Larian Studios - Looking back to 2012 and Forward to 2013

Head of Larian Studios Swen Vincke has created an open letter to his team where he looks back to what happened in 2012 and looks forward to what is going (or is likely) to happen in 2013 with their games. Like this on Dragon Commander, which teaches us the current estimated release date:

The first obvious slip-up is that back In December 2011, I expected Dragon Commander to ship in 2012 whereas now it turns out that it’s going to ship only in may or june 2013. Once again Larian’s ability to plan well in advance was put to shame, proving our complete lack of professionalism! But tbh, I’m afraid this lack of professionalism tag is going to stay with us for a long time because I don’t think we’ll ever learn to ship a game before we’re happy about it, and I actually also don’t think that we really want to be that “professional”. I am pretty sure that In Dragon Commander’s case, I’ll pick the game we’ll ship in 2013 any time above the game we would’ve shipped in 2012 , so even if we’re off schedule, I’ll maintain that delaying it and changing the gameplay were the right decisions.

And then there is this:


More information.

The thing about Larian is that they have always been one part brilliant and 2 parts crazy. It works. Playing Divine Divinity right now and alot if it is just plain nuts. I actually now expect horrible voice acting and…. look forward to it? Keep up the good work Larian!

Divine Divinity 2 had good voice acting from what I remember. It was still crazy though (well maybe not as crazy as the song in the video above).

Creativity was never their problem, I guess …

Nice. Merry Christmas, Larian.

I will do my part and buy Divinity: Original Sin as soon as its released, but will have to pass on Dragon Commander, just not my thing. I hope the Divinity sequel is a gigantic success, and wish Larian a prosperous 2013.

Anyone else a little concerned after reading that article? It sounds like they bet the company on these two games. If they don't succeed, i hate to see what may happen. I plan on getting each game because i like the company and i want to support them. I hope both games sell a ton of units. I'm concerned about Dragon Commander. How much of a market is there for that game?

Original Sin is on my short list. Dragon Commander doesn't do anything for me.

Originally Posted by DarNoor
I'm concerned about Dragon Commander. How much of a market is there for that game?

RTS are quite popular. They just have to market it to the right people. Which might be the hardest part.

Like many others Original Sin is a given for me….as for Dragon Commander, I just don't know. The title, the type of game and the little I've read about the game haven't really roused my curiosity/interest…

But I hope they release a Demo, I would really like to give the game and these guys a chance to surprise me.

I think I prefer the sounds of Dragon Commander to Divinity: Original Sin, isn't Dragon Commander some sort of RPG/Strategy hybrid? I love King's Bounty and similar.

Where as an RPG designed for multi player doesn't interest me so much.

Daniel.

Larian get a free pass from me, so I'll definitely buy both, even if I'm unsure about Dragon Commander.

@darklord, "designed for multi player" isn't technically inaccurate but it does make it sound like SP is secondary, which I disagree with.

Them talking about co-op support early seems to have been a mistake… People can't get over it, no matter how many times they explain how it's going to work SP.

I am so iffy about Dragon Commander. I'll really have to play a demo to know, I think. I hope it'll be fun, though.

Originally Posted by darkling
Them talking about co-op support early seems to have been a mistake… People can't get over it, no matter how many times they explain how it's going to work SP.

Yes they should of focused on other aspects first I agree. Co-op and sp don't usually mix to well with rpg's in my experience. Something is usually sacrificed or missing.

Take Dead Island for an example it made no sense to play solo as the campaign was designed to play as co-op. Though I have to give Larian credit as it was already pointed out how it affects the sp.

I'll certainly read the reviews and such when it comes out, I'll probably buy both. Only thing for me is I've Kickstarted so many games that I'm going to be inundated with games tp play next year.

I may wait till they hit a sale. We'll see.

Daniel.

I'm torn about larian tbh.

Divine Divinity was one of my childhood games and i'll always be thankful for larian for the experience that shaped and benchmarked my computer gamming in the years folowing that. One of my top 10 games of all times, i have a realy special connection with that game with numerous reasons i'm sure no one cares about so i'll leave it at that.

Beyond Divinity was a major disapointment, but still playable. It had its moments but all in all was not what i was hoping for.

Divinity 2 was a major disapointment for me, i can forgive larian because i know they were pressured into releasing a game that was not 100% on their own therms and later on they made everything possible to make it better. But still, it was strike 2 for me.

In my heart, all i wanted would be a Divine Divinity sequel. Not as in a new game, but realy just grab the game and keep going the story in the same engine but with a new land to explore. Nothing 3d fancy, nothing with the mentality that larian has now of "we must realy be inovative and brilliant or we will fail the fans", just a plain old Divine Divinity DLC i would be happy with…

But alas, Larian has gone the route of trying to risk their credibility by going extreme rebelious and diferently inovative… I realy realy hope i can get back my DD vibe on Original Sin. As per Dragon Commander i seriously dougt i'll get near it, but i'll check videos of it out of curiosity ofc.

All in all, best of wishes for Larian, i hope you suceed.

I for one am really exited about Dragon commander. I like innovation and new mixes of old elements. I see elements of Homeworld style real time battles, Wing commander / Mass Effect like crew interaction, Total War style campaign map, all set in the High Fantasy Divinity setting. Should be great.