Released in 2016 after being successfully crowdfunded in 2013, Obduction is an exploration/adventure game developed by Cyan as the spiritual successor to their previous adventure games, Myst and Riven. Obduction received widespread critical and community praise for it’s visuals and environmental narrative, and I’m very proud of the breadth work that we were able to accomplish in a relatively short amount of time.
I served as Art Director on the project – Defining the look of the game, massing out the overall game environments, managing a team of artists responsible for building the game’s four worlds, and directly constructing large portions of the game. In addition to general Art Director Stuff ™, I also took on the de-facto role of Technical Art Director – Defining and constructing the suite of custom art tools used by the team to execute the project. From shader networks, to collision authoring tools, to complex visual effects systems… this was the first project of my career that I had such a close relationship with the tools/code side of things, and I couldn’t have been happier with the results.
“Obduction succeeds as a follow-up to Myst not because it invokes nostalgia for 1993, but because it builds realities like Myst did. A new world, one that feels true, one that breathes.” – Wired
“There’s a story, there’s a style, there’s a voice behind the art and construction of Obduction that’s timeless and vibrant. Playing the game becomes a dialogue between player and creator, where success let me admire both for their mutual cleverness.” – Polygon
“Cyan has produced some of the most gorgeous eye candy on the gaming marketplace right now, bar none… Few games ever manage to elicit the usage of “breathtaking” from me these days, but this is definitely one of the rare instances.” – CGM
