Why Larian Studios wanted to make Baldur's Gate 3, and how they pulled it off | BAFTA
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- Опубликовано: 25 июн 2024
- Join CEO of Larian Studios Swen Vincke, Writing Director Adam Smith, and Lead Writer Chrystal Ding as they share insights into the development of Baldur’s Gate 3; from the importance of launching in early access, leaving room for the players to make their own stories, and what the future holds... No stone is left unturned in this epic masterclass hosted by Jane Douglas.
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Okay, something just hit me big time, at 20:41, when Swen starts talking about mistakes, and especially mistakes that were being pointed out by early access players. His response is such a contrast with other studios, and I think it really is the single biggest explanation why Larian has the success and goodwill that it does. Their response to being told 'mistake' is light years away from the response you see with other studios, who just look at players and tell them that they're just playing the game wrong, or they just don't understand what they should be thinking. Larian's just like 'Well, we have to listen to our players; they're the whole reason we're doing this', and they're not too proud to make changes. Class act.
I feel like Swen was actually right about the second person narration and I desperately want to play the game he was trying to make-- but I nonetheless appreciate that this aspect of Swen as a game director has on balance led to WAY more good outcomes than bad
@@rrrrthats4rs yeah, me too, actually many of their decisions were amazing players just weren't ready for them, but we don't know how would it influence the production, maybe less variety etc. So it is what it is, amazing game
I like the general argument that players are very good at finding problems, but not always as good at providing solutions. I do think it's possible to 'play the game wrong', but it's often a result of the design failing to communicate the developer's intention properly, and the player's bad experience is valid and something worth addressing. But if you remove that element of design, you also remove a piece of your unique vision, so you have to be very careful to not make a bland product
P.S. example: the entire history of world of warcraft and it's redesigns lol
I came round to your way of thinking over time. I think you mean first-person narration? It would have worked for origin characters. But it wouldn’t have worked with Tav, and that was the problem. I remember Sven playing as Astarion with first person narration and thinking “no no no!” But that’s because I was thinking more about Tav than origin characters. I wouldn’t want the story to be told by my Tav voicing his thoughts in the first person. But it’s different for Astarion because he’s a character in that world already. I didn’t invent him. I don’t have ownership of his voice and thoughts in the same way.
@@literallyjustgrass For me it's more that they're actually willing to consider the complaints and actually think about them Contrast that with the total passive-aggressive tone that the Starfield responses had, and it's night and day. When you have that many people saying the same thing, and the response is basically 'You don't understand our Great Vision because you're doing it wrong!' it's not going to endear you to the community. (I personally am usually fine with just accepting something as-is, but I saw some of those comments and responses, and I was shocked that no one was fired over it.)
I love Swen's take on concept art. It's not meant to be the basis for the final end-goal, it's to explore what world and tone and environment you want to experience and not to inhibit that with: 'Well, here's the ONE concept art we did, time to start making it.' I adore Larian so much!
Yeah, I've seen folks fall into the concept trap way too much. Heck i've seen it happen with concept demos, pivoting the direction to better match the demo (never ends well)
its not exactly an original take is it, its just part of the art/design ideation process.
The way Sven talks about crunch and overtime etc is exactly how the rest of the industry should be. keep it up.
Super excited for their next game
Me too!
Next gameS. Last i heard they are making 2 new games.
Larian has earned my full trust. i will be supporting all of their games.
They are showing to the game industry and to the world that bringing more humanity, creativity, freedom, trust and collaboration in companies is not weak but is the key of long lasting success. I hope many will take example, because this is what the world needs right now, a shift in perception and goals.
yup, absolutely
Hey, Henry's come to see us!
yeah only studio i pay full price for everything they do for sure.
Based Henry of Skalitz take
I have 1400 hours of gameplay in BG3, these three people are my heros! its 35 work weeks of game play. Nothing has captured my attention since the early days of wow
I'm continuously amazed at how replayable I find it.
