Baldur’s Gate 3’s lead designer, Swen Vincke discusses in an interview with IGN all the challenges that the company has faced in Early Access so far.
Vincke grew up in a small town in Belgium. There was hardly any interest in D&D back in the day, so Vincke had little exposure to the game and its community. He was fascinated by it, however, and instead found ways of experiencing it. Vincke went through other tabletop game manuals that were based on D&D, mostly in public libraries. Little did he know that years later he would be making a video game with that exact ruleset.
The studio head adored the game as it was a great way to cultivate creativity and problem-solving. He then shares an anecdote wherein he uses D&D with his children on long car rides. The father of four would ask his children about make-believe scenarios and what they’d do in them.“Okay, you see a witch in the wood. What are you going to do?”.
It is this line of questioning that is able to get his kids’ attention away from their iPads for hours on end. This is also a great distraction, an amazing adventure, and an excellent form of family bonding.
And so in my head, I rolled the dice, and I cheat, and so we go on an adventure and we can pass hours this way…
The Baldur’s Gate 3 Dream
Swen Vincke then calledBaldur’s Gate 3the company’s “Dream Project”. This makes perfect sense, given his connection to the tabletop title. While it is something they looked forward to for a long time, this is also their most ambitious project.
Larian Studios definitely has some large shoes to fill. The first two Baldur’s Gate games were developed by BioWare in 1998 and 2000. Both were greeted with critical acclaim. Since then, there have been countless spinoffs in the Forgotten realms and a couple of enhanced editions thrown into the mix.
Vincke’s team at Larian though, are no slouches either. They are primarily known for the Divinity series of games, stemming from Divine Divinity in 2002. However, they reached critical acclaim in their latest title,Divinity Original Sin: II. Their Original Sin games are the perfect springboard for the likes of Baldur’s Gate. Although DOS is a turn-based game, and BG was traditionally real-time with pause, the former game was the perfect sandbox that would allow players to truly roleplay the way they wanted.
Larian’s Big Expansion
In anticipation of this next monumental next project, Vincke expanded his team. From a mere 150 employees, Larian grew to over 400. This huge growth was possible due to the success of Original Sin II and happened in over a year of pre-production.
They did eventually realize the challenges of the size and scope of their “Dream Project”. Just because you have hundreds of people doesn’t mean you will be able to pull something off. Some of the challenges included estimating (to the best of their skill) the amount of work to be done, such as script word count, recording, and cinematics.
Larian also encountered issues with their newfound scale. They discovered that they didn’t have any efficient processes to manage such a large influx of employees. The pandemic didn’t help this either, causing what Vincke calls a “fragmentation” of the company. Production nearly stopped entirely in some periods, in fact.
The Biggest Challenge
However, the largest thing that they had to remember is thatDungeons and Dragonsis inherently a complex, sprawling game. Player creativity and choice were what made the game fun originally, and Larian was up to the challenge of creating a truly digital version of this.
You will often hear, ‘You have to give the illusion of choice.' You really have to give actual choice too, otherwise, it doesn’t matter.
So it seems like Larian is adamant about creating meaningful player choices in Baldur’s Gate 3, just like they did in the Original Sin games. For those who weren’t able to play those games, the Original Sin games were perfect sandboxes wherein players could truly choose how to approach encounters. Players could choose to kill (or not kill) specificNPCsand the game would just continue on.
Another big player choice would be the playerClasses. It has been confirmed that Baldur’s Gate 3 will have all the 12 D&D classes, all of which are fundamentally distinct from one another. The current early access build had 9 classes - theBarbarian,Sorcerer,Cleric,Fighter,Ranger,Rogue,Warlock,Wizard, andCleric. This means that only the Bard, Monk, and Paladin are missing from the game’s roster.
Aside from that, they would also need to incorporate all of the existing spells and abilities, and make them “feel impactful within the world”.
Early Access to the Rescue
One of the ways that Larian decided would help the development process of Baldur’s Gate 3 was putting it on Early Access. This strategy proved to be effective for Original Sin 1 and 2. Player feedback was paramount to the successes of these two titles - so it should be the same for BG3, right?
The rapid responses of fans in Early Access did eventually prove to be very useful. Larian was able to implement large changes to game systems based on all the valuable player feedback. Despite the rough launch and the critical influencer reviews of a clearly unfinished product, Vincke does not regret the decision to put Baldur’s Gate 3 in Early Access.
It (Ealy Access) allows you to rapidly try things out, you see what resonates, what doesn’t resonate, and when you have to put so many rules as we had to convert and figure out ways people would understand them or not understand them, it is a very, very useful tool to have.
Looking Back at What Would Have Changed
In hindsight, Vincke feels that the team at Larian could have “organized ourselves better than what we did”. This is because there were some unexpected hiccups along the way. But considering how massive Baldur’s Gate 3 is, I think we can excuse them for this.
As the interview went to a close, Vincke does indeed think that they are able to meet the expectations set out for them. Stories about the shenanigans people share in-game warm his heart. Knowing that their “Dream Project” has a positive influence on people’s lives makes him proud.
..Games matter and they can make a difference. And if you make a good game, it can matter more than if you made a bad game. So success looks like your game matters to people and it makes a difference.
Want an edge in the game? Check out the10 Best Spells in Baldur’s Gate 3, or class guides forthe Druid,the Sorcerer, andthe Barbarian. We also have an extensiveBaldur’s 3 Wiki.
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