Ben M-J
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vben.bsky.social
Ben M-J
@vben.bsky.social
2.8K followers 1K following 2K posts
Creative Content Manager at Larian Studios. BAFTA Member, also secretly 2 kids in a really big coat. Was: NoE, REWIND, Rebellion. He/him.
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vben.bsky.social
Ben M-J @vben.bsky.social · Oct 18
So many new people, I should pin a post saying who I am.

I work at Larian and manage creative content, with a focus on TikTok!

Follow us on TikTok here: www.tiktok.com/@larianstudios

Follow the Channel From Hell here: www.youtube.com/@LarianCFH

Nice picture of me attached for reference.
vben.bsky.social
Swoon neglected to tell us that they did not in fact have the dining table we ordered in stock when we ordered it, and that it would likely never come back in stock. Incredible effort there.
January 15, 2026 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Ben M-J
alyssamerc.bsky.social
Sharing for those who knew Patrick or anyone else who would like to help out a family that has been struck by tragedy.

Please consider donating.
www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...
Help raise £30000 to Coming Together to Support Our Family in a Time of Crisis or Supporting Our Family Through Loss, ICU Care, and Recovery – JustGiving Crowdfunding
Iʼm raising money to Coming Together to Support Our Family in a Time of Crisis or Supporting Our Family Through Loss, ICU Care, and Recovery. Support this JustGiving Crowdfunding Page.
www.justgiving.com
January 14, 2026 at 3:33 PM
vben.bsky.social
Finally finished Assassin's Creed Shadows last night. At least I think I did, I got a credits sequence about 5 hours before what felt like the actual ending, and I've never been more baffled as to how to progress a story. A good time though.
January 14, 2026 at 8:43 AM
vben.bsky.social
Absolutely awful to see Meta shutting down 3 fantastic studios in one shitty swoop, but I’m going to miss Twisted Pixel the most. A wild and weird studio that really made….just whatever the hell they wanted.
January 13, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Ben M-J
stephentotilo.bsky.social
Larian:

"we’ve decided to refrain from using genAI tools during concept art development"

"Trying" GenAI to "refine ideas faster" but won't generate assets without knowing data's origins and having consent; any in-game GenAI work will "be trained on data we own."

www.reddit.com/r/Games/comm...
January 9, 2026 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by Ben M-J
stephentotilo.bsky.social
Larian writing director says gen AI won't be used for the new Divinity game's writing

Says they tinkered at it for research, and it created work that was "at best" 3/10 in terms of quality, inferior to even his own worst human-written drafts

www.reddit.com/r/Games/comm...
The stance applies to writing as well. We don't have any text generation touching our dialogues, journal entries or other writing in Divinity. To answer your second question, 'how does generated placeholder text benefit development over simple stub text'"- it doesn't. We had a limited group experimenting with tools to generate text, but the results hit a 3/10 at best and those tools are for research purposes, not for use in Divinity. Even my worst first drafts - and there are a LOT of them - are at least a 4/10 (although Swen might disagree :p), and the amount of iteration required to get even individual lines to the quality we want is enormous. From the initial stub to the line we record and ship, there are a great many eyes and hands involved in getting a dialogue right.
January 9, 2026 at 2:33 PM
vben.bsky.social
I don’t really know what to say here but that I’ll miss Pat, he brought us all together for a silly game about space wizards and he was so lovely.
olliecragg.bsky.social Oliver Cragg @olliecragg.bsky.social · 10d
The family of Patrick Dane has made public today the devastating news that their beloved son and brother was in a car accident on December 27th and is no longer with us. His father and stepmother, who were also in the vehicle, are in critical condition, but stable.
January 5, 2026 at 5:31 PM
vben.bsky.social
Well, nothing more we can do until tomorrow.
January 4, 2026 at 3:59 PM
vben.bsky.social
We move on Monday and let me tell you, it’s a very relaxing experience that isn’t causing me to lose sleep
January 2, 2026 at 2:26 PM
vben.bsky.social
My 2026 resolution is actually to just unsubscribe from all tech analysis channels. I don’t need to know about bendy pixels or that something has florp-shaded floorboards, I choose to free myself from the curse of seeing those things.
January 1, 2026 at 1:19 PM
vben.bsky.social
Got my backer code for BIG HOPS and I know what I’m doing later.
January 1, 2026 at 1:10 PM
vben.bsky.social
Moving home is the slow process of taking a space that feels comfortable and making it unrecognisable. Don’t like it.
December 30, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Reposted by Ben M-J
paulhaine.bsky.social
Watching THE GREEN KNIGHT again
April 22, 2024 at 7:43 PM
vben.bsky.social
Credits on Unbeatable. Absolutely fantastic stuff, messy, weird, well written and filled to bursting with heart. Also stylish. I was a little worried the plot wouldn’t stick the landing but that final sequence is actually perfect.
December 25, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Ben M-J
tpneenan.bsky.social
me: you boy what day is it today?

