Baldur's Gate 3 - Motion Capture, Writers & Voice Over Behind the Scenes

cities are incredibly hard to make in RPGs because you have to make sure that every single nuke and cranny has something to do you have to make sure that it's different so you have to be incredibly creative given that the name of the game is bulbous gate the city was really going to be the thing that people were going to be talking about the city of balder's gate is seamless which it originally wasn't you only can judge the game when you have all the components together and if the mix doesn't work we start over at some point he said like can't we just connect everything and that was uh that was a very interesting day one of the things that that's done is it's brought a level of believability and immersion and also complexity that wouldn't have been there otherwise now was this seamless giant organism and it really really felt good it's been able to look out of a window and see down the city slopes you're seeing down to all the docks and you're like one of my teammates might be down there they might be running around down there we worked on it as a painting almost you start with a sketch a very basic line and then you just start adding layers and layers we can put lots more of the city onto the screen than they could in 1998. so we can do something that is more immersive richer has more texture to it it feels like you are walking around a place where there are lots and lots of people living their actual lives you have crowds that are walking around can talk to pretty much anybody and they react to every single thing it's very alive in that sense every person that you meet in valder's gate has got a story to them there we actually build anticipation through all these characters that you've met through all these situations that you've been through all the stories that you have been following all the decisions that you've been making they all come to fruition in that lower City and the great thing is if you so choose you can be another bad thing that's happening to the city you can arrive and be like this place is on fire and then you can throw petrol all over it during production we felt like the city was our was our destination we spent I think three times four times as much effort on the city than we originally planned but the results the result the the feeling of walking in there is just fantastic you have this constant jostling or things that are very much of the real world and then you can indulge in a completely Fantastical and then when you walk into the city the noise of everybody talking to each other the knowledge that everywhere you look you can go there and you can do something the knowledge that you can fly through it it's great so the thing that I was the most afraid of when we started making this game turned out to be the thing that I'm the most proud of it's not easily understood in my experience but I'll try about a Man Who Sold himself piece by piece he had everything a wonderful wife a brilliant daughter they lived not far from here his wife died too young grief tore through their home like a thief snatching away the scent of her hair the rustle of her skirts but the man did not break he could not break his daughter needed him whole after all she grew up grew strong challenged him filled his heart with such Joy it supplanted all sorrow when she was killed the man he tried to remain whole but it wasn't possible do you understand envogortash sweareth thou by boldren's blade to defend the citizens of Baldur's Gate from enemies within and without you are soon to witness the people of Baldur's Gate granting me complete power over there gods have mercy on those who would stand in our way a Mad Dog understands the yank of the leash on the hand of its Master but it cannot be an equal you can be my equal there's an old wisdom a brittle Alliance can never be mended it can only break I want to lead this city to Glory not Scorch at Earth friends allies to my side let us offer in a new dawn this city is mine I'm not ready to call you enemy what do you say shall we be allies Lauren is affectionately unhinged you don't know when she's going to pop up you don't know in what form she's going to be she's incredibly Trixie and uses all of her while to to get what she wants [Music] one of the physical aspects that I really wanted to integrate with Oren was her relationship with her blades her weapons she has a very intimate relationship with them they feel real and personified to her to be considered even in the same realm much less share scenes with JK Simmons and Jason Isaacs who play General Catholic Thorne and gortash was such an honor and it was so inspiring and exciting to see their work in this game and experience how our characters come together in the scenes we share to create this Unholy evil triumvirate his Crypt breath sings to my sinews again again again again Oren is a very disturbing figure in Baldur's Gate 3 she really takes the players on quite a journey so I hope that they sit back and enjoy the ride and let me know all of their terrifying thoughts let's go okay you point I punch villainous face meet virtuous fist why do we stop my friend there is evil somewhere with its small pants yet unsoiled go for the eyes boo boo speaks of much perhaps one day you will be ready to listen friends my name is Matthew Mercer I'm a voice actor for video games and cartoons and uh well I get to voice Minsk in Baldur's Gate three I have been playing the Baldur's Gates game since they came out back in almost two decades ago oh god um played through the first two multiple times for all the different moral Pathways you could take I played them all again multiple times when they came out on the iPad through beam dogs conversion I just love Baldur's Gate