Larian General Discussion Thread

[LESS T_T]

Yeah, even panels you know.

Exploring NPC Friendships/Relationships in Games

How can it feel like you form a real connection with a fictional character, or that they form real connections with each other? Some of the ways to create "relationship-material" characters might be unexpected, but these narrative designers and writers from ‘Shadow of the Tomb Raider’, ‘Assassin’s Creed’, ‘The Walking Dead’ series, ‘Boyfriend Dungeon’, and ‘Divinity: Original Sin 2’ will share their techniques. Creating relationships will never be simple, but maybe with these tips, it’ll be a little easier.

PANELISTS
Tanya X. Short [Creative Director, Kitfox Games], Jill Murray [Narrative Director, Discoglobe Interactive], Emily Grace Buck [Creative Director, Buckshot Interactive], Kieron Kelly [Product Manager, Larian Studios]

Actually honcho Swen was there instead of the project manager:

 

[LESS T_T]

He seems tired and unprepared.

- His favorite NPCs: Lord British and Minsc. (Remember when Swen disapproved people saying Minsc is the best companion in RPGs?)
- From what he worked on: Red Prince
- D:OS 2's relationship system was not as evolved as they wanted to. For the next game they're focusing "very, very, very" heavily on that, going more insanely complex than that of D:OS 2.

 

[LESS T_T]

Heh, someone bothered to write about it: https://variety.com/2019/gaming/fea...er-devs-on-crafting-relationships-1203175894/

‘The Walking Dead,’ ‘Divinity,’ ‘Tomb Raider’ Devs on Crafting Relationships

From BioWare love interests whose arcs span entire series to minor companions whose deaths shake players to their core, our investment in non-playable characters can make or break a game. Crafting meaningful relationships is one of the industry’s greatest challenges – but the payoff is a story that will stay with you for years to come. At PAXEast on Thursday, writers and designers on “Shadow of the Tomb Raider,” “The Walking Dead,” “Divinity: Original Sin II” and more gathered to discuss the secrets and stumbling blocks that have shaped their approach.

For Emily Grace Buck, a narrative designer known for her work on Telltale’s “Batman” and “The Walking Dead,” Cullen Rutherford was the first character to make an indelible impression. “I played the games as they came out,” she said of the Dragon Age franchise, “and being able to go through that relationship-building experience in real time over the course of years of my actual life was extremely powerful for me.” Sweeping AAA games offer the chance to get to know a character more deeply and forge an organic connection along the way – but when she entered the industry herself, she struggled to achieve the same authenticity in shorter stories. “Telltale games aren’t very long. So, how do you put in romance content when it’s someone you’ve known for such a short time?” she asked. “Should you even try?”

To make the relationships in “Batman” feel real, Buck decided the best course of action was to acknowledge those limitations upfront. If Bruce tells Catwoman he loves her at the end of the first season, she’s understandably alarmed. “She’s not ready or interested in hearing that, because, like many real adults in the world, she’s known your character for a week and slept with you once – that doesn’t mean she’s in love with you!” Buck said, laughing. But as time passes, the character becomes more receptive to the idea.

Others on the panel had different strategies for highlighting their NPCs’ humanity. As Larian Studios’ Swen Vincke explained, characters in “Divinity: Original Sin II” begin with a vulnerability. “You start with a mask, and over time that mask starts cracking,” he said. “And if you manage to convince that character to learn how to deal with this fear, loss, betrayal, or wound, the trait is going to change – it’s very rewarding to see at the end of the game.” He cited the Red Prince as an example: his arrogance may be off-putting at first, but over time, “You start to see the cracks and care for him.”

Jill Murray, a lead writer on “Shadow of the Tomb Raider,” concurred. “What people end up responding to most viscerally doesn’t come from a place of ‘what do fans want and how do we give it to them’ – it comes from who we know,” she said. “If you can tap into what your core vulnerabilities and issues are as a human and find a way to put that into characters, people generally notice and respond to it.”

As the designers acknowledged, they can’t always anticipate the way players will react – in fact, Vincke nearly cut a companion who ended up becoming a fan favorite. The black cat in “Divinity: Original Sin II” was a remnant from a quest that had been killed earlier in development. With no other reason for him to exist, a scripter devised a scene in which a guard would shoot him. “I wanted to remove it from the game, but we left it in early access, and it ended up becoming a big moment because everybody was trying to save the cat,” Vincke said. The team decided to reward players who went the extra mile, building out a series of cat-based skills for those who managed to rescue their feline sidekick. “So, the cat was awesome! But that was something nobody expected.”

