Cyan Inc.’s hugely popular Obduction is now available for PlayStation 4, including PlayStation VR compatibility, following a hugely successful PC release earlier this year. Inspired by classic adventure videogame titles Myst and Riven, Obduction offers alien landscapes for exploration as you test your logic in a variety of puzzles.
Obduction began life as a Kickstarter project, which resulted in a funding total of just over $1,300,000 USD back in 2013. Since then, the title has launched on PC with virtual reality (VR) compatibility and Mac, which will also be updated with HTC Vive support. The PlayStation VR release joins the line-up complete with PlayStation Move compatibility.
As part of the digital package for Obduction, those who choose to download the title will also receive five exclusive PlayStation 4 avatars as well as a bonus theme. The downloadable package weighs in at 9GB, and is priced at $29.99 USD on the PlayStation Store.
Obduction is compatible with PlayStation VR as standard, though can also be played without the head-mounted display (HMD). VRFocus will keep you updated with future VR works from Cyan Inc.
Xing: The Land Beyond from White Lotus Interactive has been around for a very long time in game development years. The Kickstarter campaign originally launched in 2013, raising $30,000. Now today, Xing is shaping up to be one of the most visually pleasing and highly anticipated new classical-style adventure games in some time. With the success of last year’s Obduction from Cyan Worlds, there is clearly still a market for these sorts of games.
Today, we finally found out the release date of Xing and can set aside the long 4+ year wait we’ve had to endure. Xing: The Land Beyond will officially release next month on September 18th, 2017, for Rift and Vive (as well as non-VR PCs.) You might recall our inclusion of Xing in the 50 Days of PSVR countdown, and the PlayStation VR version is still coming, just at a later date. You can see the new launch date trailer right here:
In anticipation of the upcoming release, we spoke with members of the development team to learn more about the game’s creation process, challenges, and inspirations over the years. You can read the full Q&A with White Lotus Interactive Co-Founder, Developer, and Artist, Koriel Venus Kruer, as well as Developer, John Torkington:
UploadVR: What are the biggest inspirations you had while working on XING?
Koriel Venus Kruer: Games that inspired us while working on XING include: Portal, Myst, the Zelda games, Golden Sun, and Dear Esther. I think we were also inspired by stories of small indie studios with few members (like us) actually releasing their games, because it made it all sound actually feasible. We also found inspiration in a lot of other media, like movies and TV shows. Some of those include The Lord of the Rings, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
John Torkington: We’ve all had our different influences. I’ve been moved by games since early childhood, so an appreciation for an earlier generation of games should be readily visible in XING. In some ways, the early days of VR remind me of the early days of 3D, where doing things like a 3D menu and emphasizing level design with vertical spaces were first explored.
UploadVR: How do you think the game compares to other VR adventure titles such as The Gallery and Obduction?
Kruer: Though all three games are within the first-person puzzle-adventure genre, XING sets itself apart in so much as how you play and interact with the world, through objects you pick up that have a variety of uses, burning fire mechanics, jumping (yes there’s some platforming), throwing etc.. Did I mention that in XING, you are dead? Though the stories that players follow throughout XING primarily deal with death, the world is vibrant and colorful, almost as a contrast between the beauty of nature and life, and the reality of mortality. So I suppose thematically it’s quite different too.
We are friends with both Cloudhead Games and Cyan, and have swapped lots of tips and tricks with both studios during development. Since Cyan is using UE4 for Obduction, we were able to talk to them about their solutions to tech art stuff, and vice versa. It’s actually been amazing. We wish for those studios all the best, as Cloudhead works on their release of the 2nd episode of The Gallery, and Cyan prepares for their PS4 and PS VR Port, both coming very soon!
Torkington: Funny story about Cyan – back in 2014 at PAX Prime we had a few people come up to our booth and exclaim “Oh, a Myst-like game”. Our friends who were hanging out with us there from Cyan turned to the attendees and told them that XING stands alone as something very different from Myst. I felt a great sense of validation hearing that from them, and while the similarities in genre are there, our approach to design, world building, and gameplay is very different from Obduction.
UploadVR: How does VR enhance a game genre like this and make it even more immersive for players?
Kruer: Virtual Reality is an exciting and incredible new medium that will surely bring about a multitude of changes in how we design and play games. For the first-person puzzle-adventure genre, it allows us to focus even more on atmosphere and mood within the game world, because the payoff seems to be even larger in VR versus playing on a standard screen. To truly feel like you are transported to another place, you need to feel the consistency in rules, design and visuals of the new world you are in. With XING, we have tried to make sure that we’ve added enough detail (and tested enough for consistency) to make the game as immersive as possible.
