Larian Studios Clarifies Its Application of AI Tools for Upcoming Divinity
The team behind acclaimed role-playing games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin has recently shown its new project, creating significant hype within the player base. However, recent remarks from the company's figurehead have brought a new dimension to the conversation, focusing on the team's philosophy toward AI tools.
AI as a Creative Assistant, Not a Substitute
In a latest statement, Swen Vincke explained that the team is using AI technology for particular supporting functions. These encompass enhancing PowerPoint slides, producing initial concept art, and writing temporary copy.
Importantly, Vincke made clear that the end material in the game will be crafted entirely by human writers. "Larian is creating everything manually," he stated.
Larian is constantly increasing our pool of concept artists and are currently putting together dedicated writer rooms.
Given that this area is being explicitly referenced — we right now have twenty-three artistic staff and have roles to fill for further artists.
All our efforts we do is supplementary and focused on having people spend greater focus on the creative process.
Any ML tool applied correctly is supplementary to a artist's process, not a substitute for their talent.
Responding to Feedback and Defining the Path
The news of AI usage at first generated concern among portions of the player base. In reply, Vincke provided additional clarification on public forums.
"At Larian, we employ these tools to explore references, in the same way we use search engines and physical media," he stated. "During the initial brainstorming phase we use it as a rough outline for structure which we then substitute with hand-crafted illustrations."
He continued, "We've hired creatives for their inherent skill, not for their willingness to replicate what a AI generates."
Focused Uses for Machine Learning
Vincke had earlier outlined the studio's focused approach to this technology, grouping its use into key pillars:
- Streamlining Repetitive Work: This encompasses refining animations, dialogue cleanup, and pipeline-specific tasks like retargeting animations.
- Rapid Prototyping ('White Boxing'): Using tools to quickly build rough models of gameplay ideas to test concepts ahead of full implementation.
- Future Potential for Gameplay: Researching how machine learning could eventually facilitate new forms of gameplay, particularly in simulating dynamic reactions in a complex RPG.
He clearly affirmed that key artistic domains — such as music composition — are are in no way areas where the team is cutting artistic talent. On the contrary, Larian is recruiting more in these precise fields.
"We are not launching a game with machine-made assets, and we are certainly not planning on reducing teams to swap them out with artificial intelligence," Vincke summarized.
