As a game designer I can understand the stress and pressure that goes into making a great game. I hope you guys make something that you can feel proud of showing to us. If you need more time to remake one of the greatest RPGs ever made, and one that I love very much, then you should take that time. Keep up the great work guys!
Too much negativity in this thread. Gamers are way too impatient! We are going to be getting a better game for 2 months of your time sitting on your butt playing guild wars 2 or whatever.
I wasn't aware that BG fans regularly played the latest mainstream games out there. A big part of the frustration has to do with the lack of new games comparable to titles like Baldur's Gate. If playing Diablo 3 or Guild Wars 2 are considered acceptable replacements, then frankly I wouldn't be on this forum.
And who can be more patient than a BG diehard? Original was released 14 years ago.
It's not really the delay that's the issue. It's the timing. The closer the release date came, the more excited I got, personally. I would not have been this upset if I had been told a few weeks ago that the release date would be delayed.
If you cannot keep a release date, you shouldn't set one. Especially when it has already been already stretched once. When I first heard of this, I was told a summer 2012 release, and putting the release date in mid-September really is stretching the definition of "summer".
Just pre-ordered today, and then I get this message. Typical... But I suppose it's a good thing if it means the game will get additional content. Also, the new release date coincides with the EU release of Wii U. Unlikely to mean anything, but I'm sure that would be interesting for some.
there's really no excuse for waiting this long for something they obviously knew they would have to do. having firsthand knowledge of how production on a title works, this is just sloppy, disrespectful to the customers, and in my eyes a quick grab for more last minute preorders. sure, it takes guts to push back a title, but it's just plain lazy to wait until the last minute. and that crap about getting approval to inform us about this just goes to show how off the ball they were to begin with.
Yes, Beamdog will certainly be sitting on their asses 3 months just so that they get more pre-orders. It makes sense! ...NOT
Lol, they need 3 more month for what? they are taking as much time as a full video game, yet this is barely a big patch with 3 big mods bundled together.
Quite untrue. You don't possess the insight to make this kind of statement, and it is unfair of you to make it. BG:EE is not as easy as sticking a few mods together, not even close. BG:EE cleans up that mess of a code that BG was, and adds tons of flexibility to the engine to allow for new features (which in turns, guess what, take time).
I have written this twice already, and I'll keep repeating it until everyone fully understands it: the devs did not realize last minute they needed more time. They tried until the last minute to avoid delaying the ship date. And to be a tag along, this announcement had to go through WotC's approval process as well, which took time.
It would have been dishonest to charge you for an unfinished product. To delay the release date a couple months to deliver a truly stellar product is, in fact, a corageous act and a display of honesty and customer care.
Still free to cancel your preorder if you so like, but please do not cast groundless accusations to the devs: They don't deserve it.
Andrea, I think it's more the length of the delay rather than the delay itself. Meaning, the late nights Trent tweeted about recently kinda implied that it might be delayed, but not 2 1/2 months worth of delay. As if they were really really close but needed another week or two. Why would he try to bang out 18 hour days in the last week if he knew there was so much work that it warranted so much extra time? Seems a futile gesture.
As I mentioned, a delay seemed obvious, it's just the length of the delay that is the dome scratcher. Maybe one heck of a bug came up recently. Or something.
Anyway, i'll be here and i'm sure more will be revealed in the days to come.
It's not really the delay that's the issue. It's the timing. The closer the release date came, the more excited I got, personally. I would not have been this upset if I had been told a few weeks ago that the release date would be delayed.
If you cannot keep a release date, you shouldn't set one. Especially when it has already been already stretched once. When I first heard of this, I was told a summer 2012 release, and putting the release date in mid-September really is stretching the definition of "summer".
erhm. When "Summer" was first announced, Trent tweeted fairly shortly thereafter that "Google puts the end of summer on September 23". September 18 was the first actual release date that they announced.
Just trying to set the record straight. They might have been aiming for July, but they never set it as an official date.
