A lot of people go into making games on the scale of Baldur's Gate 3 and the new Divinity, and I'm not just talking about the devs. You've got all sorts of office personnel and people of varying disciplines contributing to a company getting something released, and Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke recently took some time to make sure everyone understands those who make sure his team are successful.
"Every three months we gather up to discuss the state of the game. It takes us four long days just to go through the features and their status, and that's not even looking at the content," he says.
"The thing that struck me the most this time is the amount of support structure we had to build just to be able to do all of this and how important the people running it are," he adds. "It gives you warm feelings to see how much effort they put in because they know that somehow at some point it'll all make a difference. They love the team fiercely and go above and beyond to take care of them."
Every three months we gather up to discuss the state of the game. It takes us 4 long days just to go through the features and their status, and that's not even looking at the content. There everything is in the thousands or sometimes even hundreds of thousands. The reason of…January 15, 2026
He's talking about the "unsung heroes," staff whose jobs aren't directly tied to the new Divinity or whatever else Larian is up to, but who're indispensable to keeping the lights on. He gives examples of office managers and legal counsel who assist with issues out of hours, people who can easily get forgotten because their remit isn't as creative and they aren’t out representing the studio at major conferences or in interviews.
Yet what they do gives developers the time and space to work without worry. Imagine trying to make Divinity: Original Sin 2 while also having to handle team expenses and payroll and holiday allowance and the unending pile of miscellaneous paperwork needed to keep a world-class business running.
People at these disciplines are worth their weight in gold, and it's distinctly heartening to see Vincke make it clear why they're integral to making video games. "There's a reason developers include all of their operations staff in the credits and this is it," he states to finish. Here here.
