“I thought the project might fall apart”: The Baldur’s Gate 3 Stardew Valley mod Swen Vincke likes “almost got scrapped” just one month into development

While Baldur’s Village – the Stardew Valley mod with a town full of Baldur’s Gate 3 characters – recently survived an accidentally served DMCA takedown from Wizards of the Coast, it might never have gotten that far if things had played out a little differently.

As main developer XunHe1145 has revealed in an interview with modding site Nexus Mods, the creation that’s earned ringing endorsements from Larian CEO Swen Vincke himself narrowly avoided biting the dust when its development was barely out of the blocks.

“This project almost got scrapped a month in,” the modder said, “The project started with only two people. When the other developer, who was responsible for coding, left for personal reasons, I thought the project might fall apart. I had zero modding experience — I had to look up coding tutorials in order to save this project. And I ended up paying out-of-pocket for some help until we opened donations.”

Luckily, help was around the corner in the form of another modder with the handle Yudeling, who joined the Baldur’s Village team along with a friend and helped take some of the stress off of XunHe1145.

“Later, we found our event scripter and our localization lead,” the modder continued, “And somehow, the right people just kept showing up when we needed them. None of us had related experience, but we made it. That still feels unreal.”

It’s the kind of story you hear a lot when it comes to ambitious modding projects that people are dedicating their free time to on a volunteer basis – which makes it even more special when something like Baldur’s Village, Fallout: London, or Skyblivion (assuming everything goes to plan with the latter this year) makes it over the full release line.

Further on in the interview, XunHe1145 said that the mod’s team is currently “still recovering from the shock” of that WotC DMCA debacle I mentioned earlier, but they’re still working away on two major focuses.

“A key storyline centers on Karlach’s heart, as we aim to have her find a way to fully restore it,” they explained, “In our BG3 endings, Karlach had to return to Avernus to keep her heart stable. Wyll chose to become the Blade of Avernus. These two joined forces in Avernus and have been slaying monsters nonstop. We wish they can return and enjoy a peaceful pastoral life, even just for a little while.

“This storyline has been in development, but it is quite large and complicated and therefore requires time to refine. Our focus is divided between Halsin’s romance and Karlach’s heart quest, advancing both simultaneously.”

Have you given Baldur’s Village a go and are you keen to play these fresh encounters with everyone’s favourite shaggable bear and golden retriever from hell its team’s working on? Let us know below!