You've most likely never heard of Ossian Studios. You may not know of its big cheese, Alan Miranda. But you've heard of the games that Miranda's worked on -- he was the producer for Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal, and he once worked at Relic Entertainment.

Miranda and his wife, Elizabeth, founded Ossian in 2003. The ensuing years may have been a bit bumpy -- their first game, Darkness over Daggerford, ended up as a free download after the premium module program for Neverwinter Nights was canceled. And their first true retail product, the Neverwinter Nights 2 adventure pack Mysteries of Westgate, was delayed for nearly two years due to DRM issues.

But when MOW finally came out, it received not only good reviews but was embraced by the NWN2 community.

Miranda talks about the challenges faced by a fledgling studio, what it means to be a "virtual" studio, the state of role-playing games in North America, working on existing triple-A games, and what it's like to run a company with his wife.

Bitmob: Ossian is a small studio, and this is its first "official" retail product. Your first planned product, Darkness over Daggerford, ended up getting released as a free module instead of a retail product. And you had months of issues with Atari and its DRM for Mysteries of Westgate. Why did you decide to work on adventure packs for existing games -- and cede some control over the process -- instead of making your own game? Do you regret that decision?

Alan Miranda: Hindsight is always 20/20. We could not have known that Daggerford would be canceled or that Westgate would be delayed by DRM issues. We sought to create add-ons for existing games because development is made easier by using an existing engine/toolset and also because Neverwinter is an established triple-A franchise. So working with something like that is a good move for any young company.

Still, despite those problems, if you look at the flip side of the coin, Daggerford's cancelation was actually a blessing because so many more people played it -- over 70,000 -- and learned of Ossian, and it even won the [Independent Games Festival] Best RPG Mod award, which isn't applicable to commercial products. And with Westgate, DRM delays aside, it was a step up for Ossian both in terms of company growth as well as the profile of the title.

Making our own game was something we attempted prior to making add-ons for NWN1/NWN2, but it had limited success, which is why we chose to try a different strategy. I mentioned that this road is a good move for any start-up, and it definitely was for Ossian, although I can't talk about anything except for our games that have been publicly announced. Our plan has always been that at a certain point we would eventually come full circle and develop our own game.

Bitmob: Mysteries of Westgate received better review scores in Europe than in the United States. Is the U.S. market more critical of RPGs, or do single-player RPGs have a larger following in Europe than in the U.S.?

AM: I've heard several opinions on this from people in the industry, and it likely boils down to cultural taste differences with regard to new game features. What this means is that the features North American gamers expect from a new RPG are different from what European gamers expect, or Asian gamers for that matter. Unique cultural tastes are well known among publishers, although I hadn't expected to see it with MOW. As far as I can tell, North American reviewers are more expectant of flashier features for a new RPG product, whereas European reviewers are not.

We focused on making a fun game using what already existed in NWN2 in the spring of 2007 since that was the directive from Atari in order to release the game before the first expansion. So MOW had no new "real" features to speak of, like the typical bullet points you see on expansion packs with new races, classes, spells, or game mechanics that require engine code changes. So apart from some great new art and an intriguing story in a new setting, the city of Westgate, North American reviewers saw it as "more of the same" with no additional coolness factor. Europeans didn't have a problem with more of the same, as long as it was good.

Bitmob: What value do review scores have for small studios?

AM: Good scores obviously give people who haven't heard of Ossian Studios an indication of what we're capable of. I'm not saying that the 72 percent on Metacritic for Mysteries of Westgate is representative of the quality of the games we can make, but at the minimum it says that we know what we're doing for developing an RPG. Good scores can keep doors open.

Bitmob: Have MMORPGs like World of WarCraft become a drain on the single-player RPG scene?

AM: In a way, I think they have. Their lucrative nature spurs many developers and publishers to pursue the Holy Grail of MMORPGs -- i.e., WOW -- to the detriment of developing single-player RPGs that could never make as much even if they were smash hits. The thing is, in a winner-takes-all industry, where the Western market is oversaturated with MMOs, very few of those games will hit it as big as they want. I see that as a great opportunity to fill a gap and create high quality single-player RPGs to fulfill demand.

Everything goes in cycles, and I expect that one day the pendulum will swing away from MMOs.

