Divinity II: Ego Draconis Interview
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GB: How is the game structured in terms of linearity? Are we free to explore and complete side quests at any time without worrying about the main quest? Swen: In general you are free, though there are some events happening in the main story that at some point can close off some of the side quests. For instance, dragon slayer specific quests become obsolete when you become a dragon knight yourself.
GB: Tell us a bit about the AI you've developed for the NPCs we'll interact with in Divinity 2. Do they move about the world on their own schedule? Will some, most, or all of the NPC dialogue be voiced?
Swen: The schedules of the NPCs are done in such a way that they serve the story. We have a fairly extensive system of choices and consequences in the story, and the schedules are such that they represent those consequences. As a result we've had to back off a bit on the classic schedule system but don't worry, it's still a living believable world with a lot of animation going on.
GB: What changes have you made to the dialogue system as opposed to what we saw in DD and BD? Will any of our skills or statistics influence which dialogue choices we're presented with?
Swen: Dialogs are presented in a cinematic way with all the graphical fluff you'd expect. The coolest thing I think is that we've added the option of mindreading in each dialog. This adds a unique twist to a lot of quests but you have to be willing to invest in it, and there are also negatives.
GB: What can we expect from the game's quest system? Will there be multiple ways to complete each quest (such as combat and non-combat approaches)? How elaborate is the game's quest journal?
Swen: In general there's a lot of choice in the quests and we've tried to give all those choices cool consequences. When I say consequences, I mean that often entire different quest chains open up because of a choice you make. We've gone quite far in that. For example, there's a quest where you have to throw out some drunkards from an inn. When you do that, an entire quest hub opens up as the people start coming back to the inn. Furthermore, depending on how you handled the quest, two very different quest chains open up too.
GB: Why did you ultimately decide to bring the game to the Xbox 360 in addition to the PC? Any chance the game will also be ported to the PlayStation 3?
Swen: A lot of our audience made the move from PC to Xbox 360 and we basically followed them. Regarding the PS3, there's no decision yet - we're currently focusing on PC and Xbox 360.
GB: Will there be any differences between the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game? What steps have you taken to ensure that the interface works well on both platforms?
Swen: The interfaces on PC & Xbox 360 are very different, because both systems are focusing on different control mechanisms (mouse and keyboard on PC, joypad on Xbox 360).
GB: Do you intend to release any free or fee-based downloadable content following the game's release? If so, what sort of post-release content do you foresee making available?
Swen: Nothing I can comment about at this time :).
Thanks for your time, Swen!