As far as the puzzle aspect, it’s been an interesting challenge to not have things like timed puzzles as part of our design language, to make it more open to wider audiences, and more playable for new-to-VR players. There are extra puzzles things put in the game for more hard-core fans too. It’s just been a matter of figuring out that balance.
Then there’s the adventure aspect, which I find to be the most appealing part in terms of VR. I believe most people naturally like to explore, especially when their exploration is rewarded with amazing new places they can run through, or fun little secrets they’ve discovered. This is something we’ve definitely put a lot of thought and effort into
UploadVR: What were the biggest challenges you faced when making a game like this?
Kruer: This biggest challenges have mostly had to deal with Scope, Time Management and Living Situations.
Scope because even though we have a vision, we have to constantly remember that we are just a 3 person team, and that we can only get so much done in the time we’ve given ourselves. Continually testing and then adding layers of depth, or adding/fixing mechanics to make the game better, or designing for VR and non-VR at the same time – all of these things have cost us a lot of extra time, and will hopefully show when the game comes out.
Time Management goes hand in hand with scope. For us, we started this game in a sort of crunch mode, and have tried over the years to get into a more “normal” schedule. Still, for the majority of making this game, our hours have been Sunday–Friday, 10/11 AM – 10 PM at night (Fridays till 4 PM). All in the name of getting the game out as fast as we can. Haha. It’s a rigorous schedule that I personally wouldn’t want to maintain again in my life for any longer than a month or 2, due to how time-consuming it is. I think that has taken a toll on us. The plus side of the situation is being able to take time off when we want to for some day or weekend events. Owning your own company can mean flexible hours for things like going to friends’ birthday parties and not having to “ask for time off”. Still, it’s important to maintain a certain level of discipline, because it’s easy to start sliding down that slippery slope.
Living Situations primarily have to do with us not having jobs that make us money. We all moved back in with our parents after college so we could devote ourselves more than the average “full-time” to working on XING. Of course, we never intended for it to be this long. Over time, our parents have become more and more skeptical about our release time tables and calendars we’ve made, and we can’t blame them. That backlash is of the reasons why, for the last year, we haven’t put anything out like that until today. Our inexperience has clearly been shown in the past through our public estimates of how long things would take, and even now we are still nervous about hitting all our goals. Living at home has benefits like not paying as much in rent as we might somewhere else, and having people around to take care of us. It also has the downside of us not being independent, and therefore not having the freedom (and responsibility) that that independence would bring.
UploadVR: Are there are any particular lessons or takeaways that you want players to have after playing XING?
Kruer: Perhaps the best takeaway we could hope for would be that people who play: enjoy themselves, are entertained, are challenged to think in new ways, and come away with the feeling that they want to show their friends or family this game too. There are a lot of little lessons in XING, similar to Aesop’s Fables, and we hope that people will enjoy that aspect of the game, and maybe even think about how those things might be relevant to their own struggles or experiences. Of course, we are just people who wrote this game, so it’s not like there are any divine revelations in the game about people or the afterlife (haha), but rather ways in which we try to relate to and understand one another, as human beings. For many people, gameplay is king, so we’ve also spent a lot of time making sure that the gameplay is interwoven with the narratives in ways that make sense and feel rewarding. Ultimately, everyone will have their own ideas about, experiences with, and interpretations of the game, so we are just excited (and maybe a little nervous) to see and read what people think.
For more details on Xing: The Land Beyond as we build up to the game’s release next month on September 18th for Rift, Vive, and PC, check back at UploadVR for the latest. Let us know what you think about Xing and any questions you have down in the comments below!
Last month developer Cyan announced that its sci-fi puzzle videogame, Obduction, would be coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR on 29th August. While the standard console version is still being released on that date, the studio has now confirmed the virtual reality (VR) has been delayed.
Currently there are no further details on when Obduction will be coming to PlayStation VR, just that support will come in a post-launch update. Those that do buy the title will be pleased to know that the price does include the VR addition when it goes live.
Rand Miller, CEO of Cyan, Inc. said on PlayStation.Blog: “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. 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. 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.”
Obduction does already exist in a VR format, having released on Oculus Rift and HTC Vive earlier this year. While Miller doesn’t specify why the PlayStation VR version is taking longer, it could be to do with the reduced processing power of the PlayStation 4 in comparison to VR PC’s.
