Obduction, from the creators of Myst, will be released on August 29 for PlayStation 4 and PS VR according to the PlayStation official blog.
The game originally started out as a Kickstarter project, according to Obduction‘s official Kickstarter page. It managed to get over $1.3 million in funding and have over 22,000 backers, an amazing accomplishment for Cyan, Inc., the developers of the game.
The Kickstarter project was officially created in October of 2013 and closed the ability to fund just a month later, meaning that not only did it raise a lot of money, but it raised it extremely fast. It was originally supposed to be released in October of 2015, but the game was delayed for almost two years and now, finally, it has a solid release date.
“Making Obduction was quite a challenge. It’s taken our extremely talented team several years to take the concept from a Kickstarter project to the critically acclaimed title it has become,” said Rand Miller, CEO of Cyan, Inc in the blog post.
He also discussed the challenge of adapting Obduction into a VR game before VR headsets truly evolved from a concept to actual products that people own.
“Creating a game with both traditional and VR experience meant that we had to consider VR in our design work before there were any VR headsets available,” said Miller. “But we were determined to build an amazing gaming experience that provided not just a satisfying experience for PS4 players, but something that felt like a full VR game instead of a small demo for PSVR players.”
In Obduction, the player is literally abducted to the planet Hunrath, a mixture of pieces from Earth that reflect many different eras and, of course, alien society. You can see more on how Cyan, Inc. combined an alien planet with Earth in these screenshots from the game itself. The player must discover the secrets of Hunrath and act in ways that could be consequential, according to the official Obduction website. Bottom line: the main objective of the game is to “make it home.”
“There’s even a message from someone at the beginning that seems to imply that this has happened to others, and they all live here happily – but something about the place doesn’t seem to jive with that. It’s too quiet, and empty, and… eerie,” says Rand Miller, the CEO of Cyan, Inc. about Hunrath.
Miller says that Cyan, Inc. enjoys immersing players into unknown worlds and leaving them to solve the mystery behind where they are themselves. Well, in Obduction, you have to make this journey through Hunrath on your own. Another way the developers are able to do this is by giving the player no weapons, since they probably wouldn’t be leaving Earth holding an AK-47.
As mentioned before, Cyan, Inc. is also behind the game Myst. The concept of Myst is similar to that of Obduction — the player shows up on an island and must discover the mysteries behind the island. Myst ended up becoming one of the best selling PC games ever also according to Obduction‘s Kickstarter page.
“Cyan has a rich history of building exploration games that reveal their story as part of the adventure in and around very diverse environments – and Obduction was created with that heritage in mind,” said Miller.
Obduction will be released on August 29 for both PlayStation 4 and PS VR.
Obduction overall looks like an interesting title if you don’t care much for action at every second. Instead, your main focus will be on following along to a story that you have become a part of.
Featured image via the Obduction official website.
