Divinity: Original Sin Interview with Game Director Swen Vincke

Larian Studios is putting together a brand new RPG called Divinity: Original Sin that's very much in the vein of the Origin Studios' classic, Ultima VII.

I got in touch with Divinity's game director, Swen Vincke, to talk about the upcoming game.

GR: The turn-based RPG genre has been dormant for awhile, with the last major release being Temple of Elemental Evil by Troika over a decade ago. Additionally, the first Divinity game (Divine Divinity) had a real-time battle system. What convinced you to embrace a turn-based combat system for Divinity: Original Sin?

SV: Well, there's always been the desire to do a turn-based game. Actually, the first Divinity was supposed to be turn-based but it turned out that all publishers were interested in was hack & slash. The general idea, even at that time, was to mix Ultima VII exploration and world interaction with Fallout style combat. Now that we've finally gone the route of self-publishing our titles, we figured we might as well do something we really wanted to do in the first place.

GR:Why a prequel, and not a sequel? Are there plans to further develop the Divinity universe beyond the events in Divinity 2?

SV: Well, I could tell you that we need to fill in some details in the storyline before concluding the story of Damien and his father, and while there is some truth in that, the reality of it is that we just felt like doing something different. Divinity 3 is something we'll come back to, but not right away.

For the fans, this game is going to be about The Source, something that's only been alluded to in the first Divinity and the birth of the Black Ring. The advantage is that people who never played a Divinity will not miss out on anything & those that did play a Divinity will understand a lot more of the lore behind some of the things that happened later in the timeline.

GR: The game can be played in both single- and multiplayer. Are there any major differences in how the campaign plays out?

SV: No. It's a party based RPG so in single player you also control a party & the difference in multiplayer is that party control is shared, up to the point that you can even have discussions in dialogs between the party members.

GR: Divinity: Original Sin comes with a campaign editor. How flexible is it? What can players do with it, exactly?

SV: They'll be able to make their own worlds with their own artwork (or ours if they want to) and their own stories. It's based around the methods & tech we've been using ourselves for quite some years, and if you can make a Divinity RPG with it, you can make quite a lot with it. It's quite straightforward really, but of course, making a good RPG world will take some effort, no matter how good the tools.

GR: Are there any plans to integrate Valve's Steam Workshop for players to share their creations online?

SV: Yes, the game's been created with this type of sharing in mind.