Larian Studios - New Status Update

Myrthos

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Lar has made a new status update available on their forums with information on their new projects D and E:
So what’s up at Larian these days? Well, as those who come here regularly know, we’re preparing for Gamescom and the announcement of Project D.

Now I read on http://www.rpgwatch.com, one of the two sites I check in the morning to see what the competition does (the other being the madness that is rpgcodex) that Moriendor (whose opinions ring a personal note as he visited our studio in the early days to help us out with testing the first Divinity) thinks we’re going to make:

a) A Real sequel to ED full price game to be released on all major platforms
b) An Isometric low budget spin-off to possibly only be distributed digitally
c) A Browser game of some sort
d) 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

He concludes with “that would cover all of the bases as far as the current trends in gaming are concerned”.

So to respond - Project D is none of these and project E, which I think I already mentioned has a top-down camera, can hardly be called low-budget. On the contrary, it makes us bleed, but we have high hopes for it
wink.gif


Speaking of E, I’m very happy to announce that we managed to convince David Freeman ( http://www.beyondstructure.com ) to help us out with the script. He arrived yesterday in Gent with a surprisingly low dose of jet lag, and will be working together with us over the next couple of weeks with fine-tuning the storyline for E. I’m pretty curious what he’ll come up with, especially considering the ambitions we have for E’s storyline and how you’ll interact with it.
David wrote a book “Creation Emotion in Games” and also teaches the biggest screenwriting class in Los Angeles & London. If you have an interest in stories in games, get a copy (
http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Emotion-Games-Craft-Emotioneering/dp/1592730078 ) and you won’t be disappointed, but better yet, if you ever have a chance, participate in his class, you won’t regret it (and it puts the ideas of the book completely in perspective, which might otherwise be hard to get completely) Get on his mailing list so you can figure out when he’s in the neighbourhood, those things are usually packed but who knows, you might manage.

Now, I’m mentioning all of this because his book contains a chapter which talks about “meaningful non linear response” or MNLR for short, and it’s one of the things we’re trying to do & get right in E. If you get the book, you’ll get why this could something really cool. If not, ask David, maybe he’ll send you a chapter. If you can’t guess, I’m pretty hyped about having Jan, who wrote all the dialogue in DKS and David work together, and am very hopeful that the outcome will make for a fantastic new Divinity story.
More information.
 
Joined
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Interesting how they haven't mentioned what E is, yet he drops the line " a new Divinity story" :D So, we know that E is definitely set in the Divinity universe, so it's not a new IP.

The thing I'd like to know the most is the anticipated release dates of D and E. Larian is a nice Dev, but there were 7 years between the DivDiv and ED. Do we have to wait 7 more years to see the next full sequel?
 
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Project D is actually Freespace 3.

(It's a little dream I have.... ;))
 
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Maybe Project D will be sort of like Spelljammer except in the Divine Divinity universe. It would be like combining Freespace with Divinity 2 except that instead of a spaceship like in Freespace it would be a sailing ship that you fly through space.
 
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Mostly I'm impressed by the ratio of words:information when the developer talks. What's the point of saying There's been a lot of speculation. It was wrong. and basically nothing else?
 
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Well he's clearly waiting for Moriendor to make some more guesses so he can say more ;)
 
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