Insight into the world of Faerun: Exploring Behind the Scenes of Baldur’s Gate 3

Written by Allen Macaraeg

Published on October 21, 2024

Even after one year, the Baldur’s Gate 3 community continues to support the beloved series. Launched in August 2023, Baldur’s Gate 3 brings the realm of Dungeons & Dragons into the video game universe once again, making it the third installment in the Baldur’s Gate series. Similarly to the tabletop fantasy roleplaying game, players are able to customize their characters, choose from 12 different classes and choose their origins.

What makes Baldur’s Gate 3 particularly unique is how expansive it is. Players are able to make thousands of choices for their characters while advancing the storyline and there is always something new to enjoy even after you complete the storyline for the first time. All of the characters, major or minor, are completely voice-acted and motion-captured.

Devora Wilde who portrays Lae’zel took the opportunity to praise the writers behind Baldur’s Gate 3, “We can’t have good acting without good writing, it’s impossible. And the writing in this game I mean, it’s the heart of the game and it’s really beautiful.”

Fans were able to pick the brains of all the guests including Devora Wilde (Lae’zel), Neil Newbon (Astarion), Jennifer English (Shadowheart) and Aliona Baranova who is a performance director and also plays Corinna. 

Neil Newbon also spoke about his inspiration for some of the characters he helped to motion-capture, citing his twin brother and political figures like former President Barack Obama.

During the panel, the guests described how they preserved their voices for voice acting. They advised to ensure that the most straining portions were saved for last. On this, Jennifer English emphasized the need for self-advocacy. She described a circumstance where an actor could be asked to do vocally straining scenes in the beginning of recording, and strongly assured prospective voice actors that they could say no and asked for these scenes to be shifted. She emphasized that younger actors are not taught to advocate for themselves.

 

Featured image by Allen Macaraeg