Bitmob: What is it about vampires that's captivated you and your team?

AM: It's those red vampire eyes that are so captivating when you look deeply...into...them....

I don't think anyone on the team was captivated by vampires when developing MOW. They were just an intrinsic part of the city of Westgate's lore, so we knew we had to incorporate them as a central theme into MOW. Other than that, I am personally impartial to the children of the night.

Bitmob: BioWare had six premium modules for the first Neverwinter Nights. What are the chances of Ossian working on another adventure pack for Neverwinter Nights 2?

AM: There are lots of ideas that work really well for a NWN2 adventure pack, especially in 3rd edition [of D&D and the Forgotten Realms] before the Spellplague. Apart from that, I'm going to have to answer "no comment" on this question.

Bitmob: How large is Ossian? Where are most of your employees from? Are they big-studio refugees or former modders?

AM: Ossian has about 25 people, and as a virtual company, they are spread across different countries in the world. There are quite a few of the team who are located in the U.S., but we also have people in Canada, the U.K., and Brazil, just to name a few countries.

The biggest benefit to being a virtual company is that we can hire the best in the world no matter where in the world that is. As Ossian grows, the people it employs come from both modding backgrounds as well as the game industry.

Bitmob: What do modders offer that designers with big-studio pedigrees don't?

AM: Both can be really great at what they do. However, a person's big-studio pedigree often translates into an expectation of an onsite position. With a virtual studio such as Ossian, which doesn't have a central office, someone's location doesn't matter, and they can work from home, the coffee shop, or the beach. It doesn't matter to us so long as they get their work done well. Modders are more flexible with this setup, and we can easily expand team sizes based on the needs of a project.

Bitmob: What's it like running a studio with your wife? What's been the biggest disagreement that you've had over running the company?

AM: Running Ossian Studios with Elizabeth has been one of the best experiences of my life. Back when we had dual careers, we didn't get to spend as much time with each other during the week as we wanted, and that got worse during my crunches in the game industry. Now we always work and crunch together, side by side in the same office at home. We both really like working together.

People say two heads are better than one, and I completely agree. There are obviously times where Elizabeth and I disagree about something -- and no, there is no throwing of mice or keyboards -- though I'm hard-pressed to remember what the "biggest disagreement ever" might be. We're actually very complementary in our co-management of the company and through discussion can examine more perspectives on an issue than just one person in charge.

Bitmob: Can a small studio make it by working on small products for larger games? Or do you need to make your own standalone product, like a well-respected indie game or downloadable title, to establish yourself?

AM: I think both are feasible paths for a small studio. The reason we went with making add-ons for larger games was because we wanted to increase Ossian's association with triple-A franchises, which increases awareness of our products and company. Ossian has also built up a decent RPG fanbase because of this.

Bitmob: How difficult is it for a small studio like Ossian to craft a story?

AM: No more difficult than crafting a story at a large studio. I would say it's even easier if there are layers of red tape or departmental politics that larger companies may have to contend with.

Being smaller allows Ossian to be more versatile in developing games. Really, it's no different than my time at BioWare, where someone would write up a few story ideas in an e-mail to send around, and then get together to talk about it. At Ossian, the same kind of e-mail gets sent out followed by online meetings and more e-mails. Our writing team is small -- only 6 people including myself -- but there's never a shortage of ideas.

Bitmob: What are the most significant challenges facing a studio like Ossian during these difficult economic times?

AM: Obviously, during a recession, many publishers cut back on expenditures and tend to focus on fewer products. Depending on a publisher's strategy, DLC is one area that can get cut back on. So finding the right opportunities to work on can be a challenge.

However, unlike game studios that have a central office, Ossian has low overhead costs, whereas a high overhead can drain a company during tough economic times. Nor would we ever need to lay anyone off during a lean time since we hire people per project -- think of the film industry, but all done virtually. That kind of resilience proves useful.

Bitmob: Ossian's two games have plenty of sidequests, which reminds me of another game series that you worked on while at BioWare: Baldur's Gate 2. How important are sidequests to your games?

AM: What made me want to work at BioWare were the Baldur's Gate games and the fun I had exploring their worlds. Part of what makes exploration interesting are the situations you come across as a player, meeting new characters, uncovering new locations, landing in the middle of a strange side-adventure. That's what makes a world so much more believable for me, rather than relatively empty areas with some monsters to fight, which is why I find sidequests so important. Most players of Daggerford and Westgate really loved the sidequests, so I believe many people place an equally high value on them.

