Divine Divinity Interview

Myrthos, 2002-09-13

At the same day that Divine Divinity is released we have an interview with Swen "Lar" Vincke, who is not only the head of Larian Studios, but also the lead designer and lead developer for Divine Divinity.

RPGDot: When did the idea for Divinity first set in your mind and why did you want to do this game?

Lar: It sort of grew. We had been working on a number of different projects before, but always wanted to do a high paced very story intensive and interactive RPG, which was basically a combination of a lot of things we liked in other RPGS.

RPGDot: When did you start developing Divinity?

Lar: Somewhere in the summer of 1999, I don't remember exactly when.

RPGDot: Suppose you could turn back time and redo it all again. What would you like to do differently?

Lar: Well, tackling a project with so many ambitions as Divnity has been to put it mildly, very absorbing. Compared to similar titles our team was pretty small and our budget laughable, so everybody was doing multiple jobs at the same time. Unfortunately that also meant that if someone was not hundred percent ok, multiple jobs didn't get done. At the same time we didn't have that much experience so in a lot of cases, turned out very differently than we had expected, leading to a very iterative development method where we often had to redo things. Combined these two things lead to a significant delay. I think that knowing what we know now, we could probably develop Divinity a lot faster while at the same time significantly reduce the strain on the team, and if I were to turn back time, I think that would've been one of the main things I'd pay attention to.

RPGDot: What has the influence of the forum members been on the development of Divinity?

Lar: Oh - that one has been very large. We've always used the forum to launch ideas and see how those ideas were assimilated. It happened quite a lot that we got trashed, but more than often, ideas which we uttered got taken, looked at, improved and presented on a nice plate for us to implement. Additionally, we recruited several people through the forum because we were so impressed with the way some of the members there were analyzing gameplay mechanics.

RPGDot: What is the glamour of being a game developer….or isn't it such a glamorous job after all?

Lar: No, I'm afraid there's not too much glamour. Basically, everyone is constantly mad at you. The fans are mad because you are late or because there's a bug, the publisher is mad because you are late or there is a bug, your friends and family are mad because you are late and …well, you get the picture.

RPGDot: How did you experience the reactions you got after the demo was released? And how about after the German version?

Lar: With mixed feelings, but in general pretty positive. We've received some very positive and nice feedback about Divine Divinity, and that has more than once caused us to feel all warm inside. It's a pity that it was released prematurely in Germany, but that's one of these things that happen more and more in this industry. I'm glad that we in the end managed to patch it in the end because I felt very bad about it all..

RPGDot: What is your worst nightmare when it comes to Divinity?

Lar: My worst nightmare was that people were going to hate the game. In the end it did indeed turn out that there were some people who hated it, but (luckily) most people liked it really a lot and some even consider it to be on of the best RPG's they've every played. That's cool to hear.

RPGDot: What is the best single feature for you in Divinity?

Lar: I think the fact that everything is connected, something which gives you the impression of a real environment.

RPGDot: And what feature that didn't make it to Divinity will you miss most?

Lar: The multiplayer part. It's something we really wanted but unfortunately, we didn't have enough resources for it, and we didn't find anybody crazy enough to support us in it. A missed opportunity if you ask me.

RPGDot: Why did you choose for a skill based system?

Lar: It seemed like a pretty good idea at the time because it would allow a lot of freedom in the way the player would develop his character. Judging from the different characters we saw during testing and from savegames we got from players, it turned out we were right.

RPGDot: Are there skills that are required in order to be able to finish the game?

Lar: Yes, there is one - one of the Divine skills. Other than that, you'll definitely have to specialize you in something that gives you some punch and something that allows you to either evade or take lots of blows.

RPGDot: Were there skills that were really difficult to implement?

Lar: No, not really. They just were a lot of work, and coding 96 of them was quite a job ;)

RPGDot:When you play the game yourself, which skills wouldn't you want to be without?

Lar: That really depends on which character I'm playing with. As a warrior, I'll always go for the path of warrior's lore because all those passive skills together with the warrior's special move are very potent, especially on the higher levels of those skills. As a survivor, I'll go for the path of the thief, get myself a magic barrier and the survival skill. As a wizard, I'll get myself spikes, meteor strike and lightning, and then all the summon skills together with the leadership skill.

RPGDot: What do you think is the coolest area in Divinity?

Lar: Graphically I prefer the wastelands - from a point of view of gameplay, I like Verdistis a lot.

RPGDot: The ending of the game just calls for a follow up. Do you already have ideas for that?

Lar: Plenty, but I don't even want to think about right now

RPGDot: Do you want to make more RPG's (an add-on follow-up not included) or would you like to do other genres as well? And would it take place in Rivelon?

Lar: Yes to the RPG question, but also yes to the other genres. I'm dying to do a strategy game. Whether that will take place in Rivelon, I can't tell right now. I could imagine it…

RPGDot: When does your holiday start?

Lar: Soon, I hope - very soon. I'm waiting for all releases to be done, for the hottest tech support issues to be solved and then I'm going to take a very long holiday because I'm literally wasted. This game has really taken a lot of energy.

Thanks for your time!