Larian Studios - Status Update Continued

Dhruin

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Lar has posted about his presentation of Project D to the media the other day:
So I think it went well. He didn't run out screaming out of the office yelling "madmen, I'm surrounded by madmen !!!!", and actually asked quite some intelligent questions - I guess we got lucky
wink.gif


There was some surprise, he was not expecting something that deviated, at least at first sight, so much from what we usually do, but when he got the complete picture, I think he liked it. We'll only know when the article runs of course, but I think we should be ok.

It was in any case an excellent trial run for GC, as we could see what parts of our presentation communicated the ideas clearly, and what parts didn't work at all, the latter evidenced by the fact that those were the parts he had the most questions about, just trying to exactly understand how it works. Those were of course the parts we already take for granted given our previous work, but clearly, we need to make sure that when we announce the game, we don't forget to mention them.
...but it's not clear what sort of game this is:
Reading the above paragraph again I realize that it must read like complete nonsense given that you have no idea what I'm talking about. I'd really like to tell you what the game is, as well as what project E is, but I need to give the scoop to the press so that hopefully they'll be willing to write about us. They should btw. It's a cool game.

At least I can tell you what it's not, at the risk of ruining some expectations. In case I hadn't mentioned it before, Project D is not Divinity 3 - I've been reading some posts from people who think it is, but it's not. it's even a different style of game, though for sure you'll recognize many things that we put in our previous games.

It's not some casual game either, on the contrary, some would say it's pretty hard-core. It features several things I've always wanted to do, and I'm glad that given our past success (yes, there are a quite a lot of Divinities out there) we now finally have the chance to do them, because it's not something I could ever have convinced a publisher of funding.

Heck, probably the best thing about it, from a geeky developer point of view, was that our journalist couldn't figure out what genre it was
wink.gif


The origin of Project D is a simple mechanic, stumbled upon almost by accident, but one that works so well and has so much depth that it deserved a full-blown game to be built around it. It could become our biggest success ever or our biggest failure, but each day I'm getting more convinced that if we don't ruin it, I'll have tremendous fun with this one once it's done. Time will tell and am extremely curious as to what the reactions here will be. If you'll all hate it, at least I know most of you'll still like E
wink.gif
More information.
 
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Heck, probably the best thing about it, from a geeky developer point of view, was that our journalist couldn't figure out what genre it was
WANT!!!!

Oh, I'm supposed to use 10 characters?

GIMME GIMME GIMME!!
 
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WANT!!!!

Oh, I'm supposed to use 10 characters?

GIMME GIMME GIMME!!

No offense man but did anyone say your weird before.:p If its not a rpg then I'm not interested. My guess it is a dragon combat sim or something with flying dragons.
 
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I wasn't too keen on the dragon stuff in Divinity II... in fact, in my saved game I just hit the dragon portion. I haven't played the game in months cuz I am just not thrilled by the game play at this point. That said, I loved Dragonstrike. If this turns out to be a dragon combat sim that ends up good... :D Hooray!
 
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I for one wouldn't mind if it isn't a rpg in the strict sense of the word. I always liked innovative games. Then again, I probably am excited because of his enthusiasm.

On the other hand, it's a dev team from Belgium. Nothing could go wrong with that... :)
 
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It looks like that just crushed my anticipation for this game but at least it looks like Project E is going to be an rpg. If it isn't an rpg then they shouldn't call it Divinity since people looking at it would be people looking for an rpg.
 
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Does anyone else think this guy sounds like a mumbling idiot? I've heard more coherent revelations from homeless dudes on subway platforms.

If I were one of the esteemed gurus of gaming behind RPGWatch I wouldn't even post anymore of these non-updates, or at least not with a five paragraph teaser of Oh, I can't tell you what this game is about, because I'm saving that for the gaming press, but it's really awesome. And it's not Divinity 3. Did I say that before? It's still not.

Why don't we just hold off until the gaming press actually gets some information?
 
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Does anyone else think this guy sounds like a mumbling idiot? I've heard more coherent revelations from homeless dudes on subway platforms.

No, not me.

To me, Lar sounds more reasonable than much of the mumbo-jumbo I read in press releases and even in blogs.

