Return to the Sword Coast—Now at Half the Price!

Earlier this year, we celebrated 9 years since the release of Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, Beamdog’s first original expansion in the legendary Baldur’s Gate saga. To mark the occasion, we’re offering the game at 50% off—just $9.99 USD!

Set between the events of Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II, Siege of Dragonspear bridges the gap with a gripping tale of war, mystery, and divine legacy. Though Sarevok lies defeated, peace remains elusive. A new threat rises in the north—a crusade led by the enigmatic Shining Lady, whose origins may be as divine as your own.

As the hero of Baldur’s Gate, you must navigate political intrigue, moral dilemmas, and the haunting legacy of your father. Will you uphold the city’s fragile hope, or carve your own path through the chaos?

🎉 Whether you're a seasoned adventurer or new to the Baldur's Gate saga, now is the perfect time to experience this epic chapter in the Forgotten Realms.

👉 Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear is available now for $9.99 USD. Gather your party, steel your resolve, and prepare to face destiny at the Dragonspear Castle.

Grab your sword and rally your crew—epic adventure awaits in the Forgotten Realms!

Step into the world of Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition from Aspyr Media. The quest begins now!

Get Neverwinter Nights 1 + 2 Enhanced Collection Bundle (10% off) here:

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/53494/Neverwinter_Nights_1__2_Enhanced_Collection/

Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice!ːspacehamsterː

It’s time to roll a new character and start another epic Baldur’s Gate adventure, because the Reflections Of Myth & Valor portrait pack by Mike Sass is out now!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2488970/Baldurs_Gate_Reflections_Of_Myth__Valor/

Reflections Of Myth & Valor features 16 brand-new portraits in the art style of Baldur’s Gate and showcases a huge variety of classes, subclasses, races, and alignments: from a half-orc Swashbuckler, to an elven Priest of Tyr, to a Dwarven Defender.

Gather a party of fresh faces—and venture forth onto Faerûn!ːbhaalː

In honor of this epic collaboration, we’re releasing the two community contest portraits absolutely for FREE! Grab the installer from here, or download the archive from here.

We recommend downloading and running the installer. Select the game, and pick an install path for the portraits. Blank entries will be skipped.

To celebrate Baldur’s Gate's 25th anniversary a while ago in 2023, we organized a Community Contest with O.G. artist Mike Sass to give our players the chance of a lifetime: to have their portraits transformed into the art style of Baldur’s Gate and added to the game.

A lot of fans participated in the Contest, and all of you wanted Mike to draw more than just 2 portraits. We summoned a Djinni, and it granted your Wish (although the Djinni certainly took their time), with the Reflections Of Myth & Valor portrait pack coming to Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store on April 29th alongside free community portraits of the two Contest winners (separate download).

Reflections Of Myth & Valor will allow you to customize your character’s look and feel with sixteen brand new portraits representing a huge variety of classes, subclasses, races, and alignments that the Baldur’s Gate games are known for.

To give you a glimpse of the quality level of Mike Sass’s portraits, here are the two Contest winners:



Please add the portrait pack to your Steam Wishlist!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2488970/Baldurs_Gate_Reflections_Of_Myth__Valor/

We look forward to seeing your new CHARNAMEs! Tell us what you think below.

What is MythForce?

• Roguelike Dungeon Crawling ✅
  
• 80s Cartoon Aesthetic ✅
  
• Take on the forces of Deadalus solo or with up to 3 friends ✅
  
• Play as a Knight, Mage, Hunter, or Rogue ✅
  
• Fun ✅

Check it out during Steam Next Fest from June 19th - June 26th 📅

Already tried out the demo? Add MythForce to your wishlist and join our Discord:
https://discord.gg/MythForce

Heya! It's me, Imoen!

It’s time to reveal the winners of The Faces of Baldur’s Gate I & II: Enhanced Editions Contest: Ashley Rich & Andrew Lim! Congratulations, Ashley and Andrew, you’ll get your portraits transformed into the art style of Baldur’s Gate by Mike Sass!