Like, I've similar hours to you and I've never used any mods or anything, so it's always the same locations, enemy spawns, gear drop locations etc. but I never seem to get bored of it!
I'm approaching 1000 hours. Am currently running act 2 in Ghost of Tsushima, thought I'd hop over to BG3 and fire up a new character for a fresh run (to just get myself all set, get her out of the nautiloid...okay, get her to Emerald Grove...and Withers....) and here I am now in the Gaunlet of Shar and poor Jin in GoT is languishing.
I attended this live, it was so well put together and engaging. Thanks so much for arranging the event and for the swift upload!
How long ago was this??
@@sammycooke5830 two weeks ago!
One of the best videogames I've played in 12 years. We're so privileged to have these creative geniuses at the helm of one is the best videogames we've seen in years
starts frantically googling games released in 2012
Mass Effect 3?
Elden Ring would like a word :P
@@ctg4818 BG3 is light years beyond Elden Ring.
Baldur's Gate III is the first videogame I've played since the original xbox!!!
The two originals were my fave games of all-time back in the day, so I couldn't resist.
It didn't disappoint!!!!!
Took me 3 mos and 125 hrs to finish. I was a little rusty gaming wise 😂
took me 200 hours+ to finish my first playthrough o0 You dont seem rusty at all. ;)
In recommend DISCO Elysium friend, another modern masterpiece crpg.
Can I just quickly shout out the interviewer and all the people who came up with the questions. Some of the questions were really good and interesting and the interviewer did amazing with responding and giving the guests room to answer! Well done!
I could say that this game is a masterpiece, a work of love or all those things that have been said millions of time. But when I think of BG3 there is always one thing that comes imediatly to my mind, this is how I felt when I saw the credit. This massive emptiness and this mix sentiment of joy and sadness. This is the first time that I experienced that kind level of emotion just playing a game and I can't thank them enough for that.
Oh no!
In past interviews Swen always said his favourite class was Wizard! He's been converted! The Sorcs have taken him!
Lol, loved the interview, adore the game, got over 2k hours in it now and haven't even tried any mods or anything, thank you everyone who helped make it for us!
I think Swen is happy as long as he can blow up stuff with fireballs....one of the other devs let that slip in an interview once.
I just love how all humble and down to earth and oh just such awesome people! Would love to grab a beer with these guys!
It's a sad state of affairs when a studio like Larian is the exception and not the rule.. Can't wait to experience their next game, whatever it will be!
Who was your favourite companion in Baldur's Gate 3?
Astarion, because his backstory and journey to finding himself was just so AMAZING ❤
None, but i can tolerate Karlach
Astarion by far, his humor made the game way more fun. Too bad his writer left Larian.
Astarion is the best one IMHO
Astarion
Baldur's Gate 3 isn't overrated in the least, it deserved all its praise. One of the best games I've ever played.
BG3 is my 2nd favorite CRPG, just behind Planescape Torment! Both have great side characters, story and action!
Sven looks like hes fed up with the game, and in my opinion thats a great thing because hes focused on his next project, and i want to play that lol.
Sven is like any Gamer, once he is immersed in a game, he eats and drinks that game, which means his mind is filled with the New Game he is making and that is great. That is why he is done with Baldur's Gate
he's been on this project for like 6-8 years or so, it's normal he wants to do new refreshing ideas and stuff. Probably had cool ideas from year 1 but couldnt work on them until now.
I think he is fed up with Wizards of the Coast, and who would blame him.
19:39 damn it is wulbren
They really did an amazing job with this game. You can tell they wanted people to really enjoy their game and were interested in the player's experience being a good time.
38:10 Swen is the Dark Urge himself!!!!!!
"Wretched thing; pull yourself together"
@@bek0hmsford lmao
BG3 really was such a special work of technical art, its incredible that it exists as it does and didn't go down a different route. What an honor to see the Larian team get to speak here, I'm truly proud of the team for listening and delivering as excellently as they have. I'll be sure to see what they have cookin' next :)
Awesome interview. Would have like to hear a lot more from Crystal.
