Beamdog - Reddit AMA

Thirteen Beamdog employees participated in a Reddit AMA about their EE games. That is what the title says, for me it was TLDR, but did not that Baldur's Gate III: EE is not being made at the moment as they did not yet reach an agreement with WotC.

Thanks Archangel.

More information.

The AMA was very interesting. I recommend everyone that likes EE games to read it.

They plan to release something currently called Adventure Y in first part of 2015 which is probably going to be an expansion for BGEE or BG2EE. It will have more of Irenicus and some other characters. It cost them pretty penny to get those voice actors back.

For those that didn't know (like me) they also say that Baeloth from BGEE is voiced by none other but Commander Shepard (voice actor of course).

BG3 will most likely be 5th edition, but they said the talks with wizards have not come that far yet. They want BG3 to continue the story of same charname you played in BG1 and BG2.

They want to do PST:EE but they have not spent enough time looking into its code to see how doable it is.

They plan to put into BGEE and BG2EE some of the stuff they put into IWDEE (for sure new classes and hopefully new spells as well). BG2EE has an upcoming big patch that they want to release before Christmas. Also BG2EE is coming to android soon.

They also said sales on PC were bigger than expected. Also android sold lots of BGEE units. They also said the webpage had 1.3 million hits when it was first shown to public

They apologized for BG2EE release and said they released too early and will not do the same mistake again and in the future plan to go for maximum quality and as such will no longer give release dates until they are 100% sure of those.

Trent said he contacted Obsidian to ask to licence their PoE engine but both sides have been pretty busy and the talk didn't happen yet.

They said in the future they hope to focus more on new D&D games/content instead of doing EE versions.

They also said they have been asking about doing NWN1EE but it seems that process is very complicated and it is in some legal limbo atm.

Thanks for the summary. Much appreciated.

An old school D&D game with a POE engine would be fantastic. I don't know why WotC is so close to these projects. I mean there are millions of BG fans out there. They are ruining the D&D name with crappy MMOs. Shame really.

Good to hear that they're looking into a EE version for PS:T. I hope they can get it done along with IWD2:EE.

I'm less enthusiastic about a possible expansion for either of the BG games though. I think they did a great job with the enhanced editions, but I'd prefer they stop trying to add new content. That includes more spells and classes, as that will undoubtedly bring at least some balancing issues.

As long as they keep any new added content as a separate & optional DLC I'm all for it.

I would prefer them to focus on making EE versions of the existing games, but until they can make some kind of deal they do still need to make money.

Fairly interested where they're gonna take Irenicus.

As I've said before, an expansion for Icewind Dale 2 would be fantastic if they could afford to do it. It'd also arguably be a better challenge for their creativity overall as a studio.

I'm less interested in the EE's in themselves than I am in genuine new content (quest/character/story materials) having played the Infinity engine games so many times over the years. Game-play is king; I don't need superficial visual upgrades to "improve" already very good and playable games in their own right.

That is the worst news I've ever heard. I'm extremely against BG3, Bhaalspawn saga ended, let the game rest in peace. Beamdog hasn't been developing any games, merely adding some new features into existing masterpieces. To think company as inexperienced as Beamdog developing a game from scratch, especially if the game will be sequel of renowned BG1/2, it is extremely concerning.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
That is the worst news I've ever heard. I'm extremely against BG3, Bhaalspawn saga ended, let the game rest in peace. Beamdog hasn't been developing any games, merely adding some new features into existing masterpieces. To think company as inexperienced as Beamdog developing a game from scratch, especially if the game will be sequel of renowned BG1/2, it is extremely concerning.

I would expect their interest in using Obsidian's PoE engine would mean they would use that for any BGIII.

As for their capability in making a whole game, lets look at this Adventure Y and how good it will be. The most popular theory is that it will cover the time between BG1 and BG2 and will show us how Charname got captured. They said they were able to make IE engine do things for Adventure Y that was not seen yet in any IE game.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
That is the worst news I've ever heard. I'm extremely against BG3,

Worst thing you ever heard? BG3?

God damn, you must have an overwhelmingly good life.

Clarification: In terms of gaming news happy?

Originally Posted by Archangel
BG3 will most likely be 5th edition, but they said the talks with wizards have not come that far yet. They want BG3 to continue the story of same charname you played in BG1 and BG2.

Wat? Depending on the final choice charname might be a deity. Imho that's not a background you can base an RPG on.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Wat? Depending on the final choice charname might be a deity. Imho that's not a background you can base an RPG on.

It would happen 130 years later if it used 5e rules. Charname if it was a deity might have died during Sundering and whatever happened to get Forgotten Realms back like it was during 3e D&D and before. You might start as an offspring or a magical copy or anything.
They might even pull the Kotor games trick and have you start with no memory or ME2 trick and have you start at lvl 1 because of being revived from dead.

Also, WotC might just tell them to make BG3 but with other characters (we know Minsc and Coran are alive 130 years later).

No thanks. I'd rather have an original story set somewhere else in the Forgotton Realms.

Originally Posted by Archangel
It would happen 130 years later if it used 5e rules. Charname if it was a deity might have died during Sundering and whatever happened to get Forgotten Realms back like it was during 3e D&D and before. You might start as an offspring or a magical copy or anything.
They might even pull the Kotor games trick and have you start with no memory or ME2 trick and have you start at lvl 1 because of being revived from dead.

Also, WotC might just tell them to make BG3 but with other characters (we know Minsc and Coran are alive 130 years later).

They could.
But as you said "they want BG3 to continue the story of same charname". I don't think they mean to continue the story of a dead charname.

I'm with JDR here. A new story where they might reference events from the BG trilogy.

Same charname does not need to mean you continue at same power level. But you would still be the same person that did all you did and have/had blood of God and others would still recognize/chase/try to kill you for it.

Personally I don't care who is main protagonist as long as it is made to be a similar gameplay to IE games using D&D ruleset (5e is awesome, a best mix of 2e, 3e and bits of 4e) and has references to BG1 and BG2.

I was hoping PoE would give us similar gameplay but OE is set to "fix" stuff that Sawyer thinks are wrong with gameplay and mechanics of IE games and that game will not turn out to be similar enough. More like a more tactical DAO than a real spiritual successor to IE games.

This all sounds like great news to me.

I don't care if it's expansions, BG3 or a new IP. Just make some good d&d games.

It's been so long.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
Clarification: In terms of gaming news happy?

I was already happy!

No thanks. I'd rather have an original story set somewhere else in the Forgotton Realms.

This is probably a better idea simply because I want turnbased combat and BG3 would imply RTWP like the last two.

And if we could have some 80s style Dragonlance box art that would be great!

In fact, It's about time for new Dragonlance setting game. I always liked the Dragonlance Trilogy the best.

But, yeah… BG3 can only be a good thing. It's not like it can ruin the fun we've already had with the last 2. Bring it on, I say. There's no harm in in existence of one more bad game I don't want to play. Plus, all the experience Beamdog would get from the project can only make Deathknights of Krynn 2 a better game.

Lol. A nice glass half full comment

But Beamdog said they love FR and plan to make games there. Also wizards is not going to allow a game in a realm that is not officially supported in 5e.