About this project
Divinity: Original Sin
$944,282
19,541
This campaign is now finished and we are extremely grateful for all of your support! With your help, we will make a fantastic RPG!
Be sure to Bookmark our official website or follow us on facebook for regular updates!
Visit www.divinityoriginalsin.com for more info (also in French, German, Russian and Polish).
If you're interested in how the game plays, check out
- Jessie Cox hands on
- Angry Joe on why he pledged
- Total Biscuit
- ForceSC2strategy's overview
- Ohmwrecker playthrough part 1 and part 2
You can also pledge via PAYPAL!
For those who still want to pledge and access Kickstarter exclusive goodness, the paypal pages will remain open until May 10th, 2013, 12:00pm PST.
Paypal contributions will be added to calculate the stretch goals.
For the total progress, add $37 256 USD from Paypal, (@26-04, 18:02 GMT+1)
There's also a full HD version of our project video, with subtitles.
Since the beginning of the campaign, we added several extra rewards to each reward tier, but we cannot change the sidebar descriptions anymore. Please refer to our updated sidebar on the official Divinity:Original Sin site.
There's also an overview of digital tiers and physical tiers. At the bottom of this page, there are up to date images of each reward tier.
You can customize your pledge with add-ons (e.g. T-shirts, Dragon Commander copy, Posters...). The add-ons are listed at the bottom of this page.
Extras
For every 1000 Facebook likes we get on Facebook, Bellegar makes an extra appearance in Divinity: Original Sin!
For every 1000th backer over 10.000 we will add a level to the Lair of the Unspeakable which lies beneath Phantom Forest.
Funded!
While funded, there's still one stretchgoal to go! Help us reach it and you'll get a fantastic RPG!
"Original Sin is an effort to achieve perfection, and the effort is hard to miss." - Jim Sterling, Destructoid
"The game felt and looked like Divine Divinity on steroids." - Myrthos,RPGWatch
"I've already played the current build and came away mightily impressed." - Adam Smith, RockPaperShotgun
"Picture a modern version of a world not unlike that of Ultima VII, explored either alone or with a friend, that sees you engage adversaries in tactical turn-based combat reminiscent of the great turn-based RPGs of the past. A world that is filled to the brim with choice and consequence situations, reactive NPCs, and a considerable amount of surprises. A world that captures the feeling of playing pen and paper RPGs with our friends. Then add the new stuff..." - Vision statement for Divinity: Original Sin
When making large-scale epic RPGs it often helps to summarise what you are trying to make in a couple of lines, just to ensure you don't lose focus during development. You can spend a lot of time trying to come up with these vision statements, but when we started making Divinity: Original Sin, it didn't take us long to come up with the one above. It's simply what we've always wanted to do. The only reason we haven't made this game before was that the following list never made it past the marketing departments of many a known publisher. Now that we are self-funding and self-publishing, we can get away these features:
- an Isometric cRPG
- play in single player mode or cooperative multiplayer mode
- a real epic CRPG, even in multiplayer, you're engaging in more than just combat and item fever!
- cooperative dialog system
- highly reactive world
- deep character development system
- plenty of choice and consequence
- create your own RPG adventures with our powerful RPG editor and share or play them with friends
- combat is very tactical and turn-based featuring: skill and spell combos, attacks of opportunity, action points and much more...
- exploration is greatly rewarded
- develop your character(s) to fit your playstyle using our classless skill and stats system
- countless item interactions and item combinations are waiting to be discovered
- music composed by the brilliant Kirill Pokrovsky
At the end of 2010, in no small part thanks to the success of the previous Divinity games, we finally earned sufficient money to start working on our brainchild on our own, and we decided to become a self-publishing studio.
Fast-forward two years (big RPGs take time to make). Today we are nearing the end of our development cycle and when looking at what we've created so far, we think that we have in our hands the best RPG Larian Studios has ever created. But, we also have the feeling that our job isn't done yet. The game systems we put in place have a lot of potential and because it took us quite some time to create them, we haven't been able to use them to their fullest yet.
That's why we're looking to increase the size of our development team. And because our budget is finite, we decided to come to Kickstarter to ask for your help.
Before explaining what we want to add to the game, let us first illustrate what we have already.
Divinity: Original Sin is a turn-based isometric RPG set in the Divinity universe which was introduced in Divine Divinity and expanded upon with its sequels Beyond Divinity and Divinity II.
In the game, you control a party of heroes and guide them on a quest to learn a forbidden magic called The Source. This powerful magic was outlawed many centuries ago by the Council of Seven, the rulers of Rivellon, for it is written that from Source the lord of Chaos will spawn. Today, Source magic has been used to overthrow the Council. It's up to our heroes to save the Council. To do this, they'll need to uncover the mysteries of the Source and of those responsible for cursing the Council.
As to how you do this, that's entirely up to you: this game is extremely non-linear and rewards exploration. There are many different ways in which you can complete the game successfully.