Big Congrats to the winners and finalists of the Baldur's Gate portrait contest!
It’s really exciting that D&D seems to be having a renaissance, with the new movie and games coming out. We are delighted that there is a loyal community around the BG games and we are happy that together we keep the franchise alive.
There were hundreds of portrait submissions for this contest. I went through them all and made a shortlist of about 20 that were great options for turning into BG characters. It may seem like the winners were chosen because of costuming and props, but that's totally not the case. Two of my favorites were simple faces with hand gestures, which had good expressions and contained the feel and attitude of the old illustrations. While we appreciated the efforts to gather props and costumes, this was not the biggest factor in determining the winners. The winning entries were a consensus by myself and Beamdog, and had a level of uniqueness, effort and surprise that grabbed our attention.
Ashley Rich: What a great, well-considered pose! Ashley has conceptualized a character that has lots of potential in a fantasy world. The overlap of the hand and gem are a great way to keep the details inside a closely-cropped small portrait format. And of course, the eye-glass element is really cool. Great job, and congratulations!
Andrew Lim: Wow! This submission demonstrates perfectly that the props are helpful, but not what makes a winner. His firm expression, hand gestures and complexity of pose are the big thing here. Andrew has a great look that can't be ignored, congratulations!
Again, thanks to everyone that submitted to this contest. We could literally show dozens of great entries that all had usable aspects and were perfectly good. We appreciate all the considered efforts you took; The winners were not easily chosen and there were many others that I am disappointed I could not use. However, the winners deserve the accolades, and we hope you agree!

~Mike Sass


Want to learn more about Andrew and Ashley's character backstories? Read below.

Andrew Lim:
My character is a human barbarian of the Uthgardt Bear Tribe. Hailing from the Cold Wood, he stands as one of the vigilants of his tribe that protect their people from the dangers of the untamed wilds therein. Warriors of the bear venerate the animal not only for its strength and majesty (particularly owing to the dire bears in the region), but also for its ability to endure in the harshest of climes. He fights to protect his tribe as well as to earn the favor of the Great Bear, which is its "blessing"--contracting lycanthropy in order to become one of the Great Bear's chosen that maintains the bear's noble heritage and bearing in order to better protect the tribe. Like the rest of his warrior kin, he constantly pushes the borders of his rangings, riding on a knife-edge of danger that may earn the recognition of the Great Bear, or claim his unworthy spirit into the depths of the Cold Wood, never to be seen again.

Ashley Rich:
Feldy (Feldspar) is a human rogue from the Merchant Guild - specifically, her job has been that of gem cutter/appraiser. She greatly enjoyed her moderately comfortable life in the guild, but was recently sent out on an expedition whose purpose was to restore a late mage's abode. Discovering all she could about the runestones there and possibly bringing some back was supposed to fastrack her apprenticeship, but of course, nothing ever goes to plan...

Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice!

The Faces of Baldur’s Gate I & II: Enhanced Editions Contest was such a success that it took us and Mike Sass a little bit more than 3 weeks to go through the submissions and pick the winners. You definitely rolled 18 Charisma for your CHARNAMEs! We’re so humbled by the number of participants and the quality of your photos, stories, and character concepts—that we might have something extra in store for a few additional finalists! (Boo says: Squeak!)

