Yesterday, Nintendo announced that it would be bringing its ‘My Mario’ collection to the West next month. It launched a cute new marketing campaign showing happy parents and young children putting the products to the test, but the images quickly set AI alarm bells ringing for many on social media (thanks for the heads up, The Gamer).
You see, in a lot of the promotional images, commenters online thought that the fingers just don’t add up. One model’s thumb appears bent back to an impossible angle, while another hand holding up a toddler has been criticised for its finger length and placement.
It’s a new year, but we’re taking one last look back at the 2025 year in gaming. We asked you to share your favorite shot taken in 2025 using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
SheikhSadi80shares Sam fighting off a BT grabbing him in Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
fwto_shares a black and white capture of Atsu crossing a rope in front of a waterfall in Ghost of Yōtei
__Auron__shares a portrait of Maelle wielding her weapon in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Yuric83shares Hinako peering through the red vines in Silent Hill f.
wingsforsmilesshares a desert landscape in Star Wars Outlaws
pavesointshares an ornate outfit from Infinity Nikki
NemesisNatVPshares Kat wearing a bird mask in Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
RazinZameeshares a plane taking off from an island in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
Photomode_Raroshares a a space traversing moment from The Alters
evo_pixelshares a portrait of Snake in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
calisarah1998shares a stylishly lit moment of Deacon with his bike in Days Gone Remastered
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme, or be inspired by other great games featuring Photo Mode. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on January 14, 2026
Next week, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 steps into frame. Share moments exploring Lumiere and beyond using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
In the years since Baldur’s Gate 3’s release, Larian has put a lot of time and energy into updating the game with tons of new content, including new content for some beloved character who got the short end of the wizard staff the first time around, like Karlach. But one character is still coming up short for fans: Wyll. And at least one writer at Larian is just as frustrated by it as you.
This comes from a Reddit AMA today conducted by a number of Larian employees, during which one person asked why Wyll wasn’t developed further in post-launch patches, even as other companions got storyline and even personality updates. We’ve known for a while that the “Blade of Frontiers” warlock Wyll was rewritten significantly from his early access version to final version.
The question was answered by Larian senior writer Kevin VanOrd, who explained that he also wished Wyll had gotten more attention, and that the lack of content compared to other companions was mostly the result of a series of unfortunate timing coincidences. Here’s how VanOrd puts it:
I wish Wyll had gotten more content and a more fulfilling arc too.
As you probably know, we weren’t connecting with Wyll’s Early Access recruitment and initial questing, so we started over at a point when most of the other companion stories were fairly solid. A lot of decisions came later in development than was ideal – and there was a key situation near Baldur’s Gate that I intended to heavily involve Wyll in (the Red War College) that got cut. That meant back to the drawing board again. We eventually tied him to Duke Ravengard and started to work on that element of his arc just in time for me to get unexpectedly ill. I was out of the office for quite a while, and again after the epilogue’s release.
I think that Ansur’s lair was Swen’s idea – we did have the resources for a standalone dungeon, so we got to work on tying Wyll to the Wyrmway, but I couldn’t get more than a dungeon boss out of it. Once the situations were in place, that was that – I had to start writing them.
Wyll’s content is sparser than I’d have liked as a result. He’s also split into two stories, really – the Mizora story and the Ravengard story, and that might have been a mistake in hindsight. I also wish I could given him a stronger endpoint – it always bugged me that he can end up just as he started, as the Blade of Frontiers, without any meaningful difference. All that said, I love the Blade and I am really proud of him, his sincerity, his good nature, and his eager heroism. I’m truly sorry I didn’t give you more quality time with him.
It’s worth pointing out that it’s not that Wyll received no updates post-launch. Patch 7 made some light tweaks to Wyll’s dialogue that helped those pursuing him romantically have a more interesting time, though it didn’t really give him any new story content. But that’s nothing compared to Karlach, who got an entirely new ending in the same patch. Karlach, like Wyll, was considered to be one of the character who had been given the least love in terms of story content in the 1.0 release, and has consistently been a popular favorite. Recently, one fan broke down how many minutes of dialogue every character in Baldur’s Gate 3 had, and Wyll’s down below most of the other companions with just under 9 hours speaking. Still, it’s not as bad as Halsin, Minthara, Jaheira, and Minsc, though admittedly those four companions are a little more complex to recruit and you can’t even get them until Acts 2 or 3.
