We always talk about how long we have to wait for sequels, but Baldur’s Gate fans had it incredibly rough. Over two decades, people had to wait between Baldur’s Gate II and the release of its sequel. That’s an incredibly long time, and for Larian Studios, it set up a lot of pressure.
Pressure that proved to be incredibly scary. Speaking to Edge Magazine (via GamesRadar) Larian CEO Swen Vincke and Baldur’s Gate III’s writing director Adam Smith, spoke about how initially, taking on D&D’s lore seemed a massive task, but Wizards of the Coast let them loose upon the IP. “We could do whatever we wanted with it,” said Vincke.
The team’s biggest obstacle wasn’t the setting, but was instead the cinematics they were going for this time around. Larian built a cinematic studio from very little for Baldur’s Gate III, and it proved to be quite a anxiety-inducing undertaking. “From my point of view, writing a narrative, the scariest moments were always with cinematics,” Smith said. “How do we make sure this works if a character’s already dead – a character we just did a whole mo-cap session for, with a very famous actor? It was intimidating.”
But, Larian pulled it off, and Baldur’s Gate III’s cinematics proved to be an incredible addition to the game, helping people get over the hurdle of the top-down CRPG format.