Bombora Publishing House is preparing to release the book “Baldur’s Gate. A journey from the origins to RPG classics.” This is a detailed history of the formation of the Baldur’s Gate franchise, in which there was a place for board games. We tell you what the book is about and share an excerpt from it.
The author of the work is Maxence Degrendel, a game streamer. He first published his book in 2018 under the title Baldur’s Gate: L’héritage du jeu de rôle (RPG).
Degrandel shares with the reader what the developers who created the Baldur’s Gate series had to go through. He told how the Dungeons & Dragons board game influenced the origin of the franchise, what problems the authors of the games faced and what legacy they left behind.
In addition to the history of the main parts of Baldur’s Gate, Degrandel talks about additions to games, fan mods and unreleased triquels.
The Russian edition should go on sale tomorrow, February 26.
Below is an excerpt from the book.
THE INTERSECTION OF THE FATES OF INTERPLAY AND BIOWARE
If you have already dealt with role—playing games — video or board games – you probably know that the outcome of a battle sometimes depends on a roll of the dice. An unsuccessful throw is fraught with utter collapse, while a successful one often saves the most hopeless situation. Speaking about the origins of the BG saga, it should be noted that without several fateful meetings, without the hand of providence, the series that we know today would never have taken place. To understand how Baldur’s Gate has successfully gone from an idea in the minds of the creators to millions of copies in the hands of players, let’s take a look at two companies that played a crucial role in its creation.
So, on the one hand, BioWare, this colossal CRPG production machine, has been working on legendary games for decades: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Eff ect, Dragon Age, and, of course, Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights. On the other hand, Interplay Entertainment, a developer and publisher of video games, on whose account The Bard’s Tale, Wasteland, the legendary Fallout and Icewind Dale and the incredible Planescape: Torment are the most famous games that every fan of the genre must have passed at least once in his life. Ahead is the story of BioWare and Interplay, or the story of how a random roll of the dice turned the entire Western RPG industry upside down.
DURING THE DAY WE TREAT, AT NIGHT WE WRITE CODE
It’s the late eighties. Gregory Zeschuk and Raymond Muzika are students at the University of Alberta in Canada. In addition to studying, the guys are fond of role-playing games. They play with friends at the table and on the computer. Although Gregory and Raymond attended several subjects together at the university, their joint passion for CRPG and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the second edition of which was published a year earlier, really brought them closer.
After receiving their doctorate in 1992, the friends continued to communicate and discovered many common interests: both are fond of science fiction and fantasy in a variety of forms. They watch Star Wars, read The Lord of the Rings, play video games — Dungeon Master and Tales of the Unknown, Vol. I: The Bard’s Tale. The guys discuss all this a lot and come to the conclusion that IT provides excellent opportunities to create their own worlds. Already the first project they took up had something to surprise: friends decided to create a serious, didactic game — point’n’lick on a medical topic. So they wanted to help medical students in a playful way.
Although the development of the game went smoothly, Gregory and Raymond decided to take another participant into the team. It was Augustine Yip, who also studied to be a medic. Augustine took over the graphic design. In 1994, the three of them finished their first game, which they called Acid Base Physiology Simulator. After the trio took up the last educational title, called “Gastroenterologist Patient Simulator” and was released in 1995. Although serious games attracted attention to the trio in the medical environment, the guys wanted more. They wanted to implement a project related to their interest in the fictional, fantastic. Creating games about medicine instilled confidence that the technical part is within their power. And if so, why not strive for more?
My friends had plenty of inspiration, but there was not enough money. With their ambitions, it was necessary to open a studio and recruit a team. It’s time to beat the thresholds of local banks in search of financing.
THE BIRTH OF BIOWARE CORPORATION
Before going to the bank, Gregory, Raymond and Augustine thought about the concept of the future studio. After much discussion, they managed to agree on the name: it was supposed to combine natural — bio and artificial — ware. Together it turned out BioWare. In order to be taken seriously, the guys decided to expand.
Gregory looked in on his cousin Marcel Zeschuk. Marcel has been involved with brothers Trent and Brent Auster for some time. The brothers were engaged in the sale and repair of computers. They were working on the shareware game Blasteroids 3D. Blasteroids was something of a test for them – the brothers wanted to test their strength and see if they could create a game in a few months. Even the unfinished Blasteroids 3D seemed promising to Gregory, and he invited the brothers to join BioWare in order to grow a commercial project from an amateur game.
Six of them managed to get a loan, and the team got to work, despite the concern of loved ones and the actual absence of the gaming industry in Edmonton. The company was officially registered on February 1, 1995 under the name BioWare Corporation. The logo depicted hands carved in stone—human and robotic—that transformed digital matter. The six founders immediately hired the first team of employees, not all of whom had satisfactory qualifications. You need to understand the context of the situation: in 1995, the very concept of “video game development” was hardly heard of, and there were almost no intelligent specialists. So it wasn’t difficult to join BioWare then: it was enough to be interested in creating games or come with recommendations from someone from the team.
As soon as the team was assembled, the studio started working on Blasteroids 3D. It was soon possible to finish the first demo and send it to well-known publishers. Among them was Electronic Arts, which then refused to cooperate with BioWare — an interesting fact, considering that it acquired the studio in 2007. Among the interested publishers who are ready to sign the agreement, our six chose one — Interplay Productions, already quite well-known in the world of video games.