That's pretty bull to delay the game, by quite a bit, 3 days before it's supposed to come out after taking pre-orders for quite a while and never giving fans any reason to think there would be a delay, heck all the dev's twitter responses mostly talk about how things are going swimmingly.
What does this do to the other platform editions? Will all come out on the same day now?
It certainly looks better for the iPad and Mac platforms, doesn't it? From what I understand, the delay for those platforms was due to contract negotiations rather than development.
Something just occurred to me.. If they are increasing development time, that would mean that they are pretty confident in their sales, and that the extra time spent will be repaid. I hope i'm reading this right, since it would mean good probability of BG3
That's pretty bull to delay the game, by quite a bit, 3 days before it's supposed to come out after taking pre-orders for quite a while and never giving fans any reason to think there would be a delay, heck all the dev's twitter responses mostly talk about how things are going swimmingly.
Thats exactly why my confidence in them has plummeted, its very unprofessional and seems like a bait and switch. Im going to get a refund and consider buying the game if they ever manage to get it out the door. Its very disconcerting to go from "swimmingly" to Three month delay.
As I mentioned, a delay seemed obvious, it's just the length of the delay that is the dome scratcher. Maybe one heck of a bug came up recently. Or something.
It's fairly common in software development to estimate you're 90% done, only to realize at the last minute that the "10%" will take just as long as the "90%". Personally I saw this coming a while ago, but NDAs kinda get in the way of voicing my thoughts. :P
I just wanted to check in and offer my perspective as a beta tester.
I'm very excited by what I'm seeing in the beta, and the whole team has been very responsive to our bug reports and suggestions. We all knew the Sept. 18 deadline was hanging over our heads, and many long hours were put in by the team and the testers. I'm just as disappointed we didn't make it, and I certainly empathize with the frustration of the players who have been waiting for it.
There are parts of the game that I think are in phenomenal shape, certainly better than BG or BG2 ever were. There are other parts which are close, but not quite to the standard that I think we all should expect. The delay gives us all the opportunity to make sure the final product is something we can all be proud of.
As I mentioned, a delay seemed obvious, it's just the length of the delay that is the dome scratcher. Maybe one heck of a bug came up recently. Or something.
It's fairly common in software development to estimate you're 90% done, only to realize at the last minute that the "10%" will take just as long as the "90%". Personally I saw this coming a while ago, but NDAs kinda get in the way of voicing my thoughts. :P
That's fair enough. I'm not familiar with software engineering although I have worked with them as I am a mechanical engineer who has worked on electronic products. Don't know how those types of software guys are similar, if they are, to game development software guys though.
So I know how delays happen, just seemed odd to me, but always willing to learn how the other half lives...ha
I am very dissapointed, but I am fine with a delay. I even understand that once the decision was made not to release the game as it is now, they decided to take two more months to make it as perfect as possible. However, I would have appreciated just a few words of apology, which I did not see in the delay announcement.
SO I just went to the Mac App store to maybe find a different RPG to fill the void for now. And the only good RPG I could find was Borderlands. BGEE is going to make a KILLING if you ask me.
If it means a better game, I'm all for it, while I'm excited for this, I've got pleanty of other games that need playing. Let's face it, how many times have we bought a game, got it home, and had to patch right out of the box for some crippling error? Better to push it back, as long as we don't get into a Duke Nukem Forever development cycle it's all good.
This is just ridiculous, I hope this does not turn into another Duke Nukem where they want everything to be perfect and it takes ten years and ends up being crap because they spent too much time trying to make a masterpiece. More time does NOT mean a better product, history has shown this.
It also does not fill me with much confidence in their ability if the problem is technical issues considering how old the game is and how low tech it is that even modders can produce new content easily for it.
Either way, Im disappointed and am lowering my expectations, at this point Im just hoping for an experience comparable with the original game, because they cant mess that up, right?
