Beamdog - Launches a Free Magazine

Myrthos

Myrthos

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Beamdog is offering a free dgital magazine, named The Familiar. For this they have partnered with Dragon+ creators Dialect. The magazine is supposed to see a quarterly release and contains industry interviews, fiction, contests, Beamdog exclusives, and some other stuff from the CRPG industry.

Today we’re pleased to present Beamdog's first digital publication, The Familiar! We partnered with Dialect (creators of Dragon+) to develop this quarterly (or approximately quarterly) app with industry interviews, fiction, contests, Beamdog exclusives, and everything else you didn't know you needed to know about the CRPG industry.


How much does all this incredible content cost, you ask? The answer is nothing! You can download The Familiar for FREE as an app from the iTunes App Store or GooglePlay.


Our inaugural issue is available right now and takes a look at the state of the CRPG industry, from our own Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition to n-Space’s Sword Coast Legends. We also have a step-by-step guide for adding custom portraits to the Enhanced Edition games plus two beautiful free portraits. (The installation process is different for every platform, so if you’ve been wondering how to bring over your Drizzt portrait to your Galaxy S5, you’ll definitely want to take a look.)
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More information.
 
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Sure that's somehow nice, but I'd rather read it on m PC.
 
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You can run Android Apps in Chrome, so perhaps you can read it on your PC :)
 
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It would be nice if they do this well - a really good quarterly for CRPGs, rather than just a glorified marketing newsletter.
 
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Ripper said:
It would be nice if they do this well - a really good quarterly for CRPGs, rather than just a glorified marketing newsletter.
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It's not quite marketing newsletter and not quite "general cRPGs" either. It feels a bit more like Kickstarter updates mixed with magazine.

This issue has:
- an article about Beamdog creation, evolution and their goals
- an article about SoD that covers their rewrote of the UI in the Infintiy Engine (it's slightly technical)
- another article about SoD on how they made new zones and improved old ones
- an article about how to import portraits into the EE editions on all the platforms
- an interview with N-Space about Sword Coast Legend
- an article/interview about isometric party-based cRPG revivals (include Feargus from Obsidian, Sven from Larian, Dan from N-Space and Trent from Beamdog). Other games are mentioned.
- an interview with the fantasy artist that did the cover of the issue (there is some very cool art in it). She's a freelancer.
- a short story about a new NPC in SoD
- a contest to win a SoD poster
- a Fan Fare section
- two new portraits (made by Thea a Beamdog artist if I remember correctly) that we can import into BG, BG2 or IWD

The next issue is going to be more Siege of Dragonspear (most probably to go with the game release) and will have Cameron Tofer talking about creating Minsc (his D&D character long before he ended up working with all his college and D&D buddies at BioWare).
 
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Morrandir said:
Sure that's somehow nice, but I'd rather read it on m PC.
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When it comes to android, you can read and run anything on your PC, just install Bluestacks (freebie android emulator). Which means "porting" androidware to PC and then bragging about it is in it's core - just a scam.

So Beamdog launches phoneware. Ain't that a surprise. But hey, since when they're not phonegames developer?

This magazine… What's it about really?
Does it reveal a secret quest in some obscure but still cult game from the past?
Does it analyze Fallout2 as antropological phenomenon?
Does it list the most efficient build for a role in some MOBA?
Does it provide statistics about hardware, operating system, hours spent, etc on Steam?
Does it talk about the fresh trend of RPG, not RPG as genre, but upcoming sci-fi RPG that started with FO4 and will continue with more sci-fi through next couple of years?
Does it declare war on dumbing down games?
Does it list successful KS projects and games that were born from there and didn't disappoint?
Does it talk about shit taste of critics and their praising games that are borderline frauds?

Etc… I think it doesn't nor will ever touch any hot potato.
But then again, isn't Beamdog's phylosophy exactly that? Low risk with proven product rerelease/port.

It's thumb down from me.
 
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I'm just trying to figure out what Dan from N-Space could possibly have to say about CRPGs considering the company has never made one :p
 
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daveyd said:
I'm just trying to figure out what Dan from N-Space could possibly have to say about CRPGs considering the company has never made one :p
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His interview is more about Sword Coast Legends failures, fans expectations and how they messed up.
 
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It's free so at least the first issue will be worth to check out.
It's not like they would need to do all that much to beat any other magazine's on the market.
 
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azarhal said:
His interview is more about Sword Coast Legends failures, fans expectations and how they messed up.
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He does not mention anything about messing up. He blames customers expectations for low sales and bad reception.
Also says WotC approved all their decisions.
And than says how Dark Alliance was one of their inspirations lol.
In other words it is everyone else's fault....
 
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This is an interesting initiative by Beamdog, curious to see what direction it goes in. Seems like an indication that a strong cRPG culture is building and emerging within the studio. I remember reading Dragon a little bit back in the day and so hopefully that bodes well for the quality of output.

One idea for an article I could envisage going in a mag like this is on memorable dungeons in cRPGs and the art of quality dungeon design.
For example Od Nua from Pillars of Eternity was slightly disappointing for me content wise; whereas a dungeon like Durlag's Tower remains seemingly unsurpassed in recent memory as far as AD&D experiences go.

Anyway, I could blather on endlessly on this topic, (and go down many other paths) but it's a good example of something I'd like to see discussed in such a magazine. :)
 
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Pessimeister said:
This is an interesting initiative by Beamdog, curious to see what direction it goes in. Seems like an indication that a strong cRPG culture is building and emerging within the studio. I remember reading Dragon a little bit back in the day and so hopefully that bodes well for the quality of output.

One idea for an article I could envisage going in a mag like this is on memorable dungeons in cRPGs and the art of quality dungeon design.
For example Od Nua from Pillars of Eternity was slightly disappointing for me content wise; whereas a dungeon like Durlag's Tower remains seemingly unsurpassed in recent memory as far as AD&D experiences go.

Anyway, I could blather on endlessly on this topic, (and go down many other paths) but it's a good example of something I'd like to see discussed in such a magazine. :)
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Same here. I bet there will be articles like this going forward.

I have the app on my tablet and the first edition is awesome. Really enlightening stuff. I also downloaded the Dragon+ app since there was an ad for it in the Familiar magazine. Dragon+ is the Dungeons and Dragons free magazine, and it, too, is awesome. Can't wait to check both of these out going forward. We could really use a CRPG magazine like this. :)
 
The browser based version is available as well.
 
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I used to subscribe to Dragon magazine and had all the issues. I had them in our basement and lost them when it flooded back in '93 :(
 
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