So, perhaps cold comfort to Wyll fans, but it’s comforting to know that he wasn’t intentionally sidelined. We’re proud of him too.
With Baldur’s Gate 3 and its gang of rowdy adventuring mates in the rear view mirror, Larian are hoping to improve a couple of aspects of how they handle companions going forwards – a process that’ll likely kick off in Divinity. In particular, the development of deeper relationships between party members and a more subtle build to the moment when the player’s relationship veers into deeply horny territory are on their list of learnings.
Red Dead Redemption 2 fans have made progress towards solving the game’s newly-discovered spiderweb mystery, and now believe they’ve reached its final clue.
An intricately-placed breadcrumb trail of spiderwebs was found and plotted, leading to a further set of marked telegraph poles. These then pointed to a collection of guitars within the game’s Fort Wallace location, where the trail temporarily went cold. Now, however, fans have pushed forwards — to what seems like a final clue beyond the edge of Red Dead Redemption 2’s map, and a sense of what this whole mystery might actually be about.
Once again, progress on the discovery has been brilliantly chronicled by YouTube channel Strange Man, who picks up the trail back at Fort Wallace by showing that these guitars acted as signposts, guiding players to the roof of the location’s tower.
On this roof, two tiny engravings of flying birds were then spotted, pointing in the direction of Giant’s Birds, right at the very north of the game’s map within Calumet Ravine. Heading here and using binoculars allows you to see a tiny, faint, but unmistakable “?” symbol on a mountain in the distance. The design of the question mark across the far hillside is such that it is only visible from this particular location.
Once again, it’s a smart set of clues — which is perhaps why this mystery has taken over seven years to be discovered — and once again, progress has stalled. But there’s a sense now, with this latest clue way beyond the boundary of the map, that the trail has reached its final stage. As Strange Man suggests, it now seems likely that the mystery’s denoument is right here, though the trigger remains elusive.
“Let’s solve this before GTA 6 arrives!” Strange Man wrote, asking for further ideas from fellow fans.
While the wait for an answer continues, there is at least a growing sense of what this whole breadcrumb trail might be about. With the hunt for clues leading to Calumet Ravine, it’s been noted that this is in the Wapiti reserve, amplifying previous suggestions that earlier steps in the mystery were an obtuse reference to Wapiti tribe member Eagle Flies. (Feathers could be shot out of spiderwebs, with five colored black and three colored red. Eagle Flies appears in five story missions, before three more which chart his capture and eventual death.)
Could it all lead nowhere? Possibly, but earlier this week IGN’s previous story on the mystery was shared by former Rockstar developer Adam Butterworth, who provided the first official acknowledgement that the game had included this trail of clues. “Absolutely wild people have found this,” he wrote on social media. “I remember hearing about this and thinking it would never be discovered.”
As things stand, this complex and multi-stage mystery has left fans on the edge of Wapiti territory, and has hinted at its tribe member Eagle Flies. What will be discovered next? Here’s hoping we aren’t waiting until GTA 6 to find out.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Baboo! Are you looking for Heartopia codes? You’ve come to the right place. Here you’ll find all the codes that we’ve collected for the cozy sim. Redeeming these will give you currency, resources, and extra Gold to help you settle into your new home.
Working Codes for Heartopia (January 2026)
z4p6n8r2 – Quality Timber x10, Chef’s Special Saladx2, Branches x20 (NEW!)(Valid Until: 31 March 2026)
letsdressup – Wishing Star x15, 5,000 Gold, Growth Booster x10 (Valid Until: 31 March 2026)
letsbuild – Wishing Star x 15, 5,000 Gold, Fertilizer x10 (Valid Until: 31 March 2026)
a7k9m2q8l – Wishing Star x5, Repair Kit x3, Blueberries x10 (Valid Until: 31 March 2026)
mylittlepony – Moonlight Crystalsx100 (Valid Between: 8 January 2026 and 7 February 2026)
heartopia0108 – Moonlight Crystalsx 100 (Valid Between: 8 January 2026 and 7 February 2026)
specialgift0103 – Moonlight Crystals x100 (Valid Between: 8 January 2026 and 7 February 2026)
Expired Codes for Heartopia
There are currently no expired codes for Heartopia, so you’ve got lots of goodies to redeem above!
