by “I think the biggest problem we’ve faced in terms of the overarching story is that this project is called Path to Menzoberranzan, and it starts in Athkatla,” says Tomobamba.
“That’s about 6,000 kilometers away – south – of Menzoberranzan,” continues the narrative design coordinator and creative lead of this Baldur’s Gate 3 Custom Campaign Modding project. “Menzoberranzan is also underground,” he adds.
Manage cookie settings
So the task facing Tomobamba, project lead and level design team lead Lotrich, and the rest of the way to the Menzoberranzan team, in their quest to deliver a demo of their ambitious custom campaign in a few months, is no small one. And that’s putting aside the fact that it’s only coming together about half a year after Larian first released official modding tools for BG3 with Patch 7.
Modders quickly found ways to modify this toolkit in their own way, with versions like moonglasses designed to give people the ability to create more complex mods for the game – ones that involve entire custom campaigns and quests. Lotrich was there from the beginning of this movement, experimenting with his own custom maps and managing to recreate locations such as Waukeen’s Promenade from Baldur’s Gate 2.
After this, Lotrich, a “huge fan of Baldur’s Gate 2 and Drow Culture since childhood,” tells me that they “started creating a stupid project.” From there they say, “Tom reached out to me and showed his experience with film line, writing, etc. We had the same spirit and ideas, although I was more of a technical guy, so Tom started working on the storyline.
Tomobamba tells me they were drawn to the project in the same way they believe numerous other members of the modding team were – stumbling across Lotrich’s regular Reddit posts about their BG3 modding work and progress. “I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate 2, Baldur’s Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal on and off for the past 25 years,” he says, “seeing Waukeen’s boardwalk in its beautifully designed glory in this amazing Baldur’s Gate 3 Engine – This game which I played as a 2D top-down map back in, I don’t know, 2001 – it just blew my head off and it was incredible.
“I feel like I’ve been working on this one mod on this one mod for the last 25 years,” Pad to Menzoberranzan’s creative direction adds: “I know the lore of the Forgotten Realms, the Sword Coast, Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2’s storylines I know, I know like the back of my hand.”
The team the pair played a huge role in bringing together on the project, as you can imagine, is full of big fans of the classic Baldur’s Gate like Lotrich and Tomobamba, but the latter says that’s far from all the addition brought to the table. “I’ve been working as a TV producer and director for many years, I’ve been writing things for a long time,” he says, “I’m really excited to bring the experience I have to a project like this, and I’m really, really excited because this doesn’t feel like an amateur production.
“We have managed to get the interest of some incredibly experienced people from all over the world, who have experience within specific industries that we can lean on. We have people who have worked in video games, we have people who have worked in film production, we have creative writers, we have mudders, we have mappers, all with experience on projects that aren’t too different. So it feels like [we’re] Not running a team of amateurs, these are very committed professionals creating something incredible. ”
Of course, this hasn’t meant that working on the project hasn’t presented any challenges so far. Lotrich singles out animations as the most difficult task she and their side of the mod have faced yet, explaining: “Those are very difficult to create, but every day our team gets closer to understanding how to make them better and [more] efficient”.
Meanwhile, Tomobamba cites communicating and staying on the same page as the rest of the team as something he personally had to work around because he is based in Australia. “Everyone else pretty much lives in the Northern Hemisphere,” he says, “so, to get to everyone’s time zone — because I don’t expect people to get to my time zone — I sometimes go at two, three, or four o’clock in the morning. morning just to have a meeting with some people.’
He adds that he and Lotrich “talk constantly in our DMS”, and this has led to them having to work another quirk of being a team from around the world. ‘It’s not English [Lotrich’s] First language,” he explains, “so sometimes we have to find the word he is looking for.” ‘
As for the practicalities of what path to Menzoberranzan will look like, the team seems to have a good handle on what it wants its demo to look like, but is generally keeping its cards close to its chest when it comes to the details of what the details Full Version and the story will entail. “Our goal is two major locations: Waukeen’s Promenade – [that’s] will be much larger than in BG2, for example the houses and buildings around them will be accessible – and Irenicus Dungeon,” says Lorich about the demo/beta, adding that there will also be a “lot of small locations”.
In terms of gameplay, they say you can expect: “New battles, story, completely new companions with their own vas and romances – just a small portion of the romances, same as romances in Act 1 of BG3 – new items, quests, and some completely unique mechanics that will greatly influence the gameplay in Athkatla”. They do it in few teases in terms of the latter, saying: “What can it be? Good question, I’m sure you can find out if you’ve played BG2. “
You can’t bring the party for the original game, with Lotrich explaining that this is because the team doesn’t want to use AI or use copyright law. However, he doesn’t give many details about what to expect from the mod’s new companions, other than saying the team is working on them and that “we want players to feel the emotions of the companions.”
In terms of the full version’s story, Tomobamba adds, “Trying to find a story that doesn’t feel contrived has been an interesting journey in itself. It was one of those things that I was working on for a number of weeks, just trying to get this story out. I don’t want the player to arrive in Athkatla and be told, ‘Oh, by the way, the story isn’t there, it’s somewhere else, you need to go now.’
“Stories are all about travel, or some of the best stories are about travel, and this story is very much a journey to an unknown place. So, to tell that well and work with writers to help me tell that well has been the achievement, and we’re really proud of what we’ve created. It will parallel certain stories that have already been told, it will parallel journeys that people have already taken, and it will end in this most iconic, terrifying Drow capital.
“Who knows, you might die while you’re there,” he jokes, “no, you’re not going to die. I’m really excited about the story we’ve told, I think it’s going to be very compelling and it’s going to be quite unique experience.”
