During the Devcom, the developer conference before gamescom in Cologne, the Cinematic Director Jason Latino spoke about his work on Baldur’s Gate 3. There was a scene in Act 1 that he did not want to include at all and explains why it still made it into the game.
What kind of scene is it? The scene in question happens in Act 1 right in the Goblins’ Camp. If you visit it and enter the ruins, you will encounter the Hobgoblin Ragzlin in one of the back rooms.
Ragzlin is standing over a dead Mind Flayer and is planning to extract information from the corpse using the spell Speak with Dead
. When the scene is triggered, you and your group automatically become part of it and can influence the outcome.
The information for this article was gathered by MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski during her visit to the Devcom panel Chaos Menu or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hug The Bear
in Cologne. Together with the lead of the community management of GameStar, GamePro, and MeinMMO Marylin Marx, she summarizes the talk in the video:
170 lines of dialogue, but no new information
Why does the developer hate the scene? Jason Latino talks in his presentation about how he hated the scene and that no one hates it as much as he does. There were various reasons for this:
- 170 lines of dialogue
- No new information
- One-time use of the larval powers
- Change-resistant structure
- No characterization of the Hobgoblin itself
- Doesn’t explain the Absolute
- Incredibly complicated to animate
Additionally, there was actually no budget for the scene, and it took them a total of 10 to 15 full working days to animate everything to full satisfaction.
What were the developer’s thoughts? Latino’s big concern was that the scene would not turn out well. They were a new team working with completely new tools. The scene might have been a good idea, but it came at a bad time.
What if Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t look finished
after three years in Early Access? What if there is bad press because of that? And if the writing team sets a task that cinematics can’t handle, the cinematics team gets the blame.
Ultimately, Jason Latino also asked himself: What if I am not ready for AAA?
Almost 15 working days later: Habemus Cutscene
How did the scene make it into the game? For the Cinematic Director of Larian, a shift in perspective ultimately brought about the turnaround. Instead of thinking about their own problems, worries, and the logistics behind the creation, he asked himself what the player would expect: How cool would this scene be for the player?
With this new mindset, he and the team finally set out to implement the scene to the best of their knowledge and belief.
By the way, the team still works according to this mantra today: Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to receive regular small and large updates. Recently, there was even a teaser for a new evil ending: Baldur’s Gate 3 shows a new evil ending – and it is really dark
