Interview Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Interview at Sorcerer's Place

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Baldur's Gate; Beamdog

Taluntain's website has interviewed Trent Oster about Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, as well as the planned EE for BG2 and even the possible BG3. Have a snippet:

SP: Which enhancement in BG:EE are you most proud of?

Oster: I'm most proud of the new content. I was playing through with Neera in the party and had an encounter with an NPC that had me laughing out loud and thinking "that is exactly how I imagined her acting". I also think the Black Pits is brilliant and Mark Meer of Commander Shepard fame did an outstanding job with the voice acting for the antagonist.

SP: How much fan created material made it into BG:EE?

Oster: Good question. There is a fair bit of fan content that is included into BG:EE, but I think very little went in untouched. In almost every case we worked closely with the modders involved to improve or revise the content to better fit the game and the average user. In some cases the modders went above and beyond their previous efforts and delivered something awesome with the additional support we were able to offer on the code side.

SP: Obsidian is currently developing a game engine based off Unity, with what sounds like a large number of customizations to streamline it for the development of a CRPG. Might Beamdog consider using such an engine for the development of Baldur’s Gate 3?

Oster: No. In my experience, an engine is all about optimization. What makes an engine fast is not the work you do, but the work you don't. With a game like Baldur's Gate, there is no other title with the same challenges and as such, no engine is optimized around those criteria. Our approach is going to be from the ground up, making an engine and tool chain which is 100% dedicated to making the best isometric party based role playing game possible. Tools and workflow will be top of the list and a powerful scripting language is the foundation for our plans going forward. I think what we build will be radically different from all current engines on the market.​

Full interview here.

Thanks Taluntain

 

[MicoSelva]

Well, my BG1 hunger is bound to strike once again in my future life. Maybe I'll try this EE then.
I don't think it will happen in the next five years, though.

 

[evdk]

Wait, he really has a shot at making BG3? EA had an uncharacteristically weak moment or what?

 

[Infinitron]

He sounds like an arrogant twit.

You want to make your own engine, eh? How long has BG:EE been delayed again?

 

[Infinitron]

Wait, he really has a shot at making BG3? EA had an uncharacteristically weak moment or what?

It's not their decision, it's Hasbro's. Anyway I'm not sure he has that permission yet, he's just talking about it.

 

[evdk]

Right, I never can tell who owns what when it comes to BG. But surely EA owns something.

 

[Infinitron]

Right, I never can tell who owns what when it comes to BG. But surely EA owns something.

They might have some rights related to the existing games. But certainly not to a sequel.

 

[evdk]

I hope Disney does actually acquire Hasbro (as the rumour mill suggested) and then develops BG3 in house (aka LucasArts) just to troll Ostner. That guy just rubs me the wrong way.

 

[crafthack]

I find with BG that in years past I almost got lost in the act of modding my install, as opposed to just playing the game, I would spend hours making sure I had all the best mods and their latest versions, and of course the BG engine with weido is very anal so you can screw up things if you don't install mods in the correct order (graphical mods last etc).

At the least this version will let my ocd rest easy

 

[J_C]

I find with BG that in years past I almost got lost in the act of modding my install, as opposed to just playing the game, I would spend hours making sure I had all the best mods and their latest versions, and of course the BG engine with weido is very anal so you can screw up things if you don't install mods in the correct order (graphical mods last etc).

At the least this version will let my ocd rest easy

And why do you think BGEE will include the best mods and their latest versions? You probably use a lot of mods that won't even be in BGEE. You still have to install them. Too bad if those mods won't work with BGEE at all.

 

[Infinitron]

The best thing you can do to "re-release" ultra-moddable games like BG or the Elder Scrolls games is to set up some kind of "official modder's committee", and a mechanism to deliver, install and auto-update the best mods (as decided by the committee) from a central server.

 

[evdk]

Given the modders' penchant for drama that does not seem like that good idea.

 

[Infinitron]

Given the modders' penchant for drama that does not seem like that good idea.

Works for these guys: http://www.ornitocopter.net/morrowind-overhaul/

 

[commie]

Mark Meer puts the ENHANCED into Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition.

 

[Brother None]

Right, I never can tell who owns what when it comes to BG. But surely EA owns something.

Publishers own videogame properties in general, not devs. BioWare only made the games, Interplay owned all of that stuff. The title, the IP, the content. And they gave all that back up to Atari in a debt-reneging deal, except for "Dark Alliance". Then Atari in turn settled a dispute with Hasbro by handing back the AD&D rights, though unlike the Interplay deal I don't recall ever reading explicitly that they gave up all rights and contents, so it's possible Atari would still have the rights to "contents" (characters and the like) from the originals. I doubt it though.

Anyway, regardless, BioWare never owned dick, certainly not the Baldur's Gate name, so EA has nothing to do with it.

 

[Roguey]

Anyway, regardless, BioWare never owned dick, certainly not the Baldur's Gate name, so EA has nothing to do with it.

