Beyond Divinity Interview with Bronthion
Myrthos, 2004-01-26

Thomas "Bronthion" Lenzen fills his days at Larian Studios with creating quests for Beyond Divinity, like he did for Divine Divinity also. As we wanted to know as much details as possible we took him by surprise and tortured him until he told us everything.  

RPGDot: Tells us something about yourself. What is it that you do and how did you end up at Larian Studios?

This is where we cornered Bronthion. Although he doesn't suspect anything yet.

Bronthion: I'm working as a freelancer, writing applications and web-interfaces mostly for non-computer experts. But it was not my job that brought me into contact with Larian Studios. Since my time at the university, I'm also an enthusiastic table-top and computer RPG player. Shortly after I've heard about the new CRPG Divine Divinity, I've launched Divinity's Welt, one of the first fan-sites for this game. I wrote some articles about role-playing. Swen Vincke, CEO of Larian Studios, read these articles and seemed to like them. In summer 2001 he needed people to finish Divinity and asked me to join his team as story editor.

RPGDot: What are the requirements for doing what you do?

Bronthion: A lot of enthusiasm and stamina is required for the job I do. Fantasy and flexibility are also quite helpful; creativity combined with some technical skills is an ideal foundation. The working language in the company is English, so you also need some language skills in this area. Additionally you have to love playing computer games in general and RPG's in particular, of course.

RPGDot: How do you go about when you create a quest?

Bronthion: The process normally starts with me looking for some quiet corner. I take an empty piece of paper and a pencil and search for an idea. The idea has to be written down, and a document has to be created defining all the requisites for the new quest. Usually there are quite a lot requisites: object graphics, dialogs and NPC definitions (creature class, clothing, weaponry and equipment, NPC level), regions and locations to position the quest onto the map, diary entries, book texts, map markers and scene definitions (e.g. an NPC is approaching the hero when he enters a certain region of the game world). When all requisites are fulfilled, the world map has to be edited, and scripts have to be written. After all this is set and done, the new quest still has to be tested, of course.

We kept the developers across the hallway occupied, so they wouldn't notice that we captured Bronthion.	And we got Kirill to play some music so nobody could hear the screams.

RPGDot: How will you make sure that vital NPC can't be killed by the gamer thus busting a main or sub quest?

Bronthion: This might look like a difficult task at first, but the game engine provides me with some useful functionalities. Every NPC can be flagged „story npc". Story NPC's cannot be killed, neither by the player, nor by any monster in the game. There is only one little problem: story NPC's can't be attacked, and therefore they cannot participate in any combat action. If this should become necessary for some reason (in an automated scene, for example), you have to flag the NPC „immortal" instead of „story npc". Immortal NPC's can be attacked, but they won't die, even when their hit points reach zero. This might look a little weird in the game at times.

RPGDot: Will there be an invisibility ring and Buad's Tea again?

Bronthion: There is an invisibility ring in the game, but unfortunately the player won't be able to take it away from its owner. The secret of Buad's Tea has gone lost forever when his inventor, the powerful battle mage Buad disappeared some years ago. But, you'll never know: rumours say powerful wizards have a tremendously long lifespan...

RPGDot: Will we meet Penumbra's daughter?

Bronthion: Who told you Penumbra had a daughter? But if you are very (un)lucky, you might meet her grandma... ;-)

RPGDot: what happened to Otho?

Bronthion: When Rivellon turned into a wasteland during the battle with the Demon of Lies, the dwarves fled into their underground kingdom and sealed the entrance. The last thing I've heard about Otho was, that he became first healer of the dwarven king Dunatrim.

RPGDot: Tell us more about these mysterious crystals in the game

Bronthion: The crystals you've mentioned suddenly appeared all over Rivellon, and they had mysterious effects on the areas and on the people nearby. Nobody knows where they came from. There are recent reports about some very strange things going on in the world of Rivellon. And so the people of Rivellon are looking for brave women and men to investigate... Do you hear their calls? If you are brave enough, simply take one step forward and answer to them...

Then we distracted Lar by getting him to show us the Divinity collection...	... and a cloth map of Rivellon, while we snatched away two screenshots (shown below).

RPGDot: What does a permanent potion do?

Bronthion: Permanent potions do exactly that: they increase the hero's stats permanently. Naturally these kinds of potions are very rare and very valuable. Some experienced alchemists are able to create them, but even they need divine help. Only the gods can grant such a heavenly gift.

RPGDot: Will all spells backfire if the gamer has a low luck level?

Bronthion: There is no spell backfiring in Beyond Divinity.

RPGDot: What is your favourite part/NPC of the game?

Bronthion: How am I supposed to answer this question without giving away major spoilers? I don't want to destroy all the fun… But one of my favourite NPC's is already well known: it's the death-knight. He is a cynical, evil guy who's constantly looking over your shoulder. He will always try to make you see the events happening with his eyes.

A screenshot from Act 2

RPGDot: With which one did you have the most difficulties?

Bronthion: The only thing I personally have some difficulties with is the fact, that you will be able to play the game as a child character. I know a lot of people like it, but I think it's… well… a little childish :-/

RPGDot: Which forum members are in the game and what is their role?

Bronthion: Let's see, there is for one Kiya, who will appear as an evil witch, and Xanlosch the Toothless (or better "Doothleshsh", sorry Henning, you shouldn't have told me this particular little anecdote, definitely not when there is a pencil in my vicinity…;-)). Then there is the Preacher Barnabus, blind and totally crazy, and Brother Raze, who's looking for someone stup... eh... brave enough to visit some haunted ruins for him...

RPGDot: Looking back at Divinity, what part would you like to have done better?

Bronthion: There is one thing I was very sad about: we had to cut the party members from Divinity. I'm very happy we are able to include them now in Beyond Divinity. It will add a new tactical dimension to the game. The fighting should become more interesting and there are some riddles that can only be solved when the party members are working together.

RPGDot: Again looking back, what is the best part of Divinity as far as you are concerned?

Bronthion: I believe we defined a certain "Divinity style" in which we were telling our story. We included a lot of dark humour to the game. In this aspect, Beyond Divinity will follow into the footsteps of its predecessor.

And a screenshot from Act 3

RPGDot: What will make Beyond Divinity a great game in your opinion?

Bronthion: What I really like about Beyond Divinity is, that it's a story driven RPG. The trend goes more and more in the direction of simple action based console games and MMORPG's which normally have thin storylines. I'm happy for every developer who is still trying to create an RPG with a little bit more flesh on its bones, especially story wise.

RPGDot: Thanks for the interview. Is there anything you would like to add?

Bronthion: It was my pleasure. If I want to add something, it's this: right now we live in difficult times, especially for game developers. In times where everybody looks for chances to save as much money as possible, one of the first things that is going to be cut are complex storylines (e.g. to optimize the word-count). Especially small developers need every game copy they can sell. Remember: a game worth downloading is also worth buying… ;-)