Obduction
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Classic adventure game 'Myst' is being reimagined for Oculus Quest
After making its way to every other platform out there, Myst is making the jump to VR.
'Myst' studio's crowdfunded 'Obduction' hits PS4 August 29th
If you're a die-hard Myst fan, you've probably at least heard of Obduction, the new game from Cyan. You may have even supported its Kickstarter. Today, CEO Rand Miller took to the PlayStation blog to announce that the game will be available for the PS4 on August 29th; it will include a PS VR update, though that may not be available at launch time. You can preorder it now. Obduction is much like the worlds of Myst and Riven. It centers on solving puzzles, and features a gorgeous, immersive and intricately crafted world. You are essentially kidnapped from Earth and taken to an alien world called Hunrath, which features a strange mix of Earth tech from different periods combined with unrecognizable pieces. There's also a message that this has happened to people before; you're not alone on this world. The developers of Obduction are intent on making it one of the most extensive VR games available. You can currently purchase it for Oculus Rift, as well as the HTC Vive and Touch. It's also available on PC and Mac. The company promises that, while this is the first VR game from Cyan, it certainly won't be the last.
Crowdfund Bookie: $23 million raised in six months
The Crowdfund Bookie crunches data from select successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that ended during the month and produces pretty charts for you to look at. The past six months have proven fruitful for crowdfunded games. In total, 186 different Indiegogo and Kickstarter video game projects earned $23,914,666 from the months of June through November. Those numbers are courtesy of 500,467 backers in the six-month period, who raised $13,173,182 beyond the combined goals of the projects to reach stretch goals that will bring games to additional platforms and grant players more content. On average, crowdfunding projects raised $128,573 in the last six months, but as we examined in our last quarterly report, these mean averages can be quite misleading. By comparison, the median, or middle number in the data set for the amount of money raised by each of the 186 projects, is $25,188. Given that only six of the projects raised at least one million dollars, and just seven more raised at least $500,000 during that time frame, we can conclude that the average amount of money raised by crowdfunding projects in the last six months is positively skewed. Similarly, the median number of backers per project was 542 (a sharp contrast to a mean average of 2,691). Future project creators should take note, then: Your average Kickstarter or Indiegogo gaming project earns closer to $25,188, not $128,573. Additionally, the data shows that strategy games like Hex and Warmachine: Tactics led the genre to the top of the list, as they earned the most money of the group ($6,901,527). Conversely, the adventure genre had the most successful projects, as 46 adventurous or narrative-driven games were funded in the last six months, such as Obduction and Armikrog. Action games had the highest number of backers (145,316), thanks especially to the highest-earning game of the group, Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9, which hauled in $3,845,170 thanks to 67,226 people. Head past the break to see the top-earning games and breakdown by genre for the six-month period.
Myst creators reach $1.2 million funding goal for Obduction
Obduction, the upcoming first-person adventure game from Myst creator Cyan Inc, has reached $1.2 million with its fundraising campaign. The project is being built with the strengths of Myst and Riven in mind - players will be abducted by an artifact and placed upon a bizarre world with a minimalistic explanation. Answering questions beyond that is up to the players. The project's Kickstarter page explains that "even the toughest puzzles should be designed so that you know that all the pieces to solve it are there in front of you." Those pieces may indeed be present, but if Obduction is to be anything like Cyan's previous works, grabbing a notebook and forming a team amongst friends to persevere might not be a bad idea. Windows and Mac users will be among Obduction's targets, once it begins kidnapping people in "mid-to-late 2015."
Myst, Riven studio reveals new PC adventure game Obduction
Cyan Inc, the studio behind the landmark multimedia adventure game Myst, announced that it is working on a new first-person adventure game for Windows and Mac. The team has turned to Kickstarter to fund the project, and seeks $1.1 million in pledges. Obduction promises the same sort of exploration-driven gameplay that defined Myst and its sequels, dropping players into an unfamiliar world filled with environmental puzzles. Contrasting the pre-rendered, path-based approach adopted by Riven, Obduction's varied landscapes will be presented via Unreal Engine 4, aiding player immersion. Obduction is set for release in mid-to-late 2015. If you yearn for the first-person puzzle-solving days of old, it might be worth kicking a few bucks toward Cyan, assuming that you haven't yet had your fill of '90s revivals after backing the new Boogerman game.