Please check out the letter by Mike Sass below and stay tuned to our socials (Twitter & Facebook) in the upcoming weeks to find out who rolled a critical hit!
Wow! What can I say. We are overwhelmed by the almost 360 submissions to this portrait contest.
We have looked through all the photos now and have chosen the winners.
I mentioned to Beamdog that there are so many good ones that it would make sense to call some out and add some "finalists" to the contest, with a little prize for them, so we are going to do that. I really appreciate the time you guys took, so thought we should expand the accolades. It's a lot of effort to get dressed up and take photos, and your efforts were very much noticed!
I have to laugh at how many pets were included in the photos. A lot of cats, and even a guinea pig!
I'll call out some non-finalists that were super duper close to being winners...
Richard Farrelly... with your bird pet. It's possible that you have a perfect face for a fantasy character. I suggest you get an agent, dude.
Thomas Nimbus Kirk... Super good job with this photo! The angles of your head and the mug, and the way you have it held close to your head are ideal. Love the soap suds in the mug for the extra effort!
St1ng... Man, I fought to use you, and you were my top photo. I wanted to make you a magic user with glowing floating runes around your hand. But alas, I can only pick one male, and had to leave you. Sniff.
Johann Mahinay... If I had the space for an orc you would have been him! Totally usable picture just a matter of balance... sorry!
Emma Peterson... Perfect as well. Your look, the pose, it's all very BG! Give me a few more portraits and you would be one; it's a numbers thing!
Kori-Shea Dupasquier... It's all there! This is ready to paint and you have planned out a good character. Top 3 female! (Get a license plate that says that.)
julia.del... Great hair, hand, and face. This is a quintessentially good reference; the perfect pose and look to build on.
Janusz Komorowski... The BG portraits could use another straightforward warrior male, and you are my choice! Your hair and expression work well, alas, I can only choose one.
jpsimmons and Henry Lindeman... You guys know what's up! You guys have the look!
Glen McKnight... Great job with the colored side lighting. Are you a photographer? You did a bang-up job with the expression and look. I consider this a perfect reference, so great job here.
Marcin Oczesała... You are doing exactly what is needed here… Your hands and knife have been posed perfectly and I wish I could use your photo as you have hit the mark!
Garret... Legolas. Drow warrior. Great look and perfect pose. I don't know what to say, I can only pick one!
Stay tuned for the finalists!

This year we're celebrating the 25th anniversary of Baldur’s Gate, a game by BioWare that is so dear to all of us at Beamdog! In 1998, a legend was born, and this legend continues to live today thanks to an amazing community of Baldur’s Gate players.

And just this past November we celebrated our own small anniversary – 10 years since the release of Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition. All these years YOU (yes, YOU) have been with us, sharing stories about your adventures on the Sword Coast, providing feedback, and showing how much Baldur’s Gate means to you. We want to give you something special in return, and at the same time pay respect to the original game.

We reached out to Mike Sass, the original artist who had created all the portraits of your beloved Baldur’s Gate companions: Minsc, Dynaheir, Jaheira, Khalid, Edwin, Viconia, the list can only go on! Mike kindly agreed, and now we want to give back to you, the players. We want you to define and be the Faces of Baldur’s Gate I & II: Enhanced Editions. Our community members are the true faces of the Baldur's Gate world and we want to honor that.

Starting TODAY, we'd love it if you submitted your Photo to social@beamdog.com for a chance to be selected as one of two community members immortalized in a character portrait by Mike Sass. He will create your portrait in the original Baldur’s Gate style and your face could be added to the games! In your email, answer the following questions for Mike to draw inspiration from when creating his portraits:

1. What is your character’s race, class, backstory?
   
2. What is your most proud accomplishment in the 10 years of playing Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition?
   
3. If you played the original game over 20 years ago, how did it feel coming back to the Enhanced Edition?

Feel free to add/attach any additional materials, design concepts, and more.

*By submitting your Photo, you grant us, without any compensation of any kind to you or others, the exclusive right and license to use, copy, distribute, display, publish, perform, sell, sublicense, modify, edit, adapt, translate, transmit, create derivative works from, and otherwise exploit all Photos in any form, medium or technology that we elect, whether now or in the future. Without limiting the foregoing, you agree that, without further approval from you, we may exercise the rights you grant us herein for any and all purposes we deem appropriate, including, without limitation, for the promotion, marketing, and publicizing of our services and products. The right and license you grant us is perpetual, irrevocable, exclusive, royalty-free, unrestricted, worldwide, and transferable without your further consent. You understand and agree that we have the option, but not the obligation, to use the Photo you submit to us, and that if we exercise our license rights, we may also use your User Information in conjunction with such Photos. You agree that we and our third party service providers may use your email address to contact you about your Photos and for other administrative purposes related to your obligations and our rights.

The submission period is from February 13 to March 06. The photos we select are at our sole discretion. If Mike Sass chooses your portrait, he has the absolute creative freedom to design it away from your description.

