I would love to see a roadmap too - but based on my understanding on the way Larian works, I really, really doubt it will happen.
Their approach to game development seems to be UTTER CHAOS. They seem to be a highly "creative people" driven studio, as opposed to the production or the money people. They tend to be way too ambitious and take an "iterate until they get it" approach for writing, mechanics, everything, which tends to destroy timelines and add tons of redundant work when things are constantly being changed at the foundation. In the past, this is what's led them to launch basically unfinished games due to running out of time/money. I don't think we'll get a roadmap because they literally do not know how long each item takes, nor have certain key internal deadlines they're hitting.
If you have the time to spare, I'd highly recommend giving Sven's DOS 2 GDC speech a watch, or the documentary made about their journey up till DOS 2. Links in spoilers.
GDC Speech: Documentary:
Some highlights of note in those videos:
- Only 1/4 of the maps planned made it into the final release of DOS 2. Originally, there was supposed to a land for each race. What we got from Act 1s to 3 (Fort Joy, Driftwood, Arx) was JUST the human lands.
- Voice acting the entire game was a decision they came to around 9 months before release. AFTER they chose to delay it to September. In June 2017, they told the voice recording studio 600,000 words are required. By July 2017, they came back and said 1 million+ words are required. A chunk of this was due to miscounting, but it still shows you the immense changes/scope creep due to their approach.
- Because of the above, a good chunk of the dialogue was actually written/finalized in the last 2 months before launch. The middle chunk of Sebille's origin story was apparently changed again 1 week before launch.
- Revamped their entire combat AI in less than 9 months prior to release. Doing this meant they basically had to hold off testing and finalizing their encounters until the AI was updated.
- They eventually accepted the armor system was flawed, and desperately iterated to try to fix it until the very end, where they basically ran out of time and had to ship
- They have a pretty democratic idea system (which really hurt them during DOS2's development in terms of timing, but it looks like it's happening in BG3 again). Any developer is given a "Joker" card that gives them the right to insert one of their own ideas into the game. This is basically how the Salami made it into the game. Confirmed at the end of this article - a random developer just chose to add it in one day (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...te-3-an-adventure-in-failure-and-success)
- They've had a history of always running out of money (getting close to bankruptcy a few times, i.e. during DOS1), having to deal with publishers and never getting to have the time to fully finish a game. I feel like with the relative financial safety net provided by DOS 2 and BG3 EA, they are going to indulge themselves this time.
This is not an endorsement by the way - as someone who has worked in a similar type of industry (in both production and creative driven companies (though mine had far more of a dictatorship)), the way they described their workflow was giving me anxiety. But it did provide me tons of clarity as to why Larian is the way they are. If you didn't think they were right for BG3, I think the documentaries will basically confirm and clarify all of that for you. It'll also be pretty clear why they'd probably never commit to any form of a roadmap.
Last edited by Topgoon; 03/02/2208:40 PM. Reason: Spoiler added
