Belgian video game designer, programmer and director
Swen Johan Vincke
(
; born 30 May 1972) is a Belgian
video game designer
,
programmer
and
director
. He is the founder and CEO of the video game company
Larian Studios
, where he has led the development of the
Divinity
series and
Baldur's Gate 3
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Vincke was born on 30 May 1972 in
Bruges
, Belgium, to Robert Vincke and Josiane Goderis.
[1]
[2]
He grew up in
De Panne
, where his parents ran a restaurant.
[3]
[4]
He also has an older sister. Vincke developed an interest in programming,
arcade
and computer games, as well as basketball at a young age.
[5]
[6]
He was particularly fascinated by
Dungeons & Dragons
and
role-playing video games
such as the
Ultima
series, which became inspirations for his own games in the future.
[7]
[8]
Vincke made his first game, which was a hunting simulator, for his father, while still at school.
[5]
He attended
Ghent University
, graduating with a degree in Computer Science.
[3]
[9]
He was originally interested in doing
speech recognition
, but decided to devote himself to making video games when he saw how much fun people were having with his projects.
[5]
Career
[
edit
]
Vincke founded
Larian Studios
in 1996.
[10]
As CEO and
creative director
, he plays a central role in the company and the development of the games.
[11]
He was the project leader and
lead programmer
of Larian's first published game
The L.E.D. Wars
(1997),
[10]
followed by the first two installments in the
Divinity
series, award-winning
Divine Divinity
(2002) and its sequel
Beyond Divinity
(2004).
[12]
Vincke was also responsible for the design of
KetnetKick
(2004), an
educational video game
developed for
Flemish
children's channel
Ketnet
. This game has later seen licensed implementations by several other children's channels, such as the British channel
CBBC
(titled
Adventure Rock
), French channel Jeunesse TV (titled
GulliLand
), and Norwegian channel
NRK
(titled
Superia
).
[13]
[14]
Later he led the creation of a series of new educational games called
Monkey Labs
(2009) and
Monkey Tales
(2011).
[15]
[16]
Vincke served as the director,
game designer
and script contributor on
Divinity II
, first released in 2009, with the final version released in 2012.
[17]
Around that time he came to the decision to make Larian a self-publishing company.
[18]
He then oversaw the production of the spin-off
Divinity: Dragon Commander
, released in 2013.
[19]
At the same time, Vincke worked on the fourth installement in the
Divinity
main series, titled
Divinity: Original Sin
, which was released in 2014.
[20]
The game became a critical and commercial success.
[21]
He subsequently directed its sequel
Divinity: Original Sin II
, released in 2017, which was hailed as one of the best role-playing games of all time.
[22]
[23]
After this, Vincke has led the development of
Baldur's Gate 3
as its creative director.
[24]
The game was released in August 2023 to universal acclaim, winning over 200
Game of the Year awards
.
[25]
[26]
[27]
In 2020, Vincke became the first recipient of the Belgian Lifetime Achievement Award for his career and influence on the Belgian games industry.
[28]
In 2023,
Variety
included him in the index of the 500 most influential business leaders shaping the global media industry.
[29]
[30]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Vincke lives in
Ghent
with his wife and four children.
[7]
[31]
In addition to his native
Dutch
, he speaks fluent
French
and English.
[3]
[32]
Works
[
edit
]
Year
|
Title
|
Role(s)
|
1997
|
The L.E.D. Wars
|
Project leader, programming, video production, voices, level editing
|
2002
|
Divine Divinity
|
Project leader, lead programmer, engine programming
|
2004
|
Beyond Divinity
|
Project leader, lead programmer
|
2004
|
KetnetKick
|
Game lead
|
2009
|
Divinity II: Ego Draconis
|
Director, game design, additional programming, script contributions
|
2010
|
Divinity II: Flames of Vengeance
|
Director, game design, additional programming, script contributions
|
2013
|
Divinity: Dragon Commander
|
Director, game design, script contributions
|
2014
|
Divinity: Original Sin
|
Director, game design, story
|
2017
|
Divinity: Original Sin II
|
Director
|
2023
|
Baldur's Gate 3
|
Director
|
References
[
edit
]
- ^
De Preter, Wim (7 December 2023).
"Belg Swen Vincke wint topaward voor beste game met 'Baldur's Gate 3'
"
.
De Tijd
(in Dutch)
. Retrieved
15 December
2023
.
- ^
"Divine Divinity"
.
MobyGames
. Retrieved
2 August
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Belgische Outcast"
.
Trends
(in Dutch). 6 November 1997
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
.
- ^
Purchese, Robert (14 July 2023).
"Larian on signing Baldur's Gate 3, approaching a new era, and games you've never heard about"
.
Eurogamer
. Retrieved
2 August
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
Tack, Daniel (7 November 2019).
