Hallo, I have Rhianna Pratchett with me, the author of Child of the Chaos and one of the main writers in Larian Studios Beyond Divinity. 

 What was your favourite part? Did you work on it personally?

Yes, it was my job to go through many of the dialogues and rewrite and edit as I saw fit. This meant adding in more humour and colour to the characters, plus my own little additions! The best part was when I’d edited a scene I was really proud of. Because the process had to be done so quickly, as the text needed to be put in the game and localised, I often had just one shot. I enjoyed writing some of the book texts as well that you can find in the game. It was a lot of fun coming up with those and it was a real learning experience all round really.

What was your least favourite part?

Probably when it was decided that the Death Knight wouldn’t be able to talk to NPCs directly, but instead would be able to communicate telepathically to the hero and see through the hero’s eyes when he wasn’t present. That was a real headache to do, because dialogue had to be written to cover each situation and it was a shame that the DK didn’t get to interact more with the other characters. I wasn’t very fond of the name change at first, but I’ve got used to it now!

What do you think of the story in general? (The twists in it, and the characters and the plot)

I liked the story and I thought it was fun to have two main characters, each from very different backgrounds. However, it was a bit difficult for me to see exactly how the story would go because I didn’t edit the dialogues or the acts in chronological order. Strange but true!

When/how did Larian ask you to help them out?

It was about a year ago. I had just left my staff position on a UK PC games magazine and I got a call from Swen (Lar) and Leo (Digital Jesters). They had previously used journalist to work on the dialogues for Divine Divinity and they were looking for someone to work on Beyond Divinity. I said yes, and a few weeks later I was on the Eurostar heading for the darkest depths of Belgium.

Are the Larian members really as nice as they act? Or is it all a lie?

They are all very nice, although maybe just a little crazy… in a good way

Why exactly did they cut the word counts in the game? Did you decide what words were cut?

It wasn’t a case of actually cutting anything, but writing less. Divine Divinity had a much higher word count and it’s often an expensive process to get games with high word counts localised. So it was decided that Beyond Divinity should be shorter.

Where did you get the idea for the Child of Chaos Novella?

Swen, Brothion and I decided on a very rough plot for the story that started with Damian entering the Academy. However, later on down the line the length of the novella was doubled, so I decided to start the story with Damian as a young child. The rest just popped into my head really, but I’ve always liked the way in which Greek mythology depicted the Gods and Goddesses as constant observers of mortals, so I decided to work that idea into the story.

Do you think you will work with Larian again?

I’ve been asked to, but I haven’t started working on anything else yet. I’d like to be brought onto a project earlier so I can do more original creative stuff like the novella or some of the book/manuscript texts that I wrote.

Do you know ANYTHING about the Secret Project that you can tell me? Or has Lar forbid you also on saying nothing?

I know a *little* bit, but nothing I can talk about yet unfortunately. But it will be a surprise!

Rhianna 
Thank you for your time, and good job!

I was given the chance rescently (ahh, more like I ran into screaming) to ask Lynn, Larian's very own Webmaster Angel, a few, ahh, questions about, um, the future??

SPOILERS, of, um, IMPORTANT THINGS

Interview with Lynn by Lews

1. Can I ask some questions?

Yes, send me your questions, ask whatever you want, I'll see what I reply to and what not

2. What is your hair color?

Very dark brown, almost black

3. Are you nice?

I am VERY nice

4. Who is your favorite forum member? (you can say all of us!)

All of you!

5. Can I ask you a question about Divine Divinity 2, what happens in it, the story?

            Im sorry, I can’t reply to that. Lar will release information soon.

Thank you very much for asking these, ah, IMPORTANT questions for our readers.

Beyond Divinity is out at (almost) all your local stores except (sadly) in Australia and some parts of Europe.

go get it now while it lasts!

and buy some for all your friends so that Larian can make many a more games!!!

Coming out on April 27 2004 in the USA (lookg at Best Buy!) Beyond Divinity should be out!

You also get the novella Child of Chaos (by Rhiana Pratchett, name ring a bell?) in a special pack at Best Buy (#1 retailer of DIVINE DIVINITY! http://www.larian.com/Site/english/divinity/divinity.html ).

I don't knoqw about you, but I will be getting ready to play, destroy other games, make room on Hard Drive, get new speakers ( I wish) new system (I wish) and new stuff (a game at least!!!) Yea!

www.larian.com

Go Larian, and OFCORUSE, Me!*silly*