Company News Larian opens new office in Quebec, has two new RPGs in development based on the Original Sin engine

[Grinolf]

To be fair about Larian writing, interaction with waifus, subordinates, ambassadors in DC were quite decent. And with main plot in this game being almost completely ignored, it was worth to complete the game only because them if not because of (pretty poor) gameplay. So in "dating sim" aspect they were much more competent than Bioware. They just need to stop making attempt of "epic" stories which turn out atrocious and need to die.

 

[jdinatale]

Hire Yasumi Matsuno and have him write a Tactics Ogre type setting, political intrigue with countries/empires at war with each other.

Political intrigue is absolute shit, you'll just get another grim-dark Witcher/GoT clone.

 

[sser]

If you go to their site they're actually looking to hire new writers so they might be looking to go in a new direction.

 

[Zeriel]

Any chances of a waifu simulator in the D:OS engine?

Already happened.

Spoiler

Larian is really the Ur-Bioware. They do BG successors better than Bioware, and even their waifu simulators while shitty in gameplay (just like Bioware!) are more aesthetically appealing with a tiny fraction of the budget.

 

[vivec]

I would contest that. NWN gameplay was amazing. The encounter design and the writing were horrible. To test that play HoTU. Now that is the game more deserving of praise.

The engine render looked horrible however.

 

[abnaxus]

At one point during the development of Divine Divinity they hired a German forum member as a writer and presented him as a "published Fantasy author". After the release of the game, someone from the forum actually bought his book. Turns out the publisher was himself and the guy who bought the book quoted from cringeworthy fan-fiction stuff to great amusement of the community.

Wasn't this Alrik Fassbauer? He's one NPC in the game who reads a poem.

 

[Spectacle]

At one point during the development of Divine Divinity they hired a German forum member as a writer and presented him as a "published Fantasy author". After the release of the game, someone from the forum actually bought his book. Turns out the publisher was himself and the guy who bought the book quoted from cringeworthy fan-fiction stuff to great amusement of the community.

Wasn't this Alrik Fassbauer? He's one NPC in the game who reads a poem.

Are you sure it wasn't JarlFrank? He's German and a "published Fantasy author"

 

[Zeriel]

At one point during the development of Divine Divinity they hired a German forum member as a writer and presented him as a "published Fantasy author". After the release of the game, someone from the forum actually bought his book. Turns out the publisher was himself and the guy who bought the book quoted from cringeworthy fan-fiction stuff to great amusement of the community.

Wasn't this Alrik Fassbauer? He's one NPC in the game who reads a poem.

Are you sure it wasn't JarlFrank? He's German and a "published Fantasy author"

This was a long time ago (original Divine Divinity, not the sequels).

 

[ghostdog]

Quebec, really ? Isn't Canada and especially its big cities, a pretty expensive place to live and work ? Isn't Quebec pretty similar to, let's say... San Francisco, the double fine killer ?


Larian, you were bros, while you lasted...

Spoiler

Spoiler

... I hope

 

[Zeriel]

Quebec, really ? Isn't Canada and especially its big cities, a pretty expensive place to live and work ? Isn't Quebec pretty similar to, let's say... San Francisco, the double fine killer ?


Larian, you were bros, while you lasted...

Spoiler

Spoiler

... I hope

Its been covered before, but Quebec offers massive subsidies to game development. Not sure if Ubisoft has special terms, but to give you an idea of how insane it is, they pay people to remain on staff and sit in rooms doing no work for months at a time because its more profitable that way than firing them. (Similar to the practice of keeping unionized teachers on payroll doing no work day-in-and-day-out even after they've been disciplined and suspended that happens down in the States.)

Basically the government pays Ubisoft per people employed. Hence why you often see them talking about expansion plans even when their games aren't doing so well. If Larian is getting similar deals, all the talk on the Codex about how they're making a dumb financial decision is hilariously off-base. It's no accident they picked Quebec.

 

[Kem0sabe]

if its anything like the EU, the government doesnt fund anything at 100% rates. Here for example, for each million invested, the EU subsidizes between 50 to 70% for certain projects. You are still spending a lot of money overall. I highly doubt Larian wont accrue significant costs while investing in creating a new studio in canada...

Unless the quebecois government suddenly starts buying millions of copies of Larian games, i highly doubt their tax brakes or subsidies will be enough to keep a game development studio afloat.

 

[Zeriel]

Of course, shit like this is hardly auspicious:

http://business.financialpost.com/2...s-subsidies-to-game-industry/?__lsa=b89d-94c7

Maybe Larian is really just after the development talent pool, but I suspect that's not the case. Swen has spent a LOT of time talking about how expensive it is to pay developers in Belgium, and how they're at a competitive disadvantage because of it, wouldn't surprise me if Quebec allows him to get closer to parity. Likewise, if Quebec really wasn't at all financially attractive, why the hell would they want to go there of all places?

