The massive success of Larian’s 2023 title, Baldur’s Gate 3, may be in part due to the mindset of the development team and the wider audience it targeted.
In an interview with Edge Magazine, art director Alena Dubrovna explained the kinds of players the team wanted to target for Baldur’s Gate 3, “We really wanted to make it so that even if you don’t know D&D or Baldur’s Gate, you would still have exciting choices as a player, visually and narratively, and be able to enjoy the experience.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 is in fact the third in a series of RPGs originally created by BioWare. Dubronova recognized that the classic games held their own audience but that the team wanted to expand beyond the original Baldur’s Gate fan base, “We’re making it for a modern audience that are young people like me,” Dubrovna said. “So they probably haven’t really played the first or second game.”
Lead writer, Adam Smith, kept the fans of the original two games in mind when creating the story and characters, however. He explains a bit.
“During the whole of early access, I remember reading a lot of comments from people like ‘it’s good, but it’s not Baldur’s Gate.’ And we were like ‘just have a bit of faith – we know what we’re doing on that front.'”
Smith believes the character of Jaheira represents the connection he wanted to make with the original games.
“Jaheira was the one who really tied it together […] and always gives me that warm, tingly Baldur’s Gate feeling. To me, there’s something very heroic but tragic for Jaheira to be reminded of the worst times in her life.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 officially released on August 3, 2023 to massive critical acclaim after being in early access since October 6, 2020. It went on to win dozens of awards and practically all game of the year awards imaginable. At the GDC conference held in March, studio founder, Swen Vincke, announced that work had began on DLC for Baldur’s Gate 3 but was scrapped in favor of pursuing something new and fresh for the studio, completely separated from the D&D universe.
