Larian Studios shares new details on Divinity, confirming turn based gameplay, early access plans, AI usage limits, and a shorter development timeline than Baldur’s Gate 3.
Divinity: Original Sin and Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios has reversed its prior decision to use generative AI for the development of concept art.
I think biggest thing is that ai art just shouldn't be used in gaming nor most other medias. Please just hire on artists if you've got a good sized budget.
I think it has its place. Its perfect for generating quick assets just so you can test mechanics, level design and then replace them later when the art is done.
We wouldn't have the Oblivion remaster and subsequent Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters without AI
Wretchedstain
You say that like it's necessary for those remasters. Thing is, if you're worth your salt in any area of expertise, go ahead and use AI. You will quickly see the faults in the damn thing.
With code, it can be especially dodgy. I use Stata often and if I install an analysis tool, I might ask several different AI systems how to write the syntax for it.
Everyone of them failed.
Even with specifics for something as basic as a power analysis, it falls short. Game code is far more complex. Expect some serious issues to surface.
From your point of view DarXyde, I totally agree, I'm not even close to being in on what you know, or have any tech experience when in comes to code basics or asking AI to do so. However, and I was extremely vague on my comment. Don't let that diminish what is observable from what AI can do thus far. Character textures to me, were AI done, and that is easy given enough prompts to get what is desired, considering not much was changed from the base game of the Oblivion remaster, they're doing their best to slap a fresh coat of AI paint over these games, at the expense experts that may be like you, like the many that have that job no more.
For testing mechanics, they already have a slew of generic art on hand to do that with considering the number of games they've made. They don't need AI for that. As far as level design, maybe concept artwork as AI, but even then you need to have someone who really understands the art focus/goals of the games come up with final concepts before they even make it into the design. I think the AI use in game design is more for their testing of ideas before they even present it to the company, but that's on an individual basis and not a policy of the company.
I’d prefer AI never existed so we were pushed to achieve more ourselves as a species and not through an AI but it’s here and it will be used for the bottom line. Unless the dev/pub takes a stand only using humans for their game AI is going to be used from now on. I feel for artists and every other person getting replaced by AI.
stop acting like this is exclusive to AI. Do you also hate automation and the people that lost their jobs to that or are you too used to your current day luxuries which you take for granted which are made possible by automation? AI is in fact a great achievement by humankind and the natural evolution of automation, how we use it is another issue all together.
This is like these activists who wanna get rid of plastic yet have 20 products on their person which are made out of it.
The difference is that creatives are being threatened by AI, and people actually care about them. Earlier waves of automation primarily affected blue collar workers, and no one cares about their jobs being made obsolete.
that's why i said that how we use it is what we should be worried about and not AI in general.
AI has the potential to revolutionize medicine, space travel and so many other things that could benefit humanity, should we now shut it down because a couple people are upset their videogames have some AI images in them or some artists lost their job, fuck no.
and it's just hypocritical he feels for people who lost their job to machines/computers but only to the extent that it doesn't affect his quality of life.
Humans have limits. That’s the whole reason technology exists in the first place. Cars, phones, cameras, automation, game engines, none of that was created to make us lazy. It was created to push past what we can’t do efficiently on our own.
AI is the same thing. It’s a tool. It doesn’t replace creativity or decision making, it speeds up the process so people can focus on what other areas of development or even achieve things that push past their limits. The human still decides what gets made.
The problem isn’t AI. It’s how companies choose to use it. Saying we should avoid tools has never stopped change or protected jobs. It just leaves people behind while everyone else moves forward. Games made with AI are still made by humans, just with more leverage.
@jznrpg
Low IQ opinion.
If the advent of AI can help humanity treat or even help cure life-threatening illnesses faster and more effectively, every creative job being completely sacrificed was wholly and entirely worth it.
But detecting illnesses faster requires no learning about non-medical artwork or knowledge. So you can do one without doing the other. What a myopic viewpoint and an attempt to say that you must give up something creative to have a benefit for society. Furthermore, image/video-based AI being used to create artwork is way more costly and damaging to the environment while medical purposes are about the same effort as having AI do a search, which is about 9x more energy utilizing than just searching via a search engine.
In other words, managers be like: "Use AI if you want, but don't tell me about it if you do."
They say the studio is already "world-class" without the tech.
Was wondering when they would get the first season scandal. Too bad. AI is poison. Don't care who agrees with me or not. Its poison. It is poised to have very negative impacts on millions of lives and there is no safety net in place for those people.
I wanted to give some long winded explanation as to why I hit the disagree to your comment but I'll put it simple. AI isn't poison, people are poison. For as much as you may care there are more who don't. Humans are stubbornly careless, and blissfully ignorant. I'm not against AI, I still think that as a tool it can help us do greater things still. It's people who will turn it as a tool to do us all over.
I get why people feel that way, but I disagree. AI is a tool, not a replacement for vision. The art comes from the intent, taste, iteration, and decisions the creator makes, not from manually doing every step by hand.
We already accept this with other technologies. Photographers don’t build cameras or develop film by hand anymore, yet photography is still art. Digital artists use software that handles lighting, brushes, physics, and filters, and we still credit the artist, not Photoshop. Music producers use synths, samples, and auto-tools, and their work is still considered creative.
Prompting at a surface level might look trivial, but serious AI use involves refining ideas, guiding outputs, rejecting most results, and shaping the final piece to match a specific vision. That curation and direction is the creative act. The tool accelerates execution, but it doesn’t create meaning or intention on its own.
Not all AI output is art, just like not every photo or digital sketch is art. But dismissing the entire medium ignores how art has always evolved alongside new tools.
You're right. And I wish the responses disagreeing were more nuanced.
"It's a tool."
I agree. It's a crowbar used to pry open a door so you can steal what's inside.
"Digital artists are no different" Yes they are. We've digitized the utensil and the art. That's not the same as stealing.
It's not AI, it's LLM. It can't envision, it must only look backwards.
And the LLM company owns all the assets you create with it: the code, the images, the IP, the writing.
In essence, it means more for the Corp and less for the artists.
Weird how suddenly after Larian has been everyone's favorite, they are being attacked from multiple angles by different outlets at around the same time.
AI is a great tool. An extra assistant that can move things faster.
But if anyone knows and understands how it works, using it to create something "new" is basically stealing some pattern or mixing patterns that the ML script saw somewhere.
On the other hand the great majority of the movies,games and any media out there is just an idea or a mix of ideas stolen from somewhere else, so blame the user not the tech.
Dont fall for this coordinated attack against a studio who still delivers quality products
For a visual artist, AI can be rather helpful. AI can help assist an artist’s vision. The art still has to be practically applied to the form of media that is implementing it. If your having an artistic cramp, AI can help get the motor running. Fight against it all you want, AI isn’t going anywhere and quite a few changes are happening in the world because of it. Accept it, adapt to it, and hope it doesn’t kill us all, like the telephone was supposed to, over one hundred years ago.
The gods are silent. Rivellon bleeds.
And this is why cinematic trailers with no gameplay absolutely SUCK!