How to Use Heartopia Codes
Looking to play Heartopia and want to know how to redeem codes? Follow these steps:
Press Tab on PC or tap the watch in the top-right corner
Click Setting
On the General Tab, look for the Redeem Code bubble button in the bottom right
Copy the code from this article and paste it into the bar that reads “Case Insensitive”
Click Redeem and if the code has been successful, it will say “Redeemed! Please check the mailbox for rewards.”
FAQs for Heartopia
Have a particular question about Heartopia and codes? See our answers to frequently asked questions below.
How to Collect Heartopia Rewards
Rewards are automatically sent to your Mailbox once you’ve redeemed codes. To find your Mailbox, press Tab or tap the watch in the top-right corner. Click Mailbox. All of the gifts you’ve received can be then be claimed. You can do this individually by opening each mail, or by pressing Claim All in the bottom left corner.
Why Isn’t My Code for Heartopia Working?
When a code doesn’t work for Heartopia it’s usually because of two reasons:
The code for Heartopia has expired
There’s a spelling mistake or an additional space in the code
Codes for Heartopia are not case-sensitive, but sometimes, a series of letters and numbers. The best way to ensure you’ve got a working code is to directly copy it from this article. We check all codes before we upload them, so you can guarantee they’re working. Just double-check that you haven’t copied over an extra space!
How Do I Get More Codes for Heartopia?
We regularly check and test new codes, so the best way to get more codes for Heartopia is to visit this article. But if you want to mine for codes yourself, then the Discord server for Heartopia is the best place to go.
Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.
This is proving to be one of the worst weeks of my life, for various reasons (no, not because Jason Schreier is mad at me). In my time of need, I open the magic portal of escapism and find Pathologic 3 looking back at me like a poison toad.
When Nintendo announced the new alternative colour Joy-Con controllers for the Switch 2 this week, one thing became adamantly clear: it’s quite possible that we’ll never get any solid colour Joy-Con. Those little accents around the analogue sticks are likely all you’ll see when the Joy-Con are attached to the console. And that’s fine, y’know?
But if you’re not especially pleased about this, then accessory manufacturer Dbrand might have you covered. The company has revealed that it is launching ‘ColorMatched’ skins that will effectively take the accented colours of the new Joy-Con and apply the same colour to the entire controllers. The result, provided to apply them properly, is pretty neat.
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox on PC, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in!
Get behind the wheel and become a professional bus driver! This amazing bus simulator will allow you to transport passengers across three different cities (Rio de Janeiro, Munich and Los Angeles) using various bus models with realistic physics and graphics. Play this bus simulator in single player with career and freeride modes.
You’re an indebted angler, trapped in a vicious cycle of borrowing and desperation. One dark, endless night at sea you haul up something unnatural: a talking fish named Cagliuso. It promises you riches — but its bargains come with terrifying strings. In Loan Shark, the nets you cast bring more than fish. They pull you toward sacrifice, secrets, and a deadline you may never meet. The “loan shark” isn’t just metaphoric — something is stalking the waters, your time is running out, and every deal you strike pushes you deeper into the unknown.
SimRail is a new era of railway simulators. Realistic driving physics, the environment generated on the basis of geodetic data and an extensive multi-player mode are just some of the elements that game includes. Visit about 500 km of real routes created with all details. Choose present European high-speed, long-distance and suburban tracks, or travel back in time to 1980 and drive steam train at sand railway of Upper Silesia, Poland: the socialist land of coal and steel.
Tavern Manager Simulator is an exciting process of rebuilding, expanding and improving a tavern. Take different approaches to running an establishment and meet the challenges of the outside world to create your own unique story.
