What can Studios LEARN from Baldur's Gate 3?

[@Jules_Diplopia]

2. Stories matter. Story is THE main thing that I want in a game. But a single story, you play/read once, and put it away. Larian's genius was to craft and interweave so many smaller stories into the main one as colour/flavouring or just as fun side stories for your team. This mean that you can play time and again and have a different experience every time. 4. Too right. The Devs, the writers, the actors, together make the game. Their years of experience with each other in the same team, working together, provide something extra. And that creates community. Community will work with you. Go make art!

[@AmySorrellMusic]

Humans will always respond to authenticity. This is what is missing in big corporate world and even in politics, because of all the things in the world, authenticity cannot be faked, it has to be earned. Larian paid their dues to sing the blues, so to speak.

[@RedbeardflynnRollsAOne]

Well said

[@AmySorrellMusic]

@@RedbeardflynnRollsAOne Thank you. 🙂

[@ravipeiris4388]

Recently just discovered your channel. Absolutely appreciate your positivity and bullet points type of approach to gaming news ❤.

[@RedbeardflynnRollsAOne]

Thank you so much! That means a lot to me!

[@Aelonwy]

For me the writing, in particular the side stories, was just incredible and the voice acting made the writing *feel* so much more immersive. I've never played *any* game though I have read a fair few number of books that have imprinted on me so deeply. Experiencing Karlach facing her mortality after sort of defenestrating Gortash (over a parapet not through a window) was so emotional for me I still tear up just thinking about it because her story almost no matter what you do boils down to - life's not fair - especially for the best of us. The injustice of that can hardly fail to touch us. If I have any complaints about the game though its about what I love the most... the stories. There still feels like so many unfinished bits and bobs and it leaves a bitter taste. There clearly should have been a method to fix her engine in Act 3 if Dammon still lives. Plans or schematics in the Steelwatch Foundry some number of pieces of Enriched Infernal Iron, a special part from the House of Hope maybe or the Iron Throne? Something. Still annoyed we can't select whose portrait we want to be awarded with from Fevras. If romancing Astarion (I didn't but even so) you should be able to select him and let him see himself again, unique dialogue, unique interaction. Halsin needs a small side story in Act 3 and it feels like there is already indication of it but nothing was done. All those refugees, all those people needing a new home or food or coin... you can speak to them all over the city, inside and out but can't do much. It seems like there should have been a counter like the *Gather your Allies* counter but for the people in need. Yenna could have been on it, the people outside the Temple of Ilmater, the person you can give coin to in front of the bank, the woman and her son that are starving (?)close to the fireworks store, etc. This would reinforce his talk of starting a new community for those uncared for by the city. I think there were other miscellaneous, unfinished bits like the forged will in Facemaker's basement. Anyway, I really love this game but I wish it didn't feel like it still had so many loose ends. Even so its the best game I've ever played.

[@cernunnos_lives]

BG3 is definitely my own game for the decade. I don't expect other people to have the same opinion. Just this guy. I grew up playing D&D and video games. So naturally it's my favorite.

[@StateBlaze1989]

"We made this game for a modern audience" Even though I have already played the game, that start still gave me a mini panic just because of how the term "modern audience" has been used in pop culture the last decade.

[@marybdrake1472]

Go make art indeed. I couldn't not have worded it better myself.

[@DerrillGuilbert]

I'm a forklift operator for a major electrical car company. We material handlers do nothing creative. After a recent round of major layoffs, literally no one believes there is job security there. Morale is in the shitter.

[@miscalotastuff733]

I can not wait for the next divinity. If it is as good as bg3 we are in something special.

[@katsiraeh6959]

0:13 Thank you for another great video. Baldur's Gate has set some excellent bars for future artists to strive for and personally inspiring for my own writing and storytelling. When passion is put in art it resonates out creating more art and passion. Thank you for being a voice for creatives.

[@celwenileran2135]

Don't be a coward with storylines and depictions of reality. Stick to your guns. Create characters to fit the story, not to be checkboxes. Make characters attractive but also give characters option to themselves customize the depiction of their own character. Give us freedom. Understand the community, embrace the community and give them support... and they will repay you with trust and respect.

[@RiftTraveller]

Thank you for this.

[@RedbeardflynnRollsAOne]

Thank you so much for watching!

[@oliorogue]

Early Access, actually listen to your fanbase, accept bug (FREE) reports from your fans and actually fix things. Larian fixed things from 3 bug reports I personally submitted so I feel connected to the game in some miniscule way.

