Larian Studios - Status Update

Lar has posted a new status update on the Larian forums. Lar talks about a number of projects including their educational stuff and an iOS game. It's fairly long, so here's a partial snip:

Too young to be able to blame it on age (I hope), I figured it must have something to do with our workload, but to be honest, we’ve experienced far worse in the past, so that can’t be it either – as matter of fact, it’s actually quite a lot of fun for the moment to work at Larian with pressure lower than usual, and things apparently going well for our studio. DKS is doing well, the new games are looking cool, and contrary to many an independent studio, we’re in good shape with the warm feeling of true independance doing miracles for my blood pressure i.e. we don’t need to deal with the whims of any third party, and can pretty much do as we want. (Well, there are some constraints, but compared to the shackles of the past, these are almost irrelevant)

The root cause for the my time tracking problem is probably that there’s a lot of things going on at the same time, and the continuous focus shifting gives me less of a frame of reference to establish when what happened where. Project D, project E, project M, project A, they’re all fighting for attention and they’re all very different from one another, so each time you deal with one of them you need to put yourself in another mode.

Thanks, Alrik!
More information.

He appears to be very busy. Four projects in the making is a huge feat to accomplish.
Cant wait to see what they are. Obviously one of them is the next divine divinity game.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
He appears to be very busy. Four projects in the making is a huge feat to accomplish.
Cant wait to see what they are. Obviously one of them is the next divine divinity game.

I would hope so. Ego Draconis was a lot of fun.

I thought they did only 2 projects active.
Good, I usually tend to like their games.

Good to know they are doing well. the moment I played Divine Divinity a bit, I sensed some very capable and deserving people are behind it and the more I played, that sense grew stronger.
Wish them success for the future ahead.

Originally Posted by Von Paulus
I thought they did only 2 projects active.
Good, I usually tend to like their games.

The new projects are announced here for the first time … Although "Project M" was not very surprising if one had read their "Monkey Tales" web site prior to this "status
update" …

While i liked DKS I didn't think it was as good as Divine Divinity.

I thought I heard them mention they are doing another isometric style game? That has me excited but it could be the educational game they mention maybe?

the isometric game could maybe be an iOS game?

Yes, maybe, but I also think that it was "Project E" ? going to be isometric … Or the other one (don't remember anymore) …

There is a new update within this linked "Status Update" thread !

There is alrready an article here about Project D (and isometric Divine Divinity game) and Project E (Which is an Ego Draconis style Divine Divinity game) and it is probably Project A (for Apple) that is the IOS game.

Originally Posted by guenthar
There is alrready an article here about Project D (and isometric Divine Divinity game) and Project E (Which is an Ego Draconis style Divine Divinity game)

Does it say anything about the setting/story for those games? I assume the Ego Draconis style game is the sequel to DKS, but I'm curious what storyline the other game will follow.

4 projects at the same time seems much, I hope these projects won't drain Larian financially and mentally. I'm really looking forward to new isometric Divinity game, I hope they will release some screenshots or gameplay video of it in the near future.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Does it say anything about the setting/story for those games? I assume the Ego Draconis style game is the sequel to DKS, but I'm curious what storyline the other game will follow.

There has been no news yet about Project D and E, apart from that Larian already have found publishers which will fund both projects.

Originally Posted by Gokyabgu
4 projects at the same time seems much, I hope these projects won't drain Larian financially and mentally. I'm really looking forward to new isometric Divinity game, I hope they will release some screenshots or gameplay video of it in the near future.

even blizzard and obsidian got back to isometric.
its the best way..since well forever..can't remember what was the first isometric RPG i've played, maybe cadavar on the amiga.

Originally Posted by rikus
even blizzard and obsidian got back to isometric.

Blizzard never went away from it to begin with.

In fact, other than WoW, I can't think of a single (modern) Blizzard game that doesn't use an isometric viewpoint.

I wouldn't get my hopes up too much about the isometric game. I have a feeling deep down inside that this isometric thingie will be like Lara Croft: The Guardian of Light to a "real" Tomb Raider game… or maybe a bit like Torchlight or something along those lines, i.e. a light-hearted actiony loot and click fest that will sell for under €/$ 20.00 or maybe even under 15.00 from Larian's own store (or at retail if it goes retail at all).

Which would be fine with me personally because isometric = lame, boring, predictable, simplistic point-and-click gameplay which bores me to tears and should only be allowed -BY LAW!!! - to be included in party-based games while 3D 3rd person or 1st person = fun, engaging, exciting, challenging, you-name-it .

Anyway, as for Larian's line-up I'm betting on something like this:

- Real sequel to ED full price game to be released on all major platforms
- Isometric low budget spin-off to possibly only be distributed digitally
- Browser game of some sort
- And finally a multiplayer-focused title, either an MMO (seems unlikely that they would invest in a full scale MMO but maybe a browser MMO) or something with an emphasis on cooperative gameplay

That would cover all of the bases as far as the current trends in gaming are concerned.

Originally Posted by Moriendor
Which would be fine with me personally because isometric = lame, boring, predictable, simplistic point-and-click gameplay which bores me to tears and should only be allowed -BY LAW!!! - to be included in party-based games while 3D 3rd person or 1st person = fun, engaging, exciting, challenging, you-name-it .

Lol, for clarify it that's just a huge Troll.

There's one simple reason that isometric point of view (possibly with 3D) has the potential of being deeper, it's because with a first person or over the shoulder point of view you have a basic view of the situation, you don't see further than your nose ie than the next wall. This approach put the player in a minimal knowledge to analyze, identify, see patterns, build a tactic and more, ie the player is put in soldier shoes.

At reverse the isometric approach put the player in the General chair, with many elements to analyze and just another level of information to understand and use in input for taking any decision from progression, to puzzles, secrets and fights.

What you think is the smarter? The general or the soldier? Ha well in those demagogic times I suppose many won't care and will only want be the soldier, and will think the soldier is smarter than his corrupted elite leaders.

I prefer when i can switch to isometric just by zooming out far enough, like in all recent Bethesda games, or in WoW etc. In first person the element of surprise is better, there's sense of height (e.g standing on a cliff looking down), there are game play elements possible that doesn't make sense or are hard to do in isometric (climbing/jumping/diving would be a few of them).

There are different points, the first is a matter of scale, when it's isometric but with a rather close point of view, it's not that far from a close 3rd person point of view.

So for sure isometric isn't really the point, but closer or further point of view. About games allowing very far view and close view, I think they hide a design lie, it's just fake and you can't design a game for both approach.

Yes the Soldier approach suit better the action and the General approach the thinking, and well we all know modern games followed a dumbed down evolution, so not really a surprise there isn't much more games with a far point of view and sort of iso like view.