It’s not easy to make a game in the current climate, especially if after numerous experiences with publishers you don’t feel like bending to their will when it comes to the forfeit of creativity, one developer that has experienced this in the past is Larian Studios the creators of the legendary Divinity series, so they’re jumping on Kickstarter to help out the hotly anticipated Divinity: Original Sin.
But they were getting by fine before now, how come they want the money? The current team on Divinity: Original Sin is very small, and Larian want to put together a secondary design team with extra programmers, artists, animators and testers, and that ain’t cheap!
Larian Studios are currently looking for $400,000 to fund an extra team which will allow them to increase the depth and diversity of the game so that they can guarantee the varied paths that you can take on a quest, and the important choice and consequence mechanics of each one, not to mention more areas to explore, npcs and creatures.
Perhaps we should let you know a bit more about the game. Divinity: Original Sin is a proper RPG, you won't find yourself on a quest for Kobold candles; there are no simple and repetitive fetching quests, because after all, everyone knows that performing arduous tasks is just not fun. Instead Original Sin is promised to be full of complex quests that branch at any given minute and make you feel like an actual hero or villain, not simply a glorified messenger.
What is very exciting, and different about Divinity: Original Sin is that the developers see it as the digital version of a pen and paper roleplaying game, which in essence is a very cool idea, and they see it as a potential couch co-op where players work together for a variety of systems, more importantly the unique conversation system that hopes to emulate the group conversations that would take place in a roleplaying game. When one player starts up a conversation everyone can get involved, make their own choices and start long dialogues with each other in real life pertaining the the questionable choices they have made in game, suddenly Original Sin is not just a game where three clients play with the host, but where four players play as a real group.
Not only does the game offer all of this, but it also includes an editor allowing modders to create content with scripting that is accessibly to pretty much anyone!
The Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter project has another 27 days left and is already over 40% of the way there, pledging $25 will get you a digital copy of the game, and there’s a host of physical rewards available from t-shirts to games with cloth maps, heck if you pledge a certain amount you can write dialogue, design henchmen and name pets.