When a release date for the update is announced, VRFocus will let you know.
Myst and Riven by Cyan Studios are games that etched out permanent spaces in video game history. The VR gaming ecosystem sees a lot of new faces springing up to take advantage of the potential of virtual gaming, but the industry greatly benefits from a development team with an established gaming lineage. That’s exactly what happened with the well-received Obduction from Cyan Studios and now the spiritual successor to Myst and Riven is coming to PS VR on August 29th.
Obduction received an 8 out of 10 from us when you reviewed it in August of last year, the reviewer highlighting its wonderful world, clever puzzles, and satisfying gameplay. Despite VR being a young medium, Cyan somehow showed off terrific understanding of VR and how to use it to elicit visceral responses from players. PS VR players have had to wait nearly a year, but they’re finally getting a chance to experience one of the better titles VR has to offer.
“It’s been almost two decades since we created a product for console, and we couldn’t be happier about our return to PlayStation,” says Ceo of Cyan Rand Miller in the press release for the announcement. Miller adds that Cyan has been “working really hard to craft a special Obduction experience for both PS4 and PSVR” and that effort comes across in the pre-order offer. Pre-orders are available right now on the PlayStation Store and, if you choose to grab it before the August 29th launch, you’ll receive exclusive themes and avatars for your PS4 console.
Today, Cyan Inc., the indie studio most well known for creating best-selling games, Myst and Riven, has announced that’s its sci-fi adventure puzzle videogame, Obduction, will be coming to PlayStation VR on Tuesday, 29th August 2017.
Originally starting life as a Kickstarter project, the campaign raised just over $1,300,000 USD in 2013. The title saw a PC release in 2016, before coming to Oculus Rift a few months later. Toward the end of 2017, Cyan confirmed that it would be expanding support to Oculus Touch, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR in 2017, with the first two seeing a release in March.
The PlayStation VR release looks to be exactly the same as the other headsets, with no additional content included. There are however some pre-order bonuses for players, with exclusive themes and avatars on offer.
“It’s been almost two decades since we created a product for console, and we couldn’t be happier about our return to PlayStation. We’ve been working really hard to craft a special Obduction experience for both PS4 and PSVR, and we’re so excited to get Obduction to our PlayStation fans,“ said Rand Miller, CEO of Cyan, Inc. in a statement.
When Obduction launches for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR on 29th August it’ll cost $29.99.
Checkout the new trailer below, and for any further updates keep reading VRFocus.
Auf der WWDC kündigte Apple den neuen iMac Pro für Virtual Reality und das VR-Kit für Thunderbolt 3 Systeme an. Außerdem verkündete das Unternehmen den kommenden SteamVR-Support für den iMac und die Entwickler von Cyan Worlds haben nun via Twitter bestätigt, dass Obduction zukünftig in VR mit einem macOS-System spielbar sein wird.
Das erste offizielle VR-Spiel für den Mac
Cyan Worlds veröffentlichte die Ankündigung über den VR-Support für macOSam 05.06.2017 via Twitter. Damit ist Obduction das erste Spiel, welches auf die neue Kompatibilität von SteamVR zurückgreifen wird. Derzeit befindet sich die VR-Version noch in der Beta-Phase und die finale Version wird mit der HTC Vive Brille kompatibel sein.
Cyan Worlds finanzierten Obduction über Kickstarter und das Team konnte dort insgesamt 1,3 Millionen US-Dollar einsammeln. Damit wollten die Entwickler in die Fußstapfen des Erfolgstitels Myst treten. Innerhalb des Spiels wird man nach einer Entführung auf einem fremden Alienplaneten abgesetzt. Diesen gilt es zu erkunden, um die mysteriösen Geheimnisse des Planeten zu entdecken. Nebenbei muss man verschiedene Rätsel lösen, die neue Informationen preisgeben.
Der VR-Titel wurde bereits vor einiger Zeit für Windows-Computer auf Steam veröffentlicht und ist für 29.99 Euro erhältlich. Die Windows-Version ist mit der Oculus Rift und Touch Controllern sowie der HTC Vive spielbar. Außerdem steht noch die Veröffentlichung einer Version des Spiels für die PSVR-Brille aus.
Myst developer Cyan has been keen to bring its latest engrossing adventure, Obduction, to as many VR headsets as possible, and now it’s coming to a new VR platform too.