A game inspired by old arcade games, where waves of bricks make the climb to the top increasingly difficult. Adding to the challenge are minions and bosses, who will put us to the test. Ask your friends for help, playing as a duo, or go head-to-head to see who’s the best. If you think you’re the best of the bunch, then get ready to prove to the rest of the world that you’ve got what it takes via the online leaderboards.
A giant cat has made an (otherwise) peaceful village its napping spot! Can you find all the hidden cats scattered around the chaos? Explore four illustrated comic pages, search for hundreds of felines, and complete relaxing jigsaw puzzles. Cats Around Us: Giant Cat combines hidden-object gameplay with storybook art, offering a cozy, creative experience for cat and cartoon lovers alike!
Hop your way through the dangerous swamps as you face the trials of your master the Wise Toad! Direction Quad is a 2D action-adventure presented in top-down pixel art style. Take the role of young Quad as he hops through the swamp in any diagonal direction, collecting coins and bugs along the way. The objective is to get Quad from his starting lily pad to the finish line of each stage without colliding with the terrain or any treacherous traps.
A collectors dream! A compilation consisting of the original DreadOut and DreadOut: Keepers of the Dark. DreadOut is a third person supernatural horror game where you play as Linda, a high school student trapped in an old, abandoned town. Equipped with her trusty smartphone and an SLR camera, she will battle against terrifying encounters and solve mysterious puzzles which will ultimately determine her fate. DreadOut: Keepers of the Dark is a new standalone horror game that takes place in the DreadOut universe. In this missing chapter, you will help Linda face the challenges of the DreadOut world with even more dangers lurking within.
They say the path to immortality is paved with hardship. But in your case, this hardship happened to take the form of seven dangerously beautiful women. You are Lin Fan, the chosen one of the Crane Illusion Sect. Born with a Pure Yang Lineage, you are destined to ascend to the heavens. However, no matter how hard you train, fate sends yet another challenge in your way…temptations in the shape of an unreliable master, a strict senior sister, or a saintess who seems far more interested in testing your heart rather than your skills. Can you survive the thousand tribulations of love, jealousy, and thunder? Or will your heart fall just before your heavenly ascension?
The Last Case of John Morley is a first-person narrative adventure set in the 1940s. You play as an experienced detective faced with a case long buried by time. After months in hospital, John Morley receives an unexpected visit from Lady Margarette Fordside, an aristocrat haunted by the murder of her daughter twenty years earlier. Though the police closed the case, she believes the real killer was never found. What begins as a quiet look into an old case becomes a haunting investigation into forgotten places and long-hidden truths that refuse to stay buried.
Ninja Nightfall is a fast-paced platformer where you are the last silent guardian—an elite ninja battling a city overrun by hostile AI. Conquer 10 intense stages filled with deadly robots, hidden zones, and high-security relics. Master stealth, speed, and precision as you navigate neon-lit rooftops and evade traps.
Is the moon there when nobody looks? Einstein once asked this famous question about quantum mechanics. This game takes that idea and turns it into a mysterious puzzle RPG, where the world itself only exists when you see it.
Disco Simulator is a tycoon game focused on managing your own nightclub. Start from scratch, build walls, arrange furniture, hire staff, plan events, and invite artists to perform on stage. Create the ultimate place for music, dance, and fun!
Two years after waking from her coma, Laura believes she’s free from nightmares. But the Sandman, who once held her soul captive, is back for revenge. A relaxing trip to a snowy mountain resort turns tragic when Tim falls from a cliff and slips into a coma. Bound by her vow not to use her Power for personal gain, Laura can’t save him herself. Desperate, she turns to an old friend (the player) and enters Tim’s subconscious, now under the Sandman’s dark influence. Explore haunting dreamscapes, solve intriguing puzzles, and face the shadows before the Sandman claims his next heir.
When Kejora realizes that her peaceful village has been reliving the same day over and over, she and her friends seek out to try and uncover the origin of the mysterious time loop cursed on her village There’s a mystery hidden behind this peaceful village, unknown to its inhabitants, who carry on with their daily lives. Kejora features hand-drawn art and animation, environmental platformer puzzles, and party-based inspired gameplay with 2 supporting characters with unique skills to help Kejora in her exploration and journey.
