Larian Studios Visit: Riftrunner, part 1
General Riftrunner Questions and Answers

Myrthos, 2003-11-26

RPGDot: Was Divinity profitable enough to continue the Divinity Universe?

Swen: We think the Divinity Universe has many more games in it. Riftrunner and Divinity 2 will show that the Divinity Universe will have a lot more to offer and will provide a foundation for a series of games.

RPGDot: What is the current development phase? When is a feature freeze expected?

Swen: Currently the development is in a Pre-Alpha stage. The alpha phase and thus also a feature lock is scheduled for the first week of December.

RPGDot: How many people are working on the project at the moment?

Swen: There are 20 people in total working on Riftrunner. Although some of them work on parts that will be used for both Riftrunner and Divinity 2.
Besides that there is also a secret project (let's call it Project X). For this game a 3D engine and multiplayer mode has been created.

RPGDot: When is the demo scheduled?

Swen: The demo is going to be released in the beginning of February. This demo will probably be available in English only, depending on how the localizations go. The demo will contain a large part of Act 1. In the demo you will be exploring several dungeon levels, finding Easter eggs, surviving the mazes, traps and combat monsters while trying to find your way out of the place.
The first act is rather linear and is made in this way to make it easier for you to learn the game. The other acts are not as linear as Act 1.

RPGDot: Who is the publisher in the USA?

Swen: HIP Interactive is the publisher for both the USA and Canada. You will hear something from them soon enough.

RPGDot: In what languages will Riftrunner be available?

Swen: Riftrunner will be available in English (published in the UK by Digital Jesters and in the USA/Canada by HIP Interactive), French, German (published by UBI Soft), Polish, Czech, Russian, Thai, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Japanese.

RPGDot: Are all dialogues spoken?

Swen: They should be. However due to time constraints this might be limited because of the time it takes for localizing the game.

RPGDot: Is there going to be a worldwide release?

Swen: Yes we are aiming for that. But it all depends on the localizations. If some are not ready in time then they will be released at a later date. The release date is still set for the end of February.

RPGDot: Will there be a Special Edition of the game?

Swen: We don't know yet.

RPGDot: What will the game rating be?

Swen: We are going for a Teen rating, just like we had for Divinity.

RPGDot: Will there be an introduction movie like in Divinity?

Swen: No there won't be. We plan to introduce the story either directly in the game or by means of slides like it is done in he BG series.

RPGDot: What was the funniest thing that happened during the development?

Swen: A few weeks ago the office was flooded. Kirill turned on the bath on the second floor and then lay down on his bed for a while. As he fell asleep the water of course kept on running. The water started to run down to the first floor. Some of the people still working there late in the evening thought it was raining at first but then after awhile they found out that it was raining inside the building! To cut a long story short, I was called out of bed, the source of the problems was found and Kirill woke up...
Editors note: For those who don't know yet, Kirill Pokrovsky made the music in Divinity and will do the same for Riftrunner. You can check out his music, amongst which are various Divinity tracks, at his site www.kirillpokrovsky.com.

RPGDot: Are there things you wanted to do for Riftrunner but couldn't?

Swen: The battlefields are going to be real cool. The random map generator is real good, but as it stands now the random quest generation is not as good as they planned. There is a fair chance that this option will be stricken from the game. But this is surely compensated with the much better character creation and skill system we have now.

RPGDot: What is your dream game?

Swen: My dream game will be Divinity 2. And if not that one then it will be Divinity 3. We have plans to continue the Divinity universe after Riftrunner and Divinity 2.

RPGDot: What are the minimum system requirements for Riftrunner?

Swen: The same as on the site. This means a lot of features have to be turned off.

RPGDot: How many hours of game play are predicted?

Swen: It's hard to tell at the moment, we haven't had much experience in playing the entire game through yet. It is estimated to have at least as many hours as Divinity. But it all depends on how it is played. You can play without ever visiting the battlefields or by visiting everything you can. There will be a big difference in playing time due to the playing style then.

RPGDot: How many CD's is the game expected to take?

Swen: At the moment it's one CD, but it will probably end up as 2 CD's. The reason for having less CD's than in Divinity is because the characters are 3D models now and take up far less space than before.

RPGDot: Will there be beta tests?

Swen: Yes, a similar approach like with Divinity will be taken. The beta tests will take place at our studio here. We already made up a list of people who we are going to invite. But you are free to apply if you want to participate in a beta test here.

RPGDot: Will Riftrunner have cheats this time?

Swen: No, like in Divinity we will disable all developer cheats.

RPGDot: When will there be developer chats.

Swen: We will participate in developer chats no earlier than January or February. We want to have the game near completion first.

RPGDot: When will the fansite kit be released?

Swen: We are now working towards an alpha stage of the development. After that we will go to a beta version. The fansite kit will have to be created in between those activities. It will surely be available this year though.