Additional content? "Everything is possible"
"We were not 100% sure that [Divinity: Original Sin 2] was going to work"
In a small office at Larian Studios, Swen Vincke displays a cheerful look, the one that we wear when we have just finished a big project and that it went well. When asked how he feels, now that "the baby is giving birth," he starts with a laugh: "Er, tired! We were stressed enough to get out [the first patch], because there were still a lot of small problems. They are resolved now and I think tomorrow we are going to make a little party out. "
In the voice of the founder of Larian Studios, an ounce of relief points to the surface, and for good reason: he did not expect such a
dazzling success . The game was sold at more than half a million copies, a figure that the studio was considering "for the end of the year, because it is still a busy period. There are a lot of games out now, [...] so we were not 100% sure it was going to work, but obviously I'm glad it did. "His biggest relief," is that we did not release something that was a bugs disaster. All the problems there were, we were able to solve them with hotfixes and a patch, without the people being blocked. For a game that contains so much content, that's the thing you care about. "
Exactly, Divinity: Original Sin 2 benefited from an early access phase that lasted one year. Part of the public regularly raises doubts about the merits of such a practice. For Vincke, this is an essential step that surpasses the final potential of the game:
We use [early access] to improve our game. The fact that you have funds on advance access, it gives you funding to make improvements on your game; so I think it's very good for a developer like us. When you look at the version released a year ago compared to today, it is still quite different, many changes were inspired by the anticipated access.
As for the evolution of the video game, "we are beginning to have a change now, as in the early 1990s, and I am glad. "
Given the success of this new game, immediately ranked in the top 5 of Steam with over 93,000 simultaneous players, one immediately thinks of the reasons for this fulgurant success: a solid community, reinforced by the first opus launched on Kickstarter now four years, an RPG more advanced than ever, responding to the fantasies of many enthusiasts of the genre. And for a few years, we are seeing a return to strength of the RPG called "traditional" with titles as striking as Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland and, precisely, Divinity: Original Sin. We can therefore ask ourselves whether success is here to the appointment in part thanks to this return in force. On this subject, Swen puts on his cap of independent developer - the momentary disenchantment of the RPG was that of the editors:
This genre was no longer made in the world where the funding is made by the publishers. What has changed is the digital distribution: the direct link between the developer and the player, and this link made it possible to make games that were not necessarily popular. For some publishers, I think that was the great revolution. I personally and more or less everyone in my team, we always wanted to continue playing this kind, we wanted a Fallout 3 which was a Fallout 2, and there are plenty of games that have stopped exist since the 2000s, we were in need.
But the problem is also to look for the consumer: Diablo 2 marked the beginning of the 2000s of a white stone and, in fact, the genre action-RPG had much less risk in terms of success for publishers. The public, on the other hand, did not flinch and demanded more, which accelerated production rates. With Assassin's Creed, players suddenly wanted phenomenal graphics, but it's much easier to develop a solo RPG action with beautiful graphics than a title like Divinity: Original Sin, Baldur's Gate or Fallout - and as long as the formula walking, as long as it brings money, it goes on. In short, a "vicious circle". "We see a renaissance of game formats that would have been impossible before developers had access to Steam and early access, with platforms like Kickstarter. We are starting to have a change now, as in the early 1990s, and I am glad. "
The importance of being independent? It is not "being rich" but being able to "take risks"
Larian Studios is independent, which means that the development team does not depend on any publisher to create and distribute its games. An ambitious model was a time and fortunately much more accessible today thanks to digital. Formerly an original publisher, Larian has chosen Solo as the first Original Sin to drive solo, leading Swen Vincke to make Divinity the games he has always wanted to achieve. And this is because the money of the players, Larian has access to 100%:
The biggest difference is that once you are independent, you have access to the money that comes in from a sale of the game at 100%. With a publisher you always have a share, and it can be a very large part, which is lost. Interest is not because we want to be rich, but because it gives us the essence to make new games; and the less gas you have, the less risk you can take.
