#swen vincke

[emahriel]

Additional words Swen wished to say at TGA after BG3 won GOTY (thread)

[nobigneil]

Astarion & Swen (aka Yon Von Don) enter The Waning Moon. Astarion insults the staff. Swen puts his undergarments on his head. Both get barred for life. fin.

[silver-horse]

“apparently we are banned on TikTok because of the bear scene”  

 audience cheers loudly   🤣🤣🤣

[greencrusader13]

I’m convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that WOTC shit the bed when negotiating with Larian. There’s such a massive tonal shift compared to launch back in August, where Larian was saying they have ideas for the future. Patch 5 made it seem like new plots were on the horizon.

Something changed since then, because Swen seems 10,000% done with execs and industry greed (and good on him, I absolutely agree). If this is WOTC/Hasbro’s fault, heads need to roll. Driving one of the most dedicated and passionate developers away after they’d crafted a masterpiece is nothing short of a travesty.

[arisasblog]

Здравствуй, прелесть моя. Не смущайся, я обещаю не кусаться.

[spacebarbarianweird]

I just realized what the Larian team on The Game Award reminds me of. It's a DnD party. Led by Sven the Paladin. Neil is probably a Bard and his wife is a Sorceress. They also have a druid in a bear suit. "Ok, my people, you know the drill! If they don't give us the award, we roll for Initiative! Let's go!"

[saegusakin]

so, like, in a way, I appreciate larian studios for sticking to their guns and going off to do their own thing that isn't D&D, and maybe another divinity game would be good, but baldur's gate 3 in particular has meant a lot to me since I played it. maybe it's just because as an abuse survivor the themes of overcoming and breaking a cycle of abuse really hit close to home, maybe it's just because it had a sense of humor that really struck a chord with me that reminded me a lot of guardians of the galaxy, but I love the characters and to hear definitively that there won't be DLC is kind of heartbreaking for me and i'm kind of still in denial.

i don't know if they can be trusted in wotc's hands and i'm not excited at the potential for wotc to put them in like, app games and potentially less respectable endeavors considering how money-grubbing they've been in the past. i wanted to see so much more - potentially a dlc where we took to avernus to finally get some well-needed wyll and karlach content was my hope, and i was even willing to replay my durge campaign to get the ending where they survive to make that a possibility, but everything was kind of shoved aside now and i'm not sure what to do.

i'm really not ready to let astarion, shadowheart, wyll, karlach, and gale go yet. if there had been a dlc, i would've bought it in an instant. if larian said 'we're kicking it with bg4!' i would've immediately been megahype. again, i'm still in denial and i almost wish that swen would walk back those tweets because it almost feels like everyone else is still excited about what they've done here and what they're doing - the vas in particular seem to still really adore their characters which is so so sweet. i understand the studio's desire to move on and i respect it, but they made a group of characters that really mattered to me and a story that really seemed to Get Me. i'm probably not alone in this.

just had to get the thoughts out, i guess. i love baldur's gate 3. i always will.

[eruscreaminginthedistance]

Seen lots of talk about this going around lately so thought I'd put the sparknotes of this interview here for posterity.

Baldur's Gate-specific questions:

Swen reconfirms they don't plan to make any DLC or sequels to BG3; they made a start but didn't feel like their hearts were in it. They now have two other games they want to make instead.

When asked if they had plans for a Divinity: Original Sin 3, Swen replied: "Yeah, I can't tell you. No, it will have its proper moment. Hopefully nobody's going to leak it for us, but it's different than what you think it is, but it is still familiar enough for you to recognize that it's something that we are making."

Astarion was originally planned to be a Tiefling.

Ketheric Thorm was intended to be a companion.

Locations that got cut included Hell, Vlaakith's Palace, and Candlekeep (Dx).

BG3 characters now belong to Wizards of the Coast, not Larian.

There were apparently 24 different variations of Shadowheart getting the artifact to you (not sure if this refers to development or the release version of the game).

When asked about how Act 1 was very polished and well-received, but Act 3 had issues, he responded "Yeah. I know. Yeah, one day I'll figure that one out.".

They're currently working with Microsoft and Sony to start rolling out curated mods for console versions of the game.

Epilogue content is still being worked on. They plan to give each ending a full cinematic, and are currently working on the evil endings.

Cross-platform play is still in the works, but it's difficult to implement.

Swen's opinions on the current state of the games industry and general development under the cut:

Lots of righteous rage from Swen about the mass firings in the games industry and how they don't contribute to making good games.

"But because the ones that are making those decisions don't play the games, don't understand the ethos, they don't care about it. They don't understand that fundamental truth that that's in there. It's just, oh, well, it's a technical artist, we can get another technical artist, whatever. Also, who fires their technical artists?!"

He believes that AAA games with massive budgets can be sustainable for the industry because the audience is there, and because these types of games can fuel progression and innovation.

Believes the lists of upsides to early access is way longer than the list of downsides; "it is the model of the future. I mean, it's not only for your mechanics and your balancing, but even your story gets better. You see how players resonate, what they're after."

Swen's stance on AI is that it is a tool to speed up certain processes, but that it couldn't replace the creative elements of development. His current approach to speeding up artistic development is to hire more concept artists and writers, rather than using generative AIs. He does believe that it has a place in the future of game development, though: "I don't buy the full NPC being generated, but most likely everything will feel the same. So I buy more that there's going to be something that's crafted, and then you'll have AI that plugs into it to augment it. And it should be done in such a way that it's invisible, so you don't know that it's shifting around."

Remote work doesn't seem to be feasible for a game of BG3's scale. In their period of working from home, Swen noted that it was a much easier time for senior devs than for the juniors, who needed mentoring, and they had communication issues during this time as well.

[bitchesgate3]

(IGN Article Nov 2020)

You know - I get it now.

When this game loves mean women so much (as it should), of course Swen would be surprised when some people thought they were "too mean".

[emahriel]

help.... swen wore his armor at tga, this is amazing (X)

[nobigneil]

Source

[fandomlife-confessions]

[msnormandy]

NEIL💙💙 AND SWEN WEARING ARMOUR!!! (of course he is, what a legend)

[pallywaug]

Excuse me. Excuse me what year is it?! We have been blessed.

[bruceandmary]

Sean Astin and Swen Vincke: "Baldur's Gate 3: An Unexpected Adventure (feat. Elijah Wood & Sean Astin)

Sean Astin: Yes! I-I killed the big spider. Sven Vincke: You did, yes. Sean Astin: Again.

[silver-horse]

this makes me wish that Larian just made a similar game but not a dnd game, not a bg game... most of the themes and story elements could have been done with a different setting, the characters could have been nearly the same and Larian would own the story and characters and we wouldn't have this problem. sucks

guys I felt genuine fear in my stomach while reading this tweet...