Actually, you are misguided in many fronts. 1. old tech or not, this game is more complex than a 3d game which comes with a premade engine and toolset. Just count how many spells/items an IE game has, and compare it to some "modern" rpg. Compare the complexity of dialogs to some games of the same genre. (Other genres don't even have any dialog to begin with). 2. the devs didn't have any editors that come with the engine, only those that were made by the community over the 10 some years. They needed to actually learn how to use these. 3. No, modders cannot produce new content easily for it. Some efforts were made to actually help that, by removing some hardcoded stuff. They didn't really need to do this for THEIR content. They did it so modders can produce new content easier in the future. 4. They had to overcome a lot of constraints many modern game devs didn't have to. Especially compared to games that don't have such an extensive mod library. They needed to create something that works on machines/operating systems made 10 years ago just as well as current ones. Any Windows, Mac, Android whatever.
The only real issue is that they treated small bugs the same way as large bugs, and shipping time came too fast.
SO I just went to the Mac App store to maybe find a different RPG to fill the void for now. And the only good RPG I could find was Borderlands. BGEE is going to make a KILLING if you ask me.
The Spiderweb rpgs used to be good. The guy has Avernum and Avalon on there....but the graphics are horrible. I played the originals decades ago. Amazing he's still around. Can't wait for BGEE!
Well, the game shouldn't be released until it's ready. I'm still looking forward to an excellent game. Make sure it's great.
But that said, Beamdog has some serious communications deficits to overcome. I'll be perfectly frank that announcing a delay only four days from release comes across as unprofessional. Ditto releasing only 10 screenshots thus far. Marketing and PR for this project seems to be virtually absent. I just hope that the game development itself is being handled more professionally. Just being honest about it.
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And who can be more patient than a BG diehard? Original was released 14 years ago.
If you cannot keep a release date, you shouldn't set one. Especially when it has already been already stretched once. When I first heard of this, I was told a summer 2012 release, and putting the release date in mid-September really is stretching the definition of "summer".
As I mentioned, a delay seemed obvious, it's just the length of the delay that is the dome scratcher. Maybe one heck of a bug came up recently. Or something.
Anyway, i'll be here and i'm sure more will be revealed in the days to come.
Just trying to set the record straight. They might have been aiming for July, but they never set it as an official date.
If they are increasing development time, that would mean that they are pretty confident in their sales, and that the extra time spent will be repaid.
I hope i'm reading this right, since it would mean good probability of BG3
i personally was like "noooo" for 5 seconds untill i realized its the right decision.
So I know how delays happen, just seemed odd to me, but always willing to learn how the other half lives...ha
keep us posted, like you've done with greath success so far.
(I voted on the postpone poll weeks ago, and I'm glad my expectations about the product were met)
1. old tech or not, this game is more complex than a 3d game which comes with a premade engine and toolset. Just count how many spells/items an IE game has, and compare it to some "modern" rpg. Compare the complexity of dialogs to some games of the same genre. (Other genres don't even have any dialog to begin with).
2. the devs didn't have any editors that come with the engine, only those that were made by the community over the 10 some years. They needed to actually learn how to use these.
3. No, modders cannot produce new content easily for it. Some efforts were made to actually help that, by removing some hardcoded stuff. They didn't really need to do this for THEIR content. They did it so modders can produce new content easier in the future.
4. They had to overcome a lot of constraints many modern game devs didn't have to. Especially compared to games that don't have such an extensive mod library. They needed to create something that works on machines/operating systems made 10 years ago just as well as current ones. Any Windows, Mac, Android whatever.
The only real issue is that they treated small bugs the same way as large bugs, and shipping time came too fast.
But that said, Beamdog has some serious communications deficits to overcome. I'll be perfectly frank that announcing a delay only four days from release comes across as unprofessional. Ditto releasing only 10 screenshots thus far. Marketing and PR for this project seems to be virtually absent. I just hope that the game development itself is being handled more professionally. Just being honest about it.