Divine Divinity 2 Video Footage

[GameBanshee News]

Out of nowhere tidbits of footage from Larian Studios' Divine Divinity 2 surfaced on a Belgian news report about funding game studios. You can view the news report here.

It is all in Belgian and mostly sees the production manager and lead designer explain the cost and size of the product: they note Divinity 2 will have an international release in 2009 and currently has 80 people working on it, including outsourcing, and will have a total of 120 people working on it "at its peak." The forum thread on Larian's site clarifies that there are less than 50 people working on it in-house.

The footage is short but tantalizing, as it shows a sword-wearing PC walk around the world utilizing an over-the-shoulder camera.

Thanks go to RPGWatch for the scoop.

[Tricky]

I thought it was a bit weird how it started out about national politics. There is a fair bit about foreign government subsidising, and how it affects the competition when looking for investors. Belgium is apparently considering to encourage their own software houses, to help them compete in the world market. I didn't realize governments do this.

[Brother None]

Oh, it's done a lot in Europe.

The EU has a direct game fund which is small but very attractive. Basically, if you've released a game that sold a bit (not much), they'll give you money for your next game. Not loan, give.

Germany has a number of attractive tax redemption and cuts for game developers. I think France does, too. Not sure about Eastern Europe, but Poland and Russia probably have a number of special advantages for game developers.

It falls under art & culture, and there are a lot of subsidies to be had for art and culture.

[Tricky]

That's exactly the kind of thing that annoys me. Government subsidising to maintain some.. market equilibrium. They should just solve this kind of thing through the European Union, and not make the taxpayer spend money into a corporation from which they'll never see any return.

[Brother None]

Considering how important this funding is for artists, musicians, hell...any form of art.

The only reason I can still occasionally go to the Rotterdam philharmonic orchestra is thanks to subsidies. Is that fair? It's more fair than the market is, in any case.

I don't see what difference it makes through which body it goes through. EU or locally, it's still tax-payers shelling out to keep our artistic body up

[Tricky]

That's different. The question here isn't whether or not games are an art form. The games industry is what, second to the film industry in revenue? If it were just indie developers trying to make it in the big world, then I'd say yes, definitely. They need it like the junior fashion designer or independent film house needs it.

Then of course commercialism has become our culture, hasn't it? If mainstream culture is to completely decide what's artistic, then the governments of the world might as well start funding chain stores.

Quote:

I don't see what difference it makes through which body it goes through. EU or locally, it's still tax-payers shelling out to keep our artistic body up

Subsidising these kinds of corporations is only meant to tip the scales in finding investors in favour of one country. That was the point about equilibrium I was trying to get across earlier. What the EU cán do is to make some solid agreements with countries to stop protecting their own economy in such a fashion. The same thing was done with wine, globally. The games industry may represent the Service Sector, but it's still trade.

[BuckGB]

I'm a bit puzzled why the gameplay footage looks so fluid and polished, yet Larian hasn't even "officially" confirmed that a Divine Divinity sequel is in development yet. I would think that even this early build seen in the video clip would be more than worthy of press demonstrations, trailers, screenshots, and everything else that's necessary to get some buzz started.

In any case, I'm very happy to see that a third Divinity game will indeed see the light of day. Hopefully the team will start releasing some info about it soon.

[Tricky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuckGB I'm a bit puzzled why the gameplay footage looks so fluid and polished, yet Larian hasn't even "officially" confirmed that a Divine Divinity sequel is in development yet.

The lead designer in the video mentions that 'the full 80' (including outsourced employees), has been working on this game for roughly one and a half to two years. But it implies some core group has been working on it for an even longer period. What does that tell you about their development phase?

It does look good. But I should add later on there are some shots of some kind of Belgian game expo (you see children there), and it doesn't seem clear to me if the footage shown there belongs to Larian Studios also. It's possible.

[fable]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BuckGB I'm a bit puzzled why the gameplay footage looks so fluid and polished, yet Larian hasn't even "officially" confirmed that a Divine Divinity sequel is in development yet. I would think that even this early build seen in the video clip would be more than worthy of press demonstrations, trailers, screenshots, and everything else that's necessary to get some buzz started.

They have had a thread requesting game features from players in their forums for over two years, now. They've just been playing it very close to their chests, and I can't say I blame them, either.

I do hope that the new engine doesn't mean the sacrifice of gameplay and ease-of-use. It's been my experience those go when 3D becomes the end-all of existence. And for too many companies, it is.