Jane is so good, those other guys are ok as well, I suppose :-)
So glad Swen is focused in the future, so glad to see anything he is dreaming up and now he has plenty fo resources to use with the BG3 success!
Larian studios deserves all the flowers they've received. They've made imo the best game ever made in BG3. I will be playing this game for years to come.
Thank you for sharing and uploading for us all ❤.
This was really nice to watch, good questions and interesting answers!
Swearing a bit also added a certain charm, ngl. Everyone was really cool!
Thank you for the interview and thanks to everyone at Larian for doing a really great job!
I love these guys and everyone at Larian. Completed 3 play throughs before I took a break to play other games, but I can’t wait to do a 4th play through on the anniversary of the game :)
Will we get the voice actor panel too? Please? Please please?
Yes! Very, very soon!
Thank you all for this wonderful game. This game has so many story path choices that feel so much more realized than other games that advertise their diverse choices; you all accomplished a herculean task with this game. I will always consider Baulder's Gate 3 as one of the best games I've ever played.
I think Larian actually IS who I want to be when I grow up.
That's a very mighty dream, son! Becoming a big group of talented people! Nice, I believe in you! You can start by figuring out how to replicate yourself, much like some microorganisms do! Hahaha.
Now I can't rest before someone visualizes Swens character. 38:05
Thanks for a great show!
All 4 of these are brilliant. Jane an amazing insider and interviewer as always, Swen showing the difference between a good CEO who cares and gets it vs all these Zazlav style garbage modern CEOs, and the writing and testing and development teams putting in the care and attention and communication and crucially *time* to make it great.
Other studios (EA springs to mind for me, can't remember the last game I enjoyed from them) could really change everything they do to learn from this and become a good gaming company again, but they'd still turn it into a money driver DLC machine because they can't help themselves. It's why we should really support and invest in smaller studios and independents etc.
Yo! I’m on my first playthrough and Sven just described my character: Dark Urge, Dragonborn, sorcerer! I absolutely love this game. Thankyou Larian for pouring your heart and souls into this masterpiece for us to enjoy. As a player, I’ll forever return the favor and give my support to a studio who’s willing to do that.
Hopefully we get early access of their next game in a few months. Can't wait! :D
What a great interviewer!
One of the crew over on Outside Xbox if you're interested in more content w/ them
The best kind of interviewer, where they are engaged in the conversation through the questions they ask but then they sit back and let the subject matter expert speak.
Durge is Swen's self insert, canonical.
I think what Sven said about having a good feeling was very important. The game doesn't need to be perfect, each game of this size is going to have its problems and will keep having them, but if you have an overall good time, you are willing to forgive small moments of frustration.
can't wait to play early access for their new project!!
Thank you for sharing this!
So clear Larian consists of gamers loving games and gamers
Never mind what they said in the beginning - Swen and company will be talking about this game for the rest of their lives.
"Hey, I know it's been decades since it happened but would you mind saying a few more words about the time you were on top of the world?"
"OH FINE, if you insist."
'bones of the scene flow' is a cool thing to say.
Larian reminds me of BioWare of old. Cannot wait to see what they're cooking on next!
Great interviewer, great questions. I was surprised that she was well versed in DnD mechanics.
She's a member of the RUclips channel "Outside Xbox" that also has a D&D series on top of a bunch of gaming content.
The further the interview stretches, it suddenly came to me that a certain game studio (which starts with B_______) needs to watch this.
In Larian I trust ❤
We've just finished our first Honor 3-people run. Aaaand... yes, we literally killed everyone. We never made a single trade, just killed everything on sight. Played in Baal-fans-hack-n-slash mode -) Funny thing was the Epilogue, where Withers "gathered and greeted everyone", but the camp was completely empty, haha (well, except that mysterious bard, whom we also killed, but he disappeared just like Mizora usually does). Then we proceeded to kill Withers and script crashed right there, dropping us into Credits screen -)
I love this team of game creators. I got the game when it released and could not get into it. The combat for me was just not working. I knew the game was good, just not my cup of tea I guess. One day I went to my buddies house and he was playing the game with another friend, they were doing an evil playthrough. I watched them play for about 3 hours and it made me give it another whirl. I am now 40+ hours into it and loving it. When I beat Baldurs gate Im going to go and check out Divinity Original Sin 2. Cant wait to see what they put out next. I will absolutely be part of early access whenever that is a thing. I wish them all the best.