[@HikingFeral]

My main 2 games are FFXIV and Baldur's Gate 3. Because I personally dislike what the 14 writers have done, I have started to play that less and returned to BG3. I have 2000hrs in it and there's still so much I have yet to do. I have not done a Durge run or a resisting Durge, no evil play-through, not finished game as Bard or Paladin or Warlock or Wizard or Barbarian or tens of different subclasses or any Origin character. I have never been a Dragonborn, Halfling, Gnome or Human I have not turned a party member into a mindflayer, sacrificed anyone to Baool, refused the Hag's offer and the list goes on. Theres more interesting and engaging content that I enjoy for me to experience in a year old, offline, single player game - than there is in my favourite MMO, because they allowed an incredible writer to go off and do something else and they replaced him with an alphabet spaghetti, hand holding enthusiast and I hate them for it. But I speak more with my wallet and my actions than I do anywhere else so I will be buying the deluxe edition and looking forwards to 7.0 and official mod support and my FC members can continue to wonder where I am.

[@humptahumpta4582]

While I applaud Larian for the way they go about their business and up until the end of Act 2 I really enjoyed the game, in Act 3 - for me at least - it fell off a cliff. Pacing was horrible for I, the player, wanted to explore the city but my character had no incentive to do so, bc of the impending doom, there was almost zero reactivity to city altering events like blowing up the forge and compared to Act 1 and 2, conversations with companions and npcs ran out fast. Definetely a good game, but in my book it's not the masterpiece it's made out to be. Unless comparing it to Ubisoft and the like

[@RedbeardflynnRollsAOne]

I always find this interesting because my favorite act was Act 3. I think in part because Act 3 was so open it felt a bit less guided than act 1 and 2 but some of the best moments (like house of hope) all come from act 3.

[@humptahumpta4582]

​@@RedbeardflynnRollsAOneI definetely prefer a little bit of railroading tbh. Still like exploring the city, just not at that point in the story. Would have enjoyed it more as an Act 1, I think.

[@blackshard641]

SO GLAD they went with turn-based. RTWP combat is and always has been an awful departure from classic RPG dungeon crawlers like Wizardry and The Bard's Tale. While undeniably popular during the era of BG1 and 2, it was a mistake for CRPGs, which narratively focus on individual characters, to draw so much from isometric RTS, which are better suited to swarms of unnamed cannon fodder. All you do is end up with shallow tactics, heavily build-focused tactics, or a plot-armored main cast, which can initially feel epic in scope but ultimately makes combat encounters feel very bland and impersonal. Turn-based combat allows designers to give every decision weight, and gives gamers the potential for a much wider array of creative options.

[@HoskTheCub]

Use an existing world built by many people over a long time. Enjoy the smorgasbord of creativity, pick and mix, and put your time into developing your story into the existing world instead of worldbuilding from scratch. Baldur's Gate's story isn't great only because of Larian. It's great because of some 4 decades of developing Faerun through novels, adventures, source books, games, fandom etc. Just the Shar entry on Forgotten Realms Wiki has 97 source references. You get all that lore for free to peruse. Imagine putting together such a wealth of creativity from scratch for every character, deity, place and make it intersect into a cohesive place. If you don't, you risk creating silos, and the world isn't continuous and living.

[@Martin-di9pp]

True, but as someone who is not intimately familiar with DnD lore (even though I played a lot of DnD crpgs) I found it sorta hard to value certain entities. Especially Shar. When I early on got Shadowheart to confess she follows Shar I had really little clue what that meant, let alone why that would be a reason for me to expel her from the party.

[@thewintersteiner]

Can’t wait to watch this tonight

[@DracoMagnius]

As should be obvious, executives and shareholders ruin everything. Let artists create and you can never go wrong.

[@NV..V]

Not always....look at the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Freaks were allowed to create...

[@garycannon4644]

The studios arent going to learn a thing from baldurs gate three depsite its massive success. I remember some of them even attacking the game lol

[@sesimie]

Pre and Post BG3 era. Any one with a brain can see BG3 answered what the people wanted.

[@jmmywyf4lyf]

What can I learn? That Gamers and Zoomers are easily fooled by a lot of voice acting and high production value. Regardless of how shallow, and boring, the RPG experience

[@JBrandonMercer123]

2:00 Well, that review didn't age well.

[@mraurelianbme]

Greedy corporations learning how to not be greedy... my friend, I think you have way to much faith in the human race 😢

[@RedbeardflynnRollsAOne]

Probably a bit less faith than you think because I'm mostly speaking of indie devs like larian though significantly smaller than larian even if I wish larger companies would just be better. I gotta have some home right? Just a sliver? Can I save scum the board appointments and ceos? 😅

[@DrakeHunter324]

1. Don't spend all your time on one act. 2. Don't put characters you can't finish up (Minty, Halsin, Karlach). 3. Don't get involved with WOTC/Hasbro. More trouble than it's worth. 4. If you have good/evil/neutral make sure it's fleshed out in all aspects. 5. With all the cut content a lot of resources were wasted on extra smoochey. Don't do that, restore stuff instead. Those are a few things I'd learn from BG3, still a good game but mistakes were made.