Play centers on the development of a character that becomes the ultimate hero of the story. The core release includes the game engine, a campaign that can be played as single player or multiplayer, and the Aurora toolset (for Windows only) used for creating custom content based on the same engine. The game is based in part on traditions started in the original Neverwinter Nights online game, the first graphical MMORPG, which ran from 1991 to 1997 on AOL. On October 31, 2006, a Neverwinter Nights 2, was released followed by an expansion in late 2007. Two expansion packs were released in mid and late 2003, and a third in 2005.
MacSoft released a Mac OS X port in August 2003.
BioWare released the freely downloadable Linux Client in June 2003 (purchase of game still required). Infogrames released Neverwinter Nights for Windows on June 18, 2002. It was originally to be published by Interplay Entertainment, but the publisher's financial difficulties forced the change. Neverwinter Nights (NWN), produced by BioWare and published by Infogrames (now Atari), is a third-person perspective computer role-playing game that is based on third edition Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms rules. 16 MB RAM video card TNT2-class OpenGL 1.2 compatible (32 MB RAM GeForce 2 or Radeon video card recommended).