In Mel The Space Cat, you’ll guide Mel, a courageous cosmic cat traveling across alien planets in search of safety even if that means escaping from energy traps, laser cannons, hazardous landscapes, and the mysterious alien Theo! Across 40 handcrafted space levels, your reflexes and timing will be pushed to the limit in a journey filled with charm, danger, and zero gravity surprises.
The story of a real event: in 2009, two young girls living in Apartment No 129 in Turkey performed satanic rituals with candles late at night. According to allegations, the girls, who lived on the top floor of the building, mysteriously lost their lives that night. Apartment No 129 is a single-player, first-person horror and thriller game.
Stack all kinds of mouth-watering baked goods, from croissants to cookie hearts and everything in between! Grab your spatula, lift the baked goods out of the oven, and put them on display so that customers can buy them! With a steady stream of hungry customers waiting in line, it’s up to you to deliver their orders quickly and efficiently!
Battle Puzzle 2048 – Queens of the Abyss brings a spellbinding twist to the classic 2048 puzzle game! Slide tiles to combine matching numbers, build powerful combos, and take on a colorful array of supernatural foes. Face off against crafty witches, playful vampires, and adorable girly demons, each armed with unique abilities like hexing tiles, draining health, or summoning chaos on the grid.
BrokenLore: Unfollow is a first-person psychological horror game that dives into the dark side of social media and its effect on mental health. You play as Anne, a young woman haunted by the trauma of bullying, trapped in a surreal nightmare where she must confront her past and uncover a buried truth.
In Grimoire of Domance, the natural order has been shattered. You are a high mage of a Mage Order, the only one capable of wielding the power of the legendary Grimoire to stop Bahg’Val, an ancient entity that has possessed your master and threatens to consume the world. In this 2D action-platformer, your magic comes from dominance. You are what you defeat.
Milo is a very brave, smart, and playful dog! Only he can defeat the cruel King Big Flea and his evil henchmen who are terrorizing the fairy kingdom. Explore four magical branching locations, solve challenging puzzles, defeat dangerous enemies, and collect dog bones to earn special new abilities. Playing solo or together with local co-op multiplayer, only you can help Milo in his all-important quest!
The world has fallen to a ruthless artificial intelligence determined to erase mankind. Cities lie in ruins, the skies swarm with machines, and the future hangs by a thread. You are John Veyron, a soldier reborn through brutal experiments, stripped of his past but armed with unbreakable resolve. With only steel and firepower at his side, John must march through hostile strongholds, confront merciless AI champions, and take the fight straight to the heart of the machine.
Zumba – Marble Candy Rush invites you into a delectable marble-shooter kingdom ruled by the Candy King! Select a level, aim your candy-cannon mouth, and fire to match three or more identical candy marbles before they spill past the sugar gate. Create explosive combos, clear waves swiftly, and earn up to three stars per level.
Larian’s Reddit AMA on Divinity has concluded, and with it comes a number of new details on the Baldur’s Gate 3 developer’s next game.
We’ve rounded up all the new information revealed during the Reddit AMA from the various Larian members of staff who took part.
First up, Larian confirmed Divinity’s looting system will include handcrafted items, as Baldur’s Gate 3 did, as opposed to random and level dependent loot seen in the Divinity: Original Sin games.
As you’d expect, Divinity will have mod support via modding tools, but it’s unclear if they will be available for launch. Larian confirmed Divinity will have co-op at launch, and that modders will be able to up the player count. “Yes, coop will be available for release!” technical director Bert van Semmertier said. “The amount of players playing together will be depending on the final party size. But since modding is planned for this project as well, player will be essentially free to extend this. There is no hard limit to the amount of coop players.”
However, Divinity will not support native keyboard movement controls such as WASD right out of the box, which means modders will have to do their thing again, as they did for Baldur’s Gate 3.
Meanwhile, Divinity will run on Larian’s proprietary engine, which includes “significant changes.” “For each game, we are bringing significant changes to our engine,” head of gameplay Artem Titov said. “Since Divinity Engine is fully our own creation, it makes it easier to alter it to serve a new game rather than write a new engine from scratch.”
Divinity finally adds swimming to a Larian RPG?
