Icewind Dale: EE - Interview @ RPGamer

RPGamer had the chance to interview Trent Oster of Overhaul Games about Icewind Dale: EE, and his future plans of what the studio will work on next.

JS: I know there were some issues with lost source code and graphical assets for the Baldur's Gate games, was this the case as well for Icewind Dale?

TO: Once again, we started with only some code and assets. At this point we are starting to get used to it. As we moved into development, we managed to uncover some additional assets, but we still spent a great deal of time reconstructing, or simply recreating content. For the Heart of Winter expansion, we had no code for the new engine features, so we relied heavily on a few team members, with a lot of effort from Laszlo Toth (known as Avenger_teambg on the community), to help us reverse engineer the new features. With the user interface it was a complete re-paint. We were able to bring in a talented friend in the person of Lee Nielsen who re-built every single pixel in the Icewind Dale UI, and it looks great.

JS: Is the development cycle on Icewind Dale: EE going to be significantly shorter than the Baldur's Gate: EEs?

TO: We've been working on Icewind Dale for quite a while now. We kept it under wraps with the goal of announcing only a month or so before we were ready to ship. While we don't have a final ship date yet, as we want to ensure the quality before we release the game, we are in the late stages of testing with a current burn-down indicating a ship date later this month or early October.

JS: Do you plan to follow this up with Icewind Dale II: EE?

TO: If Icewind Dale is a brother or sister to the Baldur's Gate games in terms of code and gameplay differences, Icewind Dale II and Planescape: Torment are more like third cousins. You can see the lineage, but the changes are deep. At this point we haven't gone spelunking too deep into those changes, but we are aware of many differences which will drive up the effort to do our thing on those projects. We hope to do more spleunking once we finish up with the 1.3 Updates for Baldur's Gate: EE and Baldur's Gate II: EE and ship Icewind Dale: EE.

JS: We have discussed the potential of Baldur's Gate III in past interviews. Is it something that is still potentially on the table or being considered?

TO: We are still interested in Baldur's Gate III. As to what a Baldur's Gate III would be, wow, that is a terrifying premise. I think every Baldur's Gate fan has a different image in their head as to what it would be, and making all of those fans happy would be a monumental challenge. For now, we haven't started any work on a Baldur's Gate III, but we do discuss the concept on a pretty regular basis.

More information.

I love the ID games and I'm tempted to repurchase them… but I really have no interest in these rehashed versions for the PC judging by the screenshots from their BG re-releases. Playing at 1920x1080 resolution and being unable to pick out the ants serving as my party is not for me.

I find it funny how Beamdog is working on games that doesn't really need "enhancement" and avoid working on games that actually need facelifts like PS:T and IWD2 (god, this game was a pain to play due to lag on modern system).

I started playing BG2:EE a few months ago, but stopped when I learned they were making this patch with 200+ bugs fixed (I was already… frustrated when I finished BG:EE shortly before they released the massive patch for that). So I stopped. Last I heard is that they TRY to bring this patch before 2015, IF there won't be any problems with it… *sigh* The game was super fun and I was totally into it, but I know for sure that I won't play it again (for years at least), so I have to wait…

Originally Posted by Drithius
Playing at 1920x1080 resolution and being unable to pick out the ants serving as my party is not for me.

That's exactly why the EE versions are superior. The zoom feature allows you to change the resolution on the fly.

I can't imagine the tedium of pixel hunting for hidden treasures at that resolution either. Zoom was a necessary new feature.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I find it funny how Beamdog is working on games that doesn't really need "enhancement" and avoid working on games that actually need facelifts like PS:T and IWD2 (god, this game was a pain to play due to lag on modern system).

Well, it's quite natural to fix IWD1 before 2, if they're going that route, but PST really needs it more than IWD, as the GOG versions of IWD work well on today's computers.

PST is still a bit painful though, and I agree that it really could use a facelift. The combat is not optional as often as people seem to think, and it is quite sluggish. Also, several high level spells will make the game stutter. I think it's their animation and not actual lag. Beyond that, there's a ton of bugs, most of which has been fixed by various unofficial patches, but it would be nice if there was a smooth, official version of the game.

The problem with PST is adding content, which Beamdog likes to do. I'm not sure they should in the case of PST. Perhaps Avellone's got some notes lying around for cut content they could add or some such thing.

Icewind Dale II never had an expansion made for it. I think perhaps this would be a far more interesting and sterner test of Beamdog's capabilities than the relatively redundant enhanced edition work they've been doing.
I already have the games, they work just fine, but what would make me yearn to replay them more? A meatier slice of new content larger than what the EE's currently offer, ie an actual expansion. I doubt it'll ever happen though, but that's ok.

They won't be able to add new characters to the Icewind Dale series as they did with BG. I wonder what other enhancements they are adding instead? More new classes perhaps? New areas?

Love Beamdog and, since they are local guys, I support them in all their endeavours. Often with pizza and beer!

Originally Posted by Drithius
I love the ID games and I'm tempted to repurchase them… but I really have no interest in these rehashed versions for the PC judging by the screenshots from their BG re-releases. Playing at 1920x1080 resolution and being unable to pick out the ants serving as my party is not for me.

Hence why the EE games are great. Zoom into whatever size you want, and the UI stays the same.

Originally Posted by rjshae
They won't be able to add new characters to the Icewind Dale series as they did with BG. I wonder what other enhancements they are adding instead? More new classes perhaps? New areas?

Well they COULD take a page from the NPC project and make joinable NPC's an option in the game. That would be nice (and also allow modders a lot of room for fun)

Originally Posted by blatantninja

Originally Posted by rjshae
They won't be able to add new characters to the Icewind Dale series as they did with BG. I wonder what other enhancements they are adding instead? More new classes perhaps? New areas?

Well they COULD take a page from the NPC project and make joinable NPC's an option in the game. That would be nice (and also allow modders a lot of room for fun)

Instead of speculating you could simply read the linked article. Or the FAQ on the official website.

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
Icewind Dale II never had an expansion made for it. I think perhaps this would be a far more interesting and sterner test of Beamdog's capabilities than the relatively redundant enhanced edition work they've been doing.
I already have the games, they work just fine, but what would make me yearn to replay them more? A meatier slice of new content larger than what the EE's currently offer, ie an actual expansion. I doubt it'll ever happen though, but that's ok.

I'm okay with them saving IWD2 for last because I think it could serve as the basis for a BG3. IWD2 is closer to the 3.5e SRD than the earlier IE games, so hopefully it would only be a relatively small jump from there to a full implementation of the D&D 3.5e ruleset.