Larian’s staff held a large-scale interview to mark the anniversary of Baldur’s Gate III, sharing their working principles and development process.
The team has expanded significantly in recent years: around 40 people worked on Divinity: Original Sin, and the number increased to around 120 for the sequel. The company currently employs around 500 people.
However, lead writer Adam Smith noted that Larian managed to maintain the atmosphere of a “small studio.” The company’s CEO Swen Vincke compared the atmosphere to controlled chaos, where everyone is busy with their own thing, but control over production processes is required.
For example, the climax of the famous bear scene in BG3, where the squirrel drops the nut, was invented by the creators of the videos, and this moment was not in the original script.
Vincke also emphasized that Larian’s approach is player-centric, both in terms of gameplay and in supporting the creative energy of the community. The studio’s independence allows it to stick to its principles without pressure from major publishers.
Vincke believes that the studio’s major success was made possible by the failure of Divinity 2: Ego Draconis, a project that did not live up to the developers’ expectations.
The team had many ambitious ideas at the time, but lacked the resources to implement them. In addition, the publisher insisted on releasing the game despite its unfinished state.
At the time, Vincke was actively against this decision and even thought about leaving the studio. After this incident, Larian decided not to cooperate with publishers anymore.
The authors realized the need to “re-assemble”, which eventually led to the creation of Original Sin, where they focused on combat mechanics with the possibility of co-op. In the second part, they already focused on the plot – the original story was created in just three days, while work on the next one took several years.
The studio is currently developing two new projects, the details of which remain secret. Vincke did not rule out the possibility of working on something from well-known franchises, such as Ultima.
By the way, the seventh patch for Baldur’s Gate 3 is expected to be released in September.
