Baldur’s Gate 3 studio was secretly one of the biggest Kickstarter backers for a modern Metroidvania classic: “They dropped a four figure sum, never asked for their rewards”

Larian Studios backed the unholy indie Blasphemous

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Larian Studios, the company name you’ve definitely heard of afterBaldur’s Gate 3’sseismic impact, quietly backed one of thebest Metroidvania gamesever made.

Anyone who has played Blasphemous will confess that its twisting world, ungodly themes, and tense side-scrolling action are something special to behold. We can thank thousands of Kickstarter backers for funding developer The Game Kitchen through the game’s production back in 2017, including, surprisingly, Larian Studios.

“Not many people know this, but Larian Studios was one of the biggest contributors during the Blasphemous Kickstarter campaign,” lead level designer Enrique Colinet revealed in a recent social mediapost. The RPG studio supposedly “dropped a [four] figure sum, never asked for their rewards, and just kept making one of the best games ever done in recent years.”

I’m not sure how a studio that staffs hundreds of developers would logistically share Kickstarter backer rewards, but the sentiment is nice either way. (Maybe all 400 of them could huddle around a projector to look at the Blasphemous art book?)

Thatgameturned into Baldur’s Gate 3, which recently made history asthe first-ever game to win every single Game of the Year awardat all five major ceremonies. For reference, that means the game took home gold at the Golden Joysticks, the BAFTA Game Awards, the DICE Awards, the Game Developer’s Choice Awards, and The Game Awards.

The Game Kitchen itself isn’t doing too bad either as the indie outfit released the devilish sequel Blasphemous 2 to critical acclaim just last year. OurBlasphemous 2 reviewcalled it unpredictable and unsettling, and that’s not even to mention that it hadthe best interconnected map since Dark Souls.

After Baldur’s Gate 3’s unexpected success, Larian boss says the studio is “good for quite a number of years.”

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Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.

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