Another character who risks being overlooked is, ironically, the player’s own. While there’s a long tradition of blank slate protagonists, Tanya X. Short believes real chemistry and emotional investment require more. “We found that giving the player character a few distinct character traits really helped tell a story that’s convincing,” she said of her forthcoming indie, “Boyfriend Dungeon.” If NPCs are expected to connect or even fall in love with the hero, they need a personality in their own right.

All of the panelists are still looking for new ways to take these dynamics to the next level. “While we had relationships between [Origin] characters in ‘DOS2,’ they weren’t as evolved as we wanted them – so in the next game we’re doing, we’re focusing very, very heavily on that,” Vincke teased when asked where Larian Studios will go next.

Relationships also take center stage in Buck’s latest project, “Waylanders,” which she says will include queer companions and romances complicated by the story’s “time-travel element.” Some love interests are immortal, and others are reincarnated as you move through different eras, which poses a unique challenge for writers and players alike: “How do you reconcile the difference between this being the person you knew in the past and being a new person with the same soul?”

As for the future of narrative design more broadly, both Buck and Vincke are optimistic. “In many ways, narrative is being taken a lot more seriously than it has in the past,” Buck said. While the number of would-be designers outstrips opportunities within the industry right now, she’s hopeful that people will “start creating those jobs for themselves and telling stories that none of us have ever seen before through interactive media in a way that’s going to inspire empathy and stretch people’s minds and be really exciting.”

“There’s so much that hasn’t been done yet, and so much potential in emergent narrative and player agency,” Vincke added. He believes the hunger for such stories will only continue to grow: “Narrative will be at the top of the food chain in the coming years.”

 

[Xeon]

I kinda hope they don't take relationships and romances too seriously, its mostly always cringe, at least with DOS2's it felt like they were fucking around with it making it too absurd to take seriously.

 

[LESS T_T]

Too many words? They've got an editor who will "deleting words and killing dreams":
https://www.linkedin.com/in/luckysharms/
https://twitter.com/alek_sharma

An editor from America moved to Dublin, to trim dialog written in British English.

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[vortex]

Larian studios - division of xbox game studios ?

 

[LESS T_T]

Jason Latino, former Telltale Supervising Director/Cinematic Director is Larian's new Cinematic Director: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-latino-aba7866/

Cinematic Director
Company Name Larian Studios
Dates Employed Apr 2019 – Present
Employment Duration 1 mo

• Recruit cinematic team:
  • Set team’s schedules and manage tasks
  • Promote Larian’s unique methods and iterative processes within your team, and lead by example
  • Review team’s content on a regular basis
• Set up the cinematic production pipeline:
  • Supervise the creation of storyboards, animatics and VO director notes
  • Effectively communicate with tool and engine programmers to improve the cinematic and immersive experience of the game
• Communicate artistic vision across all departments:
  • Synchronize vision with Creative Director as well as other departments such as Animation, Art, Audio, Narrative Design, VFX and Writers
  • Create and maintain up-to-date documents concerning your cinematic vision
  • Work together with writers to develop cinematically interesting scenes within a manageable work schedule
• Direct and supervise outside talent:
  • Remotely supervise local facial motion capture directors at our UK-based sound booths
  • Direct and/or supervise body motion capture sessions
  • Supervise any possible outsourced development of cinematics
  • Direct the cinematography of marketing material

And apparently there's Business Development Director named Spencer Low. Interestingly he was producer at CDV, the publisher of Divine Divinity: https://levelupkl.com/conference/

SPENCER LOW
Spencer got into games because he believed that one day, he would meet like-minded passionate individuals to work with in pushing this wonderful industry forward. Larian Studios gave him his first RPG Divine Divinity to work on back in 2000 and has forever been grateful for that opportunity.

In his 18-year career, Spencer has worked at companies such as Disney and Sony PlayStation. His discipline covers marketing, production, licensing and business strategy. He also sets aside time consulting and bridging people together from other industries such as comic publishing, board game creation, TV, film and funding opportunities.

His talk will be about the level ups and downs of an Independent studio and hopes it can inspire others to keep making great games.

Came full circle, eh?

 

[LESS T_T]

They keep referencing cyberpunk

Place your bets guys.



If it's left side their new game is Divinity 3, if right it's a new cyberpunk RPG:

 

[vortex]

Inb4,
Cybervinity: Original Punk 2051

 

[Harry Easter]

Inb4,
Cybervinity: Original Punk 2051

You are joking, but Swen is crazy enough to try that. Hopefully after they did Divinity 3.

 

[vortex]

You are joking, but Swen is crazy enough to try that. Hopefully after they did Divinity 3.

But they're already making Divinity: Fallen Heroes.

 

[Harry Easter]

But they're already making Divinity: Fallen Heroes.

Doesn't stop Swen, believe me :D.

 

[Ysaye]

You are joking, but Swen is crazy enough to try that. Hopefully after they did Divinity 3.

