Today Aspyr Media agreed to purchase the Canadian developer, Beamdog, who is best known for bringing role-playing games like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment to desktops, tablets, and modern consoles.

Beamdog will still be an independent developer within Aspyr, even with the deal. The acquisition still has to be agreed upon and approved by regulators though. Founded in 2009 by former Bioware leads, Trent Oster and Cameron Tofer, Beamdog has a team of 80 artists, designers, and developers. They have relationships with Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro and will continue to be led by Oster.

Aspyr and Beamdog will collaborate on the developer’s new game called MythForce. The game is inspired by 80s cartoons such as Thundercats and He-Man and will have colourful swords and sorcery combined with first-person combat all wrapped up in a roguelike adventure.

“Beamdog is a tremendously talented group that we’ve admired for a long time. Their development philosophy and studio vision are perfectly aligned with ours. We look forward to seeing them realize their ambition with MythForce while maximizing the long-term potential of an incredible archive of classic games,” said CEO of Aspyr, Ted Staloch.

The CEO of Beamdog, Trent Oster, echoed those sentiments. “This acquisition will open up a ton of exciting opportunities for us. Beamdog can now focus our talent, efforts, and imagination on building the great games we want to play while properly looking after established fan-favourite RPGs. Beamdog’s first original IP is a fun-filled start to our studio’s next chapter.”

Beamdog is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Their CEO commented on Mythforce in a statement, “It’s a big departure from the RPG classics we’re known for, but the Beamdog DNA is evident if you know where to look”. In the game, players will explore a procedurally generated dungeon, while levelling up their characters and unlocking them each time they start again.

This is all par for the course for roguelikes. A new trailer was released featuring the song Workin’ For The Weekend and visuals inspired by the 80s cartoons of old. It can be viewed below.

Mythforce is the first original title to come from the acquisition, “Mythforce is a feel-good game that speaks to the kid in us,” Oster said. “In early access, we want to collaborate with players who are excited by our wholesome, 80s vision for Mythforce, and build up the best game possible. Community will be key to getting us to 1.0.”

The game is set to be released on April 20, 2022, on the Epic Games store in early access.