and of all of them Minsk has always been my favorite character I I be hard-pressed to not put him in my party until he eventually left because I was taking an evil route and would not stand for this unhappiness evil way of doing things so I was so blown away and honored and grateful that the folks at larion asked me to pick up the torch and bring this character into the third installment it means so much to me and just know that I'm coming at this with so much respect and love and uh a little bit of self-imposed pressure to bring Minsk the justice that we all know he deserves so thank you so much for all of your support wait for you guys to play it I can't wait for you to get him in his group and uh no matter where we go we know we are kicking butt but not just any but butt kicking for goodness uh I'm Jason Latino cinematic director here at larion Studios uh we're in the Dublin office this is where both the writing team is centrally located along with cinematics so we're determining in this office like what story we're telling and how we're telling the story which is taking that camera down from being above the players and and right into the drama and right into the action say it you think I'm a monster we've come up with a system that allows voting that allows kind of seeing other players preferences for what I would do in that scenario you might be learning secrets you might be finding out about a weapon cache somewhere or a certain mission that you want to do on your own the fact that you're suddenly observed is information you need to know as the player and presenting that in a cinematic way is is what my whole department is doing Baldur's Gate is absolutely huge game uh I don't I can't think of another Early Access game that's done cinematics uh on this level that has deliberately chosen to to present their story in close-up like this there's a lot of games where the moment you add cinematics they have to get smaller because they have to you there's animations and and all the the manual work that goes into this stuff uh we didn't want to do that we don't want to limit the the stories that I don't want to be the guy that showed up and limit the stories that larion's telling so we're working on uh some adaptive cameras that work the same way if you're a half elf or if you're a halfling and we want you if uh if you're playing at gnome for that story to be told from your perspective we want that to be cinematic we want you to feel like you're telling your story and we're shooting it for you if you're walking around and you see one of your your buddies is engaged in dialogue that means they are a senior cut scene that they they they have blinders on and this is something that kind of goes back with the the kind of the Valerian tradition of being able to to pickpocket people that are kind of engaged in social activities and sequences uh and so you can pickpocket your friends you can pickpocket the person they're talking to you can move around Dynamic objects pickpocket them yeah my my The Mask suits you but later on if you choose to play a Starion or a vampire you might wake up in the middle of the night kind of looking for a midnight snack uh you know the the menu the dialogue options the way that you can take that scene is basically going to be a list of your friends or party members uh if you're playing multiplayer that's going to be a list of of the guys that you're playing with uh and what's great about that is not only are they on the menu for that night uh they're gonna see that they're going to see that they're on the menu and through the kind of the voting mechanic they're going to be able to say this is like no no okay I'll I'll give one up for the team or they can try and sell out their buddies and just say no no bite him bite him uh so that's that's a way that like there's that dramatic irony that uh we're able to play on and we'll be looking for more ways to experiment with as we develop the game uh because uh taking on multiplayer cinematics is something that hasn't really been done it's typically you'll have a multiplayer game with cinematics and they they're but they're consumed basically the same all I want is a little fun is that so much to was uh uh and what's what we want to do is take that one step further and actually this is like well your friends are seeing that you're seeing this as well and they're putting their vote on they can try and sell their friend out they can say Don't eat me or just like no bite me uh uh and so they're but they they don't have control over the situation uh so there's that that that fine kind of dramatic irony that you get in this game with our multiplayer cinematics and we're always going to be looking for more opportunities to do this uh that's just one that we're wrenching in currently stop I'll give up you know it's an experiment it's there's not many uh uh kind of narrative experiences of that kind uh cinematics is typically you watch a movie versus participate in it uh and uh even though there are other games that allow you to to choose where the story goes there are very few games that allow you to do that in concert with your friends and through multiplayers so developing those scenes figuring out when we're trying this what works and what doesn't um uh throwing stuff out adding things in mutating rewriting reshooting that's that's that's an organic process that we all get to do together that's what Early Access is all about is figuring out what has impact with you guys what has resonance uh and how we can surface that more in the way that we choose to do our example you have someone like Gail who needs to consume magical artifacts in order to survive he's got this I don't think I'm supposed to say that never mind that's a spoiler okay uh when you meet the characters