As for new mechanics, head of design, Nick Pechenin, teased: “There was something that bothered me when I explored the starting areas of DOS1, DOS2 and BG3. It stares you right in the face if you think about it. In Divinity I can finally do the thing I wanted to do in every previous game.” Most believe this is about swimming.
As for the camera perspective, Divinity’s camera will work “very similar” to Baldur’s Gate 3’s, so expect a hybrid of top down and third-person camera.
Larian CEO Swen Vincke couldn’t say when we’ll see Divinity gameplay. “We’ll see,” he commented. “We’re in full production mode now but still have truckloads of work.” Larian wouldn’t be drawn on the playable races and classes, either, but did say there are clues as to Divinity’s races in the much-discussed announcement trailer.
Divinity tone, lore, and story
Writing director Adam Smith discussed the tonal difference between Divinity and Divinity: Original Sin 2, saying: “it’s more grounded and you might have picked up on some folk horror vibes in our trailer. But with games the size of DOS 2 and Divinity, there are lots of tonal variations as you move through the world and meet new characters. I hope it’ll make you laugh, frighten you, shock you and delight you.”
Smith also commented on Divinity’s place in the overall Divinity series lore. “It’s in the same continuity, but it’s a standalone story,” Smith said. “Long-term Divinity fans will find lots of familiar things but it’s never just fanservice – it has to serve the story we’re telling. The Divinity universe is full of weird and wonderful characters, and I’m really excited to be part of that legacy.”
Bert van Semmertier also touched on this, saying: “Divinity is a different universe than Baldur’s Gate. While you do not need to play the previous Divinity games, it would certainly improve your enjoyment if you do! You’ll perhaps recognize certain characters or situations or learn to explore the large universe the was already built for Divinity!”
Nick Pechenin confirmed Divinity Divinity will not keep the magic armor system from DOS2. “There will be ways to protect your characters from harm, but you will not have to wait before you can use your fun skill on enemies,” he said. “We are still cooking a system that makes sure that you have to work harder to stunlock solo bosses with.”
Divinity’s character customization will be “even better” than Baldur’s Gate 3’s, art director Alena Dubrovina said, “more colors, more options, more control!”
Size and scope of Divinity compared to Baldur’s Gate 3
Vincke touched on the size and scope of Divinity compared to Baldur’s Gate 3, saying: “Divinity takes everything we learned from BG3 & D:OS 2 and improves from there. In regards to BG3 – I think the main thing will be more agency and a rulesystem that was made for videogaming in addition to higher production values. Oh – and some really cool new friends to meet.”
Then: “more agency, more consequences. We don’t know ourselves yet how big it will be. We’re still making it.”
Larian will do its best to make Divinity playable on Steam Deck, given how popular Baldur’s Gate 3 proved on Valve’s portable game machine.
Here’s a fun one: will the new engine render moving ropes correctly and will we be able to look up in to the sky?
“There is no real engine limitation to allow looking at the sky,” technical director Bert van Semmertier replied. “How the camera works is entirely a design choice. Alternative camera angles are always considered. If they benefit the game, we will for sure add it. As for the ropes: you can expect substantial changes to our physics engine in the future games!”
Divinity’s combat and character progression systems
Head of design, Nick Pechenin, said Divinity will have a brand new combat system. “We went through our original ideas for DOS1 and DOS2, looked again at how they worked out in practice, picked up some inspirations from our BG3 EA and post-release journey, consulted the star charts to see what we need to do to stay competitive – and cooked a new action economy and character progression system,” he said.
“Feedback from BG3 players trying DOS2 for the first time has been especially interesting to us, seeing the two worlds colliding. We hope that both fans of BG3 and fans of DOS2 will find the new system intuitive but deep.”
It sounds like Divinity may indeed come to Nintendo Switch 2, eventually. “We have just released Divinity Original Sin 2 for Switch 2! We love the platform and we will certainly consider Switch 2 for the next Divinity game,” technical director Bert van Semmertier said.
Lizard romance?
