Larian General Discussion Thread

[Alienman]

Did not collect their reward? From the postoffice or how? Did it get sent back?

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Probably never gave Larian their shipping data? Anyway, auction that shit off or do a raffle or something instead of having it rot in a cellar.

 

[LESS T_T]

Meanwhile at Larian Dublin...

 

[unfairlight]

that's a cute rat

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

Larian Studios on Belgian local TV news: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2018/07/04/belgische-game-divinity-is-wereldwijd-bijzonder-populair/

It's very short, and I don't understand Dutch but getting few keywords, it doesn't sound like there's new info.

But... cameramen are our friends. Those motion capture and facial animation models don't quite look like D:OS 2, do they?

edit: some captures:

(My faboulous imagination: they are making two games. One is isometric turn-based RPG that continues the D:OS formula i.e. another slam dunk. The other one is a third-person action RPG that retains environmental interaction of the isometric games to some extent.)

I am actually interested i had such a blast with divinity original sin 2

 

[LESS T_T]

larian_writers.tweet



larian_publishing_director.tweet

 

[LESS T_T]

Official announcement of the documentary, coming late Summer this year:



(They've been contracted by a firm called Enthusiast Gaming, which has acquired Destructoid last year.)

 

[LESS T_T]

Swen will be a speaker at next year's Reboot Develop (April, 11-13): http://rebootdevelopblue.com/speakers/

Swen Vincke
Larian Studios, CEO / Creative Director
Swen is the founder and CEO of Larian Studios. He’s been active in the games industry 1997 and has produced over 40 titles including the Divinity Series. In a previous life Swen was the lead software engineer on all of Larian Studios’ titles, but since 2007 his focus is the creative direction of the Larian team. His latest game is award winning Divinity: Original Sin 2. His ultimate ambition is to make the very big RPG that will dwarf them all and he is already working on his next huge RPG project!

Well, if he's going to confess himself as a shape-lover too, I hope his shapes have more angles than Tim's.

Also Dave Gilbert:

Dave Gilbert
Wadjet Eye Games, Creative Director / Founder
Dave has been interested in adventure games ever since 1986, when his mother made the mistake of buying him a copy of Infocom’s Wishbringer. Fifteen years later, he discovered the AGS engine and began making his own. In 2006, he decided that making games was too much fun to do anything else for a living, and formed Wadjet Eye Games to do just that. Wadjet Eye Games has developed a reputation for producing award-winning and critically acclaimed adventure game. The company’s award-winning portfolio includes The Shivah and the Blackwell series, Puzzle Bots, Gemini Rue and many others.

 

[Harry Easter]

[...]

(My faboulous imagination: they are making two games. One is isometric turn-based RPG that continues the D:OS formula i.e. another slam dunk. The other one is a third-person action RPG that retains environmental interaction of the isometric games to some extent.)

Very likely, that Divinity will stay turnbased, but I hope that they will end the story of the games with D:OS3 and then ... dunno, Divinity in Space :D? In all seriousness: I think it would be a good idea, to end the story with part 3 and then put future Divinity-RPG's in the future of the setting, experimenting with gameplay and stories. Or they turn it into something like the Dragon Quest - series (good games, where you know what to expect, with minor tweaks here and there)?

Fingers crossed for another Action-Rpg, tough. A new and better Dragon Knight - Saga would be really nice. You could do so much with the mechanics (more races, more dragons, different combat styles as a dragon). I hold my thumbs.

 

[LESS T_T]

Swen going D.I.C.E. Cannes (September 9-11): https://www.diceeurope.org/dice_speakers/details.asp?idSpeaker=10379

Swen Vincke
CEO
Larian Studios
Website: http://larian.com/

Swen is the founder and director of Larian Studios. He’s never done anything else than make games and prefers to keep it that way. His latest and most successful game is Divinity:Original Sin 2 which won over 150 awards including PCGamer's Game of the Year and a BAFTA for best Multiplayer game. It is only the 14th game in GameSpot's history to achieve a 10/10. Despite this he still regularly has to explain to people that there really is an audience for turn-based CRPGs. Swen wears many hats at Larian but these days he spends most of his time driving the creative teams.

