Today, Larian Studios, an independent game studio working out of Belgium, concluded the Kickstarter campaign it has been running for the last several weeks. This campaign, which was initiated to expand the company so it could be much more ambitious in the development of Divinity: Original Sin, has been quite successful. It has raised more than $940,000, more than double the initial goal of $400,000.

In addition to its original goals, the Kickstarter achieved several stretch goals that will allow the developers to add significant elements to Original Sin. These include an extra-dimensional home base for players to spend their downtime in, a system of customizable personality traits for player characters that will have a strong impact on gameplay, a music score performed by a full orchestra, and a major improvement to NPC ally characters to give them fully fleshed out personalities and identities. The Kickstarter fell just short of the $1,000,000 stretch goal that would have enabled the developers to implement a fully-featured day/night cycle in which NPCs have their own daily schedules, but additional funding from other sources pushed them over the edge for that one, so it will be implemented as well.

Divinity: Original Sin will be released later this year on the PC. It will be a turn-based RPG with 3D graphics and an isometric perspective designed in the image of many older classics. It promises to have complex game mechanics and innovative co-op gameplay, and will include a very robust editor with which players can build their own adventures.