Divinity: Original Sin 2 announced! KS to launch Aug. 26

Larian Studios announced Divinity: Original Sin 2 officially. And announced also that there will be a kickstarter starting day 26.

There will also be a playable demo at their booth in PAX Prime, and some cosplay inspired in the universe at the event.

Also they are asking for your input, right now about the kickstarter rewards, so if you want to suggest prizes and discuss ones that have already been proposed, hop on to http://divinityoriginalsin2.com/.

Here is Larian Studios kickstarter page, with these informations: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin/posts/1317639

Keep the great combat and make the story and world way, way better and I'm in. I don't know if I'm interested again if they drop the ball on many important RPG elements (to my tastes).

The Enhanced Edition of the first game isn't out yet, but at least that made me realize they know there are major issues with those aspects of the game. I hope the sequel could greatly improve in those areas. It's been a little disappointing to see a lot of these Kickstarter RPGs feel way more combat focused than having strong story elements. More Icewind Dale than Baldur's Gate if you will.

That being said, the combat in the first game is outstanding and a lot of the systems (like the elements and spell interaction) was great, so I don't mean to sound all negative. I played 40 hours while finding the story and world to be pretty terrible so that says a lot for me when it comes to an RPG.

I dunno how I feel about a game that, by most accounts seems to have been pretty successful and loved, needing a Kickstarter for its sequel. Maybe I'm just not ready for this brave new world.

This is fantastic news. The first game was my game of the year 2014, meaning I loved absolutely everything about it. Definitely going to back this.

@artisanbreads:

I agree!

I liked the combat, but after Cyseal the game got bland. And for the love of God, please fix the overly ambiguous quests that constantly require you to have a Google window open. I don't like hand holding as much as the next guy, but for cryin' out loud... when I solved a puzzle I didn't feel smart; I felt lucky.

With all that being said, I'm super excited for the Enhanced Edition, and the announcement of DOS:2.

Even with my complaints, that game has a great base to build on.

P.S. I though Larian said they wouldn't have to crowd fund the next game?

Similar sentiment to above: played enough of the combat that a sequel with a story/characters/writing that bland would not get me to play through it all again.

Also I've never put money towards a game kickstarter before and after recent events that isn't changing any time soon.

So excited. The first game was amazing and I might go through it again with the Enhanced Edition. I am completely on board with them making another. Lets do it!

Kickstarter? Original sin was launched a year ago and won a shitload of GOTY awards. You didn't make enough to fund a sequel? Fuck outta here.

They at least..... kind of..... address that they are using Kickstarter again for this game in this blog post:

Divinity: Original Sin wouldn’t be the game it was without the input from our Kickstarter backers & Steam Early Access players. There were a lot of them and they pushed us forwards in directions we hadn’t anticipated when we started development. To this day, our entire team is incredibly grateful for this. Our community was a critical factor for the success of the game. Without having that same community on board, I think it’s going to be very hard for us to achieve the goals we have with Divinity: Original Sin 2, and so we’ll do our very best to convince them to back us once again. The result at the end will be so much better if they do.

But that's just why Early Access is key, not Kickstarter. Hey, I am no financial expert and for all I know they just have to do this but it doesn't actually explain anything. Kickstarter isn't about feedback very much, it's about funding. I mean, there are ways Kickstarter can communicate what fans want but there are plenty of other ways to do that. Early Access is about feedback that shapes the game. Especially so since they state throughout this post that they already have made progress in developing the sequel and seem to have the ideas for the sequel pretty established.

As much as I enjoyed the first game, this kickstarted feels more like a pre-order than helping something get made that wouldn't otherwise.

I still need to continue the game but that's pretty great news. Loved everything I've played of OS so far.

I feel the same way. I loved the combat system and that got me through about 60 hours of the game, but the story was poor (I couldn't tell you what it was about a year later) and the world wasn't anything special. I never finished it and that's very rare for me when I've put that much time into an RPG. I just got bored with the combat and the story wasn't enough to keep me going. Still, 60 hours is plenty, I enjoyed my time with it, and I'd recommend the game to anyone who likes the genre, but it would be so much better if it had a good story and world.

I thought the last game did extremely well, why exactly do they need crowd sourced funding again? They didn't have publisher to take a cut of OS's profits, maybe they had to pay back some investors or loans, but still.

I would think they would have enough funds or at least enough brand awareness to get a favorable deal from some publisher like digital revolver or paradox interactive, without having to sell their souls.

Seems odd right now, but nothing more for the time being.

A lost save issue prevented me from finishing Original Sin, but the Enhanced Edition (which they have yet to actually put a date on other than "this year") will give me the perfect excuse to give it another shot. The combat and character progression stuff in OS is excellent but I couldn't tell you anything about the story or characters a year later.

As for this sequel, yeah, it will have my backing. I'm not sure it needs the funding after the first was a sleeper hit, but Larian at least has my confidence that they can make something interesting.

Pass on the backing it part.

The first game didn't set my world on fire, it seemed cool at first with that combat system interactions, but went downhill in just about every aspect as soon as you got out of the first area of the game. The characters stopped progressing, combat got boring and repetitive, narrative was on a personal crusade to put me to sleep, shallow itemization, etc

When it comes out i'll wait and see if they manged to learn from their mistakes.

