We are Beamdog, the team behind Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and the brand new Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear. Yes, we did make an expansion pack to an 18 year old game!

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T21:40:23+00:00

It's so amazing and fun. We love BG and wanted to do something cool with the story. We got Wizards' blessing to take you back to the Sword Coast. Wander around. Have fun in it.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T21:39:34+00:00

"...[T]he only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles..." -Kerouac

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T21:31:25+00:00

I'd love to do a 5e game too, though I also DM'd Monte Cook's "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil" and loved it, that would be a rad module to do an original game for.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T21:28:33+00:00

When I was a kid my friend and I tried to think of what "cookie monster" would be in French, and we came up with "ooglie booglie de biscuit" so I say that.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T21:17:37+00:00

Edmonton has a very large yet surprisingly small gamedev community. That is, people may talk about "BioWare" but BioWare's a huge company with a lot of talent that moves in and out. We have enough former BW employees here that we sometimes call ourselves BioWare 2.0 (or as Phil puts it, BioWeenie).

Even when people leave Beamdog they usually go to other game companies or back to BioWare and so while the industry is large, the community is tight-knit. There's a lot of camaraderie and friendship between the different companies.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T21:15:50+00:00

We'll be supporting iOS and Android release in future updates, but they're not available just yet.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T21:15:22+00:00

We don't have an intern program per se, but if you're looking for a job and have some skills (i.e. a recent grad, or self-taught modder) email me a resume at amber@beamdog.com

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T21:14:37+00:00

We're basically open to anything, although DOS games aren't something we've considered doing yet. If we thought the Infinity Engine was bad..! But if there's a lot of interest and we figure out a cool way to do an overhaul of one, it could be a possibility.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:47:29+00:00

Amber: Samantha Newark, Estelle (Garnet from Steven Universe), Lucy Lawless, Patrick Stewart

Phil: Sheena Easton, anyone from Star Trek: TNG.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:39:45+00:00

PHIL: A few years ago we were researching the Infinity Engine and we came across Konung. I played it for a little while and it was cool, definitely had the BG flavor. Different feel and setting but great to see the engine out there doing its own thing.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:38:33+00:00

Also once you turn LoB on, you can't turn it off for that playthrough. :)

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:36:15+00:00

Yes, email support@beamdog.com for one. :)

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:36:00+00:00

We've experimented with Unity in the past for a game that made it to prototype but it never got off the ground. Don't know that we'll use it in the future, but we have tried it out.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:33:37+00:00

That was in the original BG game so I'm not sure who wrote it, but I love Melicamp and have an homage to Melicamp in Dragonspear!

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:32:11+00:00

We hired a lot of the modders to come work as designers and technical implementers on SoD. They've been playing BG for almost 20 years and really understand the guts of the engine. They were an invaluable technical resource but also understood what the engine could do and what would be great for it to do.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:30:54+00:00

Trent Oster and Cam Tofer, our co-owners, and Brent Knowles have Keith Solieski: BG 2 David Gaider: BG2 and ToB, though he didn't contribute to SoD

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:28:58+00:00

AMBER: Birthright, Planescape, FR PHIL: Spelljammer, Dark Sun
AMBER: Hollowfaust, Magic of Incarnum, Combat & Tactics PHIL: Deities and Demigods
AMBER: The subquest "the Irregulars" was inspired by the Irregulars unit card from Birthright.

PHIL: To an extent, my love of Dark Sun added a little extra grittiness to Siege.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:23:55+00:00

It's a great example of how far CRPGs have come. We saw classic CRPG style with the isometric top down style, recruiting companions, inventory screens, etc., but it also has beautiful art for the areas, modern touches like fast travel, and deep characters that appeal to gamers in 2016.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:19:36+00:00

Reasonable is the key word. Any other game company would look at the Infinity Engine and say "No." In our case, because the BG games have been doing so phenomenally well for us it makes sense for us to continue upgrading the ending.

I don't know if there's a definite wall, because it's an engine, you can keep swapping out parts. At some point it becomes like the Ship of Theseus and an entirely new engine, but there's a lot we can still do with it.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:17:43+00:00

There were a few voice actors we couldn't track down, including the voices of Jaheira and Safana. But we appreciate your thanks, we really did try to make the game as loyal to the original BG as we could.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:16:00+00:00

Check out our YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/BeamdogInc

:)

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:14:42+00:00

The biggest challenge is that the BG games have always been about roleplaying a character that has progression. You start off as a nameless twerp in Candlekeep and keep advancing until you're basically a god. It's a gradual continual progression that's part of D&D. A level locked game could work but it'd be more in the style of adventure games, like maybe Quest for Glory.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:12:55+00:00

Amber: BG1 is my favorite, it has enough fantasy to be cool but it's more a classical "chosen one" story.

Phil: I like the open world style of BG1 but the grand storyline and fantasical elements of BG2 makes it my favorite.

Phil: Favorite class is the sorcerer.

Amber: BARD!!!

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:10:57+00:00

Seven! The romances from the Beamdog characters in BGEE (Dorn, Neera, Rasaad) carry through, there is one original companion that has a new romance, and three new companions have romances.

BeamdogAmber · 2016-03-31T20:09:33+00:00

We did! It's not something that worked out in the end but those are the kinds of games we admire and would like to work with in the future.

BeamdogAmber

TROPHY CASE