By Kevin Ma
Adam Shepp says he always wanted to make video games growing up in St. Albert, but never thought he could.
Now, he's helping to make a sequel to one of the most popular western computer games ever made, one that might yet become a critical hit.
A St. Albert Catholic High graduate, Shepp was one of about 80 people at the Art Gallery of Alberta Thursday for the launch of Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition: Siege of Dragonspear.
The game is a sequel/expansion pack for the bestselling Baldur's Gate video game series and is being produced by the Edmonton-based company Beamdog.
Originally released in 1998, the Baldur's Gate game series saw players guide a party of adventurers on a quest to stop the rise of the Lord of Murder. The two-game series, which is based on the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game system, sold millions of copies and is widely considered to be one of the best western role-playing games ever made.
Lead designer Phil Daigle said this new game fits between the first and second games in the series, and has you lead an army of mercenaries against a horde of religious fanatics that have taken over the titular Dragonspear Castle – an ancient fortress destroyed in a battle against three mighty dragons, the bones of one of which are still draped over its central keep.
While Beamdog has previously made updated remakes of the Baldur's Gate games, this is the first time that the company has made its own entry into the series, said company president Trent Oster.
"This is almost the start of a dream for people who work in games. We get to take a beloved franchise that people have embraced … and now we get to make something totally new."
Locals roll for initiative
Former St. Albert resident Madolin "Mad" Bee is one of the lead artists on the project. She said she originally came to this region from Seattle to attend the Edmonton Digital Arts College and was hired by Beamdog upon graduation.
Bee said her job has had her draw, paint and touch-up thousands of backgrounds, items and illustrations for the game over the last year, including the game's logo, which she designed herself.
"The emblem is actually the emblem that's on the floor of the (titular) castle," she said, and depicts castle founder Daeros Dragonspear atop his dragon, Halatathlaer.
Shepp, who now lives in Edmonton, says his job is to program the game so it's easier for players to use. He also designed the new character status screen, which is much, much easier to understand than the old one.
"Growing up in St. Albert, I always wanted to make video games, but never knew that I could," Shepp said.
"I started levelling up my math tree pretty high," he continued (making a videogame joke), and got into engineering. Once he realized he could code, he hopped over to the digital media program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, graduated, and eventually ended up at Beamdog.
Bee says her job has been a mostly 9-to-5 affair, although she has voluntarily worked some 14-hour shifts.
It's the game's "exceedingly passionate" fans that drive her to do so, Bee said.
"You go into the (online) forums and it's thousands of users constantly interacting with each other and giving their ideas and their new (game) mods. You see that and you go, all right, I want to produce the best that I can for them."
When asked if there were any obscure hints they could drop about the game, Shepp said players might notice an inordinate number of references to "fish folk" in it, as well as "butt-kicking for goodness" – two lines that became running gags during development.
Artists looking to break into the game industry need to draw everything, build portfolios and push them aggressively on people, Bee said.
"You have to throw yourself out there."
Programmers should sharpen their skills by making mods (add-ons) for their favourite games, Shepp said. St. Albert schools could help aspiring students by offering more computer programming classes, he added.
Oster said the game will hopefully be out for PC, Mac and Linux platforms later this year, but won't be released until they feel it's done.
"We're here to make great games. We're not here to ship things on time."
Siegeofdragonspear.com has details on the project.
