Parting Sean “Commander Ander” McCann Largely Shaped the Story over the past Modules

We already reported on our Community Watch Sunday that Neverwinter Content Designer Sean “Commander Ander” McCann set sails to join Blizzard in what could probably be described as next logical step in his career.

Community Manager nitocris83 has also confirmed the departure of Commander Ander. We believe Sean was one of the main story designers of the game. He first actively appeared on the Arcgames forum as designer of the Elemental Evil campaign and Stronghold Quests. McCann has since been working on the story of Maze Engine, Storm Kings Thunder and the upcoming River District.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4x5f90bJPs” https=”yes”]

“Tell Celeste….”

If you are one of those that just rush through the story quests, you might have missed a large part of what he has done. Anything recent featuring Knox, Celeste, Xuna, and Makos as primary characters and their personal histories and motivations would have had his hands on it. The Ancient Dragon’s Lair is iconic, visually appealing, and was widely praised by players as feeling like a real adventure. The Maze Engine afterparty unveiled a lot of character development potential to the attentive player. And the sequences surrounding the death of Makos certainly tugged heartstrings.

“Tell Celeste….” arrrrghhhhh tell Celeste WHAT? Goddammit Makos.

One other distinction as far as his work goes was the “easter egg” adventuring party. Their character sheets are displayed around the tabletop in Respen’s Game, they are imprisoned in the Drow Outpost the characters visit with Drizzt in the Maze Engine and apparently escape in the chaos of the subsequent attack, they are huddled around a fire in Bryn Shander, stranded in the Sea of Moving Ice, and we hear they finally get voiced content in the Cloaked Ascendancy. We think he mentioned the voicing on his Twitter account, but can’t dig up the reference right now. Those NPCs might be based on the characters of his Cryptic coworkers from a tabletop game he’d been DMing for them.

Faster Than An Ancient Dragon

He additionally expressed quite some love for inserting hidden achievements, although so did Salvatore during Underdark. So we can’t really say who is the prime father of those. We probably also missed like a gazillion gimmicks, so please share your findings in the comments!

[su_quote cite=”Commander Ander” url=”https://www.reddit.com/r/Neverwinter/comments/4w6qvd/did_you_know_2/”]A content designers gets their wings whenever people ponder about subtle clues they put into stories.[/su_quote]

Thanks Sean for your great work on the game, the stories you have told, the life you have breathed into pixels and characters. You will be missed! We at Neverwinter Uncensored wish you all the best in the next stage of your career! May Azeroth thrive and prosper as much as the Sword Coast did.


What’s your take of Sean’s work? Are you impressed as well, less entertained or even disappointed? Share your sentiments and memories in the comments below or visit the corresponding thread on our message board!

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One thought on “Parting Sean “Commander Ander” McCann Largely Shaped the Story over the past Modules

  • February 15, 2017 at 11:28 pm
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    Competitive company always strive to lure the best. Bye Commander Ander, best wishes at Blizzard!

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