boy: nonces shout out of the window day.

me: oof you’ve absolutely done me there.
December 25, 2024 at 7:57 AM
vben.bsky.social
oops we bought a flat and move in two weeks, this is gonna be a wild Christmas 😅😅
December 22, 2025 at 4:59 PM
vben.bsky.social
If you’re looking for an amazing hades-like, giving my fullest recommendation to TMNT: Splintered Fate. It’s on sale, has a Switch 2 upgrade, plays great and is ideal for little sessions.
December 20, 2025 at 7:55 PM
vben.bsky.social
A shame to see Bowen Yang leaving SNL but at this point his star has risen so rapidly it was a matter of time tbf.
December 20, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Ben M-J
kazuliski.bsky.social
Swen Vincke announces a Larian Studios AMA ⚔️
It’s been a week since we announced Divinity, our next RPG, and a lot has become lost in translation. Larian’s DNA is agency. Everything we work towards is to the benefit of our teams, games, and players. A better work day, and a better game. Our successes come from empowering people to work in their own way and bring the best out of their skill & craft, so that we can make the best RPGs we can possibly make. In that context, it would be irresponsible for us not to evaluate new technologies. However, our processes are always evolving, and where they are not efficient or fail to align with who we are, we will make changes. To give you more insight, we’ll do an AMA featuring our different departments after the holiday break, in which you’ll get the opportunity to ask us any questions you have about Divinity and our dev process directly. We’ll announce the date in the new year. In the meantime, I wish you all happy holidays!
December 18, 2025 at 5:44 PM
vben.bsky.social
It’s really hard to hack into KFC because they have colonel-level protection.
December 18, 2025 at 3:33 PM
vben.bsky.social
…I think Liam Hemsworth might be a better Geralt than Henry Cavill.
December 17, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Ben M-J
itsjessegomez.bsky.social
🚨 Digital Foundry is hiring a Junior Producer!

Rich and the team are fantastic, and jobs like these don't often pop up. If you know how to use Photoshop, edit on Premiere Pro, and are based in the UK/Europe, and love gaming and tech, this might be for you:

www.patreon.com/posts/145970...
Digital Foundry Is Looking For A Junior Producer | Digital Foundry
Get more from Digital Foundry on Patreon
www.patreon.com
December 17, 2025 at 11:10 AM
vben.bsky.social
Pls read Swen’s post from X
kazuliski.bsky.social Kazuliski @kazuliski.bsky.social · Dec 16
Swen Vincke's thoughts on the recent AI narrative ⚔️

"Holy fuck guys we’re not "pushing hard" for or replacing concept artists with AI."
Holy fuck guys we’re not "pushing hard" for or replacing concept artists with AI. We have a team of 72 artists of which 23 are concept artists and we are hiring more. The art they create is original and I’m very proud of what they do. I was asked explicitly about concept art and our use of Gen AI. I answered that we use it to explore things. I didn’t say we use it to develop concept art. The artists do that. And they are indeed world class artists. We use AI tools to explore references, just like we use google and art books. At the very early ideation stages we use it as a rough outline for composition which we replace with original concept art. There is no comparison.
December 16, 2025 at 8:10 PM
vben.bsky.social
🦎🕳️
December 16, 2025 at 2:33 PM
vben.bsky.social
surprise x 2: electric boogaloo
larianstudios.com Larian Studios @larianstudios.com · Dec 15
The plot thinnens.

With a 93 Metacritic score, the award-winning Divinity: Original Sin 2 is now yours to play on Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5!

Upgrade for free or begin your adventure today and prepare for what lies ahead.

youtu.be/_K_vKMo7DEI?...
Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Now Available On Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S, & PlayStation 5!
YouTube video by Larian Studios
youtu.be
December 15, 2025 at 3:46 PM