The Importance of Respecting Your Players

It took Larian Studios almost 20 years to find its audience. During that period we enjoyed some popularity but there was always something that prevented our games from truly breaking through. It's only when we realized we were making games for players and not shelves that success came knocking at our door. This talk will focus on the importance of treating players with respect, how to translate that into process and how it leads to more motivated teams and better game design using examples from Larian’s history.

 

[LESS T_T]

Darth Swen:

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[LESS T_T]

New job listings:
http://larian.com/jobs/senior-character-artist/
http://larian.com/jobs/experienced-prop-artist/

A strong interest in medieval/fantasy/steampunk characters and environments.

That's Divinity.

 

[BEvers]

Arcanum 2!

 

[LESS T_T]

Trailer of the documentary, it's coming in October 1st:



(Early, even more cartoony version of D:OS with real-time combat at 1:16)

 

[LESS T_T]

Devin John Doyle (writer of Sebille IIRC) left Larian recently: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinjohndoyle/

Heh, looks like he's going to do well in TV writing, a drama on ITV!: http://www.redplanetpictures.co.uk/...evin-Doyle-as-Winner-of-Red-Planet-Prize-2018

We are delighted to announce today that Dublin based Devin Doyle is this year’s winner of the coveted Red Planet Prize for his family drama Devoted Wife and Mother.

Started 10 years ago, the award recognises talented writers who can create fresh, original and inspiring popular drama content. This year’s winner, Devin Doyle, will get a script commission and development opportunities with ITV, alongside runner up Sharma Walfall who has secured development funding from Red Planet Pictures.

Doyle's script for tense family drama Devoted Wife and Mother impressed the judges with its wit, originality and unique style. The story follows a woman as she has her life turned upside down when her debt dealing husband is kidnapped with a 500k ransom deadline for 5pm that day.

 

[Roguey]

That guy certainly likes his strong women, huh.

 

[Harry Easter]

Devin is a nice bloke, I'm really happy for him .

 

[Infinitron]

 

[LESS T_T]

The documentary is out now:

Explore the very beginnings of Larian Studios and the Divinity franchise in our feature-length documentary. Discover the struggles the studio faced on their journey to becoming an independent studio, and how each game in the Divinity franchise laid the foundation for what would become, Original Sin.

 

[LESS T_T]

It's basically the same Larian story that has told before several times (with Divinity Developer Journal, several articles), but with some footage, details, and, of course, personal voices added. Kinda worth watching.

Also Swen talking about their next project(s) at 1:07:57. He says it's "a couple of things." The big thing is called Project Gustav, named after his dog Gustav.

"It blends the same things that we've been exploring all the time, it's gonna be narrative, systems, multiplayer, new things, new ideas, and yeah, I think it's gonna be very cool."

edit: heh, the project name was mentioned in an Italian website in July: https://multiplayer.it/articoli/larian-studios-divinity-original-sin-2-202333.html

 

[Lahey]

@25:09

Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?

It's basically the same Larian story that has told before several times (with Divinity Developer Journal, several articles), but with some footage, details, and, of course, personal voices added.

The problem with this narrative is its omission of a factor that is easy to find and changes the picture they paint somewhat. Decent fluff to watch but between this and the KCD doc it's clear to me that Gamumentary are more interested in producing advertisements than actually digging into studios and showing the whole story, which I suppose is to be expected given who's behind it and his current contractee.

 

[Bohr]

 

[LESS T_T]

Oh right, from the doc's Youtube comment:

Oh, and we're not done with Larian after this documentary. We have tons of content left to use and will be releasing a follow-up video later this year that delves into more of the game design aspects of Original Sin and Original Sin 2. Not to mention extended interviews and other stuff as well!

I guess we'll see more of newer Larian guys (Michael Douse, Charlene Putney, Kevin VanOrd, Borislav Slavov) in those videos.

 

[LESS T_T]

In the wake of recent Baldur's Gate 3 thing: