Original Sin - Interview @ Gamespot

[Couchpotato]

Gamespot has a new interview with Swen Vincke about the success of Original Sin, and talks about how their next game won't need to use kickstarter.

Being PC-exclusive was a good thing

Although some games in the Divinity series have made it onto console in the past, Original Sin was developed exclusively with the PC and Mac in mind. Vicke said the omission of a console release lifted a lot of restrictions in the development phase and allowed the team to make alterations on the game "until the very last moment," which would not have been possible for a console release.

"It puts a lot of constraints for you as a developer if you work for console. At the end phase of a project deadlines are very rigid, and you need to go through the procedures at Microsoft or Sony with the dreaded [certification] checks." Vincke said, adding that the costs involved in making a console game were "much higher" than that of developing a PC-only game.

No more Kickstarter please

Divinity: Original Sin's Kickstarter campaign was met with generous support, amassing $944,282 in funding by the end of its run and allowing Larian Studios to self-publish the game.

Vincke was grateful for the support from the Kickstarter community, but hesitant about utilizing such a model again.

"I hate to think what the game would've been if we didn't have Kickstarter… if you asked me before Original Sin was released I would've said yes… I don't think it would be correct to go and fish in the pool of crowdfunding investment again, I think that there's others that could use that investment," he said. However, he expressed a desire to harness community involvement once again in the development process, dubbing the community which the Kickstarter campaign brought as "invaluable."

"I think that is a very great positive for the gameplay experience that results at the end of the day," he said.

More information.

 

[HiddenX]

Swen about future updates for D:OS

His comment refers to the two new companions and new skills on their way to the game and end-game balances for the ranger and warrior classes, of course. In addition to this, Vincke mentions that the studio is working on bringing out a "much better, harder, difficulty level" in which all encounters will be different, as well as fine-tuning the game's inventory management.

-> D:OS is such a success that the next project needs crowdfunding no more

 

[Aubrielle]

Swen, give us dual wielding! I'll love you more than I already do!

 

[mbpopolano24]

And yet I hope they will go for a PC-only, Kickstarter co-founded route again. They don't need the money, but they should remain faithful to their dedicated community. It is that community, after all, that gave a significant contribution to the success of DOS. Bring the crowd in later stages as they did for DOS, have a realistic deadline within a year or so, open to Earl Access and feedback, and the next game will stay in the top-chart for months again.

 

[forgottenlor]

And yet I hope they will go for a PC-only, Kickstarter co-founded route again. They don't need the money, but they should remain faithful to their dedicated community. It is that community, after all, that gave a significant contribution to the success of DOS. Bring the crowd in later stages as they did for DOS, have a realistic deadline within a year or so, open to Earl Access and feedback, and the next game will stay in the top-chart for months again.

They could do that just with early access (and no Kickstarter), don't you think?

 

[crpgnut]

Some folks fear Steam and Early Access is Steam only. I like the idea though. Larian doesn't really need Kickstarter. They can fund via Early Access and Paypal and other options.

 

[Carnifex]

Yeah, still waiting on those final companions myself.....hopefully this year. I agree with him about avoid crowd funding in the future on projects. Also agree on not doing the console thing, given the choice of working on current pc's or machines that are close to 10 yrs in the past, it's a no brainer to me on which to pick and which to stick with.

 

[rjshae]

I don't think his presented reasoning for not going to Kickstarter again is correct: it's up to the donors who they back. If all we're left with is lower quality offerings, then I don't think the unspent money is necessarily going to go to those lesser projects.

(What I suspect is that they don't want to do a Kickstarter because it is so time consuming--taking up a month of dedicated time.)

 

[Stingray]

Some folks fear Steam and Early Access is Steam only. I like the idea though. Larian doesn't really need Kickstarter. They can fund via Early Access and Paypal and other options.

Steam takes a 30% cut when you sell Early Access games though, Kickstarter takes a cut of less than 10%.

 

[rjshae]

Steam takes a 30% cut when you sell Early Access games though, Kickstarter takes a cut of less than 10%.

Yeesh, what a gouge... and there we were thinking Kickstarter would eliminate the middleman.

 

[Stingray]

It does, if you compare it to something like Steam.

 

[Moriendor]

Kickstarter's cut is 5%, not 10%. You can check out the fees here. The added processing fee of 3% to 5% (i.e. in addition to the 5% base fee) for credit cards does not really count because the credit card companies actually do collect those fees from Amazon Payments so it's not like KS is getting more than their 5%.

I also don't think that Steam's 30% is really a "gouge". Steam has awesome infrastructure by now. There are over 75 million Steam users as of January 2014. You always have a few million gamers active around the clock (approximately six million right now).
Anyone putting a game on Steam has the instant benefit of high exposure, an established infrastructure, convenient tools to manage your offerings, customer service, a huge variety of options and extras (Steamworks, Workshop, Steam achievements, multiplayer and community features etc.), payment services and securities etc.
All of this did not fall from the sky. Valve had to invest and constantly keeps on investing in infrastructure, personnel, traffic, security and general improvements to their services.
Regarding all of these benefits and the convenience of Steam's services and considering that the folks from Valve need to pay their bills, too, I'd be hesitant to use the word "gouge".

 

[Stingray]

Kickstarter's cut is 5%, not 10%. You can check out the fees here. The added processing fee of 3% to 5% (i.e. in addition to the 5% base fee) for credit cards does not really count because the credit card companies actually do collect those fees from Amazon Payments so it's not like KS is getting more than their 5%.

It's effectively 8-10%. Kinda irrelevant who gets it for the purposes of this discussion. I guess technically I should have said "Kickstarter+Amazon", yes.