Game News Divinity: Original Sin 2 Kickstarter Update #17: That's a Wrap

[Infinitron]

Tags: Divinity: Original Sin 2; Larian Studios

Ah, another successful Kickstarter campaign. Divinity: Original Sin 2 ended up reaching all of its stretch goals, making it the most successful oldschool RPG Kickstarter since 2013. Our own fundraiser was also successful, and the RPGWatch was handily defeated, both in funding and in combat. Good times, good times. Here's Larian's celebratory post-campaign update:

That's a Wrap!

After 35 days, 42,713 backers, over 19,000 comments, and a whopping final total of $2,032,434 (plus an estimated $43,000 from Paypal), the Kickstarter campaign for Divinity: Original Sin 2 has come to an end!

All of us at Larian Studios have been truly overwhelmed by the level of support that we have received — not only in terms of pledges, but also feedback and involvement. Right from the beginning, it was our aim to use the campaign as a means to bring our community of fans into the heart of the development process. In every regard, you have exceeded our wildest expectations, and we would like to extend our everlasting gratitude to you all.

And of course, all of the stretch goals have been unlocked! The combined pledges from Kickstarter and Paypal mean that we’ve broken through the $2 million mark, and all of our stretch goals have now been achieved! Get ready for Game Master mode, the Hall of Echoes, Skill Trees and much more!

What's Next?

Of course, this is only the end of the beginning — there’s still a game to finish! The updates and community involvement will continue for every step of the way; there’s plenty of stuff that we haven’t even gotten around to showing you yet, and we can’t wait to bring you the latest developments. As for now, everyone across Larian’s four bases in Ghent, St. Petersburg, Dublin and Quebec will be raising a glass (or two, or eight) to celebrate the end of the campaign and to salute the best community of fans that any developer could possibly hope for!

Want to see how we party? Check out our twitch stream now — maybe somebody forgot to switch it off

http://www.twitch.tv/larianstudios
​

According to Swen, Larian will now go back to finishing up Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition, and after a short break, begin full production on Divinity: Original Sin 2. And what of Larian's other RPG that they were supposed to be working on? That's a tale for another day, I guess.

 

[Aenra]

Proud member of the Laryan Race !



(last time i say it ..honest..)

 

[Outlander]

Good times

 

[Shammy]

Will Dungeon Master mode turn out to be a superior Sword Coast Legends? LETS FIND OUT

 

[DeepOcean]

Will Dungeon Master mode turn out to be a superior Sword Coast Legends? LETS FIND OUT

If it survives until released date.

 

[lurker3000]

Well this ended with a lot more than I thought it would. Over twice the amount of the 1st one. Guess people really like the idea that they hired a real writing team.

 

[Jedi Exile]

It was a good campaign, and it ended with well-deserved victory. All funding goals met, yay!

 

[Drowed]

Will Dungeon Master mode turn out to be a superior Sword Coast Legends? LETS FIND OUT

If it survives until released date.

By noticing how shallow is the DM mode in Sword Coast, we can conclude that anything that Larian do, however superficial it is, will be better. For the turn-based battle system alone, it already is. It's not even a matter of whether or not they can fail, but that it's virtually impossible to do worse than the devs of Sword Coast.

 

[Xenich]

If it survives until released date.

That certainly is a concern. I am undecided in my speculation as to if DM mode would be as difficult (implemented correctly) as the NPC schedules.

That reminds me... Swen said NPC schedules were scrapped in D:OS because it was too difficult to implement after all the work they had already done. What is their reasoning for not doing it in D:OS2?

 

[Xenich]

By noticing how shallow is the DM mode in Sword Coast, we can conclude that anything that Larian do, however superficial it is, will be better. For the turn-based battle system alone, it already is. It's not even a matter of whether or not they can fail, but that it's virtually impossible to do worse than the devs of Sword Coast.

Didn't Sword Coast have mainstream (ie publisher funding) backing as well?

 

[Drowed]

Didn't Sword Coast have mainstream (ie publisher funding) backing as well?

Yep. Digital Extremes, if I remember correctly.

 

[JasonNH]

That certainly is a concern. I am undecided in my speculation as to if DM mode would be as difficult (implemented correctly) as the NPC schedules.

That reminds me... Swen said NPC schedules were scrapped in D:OS because it was too difficult to implement after all the work they had already done. What is their reasoning for not doing it in D:OS2?

