Which Game Had the Best Art-Direction?

Talk about The Starry Expanse Project (aka realRIVEN), Myst, Riven, or anything related.
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Yali
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Joined: 27 Jan 2015, 16:27

Which Game Had the Best Art-Direction?

Post by Yali »

Which game in the series do you think had the best art direction? Myst, Riven, Exile, Revelation or Uru (I count Myst V under Uru)?

Myst was designed primarily by Robyn aqnd Chuck Carter.

Riven was designed by both Robyn and Richard Vander Wende.

Exile was designed by Phil Saunders and Ron Lemen mostly.

Revelation was designed by multiple teams for each age. Meinert Hansen (who lives down the street from me and who I visit often) was responsible for a lot of the concept art.

Uru was designed primarily by Stephane Martiniere along with other artists.

Here's a link to Uru's complete concept art pack here


Personally its a tie for me between Riven and Uru. Riven is very subtle in its design. It has a very refined aesthetic which is quite beautiful - mixing opulent D'ni design with tribal Rivenese styles. The graphics also help.

Uru is just really crazy and waaay-out there in its design choices. There's just so much I wish we had seen more of... all the unreleased ages and more areas of D'ni like the City Proper, K'veer and Katha Island for example that were hinted at through amazing concept pieces.

Exile is a close third. Its a little over-designed but at least its original in almost every aspect. Amateria, Voltaic and Narayan have such unique architecture and mood.
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jameverywhere
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Re: Which Game Had the Best Art-Direction?

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For me it is really a toss-up between Exile and Revelation. First of all I will always be loyal to Tohmana... I wanted to live there so bad as a kid!! and something about the buildings on J'anin really appeals to me. I feel like being able to look around 360 degrees really enhanced my enjoyment of the environments. Riven is certainly very subtly beautiful but I always felt like I was missing pieces of it by not being able to look up and down etc. at my leisure.

The Uru ages are also amazing and well-designed, but I felt like they were empty of props--things on desks, shelves, etc.--that could be examined and bring more detail to the fore. I also had problems with the 3rd person avatar camera, and constantly switching back and forth between first person for looking at things and 3rd person for walking around got annoying >_>
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Yali
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Re: Which Game Had the Best Art-Direction?

Post by Yali »

Yeah ditto about the props. But which game had the best aesthetic sense?

I feel Exile was great but a little over designed and Revelation felt like it was designed by four separate teams. There was no artistic cohesion in my mind. Riven comes off as very subtle and refined, blending D'ni architecture with tribal Rivenese motifs. Uru is just crazy wild and weird, but my favorite part of it has to be D'ni itself. K'veer, the Great Shaft, the Library, the Guild Hall and Ferry Terminal... such unique architecture. There really is no surface comparison when it comes to D'ni aesthetics. That's what I love about Cyan is their ability as artists to create a unique culture that looks familiar but is still alien when compared to real Earth cultures.
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Andross
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Re: Which Game Had the Best Art-Direction?

Post by Andross »

Riven, then Exile

Only problem with Exile is that it was really the beginning in the series of unnecessarily complicated devices and doors.
THOSE TIN CANS ARE NO MATCH FOR ME!!
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jameverywhere
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Re: Which Game Had the Best Art-Direction?

Post by jameverywhere »

Playing through Riven again, it does seem to be the most cohesive world, with just the right amount of detail, the right amount of backstory in the journals, everything seeming to have a purpose, etc and so forth. As a sequel, it was definitely an amazing improvement on the original, basically perfecting the formula Cyan created and making for an amazing experience. (Can you tell that I'm in the middle of replying Riven right now? haha.)

However, one of the best parts of Myst was the conceit of the linking books--four (five, including Rime) separate, different ages to explore with their own atmosphere and history. Riven was an amazing and well-realized age, but the entire game consisted of just three ages--Riven, Tay, and the 233rd age (I guess also Atrus' prison on Kveer was featured but that hardly counts...).

I haven't played Myst III in years but I probably will get back into it soon, once I'm done with Riven, so I can see if my opinion of is has changed over the years or not. Likewise with Revelation. But my instinct just... plot-wise, acting-wise, aesthetics-wise, I can't get Exile out of my head. (The plot in Revelation was kind of horrifying... now that I remember it... and lacked the subtlety of previous titles. But the ages I actually thought were really well done. I can see how living in Spire would not be good for the soul...)
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