Here are guidelines to consider when submitting your photo:

• Every photo must be your original work
  
• We accept photos in digital format only
  
• One submission per person
  
• Photos must use a neutral/light background & match the lighting below

We will not use the following:

• Photos depicting persons that are identifiable
  
• Copyrighted material
  
• Photos that contain elements that are unlawful or that we may not lawfully use or publish
  
• Photos that contain your name or nickname, any other symbol or device that identifies you to others, or a copyright legend
  
• Photos that contain personally identifiable information such as, but not limited to, email addresses, URLs, phone numbers, physical addresses or other forms of contact information
  
• Digital image files that contain anti-copying or tracking devices
  
• You must be at least 18 years old to submit a Photo to us

Please check out the letter by Mike Sass below—it has more recommendations to increase the chances of your photo being selected for the in-game portrait! Good luck, adventurers!


Hi Everyone!
I'm excited that Beamdog has asked me to revisit Baldur’s Gate and and create two new portraits of community members for the game.
25 years ago, BioWare was lucky to get the D&D license from Interplay to attach to the “Battleground Infinity” demo and create a special game that re-invigorated fantasy PC gaming.
Back in the day, as a 90s startup based in Canada, most of the BioWare employees were generalists, and we were all learning on the job.
When I started at BioWare my tasks included concepting and texturing 3-d models. Baldur's Gate needed some character portraits, and various employees tried their hand at photoshop-painting these characters. Since none of us were experienced artists at that point, nobody could seem to craft a professional-looking painting. Using photoshop version 3, my attempts seemed to be passable, so I became the portrait artist. Little did I realize, BG would be a hit, these images would resonate and I would have a 25-year career painting art for video games!
The BG1 portraits were my first digital paintings ever. Back in the day, there was no standard to copy, no instruction to follow and no inspiration to aspire to. This was the first project for all of us, and we just used intuition and experimentation for everything. Illustrative game art in the early 90s was sometimes created by the programmers or outsourced to traditional advertising agencies. In-house art talent wasn't really a thing.
In 25 years, I have learned much about traditional portraiture and digital painting techniques. These two new portraits give me the chance to create quality images using the knowledge of a seasoned professional. (To me, this is like going back to college when I'm 50 and correcting mistakes from my youth. Haha.) The past number of years I have focused on painting card art for Blizzard's Hearthstone game. I now use Corel Painter, and have a totally different process and standards. It will be interesting to see how this new portraits compare and if they even look like the same artist did them!
As you likely know, the original BG portraits were based on real people. I had taken some photos for reference for various projects in college and knew this is what professional artists did to inform their paintings. So I asked around the office for people to pose for the BG characters. I also used wives and girlfriends, as BioWare was probably 90% male. I didn't even consider using actual, paid models as it seemed like a big ask to get the bosses to pay for that. It’s also weird to go around telling random people that you want to photograph them for your fantasy project.
In retrospect, I think people like the BG1 portraits because the dialogue and voices combine with a living, realistic picture of the character. Taking photos of specific poses and expressions allowed me to break from generic stereotypes and portray these characters in a manner where the portrait communicates a character's motivation or background. I aimed to have the model's hands be in the frame holding, doing or expressing something that furthered their character.
With new BG portraits, I intend to use the successful aspects of the original BG1 set. I would like an object, prop or gesture to be included in the frame. (not totally necessary) These elements have to be close to the face so it can be cropped tight and consistent. (holding something in an outstretched arm to the side won't work) The main thing is I need faces that look like fantasy characters. There is a need for all types, from a portly dwarf to a delicate elf. I can change colors and add whatever details are needed. I will be enhancing the characterization a bit more this time, so it won't be verbatim the photo you send in. Don't photograph too dark or too light and washed out. Keep lighting simple and descriptive.
The original portrait references were taken with a film camera and lit by a table lamp indoors. The lighting should match the mood of the figure. Take photos with a neutral/light background to avoid confusing detail. Get some basic costume, a good prop, even a hamster!
If you are inspired to be included for posterity in this game, go ahead... take some photos, become your character and see if you can make it to be one of community-sourced models.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
Mike Sass

Greetings everyone!

