Game News Divinity: Original Sin Pushed Back to February 28, Swen Vincke Explains the Risks

[Metro]

I will totally D1P this... in rubles.

 

[Mortmal]

Tell us what? You said they were boring or annoying or something. Then I showed you that Josh likes them, and you changed your mind to "annoying unless designed by Josh". ( )

You never said anything about how long it takes to implement them.

I didn't expect them to be done well in part because of all the re-engineering they have to do to make them work. Of course as a layperson I'm not going to be able to articulate all that. But it's bad planning, period. Larian is terrible at planning, unlike Project Eternity which has likely been planned very well in its pre-prod phase.

Why so much anger toward larian ? Sometimes it seems like you are hoping they get poor sales and sink , i can understand wishing that for EA , but larian no... Its not like DOS and project eternity are even in competition , its still the desert crossing ,nothing to play theres plenty of room for more rpgs .I am not surprised by DOS delay , the more complex a game is the more delay is to be expected. They are doing something completely new from scratch not an infinity engine game spin off, its extremely hard to set a release date .Sure PE may seems better planned but it has a worrying short development time still and not delay proof either. Who wants to bet PE will get a few months of delay too ?

 

[Rake]

Tell us what? You said they were boring or annoying or something. Then I showed you that Josh likes them, and you changed your mind to "annoying unless designed by Josh". ( )

You never said anything about how long it takes to implement them.

I didn't expect them to be done well in part because of all the re-engineering they have to do to make them work. Of course as a layperson I'm not going to be able to articulate all that. But it's bad planning, period. Larian is terrible at planning, unlike Project Eternity which has likely been planned very well in its pre-prod phase.

Why so much anger toward larian ? Sometimes it seems like you are hoping they get poor sales and sink , i can understand wishing that for EA , but larian no... Its not like DOS and project eternity are even in competition , its still the desert crossing ,nothing to play theres plenty of room for more rpgs .I am not surprised by DOS delay , the more complex a game is the more delay is to be expected. They are doing something completely new from scratch not an infinity engine game spin off, its extremely hard to set a release date .Sure PE may seems better planned but it has a worrying short development time still and not delay proof either. Who wants to bet PE will get a few months of delay too ?

It already has. From April it went summer, and even Q4 won't be that strange. Roguey just trolls you people

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Larian

Swen is officially on the top of my list... above MCA and George Ziets.

 

[Roguey]

Why so much anger toward larian ?

I think people who are bad at their jobs should do something else.

Sure PE may seems better planned but it has a worrying short development time still and not delay proof either. Who wants to bet PE will get a few months of delay too ?

A thing Josh said a few months ago:

pushing back release dates is good. also, kickstarter doesn't allow projects to adjust the listed release date during the campaign, so if a project winds up getting a ton of additional money for stretch goals, they can't adjust the listed date even if they thought it was a good idea (it isn't).

 

[Infinitron]

Why so much anger toward larian ?

I'm a troll.

A developer does a Kickstarter to expand on a non-Kickstarted game's original scope and make it better.

Said developer extends the game's development time to allow this, rather than rush it out.

Somehow this is a bad thing.

A thing Josh said a few months ago:

pushing back release dates is good. also, kickstarter doesn't allow projects to adjust the listed release date during the campaign, so if a project winds up getting a ton of additional money for stretch goals, they can't adjust the listed date even if they thought it was a good idea (it isn't).

Unless Josh Sawyer does it, of course.

 

[Roguey]

The difference is that P:E's stretch goals were made before they even had a game put together and did not require having to re-do a lot of stuff from scratch.

 

[Infinitron]

The difference is that P:E's stretch goals were made before they even had a game put together and did not require having to re-do a lot of stuff from scratch.

Yes, well, D:OS has been in development since before Kickstarter became a thing - there was already a functioning prototype in May 2012.

I'm not willing to say that a non-Kickstartered game should never be improved with additional funds from Kickstarter just because it means changing your original plans.

By the way, did you watch this update's video? It addresses this point exactly.

 

[Darkzone]

Infinitron
I think Sven Venicke is much smarter then most people assume. It seems that they had very little monetary problems in the past 15 years, in opposite to InXile and Obsidian. And don't let us forget the short time of Troika.
The Kickstarter does not seem to me to be made for additional funding, but more for a advertising reason. They had no monetary problem for developing their own game engine with everything, even adapt this to Linux and Mac (OpenGL based ?). I think they wanted to test the market. How will it respond? What are its expectations? etc. And the overwhelming reactions said clearly: This is the main racing horse.

 

[Infinitron]

Infinitron
I think Sven Venicke is much smarter then most people assume. It seems that they had very little monetary problems in the past 15 years, in opposite to InXile and Obsidian. And don't let us forget the short time of Troika.

Smarts have little to do with it. Apparently, independent European game developers can keep the rights to and get royalties on the games they develop and earn profit. American developers not so much.

 

[MicoSelva]

Smarts have little to do with it. Apparently, independent European game developers can keep the rights to and get royalties on the games they develop and earn profit. American developers not so much.

This depends on deals signed with publishers. Larian got no royalties at all from the first Divinity, forcing them to rush with Beyond Divinity and go into kiddie games development for a few years, until they recovered financially.

 

[Darkzone]

Smarts have little to do with it. Apparently, independent European game developers can get royalties on the games they develop and earn profit. American developers not so much.

