Interview Memories of Baldur's Gate

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Baldur's Gate; BioWare

RPGVault have thrown up part two of their article on Baldur's Gate. <a href="http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/940/940545p1.html">You can catch part 1 here</a> and then read part 2 of their article "<a href="http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/943/943090p1.html">Baldur's Gate Memories - Part 2: Reminiscences from the Lead Designer on BioWare's classic title that marked the RPG genre's return to prominence</a>". It's interviews with guys at BioWare:
<br>
<blockquote>"Huge, beautiful and highly replayable, it is a 'must-have' for any serious or even casual RPG fan... Baldur's Gate will... return serious role-playing games to their rightful place at the center of the computer gaming universe." These words were part of the concluding paragraph in RPG Vault's review of BioWare's landmark late 1998 release that signaled the genre's emergence from a relatively barren half-decade or so.
<br>
<br>
<b>Dan Tudge, Project Director & Executive Producer, Dragon Age: Origins</b>: The story, characters and lush 2D painted environments were all complimented by addicting combat, progression and customization. It was clear right then and there that story-driven role-playing games would never be the same, that a new bar had been set by BioWare, and that this was only the beginning. Fans of role playing games owe a lot to those original team members at BioWare and the trail they blazed for all of us.
<br>
<br>
<b>James Ohlen, Lead Designer, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Lead Designer, Baldur's Gate</b>: I had a lot of fun as lead designer on Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II. Those games were a chance for me to bring everything I love about Dungeons & Dragons to a computer game. I remember trying to cram every creature, setting and class that I could think of into the latter in an attempt to outdo the first game. As much fun as those titles were to make, we did go a little crazy, and built a world that really was just a pastiche of everything that had been done in fantasy. The main city in Baldur's Gate II had a beholder cult, a lich, vampire assassins, a crazy illusionist, etc. While we did try hard to bring it all together into a consistent story, in the end, the world still felt a little like a comic book.</blockquote>
<br>
Yup, blazing a trail right into Oblivion.

 

[Volourn]

BG is dead.

 

[flabbyjack]

Replaying it with BG1Tutu with my girlfriend. And after spending 6 hours trying to get BG1+BG2+Tutu installed, we finally got a game going! Stackables ftw! I remember dying, a lot. And multiple dialog choices to facilitate roleplay. *sigh* What happened to RPGs nowadays?

 

[Lurkar]

I love how the Bioware employee goes "MAN BIOWARE SINGLE HANDEDLY MADE THE ENTIRE RPG INDUSTRY FOR COMPUTER GAMES YOU SHOULD ALL THANK US."

My god, you keep up at that rate and you'll start sucking out blood.

 

[Korgan]

The main city in Baldur's Gate II had a beholder cult, a lich, vampire assassins, a crazy illusionist, etc. While we did try hard to bring it all together into a consistent story, in the end, the world still felt a little like a comic book.

You know, when I first played BG2, I kept getting that strange deja vu sensation about the sidequests. It felt like some cartoon/anime I watched on TV when I was younger. I definitely remember seeing a crazy illusionist whose spells had to be disbelieved by the heroes before. The skin-changing serial killer and the beholder cult also felt somehow familiar.

 

[oldschool]

So pretty much...

"Yeah I worked on Baldur's Gate. Hey, did I mention that Dragon Age will be Baldur's Gate, only better?"

So it's not enough that "reviews" are just thinly disguised advertisements. Now the "articles" have to be as well?

 

[Spectacle]

Baldurs gate didnt have "lush, painted 2d backgrounds", everything was 3d renders.

 

[Dyspaire]

Baldurs gate didnt have "lush, painted 2d backgrounds", everything was 3d renders.

Wrong!

Little known fact: Baldur's Gate background art, is really comprised of lemon wedges and the fleeting aspirations of a young contrarian.

 

[Melcar]

I though the BG backgrounds were made of pure awesome and visual rape? Goes to show how much I know.

 

[LittleJoe]

Wrong!

They were made by the Pixel Fairy.

Silly !!

 

[DemonKing]

I liked the admission that BG2 was just a big pastiche of every D&D element they could jam in...to be honest that's one of the things that probably made it so memorable.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Probably the only thing as well. Nowadays I don't see anything other than some of the encounters and the sheer scale of the game as something worth remembering about BG2.