"A Knight In Shining Armor ? Swen Vincke Talks The Long Road Of Larian Studios"
.
Game Informer
. Retrieved
31 July
2023
.
- ^
Dean, Paul (29 March 2013).
"No preconceptions, just predecessors: Larian Studios' Swen Vincke on old school influences"
.
PCGamesN
. Retrieved
31 July
2023
.
- ^
a
b
Valentine, Rebekah (8 April 2022).
"Baldur's Gate 3 Was So Huge, Larian Chose to Triple in Size Rather Than Shrink the Game"
.
IGN
. Retrieved
31 July
2023
.
- ^
Peel, Jeremy (26 December 2020).
"How an obsession with Ultima 7 led to some of the PC's best RPGs"
.
PC Gamer
. Retrieved
31 July
2023
.
- ^
Pasian, Alexandra.
"Larian Studios selects Wwise for the Future"
(PDF)
.
Audiokinetic
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
.
- ^
a
b
"Divinity, The Sword of Lies Interview"
.
IGN
RPG Vault
. 22 March 2000. Archived from
the original
on 13 July 2011
. Retrieved
15 March
2011
.
- ^
Schreier, Jason
(3 August 2023).
"The Strange Story Behind 'Baldur's Gate 3,' One of the Year's Biggest Releases"
.
Bloomberg News
. Retrieved
3 August
2023
.
- ^
"Beyond Divinity Wrap Report"
.
IGN
. 5 June 2004
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
.
- ^
"Kid's Interactive Community coming to the UK"
.
Games Industry
. 27 February 2007
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
.
- ^
"GulliLand"
. Larian.com. Archived from
the original
on 29 October 2013
. Retrieved
25 October
2013
.
- ^
"Monkey Labs"
.
Games Industry
. 1 September 2009
. Retrieved
2 August
2023
.
- ^
"Main 2011 MEDEA Awards won by Educational Game producers"
.
ATiT
. 5 December 2011
. Retrieved
2 August
2023
.
- ^
Chalk, Andy (2 October 2018).
"Hour-long documentary looks at the history of Divinity's Larian Studios"
.
PC Gamer
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
.
- ^
Handrahan, Matthew (29 January 2012).
"Going Solo"
.
Games Industry
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
.
- ^
Birnbaum, Ian (29 June 2013).
"New Divinity: Dragon Commander video shows over 20 minutes of gameplay"
.
PC Gamer
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
.
- ^
Gera, Emily (6 June 2014).
"Divinity: Original Sin is delayed by 10 days, launching June 30"
.
Polygon
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
.
- ^
Yin-Poole, Wesley (3 July 2014).
"Divinity: Original Sin Larian Studios' fastest-selling game ever"
.
Eurogamer
. Retrieved
3 July
2014
.
- ^
Chalk, Andy (24 May 2017).
"Divinity: Original Sin 2 will leave Early Access in September"
.
PC Gamer
. Retrieved
24 May
2017
.
- ^
Cobbett, Richard (23 October 2017).
"RPGs may never top Ultima 7, but Divinity: Original Sin 2 comes close"
.
PC Gamer
. Retrieved
24 October
2017
.
- ^
Purchese, Robert (6 June 2019).
"It's true: Divinity studio Larian is making Baldur's Gate 3"
.
Eurogamer
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
.
- ^
Serin, Kaan (29 June 2023).
"Baldur's Gate 3's release date jumps up to August 3rd, providing precious breathing room from Starfield"
.
Rock Paper Shotgun
. Retrieved
1 August
2023
.
- ^
Park, Morgan (7 December 2023).
"
'I didn't think we were gonna get it': Baldur's Gate 3 dominates The Game Awards with 6 wins, including GOTY"
.
PC Gamer
. Retrieved
9 December
2023
.
- ^
"2024 Awards Category Details Game of the Year"
.
interactive.org
.
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
. Retrieved
16 February
2024
.
- ^
De bont, Christophe (17 January 2020).
"Swen Vincke to receive first Belgian Lifetime Achievement Award"
.
FLEGA
. Retrieved
31 July
2023
.
- ^
McKenzie, Theodore (20 December 2023).
"Swen Vincke, Todd Howard & Sam Lake Join Variety's List of Most Influential Entertainment Figures"
.
80 Level
. Retrieved
20 December
2023
.
- ^
"Swen Vincke - Variety500 - Top 500 Entertainment Business Leaders"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
20 December
2023
.
- ^
Dean, Paul (10 January 2014).
"Why Divinity: Original Sin might be the RPG you've been waiting for"
.
Eurogamer
. Retrieved
2 August
2023
.
- ^
Cario, Erwan (13 July 2023).
"Silence on Joue ! La demesure de ≪Baldur's Gate 3≫, avec Swen Vincke, fondateur de Larian Studios"
.
Liberation
(in French)
. Retrieved
2 August
2023
.
External links
[
edit
]