Company News Beamdog might be working on a new Planescape game

[The Vanished One]

hope

is the first step on the road to disappointment.

 

[GloomFrost]

Maybe i will be able to finally meet Haer Dalis in Sigil or visit some new interesting planes like mechanicus or Celestial and have some philosophical discussions with a lot of deep and well written characters or find out more about lady of pain or are they going to finally let you become a priest with some awesome spells and animations. HAHAHA of course i m joking. That money grabing freak Fargo killed the Torment franchise, beamdog is going to rape the corpse.
"I m gone."

 

[Iznaliu]

I think the fact that human civilization isnt doing shit about obvious, LITERAL lizard ppl invasion

Accept your new overlord, warm-blooded scum:

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

Is Planescape even an officially licensed 5th Edition setting?

It was 2nd edition. Planescape was discontinued when 3rd edition came out, but many elements (like Sigil and how the planes work) have been worked into 3, 3.5, 4 and 5. Really WotC have just been sitting on the license and not doing anything with it other than denying it to Brian Fargo.

People mostly angry about possibly bad writing and stupid dialogues (and as always political agenda), and, to be honest, have right on it because dialogs in BG games suck and plot linear like in Diablo with close to zero amount of role-play, but there comes real problem and any developer will face it, no matter which company would try to make game in Planescape setting.
I mean, Planescape setting have very huge amount of planes and it's very nice, but last time when I was checked - every plane described in VERY short amount of words for such rich setting. I don't think people want game to have place again in Sigil with a little part in another planes, they want to travel between all planes and see all wonders of Multiverse. But for proper describing of such epic setting there need to be minimum one game for every plane (or at least one book) with proper dialogues and plot, in another case final game with all planes will be superficially as summary in DM's guide.

BeamDog obviously does not deserve the benefit of the doubt, but David Gaider does. The fact that they ditched the Dragonspear writers and replaced them with someone who can make solid games is pretty encouraging.

But would be good David Gaider enough to become new Tolkien in describing details of lore and atmosphere for every plane? Time will show, sooner or later.

And all problems of setting are only because lazy asses in WotC decided to be like the dog in the manger and not let anyone to do games in Planescape setting.

P.S. Just my opinion, also I am sorry if I did any grammatic mistakes in my reply.

 

[FeelTheRads]

So, as I heard PST:EE sold like shit.

Why would they do this?

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I think the fact that human civilization isnt doing shit about obvious, LITERAL lizard ppl invasion

Accept your new overlord, warm-blooded scum:

No way you are this handsome. This pic is from the web, isn't it?

 

[Fry]

So, as I heard PST:EE sold like shit.

Why would they do this?

Cheap housing and labor costs? Last I checked, Alberta didn't offer the famous Canadian game dev tax breaks.

Maybe Oster sells beaver pelts on the side.

 

[Infinitron]

If they are actually making a Planescape game, the main reason might well be "It's what David Gaider wanted to make as a condition for joining".

 

[Dorateen]

As if Gaider could call the shots regarding anything to do with Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[Azarkon]

I was looking around for information about this project and you know, for a game developer, David Gaider's twitter sure doesn't have much to say about video games.

 

[LESS T_T]

We don't know when that footage was shot.

Well, probably in April if their fun calendar (8:29 in the video, "PST LAUNCH!") is any indication.

Anyway, MCA's response:

 

[Jason Liang]

As for Bethesda Fallouts: yes, F3 was the greatest disappointment since David Lynch’s Dune. .

what
whats wrong with dune
i mean the 8 hour uncut

 

[Fenix]

I can try and guess how that happened, if it's true - they realised that fans eat them alaive if they will chamge even inch of a P:T, so they decide to use all they already done in new game.

Give what company Beamdog is - with all games they were involved they look like those who care about propaganda and money, where money mean slightly more for them, I think we can expect that in this new Planescape game devs will try to explore not a fantasy cliche like Avellone did, but sexual "cliche".
So, prepare your valocordin or pitchforks - doesn't matter.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

But would be good David Gaider enough to become new Tolkien in describing details of lore and atmosphere for every plane? Time will show, sooner or later.

Gaider is not one of my favorite narrative guys, but if there’s one thing he’s really great at it’s world building. Even people who hate Dragon Age: Origins generally acknowledge that it has a well fleshed out setting and Gaider built that whole world from scratch. He’s a good choice to flesh out the planes, if that’s actually what they’re doing. Assuming Gaider’s given a free hand, his homage to Chris Avellone could be very interesting.

But won’t it ruin Sigil? Plz. Sigil is supposed to be huge and it’s always changing—remember the wall that gives birth? If they set it a century before or after PS:T, Sigil would be a very different city. There might not even be that much overlap other than the same factions (with the ones that were left out finally included—awesome!) and a handful of immortal characters who might make cameoos. In PS:T we got to spend a lot of time in the slums but barely had any exposure to the fancy pants part of town. Gaider excels at politics and palace intrigue, and from these images it looks like Beamdog would be focusing on the rich part of town. Bring on the (lady of) pain!