Obduction will be one of the first games to support VR when it releases on Apple’s new iMac Pro, the company recently announced on Twitter. At yesterday’s WWDC17 conference Apple announced that the latest entry to its Mac family would come fully equipped to support SteamVR and compatible headsets like the HTC Vive. That’s thanks to AMD’s Radeon Vega GPU housed inside the machine.
Obduction already supports the HTC Vive on PC, so don’t expect any major differences between those two versions. There’s no word yet on when the Mac version of the game will be releasing, though the iMac Pro is due to launch in December for $4,999. The machine is intended for professional use but you’ll be able to play VR content too.
If you’re planning on picking up the new Mac then you can’t go wrong with Obduction. “While Obduction does have some issues, the fault for them rests less on Cyan as a studio, and more on VR as a new medium that still has room to grow,” we wrote in our review last year. “What can be attributed to these game makers, however, is an amazing world, clever puzzles, a fascinating story, satisfying gameplay, and a title that can stand next to its elder brothers Myst and Riven with pride.”
The game’s also planned for launch on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR (PS VR) in the near future.
In a matter of hours virtual reality (VR) on Mac format PCs has gone from being a cheer at an event, to accessible for developers, to now having the first compatible videogame title announced. Cyan Worlds’ Obduction has been officially unveiled as the first videogame to take advantage of SteamVR’s Mac compatibility.
Available now as a beta test, SteamVR will open the world of VR to a whole new audience. Showcased earlier today at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), San Jose, SteamVR is compatible with the HTC Vive head-mounted display (HMD).
Cyan Worlds’ Obduction launched on Windows format PCs earlier this year, both for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Today’s announcement of a Mac format version came via Twitter, though few details are currently available. A PlayStation VR version is also in the works.
More VR titles are likely to be confirmed for Mac in the coming days, especially with this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) just around the corner. VRFocus will of course keep you updated with any further announcements.
The Game Developers Conference (GDC), San Francisco, successfully span-off a new arm last year specifically targeting the virtual reality (VR) development community. This year the event, VRDC, will return with the first handful of sessions already announced.
Paul Bettner, CEO of Playful Corp., the studio behind Oculus Rift launch title Lucky’s Tale, will host a session entitled ‘How to Be a Successful VR Game Studio’ during the two-day event, while Hannah Gamiel of Cyan, Inc. will offer a post-mortem of Obduction as part of the ‘Games and Entertainment’ track.
The event will be comprised of four tracks in total: Games and Entertainment, Brand Experience, Innovation Across Industries and Innovation. The latter will host Facebook’s Mike Booth, who will discuss ‘Creating Social Experiences in VR’.
VRDC will take place 21st – 22nd September 2017, held at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. Passes are available to purchase from the official VRDC website now, beginning at $1,199 USD. VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest additions to the VRDC 2017 line-up.
After a long wait, Cyan’s Obduction [Review: 8/10] finally came to the HTC Vive yesterday, complete with motion controller support. Fans had been patiently waiting for this version of the game since the Rift edition launched last year but, sadly, it appears lots of people are having issues with it.
Multiple users have taken to Reddit to report issues with the game’s performance when running inside the Vive. It appears that, across a number of PC setups, people are finding issues with reprojection, resulting in stuttering screens even when playing on the lower graphics settings.
We reached out to Cyan itself to ask about these issues. Studio CEO Rand Miller himself had this to say:
We’re reading all comments! Like we did with PC and Rift, we’ll continue to update and optimize Obduction for Vive. Being a small indie dev, we can test some combinations of hardware, but it’s not until release that some issues show up.
Obduction VR definitely takes some horsepower to run, but we’ve found that adjusting settings can usually provide a satisfactory experience for most situations, and we’ll continue to optimize. (And of course make sure your drivers are the latest and greatest.)
As for navigation – we realize that in these early days of VR that almost everyone has a different preference depending on their performance, comfort, and experience. We will continue to add options so that each player can get the navigation experience that suits them.
Thanks for the comments and support!
Cyan also brought Oculus Touch support to Obduction with yesterday’s update, those users don’t seem to be reporting any issues on this side. The developer will also be releasing a PlayStation VR version of the game later down the line.
Obduction began life as a Kickstarter project, which resulted in a funding total of just over $1,300,000 USD back in 2013. Since then, the title has launched on PC with virtual reality (VR) compatibility and Mac, which will also be updated with HTC Vive support. The PlayStation VR release joins the line-up complete with PlayStation Move compatibility.
VRDC will take place 21st – 22nd September 2017, held at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. Passes are available to purchase from the