Larian Studios

Larian Studios
Video game developer
Industry Interactive entertainment
Founded 1996
Founder Swen Vincke
Headquarters Ghent, Belgium
Products Divinity series
Number of employees
 130
Website larian.com

Larian Studios is a Belgian video game developer which was founded in 1996[1] by Swen Vincke. It focuses on developing role-playing video games and educational games, apart from LEDWars[2] which is a hardcore strategy game and a number of casino games.[3]

Notable works

Larian's first project was called The Lady, the Mage and the Knight. However, they were unable to gain the recognition of any publishers as none believed they were capable of creating a game.[4] In order to rectify this and to prove them wrong, they developed LED Wars, a strategy game that was developed within 5 months and published by Ionos in 1997.[5] As a result, The Lady, the Mage and the Knight soon evolved into a collaborative project between Larian Studios and Attic Entertainment Software. Due to various problems between the two development studios and its publisher, the project was abandoned in 1999.[6]

In 2002, Larian completed work on Divinity: Sword of Lies which was published under the name Divine Divinity by CDV.[7] In 2004, Beyond Divinity, the expansion to Divine Divinity, was published in two editions: the standard version by Ubisoft Entertainment GmbH[8] and the deluxe version by MediaMix Benelux which contained Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity and a novella by Rhianna Pratchett called "Son of Chaos".[9]

Also in 2004, KetnetKick, an educational game, was developed for Ketnet and released by Transposia.[10] In 2006, Beyond Divinity was re-released under Gold Games 9 by Ubisoft Entertainment which was a set of 10 games on 6 DVDs.[11]

In March 2008, Adventure Rock,[12] an online virtual world was completed and released. This was followed by the release of KetnetKick 2 in October 2008 by VRT, the national broadcaster in Flanders. In March 2009, GulliLand[13] was published by Jeunesse TV, a French national broadcasting channel. In January 2010, Larian released Divinity II: Ego Draconis - the sequel to Divine Divinity - to the U.S. market on Xbox 360 and Windows[14] simultaneously, after releases in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Russia and Benelux. Larian has also produced Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance, and built a Gold Deluxe version that holds all Divinity II episodes, called Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga.

In August 2013 Larian released Divinity: Dragon Commander, a game mixing strategy and role-playing elements in the Divinity universe, before the events of Divine Divinity.[15] The game has received an overall positive reception and gained attention thanks to its novel approach to strategy.

Larian released Divinity: Original Sin in June 2014 after several delays. The game was funded partly thanks to a Kickstarter campaign[16] raising over 1 million dollars, out of an estimated 4 million budget, upon its release the game has been the fastest selling game from Larian to date.[17] The game is a turn-based role-playing game, and the events are set between Dragon Commander and Divine Divinity in the story. An enhanced edition was launched the 27th of October 2015, including all formerly published downloadable content and several improvements.

Their latest game, Divinity: Original Sin 2, a sequel to Divinity: Original Sin, was funded through Kickstarter as well, raising the necessary amount to create the game within hours, and reaching all of its stretch goals.[18] The game takes place 1200 years after the events in Divinity: Original Sin and retains many of the gameplay elements that were present in first Original Sin. The game was released on 14 September 2017, garnering very positive reviews from users, with 93% of Steam reviews being positive in the days following its release.[19]

Games developed

Larian Studios logo for Educational Games
Larian Studios logo, Educational Games

Educational games

  • Ketnet Kick (2004)
  • Adventure Rock (2008)
  • Ketnet Kick 2 (2008)
  • GulliLand (2009)

References

  1. ↑ "Larian company information". Gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  2. ↑ "LEDWars Official site". Larian.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  3. ↑ Larian Casino Games Archived July 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine..
  4. ↑ Paragraph 5, Lines 3-4: Publishing industry skeptical Archived July 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ "Article about LEDWars at MobyGames". Mobygames.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  6. ↑ The truth about LMK (by Lar also known as Swen) Archived 2001-08-15 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ "Information about Divine Divinity at MobyGames". Mobygames.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  8. ↑ "Information about Beyond Divinity Standard Edition at MobyGames". Mobygames.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  9. ↑ "Information about Beyond Divinity Deluxe Edition at MobyGames". Mobygames.com. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  10. ↑ "KetnetKick". Mobygames.com. 2004-10-29. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  11. ↑ "Information about Gold Games 9 at MobyGames". Mobygames.com. 2006-10-12. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  12. ↑ "AdventureRock". Bbc.co.uk. 1970-01-01. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  13. ↑ "GulliLand". Larian.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  14. ↑ ISM signs up Larian Studios Archived December 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ "GameStar: Voices of Igromir 2011. Swen Vincke: "It won't be bad, to have an army". Gamestar.ru. Archived from the original on 2012-07-10. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  16. ↑ "Kickstarter Campaign". Retrieved 2013-07-04.
  17. ↑ "Divinity Original Sin is Larian Studios' fastest selling game ever". Eurogamer. 2014-07-03. Retrieved 2013-07-04.
  18. ↑ "Divinity: Original Sin 2". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  19. ↑ "Divinity: Original Sin 2 on Steam". store.steampowered.com. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  20. ↑ "Information about LMK (The Lady, The Mage and The Knight)". Videogames.yahoo.com. 2010-11-09. Archived from the original on 2012-07-15. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
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