And - since I had been there for a week last year, beta-testing, I can say that he and the whole team made quite a sane impression to me.
 
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Does anyone else think this guy sounds like a mumbling idiot?
No ;).

Nothing wrong with some down-to-earth teasing coupled with what seems like an honest presentation of some of the dev´s concerns/thinking processes.
 
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Does anyone else think this guy sounds like a mumbling idiot? I've heard more coherent revelations from homeless dudes on subway platforms.

If I were one of the esteemed gurus of gaming behind RPGWatch I wouldn't even post anymore of these non-updates, or at least not with a five paragraph teaser of Oh, I can't tell you what this game is about, because I'm saving that for the gaming press, but it's really awesome. And it's not Divinity 3. Did I say that before? It's still not.

Why don't we just hold off until the gaming press actually gets some information?

He sounds like a genuinly excited guy, enjoying teasing people about what his company is about to reveal. Not professional maybe, but who cares.

And I wish people would stop trying to tell Dhruin and crew what they should or shouldn't post about. It's their site. If you people want more of a say, become involved next time they are looking for extra hands.
 
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I also enjoy reading these more personal posts. Actually much more than the usual communication which has been run through marketing.
 
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Does anyone else think this guy sounds like a mumbling idiot? I've heard more coherent revelations from homeless dudes on subway platforms.
Well, yeah, with all the government layoffs, there are probably quite a few English and debate professors panhandling down there. ;)

Anyway, hearing that somebody is striking out to invent a whole new genre gets me interested! Brand new challenges!
 
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Does anyone else think this guy sounds like a mumbling idiot? I've heard more coherent revelations from homeless dudes on subway platforms.

I like his ramblings. Reading his post i read a passionate developer believing in what he does. People passionate about things and is successfull following his/her passion is always interesting. :)
 
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Lar has always been very passionate and as open as he could be about their games. I think this passion is refreshing compared to the slick marketing speech normally to be read on fora.
 
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I have to agree with the irrelevance of these status updates, are we even sure project D is an rpg?
 
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I have to agree with the irrelevance of these status updates, are we even sure project D is an rpg?

Well, I guess the nice thing is that everyone gets to decide on the relevance of these status updates for themselves. Or is anyone holding a gun to your head and forcing you to read'n'care? See. Didn't think so... ;)
Like others, I'm quite enjoying these unfiltered behind the scenes glimpses that Lar is granting us. It's probably in the very nature of behind the scenes stuff that it is "irrelevant" in a way since you could always just watch the fucking movie or play the fucking game instead of getting involved on a deeper level but -hey- some people like moi are weird like that and enjoy these "irrelevant" bits.

With that said, you are totally right that it has not even been confirmed that Project D is an RPG. The only things that seem to be confirmed are that it's got a top-down perspective, that it is not Divinity 3 and that it is a "different style" of game than what Larian has done before. This is making me believe as well that it might not really be a "pure" RPG or at least not primarily.
Since Lar mentioned that the game features several things that he has always wanted to do, I'd take a stab in the dark and assume that it is heavily strategy-flavored. Lar himself used to be an AI nut and one of their first games (LED Wars) was a strategy game so I wouldn't be overly surprised if Project D turns out to be a game with a focus on mixing elements of strategy and RPG... like maybe an advanced tower defense kind of game or something like that.
 
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Since Lar mentioned that the game features several things that he has always wanted to do, I'd take a stab in the dark and assume that it is heavily strategy-flavored. Lar himself used to be an AI nut and one of their first games (LED Wars) was a strategy game so I wouldn't be overly surprised if Project D turns out to be a game with a focus on mixing elements of strategy and RPG… like maybe an advanced tower defense kind of game or something like that.

I agree. I'm pretty sure (well, almost) that either one of the Projects isn't an RPG - but might have RPG elements in it (and I don't believe even that).

I … tend to believe it will be strategy - of some sorts, like Board Games are a kind of strategy, too.

It's pretty long since they did an strategy game (Like LED Wars), but I could imagine influence by the Monkey Labs games as well - or even by their other games (Ketnetkick small series).
 
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