Larian Studios, known for the popular RPG Baldur’s Gate 3, strongly supports the Early Access development model. In recent interviews, Michael Douse, Larian’s Director of Publishing, emphasized their belief that Early Access is becoming the favored method for game development, especially for larger projects. This seems kind of well-known since Larian used it for BG3.
The studio’s decision to embrace Early Access was influenced by their success with Baldur’s Gate 3. The game underwent almost three years in Early Access, allowing Larian to collect valuable player feedback. This collaboration with the community enabled them to enhance the gameplay, resolve issues, and produce a more robust final product. Douse feels that this step-by-step method assists in minimizing the inherent risk linked with standard AAA releases.
In the interview, he highlighted the importance of creating strong connections with players by maintaining an ongoing, transparent conversation throughout the development phase. Early Access encourages the growth of a lively community centered around the game and enables developers to assess player feedback instantly. This allows them to adapt and meet the audience’s needs.
Larian intends to use the Early Access model again for their next game, which has not been officially announced. Douse believes that, despite the challenges, Early Access can be highly effective for studios willing to adapt to a more live service type of development environment.
It’s hard to argue with him. Baldur’s Gate 3 was probably one of the best games ever made, and working with the community helped that. We’ve seen the developer work with their community on the creations of Minecraft and Stardew Valley, so it’s not unheard of. Those had early access, which allowed fans to playtest the games. Even Palworld is doing something similar.
“It’s scary. It turns your company sort of into a live service company because you’ve got to feed that machine. But we were very open about not doing that. [We said:] ‘We’re not going to add story. Don’t expect that. We didn’t really add content. We added some, but we really slowed down. Setting expectations is really key. It’s just going to be this one sort of fractal loop that’s going to sort of adapt. If you don’t know how to do early access, I wouldn’t do early access, but if you are interested in creating a really strong core gameplay loop and then building around that, to foster a strong community, that’s a really good way to do it. It’s probably the best way to do it.”
Michael Douse (Found by EG)
The studio emphasizes that being open and clear with players is crucial for a successful Early Access experience. By establishing clear expectations from the start and outlining any limitations, they aim to prevent misunderstandings. Larian has finished developing significant expansions after launching Baldur’s Gate 3 and currently has no plans for a direct sequel (Baldur’s Gate 4).
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