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!

You've been open about BG3 being one of your goals. Is this still your intention? Waiting on the reaction to SOD?

We usually don't comment about games in development, but we have said that we've been building up the capabilities of our team and we love the Forgotten Realms. We'd have to get a concept and bring people on board, but it's something we would love to do in the future.

Are you planning to make Enhanced Editions of Icewind Dale 2 and Planescape: Torment?

We don't announce projects in development, but we do love the Infinity Engine and Forgotten Realms and would like to do more work on these games in the future.

Have you investigated potentially doing enhanced editions of Fallout and Fallout 2?

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.

What do you guys think of Pillars of Eternity?

How do you feel newer RPGs compare to the old isometric RPGs?

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.

Any plans for a new console version of Baulders Gate, still play Dark Alliance to this day?

No plans we can announce, but we are console fans and are interested in what the fans want. Keep commenting on FB/twitter/forums and through chats like this and we can make cases for new projects!

You said David Gaider is working in a project that you can't reveal yet, is it going to be an isometric RPG?

We don't have an announcement yet for what David's working on, but when we do it'll be going out on the Beamblog (blog.beamdog.com) and all our media channels. It's gonna be swell!

When will the physical collectors edition be available/shipping out? I am incomplete http://i.imgur.com/f5ZwuvT.jpg

The digital elements of the CE (games and soundtracks) are available immediately, the box product will be shipping out approximately in June.

Were you able to get Frank Welker as a voice actor for Siege of Dragonspear? Regardless, I really appreciate all the work you have done and the meticulous attention to detail you put into every decision you made regarding the game.

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.

Outside of coding for mobile devices, what was the most difficult hurdle in bringing these older games to modern day?

Offering more freedom of choice, creating reactive companions that modern gamers expect, using an old ruleset (2e) and making the timeline of our story compatible with BG:EE/BGII:EE since the original games happened 150 years ago in Forgotten Realms time. But mostly the code!

Do you prefer the more gritty/low level style of BG1 or the more fantastical style of BG2/Planescape?

Also what is your favorite class and why is it the Paladin? ;)

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!!!

How many romances can we expect in SoD?

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.

If/when you make more content for any of the BG games, are there any voice actors you haven't had the chance to work with that you would LIKE to in the future, if you had the chance?

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

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

1. What is everyone's favorite campaign setting?

2. What is everyone's favorite splatbook?

3. Did it influence any aspects of SoD?

1. AMBER: Birthright, Planescape, FR PHIL: Spelljammer, Dark Sun

2. AMBER: Hollowfaust, Magic of Incarnum, Combat & Tactics PHIL: Deities and Demigods

3. 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.

What was it like working with the modders that were involved in the internals of infinity engine games? What was there involvement, was it purely technical or did they help provide ideas and other features to the games?

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.

Have you guys played Konung? The Russian game in infinity engine. What do you think about it?

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.

How much more of the engine can be reasonably upgraded? The stuff in the new patch looks amazing, but I'm curious how much more could be done in future. At what point do you hit a wall where you just can't make changes to the engine? What more do you want to do? What do you already know can't be reasonably changed from the originals that you might want to do?

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.

Who wrote the dialogue for the talking chicken quest in BG? It is simply amazing.

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!

Creating an expansion to an 18 year old game makes me think something is emotional wrong with the members of your team. How valid is this?

"...[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

Do we get to see the gameplay footage?

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

:)

Who in the team are the original member of the BG team 20 years ago? This is one of my pet peeve: take Burberry as an example, they are not the same Burberry that people are fond of in the 1800s. The brand name doesn't mean anything besides recognition when you change the designer of the brand who made it popular.

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

Will you use Unity as your engine for future game ?

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.

You still giving steam keys for SOD like you did with the EE's?

Yes, email [email protected] for one. :)

I'm interested in the new (hardest) legacy of Bhaal difficulty, I didn't download 2.0 yet though.

May I know more about it?

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

Are you guys open to remaking old DOS D&D games?

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.

Are you guys accepting interns?

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 [email protected]

Trent, I am trying to give you my money, but I don't see the game on the IOS store. How can I give you my money for the ipad version?

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

what is your favourite type of biscuit?

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.

What are your thoughts of making something with a slightly more recent system? Acquiring Temple of Elemental Evil's license maybe?

Really, THACO is just really hard for me to understand and something along the lines of Dnd 3.5 or 4.0 or even Pathfinder ruleset would be amazing for me.

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.

Have you ever considered a level-locked game? Feels like that might have some interesting implications on how story/enemy encounters develop. What would you say is the biggest challenge in making something like that?

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.