Development Info Beyond Divinty beyond release date

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Beyond Divinity

Here's one of those press release things we're supposed to post, so here it is:
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<blockquote><b>Beyond Divinity heeds its fans</b>
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RPG developer pushes back release date to integrate community feedback
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The street date for the English version of Beyond Divinity’s has been postponed to late April 2004.
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The main reason for the delay is Larian’s commitment to give the fans the RPG they want. With the release of the Beyond Divinity demo last month, the studio obtained a lot of a valuable feedback from the RPG community.
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While the overall comments were very positive, there were a few issues that troubled players. With the support of North American publisher Hip Games and UK publisher Digital Jesters, the developer is in the process of addressing these issues:
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By employing the services of high quality improvisation actors in Toronto, any doubts that fans might have had about the voice recordings in Beyond Divinity should soon be history.
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Likewise, by introducing multiple game modes allowing players to play Beyond Divinity as either an action RPG or a tactical RPG, fears that the game might be too hard for some existing Divinity fans should now be quelled.
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The extra available time will also be used to do further polishing of the game, integrating further feedback from the forums at <A href="http://www.larian.com">www.larian.com</a>.
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"We are very sensitive about what our community thinks about our games, and when we saw they were all but pleased by the voice recordings, the decision to go back to the recording studio was easily made." says Swen ‘Lar’ Vincke, project leader at Larian Studios. "With the support of Hip Games, whom I really want to thank, and a crew of sound engineers and actors who were willing to burn the midnight oil on this, we’ll manage to set straight something that could’ve gone very wrong. Voice recording all the dialogues in a RPG as extensive as Beyond Divinity was a very ambitious task, and we didn’t get it right the first time. I’m happy we’ve been given the opportunity to rectify that."
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On the subject of the different game modes, Vincke said "One of the design goals of Beyond Divinity was to introduce more tactical combat to the mix. We thought everybody was going to prefer this over the typical hack & slash gameplay you found in the original game. To our surprise it turned out that a part of the community didn’t want that at all. So we introduced different combat modes. The game now offers you the choice between action, tactical or hardcore combat, each leading to very different gameplay experiences. I think this is exactly what our audience was looking for."
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Divine Divinity, launched in 2002 was critically acclaimed for its depth and level of interactivity. In Beyond Divinity, Larian Studios takes what made Divine Divinity so deeply appealing, and pushes it one step further. Using an enhanced version of the original engine, the final product delivers infinite character development, unparalleled levels of interactivity, a wide variety of enemies; tons of quests and a brand new combat system. By catering to all of these elements with equal levels of importance, Beyond Divinity will truly deliver a total RPG experience.
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In Beyond Divinity, you become soul-forged with a Death Knight. Your fate is to spend the rest of eternity bonded to this creature of evil, unless you can undo this curse. You and your unlikely partner embark on a great adventure to unlock the secret of rift-running … your only answer to this life of darkness.
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Beyond Divinity is due for release on PC-CD ROM in May 2004. For more information on Beyond Divinity, visit <a href="http://www.beyond-divinity.com">www.beyond-divinity.com</a></blockquote>
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Gimme turn based, damnit.
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Thanks, <b>Lynn</b>!

 

[Transcendent One]

Hmm... okay then. Too bad there won't be another demo to show how all these new features work. I am somewhat confused as to how they'll be able to implement different combat systems intended for totally different audiences all in one same game.

 

[Crappywarrior]

Agreed Greyhawk. I'd also like to know what they mean by "action" and "hardcore" modes. Is action just a bunch of wimpy enemies that you slaughter by the dozens, while tactical is fewer, harder enemies that require more thought before running in and whacking them? Is harcore a blend of both action and strategic? IE alot of difficult enemies that require thought before running in and wasting them?

Oh well. I'm glad they at least listen to their community, and were given the opportunity to improve things. Shows they have a reasonable publisher at least. It also impresses me the only gripes people had with the game were the voice acting and lack of diablo style action (if that's what they mean).

 

[Fireblade]

Imagine that, putting out a demo, then actually listening to what people say about it.

 

[Sol Invictus]

That's what I always liked about Larian - they pay attention to feedback.

 

[Fireblade]

Yep, I know a guy who's actually gotten a feature or two implemented by talking to the devs apparently.

 

[WaltC]

With the support of North American publisher Hip Games and UK publisher Digital Jesters, the developer is in the process of addressing these issues

(emphasis mine)

I think this line is interesting as it indicates that the publishers of the game were, contrary to popular misapprehension, willing to actually *gasp* support their developer towards the common end of delivering a game which would please its developers, the public, and the publishers by being better than it would have been and therefore selling a lot more copies. I put the "gasp" in facetiously because apparently a lot of people think the publishers and developers work on different pages--but they're actually always in bed together as their interests are the same. I don't, for instance, blame Atari exclusively for the state ToEE was in when it shipped, since the developers offered it up to Atari as a "finished" product. What I do in those cases is split the blame between the developer and the publisher, which is actually where it belongs, seems to me.