For the founder of Larian, "players need developers who can take risks. "What publishers generally refuse to do, because it amounts to risking to crash. "If you look at growing children, the most important thing in learning a trade or life is to make mistakes and learn from one's faults. And we have made many mistakes in the past, we have learned a lot and now we are going to make new mistakes: it allows us to access our passions in the game. "In the spirit also, Larian remains independent : "The big difference is that there is no external shareholder that will have an impact. We do not need to [profit] on this date, otherwise the shareholders will be angry. [...] Our essence of player is much more important than the money. "
This also corresponds to the desire to impose a challenge on the player, to confront it with a minimum of difficulty - in contrast to the long-standing and continuing tendency for many licenses: "we wanted to make a a game we would like to play. We have players who have already played many titles, and if it's too simple, we will not have fun, there has to be a challenge. "
Divinity: Original Sin 2: the development of all challenges
By reading
our test and playing Divinity: Original Sin 2, you will realize one thing very quickly: the title is incredibly complete. One element in particular caught our attention: the quality of writing and narration. It turns out that its complexity was the most difficult part for Vincke:
The most difficult part is also the one I am most proud of: it is the complexity of the narrative. It was the most complicated thing I did in my life because we had so many lines of quests. You chose the historical protagonists and custom protagonists that you could play or take as companions, and these had 6 specialized quests in addition to the main story and this could work in multiplayer with up to 4 players. And I must say that all these permutations were a bit difficult. [...] Scripting was very complicated, it took a lot of time. But I am very proud of it because it is something that has never been done before and it now shows an enormous freedom, you always feel that the world reacts in a fluid and natural way,
When we emphasize moreover that "the system of label also adds interactions with the world and the different histories of the historical personages have more points of contact ..." he answers in a laugh: "Yes that was the horror total for the writer. " You surprise me.
Ultimately, the best time for Swen Vincke remains when all parts of the game are assembled after being developed separately and everything fits together to form the final table. As for the possible regrets that the man could have on Divinity: Original Sin 2, he prefers not to talk about it, like that people will not notice anything!
There are things ... I do not think the players will see, so it's better not to talk about it (laughs). There is definitely a list of darlings that I had to kill because there is also a production aspect in the development of a game, but I am quite proud of the result.
"I see myself making good extra content" for Divinity: Original Sin 2
Original Sin, although part of the Divinity universe initiated with Divine Divinity in 2002, is a new narrative arc. We asked the founder of Larian Studios whether he planned to stay on this one or to return to those of the old games. He dodges with a laugh: "that's a question about the next stuff so I can not answer! You will do what you want, on our side, it is done!
On the other hand, in terms of the future of Divinity: Original Sin 2, Larian Studios does not envisage Enhanced Edition because they do not see - and rightly - what they could bring to the game through it. It's already about patches and updates, obviously. On the other hand, it says: "I see myself making good extra content, but we'll see, now we see that the game is successful, so there is probably a market for. And reassure yourself, in good passionate developer, Swen Vincke does not pay your face:
When I say added content, it's not: "you can play with a yellow dress" or something like that. If we do something, it's going to be a new content in terms of adventure, it's not going to be a little trick. This way of throwing small pieces [to the public] and selling them, as a creator does not inspire me much, so I do not want to waste my time with. We only have one life and I prefer to do things that I can be proud of in terms of career and development.
Vincke can not be more specific about a possible additional content, for nothing has been decided at the moment, "we still have to see what we can do, everything is possible, but we have to decide. We obviously have something in mind, but we'll see ... "
As for the other plans for the future, Swen Vincke replied that he had for the moment the "brain more or less empty" after this long and intense period of work. He does not know if Kickstarter is now a mandatory box on the big development chart for Larian, but as far as Divinity: Original Sin 2 is concerned, he laughs when we tell him that the inventory is the only real negative point of
our test and promises that there is already a list of improvements to be made pending.
The Game Master mode, "it is used to develop scenarios"
To finish with Kickstarter's interest, the founder of the Belgian studio likes to point out the proximity between the development team and the community and that, far from tying his hands, participatory financing pushes him on the contrary :
Kickstarter was very important to us because not only did it give us money, but it also gave us a community and it forced us to do some things. It would have been very easy to cut, throw things, during the production when we found this disgusting, but there we had already made the contract with the players who guaranteed that we were going to do them - and I am glad to have made them even if it was sometimes hard. In a publisher model, what I can guarantee is that there are several elements that would have been cut, that would never have been made and that are now in the game. Even if it makes me crazy sometimes I like the little pressure there is with the players because you know they're pushing you forward and sometimes you need someone to push you.
Talking a bit about the Game Master mode, he points out that his willingness to implement it does not necessarily come from a long history of campaigns realized via RPG papers, but precisely from their absence in his life: coming from a little village, he loved the concept, but had no one who had the same passion as him. So he spent his time reading the rules books to immerse himself in this universe despite everything - it's also where he drew his will to develop multiplayer RPG games. And most importantly, "the players always said they wanted a game like that, so we did it now, it's in their hands, so we'll see if they will use it and to what extent. In any case internally, it is used to develop scenarios so it's fantastic, you can do a scenario at a huge speed with that.
Finally, we have the ambition to build a statue to honor the writing talent of Chris Avellone, who worked on the writing of Divinity: Original Sin 2 (and on many other cult RPGs). Swen Vincke liked the idea (he laughed a lot, but we took that for a membership) and promised to help us with a Kickstarter project. We are now looking forward to talking to Chris Avellone about the Kickstarter project to erect a statue in honor of Swen Vincke & Larian Studios.
