Larian Studios

Larian Studios
Video game studio
Industry Interactive entertainment
Founded 1996
Founder Swen Vincke
Headquarters Ghent, Belgium
Products Divinity series
Number of employees
 40
Website larian.com

Larian Studios is a Belgian game developer which was founded in 1996[1] by Swen Vincke who derived its name from his dog, Pilar.[2] It currently focuses on developing role-playing video game and educational games, apart from LEDWars[3] which is a hardcore strategy game and a number of casino games.[4]

Notable works

Larian's first project was called The Lady, the Mage and the Knight (LMK). However, they were unable to gain the recognition of any publishers as none believed they were capable of creating a game.[5] In order to rectify this and to prove them wrong, LEDWars (a strategy game) was developed within 5 months and published by Ionos in 1997.[6] As a result, LMK 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.[7]

In 2002, Larian completed work on Divinity: Sword of Lies which was then published under the name Divine Divinity by CDV.[8] In 2004, Beyond Divinity, expansion to Divine Divinity was published under 2 editions: the standard version by Ubisoft Entertainment GmbH[9] and the deluxe version by MediaMix Benelux which contained Divine Divinity, Beyond Divinity and a novella by Rhianna Pratchett called "Son of Chaos".[10]

In the same year (2004), KetnetKick (an educational and the first PC2TV game ever created) was developed for Ketnet and released by Transposia.[11] In 2006, Beyond Divinity was re-released under Gold Games 9 by Ubisoft Entertainment SA which was a set of 10 games on 6 DVDs.[12]

In March 2008, Adventure Rock,[13] an online virtual world was completed and released. This was later followed by the release of KetnetKick 2 in Oct 2008 by VRT, the national broadcaster in Belgium. In March 2009, GulliLand[14] 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 US market on Xbox 360 and Windows[15] simultaneously, after releases in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Russia and Benelux. Larian has also produced Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance, the highly anticipated expansion pack, 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.[16] The game has received an overall positive reception and gained attention thanks to its novel approach to strategy.

Larian's latest game, Divinity: Original Sin has been released after several delays in June 2014. The game was funded partly thanks to a Kickstarter campaign[17] raising over 1 million dollars, out of an estimated 4 million budget, upon its release the game has been the fastest selling game of Larian to date.[18] The game is a turn-based RPG, and the events are set between Dragon Commander and Divine Divinity in the story.

Games developed

Planned games
Larian Studios logo for Educational Games
Larian Studios logo, Educational Games
Educational games

References

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