Alan Miranda

Alan Miranda is a computer game designer.

Career

Alan Miranda is a previous BioWare employee, who had worked on Dungeons & Dragons titles like Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal.^[1] In 2003, he left BioWare to form his own company, Ossian Studios, with his wife Elizabeth Starr.^[2] Miranda approached BioWare joint CEO Greg Zeschuk in 2005 to discuss the possibility of Ossian developing a "premium module" for Neverwinter Nights.^[3] Premium modules were adventures created for Neverwinter Nights by BioWare and other companies.^[4] BioWare had been given autonomy on the premium module process from the game's publisher, Atari, and Zeschuk approved Miranda's proposal.^[2] Miranda's initial draft of the project was a pirate-themed adventure in the Sword Coast, which happened to be the same idea that BioWare itself was creating a premium module for, Neverwinter Nights: Pirates of the Sword Coast. Miranda revised the concept and chose the Western Heartlands as the setting.^[5] Ossian estimated that a module on par with other large games like Kingmaker would take four to five months. Pre-production on Darkness over Daggerford began in April 2005 and took a month and a half. Ossian went through five designers in this stage, none of whom worked out. Choosing a designer required much of the time allocated for pre-production, and to compensate Ossian developers immediately began creating the game, fleshing out details as they went.^[6] In May 2006, Atari cancelled the premium module program, with no warning to developers of the current projects.^[7] Miranda and his team decided to finish the game anyway,^[8] and in August 2006 it was released free of charge on IGN's Neverwinter Nights Vault.^[9]

References

1. "Cancelled Premium Module Interview -Alan Miranda (Darkness over Daggerford)". NW Vault (IGN). 2006-08-17. Archived from the original on 8 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
2. Ford, Suzie (2008-04-14). "NWN2: Mysteries of Westgate Interview with Alan Miranda". Warcry. Archived from the original on 4 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
3. "Darkness over Daggerford Wrap Report". RPG Vault (IGN). 2006-10-13. Archived from the original on 2009-06-22. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
4. "Premium Neverwinter Nights Modules". BioWare. Archived from the original on 12 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
5. "Cancelled Premium Module Team Interview - (Darkness over Daggerford)". NW Vault (IGN). 2006-08-26. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
6. "Darkness over Daggerford Wrap Report (page 2)". RPG Vault (IGN). 2006-10-13. Archived from the original on 2008-03-04. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
7. Taluntain, Chevalier (2006-10-26). "Darkness over Daggerford Interview (page 2)". Sorcerer's Place. Archived from the original on 8 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
8. Wallis, Alistair (2007-02-23). "Road To The IGF: Darkness Over Daggerford's Alan Miranda". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 9 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
9. "Darkness over Daggerford". NW Vault (IGN). 2006-08-15. Archived from the original on 21 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-22.