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March 16th, 2001
GameBanshee: Was there a competitive element between the Icewind Dale and Baldur's
Gate I/II development teams? Or did you all work together to come up with new
ideas, items, spells, etc?
Darren: Actually no. Since the boys at BioWare (developers of Baldur's Gate I/II) are up in Canada, most communication was done through the production staff. As far as design content was concerned, we just made sure that we weren't offering the same exact things to the players. The design goals for BG and Icewind Dale were different – BG I/II are the classic, epic role playing adventures. Icewind Dale was meant to be a more linear, combat-intensive game, and it's design focused upon that. To answer your question though, we worked independently of one another on each of the games' designs.
March 15th, 2001
GameBanshee: Could you give us at least a little information about this "beyond Icewind
Dale" project, such as what area of Forgotten Realms (or other campaign setting)
it will take place in, which engine it's going to use, or even what edition AD&D
rules it's going to use (if at all)?
Darren: About all I can say right now is that it's currently not planned to be a
D&D game. We're researching engines (read: playing games J) and looking
at some possibilities for the different ideas we have, but nothing that has been
set in stone yet.
March 14th, 2001
GameBanshee: Assuming that the narrator for Icewind Dale was Belhifet himself (due to his anger during the ending cinematics), can we expect to see Belhifet again someday, after his banishment is over? Is the "beyond Icewind Dale" project (as you described it) a sequel? Or is no sequel planned?
Darren: I wouldn't necessarily expect this to be the last you'll see of Belhifet. The project the Icewind team will be working on next is still being determined. We have several different ideas mulling about and we're figuring out what sounds right for us. Currently, there is no sequel in the works, but that doesn't mean there won't be one. :)
March 13th, 2001
GameBanshee: Any idea when the downloadable dungeon pack or the HoW patch will be available? How large of a download will the dungeon pack be?
Darren: Our QA folks just came off of Fallout Tactics and are now testing the 1.41 patch. I'd expect it to be released within the next week or two. We're shooting for about a 40 meg download on the dungeon pack, and looking at sometime late next month.
March 12th, 2001
GameBanshee: Will the downloadable dungeon pack feature any new items, spells, or monsters? If so, can you give us a general idea of how many of each will be added? If not, what can we expect to see in the pack (how many dungeon levels, game hours, etc)?
Darren: The downloadable pack will feature new items and one or two new monsters, but no new spells. We're still fleshing out the item population, but 20-30 is about where we're standing at right now. We're looking to provide gamers another 3-5 hours of gameplay through roughly 5-10 new levels.
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