in this game they're not just sitting there waiting for the player character to happen upon them really they have their own motivations their own reason to be their um their own history and when the player meets them they have an opportunity to form a party that has a shared goal SES me this day so the group that we're traveling with under normal circumstances would never ever have anything in common have any reason to travel together you have a Geth Yankee Warrior you have a full care of the blader Frontiers you have a cleric of char you have a wizard that wants nothing more than to be in his Tower studying wizardly things but they're kind of forced into this situation where their best chance of survival is going to be to rely on each other but that doesn't change the fact that under normal circumstances they've got next to nothing in common and the question is going to be is this shared goal going to be enough to keep them together or are their differences going to tear them apart a sharp tongue elf what that your mind proved it's equal half elf so because your party is made up of these extremely different people who would normally never be Associated or have a group together there's going to be plenty of conflict particularly um at your Camp when they have a moment to reflect on what's been happening what decisions you've made that might have favored one of your fellow Travelers over another that's all going to kind of come to a head at some point and it can't even happen that one character might not survive a particular conflict depending on how you decide to settle it [Music] the relationships that you have with your companions are not solely defined by the specific things you say to them in a one-on-one conversation if I'm traveling with Shadow heart she's always going to be observing the decisions that I'm making who I choose to fight who I choose to spare so everyone in your party is always going to be watching you seeing how you interact and forming their own judgments about you based on that your Camp is the place that as you're going through your adventure you can always kind of get your bearings talk to the people you've been traveling with have a moment to reflect on everything that's been happening and in these kind of Quiet Moments are where the conflict comes to the top you have a moment of silence and safety and it's going to Bubble up there not only conflict as well you might have a relationship developing with someone that you're traveling with and in this kind of quiet moment around the campfire is when you're going to have a chance to explore that and get to know them a bit better or maybe they'll come to you and say they've been noticing you or really impressed by something you've done and the camp is the kind of moment where that's going to come to a head as well I want you to know that I like what I see in short I've grown to trust you so we put a lot of time and effort into making our Companions and origin characters as kind of nuanced as possible but at the end of the day this remains a d d game and the most important character in a game of d d is you the player who you want to be what kind of character you want to create and we tried really hard to make sure that a customized character is not missing out on anything in the game World they still have layers to discover about themselves and Mysteries to unfold a dwell in the Sun Stand Down this one's got a touch of the absolute about her so with Dungeons and Dragons we're all telling a story together uh uh part of telling a three-dimensional story is his romance so we have to look at is we have to look at uh the the scenes that the writers are giving us uh the the the rules of the game um the all the different uh races and classes and stories that the players can tell um and the romance options and make that all feel real to them and make that feel authentic to the player you know who I never thought I'd find myself care caring for here we have like Shadow heart and the player getting to know each other over a bottle of wine while they watch the stars come out over the Skies of faerun this is something that is it's not written explicitly into the script but it's something that uh the the writers allow us to adapt into into cut scenes and figure out how we can arrange the characters so they're closer to each other when are they looking at each other when are they looking away from each other when are they staring into their bottle of wine um wondering what to say next when are they fumbling for Words uh uh you know this is this is something that comes up with you when you have a dialogue UI and it's it's it's analogous to getting to know somebody for the first time and choosing your next words wisely because in a game like this what you say dictates what these relationships can turn into how far can they go how much do you learn about these characters and uh just generally what shape a relationship is going going to take I must admit you've been a surprise and not an unpleasant one there are other more intimate moments that we film here as well uh uh we use storyboards to onboard the actors on board uh the art team in order to figure out uh what's going to happen uh what needs to be captured live in the camera what needs to be present in the data as well as letting the actors know how we're going to use that data how we're going to present their performance to the audience so when you're working with the the players guide from Dungeons and Dragons you have all of these different races at all these different sizes uh action scenes romance scenes they all have to work for whatever the player chose to chose as their race we have to consistently honor their choices we have to say it's just like no you're a halfling hero uh there's not there's no