The game takes place long before Divine Divinity. If you are new to this universe, don't worry. Prior knowledge isn't required to enjoy the story or game mechanics, in fact we think this game is a perfect introduction to the world of Rivellon.
Of course, if you have traveled to Rivellon, there might be some encounters with familiar characters...
Combat is turn-based. Optimal use of skills, spells, equipment, weapons, item combinations and even the environment is required to overcome the various challenges the game will set before you. Spend your action points wisely, because this is a game rewards thinking things through.
The combat system features classic turn-based gameplay rules such as action points, initiative, alertness, flanking, backstabbing, attacks of opportunity and bonuses for efficiently working as a party.
Using your Source powers, you can channel magic energy in many different ways. For instance, you can manipulate the four elements to work together and against each other as you would expect them to.
There are six primary stats and manipulating them in combat can lead to surprising results. For instance, lowering the intelligence of an enemy with a curse spell, will cause it to walk into pools of lava (uttering words like "look, how shiny"). Or if you lower an enemy's dexterity, it has a much higher chance of falling down when it crosses an ice surface, forcing it to skip its next turn. Or...
Seeing through your enemy's behaviour and reactions is also key to emerging victorious. You can learn the strengths and weaknesses of characters by investing in intelligence and perception, or by fighting the same enemy type often. But you'll also have to use your own brain and find out that, for instance, greedy enemies are attracted to gold drops on the battlefield.
There is also plenty of loot and equipment to be found. But the game does not stop at the typical drops. You may wonder why you can equip a broom, or even a bucket. That may seem ridiculous (yet fun), but you will soon find out that combining seemingly useless items can be very helpful.
Add a knife to that silly broom for instance, and you have your first spear. Or while a mere wooden branch already does a bit of damage, combined with nine inch nails, it becomes a truly dangerous weapon. Or you can throw wooden logs at people to do some damage, but you really should carve them into a wooden doll using a knife, because these dolls can be turned into a voodoo doll with voodoo dust and the right portrait. Or...
Divinity Original Sin features drop-in/drop-out co-op multiplayer, in which each player takes full control of a hero.
You don't have to stick together. You are free to go and act as you see fit. When a decision has to be made, both heroes have to agree: just like in a pen and paper RPG, everyone has a voice.
Key to this is our unique Party Dialogue System where both players are involved in a dialogue, given that they're close enough to each other to hear the dialog and intervene. Rather than taking a party leader's final word, everyone gets to weigh in on the outcome.
If you don't agree with each other, the game looks at your persuasive abilities. The decision that wins is based on stats, the particular situation and the the approach taken to persuade the party. The game remembers the nature of your decisions as personal traits, and this in turn affects the relation between the party members.
Sticking together with your partner is optional. Feel free to run off and explore on your own, make decisions on your own, keep loot for yourself, and deal with people how you see fit. But be prepared to face the consequences of your actions.
If you hear your friend crying for help because he is being torn apart, turn by turn, you have the option to join him or her in turn-based combat. Indeed, it is possible for either player to be in turn-based combat while the other is exploring in real-time. It is equally possible for both players to have their own turn-based fights at the same time. Surviving such a thing however, is a different story.
The gameworld is diverse, interactive, very much alive, and highly responsive. Anything portable is there for you to move, pick up, destroy, open, throw, use or combine. However, be careful what you do. NPCs react to your actions: they won't just stand around while you steal, pillage, vandalize or murder the guy who happened to comment on your misdeeds. They also remember, have a personal attitude towards you, and are aware of your global reputation. If you treat your henchmen badly, for instance, rest assured that word will spread...
The world is very free and open, and rewards exploration. There are many things to do (or to ignore or reject), and you are invited to go look for them by exploring, reading books, and talking to people. There are many ways to complete the game. There is a beginning, a middle and an end, but how you fill it up in between is entirely up to you!
We're shipping a very powerful RPG editor with the game: the same one we are using to build the game.
It's been a very long time since anyone made an RPG editor that allows you to create multiplayer adventures. (Of course, you can also create single player games with it.)
The RPG editor features a world building tool, an item and equipment editor, a character editor, a dialog editor, and an advanced (yet simple to use) story scripting tool.
You can preview your changes immediately in the game, and import artwork as well as audio. There is support to work with multiple people on the same story.
The editor will be integrated with Steam Workshop to facilitate sharing your adventures, but you'll also be able to share your mods in other ways.
We want to increase the development budget so we can increase the size of our development team. This in turn will allow us to further increase the amount of gameplay in our game world. We are convinced that we are very close to making a great RPG and we want to rise to the occasion by investing everything we can into it. So far the game has been funded by investors and by our own funds, but we have reached the limit of what we can do on our own. Here's where your help becomes very valuable. Here's where you can make the difference.
Without your support, we think the result of our efforts will make a good RPG, but with a bigger budget we'll be able to go the extra mile, and accomplish our full vision for the game, as fantastic as it deserves to be.
We want to put together a secondary design team, backed by extra programmers, artists, animators and testers. We want to make this team as large as we can.
