00:03I've seen the damage Voidwoken have done, the gods couldn't handle it, but maybe we can.
00:32So let's go.
01:125 minuti.
01:13We gotta go back out there.
01:14Ok.
01:15Find a powder substance.
01:16Find a powder substance.
01:17It's probably in there.
01:19You really think so?
01:20No, I don't.
01:21Everyone that goes in there dies.
01:22Yeah, I don't think it's in here at all.
01:23It's bad.
01:24A powder.
01:25It's real bad.
01:26A powder.
01:28Ok.
01:34We're here now with Michael Dowse from Larian Studios, the creators of Divinity Original
01:39Synth.
01:39Thank you so much for joining us.
01:41It looked beautiful and thanks for making the trip from Ireland.
01:44Thanks, no problem.
01:45Pleasure to be here.
01:45It's great to have you here.
01:46Now, today you launched the game, right?
01:49Yeah, we launched it.
01:49Well, we launched it yesterday.
01:50Ok.
01:51I didn't have a chance to play it.
01:52I've been here.
01:53You're excused.
01:54Yeah, thank you very much.
01:55And it's in-game preview, which is really important.
01:56It is in-game preview.
01:57Right.
01:57Really important to get feedback from the players on that.
02:00Right.
02:00Now, I want to talk to you about what type of RPG is it for those people that may not
02:04be familiar with the original game?
02:05So, it's an isometric turn-based, party-based RPG for up to four players.
02:10And what that means is it's a very systemic game.
02:12Like, if you played it, you know the skills and abilities that you have are very important
02:15inside and outside of combat.
02:17So, we give you a lot of different ways to solve your quests.
02:20Some you can even make up.
02:21And it depends on your racial traits and all of the things, depending on the races that
02:24you pick.
02:24And we've got to see we're doing some stuff here.
02:26You can see it on screen.
02:27Or, wow, look at that.
02:28Yeah.
02:28So, all of these different races have their own unique abilities and traits.
02:32Sure.
02:32For example, you're looking at Fane right here.
02:34And one of his abilities is that during combat, he can play dead because he's a skeleton.
02:38So, if he lays on the floor, nobody suspects anything.
02:40He's already dead.
02:41I think I'll be playing as him.
02:42He's a good one.
02:43So, a lot of games let you make choices.
02:45Like, oh, I'll take this narrative choice that I'm a good guy or I'll say the thing that
02:49makes you a bad guy.
02:50But choice goes to really a whole other level in the Divinity Series.
02:55Yeah.
02:55It looks like the whole gamut of human experience.
02:57Like, the world will react to who you are racially and also what you've done.
03:02It's really hard to predict the choices that you make in the game or what the outcomes will
03:05be.
03:05But we make sure that we give the players all of the tools to react appropriately to those.
03:10Now, I understand that Xbox One owners are going to be receiving the original, the definitive
03:14edition of Divinity Original Sin 2.
03:17That's hard to say.
03:18Yeah.
03:19But what have you added or improved?
03:21We have like a 45-page document of improvements.
03:24We looked at all the press and critic feedback and all the players.
03:27We went through all of the forum posts and we were like, you know, this guy makes a good
03:30point over here.
03:31This is another good point.
03:32We can fix that and we can change that.
03:34We had a lot of assumptions about the way that people would play the game when it launched.
03:37And some of those assumptions were wrong.
03:38And we looked at the data and we looked at how people were playing.
03:41And we went back and we addressed all of these different feedback and systems with a new
03:45journal that gives you more milestones, your quest and your adventure.
03:49So you can sort of figure out where you're going, what you've done, as well as a bunch
03:52of UI optimizations and changes.
03:54And we've re-scripted large parts of the game as well.
03:57I was expecting you to have the whole 45 pages.
03:59It's too heavy to bring it.
04:00It's too much.
04:01It's all in vellum and scroll writing.
04:03But how do you choose to build and what stays and what goes on a game that was just getting
04:07like nines and tens.
04:08It came out on PC late last year.
04:10So obviously they're favorites of the developers.
04:12You know, nobody thinks it's perfect what they've built.
04:15Little niggling things that we couldn't really fix in the time that we had left.
04:19So we fixed those.
04:20And then we just looked at things that we were side-balled at.
04:22You know, some guys pointed out things that we didn't realize would be maybe something that
04:25wasn't cool enough and we made it better.
04:27So we're proud of that 95 Metacritic, but it can always be better.
04:31And that's kind of where we're coming from with the Definitive Edition.
04:33So I'm taking a look right here.
04:35And I've been recently playing Divinity Original Sin, the original one that came out on Xbox
04:40in 2014.
04:412014.
04:42And now things are different.
04:44I have an Xbox One X.
04:46I have a 4K TV.
04:48Anything planned there for Original Sin 2?
