What's happening to Beamdog?
Buttercheese
Member Posts: 3,766
Both Andrew, Amber, Mad Bee and now Dee have left Beamdog. Probably some more behind the scenes.
I am pretty sure I am not the only one who is starting to get a bit worried about the future of the company.
So, uhm ... what's going on?
Is everything alright with the studio?
I guess restructuring like this is a common thing in the industry, but given all the drama since the SoD release, things are looking rather dubious from the outside.
I am also worried, because some of the people who assured a strong connection between you and the community, so are you gonna get more distant from us? I hope not ...
I am pretty sure I am not the only one who is starting to get a bit worried about the future of the company.
So, uhm ... what's going on?
Is everything alright with the studio?
I guess restructuring like this is a common thing in the industry, but given all the drama since the SoD release, things are looking rather dubious from the outside.
I am also worried, because some of the people who assured a strong connection between you and the community, so are you gonna get more distant from us? I hope not ...
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I'll be honest. When Andrew left, I was upset. Now that Dee has left, I must actively avoid unnerving myself thinking about it.
With the new patch underway, who will oversee and direct the UI discussions? Who will handle the Road to 2.0 rewards? Dee seemed to be so central to both of these projects. Will Beamdog appoint someone new? Will they have the same enthusiasm?
Whoever is going to replace Dee has very big shoes to fill.
Then there's the underlying threat of Beamdog stopping providing support for the Enhanced Editions. It's inevitable to happen at some point. My hope is that they will leave the games in good enough condition to have us satisfied.
If the next patch turns out to be the last one and it leaves the UI in a buggy or barely working state then that would be a disaster.
I don't mean to sound so panicked, but it would be nice to hear something that addresses these concerns from an official source.
Although I highly doubt that we won't get any more support in the form of patches and stuff, I do find it troubling, especially as communication hasn't been the strong suit of Beamdog throughout the years. Dee was, as @thedamages already said, by far the most active in keeping us somewhat updated and keep the conversation going. You only have to look at the UI discussion and see what an added value for the community he was.
- SoD was heavily criticized for a bad writing (I'm passing over the fact whether it's been justified or not) and suddenly Amber and Andrew left the company
- SoD was also even more heavily criticized for sloppy UI design - and surprise surprise, Mad Bee has also left the the company. Well, I'm not sure if Mad Bee was in fact responsible for UI design, but I have a feeling that she was.
- not sure how @Dee fits into this scenario, but well... he's gone now too
I have a bad feeling that it could all be an outcome of a poor SoD sales... Please, let someone put me right on this.
EDIT: I hope Trent was not went berserk or something
For each departure there have been reasons, each departure is a separate case.
Beamdog continues to progress, the company is working on several things. Patching BGEE, SoD, BG2EE and IWDEE will be continued. Versions of SoD for tablets are in the work, as are new tablet updates for the EEs.
Recently new narrative designers have been hired.
As Dee wrote, I will be responsible for everything he had been. If you have questions, ask me.
For example, I will deliver Road-tested badges to everyone as soon as a small transition period is over. I will closely look at all the UI threads and will try to generalize progress there.
As for a list of what Beamdog is working on, I'll see what can be done. Again, we all need a small transition period, after which it will be more clear on what can be done from one part.
Anyway, businesses do go through major changes all the time; especially as one project is 'winding down' and another is 'winding up'. We also don't know what other changes have happened behind the scenes, so whilst looking in isolation at a few key changes may look worrying, it hopefully isn't.
The need for change can come from both directions - the employer and employee - and I'm sure all the people that have left will go on to great and marvellous things.
Bravo to them and they great work they have done (and will do) !
On a personal level, I think @Dee did an amazing job as community manager and my biggest concern now is the lack of communication from Beamdog - it's been noticeable over the last couple of months and whilst I understand there will be a drop-off in the short term, I wouldn't want that to be a longer term thing.
But I also think we are in good hands with @JuliusBorisov ...!
Remember, absent information is not necessarily information. Just because you haven't recieved information about something doesn't mean it is being withhold from you. Perhaps there just isn't any to be shared at this moment.