The designers' mission will be to increase the amount of interesting things you can do in the world, as much as possible. The artists, animators, programmers and testers are needed to ensure that all the necessary assets and features to do this are present.
Now is a good time time for expanding our team: we have a mature RPG editor and the more people we put on it, the more of its potential will be unleashed.
Our main interest is to increase the depth and diversity of the game. For instance, we want to guarantee that each quest has a meaningful choice/consequence mechanic. We want to ensure that where it makes sense, there are multiple ways to solve a quest. And when you move off the beaten path, something interesting awaits you.
This means that we will add
- more choices and consequences
- more quests and puzzles
- more areas to explore and discover
- more npcs and creatures
in places where we feel the interactions with the game world aren't interesting enough yet. Our ambition is to create a memorable experience for you, and we know that's only possible if we offer you a diverse, surprising and consistent game world. That takes a lot of time and effort, but it's what we love doing.
If we exceed our target budget we can start thinking on implementing systems that affect the entire game and not just the game world. Features such as more character customization, party members with extensive backgrounds, game editor features, more levels of interactivity, more skill classes etc.
If you are interested in isometric, “old school” cRPGs, this is the game for you. There haven't been many new games such as this lately, even less with multiplayer. We believe this game truly is something else, and it deserves everything we as a company can throw at it.
And we're not just here for your backing of Divinity Original Sin.
Ever since Larian Studios was founded, we've taken great value in our community, and as such we'll welcome your input as gamers, as backers and as fans. We know that your feedback makes our games better. You've proven it many times before and we hope you'll prove it again. By backing this project and giving your input, you become part of our team and an invaluable part of the publication of our game.
Also don't forget our RPG editor.
The more popular Divinity Original Sin becomes, the more user created content you can expect to see, expanding your enjoyment of the game way beyond the story we provide, be it with more fantastic stories or more combat-oriented dungeon crawls. Think of all the potential remakes of great classic RPGs that can be done with this, and this time with multiplayer support!
Rest assured that we'll give the editor as much support as we can, not only because it makes commercial sense, but also because we are looking forward to the day that we'll be playing your stories.
We're grateful for all the support and look forward to making the type of RPG we've always wanted to make.
Quick Overview
Digital rewards:
Physical rewards:
$5 - Believer
$10 - Potion Guzzler
$25 - Digitally Digital
$28 - Beyond Digitally Digital
$35 - Music Buff
$40 - Couple's Pack
$50 - Digital Collector
$65 - Roleplaying Strategist
$80 - Latecomer Roleplaying Strategist
$65 - Oldschool Rules
$75
$95
$95 - Box Collector
$100 - Messenger
$125 - Live Undead
$135 - Digital Live Undead
$150 - Digital Pet Lover
$150 - Pet Lover
$175
$200 - Playwright
$200 - Digital Sidekick Designer
$250 - Sidekick Designer
$300 - It'll Get More At An Auction
$500 - Creative Mind
$550 - Divinity Fan
$600 Even More Divinity Fans
$1000 - Leaving A Mark
$1500 - Rivellon Citizen
$2500 - Statue Of Prophecy
$5000 - Jailer Of Rivellon
$10000 - Mysterious Stranger
We support adding extras to your pledge and give you one or more add-ons for it. This way you can customize your rewards.
How? After you pledge, add one (or more) of the following amounts to your pledge. To do this after you have already pledged, click the "Manage Pledge" button and add the amount of the add-on to your pledge. Keep your selected reward tier. Once this Kickstarter is over, we will contact you so you can specify what add-on(s) you wish to receive.
Add-ons require a base pledge of $25. If you add a physical addon to a digital tier, please include $10 for shipping in Europe, $15 for shipping outside Europe.
Digital add-ons
- Divine Divinity Digital Version (HD): add $5
- Weresheep Forum Badge, In the Credits as a Weresheep, a hint: add $6
- THE Hint concerning the Weresheep: add $666
- Digital Artbook featuring the Art of Divinity Original Sin: add $8
- Digital Map of the World of Divinity Original Sin: add $8
- Digital Soundtrack of Divinity Original Sin: add $10
- Extra Digital Copy of Divinity Original Sin: add $20
- Beta Access for Divinity Original Sin: add $20
- Alpha Access for Divinity Original Sin: add $50
- Fanday Ticket: add $150
- Divinity Anthology (digital): add $20
- Divinity Dragon Commander (digital): add $40
Physical add-ons
- Cloth Map: add $25
- Signed Poster: add $25
- T-Shirt Weresheep Logo: add $25
- T-Shirt Divinity Original Sin: add $25
- Extra Box Copy of Divinity Original Sin: add $40
Risks and challenges
All of the game systems are already in place and the biggest technological risks have already been tackled. The base game is also already funded. Given that we want to add a lot of extras, our biggest risk therefore is that the game will not be released in time.
But Larian has over a decade of experience making RPGs, we know the drill and we have a good RPG editor that helps us work more efficiently. Additionally, most of the work that we want to do can be done in parallel to our current development plan.
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Funding period
- (30 days)