But they're already making Divinity: Fallen Heroes.

Is this a reference to that bed and Sven?

 

[vonAchdorf]

That's a frugal accommodation for the boss of a company with 100 employees.

 

[LESS T_T]

Jason Latino, former Telltale Supervising Director/Cinematic Director is Larian's new Cinematic Director: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-latino-aba7866/

Former Riot recruiter named Chris Jennings has joined Larian's Dublin team, and gets onto his work right away: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6522492122631860224/

Larian Studios is growing its Cinematics team here in Dublin, Ireland! Chris Vossen and Jason Latino have recently joined the team here and are working on some exciting new projects! We are looking for a number of Cinematic Artists from Junior to Senior level.

Unity or Maya experience would be great and ideally you should have shipped a AAA game as a Cinematic Artist! A love for RPGs would also be nice .

That Chris Vossen guy is another ex-Telltale.

I guess I can see Fallen Heroes, a tactical game with its intermissions and action cams, needs some cinematic works. But what does this mean for Project Gustav, I wonder?

 

[Harry Easter]

That's a frugal accommodation for the boss of a company with 100 employees.

Yeah, but I think Swen is one of those people, who doesn't care, as long as he can make his games and feed his family.

That Chris Vossen guy is another ex-Telltale.

I guess I can see Fallen Heroes, a tactical game with its intermissions and action cams, needs some cinematic works. But what does this mean for Project Gustav, I wonder?

Maybe they want to experiment with their storytelling a bit? You play from above, but when you get into a conversation, the camera zooms onto the persons face?

 

[LESS T_T]

I guess that's the Chalice named MacBook Pro.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10215797859912044

 

[lophiaspis]

All this growth and they still haven't released a single game since D:OS2. This is going to be the new Telltale/Starbreeze isn't it

 

[unfairlight]

- D:OS 2's relationship system was not as evolved as they wanted to. For the next game they're focusing "very, very, very" heavily on that, going more insanely complex than that of D:OS 2.

Oh no no no. Larian writing + heavy focus on romance is a recipe for a colossal disaster, like a 747 flying into a moving train level of disaster.

All this growth and they still haven't released a single game since D:OS2. This is going to be the new Telltale/Starbreeze isn't it

DOS2 only came out 1 and a half years ago, do you expect them to release a game that fast? DOS1 and DOS2 had a distance of 3 and a half years.

 

[Dodo1610]

I think the relationship system is simply a fancy word for party banter and companion dialogue which was lacking in DOS 2 compared to other games in the genre.

 

[unfairlight]

Issue is that Larian's writing is shit.

 

[Infinitron]

Spotted by Safav Hamon - Fool's Theory (developers of underrated Seven: The Days Long Gone) hiring people to work on Divinity Engine 2 game: https://www.skillshot.pl/jobs/13031-gameplay-designer-divinity-engine-2-at-fools-theor

Gameplay Designer Divinity Engine 2
for Fool's Theory (Bielsko-Biała)

Permanent Design work

Fool's Theory studio is looking for professionals / senior gameplay designers who want to power the growing team of developers working on the production of the game for Larian Studios.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• scripting the functionality of quest scenes,
• scripting NPC behaviors,
• scripting fight and interaction,
• design and implementation of new gameplay solutions based on existing systems in Divinity Engine 2

REQUIREMENTS:

• very good knowledge of the world and elements of Divinity Original Sin 2
• the ability to move smoothly in the Divinity Engine 2 engine,
• good knowledge of OSIRIS language, Story editor and scripts,
• good knowledge of the Stats editor and its dependencies with other systems present in the engine,
• knowledge of English on a level that allows reading technical documentation with understanding,
• independence in performing tasks,
• good communication skills and willingness to work in groups,
• ability to solve problems.

Fool's Theory co-developed the D:OS 2 free Gift Bag DLC released last month: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.p...finitive-edition.118260/page-214#post-6041714

Are they hiring people to work on more of those, or is this something more? As spotted by LESS T_T in that thread, they're also hiring to work on Unreal Engine 4 game.

Larian are now working with three different indie studios. Possible future acquisitions of the expanding Larian empire?

 

[Dodo1610]

It's not unusual for indie studios to support for other games but Larian was at least nice enough to officially credit them for their work.
Fools Theory and Anshar Studios last games used the Unreal Engine 4 so it makes sense for them to look for people that are familiar with that engine.

 

[LESS T_T]

I guess I can see Fallen Heroes, a tactical game with its intermissions and action cams, needs some cinematic works. But what does this mean for Project Gustav, I wonder?

Possible indication:

A Cinematic Test for an internship at Larian Studios. The scene is from Divinity: Original Sin II.

Looks like usual in-game cutscene that is detached from normal gameplay.