But how and from whom. As a european i've got to know this. So i can make an Darkzone the RPG.
But think about it 5 to 6 months of 40 employes are about a 0.8 to 1.4 Million euros. Where do they have the money from ? Kickstarter is not enough. How could they produce DC without enough funding? From Divinity 2?

 

[Mother Russia]

Don't say I didn't tell you about npc schedules.

Tell us what? You said they were boring or annoying or something. Then I showed you that Josh likes them, and you changed your mind to "annoying unless designed by Josh". ( )

You never said anything about how long it takes to implement them.

Is that true, about Roguey saying that about NPC schedules? If that's true then it's rather disappointing that a regular of this site, even a weirdo like Roguey has that opinion. Maybe he/she didn't play Ultima 7, and thus doesn't appreciate the level of immershun something as simple sounding as NPC schedules can bring to the game and really draw you into the world.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Swen haters gonna hate Roguey gonna Roguey...

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Smarts have little to do with it. Apparently, independent European game developers can get royalties on the games they develop and earn profit. American developers not so much.

But how and from whom. As a european i've got to know this. So i can make an Darkzone the RPG.
But think about it 5 to 6 months of 40 employes are about a 0.8 to 1.4 Million euros. Where do they have the money from ? Kickstarter is not enough. How could they produce DC without enough funding? From Divinity 2?

Ehh belgium is retarded with its social welfare stuff. Pretty high tax rae there. So Labour couosts are apaprently increased by upto ~80%... i am pulling the figures outta my ass here... Someone mkore well versed ine conomics/[plitics can give a more informed figure.

 

[:Flash:]

Smarts have little to do with it. Apparently, independent European game developers can get royalties on the games they develop and earn profit. American developers not so much.

But how and from whom. As a european i've got to know this. So i can make an Darkzone the RPG.
But think about it 5 to 6 months of 40 employes are about a 0.8 to 1.4 Million euros. Where do they have the money from ? Kickstarter is not enough. How could they produce DC without enough funding? From Divinity 2?

Larian is an exception. In Germany there is not a single studio as old as Larian, they all went bankrupt. Swen admitted that they have an advantage because they are the only flemish speaking studio and thus could "overprice" a little on their work for hire projects (Belgian TV, Casino games, etc.). For a while their model was one person working on a work for hire project earning Larian enough money to have a second person working on a real game. They were in the same situation as Troika when it closed (company does not have debt, but game is released but doesn't earn royalties), but they switched to this model.

Now they have private external investors, who will get shares in the profits.

 

[Infinitron]

Smarts have little to do with it. Apparently, independent European game developers can get royalties on the games they develop and earn profit. American developers not so much.

But how and from whom. As a european i've got to know this. So i can make an Darkzone the RPG.
But think about it 5 to 6 months of 40 employes are about a 0.8 to 1.4 Million euros. Where do they have the money from ? Kickstarter is not enough. How could they produce DC without enough funding? From Divinity 2?

Larian is an exception. In Germany there is not a single studio as old as Larian, they all went bankrupt. Swen admitted that they have an advantage because they are the only flemish speaking studio and thus could "overprice" a little on their work for hire projects (Belgian TV, Casino games, etc.). For a while their model was one person working on a work for hire project earning Larian enough money to have a second person working on a real game. They were in the same situation as Troika when it closed (company does not have debt, but game is released but doesn't earn royalties), but they switched to this model.

Now they have private external investors, who will get shares in the profits.

Interesting, got a source for this information?

 

[:Flash:]

I think it must be from Swen's blog, the Larian forums or some making of.

Now that I think of it, I think he never said that the external investors will get shares in the profits. That's something I just assumed, because who would invest otherwise?

 

[Darkzone]

Sven has spoken that if D:OS fails they will have to go for contract work, in the worst case. Also did he mention in his blog that he kept Laurian free for the last 15 years or so. Hmm the mysterious investor, why does anyone invest at least 4 Million euros without getting somethin out.

 

[MurkyShadow]

I can imagine there have been discussions too, if they should try to have the game ready by Christmas.
For those with more insight, is it generally preferable to have your game ready for the holiday season,
in respect of big publishers pushing for this date too and the competition it brings, competition regarding
the general gamer, who isn't awaiting your game since its inception, as the pr machinery is going into overkill?

With the risks there are, at least they are deciding about them themselves and aren't pushed to release
a game, regardless of the fact if it is ready and/or should be released.

 

[Roguey]

By the way, did you watch this update's video? It addresses this point exactly.

Yes, and as I recall, one of the developers wasn't happy with having to include NPC schedules.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Roguey
You are just butthurt that swen, being the man he is, has girlfriends.

Also Swen started making a TB RPG way before the kickstarter bandwagon by Fargo and co.

Lets not forget what obsidian was reduced to. A generic high fantasy with RTwP to appeal to nostalgic IE whores. Even Fargo was better than obsidian in this regard, no matter what his motivations were, I enjoyed the Publisher butthurt.

And how does the SJW in you feel about the crude and misogynistic South Park.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

 

[Volrath]

Stop replying to Roguey for fucks sake. There's an ignore button. USE IT.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Tell us what? You said they were boring or annoying or something. Then I showed you that Josh likes them, and you changed your mind to "annoying unless designed by Josh". ( )

You never said anything about how long it takes to implement them.

I didn't expect them to be done well in part because of all the re-engineering they have to do to make them work. Of course as a layperson I'm not going to be able to articulate all that.

But, but you just did. IN ONE SENTENCE.