Divinity 2 - Video Footage on Belgian TV

Dhruin

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A big thanks to Ragon der Magier for writing in to point out a thread on Larian's forum that informs of a TV broadcast from Belgium over the weekend about game development in the area and featuring studio head Swen Vincke and Lead Designer Farhang Namdar discussing their "next-gen" RPG project and the industry.
Fortunately, the video can be viewed from the show's website and although the report is in Flemish, you can see short sequences of a graphically impressive Gothic-esque third-person RPG and Swen takes viewers on a quick tour of the studio. They are quoted as saying the game is due in 2009 and some 120 people are currently working on the title, although a forum post from a developer clarifies that less than half that are in-house with the rest outsourced.
More information.
 
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Tantalizing. It looks quite different from anything prior in the Divinity world. The sword-over-the shoulder is very Witcher-esque.
 
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Is there a way to download the video ? It's relatively slow on my machine or is that normal ?
 
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Actually, the production manager (bald, grey hair) says there will be 120 people working on it "at its peak", the lead designer (ponytail, chubby) estimates that including outsourcing, there are currently 80 people working on it.

The broadcast is about Belgium starting up a subsidiary like already exists in Germany and France, by the way. They already got 20% tax reduction as a "cultural product", heh.

PS: one of those guys (the lead designer?) goes "Wow, was that water? Awesome" at one point. That's kinda...ehm...'k
 
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The posts in that Larian forum threat are funny too. Obviously it took some people by surprise...

There have been NO news about that ! We weren't even informed that this video was going to be shown on TV !

(I'm a regular member over there at Larian.)
 
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Eh. I'd agree to being upset about that if it weren't so easy to just watch the episode now, Alrik.

It's a bit of a silly omission by them, sure, but c'mon, it's right there, so no big.
 
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Did anybody understand what Swen said about the costs? I did understand some words, but not the whole interview.

Looks like an Action-RPG. Like Elveon.
 
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It's a news report magazine, earlier this week some Flemish investigation about the influence of games and the future of games production in Belgium/Flanders got to its conclusion (as for influence it was fairly positive, as for games production it said a lot of work still needs to be done to support game devs) and a big expo about games was being held as well so it was a fair call of the national television to report about it.

@the video: doesn't look that convincing, the design seems a bit odd for a DD-game imo. Ah well, they still got a year or so.

EDIT: Swen talked about the price of development (average 10.000 dollar per month wage), the size of the development team and the fact that in other countries governments do give tax advantages (he made an example that a British publisher like Eidos would rather invest in a French company in Lille who get the tax advantage instead of investing in Larian in Oudenaarde).
 
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Did anybody understand what Swen said about the costs? I did understand some words, but not the whole interview.

In the first bit he sums up what kind of people work there (developers, artists, programmers) etc.

He notes on the second bit that the going rate in the games industry is 10,000 dollar a "man-month" (i.e. 160 hours), and with thousands of "man-months" invested, you can figure out yourself what the costs are roughly. He doesn't say explicitly, don't think he wants to, be that'd be indeed the going rate, 20+ million. Funny how he talks about dollars, tho', must be all the out-sourcing.
 
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The FPS (frames per second) look too good for an RPG. Must be a FPS (first person shooter)!

:p
 
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Well, I can see that they might've been surprised themselves,

but with years ( ! ) of almost no information at all, the fan-base is quite ... disturbed that the TV shows such a report and we (the fan-base) doesn't know anything of it !

(And uh, now I sound like a REAL fanboi ... )
 
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but with years ( ! ) of almost no information at all...(And uh, now I sound like a REAL fanboi ... )

... then one would think that the 'fanbase' would be delighted by the news. But that gamers are some of the most cynical people in the world they instead get upset. meh.
 
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Well, "we" would've been delighted if we had had an announcement.

Instead, everyone was taken by surprise.
 
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Quite funny to see the local tv (it's the public broadcast station for the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) on an international gamessite.

About the video-> I would love to play that game from larian. I wasn't quite the divine divinity fan, but this game really looks like one I would like to play.
 
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Huzzah!

And I hope they can opt for a better name, at least without the "Divine" or so.. "Divinity 2" should suffice for recognition of the brand, in my opinion..

PS: one of those guys (the lead designer?) goes "Wow, was that water? Awesome" at one point. That's kinda...ehm...'k

I didn't get the details, but I think that's normal in game developing. What we, the gamers, don't notice in the final product in terms of common features or gfx, is something quite different for those actually making the game - their brainchild, so to speak. Like, when a parent's child first starts to do something normal, but unexpected... Awesome. ^^
 
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That´s a short, sad story. A CDV big shot had the idea, thought it´s brilliant and insisted on it. (At least that what I heard.)
 
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Well, "we" would've been delighted if we had had an announcement. Instead, everyone was taken by surprise.

You make my point. Why inject any negativity to it? Why not just be delighted by the news and by the 'surprise?'

(By 'you' I don't mean you personally I mean 'you' as in the gaming community).
 
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... then one would think that the 'fanbase' would be delighted by the news. But that gamers are some of the most cynical people in the world they instead get upset. meh.

Nonsense. If Larian had mentioned an upcoming TV appearance, even if only 30 minutes before the show, their fan base would talk about the game and not about Larian´s attitude towards their fan base. A typical own goal.

It´s a question of empathetic behaviour. After years without hard infos they should have had the courtesy to give a hint to their core fan base. This would have given those interested a chance to record the show in HQ. Now it has to appear like even one minute for a short forum post was more than the Larian bosses were willing to spend.
 
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That's one im looking forward to. :)
 
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