Word Mark BALDUR'S GATE
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game software. FIRST USE: 19980100. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19981200
IC 016. US 002 005 022 023 029 037 038 050. G & S: Paper goods, namely, computer game instruction manuals, comic books, strategy guides for playing computer games, trading cards, adhesive stickers. FIRST USE: 19980100. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19981200
IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line computer games. FIRST USE: 19980100. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19981200
Mark Drawing Code (5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM
Trademark Search Facility Classification Code NOTATION-SYMBOLS Notation Symbols such as Non-Latin characters,punctuation and mathematical signs,zodiac signs,prescription marks
Serial Number 76678911
Filing Date June 29, 2007
Current Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition December 4, 2007
Registration Number 3433749
Registration Date May 27, 2008
Owner (REGISTRANT) BioWare Corp. CORPORATION CANADA 4445 Calgary Trail, Suite 200 Edmonton, Alberta T6H 5R7 CANADA
(LAST LISTED OWNER) WIZARDS OF THE COAST LLC CORPORATION DELAWARE 1027 NEWPORT AVENUE PAWTUCKET RHODE ISLAND 02862
Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Attorney of Record James R. Meyer
Description of Mark Color is not claimed as a feature of the mark.
Type of Mark TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

Man, you're on a losing streak with this whole researching thing. Insert derogatory comments about game journalism here.

And before you start on "last listed owner" I was referring specifically to "Bioware never owned dick."

 

[felipepepe]

The greatest obstacle was how hard-coded to Windows the original code base was. The entire engine was written around the concept of a mouse and performing actions on mouse-click events that it took forever to isolate all the various bits of code.

God-Bless those programmers, they tried their best to stop decline.

 

[Brother None]

Man, you're on a losing streak with this whole researching thing. Insert derogatory comments about game journalism here.

And before you start on "last listed owner" I was referring specifically to "Bioware never owned dick."

Oh. Sorry. That doesn't make sense though. If BioWare owned it, then why was all of DA's interview commentary about them having no rights to Baldur's Gate? How did Interplay give it to Atari in 2008? When did Interplay get it?

EDIT: I dug out my original Baldur's Gate + ToSC box and it specifically says Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate Tales of the Swoard Coast are "trademarks of TSR, Inc., a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., and are used by Interplay under license". The only trademarks BioWare owns according to the box are their own name, logo and Infinity Engine. So y'know. Just saying. It says so on the box. And on the manual. Yay research? You can see why I would think BioWare never owned it when the oldest-published version of it I own says TSR/Interplay owns/licensed it.

Anyway, not a point worth much thought. It doesn't matter so much to evdk's query on EA's involvement, to which the point is EA has no rights whatsoever, as of right now.

 

[GreatPretender]

You will all bow down and hide in shame when Trent and his team create BG3 on a totaly new engine specificaly designed for RPGs that will put PE to shame on the silly unity engine.

 

[Infinitron]

You will all bow down and hide in shame when Trent and his team create BG3 on a totaly new engine specificaly designed for RPGs that will put PE to shame on the silly unity engine.

Don't make me quote your join date!

 

[evdk]

You will all bow down and hide in shame when Trent and his team create BG3 on a totaly new engine specificaly designed for RPGs that will put PE to shame on the silly unity engine.

And without the oppressive reliance on mouse too! Go Trent! (to hell)

 

[Crooked Bee]

You will all bow down and hide in shame when Trent and his team create BG3 on a totaly new engine specificaly designed for RPGs that will put PE to shame on the silly unity engine.

'Sup Trent. What a fitting username you've got there.

 

[LeStryfe79]

So, in other words, EA owns the BG trademark, but lacks the right to actually make new Dungeons and Dragons games set in that universe?

:patriot:

 

[Black]

You will all bow down and hide in shame when Trent and his team create BG3 on a totaly new engine specificaly designed for RPGs that will put PE to shame on the silly unity engine.

If bg3 is anything like the previous two, good games have nothing to fear

 

[Zed]

I hope Disney does actually acquire Hasbro (as the rumour mill suggested) and then develops BG3 in house (aka LucasArts) just to troll Ostner. That guy just rubs me the wrong way.

Oster is an entitled bitch.
I follow him on twitter and all he every writes about is how much trouble it is to work on this, and in between "OH YEAH ID LUV TO WORK ON PS:T REMAKE HEUEHUUHEEHUE" as if he had any creative talent to match. Or "BG3 YAIS VERY GOOD WOULD LOVE TO MAKE HUEHUEHUEUHEUHE".

There is a fair bit of fan content that is included into BG:EE

LOL

17. SP: Crowdfunding is all the rage right now. Is the crowd-funding model (e.g. Kickstarter) being considered at all for any of your future plans related to the Baldur’s Gate series?

Oster: I love the crowdfunding model, but we would require the approval of our partners to do a Kickstarter or IndieGogo campaign.

I would honestly start an anti-campaign if this ever came to be.

The workflow hell you can create is soul-destroying to those who have to work with the system if it isn't well thought out and maintained.

yes I'm sure the original UI devs had hacks like you in mind when they created it.
it's probably very well thought out. it's you who are bad developers, either because of lacking skills, or because of poor planning.