S
ince Baldur’s Gate III’s announcement in
2019 , Larian has made an art of the disaster
demo. It usually happens like this: during an
onstage presentation, creative director
Swen Vincke deviates from the ‘golden path’
- a pre-approved route through the game, tested and
made bug-free for demonstration purposes. He clicks
on something he shouldn’t, and that thing breaks, in
front of a large crowd.
“If our developers are in the audience, they’re losing their
minds,” says Larian’s director of publishing, Michael
Douse. “But everyone on my team and the audience are
laughing their asses off. Even our first showing of the game
at PAX was an absolute shitshow. It’s so antithetical to
what a presentation should be, but it is funny. Funny is such
an important word.”
Comedy is Larian’s secret weapon in holding audience
attention for what Douse describes as a five year marketing
campaign for BGIII. “Publishing for me is basically run like
a comedy writers’ room,” he says. “We have a lot of
discussions, and we try and find the funniest ideas.”
It’s a process inspired by Douse’s admiration for
Adult Swim comedians like Tim & Eric, as well as the
surreal, shambolic Eric Andre Show. The results are best
appreciated in Larian’s Panels from Hell, high concept
streams timed to show off important updates to Baldur’s
Gate III. February’s live playthrough opened on a lavish
feast scene, in which Vincke, wearing a full suit of
armour, casually mucked about in Divinity: Original Sin
II on the Steam Deck.
“We have a special guest!” babbled Vincke.
“Unfortunately he had to go for a second, he’s in traffic
right now, he’s gonna come back. He had to talk to the
person that leaked our trailer earlier today. I hope none of
you saw it, if you’ve seen it, forget about it.” The CEO
gestured to a nearby ice sculpture of a D&D mind flayer.
“Otherwise this guy’s gonna help you forget about it.”
In a typical Panel from Hell, clumsy camerawork and
unplanned departures from the script are par for the
course, and part of the appeal. “When you look at the
comedy scene and how people are starting to go direct, if
you have the right crew, you can basically make an ad lib,
ad hoc TV show,” Douse says. “We just allow that
messiness and loosely structured team dynamic to flow,
and sprinkle news on top of that.”
PUB CHAT
Larian’s publishing team coalesced after the success of the
Divinity: Original Sin games – with the intention of
reducing outside influences. “Self-publishing was really the
logical step,” Douse says. “Because that way we control the
distribution, timelines, release dates. Nobody can tell us
what our messaging should be. There is one outside
influence that we do not cut off, which is the audience.
What we want to do is be as close to the audience as
possible, with as little as possible in between.”
For this part of his job, Douse takes inspiration from
music, and lots of it – on a slow morning, he’ll have
listened to three hours of conscious hip hop and
Ethiopian jazz before his international team clocks in.
“On an ideal day, I can listen to some RAP Ferreira and
then go to a meeting, and I can talk to that person in a way
that is as authentic as the music I’ve just been listening
to,” he says. “Publishing is really just communication – a
finely crafted, deliberate message for a very engaged and
specific audience. And that’s really what hip hop is now,
and that’s why I’m so connected to it.”
In Dublin, where Larian’s publishing team is based,
Douse took Vincke to a hip hop show and explained that, in
each of their separate worlds, Larian and RAP Ferreira
were doing the same thing. “They’re trying to cut down
distribution channels, they’re trying to say exactly what
they want to say to an audience that they know that they
have, and they’re coming up with the same lateral solutions
that we are,” Douse says. “This world of conscious hip hop
and jazz and independent videogames have this weird
connection. Luckily he got that, otherwise I would’ve
looked like an idiot.”
Jeremy Peel
ROUGH SKETCH
How Adult Swim and hip hop inform BALDUR’S GATE III’SPanels from Hell
RAP FOREVER
A potted history of hip hop in games
DJ HERO
Focusedon the production
rather than thepersonon the
mic, Activision’s Guitar Hero
follow-up was surprisingly
legit – offering mixes from
the likes of DJ Shadow.
50 CENT: BLOOD ON
THE SAND
An unlikely third-person
shooter in which G-Unit’s
payment for a show, a
diamond-encrusted skull, is
stolen by thieves.
PARAPPA THE RAPPER
Considered the first ever
rhythm game, PaRappawas
inescapable in the late ’90s.
Paper-thin dogs remain a
rarity among both videogame
protagonistsand rap stars.
NEWS | OPINION | DEVELOPMENT
14
INSPIRATIONS AND CONNECTIONS IN GAMES
Positive
Influence