Basically, what is needed for shipping a good game is a good publisher & a good developer. Being short on either side of the equation creates a bad game, or else a game much poorer than it might have been. I'm not only delighted to see the developers candidly talking about improving this game over the demo, but I'm equally delighted to see the publishers in agreement and sharing the load. After all, that's the only approach that makes sense in the first place. There's just something wrong when either a game developer, or a game publisher, cannot look at a game in progress and determine whether it meets common standards or whether it fails to do so.

In regards to this game, it is certainly puzzling why both the developers and the publishers might have thought the voice acting in the demo, among other things, was up to par and suitable for the final game. It strikes me that there would have been no need for "public feedback" to either party from a demo to reach the sensible conclusion that the voice acting had to go. Ditto, some other things. Hopefully, both developers and publishers will raise their production standards so that delays like this can be eliminated in the future.

 

[Country_Gravy]

I checked Larian's website and I can't find the system requirements for this game. Does anybody know what they are?

 

[Vault Dweller]

I think you must have a computer

Edit: Acording to the forums it's PIII, 128 MB, and GeForce 2 class card. Check out this thread

 

[triCritical]

I never played DIvine Divinity, and although I wanted to I didn't like how a lot of people were saying it turned into a mindless hack and slash. With the addition of TB combat and hopefully more tactical combat, I will definately purchase this title. Hopefully it doesn't suffer from the first ones good start, slow finish problems.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

I'm worried that they are going to listen to all the wrong people about what to implement, like more action and less thinking. I like how they are going back to fix voice overs, but I want them to implement a car like in FO2 cause that would be COOL DUDE>

 

[Vault Dweller]

With the addition of TB combat and hopefully more tactical combat, I will definately purchase this title.

TB combat? Where does it say that? I don't think hardcore=TB, unfortunately.

 

[Fireblade]

I bet it ends up just being an easy/normal/hard type of setting.

 

[triCritical]

I guess I read different combat modes, and presumed off St's gesture. Thanks for ruining my fun.

 

[Transcendent One]

I certainly hope they don't think tactical = t3h aut0 p4us3!!!111! That would be just devastating.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I guess I read different combat modes, and presumed off St's gesture. Thanks for ruining my fun.

I thought you'd like to hear it now before you build up your expectations.

 

[Fireblade]

Posts on the Beyond Divinity forums (including a link to an interview with a Larian guy) seem to indicate that there will actually be 4 modes: very easy, action, tactical, and hardcore. Sounds like the difference is just difficulty level, not mechanics. Also, apparently the demo is equivalent to "tactical" level.

 

[Galileo]

voice acting

I'm just happy they are re-doing the voice acting. I don't think I've ever skipped a game because the demo *sounded* bad - but BD got me thinking. I couldn't listen to the guy who was trying to be the death knight. It was obviously a dev or his friend / brother/ roommate / cousin. Just horrific.

Good job, Larian - I'll prob buy this now just out of appreciation for what they did even though I couldn't get through the last act of DD hack-n'slash....

 

[Psilon]

Anyone remember the No One Lives Forever demo?

Originally, most of the Moroccans had relatively straightforward, dignified voices. Then the retail version came out, and it was quite obvious they rerecorded everything for maximum ham factor.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I think the NOLF series has some of the best voice-overs around and definitely some of the best humor to come out of the industry in awhile. I just love dropping a cat bomb in the hallway of the Hindu Palace and running for cover to hear some guy with his over exaggerated accent go "Oh. Look at the cute kitty." BLAM!

Fun times. Heh.

BG&E had some damn good voice acting as well. I was quite impressed with that game as a whole though. Pure bliss.

kthxbye

 

[WaltC]

Anyone remember the No One Lives Forever demo?

Originally, most of the Moroccans had relatively straightforward, dignified voices. Then the retail version came out, and it was quite obvious they rerecorded everything for maximum ham factor.

I think "straightforward and dignified" is absolutely fine, provided the context of the scene, the character's personality, and the development of the story calls for it. The problem with monotone voice acting is that in some games it is so out of context, lends a character the personality of a slug, and ruins the game for me because when I hear it the "suspension of disbelief" so important to a game is destroyed: I Iose focus on the game when I hear it and get instead strong mental images of some dullard reading a script piecemeal into a microphone--someone who has no clue as to what the character in the game is doing when his lines are used. Bad voice acting can actually murder good writing. There's a flip side, too. Sometimes what happens is that the writing is so poor itself that even the best voice actors have trouble mouthing it convincingly... My own preference is probably close to yours: I prefer realism and quality to "over the top" ham, every time.

 

[triCritical]

I guess I read different combat modes, and presumed off St's gesture. Thanks for ruining my fun.

I thought you'd like to hear it now before you build up your expectations.

From the other post it looks as if my TB has turned into just a bit harder. Which IMO is just stupid. I will turn the difficulty level on the combat all the way down, because the combat will be the ass anyway, and I will be playing for everything but the combat!

I have never understood a developers idea to make twitch combat continuously difficult, or should I say annoying...

 

[Fireblade]

Well, now that Divinity has a "pause and issue orders" mode, I wouldn't say the combat is "twitch". It was to an extent in the original maybe...

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

It feels just like replacing one twitch component with another.