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Divinity: Original Sin delayed until 2014; more gardening required

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Easy on those wallet hinges, Kickstarterers – all that extra cash you’re flinging at developers is resulting in some seriously delayed videogames. First Schafer overscoped Broken Age to the point that it’s been split into two, and now Divinity: Original Sin’s stretch goals have seen it burst through the membrane into 2014.

Larian had originally, though not necessarily sinfully, asked for $400,000 to make their thoroughly traditional Western RPG. But backers poured in enough cash to fund four stretch goals, and wound up close enough to the fifth that the developers appear to have decided to implement its features anyway.

That’s meant the development of a homestead area, far-reaching personality traits for player characters, an orchestral score, fully storied and backgrounded companions, NPC schedules, day-night cycles and weather systems that wreak visible effects on NPCs and monsters.

In short, it’s meant a lot more work:

“As we were integrating the stretch goals in the game in the last couple of months, we realised they affected a lot of the game systems and this would be more work than we thought,” explained Larian.

“Deeper character creation (traits and talents) made us rethink the stats system, the inclusion of companions meant we had to have more party support, and the day and night schedules affected all the behaviours of NPCs. And even the world they live in! Because where else would these people live and sleep?”

So Original Sin will now be released on February 28, 2014. Honestly, I’m pleased to hear that Divinity’s world is systemically interconnected enough that it’s causing Larian problems – I suspect that work will pay back tenfold in player satisfaction once release finally rolls around.

Divine Divinity’s world was broad and well-populated, but horribly padded with inexcusably dull and difficult dungeons. There’ll be no need for that here, I suppose?