Baldur's Gate 3 publishing lead defends Mafia: The Old Country's lack of swimming after clips go viral, says "endlessly layering on mechanics maketh a good game not"

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Larian Studios' D&D RPG faced similar criticism

Baldur's Gate 3 mind flayer with pale purple skin and facial tentacles stares ahead with glowing yellow eyes
(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Baldur's Gate 3 has now been out of early access for a very successful two years, but the road to excellence wasn't paved without any setbacks – or misinformed executives, as one Larian Studios developer recalls.

In response to a viral clip of Mafia: The Old Country – which is making rounds online thanks to criticism of the game's apparent lack of "swimming physics" – Larian Studios publishing director Michael "Cromwelp" Douse explains that Baldur's Gate 3 faced similar backlash in its early stages of development from an "exec or whatever" who was shown the RPG. As Douse writes in his post, it didn't matter that there was "a wealth of mechanics" present.

The exec only noticed that there was no swimming. "This reminds me of when we showed BG3 to someone (exec or whatever) – a wealth of mechanics – and with zero emotion, he just goes, '"Can you swim in the game?'"

Douse continues, describing why Larian – and probably Mafia: The Old Country developer Hangar 13 – didn't need to implement swimming and why it wouldn't make sense to try, either: "The realities of game design are such that each feature has a cost. Manpower-> time-> budget. 'Why not just[...]' can set a producer on fire. Try it, it's funny. Better to not swim if you're not going to do anything with it, than to add it simply to have it."

He concludes with another example seen all too often by devs in the industry – the question of whether a game features a day and night cycle. "The hitherto most common version of this is when a dev shows a game, and the first question is 'is there a day-night cycle?'" Douse jokes that he's "convinced many day-night cycles exist to save PR people from murder charges." Although it's amusing, I understand where he's coming from.

After all, games like Baldur's Gate 3 are already a whopping 72 hours long at least – do they really require the padding of a million different mechanics that aren't vital to the story or even make sense to begin with?

43-year CRPG veteran behind Fallout and Wasteland knew Baldur's Gate "could be huge" decades before Larian's RPG threequel: "You're sitting on something that's going to at least do $50 million"

Anna Koselke
Anna Koselke
Staff Writer

After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.

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