problem that's too big for you um nope nope don't do that don't do that no matter who you are no matter what story you're telling romance can be a big part of your journey and we're here to make that feel for you I would say that when you're trying to revive characters that have canonical significance to players and their characters that you know people come in with a pre-existing relationship with you you kind of carry the weight of that relationship it's a real challenge uh because you want to honor the past you also want to make something that that feels relevant to our game we don't want to put Minsk in just to say hey minsks in our game he's not ticking a box border Skate 3 is a game honoring a whole generation of infinity engine games several of which ask the player am I the monster am I the bad guy and there's always this Darkness within you that you don't quite know or understand I think what's really interesting about how that develops over the course of the game is that you start with much more of a fundamental moral story of do you do the good thing or the evil thing in the kind of do you save the lovely teeth links that you meet or do you decide not to but the thing is that the further you go through the game the less clear it is the choices between good and evil and a lot of the times you're faced with do I actually trust that the good people are good do I trust the evil people are evil autonomy I think is probably a key thing that we see uh throughout acts two and three you kind of get it set up with the companion stories you've seen that one so far and um throughout the rest of the story we see something is pushing them in One Direction it's about how they can become free there's a bunch of different things going on one is how much control you have over your own body and your own mind so this is implicit from the very beginning of the game but also over your own fate now as you move through the game and you start to level up and the stakes get bigger and bigger and as you approach Baldur's Gate itself the stakes get a lot bigger and suddenly you're faced with a very interesting question which is of all the people you know who want control and what do they want control of so once you get these higher stakes and you're looking at people and saying what is it you want what do you want to control how do you want to control it what do you want to do with it once you control it then you start asking and can I trust you so if you're in a position where you have a lot of people all with their hands reaching toward absolute power maybe you need to say who do I trust to have that control and those are cool moments too as well as having autonomy being a key theme we try to let the player do as much stuff as possible and make sure all our characters can react to it so we're both having autonomy as a theme the concept itself but also like kind of matches that in play which is fun at the moment I'm staring down the barrel of a dialogue that has about 700 to 800 lines in it that only really takes the player four clicks to get through and that is because those seven or eight hundred lines cover all the ways you could have ended up there all the states you could have been in when you ended up there it reflects the journey that you took to get there and all of that is stuff that we have to kind of hold in our heads and try and figure out a way to give you um a meaningful experience there is some bifurcation and change in the romance storylines depending on choices that the player has made depending on ways that you've treated them in their storyline you can see different romance scenes when you're replaying the game for several of the characters or romance scenes will change in tone depending on the way that you've treated them you go for more a ragtag group who have to stick together to solve this problem they'll have to people who want to be together and they have to realize that the only people that they really have and the only people can trust is each other and that those bonds actually mean a great deal and also they need to realize that maybe just maybe they have enough time before ceremorphosis kicks in and they all become illicit that they will be able to fall in love before the end I mean the only thing I can reference is Dos too but when I was playing that I remember getting to the end and feeling like I couldn't I couldn't bear to lose any of them and I think that's what people will feel for these these guys at the end people in your party are going to have different relationships with each other but they're also going to have those different levels of control over their own lives and some of them may be beholden to you some that may be antagonistic towards you but the the the question of how much the game changes depending on your choices When You Reach Boulder's Gate and you will reach Baldur's Gate very soon when you reach Baldur's Gate the the people who are in the city the people you'll encounter that depends on choices you've already made it's a very suspicious City it's a city at risk and under threat and it's populists feel that way more than in any other area of the game when I'm walking around the city of borders gate I just find my jaw dropping all the time you start working a game like this and you want to see Baldur's Gate and uh the first time we saw Boulders gay it was it was a holy moment Chucky Clear Eyes you do not suffer [Music] hi everybody my name is Ben binker I am the founder of iron Studios and the director on Baldur's Gate 3. what he's been waiting for news on bg3 we've been very busy but today we're ready to lift the tip of the veil that has been surrounding the development of bg3 we are on an adventure to make the best RPG that we've ever made and that has required us to reinvent