Larian Studios CEO admits to crunch during development of Baldur's Gate 3 and previous games

The GOTY 2023 was not made without sweat, and the team at Larian Studios sweated a lot in the final stages of development. So confessed Swen Vincke, CEO of the Belgians and director of Baldur’s Gate 3, in a Q&A session during the Digital Dragons conference in Poland, assuring that it was still less than on their previous games, Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin II.

Larian boss recalls the grueling development of Baldur’s Gate 3

Vincke admitted that “we did have to do a bit of crunch” when it came to finishing Baldur’s Gate 3, although he said it was “certainly less” than his previous projects. “To be honest, you will always have a little bit when you’re trying to finish something, especially when there’s so much complexity that needs to be brought together.”

“I’d be lying if I said we didn’t work hard,” he continues, although he assures us that the team never stayed late. As the Belgian says, the offices were never busy after 8 p.m., and on weekends “very, very, very rarely”.

Vincke also admits that because of the complexity of Baldur’s Gate 3, there were concerns that the game would be “impossible to finish it,” but that at no point did they consider compromising either the depth or the quality of the title. “We just said ‘no’, the game needs these things, so we’re going to be doing this, we need to create breathing space to get the game to the quality level that it’s going to need because otherwise, it’s just not going to work out’.”

Vincke also talked about Larian Studios’ newly opened office in Poland and the expansion of the team to work on the two games they are working on, which are, unsurprisingly, both RPGs. “Our plan for the Polish studio is very simple. Build a team that can work on our two - very ambitious - new RPGs and enjoy the fruits of their labor.”