Following up on a popular game series is always a tough job, and the team at Larian Studios found it challenging, too. Farhang Namdar, the world-building director for Baldur’s Gate 3, recently talked about how he felt when he discovered that the next game they would be working on was the next Baldur’s Gate installment.
In an interview with PLAY Magazine (Found by GR), Namdar expressed feeling a mix of excitement and anxiety when Swen informed him of their next project, Baldur’s Gate 3. Namdar described a rapid shift from joy to anxiety, explaining that the pressure to deliver a worthy successor to the franchise would undoubtedly be daunting.
Namdar acknowledged the challenge, mentioning Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. This RPG, created by Bioware in 2000, is widely regarded as one of the best role-playing games ever made. Larian aimed not only to follow this iconic title but also to develop something unique that met the high expectations of the dedicated fanbase.
“I remember the day Swen told me that our next project was Baldur’s Gate 3. I literally went from joy to anxiety in a couple of seconds. We had joked about this frequently back in the days, so in many ways it was a dream come true. It was an honour and a lot of pressure to develop the next instalment of this ground-breaking franchise.”
Farhang Namdar
Despite high expectations, Baldur’s Gate 3 ultimately achieved great success. It received critical acclaim and won the Game of the Year award at five major industry ceremonies. The game has also been a commercial hit, selling over 10 million copies worldwide.
This news is pretty interesting because you’d expect only happiness to get a big series like Baldur’s Gate. It really shows how much we can underestimate the kind of task that comes from getting a huge franchise. Namdar’s first response shows the great responsibility developers feel when working on beloved game series. They succeeded in the end, but it must have taken a lot out of them.
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