Not that Gales new vantage point offered any obvious entry points - only austere, imposing brickwork.
That and a narrow pipe, through which smoke might leave the building.
A mysterious explosion rocks the ground floor of a building as you pass.
It would look like you were in a big city.
But you would go to a location, and be teleported to the other side of it.
And so we didn’t have to make it that dense.
It was certainly easier to make, but it wasnt that good, he says.
It didnt have that.
And so it was like, Its not the same game, guys.
What are we going to do?
Well, theres only one right way of doing it.
We want to be able to tell you a cinematic story thats fully driven by your choices.
And if thats what it takes, thats what it takes.
Theyve provided Larian with gameplay and tools programming support.
I just know its large.
On one level, thats extraordinarily exciting.
On another level, however, its alarming.
Even so, hiring extra staff has been tricky.
Its horrible, to be honest, Vincke says.
We used to work on pedigree, and we dont do that anymore.
You gotta take a test.
But I dont know if you’re free to write for us.
We do things differently because of our systems approach.
And so either you love it, and then youre fully engaged.
But youll equally find writers that said, I hated it.
Thats OK. We like a very specific thing thats not the norm.
Much of Larians growth has been driven by their new cinematic bent.
We underestimated that, Vincke admits.
We also didnt expect that we would need the 174 hours of cinematic content thats been recorded and mo-capped.
But it was necessary for the reactivity.
Otherwise I dont buy it anymore.
Few developers have as much prior experience with dynamic cutscenes impacted by player choice.
But even they initially struggled with the ludicrous number of possible permutations the game accounts for.
It was a beautiful marriage of two worlds that normally dont meet each other, Vincke says.
And as with any marriage it was tumultuous.
It kicked off with a shouting goblin on a roof - a classic Python-style comedy setup.
That got so much discussion, Vincke says.
Where the fuck do I put my camera?
The next question is, with the game launching today on August 3rd, what happens afterwards.
Theres degrees of how well the game has to do, Vincke says.
Certainly we can manage the future.
But we do need some sales.
If we dont have any, it’ll be like what you would expect for any studio.
Were dependent on the market, like any company is.
Larian haveplenty of plansfor their next projects, however.
Well see where it goes.
Its gonna be time to do new things, Vincke says.
Theres a lot of stuff that we want to try out that we havent had the time to.
There will be new techniques and procedures and technology.
Former contributor Emily Gera also works on it.
