Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Interview
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4. SP: Was the process to convert the game over to a mobile (touch-based) mode more or less challenging than you anticipated? What was the greatest obstacle to making this mode of play work?
Oster: The greatest obstacle was how hard-coded to Windows the original code base was. The entire engine was written around the concept of a mouse and performing actions on mouse-click events that it took forever to isolate all the various bits of code. I also think the UI structure and the game and rules-specific code embedded into the UI code has been a real challenge. We finally came to terms by building a new UI system which can work on top of existing screens and still play nice in the framework.
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8. SP: There's been talk of DLC being released post launch. How many DLCs ideally would you like to see released for BG:EE?
Oster: I'd like to see a lot of DLC released post-launch. The Sword Coast is a great location for adventure and BG:EE offers a very fun type of tactical gameplay which cannot be had anywhere else. Our plan is to do at least one expansion-pack scale add-on and see how the market responds. If people like what we're doing and buy the DLC, we'll make more.
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16. SP: Obsidian is currently developing a game engine based off Unity, with what sounds like a large number of customizations to streamline it for the development of a CRPG. Might Beamdog consider using such an engine for the development of Baldur's Gate 3?
Oster: No. In my experience, an engine is all about optimization. What makes an engine fast is not the work you do, but the work you don't. With a game like Baldur's Gate, there is no other title with the same challenges and as such, no engine is optimized around those criteria. Our approach is going to be from the ground up, making an engine and tool chain which is 100% dedicated to making the best isometric party based role playing game possible. Tools and workflow will be top of the list and a powerful scripting language is the foundation for our plans going forward. I think what we build will be radically different from all current engines on the market.
