Baldur’s Gate 3 and Divinity developer Larian has confirmed that it uses generative AI in its development processes, but not necessarily in the way you might think. There was a blowback to Vincke’s comments, and he later responded. You can get the full story below.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Larian boss Swen Vincke said its developers use generative AI tools for things like exploring new game ideas, developing concept art, creating placeholder text, and for PowerPoint presentations. Vincke said, “I think at this point everyone at the company is more or less OK with the way we’re using it.” That said, Bloomberg reported that there has been “some pushback at Larian.”
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Now Playing: Divinity Will Be Better Than Baldur’s Gate 3 “On All Fronts” Says Larian CEO
He also confirmed that the new Divinity game will not have any AI-generated content in it. “Everything is human actors; we’re writing everything ourselves,” he said.
A artist who worked at Larian on Baldur’s Gate 3, Selena T., said they “loved working at Larian until AI.”
“Reconsider and change your direction, like, yesterday. Show your employees some respect. They are world-class & do not need AI assistance to come up with amazing ideas,” the developer said.
Larian’s response
After Vincke’s comments were criticized, he released a statement on social media.
“Holy fuck guys we’re not ‘pushing hard’ for or replacing concept artists with AI. We have a team of 72 artists of which 23 are concept artists and we are hiring more,” he said. “The art they create is original and I’m very proud of what they do.
“I was asked explicitly about concept art and our use of Gen AI. I answered that we use it to explore things. I didn’t say we use it to develop concept art. The artists do that. And they are indeed world class artists. We use AI tools to explore references, just like we use google and art books.”
Vincke went on to say that Larian hires creative people “for their talent, not for their ability to do what a machine suggests.” However, he said the AI and machine learning systems allow artists to “experiment” to help “make their lives easier.”
“At the very early ideation stages we use it as a rough outline for composition which we replace with original concept art. There is no comparison,” Vincke explained.
He also released a statement to IGN explaining that Larian has only grown its pool of “concept artists, writers, and storytellers.”
“We’ve been continuously increasing our pool of concept artists, writers, and story-tellers, are actively putting together writer rooms, casting and recording performances from actors and hiring translators,” he said. “Since concept art is being called out explicitly, we have 23 concept artists and have job openings for more. These artists are creating concept art day in day out for ideation and production use.”
He added: “Everything we do is incremental and aimed at having people spend more time creating. Any [machine learning] tool used well is additive to a creative team or individual’s workflow, not a replacement for their skill or craft. We are researching and understanding the cutting edge of [machine learning] as a toolset for creatives to use and see how it can make their day-to-day lives easier, which will let us make better games.”
Finally, Vincke reiterated that Larian will not release a game “with any AI components” nor will it be “trimming down teams to replace them with AI.”
He went on to say, “While I understand it’s a subject that invokes a lot of emotion, it’s something we are constantly discussing internally through the lens of making everyone’s working day better, not worse.”
Larian publishing boss Michael Douse weighed in as well, saying, “Generative AI where unnecessary and with view to make peoples lives worse and make more money is a nightmare and one of the major reasons you can’t talk about game dev pipelines anymore. AI bubble can’t pop soon enough.”
Many people took issue with the suggestion that Larian could use generative AI to produce concept art. But Douse said people aren’t understanding things correctly. “The AI part of developing concept here is literally replacing reference searching. Instead of searching books/Google you generate an example. I think the misunderstanding is that people think ‘develop’ means ‘paint,'” he said.
And speaking generally about AI in game development, Douse said, “The goal of any tool is to enable someone to work better, and as a result create a better game in a way that feels both more rewarding & retains more jobs. Our goal is to make people’s QOL better and create great games.”
Vincke laid out his AI thoughts months ago
None of Vincke’s comments are new or surprising, as Vincke said many months ago that Larian was using machine learning systems for a variety of functions, including “tasks that nobody wants to do.”
“For an RPG developer, what you really want is something that helps with reactivity to agency,” he said. “So, permutations that you did not foresee, reactions to things that the player has done, in the world, they will certainly augment the gameplay experience,” Vincke said of using machine learning to help generate new gameplay elements.
Vincke, like many in the industry before him, also said he is aware of “red flags” pertaining to the use of generative AI in game development.
Some people have legitimate fears of machine learning and AI systems stealing their work or taking their jobs. However, Vincke said Larian is hiring more people, not fewer, thanks to new technologies. This is what others, like EA CEO Andrew Wilson and Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick, have predicted.
“It’s always going to be the people that are going to make a difference,” Vincke said. “And so for us, it’s super clear that we’re investing heavily into the team and the human touch that’s being added to that.”
With more automation, human workers are freed up to create more, which in turn leads to the possibility of making “more complex things,” Vincke said.
“When complexity goes up, things start getting really interesting. So it’s fair to say that the games that are being made today are arguably more complex than they were in the past,” he said. “The faster you can iterate, the faster you will get to a certain result. And then and the tightening of those pipelines should allow you, in theory, to make your games in a more efficient manner.”
Vincke also said the general population might not be aware of how much time an animator may spend on “stuff they don’t want to work on.” As such, thanks to automation, “It adds a lot to the time that they have to work on the creative stuff,” Vincke said.
Vincke said it’s “the wrong attitude” to assume that automation will replace various people and departments. Because automation should, in theory, allow people to do “more of what really matters and less of the stuff that they don’t want to do.”
“That’s not necessarily cost reduction,” he added. “But it’s going to be an increase of ability, which is a good thing.”
The new Divinity game was announced at The Game Awards recently with a flashy–and super gross–CGI trailer. The game has no release date as of yet.
For more, be sure to read GameSpot’s own new interview with Vincke, in which he claims that the new Divinity game will be better than Baldur’s Gate 3 “on all fronts.”