Too many branching possibilities given the origin stories and tags they're already planning. He feels that they are already pushing the envelope and adding NPC schedules to the mix makes his head explode.

I think GM mode is easier to do without going "all in" like you need to do with NPC schedules.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Good job, Larian. You even won me by the end. Here's to $26 well spent.

 

[Crooked Bee]

 

[Turok]

It was a good campaign, and it ended with well-deserved victory. All funding goals met, yay!

Thats exactly the sad part.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Double Dibed at then very end, was surprised they were at 2M. My second double dib - this will rock in coop again.

 

[Zeriel]

Well this ended with a lot more than I thought it would. Over twice the amount of the 1st one. Guess people really like the idea that they hired a real writing team.

I think its (relative) success is entirely explained by D:OS being well received and Larian's last Kickstarter gradually building up a fanbase. They're likeable folks to say the least, and I'd almost expect the Kickstarter numbers to keep climbing incrementally if they kept doing more and more Kickstarter titles. 40K backers isn't bad, but it still isn't around the 80K that PoE got. They have room to grow their fanbase. Of course, coming at it from the opposite end, that's all rather irrelevant to their bottom line, considering D:OS (seemingly) sold way more copies than PoE when it came to Steam.

I think it's easy to forget that before D:OS Larian was a virtual unknown to a lot of RPG fans, only niche faggots like us who played literally every RPG ever knew much about them. They've done well to rise to basically the top of the pack in the span of a few years. Now let's see how ingloriously they fall, since decline is a fundamental force of the universe. :^)

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Proud member of the Laryan Race !



(last time i say it ..honest..)

Enjoy your brolapses you spiggot

 

[DwarvenFood]

Double Dibed at then very end, was surprised they were at 2M. My second double dib - this will rock in coop again.

What ? Did you just double dip ?

 

[Shadenuat]

So they got double the amount from the original D:OS kickstarter? That's really cool and shows that dedication and making RPGs bigger and more mechanically complex than you think you can can actually turn into something else than Troika-like fall
I am more hyped for this than for anything else, be it TON or even *gasp* Underrail
Gimme bigger and cooler games, gimme the restored genre of Ultima-like living worlds day & night cycles! baking poisoned bread! party and companions!

 

[Zeriel]

So they got double the amount from the original D:OS kickstarter? That's really cool and shows that dedication and making RPGs bigger and more mechanically complex than you think you can can actually turn into something else than Troika-like fall
I am more hyped for this than for anything else, be it TON or even *gasp* Underrail
Gimme bigger and cooler games, gimme the restored genre of Ultima-like living worlds day & night cycles! baking poisoned bread! party and companions!

If Troika had had Kickstarter, I think there's a pretty good chance they'd still be around. They weren't a very large studio, after all. Wouldn't have taken much to keep the lights on, but 00's publishers were on a quest to expunge all niche PC exclusives.

 

[puppyonastik]

Crooked Bee, you should use your magic to have MCA write our fundraiser reward.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

So they got double the amount from the original D:OS kickstarter? That's really cool and shows that dedication and making RPGs bigger and more mechanically complex than you think you can can actually turn into something else than Troika-like fall.

Divinity is visually appealing and plays pretty much diablo-style. If anything, it just shows that mainstream does no mind/is not afraid of complex features as long as the game looks and plays like fun. Especially with technical awesomeness like seemless coop.

 

[Volrath]

Divinity is visually appealing and plays pretty much diablo-style. If anything, it just shows that mainstream does no mind/is not afraid of complex features as long as the game looks and plays like fun. Especially with technical awesomeness like seemless coop.

Yeah sure, except it plays nothing like Diablo.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Yeah sure, except it plays nothing like Diablo.

Level based area progress (cleaning the areas suitable for your level), skipping through story/dialogs fast forwarding to combat, level based generated loot whoring...

Sure they made combat more complex, added exploration/puzzles and interaction possibilities within the world. But that's basically an improvement on the formula (for us). Think about it from the mainstream perspective. I didn't say it was a diablo clone - it is more in style of diablo (which is enough for the mainstream appeal).

Anyway my point was - i would not say "hardcore market is super viable because Divinity was a success". If you like it or not, Divinity has a strong mainstream appeal.