THE BIRTH OF INTERPLAY
Let’s go back to 1983. Brian Fargo, a programmer who is passionate about video game development, is assembling a team with which he has already collaborated in his previous studio, Boone Corporation. Together they founded Interplay Productions in Beverly Hills, California. Brian became CEO, while Jay Patel, Rebecca Ann Heineman and Troy Worrell formed the first generation of developers. They also received the status of co-founders. Soon they signed contracts with Activision and started making text games — Mindshadow in 1984 or Borrowed Time in 1985.
When Interplay managed to achieve financial stability, it embarked on the first large—scale project that will be remembered by a whole generation of players – The Bard’s Tale: Tales of the Unknown. This CRPG was conceived as a trilogy and was based on a prototype invented by Brian Fargo’s friend, Michael Cranford. As soon as the demo was ready, Interplay turned to partners from Activision with a proposal to publish the game. But the Santa Monica company apparently found nothing interesting in exploring dungeons and exterminating monsters and abandoned the project. But Electronic Arts felt that the game could “shoot”, and published it in 1985. Players were offered a first-person CRPG, whose action takes place in Skara Brae, a city cut off from the rest of the world by a powerful spell. The combat system did not directly copy Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, but was largely inspired by it — and this will be important for further narration.
To everyone’s surprise, The Bard’s Tale: Tales of the Unknown turned out to be a hit. It has sold over 400,000 copies. It became the most purchased game of the decade, surpassing the legendary Ultima with its fourth episode Quest of the Avatar, also released in 1985. This success was the key to the excellent reputation that Interplay has maintained for more than ten years.
THE BEGINNING OF SUCCESS
Having earned the first good money, Interplay consolidated its success by releasing Th e Bard’s Tale II and III, Neuromancer and the legendary post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland, which was released in 1988 and became the forerunner of Fallout. There were so many hits at the disposal that the studio began delegating the development of individual projects outside. RPM Racing, a racing simulator for Super Nintendo, was transferred to Silicon & Synapse studios. If this name doesn’t mean anything to you, keep in mind that later she changed her name to Blizzard Entertainment, under which she achieved the successes we know today with the Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch series.
By 1995, Interplay regularly receives game demos from studios willing to collaborate. The fact is that by this time the company was less engaged in development and focused on publishing. Interplay released Another World in 1991 and Alone in the Dark in 1992 – games that few people remember now. BioWare’s Blasteroids 3D came to them by mail, and Interplay noticed the potential of the young Canadian team. Wasting no time, they invited Gregory Zeschuk and Raymond Muzika to negotiate on a project whose name has changed to the one we know today — Shattered Steel.
THE FIRST GAME IS A MODERATE SUCCESS
Gregory and Raymond paid all the expenses for the trip to California. In the end, even if Brian Fargo is not there, they will be able to meet with Fergus Urquhart, one of the founding fathers of Fallout, who will later prove to be a valuable ally for BioWare. And at that time, Fergus was interested in the idea of a game of Zeshchuk and Music, a concept combining science fiction and fur. Representatives of BioWare returned with the Interplay publishing contract in their pocket and started serious work on Shattered Steel. To do this, six founders and a dozen of their employees moved to a new place — not very comfortable, but spacious enough for their new needs. During 1995 , the existence of the studio will be
questionable: an event will happen that will practically call into question the continuation of the company’s work.
The fact is that three of the six founders decided to get off the ship: Brent and Trent Oster founded their studio Pyrotek, and Marcel Zeschuk completely retired from the gaming industry and took up agriculture. The Auster brothers took Shattered Steel with them — it was originally their project, and the rights still belonged to them – only to declare bankruptcy less than a year later. Trent Oster returned to BioWare, but lost the status of director. Despite this, the development of Shattered Steel went with renewed vigor: With Trent’s return, the studio got the rights to it again.
In 1996 Shattered Steel was released. The game turned out to be very sound technically and won good reviews from the press, but its commercial success was quite modest. The game had a serious competitor that eclipsed the release of BioWare — MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries, the sequel to MechWarrior 2, which was released a year earlier. Nevertheless, Shattered Steel’s sales turned out to be good enough to think about continuing. Its release was scheduled for 1998, but Interplay unconditionally rejected the project. This radical decision can be explained by several reasons: too many projects were in operation at the same time, besides among them there were less economically risky ones. MDK, for example.
In this action game from Shiny Entertainment, released in 1997 for PC and PlayStation and received success both from critics and in the market, the player faces an alien invasion and becomes a sniper. Interplay as a publisher received the rights to the series and decided to transfer the work on the second part to partners from BioWare. Shattered Steel 2, in turn, ceased to be a priority for Interplay and found itself outside the immediate agenda. BioWare was disappointed due to the premature end of the well-started series, but switched to MDK 2. Work on it lasted from 1998 to 2000.
But long before that, after the release of the first Shattered Steel in 1996, Gregory Zeschuk, Raymond Muzika and Augustine Yip gathered a development team to start working on a new game. The goal is to create a strong demo that will convince Interplay or another publisher to finance the project. Its working title is Battleground: Infinity. Without knowing it, BioWare was one step away from turning things around in Western RPGs.