 

[Jedi Exile]

I think Swen knows what he is doing. He had been in business for years and still managed to stay afloat. This is no small feat.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I think Swen knows what he is doing. He had been in business for years and still managed to stay afloat. This is no small feat.

Didn't he need to resort to crowd funding because they ran out of money? Good management there

 

[Zeriel]

I think Swen knows what he is doing. He had been in business for years and still managed to stay afloat. This is no small feat.

Didn't he need to resort to crowd funding because they ran out of money? Good management there

He resorted to crowdfunding so they could keep developing, without it they would have just released an average product like all of their other flawed-but-okay games.

D:OS is pretty unparalleled in size and polish relative to that size. It's really just a question of whether or not you care about that scope, people who criticize it seem to largely be people who prefer a smaller game or dislike the tone of the writing.

 

[Kem0sabe]

He resorted to crowdfunding so they could keep developing, without it they would have just released an average product like all of their other flawed-but-okay games.

D:OS is pretty unparalleled in size and polish relative to that size. It's really just a question of whether or not you care about that scope, people who criticize it seem to largely be people who prefer a smaller game or dislike the tone of the writing.

Unparalleled in size and polish? *snort*

 

[Orion]

Quebec, really ? Isn't Canada and especially its big cities, a pretty expensive place to live and work ? Isn't Quebec pretty similar to, let's say... San Francisco, the double fine killer ?

Rent and housing is pretty cheap in Quebec/Quebec City (about 20-25% of what you would pay in San Francisco.) Quebec City is also more conservative than the rest of the province and is shielded from the american anglosphere media bullshit (SJWs, etc.) by being a french city. I'm not sure exactly how much local talent there is though.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

Quebec is pretty much the worst place in all of Canada, maybe the misery of having an office there will help them tone down their colourful atmosphere that people tend to complain about.

 

[:Flash:]

At one point during the development of Divine Divinity they hired a German forum member as a writer and presented him as a "published Fantasy author". After the release of the game, someone from the forum actually bought his book. Turns out the publisher was himself and the guy who bought the book quoted from cringeworthy fan-fiction stuff to great amusement of the community.

Wasn't this Alrik Fassbauer? He's one NPC in the game who reads a poem.

No, not Alrik. Alrik is just one of many forum members who had an NPC in game modelled after him. He's just the most recognized because of the name and because he is still an active community member.
I don't remember the Forum name of the guy, but it seems his real name was Patrick J. Grieser. He is still crediting himself for the work on Divine Divinity on his publishing website.

 

[Sycophantic Noob]

The move to Quebec is likely due to massive tax incentives. A pity we don't have anyone here who lives around the area, is an adult, and is involved in the computer industry who would be able to provide us with insider information.

Anyway, I am not sure these guys will ever be able to make an RPG with a good story and immersive dialogue. I hope they can pull it off though, because they are quite talented at making deep turnbased RPG engines. This time they need to plan ahead more though, aside from story and dialogue issues, D:OS suffered from area's that were too small after Act 1. There is no point to having an open world, non linear RPG if your open world is tiny, no matter how detailed it is. They need to strike a good balance between detail, graphics and world size and plan accordingly.

The game also had a ton of bloom, nearly as much as Oblivion, hopefully they cut that out next time.

 

[Alex]

Oh, God an Office?


PLEASE DON'T DIE OUT OF MISMANAGEMENT. Don't be Troika!

I would gladly exchange every single kickstarter game for another Arcanum.

 

[Spectacle]

Its been covered before, but Quebec offers massive subsidies to game development. Not sure if Ubisoft has special terms, but to give you an idea of how insane it is, they pay people to remain on staff and sit in rooms doing no work for months at a time because its more profitable that way than firing them. (Similar to the practice of keeping unionized teachers on payroll doing no work day-in-and-day-out even after they've been disciplined and suspended that happens down in the States.)

You misunderstand that practice. They lose money from the people doing nothing between projects, but they lose less than it would cost to fire them and hire new ones when they are needed. Finding qualified people who are proven contributors and bringing them up to speed on your company's workflow and tools is far from cheap, and Ubisoft is big enough that there will be projects needing new people in short time.

 

[tuluse]

You misunderstand that practice. They lose money from the people doing nothing between projects, but they lose less than it would cost to fire them and hire new ones when they are needed. Finding qualified people who are proven contributors and bringing them up to speed on your company's workflow and tools is far from cheap, and Ubisoft is big enough that there will be projects needing new people in short time.

There is also unemployment insurance and severance packages to think about.

 

[JarlFrank]

I would gladly exchange every single game for another Arcanum.

Fixed.

 

[likaq]

I would gladly exchange every single kickstarter game for another Bloodlines.

fix.