Drow monk, chaotic good. That's literally just my first Tav I ever made. well, he was more chaotic neutral but he did mostly good things.
"I want to move on: I want to make new things." Heck yes: if Larian can do this well with Baldur's Gate 3, who knows just how awesome their next game will be?!?
Better yet - if it's a new IP then they won't be restricted by the world-building and systems set in the Baldur's Gate universe.
jANE??!
sick
BAFTA must have kidnapped her from Outside Xbox.
I was losing my mind trying to figure out where I knew the hostess from.
She used to host Outside Xbox!
She still does!
This is what made me click the video lol
I think we all owe Larian for all the good things Baldur's Gate 3 is.
I wish they had gone with the self narration of the story, it would have been so interesting, but at the same time I love the narrator and would need her to have her own origin character so I could enjoy her wonderful performance.
i played through BG3 twice. and both times i saw some congruency bugs or discrepencies that didnt quite work. But when you try to make something as complicated as BG3, i think most players know how impossible a task it is to make that perfect. Making something interesting and impressive is more important than making something perfect.
BG3 and the developers attitude is what's gonna make me insta buy their next games, without any hesitation.
I'm glad they are moving on from Balders gate but I'm really gonna miss Lae'zel
I'm so glad they were so successful and their philosophy and company culture proved viable!
Go, Jane!
Larian and Fromsoftware are the only two studios in the world which I trust 100% and will instantly pre-order anything they put out.
Sven has a somewhat Tiefling like complexion.
hahaha noticed it too
Best gamedevelopment studio on the planet.
It would be nice if they would get those hard copies of the game mailed out to those who purchased them months and months ago.
❤
We need to focus on closures for the characters so it feels good for the player….. in the meantime astarion runs alone from the sun, burning alive and my Tav nor any other dum dum in my lvl 12 team lifts a finger to help…. I didnt know whether to cry or shout at those morons when it happened :/
there is a whole epilogue post patch5 of closures, it has been there since the end of 2023, there won't be any content further
but astarion running in the sun tells me you haven't played epilogue yet
check it out
Nah, @alenafraskova6903 is right about that one. (Admittedly, The scene worked WONDERFULLY my first playthrough, though only because my first playthrough was a bitter sweet DISASTER that would have made DA2's ending look upbeat. The accidental emergent narrative I stumbled into on my first go round was the exception rather then the rule.) An ideal situation probably would have been to have some sort of background flag/s set for whether he runs off by himself or something less... horrifically cruel happens, whatever that might be. (Similar to Shadowheart's various background points systems for her story choices. Maybe one of the other companions who doesn't have a scene still upcoming could be chosen to run off after him?)
Or at the VERY least, have the player go after him and find him huddled up on the docks (like he is in his Origin run) if he's been romanced, and do so DIRECTLY after the other scenes conclude rather then just... sort of finding yourself in bed with him later. (Personally, I hate locking important character beats and empathy behind romance alone, but bg3 already does that, what with gating the proper conclusions of companion stories behind romances, so *shrug*.)
I mean, I know they need to keep other character's story's rolling and not have the player cut away from the rest of the scenes, Karlach's scene in particular being very important, but... I mean have y'all ever DONE an Astarion Origin run where he remains a spawn? --Spoilers ahead-- but even if Wyll chooses to become the Blade of Avernus, the whole pack of dinks left behind at the dock after you run off is apparently incapable of suggesting that him and her go TOGETHER to Avernus if the player avatar isn't THERE for that scene. (There's also a very silly and simultaneous silent scream pose that every npc left behind does in unison as soon as Karlach's engine shorts out that, unfortunately, completely nuked the drama by making me ugly laugh.) If we can let THAT logic swing, clearly the ending could be a biiiit more optimized. (Which is VERY MUCH to be expected with a game this complicated!! I mean, they say as much themselves, and don't mean any shade. Only that it DOES feel a bit like some parts of the ending fell through the cracks/still don't add up exaaaaactly right.)