04:49So I, too, have a 4K TV and an Xbox One X.
04:52Thank you very much.
04:53Yes, you do.
04:53Good.
04:54I've been working hard trying to get, you know, what's the point of having a horse if you
04:58can't ride it?
04:58You want to make use of that horsepower.
05:00So we're talking to the guys, trying to optimize it, trying to push as much as we can out of
05:03it.
05:03We can't promise those features yet, but we're working on that.
05:06You know, I won't be happy until we have that 4K and that HDR.
05:09Now, the game is in, it launched in Game Preview.
05:12It did.
05:12Okay, which is really exciting.
05:13Congratulations.
05:14But I want to talk to you about feedback, because you guys are doing something really interesting
05:18on collecting feedback for a gaming game.
05:21Tell us about that.
05:22So we had the classic system.
05:24We tried it, you know, typing in with the gamepad and feedback.
05:26And we were like, this isn't fun.
05:27It's a video game.
05:28It has to be fun.
05:28It's breaking the immersion.
05:30So what we did, a lot of ideas in Larian, we're sitting around.
05:33Someone makes a joke, right?
05:34You know, what if we actually have a feedback system in the game, a guy, an NPC that's fully
05:38voiced, that asks you questions.
05:39And so we were just rolling around laughing at how absurd this idea was.
05:42But now all of a sudden you're like, this is the best idea.
05:44This is the best idea.
05:45So we had Feedback Billy.
05:46Right.
05:47And he's a guy who'll run into your adventure.
05:48He'll say, how are you getting on?
05:49How's the experience?
05:50And maybe you don't want to give feedback.
05:52And that's fine, too.
05:52So you can kill him.
05:53Right.
05:53But if you kill him, he'll come back as an undead.
05:56And you can try and get him again.
05:57Right.
05:58If you really don't want to give feedback.
05:59But I hope that they do.
06:00I hope you guys do.
06:00That's a brilliant way of collecting the feedback.
06:03Because you're right.
06:03It doesn't take you out of the world.
06:05It adds to the world.
06:06And as you said, you want to take him down.
06:08You can take him down.
06:09Take him down.
06:10And now, I was going to say, now, so when you were doing that, what kind of feedback are you
06:14getting?
06:14I assume you get some pretty good stuff.
06:16Yeah.
06:16A lot of it's on how it works with the controller.
06:18Right.
06:18We launched the first game with the controller.
06:20It launched on PC with the controller.
06:21But we wanted to hone that experience.
06:23You know, you never really know if it's right until you see that feedback from players.
06:27As well as, do you know where you're going on your quest?
06:29Is everything clear?
06:30Do you know what you're doing?
06:31How is the experience?
06:32This kind of questions that Billy will ask you.
06:34And then you can attack him when you get annoyed about him.
06:36I need people to go and download the game, check it out, and give feedback to Feedback Billy.
06:42He's looking for you.
06:42Well, no, I didn't say it.
06:43Don't say it.
06:44No, no, you knew you were going to do that.
06:44Add Jeff Rubenstein on Twitter if you wanted to.
06:46I'm the complaint department.
06:47Now, one last thing.
06:49I play a lot of RPGs.
06:51I'm min-max, and I want to find every single thing.
06:55And I don't hear a lot of, I can't remember an RPG going into the game preview program.
07:00So please, there's only one answer to this question.
07:02But if I start playing now, and I want to start playing now.
07:05And when the game, the complete game ships, it goes 1.0 on Xbox One.
07:09I know where this is going.
07:10Okay.
07:11Save games, right?
07:11Save games.
07:12Save games.
07:13Can I just, am I going to be able to keep that?
07:14So after a long conversation, we managed to find a way, using wizardry and magic,
07:18to make sure that save games are retained right through to the 1.0 launch.
07:22Wow.
07:23So if you start on the trial, you keep it through.
07:24That was the correct answer.
07:26I think so.
07:27We need to have balloons coming out.
07:29You answered correctly.
07:30You get to stay.
07:31If you answered probably, there's a trapdoor in here.
07:33It's a full Hollywood set.
07:34So, anything else you want to add?
07:37No, I mean, I'm just really excited to go home.
07:38I was just telling you before we started playing it that it's actually downloading on my console
07:43at home.
07:43I was like, it's downloading.
07:45So I'm really excited after the show tonight to go home and maybe take on Feedback Billy.
07:49I think Larry wants to be Feedback Billy.
07:52For the final version of the game, just put him in there.
07:54It'll make him out.
07:55Michael, I want to thank you very much for making the trip from Ireland to come and talk
07:58to us and hopefully we'll hear more from you as we get close and we have an official date
08:03on 1.0 of Divinity Original Sin 2.
08:06We will, yeah.
08:06It's releasing in August, yeah.
08:09We will, yeah.
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