I am Making BG3

[RPGguy]

It may take me 20 years. And the obstacles are enormous. But I am going to do it.

I know a good portion of you will snicker or laugh outright and that fuels me. I have thought about this for several years and just can't shake it.

As great as the Buldur's Gate games are, they are imperfect. And passionate CPRG'ers deserve one more masterpiece that the gaming industry of today and tomorrow will never provide, because no one will make it out for the love of the craft. It's always about the money.

I am not talking about a mod either. I am talking about a legitmate LVL 1 to 30 epic with a slow build/pace.

I am talking about a painstakingly crafted journey of those whose personal lives arose, were severely molded, or destroyed by the events of the Bhaalspawn's ascension. And Ironically, the Bhaalspawn speaks to them though mystic means with for help with something that his/her divinity cannot accomplish. Something that the combined divinities cannot comprehend. Something only they can accomplish, with his/her dark radiance to aid them...because of their deeply personal motivations: The Lord's utter and final passage into the Void.

For the taint of murder is always there, and the Realms have always suffered and the laws of the universe demand it. But mortals and gods alike will always worship Murder. With Divinity comes power and knowledge of this essential truth. A god may suppress it, mold it, transform it, consume it...but it is always there. The Bhaalspawn's undeniable connection-to and origins amongst mortals demand the destruction of his realm and legacy. But how does one unmake a god? How can mere mortals accomplish this? But divinity has discovered a mere hope of a possibility. The Lord of Murder must disseminate his power across the Planes and then unmake those planes.

Will the party transcend their suffering and misery to embrace the task? Are their motivations pure enough to accomplish this, despite the impossible trials? Can they be trusted to deliver aspects of the Bhaalspawn's essense to the ordained conduits of destruction? Or will they usurp his/her lendings? Can the task be completed before the interests of the Realms discover it..and align their powers against it? Will yet others come to aid?

And think about this. As the Bhaalspawn's essense is diminished throughout the quest, so does his or her ability to aid the party. And the odds increase that some other entity can intervene. The possibilities are encouraging.

It's going to use Infinity. It's going to use 2nd edition. Each area will teem with possibilities. It will reward good/evil/neutral/lawful/chaotic destinies equally, although in equally different ways. If you have OCD like me than you can expect 300-500 hours of gameplay.

Many dialogue paths will appear only once, forcing you to pay attention and commit to your choices, which you will hopefully make as a role playing purist. For the aim is to reward and expand the opportunities for said consistencies of character throughout the game.

It's an impossible mandate, and I may get my butt sued out of existence, but I am doing it. See you all in 20 years.

Who am I? I am no one. I have nothing. I am simply RPGguy.

[fable]

You're also one among hundreds of people who have said they're going to make BG3, and never even got as far as purchasing the rights. Good luck.

[RPGguy]

You're also one among hundreds of people who have said they're going to make BG3, and never even got as far as purchasing the rights. Good luck.

Touche.

So I will write and design in the interim. And wait for the related licenses to erode in value. As time passes and we go longer and longer without without the experience we truly seek, the resistance will melt away.

Worse case scenario, I will build the game, code it, have it thoroughly tested and release it onto the Internet just before I die. They can sue my corpse. I don't care.

[kozeph]

good luck with that mate wish you the very best

also many people have claim the same so forgive me if i dont espect on seeing you in 20 years, but you might do it so good luck if it means anything

[RPGguy]

good luck with that mate wish you the very best

also many people have claim the same so forgive me if i dont espect on seeing you in 20 years, but you might do it so good luck if it means anything

Be careful about rending verdicts. One of those people might have accomplished far more than you or I imagine. We have no idea how far they have gotten, what their progress has been, what they are doing right now...

And I have no expectations that anyone here take me seriously. I don't want any money or help. Just want to go on record.

[Sain]

Well, I'll leave the negativity to fable and just say good luck.

[fable]

Well, I'll leave the negativity to fable and just say good luck.

It's called reality, or taking a reasonable chance with everything you've got, but never paying for a sucker bet. The real world, where people actively seek out the cost of licenses and the details of licensing before they even think to speak up, because they know dreams are anchored in stone. Not in the air.

That's the difference between dreams that become reality, and dreams that become nothing. The former are done by people who plan, think, scheme, gather cost estimates, quantify resources, push, pull, scream, sacrifice, kick, wheedle--in short, they do things to get what they need to make dreams happen. It's easy to talk the talk. It's much harder to walk the walk.

RPGguy, if you want to actually accomplish this, consider the following steps. Speak to current independent developers, and figure out how long comparable games such as Age of Decadence have taken to produce, how much money, how many people, etc. Then speak to your folks, and get a loan. Hire a good business manager to draw up a plan of action for how you could do this and how much it would take, and where the money would come from--how much capitol you'd need to borrow now to start making it happen. Hire a copyright attorney, and ask them if game rights "devalue over time." You'll be surprised at their answer. Then ask the current rights holders for the BG series how much they'd charge to lease you rights on producing the game in a given period of time.

After you've done that, come back and tell us. I look forward to hearing from you.

[RPGguy]

At this point, I'm just going to keep quiet and absorb the comments. And keep my strategies to myself.

I'll just say that this game will not get made, the way it deserves to get made, through conventional channels. Industry has no interest in making it and even if they tried, they'd screw it up.

[trog69]

BG3: Go get'em, tiger!

Git'er done...I'll play that sucker!

[Apsis]

Instead of coming up with far-fetched idea of making a new game using old infinity engine, you can join many of the modding teams in IE communities (G3, SHS, PPG, BWL etc.). The new content added by mods are vast and a great deal of them are so good a first time player wouldnt notice the difference. So start your own mod project, (lots of tutorials around) i would love to see something created by your enthusiasm. You cant expect to write an opera in day1 you should start with songs, tunes, melodies..

