It has been an exciting first half of the year for the Hamilton team after we were invited to the beautiful port city of Ghent, Belgium, to create a one-of-a-kind ice sculpture.
The award-winning Larian Studios asked us to help them celebrate the release of the latest instalment to its infamous RPG Baldur’s Gate series.
To mark the long-awaited online launch of Baldur’s Gate 3, our team was tasked with live streaming the sculpting process of a ‘Mind Flayer’ as part of a pre-show to the ‘Baldur’s Gate 3: Panel from Hell’.
Larian Studios streamed our two-person combination carefully carving and sculpting the squid-faced monster over several hours.
Fans of the game showed their support throughout and on Twitter playfully dubbed the icy creature formerly known as an Illithid a ‘Chillithid’!
Thousands of people watched as we began with a 300kg block of ice and, armed with nothing but a few reference sketches and our trusty tools, created an icy monster.
As always, the team started with a chainsaw to carve the sculpture’s rough outline before chiselling, sculpting and shaping the ice to create the more intricate details of the mind flayer.
Once the terrifying squid face was finished, the bust was mounted onto an icy plinth to be formally presented to the brilliant minds behind Baldur’s Gate 3.
Minutes before the live panel was scheduled to begin, our team carefully transported the ice sculpture to the medieval-themed set for their guests to enjoy – but not for long!
As part of the live stream, the studio had arranged for Belgium’s strongest man and long-time fan of the game, Jimmy Laureys, to destroy the sculpture while dressed as a barbarian!
As a regular RPG player, Jimmy was quick to take the role and marched into the set, first smashing the ice to the ground before decapitating the head of the Mind Flayer with his axe (an impressive feat considering the size and weight of the sculpture).
We are incredibly proud to have worked on this amazing project and of the work put in by our sculptors, Jack and Nick.
Huge thanks are also owed to Larian Studios for such an incredible opportunity, allowing us to travel and sculpt again after being stuck in the UK for the past couple of years!
If you would like to face off with a real Mind Flayer, Baldurs Gate 3 is now available to play on a wide range of platforms.
Learn more by visiting the game’s official website.