, maybe not...
• It can't be completly dark in the underground. I know it says "pitch black" but in the movies there's never pitch black in the dark. How can you scare the audience if they can't sense the fear with their eyes (and ears of course). They have to get a glimpse of the surroundings to know what they are scared and excited about. Therefore I have to give the GUI a small portion of ambient light.
  
• Maps - yes or no? I havn't decided yet. It's more challenging to explore the cave and maze without NWN2's map function and there's many ways to remove it. None of them are perfect. You have to make notes on paper and draw your own map. But it can also be frustrating and boring to run around having no clue about where you are. I'll think about it, game-test some alternatives and probably come up with a mix of solutions.
• And finally - No I'm not buildning this one to get on the easy, fast track to the community Hall of Fame. I'm not that good builder anyway. I do it for fun and relaxation, to learn the toolset and to have something to play with my wife and friends when the dark winter of Scandinavia come upon us. And if anyone out there want to play it and come to like it I'll be very happy, indeed. (Isn't that what all rock stars always say about their music?) :-)

Long post, rainy day, one tired old man. Thanks for reading, as always!