Baldur’s Gate 3’s Samantha Béart is fighting to protect the industry’s “human stories”

Fresh from a panel, Samantha Béart cuts a deliberate figure as they sit opposite me in a backroom at MCM Comic Con. Their ‘Protect the Dolls’ t-shirt and crisp blazer indicate a person on a mission. Acclaimed for their excellent performance as Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3, Béart is on a quest to promote ‘It Takes a Village’, an ambitious chat show project designed to crack open the nut of the games industry and platform developers and personalities who might otherwise be left by the wayside.

The premise is simple: Béart runs a non-profit stream where she interviews unsung heroes from across the industry. “It’s got an educational side, but it’s also a celebration of the guest,” begins Béart. “It’s an opportunity to give people their flowers and to get them out there and remembered.”

Village people

It Takes a Village is set to launch its second season this coming November. 

“It feels really good to put something more positive into the world. Deliberately making no money out of it has really helped,” Béart offers. “There’s something in the way that online platforms are set up that the transaction continues beyond the initial contact, and there’s an expectation, and I never wanted that.”

In this way, Béart is attempting to build a detoxified platform for games industry figures untainted by the warping influence of financial transitions.

“There’s a lot of money to be made in video games,” adds Béart. “There are people involved who don’t play, who aren’t particularly interested in the artistry,” they continue, in reference to out-of-touch corporate decision makers.

“In video games, you often have these very creative people for about two-thirds of the wage they would have in an equivalent role in tech, and they do it because they love it… We’re all earning less than we should in this industry, which is why there’s so much money in this industry. It would be nice for it to be spread out a bit more.”

Money talks

By platforming the essential humanity at the heart of the games industry’s creative elements, Béart draws attention to the dehumanizing influence of corporate greed on the games industry. 

“With all the layoffs over the last couple of years, [the next squeeze] is impossible to predict,” they expound. “I think Hi-Fi Rush was a really good example of [this sort of] exasperation,” she continues, in reference to the critically acclaimed indie rhythm game which, despite its successes, did not prevent Microsoft from shutting down developer Tango Gameworks in 2024. 

“What do you want?” Béart asks rhetorically. “We have a hit game, we won every award going, and yet you closed us down, what’s that about?”

“They’ll never get that answer,” concludes Béart. “Someone made a line go up somewhere […] someone up there with money who doesn’t engage with the creative side of it has made a decision. They’re going to save some money here, and the easiest way to do it is the Jack Welch way: fire X percent of your workforce. Acquire and fire seems to be the easiest way to do it.” 

An echo of hope

If there is an antidote to this grim prognosis, Béart offers it by referencing Fading Echo, a charming upcoming indie adventure game in which they voice the central character. 

As if in positive response to Béart’s mission laid out in It Takes a Village, Fading Echo has enjoyed a refreshingly transparent and player-involved development process. “They put out an alpha playtest, it’s very much not ready, and they let people stream it,” describes Béart. 

“It wasn’t selected for based on how many followers you have,” they continue. “It might be a bit broken […] but just go for it, and it’s generated so much good faith, and I think that’s a wonderful thing […] I want [this approach] to become a mainstay in the industry, or at least an option for indies. When people come from AAA, there’s an expectation: ‘this is how the industry works’ – it doesn’t need to be like this.”   

Here, Béart is nailing their colors to the mast, highlighting a more collective approach to game development free from the long shadow of homogenizing corporate interests. 

“It’s human stories,” they conclude thoughtfully. “Every experience I’ve had in my life informs everything I do […] with empathy at the center of it.” This approach seems reflected not only in the development approach on offer from the Fading Echo team but also from It Takes a Village itself. 

In an era encapsulated by layoffs and callous decision-making, projects like Fading Echo and It Takes a Village help provide points of light amid a stifling darkness.