Baldur’s Gate 3 Team Shifts Focus to Divinity, Emphasizing a Writing Approach that Embraces Chaos and Unpredictability

Baldur’s Gate 3 was already a wild ride, packed with creative ways to ‘break’ the game, like scaling walls with a tower of boxes. Now, Larian Studios is diving even deeper into that chaos with their upcoming title, Divinity.

Last month, they unveiled the project in a thrilling reveal, and recently, they shared even more insights during a Divinity AMA.

When asked about accommodating players who tackle quests out of order, writing director Adam Smith emphasized that the studio’s approach is all about embracing chaos. “Our writing process is to encourage the chaos. To be at one with the chaos,” he explains, adopting a ‘takes one to know one’ philosophy.

Smith elaborates, “The first thing we do during playtesting is run scenarios out of sequence, break them in every way possible, and see how far we can push the limits.” He finds joy in watching players stray so far from the main path that they think the developers have lost track of them, only to discover hidden content crafted just for them.

Larian’s games are brimming with choices, consequences, and countless variables, yet they manage to keep everything balanced. Smith shares how they maintain this complexity: “We document choices, but the best resources are the developers and the game itself. We spend a lot of time playing and try to incorporate options we’d want to experience as players. Typically, several specialists—writers, scripters, level designers, artists, combat designers, and more—collaborate on each situation, ensuring we’re never siloed. Collaboration and iteration are essential.”

Having learned from Divinity: Original Sin that random loot can be “frequently confusing” and doesn’t save much time, Larian has opted for a handcrafted approach in both Baldur’s Gate 3 and now Divinity.