The long-awaited 2.6 Patch for Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, and Icewind Dale Enhanced Editions launched to PC, Mac, and Linux in April. Today we're following that up with the 2.6.6 Patch to squash a few more bugs in these classic RPGs.

Thanks again to our heroic community members who tested out these fixes ahead of today's release.

Together, we are bug-kicking for goodness!🐹

Read on for full patch details...

• Clicking Sounds | Prevented extra button click sounds from playing in the User Interface (UI)
  
• Lightning Bolt Traps | Lightning bolts from the lightning mephit trap and mephit attacks will no longer bounce
  
• Melf's Minute Meteors | Fixed the removing of Melf's Minute Meteors (and any similarly implemented spell) when a character moves in Multiplayer
  
• Multiplayer | Fixed a Multiplayer issue where a newly added party member was not visible or controllable
  
• Multiplayer | Fixed a Multiplayer issue where the 6th slot characters were having the HP and inventory inadvertently changed
  
• Multiplayer | Fixed a rare issue where clicking on Multiplayer would crash the game
  
• World Map | The World Map no longer reopens when travelling to the same location

• Tremain | Tremain will now successfully revive his son
  
• Yeslick's Dispel Magic | Yeslick's special ability Dispel Magic no longer applies the continuous graphical effect
  
• Siege of Dragonspear | Fixed a crash when travelling to the Coalition Camp
  
• Siege of Dragonspear | Fixed a Linux crash after a dialogue with Corporal Duncan, near the end of Chapter 10
  
• Siege of Dragonspear | Fixed a crash in the music system during the Neothelid fight in the Ritual Chamber

• Creature Sounds | Right-clicking on creatures will once again play their default sound

• Boring Beetle Pincers | Fixed pincers on the druid boring beetle form
  
• Spirit Wolves | Fixed a crash when using Spirit Wolves by Totemic Druid

Greetings everyone!

The long-awaited 2.6 Patch for Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II & Icewind Dale Enhanced Editions on PC, Mac and Linux launched successfully! Our community testers played a HUGE role in this success, and everyone on our team is here humbled by your support and feedback.

We've identified a few issues introduced by the patch that require an immediate fix. This is why we're calling for your help again— testing a 2.6.6 Beta before it's released as a stable patch!

WHAT CHANGED in 2.6.6
All Games | The World Map no longer reopens when travelling to the same location
All Games | Prevented extra button click noises from playing in the UI
All Games | Lightning bolts from the lightning trap and mephit attacks will no longer bounce
All Games | Fixed the removing of Melf's Minute Meteors (and any similarly implemented spell) when a character moves in Multiplayer
All Games | Fixed a Multiplayer issue where a newly added party member was not visible or controllable
All Games | Fixed a Multiplayer issue where the 6th slot characters were having the HP and inventory inadvertently changed
All Games | Fixed a rare issue where clicking on Multiplayer would crash the game
BGI | Tremain will now successfully revive his son
BGI | Yeslick's special ability Dispel Magic no longer applies the continuous graphical effect
BGII | Right-clicking on creatures will once again play their default sound
SOD | Fixed a crash when travelling to the Coalition Camp
SOD | Fixed a Linux crash after a dialogue with Corporal Duncan, near the end of Chapter 10
SOD | Fixed a crash in the music system during the Neothelid fight in the Ritual Chamber
IWD | Reinstalled pincers on the druid boring beetle form
IWD | Fixed a crash when using Spirit Wolves by Totemic Druid

How to Participate:
- Playthrough some quests & VOTE on the release
- Tell us about *new bugs (the beta shouldn't add any issues) - comment below!
- Tell us about major issues affecting saves, visuals, sound & quality - comment below!

How to opt-in & verify you're using the correct version on Steam:
- Please make sure you're using a clean (unmodded) install. Clear your override folder before testing the beta build
- In your Steam Library, Right-Click on the game and choose “Properties”
- Click on the Beta Tab
- Choose the road_to_2.6 in the drop down menu
- If you don't see the road_to_2.6 in the drop down menu, please restart Steam
- In-game, on the main menu, you will see that the build is 2.6.6.0

Join the Beta & Vote Below!