How can you announce a game that needs kickstarting? You only announce games that already have secured funding, they must be super confident it'll reach it's goal.

@tennmuerti said:

Psst. Yo. I heard you like good ass RPGs.

Well here's a hot scoop: the sequel to 2014's Game of the Year drops on August 20th. It's called, peep this, Shadowrun: Hong Kong. It's a good ass RPG in a long line of good ass RPGs. It's got all you need man; characters with depth, complex moral issues embedded in a narrative of intrigue, highly customizable playstyle, and a bomb-ass cyberpunk world.

I'm just sayin', man, if the Dragon Ages and the Divinities of the world are getting you down, we got you. Church.

@oldirtybearon: Waaaay ahead of you sister. Already bought it :P

Wasn't the first game critically acclaimed? How can they not fund a sequel with the money they made from the first one

Weird Kickstarter as mentioned but hopefully another solid game.

@oldirtybearon: ...I should really play Shadowrun Dragonfall and then write a blog post complaining about it. It's been sitting in the steam library long enough.

Def worth playing. Finally got to it recently after being very let down with the original and it's way better than that was.

why's this need a kickstarter? first game had enough praise that they should have no problems finding funding for it.

Oooh yes! Excited about the game but not about the kickstarter.

@marz: Oddly enough, that's probably exactly why they are doing a Kickstarter. The game was popular enough that they feel they can go directly to their audience for funding. They could go to a publisher and get funding too, but then they would be forced to comply to any demands that publisher might have. If both options result in money to make a game, might as well go with the one that lets them make what they want.

The first game was successful and is coming to consoles...I don't understand why they need a Kickstarter.

I feel kinda the same way as the other commenters wondering why a second kickstarter exists, but to be fair to Larian, This seems to be what successful Kickstarter companies sseem to do e.g.

• Harebrained Schemes has gone back to the well three more times now , for 2 more Shadowruns and now Robotech
• Double Fine went back to the well for Massive Chalice
• Comcept attempted a second for Red Ash before even releasing Mighty No.9

I suspect once you've had a taste of that kickstarter money it's hard to get off. And perhaps maybe it's easier to blow through that KS money in development?

We know a lot of these games sell well, but I wonder if many of them actually turn a profit or if they just break even (the little I could gather from Double Fine Adventure was that Broken Age even with all that KS money still probably lost money due to low sales/low pricepoint, perhaps significant money) .

Just let me move faster. That's all I need.

This man speaks the fucking truth. Dragonfall was da dopest, baybee.

Kickstarter is up :)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/larianstudios/divinity-original-sin-2?ref=hero_thanks

The sin is no longer original, if there is a sequel.

Seems like they are trying to address big issues I had with the first game so that's good.

I backed it, and of course it's already a mere $50k away from the $500k funding goal. I wouldn't be surprised if this made more money than the first game's KS (around $900k) for as much as they're saying "The game will get made regardless, this is just to make it better and to allow for an avenue for YOUR feedback." I'm not sure what my feedback is, at least until I play the Enhanced Edition of Original Sin and figure out exactly what they've changed and fixed from vanilla, but that's not coming out until October or something.

The stuff focusing on reactivity based on player race, 4 player co-op, and spell crafting seems like they could be really cool. Not sure about their emphasis on a "competitive" angle to a RPG-ass CRPG where the combat is hard enough that everyone needs to work together, but I imagine this stuff is all very conceptual at this point. Either way, I'll be excited to see where this goes.

I hope they expand on the extremely limited character creator from the first one.

I've wanted to play the first for awhile now, but the fact that it's still so high priced on steam leads me to believe that they did very well with the last game. Well enough that it can still be sold for almost full price... They shouldn't be kickstarting the sequel to a successful game, either they have enough resources inhouse or they can get a publisher in who would want a piece of that action. They're sucking the marrow out of their fans and that's not cool. I thought kickstarter was for games that wouldn't be made without huge fan support?? One of the most popular rpgs of last year is not in that category.

I guess I can understand why some people wonder why they need to do another Kickstarter, but man. Businesses don't need to do anything, but given the opportunity to have more funding of course they would take it. Who wouldn't take half a million dollars plus for their company when they could? This sounds really cool and if the scope is easily achievable with Kickstarter funding, I'm all for it.

For anyone wondering why they wanted another kickstarter should probably watch their kickstarter video. The creative director explains it fairly well.

First game was my #2 GOTY (really, it was tied with Wolfenstein, but since we can't give ties on lists....) and definitely my favorite RPG last year, I see no problem in backing them for the sequel. The competitive multiplayer aspect sounds interesting and I'm not sure how it'll be executed, but I'm excited for 4 player CRPG action with some Dragon Age: Origins backgrounds thrown in.

But yea, I backed it.

I've been compelled by Pillars of Eternity after a bit of a slow start. Really enjoy the classic combat style and the story and lore is great.

I really enjoyed the combat in Divinity: OS, I thought about each encounter. The crafting system in the game was a bit clunky in its implementation but the concept behind it and its variety was magnificent. The world was super boring though, I didn't finish the game and don't feel bad about that at all. Story needs a big improvement.

Just backed it. I think they'll hit all stretch goals easy enough.

For anyone interested: The Kickstarter concluded yesterday and they made just over 2 Million, reaching all of their stretch goals.

Personally I can't wait until the release a playable build for backers.