Speculating can indeed be fun but is often futile. I'm sure when/if there's info to share, we'll be the first to know. And if you want to be in the loop way before anyone else, apply for a job at Beamdog
I think it would be nice if someone high up at Beamdog, perhaps Trent himself since we know he visits these forums, posted a note of reassurance. I can appreciate not providing too many details, but at least something to let us know the next big shoe isn't about to drop.
It could have been a contract not being renewed as the resources weren't there to do so, but when your entire communications team leaves roughly at the same time, t doesn't bode well, especially when they are cancelling appearances at conferences.
hopefully, this is a little blip and @TrentOster has a plan and vision to see through it.
Beamdog didn't participate in GenCon this year because Amber left (and you must remember, she had family reasons), and she was a publishing and marketing coordinator and so many things were dependant on her. It has nothing to do with Dee at all.
In May it was not known not only about Dee, it was not known even about Amber (in terms of their future in the company). Dee was excited that I now could help in a more official status, and with another name, this is all.
Not a whole communications team left, Phillip Daigle is pretty much in communications, and he's there.
As I wrote above, a small transition period is needed, to sort things out.
Trent has said he has a plan and lots of things to do.
Also, you might want to rephrase your last sentence in your last post here. It reads as if Trent doesn't has a plan
On a serious note, I expect we will hear about potential new patches or projects fairly close to their release date (a few months say) rather than seasons or years in advance
I wish everyone would make a fuss of me when I change jobs...
...
Actually they do. A school assembly, flowers and chocolates and sobbing parents and children.
In four years I have changed schools twice. I'm not that worried about beamdog if you stop for a momment to think about the people not the company. If you want to move onwards and upwards you gotta move to pastures new! And people do it all the time.
...
Plus they just hired David Gaider and a new writer? Not the actions of a company thinking of pulling the plug.
Although, I did love Andrew and Amber because they talked with the community. Dee going I feel was a bigger blow... But it looks like he will still be popping in to see what is going on...
I understand that certain employees such as @SethDavis are under the influence of a geas and can't even leave their table to go to the toilet without express permission, let alone the company, so I think we are pretty safe.
Of course any rep is suddenly going to say "Nothing to see here, everyone move along, everything is wonderful and on track." And maybe that's absolutely right - I certainly hope it is. Of course you see things on your end that we don't. But your products are in trouble right now, at least in the eyes of the consumer, and some massive levels of communication, quickly and consistently, are going to be key.
*Sigh* I suppose I'll go have a Snickers now.
A bank or other company will give them money upfront to pay for the production, in return, they pay back the loan with interest, or with a cut of the profits.
The answer:
Business as usual, but with a tighter focus.
Historically we've had anywhere from three to ten projects active at any time (including ports and patches). This approach was hard on the entire team from a focus and deliverable standpoint, so we've re-oriented around fewer ongoing efforts. Right now we have three active projects, one large, one mid size and one small scale project. With the tighter focus and dedicated staff to each project, we are going to be more effective.
The Siege of Dragonspear launch was tough, no question. We launched with bugs, and ignoring the controversy around the launch, the product we shipped wasn't up to the quality standards we hoped to meet. Our patches since launch have improved the game greatly and we are much happier with Siege of Dragonspear today than we were at launch. Our key lesson from the experience is we need to take the proper amount of time and attention to ensure a high quality release.
To give us the time for our next project to meet our quality goals, we developed a new plan to ensure we can deliver products we will be very proud of. This plan is about optimizing our team for the next releases and and building strength in key areas where we can be a world leader. As part of this plan, we undertook a limited restructuring at Beamdog, parking some projects, laying off four staff and reducing some contractor expenditures. We've had to say goodbye to some good people, but by making some hard decisions now, we've engineered a scenario where we can take the time required to ensure we have a quality release for our next projects. On those next projects, at the core of our plan, we are empowering our leadership and developing top-notch narrative design, programming and art teams. We're already seeing some amazing results and we've excited to share our next projects with you.
In summary, we're committed to making great RPGs and we have a strong, fiscally sound plan to deliver the games we love to our audience at a quality level we are proud to deliver. We're building a killer team with a focus on a very bright future of excellent RPGs.
Regards,
-Trent