Also, to everyone complaining about how Beamdog will soil the Torment franchise (or further soil it), a Planescape game doesn’t necessarily need to have anything in common with PS: T except for the setting. Beamdog Planescape would be to PS:T as Neverwinter Nights is to Baldur’s Gate or Icewind Dale. Same world, similar mechanics, but a different franchise.

Honestly, if this was David Gaider’s independent startup studio instead of Gaider working for Beamdog, everyone here would be salivating all over these rumors.

PS. I was talking about the theatrical version of Dune, which was heartbreakingly bad. Is the eight hour cut actually out there?

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

The fact that they ditched the Dragonspear writers

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they only moved ONE writer to something else. Not writerS.

 

[duanth123]

Honestly, if this was David Gaider’s independent startup studio instead of Gaider working for Beamdog, everyone here would be salivating all over these rumors.

You are painfully out of touch with reality.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

The fact that they ditched the Dragonspear writers

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they only moved ONE writer to something else. Not writerS.

Amber Scott was the lead writer and she hasn’t been at Beamdog for over a year. Dragonspear was her show, this new one will be Gaider’s show. Pretty sure others have left, too, but she’s the one who got all the publicity.

 

[Roguey]

The fact that they ditched the Dragonspear writers

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they only moved ONE writer to something else. Not writerS.

Amber Scott was the lead writer and she hasn’t been at Beamdog for over a year. Dragonspear was her show, this new one will be Gaider’s show. Pretty sure others have left, too, but she’s the one who got all the publicity.

SoD only had two full-time writers, her and Andrew Foley (Liam Esler contributed additional writing which amounts to nothing important). Both have left the company.

 

[Prime Junta]

hurray.

 

[Karwelas]

I will fetch the torches.

Or ropes, whatever anybody need.

 

[KyivAfter12am]

Even people who hate Dragon Age: Origins generally acknowledge that it has a well fleshed out setting and Gaider built that whole world from scratch.

I've played Origins and liked it, but I haven't paid much attention to the setting, it seemed a pretty generic story of not-Orcs invading not-England. Now I'm genuinely curious: why exactly do people consider this setting good?

 

[Prime Junta]

I've played Origins and didn't like it.

The setting was fleshed-out and much deeper than the usual fantasy theme park :cough: :Larian: :cough: but fuck me if it wasn't plodding and pedestrian. A lot of work and thought went into it, but it's the product of a really unimaginative mind.

It's basically Ivanhoe's England. You've got your rich, cultured, foppish, cunning, expansionist French (Orlais). You've got your Saracens with their scary religion and apparently unstoppable conquering military (Qunari). You've got your Saxons (all those Erls and Banns and what have you). You've got your Celts (elves). You've got witches, inquisitors, clergy, the whole Coca-Cola bottle, and to make an actual game there you throw in a bunch of standard fantasy clichés like dragons, wizards, and a demonic invasion.

IOW it's standard nu-BioWare stuff. Utterly derivative, failing to delight and surprise at every turn but plodding doggedly forward to tick all the boxes, cross all the t's and dot all the i's. Even Pillars' Eora manages to be more imaginative and interesting and that was put together slapdash by one guy on a deadline who would rather have been doing something else.

 

[FeelTheRads]

If they are actually making a Planescape game, the main reason might well be "It's what David Gaider wanted to make as a condition for joining".

Makes sense... put your company's future on some guy's whim.
Actually, given that it's Beamdog it wouldn't surprise me, but why would Gaydar put such a condition in the first place? Did he ever mention wanting to do Planescape or what? Assuming he could put conditions and not just beg for the job.

Anyway, they really must have low operating costs or I don't know how they do it. I don't see Hasbro funding a Planescape game either.

If only they had some talent too instead of hiring twitter posters. But maybe that's how you keep costs down.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Even Pillars' Eora manages to be more imaginative and interesting and that was put together slapdash by one guy on a deadline who would rather have been doing something else.

lol the old Sawyer excuse... it's crap because I rather did something else. Oh, also deadline!!!

Why didn't he do something else and let that to people who could've done better? Ah, right, it's because then maybe it wouldn't have been a boring, dry piece of shit like everything he does.

 

[Infinitron]

If they are actually making a Planescape game, the main reason might well be "It's what David Gaider wanted to make as a condition for joining".

Makes sense... put your company's future on some guy's whim.
Actually, given that it's Beamdog it wouldn't surprise me, but why would Gaydar put such a condition in the first place? Did he ever mention wanting to do Planescape or what? Assuming he could put conditions and not just beg for the job.

Roguey might have something to say about this.