Larian Refused to Use AI for Concept Art
The announcement of the new Divinity was one of the biggest highlights at The Game Awards 2025, but the triumph didn’t end there. Shortly after the debut trailer, Larian Studios staff gave an interview to Bloomberg and shared their thoughts on advanced technologies. Swen Vincke himself stated that the studio uses AI to search for new ideas, which led to a wave of backlash. It seems that due to the criticism, Swen decided to rethink his approach to neural networks.
Today, Larian Studios held a Q&A session with Reddit players, where Vincke stated the following:
First of all, there will be no art created with generative AI in Divinity.
I know there has been a lot of discussion about us using artificial intelligence for concept art. We've already mentioned that this doesn’t mean that the concept art itself is created using AI, but we understand the confusion it caused. Therefore, to eliminate any doubt, we've decided to completely refrain from using generative AI tools for concept art. Thus, the origin of our art is not up for debate.
However, we are constantly working on increasing our testing speed. The more iterations we can perform, the better the gameplay will become. We believe AI can help us with this, so we are testing it across various departments. We hope this will allow us to refine ideas more quickly, leading to a more stable development cycle, reduced waste, and ultimately, higher game quality.
Importantly, we will not create "creative assets" to be included in the game unless we are 100% confident in the origin of the AI training data and have the authors' consent. If we use a generative AI model for game asset creation, the neural network will be trained on our content.
Swen Vincke
Of course, the session didn't end there, and the developers managed to answer several noteworthy questions. For example:
- Swen, you previously mentioned that your next game would be smaller than Baldur’s Gate III, but after the Divinity announcement, you called it the studio’s "biggest game". What changed?
- The initial statement was made when we were considering developing another D&D game, but that ship has sailed.
- What key lessons have you learned from the development and release of Baldur’s Gate III, and how will you apply them in creating Divinity?
- There are many lessons, and one post isn't enough to cover them all, so a short answer is that quick decision-making requires direct communication with the audience. Avoid intermediaries in any process and ensure that people working on specific features are as close as possible. Automated testing and modular testing are lifesavers for such large projects.
- Is there anything in Divinity you couldn’t do (or were not allowed to by the rights holder) in Baldur’s Gate III?
- In Baldur’s Gate III, we had all the creative freedom we needed, but the game was based on the fifth edition of D&D—a system designed for tabletop play, not video games. Most constraints came from this.
- Will the loot system in the new Divinity be random and level-dependent (as in Original Sin and Original Sin II), or should we expect handcrafted unique items like in BG3?
- The approach taken in Baldur’s Gate III, where each magical item was handcrafted, proved effective, and we always wanted to do the same in DOS2. Working on random loot for DOS1 and DOS2, we realized that fully random loot often confuses things, so we added more rules and templates to make the system more thoughtful. In the end, randomization didn’t save us time at all.
- You mentioned switching engines for the new game. Does this mean a new version of the Divinity Engine, or have you moved to completely different technologies?
- For each game, we make substantial changes to our engine. Since the Divinity Engine is entirely our creation, it’s easier to adapt it for a new game than to write a new engine from scratch.
- Can you tell us about new mechanics in Divinity that you are most proud of?
- When exploring the starting locations in DOS1, DOS2, and BG3, something bothered me. If you think about it, the answer is obvious. In Divinity, I can finally do what I wanted in each previous game.
- What races and classes are available to play?
- We’re not ready to talk about this yet, but if you watch the trailer again, you might catch some hints.
- How different will the new Divinity be from DOS2 in terms of atmosphere?
- It’s more grounded, and in our first trailer, you could catch hints of folk horror. But in games of this scale, the tone can drastically change as you progress. I hope this game can make you laugh, scare you, shock you, and delight you.
- A mod for controlling characters with WASD became one of the most downloaded and beloved for Baldur’s Gate III. Will such control be initially implemented in the new Divinity?
- No.
- Have there been any recent game releases that inspired your team or rekindled your passion for development?
- I like complex systems, so I played a lot of Europa Universalis V. But I’m still amazed by the creativity of the indie scene in general. There are so many good games produced by small teams. I’m really looking forward to playing, for example, The Séance of Blake Manor.
- How will you address canon issues that arose in DOS2? Essentially, it was a soft...