Loved Baldur's Gate 3 but watching this for Jane Douglas more than Larian lol. Outsidexbox! So cool to see Jane out in the world.
PRUDENCE!!!
Tav agrees
They deserved all the prizes they’ve won, they’ve built a masterpiece. It’s the first time I play a game for such a long time, I’m still playing it after almost a year and 480 hours of gameplay…and I’m still seeing new content 🫶🏻
WHERE IS THE ARMOR, SVEN?!
Bethesda and Blizzard, watch and learn 👏
Obviously Sven wants to put this behind them and I understand that. He must be tired of saying the same thing over and over again. Yet I think it would be a mistake to say ok people you won't see or hear us for the next 4 to 5 years. There has to be some contact to keep the fans interest. Otherwise people will drift away and say well we can forget about them until 2029 or 2030 and the entire landscape for video games might change likely will change. So we need to still know Larian still exist and they are still hard at work and that will be hard if we just get dead silence.Just my opinion.
Is that jackie chan with long hair in the thumbnail?!
anyone knows what it Chrystal referring to at around 29:24
about the change post launch
If I had to guess, she's talking about the post-launch model change of the act 2 cat "His Majesty". He was a hairless sphynx cat at launch, a bit after launch they changed his model and gave him fur probably so that he wasn't the same type of cat as the other cat in act 2. The change met a fair bit of resistance and they reverted His Majesty to being a sphynx cat.
Personally, I assumed it was the "slithering wet malice"/Franc Peartree letter. (Honestly, I get why they wanted to REVISE it to better fit the writing style, but changing it wholesale was a really weird choice for sure.)
Love Sven. Hope he dont turn peter molyneux, todd howard.
I think the narrative push to use the messed up eye tadpoles in the story is quite annoying. But apart from that, excellent game!
I think I am done playing any game headed by a big money video game producer.
Hey I know her from OutsideXbox! But wtf is BAFTA? lol
you have way to many ads I can't watch this, wth!!
Love BG3, but you can absolutely tell Sven is pretty tired of talking about this game and is ready to move on to a new project.
Basically, Larian's team is very interested and heavily invested in showing players a good time, and in my experience, taking a player's concerns seriously solves a lot of problems. People are much more forgiving if you take them seriously, even if you can't deliver everything.
BUT! They will feel and find out if they are just oiled with snake oil and the internet doesn't forgive and forget.
hahaha old Shart doesn't even have a chance at other classes in the developer's perspective.
25:00 dialed up romance is one of the worst things about this game, and its still a problem now. It makes Halsin and Gale both insufferable, and they still haven't properly addressed this..
Just say no and they instantly stop. No is a full sentance.
bethesda take notes
too bad Hasbro ruined any chances of a sequel or expansion
Don't be too sad. They probably would have imposed too much control on Larian otherwise, and a sequel wouldn't have been as good. Hopefully Larian continues with their long running Divinity series. Hasbro never had talent of their own. If you look at the games they own, they only ever bought them from other people. If you look at Monopoly as an example, it was created by Waddingtons who were bought out by Hasbro. They are a bit like EA in that regard.
They never finished the game. There's so much missing content and features.
Probably the most overrated game ever made.
Game's infested with bugs btw, that can lead to ending honor runs, believe it or not.
I bought this game when it was released in EA and watched every panel from Hell, which there were close to 10 or so of and followed everything about it up to release. It was over 2 years of events. That woman was never seen through the entire process, but they have rolled her out as their token diversity hire at the lead afterward. That is disingenuous of Larian in an effort to appear like they are progressive. It was white men through the entire process. And there is nothing wrong with that, but they dont see it that way, unfortunately.