Swen Vincke
Swen Vincke (38) is the CEO and founder of Larian Studios, the largest game developer in Belgium. He's been in the games industry since 1997 and was the lead software engineer and designer on all of Larian Studios projects up until 2005. His most important credits as a programmer include the multiple award-winning Divine Divinity (2002), LMK (1999), Beyond Divinity (2004), The L.E.D. Wars (1997) as well as a series of arcade games.
In addition to designing all of the previous games, Swen also designed KetnetKick, the world's first online creative community for broadcasters, which went on to break all kinds of records in Belgium and received the kids awards for best game twice (2004, 2005). KetnetKick has since been licensed by various broadcasters, including the BBC. Since 2005 he's more focused on managing his teams, which at peak consist of over 100 people and doing the business development for Larian Studios. He is actively involved as game director in all of Larian Studios' projects.
His recent work includes the award-winning and critically acclaimed Divinity II series of games including Divinity II - Ego Draconis, Divinity II - Flames of Vengeance and Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga as well as the breakthrough educational series Monkey Tales which in 2010 was nominated for a MEDEA award, the European price for the most innovative interactive product in education.
He has published several articles in leading game development magazines, spoke several times at GDC and gives numerous seminars. He also pushed through various national and international research projects. Currently Swen is working on new unannounced projects for both console and online audiences.