As a Larian RPG, romance will of course be in Divinity. And it sounds like the developer expects lizards to get on well with each other. Vincke said he was particularly excited for players to experience a spot of lizard romance: “there’s a lot [he’s excited for players to experience] but we prefer to show and not tell. That said – Lizard romance seems like it’s going to be popular.”
And will the orcs have a special twist in Divinity? “Without saying which species are in the game, all of them have something unique,” is all Vincke would say.
What about Divinity’s gruesome announcement trailer? Vincke responded to one fan who said they were put off playing the game because the trailer is “so nihilistic and viscerally depressing.” Is the trailer an accurate depiction of what fans should expect from the game itself?
“We’re creating a dark world so you can be the light in the darkness. It’s a story about hope,” Vincke insisted. “But of course – we do want you to experience agency – so there’s also plenty of ways to take away that hope and be the darkness that snuffs out the light.”
Larian, Divinity, and generative AI
As expected, Vincke addressed the generative AI controversy that emerged following Divinity’s announcement. He insisted Divinity would not include any generative AI art, and confirmed it has ditched genAI tools during concept art development. However, Vincke confirmed Larian is using genAI across other areas of development.
Here’s Vincke’s full statement from the Reddit AMA:
“So first off – there is not going to be any GenAI art in Divinity. I know there’s been a lot of discussion about us using AI tools as part of concept art exploration. We already said this doesn’t mean the actual concept art is generated by AI but we understand it created confusion. So, to ensure there is no room for doubt, we’ve decided to refrain from using genAI tools during concept art development. That way there can be no discussion about the origin of the art.
“Having said that, we continuously try to improve the speed with which we can try things out. The more iterations we can do, the better in general the gameplay is. We think GenAI can help with this and so we’re trying things out across departments. Our hope is that it can aid us to refine ideas faster, leading to a more focused development cycle, less waste, and ultimately, a higher-quality game.
“The important bit to note is that we will not generate ‘creative assets’ that end up in a game without being 100% sure about the origins of the training data and the consent of those who created the data. If we use a GenAI model to create in-game assets, then it’ll be trained on data we own.”
Machine Learning Director Gabriel Bosque expanded on this last point in a bit more detail:
“This is all new technology, so I totally understand why it’s difficult to see where the positive uses are. We believe Machine Learning is a powerful tool to accelerate and make game development more efficient and streamlined. This means that our creatives have more time doing the work that makes their jobs more rewarding and the game a richer experience.
“The important bit to note is that we do not generate ‘creative assets’ that end up in a game without being 100% sure about the origins of the training data and the consent of those who created the data.
“With over 100,000 voice lines scheduled to be in the game, recorded by hundreds of actors, and even hundred thousands more to be recorded that will not end up in the game, there are useful tools for us to reduce the ‘mechanical legwork’ and free up time for teams that would be bogged down doing tasks that kept them away from what they really want to be doing. Additionally, our ML R&D team monitors and experiments with anything that is state of the art and that might influence game development pipelines of the future. This is important to us because we make our own engine.
“But we draw lines in the sand too. We explicitly committed in our actor agreements to not using the recordings to train or build AI voice modelers, because we are aware of how sensitive it can be to artificially generate an actor’s voice. Even if an actor were willing to agree to this if we’d compensate them, we don’t currently feel comfortable with including an AI-generated voice in our games.”
Writing director Adam Smith confirmed this stance on generative AI applies to writing, too. “We don’t have any text generation touching our dialogues, journal entries or other writing in Divinity,” he said.
“We had a limited group experimenting with tools to generate text, but the results hit a 3/10 at best and those tools are for research purposes, not for use in Divinity. Even my worst first drafts – and there are a LOT of them – are at least a 4/10 (although Swen might disagree :p), and the amount of iteration required to get even individual lines to the quality we want is enormous. From the initial stub to the line we record and ship, there are a great many eyes and hands involved in getting a dialogue right.”
So what areas do Larian use genAI on and what does it mean by a “creative asset”? “There is currently one example of ML generated assets that end up in the game and that is within our cinematics and animation pipeline,” Bosque explained. “In this pipeline we try to capture the actor’s performances as best as we can, so we use ML models to clean, retarget and even add motion when it’s not motion captured. These models are trained exclusively with Larian data.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.