[Stworca]

I fully agree with Apsis. As long as you don't have an army of programmers with you, and lots of cash piled on your bank account, You'll do much more good by joining one of the modding teams for BG2.

Even tho the idea of making Baldurs Gate is just, and i would support it in any way i could.. Do you know how long did it take "Tomas Baginski" to make the 6 minute Cathedral Animation?
([url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8GyHvBogrI"]link[/url], for those who dont know it)

[RPGguy]

I am already knee deep in compiling research and playing through the series with a critical eye, defining the reasons for its greatness.

I know in my heart I can do this and do it extremely well...honor it and take it to the next level.

I have no interest in modding to be honest, although I do appreciate the comments. Keep them coming.

[Atreyuu2003]

Hey, buddy, if you can find the dedicated and talented people to aid you in your endeavor, then I believe anything you set your mind to can be achieved. Case in point: Atari gave all RCT3 fans the big red finger and canceled all support for their bug-infested game only months after its release. Now, a bunch of people worldwide have come together at tpb3d.com to create a free rollercoaster game that will be far and above better than anything Atari could have even imagined. They have coders, modelers, musicians (of which I am one and will be contributing to the project), and every other hat that could be worn in order to make this game a reality. If you are truly serious about what you have brought to the table today, you may want to look into doing something similar.

Peace out!
Troy

P.S. I will be keeping my eyes on your progress!

[RPGguy]

Thanks for the comment! Another example is Triple-A. A community of people who love to play Axis and Allies (and related games) got tired of waiting for the license holders to make a computerized, online, multi-player version so they did it themselves.

It's called 'Triple-A' but it's identical to A+A and...they've taken it to the next level with more elaborate versions.

I tried it. Works great. They got it done.

[fable]

Thanks for the comment! Another example is Triple-A. A community of people who love to play Axis and Allies (and related games) got tired of waiting for the license holders to make a computerized, online, multi-player version so they did it themselves.

It's no longer associated with Axis and Allies; all place names, A&A terminology, maps resembling the original, etc, have been removed. They were accused by Hasbro of copyright infringement, but (thanks to their swift work in gutting the references) no suit was brought.

Fortunately, Hasbro isn't as bad as some of the others that would have gladly gone to court regardless, and probably won.

[RPGguy]

It's no longer associated with Axis and Allies; all place names, A&A terminology, maps resembling the original, etc, have been removed. They were accused by Hasbro of copyright infringement, but (thanks to their swift work in gutting the references) no suit was brought.

Fortunately, Hasbro isn't as bad as some of the others that would have gladly gone to court regardless, and probably won.

Triple-A always has been and remains to this day a virtual clone of Axis and Allies in every material way WITH customization to increase complexity or alter the rules however one finds interesting.

I agree that MB has (to date) been extremely accommodating. I suspect they realize that they and their lawyers have zero chance of erasing that community from the Internet permanently. The cost to pursue it AND execute it would be horrendous. It's akin to trying to stop peer to peer file transfers of music and movies from the Internet. It's too late. The software and the will is already out there. It's never going to go away.

:2 cents

[fable]

I agree that MB has (to date) been extremely accommodating. I suspect they realize that they and their lawyers have zero chance of erasing that community from the Internet permanently.

Hasbro was evidently satisfied, and if they hadn't been, they could have stopped it dead in its tracks.

The cost to pursue it AND execute it would be horrendous. It's akin to trying to stop peer to peer file transfers of music and movies from the Internet. It's too late. The software and the will is already out there. It's never going to go away.

:2 cents

That may be, but GameBanshee and its site owner don't condone piracy (and let's not get into semantics about this) in any manner or form, including its discussion.

[Edar Macilrille]

I have waited 13 years for Computer WiF since it was first announced, soon 14... that is a record.

[Sereth1728]

Rpgguy, I think that you got a much better shot at making the game than any of the other people.

Atari (destroyer of games) would only cripple the bg series. They haven't made one good game to this day. The only reason demonstone was alright was because R.A. Salvatore wrote the story.

If you need any help on making it, i would be glad to help.

[RPGguy]

Thank you Sereth!!!

I am playing through BG1 + ToSC + SoA + ToB on a very detailed, research-oriented basis.

On this particular playthru, I am mapping...

1. Every character, NPC, and enemy character on a map-by-map basis
2. Every single XP point given, again, on a screen by screen basis
3. Every single scroll location
4. Every quest, sub quest and plot-line

I've limited it to just those 4 elements on this particular run-thru to make it manageable. Part of creating a worthy 3rd chapter is understanding (almost mathematically) what made the original such a great experience. The above (once summarized, and number-crunched) will give me a pretty good feeling for length, depth and pacing of encounters, as well as the way your PC experiences ascension.

It also identifies ways to improve on this experience. For example (just a very minor example). When you start-out in BG1, picking a simple lock gives you 40 XP per. Your thief levels up and by the end of BG1/ToSC, you're netting 234 per picked lock. When you import to BG2 and wake up in Irenicus' dungeon with the same level character, however, that same thief is getting 400 XP per picked lock. That's a little unnatural and shocking.

I want a nice, smooth, seamless yet epic-slow crawl from LVL1 to LVL 30 so disconnects like this need to be identified and ironed out.

Anyways, my next playthrough I will study/chart/document 3-4 different gameplay elements. And I'll keep playing through the game with different focus and character builds/classes until I have all the data I need to start my own story board and level design. I hope to reach that phase in 2 years.