Bitmob: Do sidequests muddle the main story?

AM: If you're out to convince a player of the believability of a living world, then sidequests are an absolute necessity. If you have people or sentient creatures inhabiting the world, then you're bound to have "people troubles" -- i.e., side stories. Otherwise, those characters might as well be cardboard cutouts standing around. With the need for sidequests, all that can vary is their complexity, and I think complexity is what you're referring to when asking if they muddle the main story.

My feeling is that as long as a sidequest's story doesn't get as grandiose in its complexity and length as the main story, then it's good to have. I like side stories to have interesting flavors that players can enjoy, and prefer to stay away from the kind of filler sidequests with no depth, like "find my potato" -- yes, that's an actual sidequest from a game.

Bitmob: What have NWN2 modders done thus far with Mysteries of Westgate and its content?

AM: It's hard to know what MOW content modders might be using because fan mods can take months or years to create. But we did release all of MOW's content for free to the fan community, so I hope they find some good uses for it.

Bitmob: What is it about these community-driven games that you find so interesting?

AM: Aside from seeing the creation of some great mods, what I find most interesting to see is the emergence of extremely talented designers and artists. Games like NWN and NWN2 established a proving ground by giving people the same set of powerful tools that developers use. If they can make something fantastic with them, then they have an excellent opportunity to get noticed by companies like Ossian or BioWare.

Bitmob: What are the financial challenges facing small studios that are trying to establish themselves?

AM: The biggest challenge always boils down to project funding. When you're a new small company, you have yet to prove yourself until you've released a game. And that was actually one of the attractions for us to do a premium mod for BioWare, which was to start on a small scale but develop something for a triple-A title -- it's quite a good mix.

I think that by developing a portfolio of smaller, quality titles in the shorter term, more doors will open up for small studios looking to establish themselves with the aim of developing a large title. Not only will they have a successful track record, but they'll also have a fanbase.

Bitmob: What did Ossian do while it was waiting for Atari to finish adding its DRM to MOW?

AM: Well, we didn't sit idly, that's for sure. We worked on other games, though what those were I'm not at liberty to say.

Bitmob: Now that the game is out, what's surprised you about its reception among players?

AM: Overall, the reaction from players has been excellent. So although we were surprised by the wide spread of review scores, we were more pleased than surprised at the predominantly positive reception by NWN2 players. On the biggest fan site for reviewing and downloading NWN2 mods, the Neverwinter Vault, fan reviews have given MoW a 90 percent average, with the consensus being that MOW is a thoroughly enjoyable adventure easily worth the $10 price tag for 15-plus hours of gameplay.

If there was a specific issue I was personally surprised about, it was the polarization on the humourous aspects of MOW, such as the Brotherhood of the Ferret sidequest. Some players absolutely loved it, while others found it silly. Given the popularity of Minsc and Boo from the Baldur's Gate series, I had thought that a comedic sidequest in the same "hamster" vein would be a winner across the board. So I was genuinely surprised that for some people it fell flat, although this may have something to do with the Terry Pratchett humour style we used for it, which is different than mainstream American humor.

Bitmob: What is it about the Forgotten Realms, and fantasy in general, that you find so compelling?

AM: If I trace the answer to that question back many years, my attraction to medieval fantasy probably has its roots in playing with toys of medieval castles and knights as a kid. Later, it evolved into reading books about ancient legends like King Arthur. So when a friend introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons and the Forgotten Realms when I was 15, I took an instant liking to it. It wasn't just that it was grounded in medieval legend, but its world was more fantastic than anything I'd seen, limited only by my imagination. And the fantasy genre has the excellent characteristic of having unexplained mysticism, something I believe is intrinsically important to human curiosity.

Playing D&D tabletop eventually expanded to reading The Lord of the Rings and many other fantasy books. So it wasn't the D&D rules in particular that compelled me to play, but the Forgotten Realms world itself, with its lore, creatures, and call to adventure. The call to adventure into the unknown has always been such a strong theme for me that the golden horn in Ossian Studios' logo represents a call to adventure for all the players of our games.