Farewell to Dave!

A portrait of the artist at work.

Today, Beamdog bids farewell to our Creative Director, David Gaider.

Dave came to Beamdog during interesting times. Since then, he has been teacher, mentor, and friend to many on the team. We’ve seen Dave conjure new worlds we’d love to play in, and spin stories in places already close to our hearts. Someday we will share the fruits of his labour!

Most lasting, Dave has built a creative team that will shape the stories Beamdog tells in the years to come. He has freely shared his incredible wealth of storytelling and narrative design experience with the developers, designers, and artists around him. We’ve all learned a lot from Dave and we hope he picked up a trick or two from us as well.

As fans of Dragon Age, KoTOR, Baldur’s Gate, and many of the other incredible worlds Dave has helped create, we’re excited to find out what’s next (come on, give us a clue Dave!) be it a new game, novel, or whatever else it is you choose to create.

We’ll certainly miss your lunchtime stories. Best of luck Dave!

Beamdog at Global Game Jam 2017

Give the team a hand!

What do game developers do with their free time? Make more games!

Ten people from the office, nearly half the team at Beamdog HQ, participated in Global Game Jam 2017. The event, running from the evening of January 20th through to the end of the 22nd, had over 36,000 participants in 702 sites across 95 countries. All these teams created more 7,000 games! We’re proud to have had Beamdog represent!

Look at that face! LOOK AT IT!

This year’s theme, "Waves," was interpreted in hundreds of different ways. Here are two completely new, utterly bizarre games we're excited to share with you. For the full effect, make sure to have sound turned on for both titles.

Because You’re A Water Wizard

A bull in a china shop has nothing on a wizard. Use water powers to knock items to the floor while running from an angry security bot. Scatter 100 items across the floor to win!

Get it here.

The Queen’s Wave

All the citizenry has come out to witness the majestic parade of Her Royal Majesty. Wave to gain the approval of your subjects and, most importantly, corgis. Snub someone and they’ll voice their ire.

Get it here.

Not pictured: 100 more coffee cups.

According to Alexei, the mastermind behind Beamdog’s game jam participation, time was the most difficult factor. “Getting from an idea to a working game in just two days is tough. It's also difficult to stay in scope, you get excited about an idea and think of great features but you have to be realistic and cut it down to the core gameplay.”

In Water Wizard, the team wanted to have fires that could put out and the ability to knock down the security guard with water, but both had to be cut. In The Queen's Wave they ended up removing a 'super saiyan' Queen mode where “if you played perfectly it would go technicolor,” but even though voice lines were done, the feature had to be cut for time.

For most participating, this was an exciting chance to try out new roles and tools. Devs more comfortable with coding took on the GGJ challenge in the Unreal Engine. QA team members scaled new mountains as level designers. And the Beamdog office manager absolutely rocked as an audio designer and voice actor. Yes, just about EVERYTHING you hear in those games came from one person. 

The team practicing a proper "Queen's wave."

Congratulations to everyone who participated for making two fun games in such a short amount of time!

If you’d like to learn more about Global Game Jam and try more games made by small teams around the world, visit the official website, Globalgamejam.org.