all of our tools or technology or processes but above all also grow our team is or performance capturing and motion capturing or people have started returning to the office we've been recording again and if we can hit a certain speed and recording then we should be able to make it [Applause] [Applause] I know you want to make the perfect game this is not the way this is the way behold secret sauce of Dungeons and Dragons so yeah anyway I hope I really hope we're gonna get it I don't know if they're gonna be open to it but we can try right yeah you can have a good pitch so let's let's try it out hello uh good morning my name is Finn I'm from learning Studios together with Gigi and we're here to see Mike Mills Financial Embassy and I will email it thank you oh can I can I take a look certainly all this cool stuff man look this is a mind player it's a glass of water oh that's that's convenient look at that it's an iron flask do you know where nine flask does yeah they use it to trap creatures don't touch that sorry about that sorry uh oh it's a beholder I'm Beholder all right cool it's a dragon no not a dragon yeah sorry about that he's got this thing in his head so the hands from time to time what's your business today oh we're here to license good luck with that people have been trying for many years really hope you came prepared I get prepared I did come prepared this is the second time that we're putting on the armors because we managed to put it backwards uh getting ready for a high profile meeting with the leadership of winners of the ghost uh so hopefully it's gonna go well this time hi guys it's Savannah how's it going good no one told me it was going to be this kind of meeting well I got a special request [Music] let me know my deal maker well uh yeah well you don't need that I don't need the armor well I'd like to license Bulger okay [Music] the players have to feel that their choice is matter it's not uh you know it's not fake Choice it's real real decision yeah got a player agency you know and furthermore I mean you know creativity the freedom and the graphics I mean just across the board we're gonna need to see just the best version that anyone's ever expected we set the bar pretty high over delivery okay and you've got one more requirement I think we need to really feature the process of Sarah morphosis in this game I think if we do that that will bring everything together and make it a truly The Experience so many doses eh Sarah morphosis okay all right all right well I think we can do this deal should be a problem all right well it's good you wanted to do a tour let's do the tour [Music] all right this is it day so here we are offices all right all right see the Ampersand there yeah it's right on either side somebody should be putting a values gate there yeah I can help you with this father's gay that's the Crown Jewel we don't really want to do anything with it so we know it's the exact right partner in place the exact right story to tell [Music] this is really the root of everything that I think is important to you right an amazing monster A Unique Piece of lore what's the thing in the eye can you just point that out [Music] okay oops ah can we just how's your day been nice to meet you yeah Construction Mike Mike the what I need you to tell me everything you know about serot thrombosis come up it's ferromorphosis yes I'm not going to tell you until you can pronounce it correctly War oh sis okay it's the process by which a humanoid creature is transformed into a mind flare and actually they stick this tadpole thing like right into your eye socket crawls into your mind it's really like mine flare is one of the most like interesting monsters in Dungeons and Dragons it actually all goes back to 1974 when the game I don't need a history lesson I need to know about thrombosis no no I am I'm explaining to you she understands there are more forces because you know if you're taking mind players capture humanoids and they transform them to more of their kind it's this process by which their brains are devoured then transformed in some brutal horrible experience a humanoid anyone who undergoes this process is destroyed utterly only the most powerful magic being a wish spell could possibly bring them back that's how mind players make more of their kind but as I was saying to understand mind flares and startomorphous in detail we have to go back to 1974 and understand the dog you're really good you know your okay so this is what we're gonna do I'm not gonna let you out just now I'll take you with me you're gonna go on a small trip I promise I'll let you out but not just right away better strap it foreign [Applause] [Music] and that is how we got the license to Baldur's Gate 3 well more or less my name is Sven Vega I'm the founder of learning Studios and the director of welder's Gate 3 and I'm so happy we can finally talk about this game because we've been trying to keep this thing a secret for a very long time with the emphasis on trying and now we don't have to remove all the posters from the walls anymore every single time somebody steps into the office we're working super close with Wizards of the Coast they've been spending plenty of time in our offices and we've been spending plenty of time in their offices you can expect from us a grand Adventure that's going to be filled with stuff to explore stuff to experiment with challenging combat memorable companions tough decisions and much much much more you'll be able to gather your party play on your own or with friends and it's going to be incredibly amazing take care until next time bye bye

Channel: Dan Allen Gaming

Views: 979,849

Keywords: bg3, baldurs gate 3

Id: HyX1OT7RIxM

Length: 33min 10sec (1990 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 30 2023