Michael Steffen

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this image has a quality previously unseen in this work, michael. which i think is good - i'll just tell you what i see. the image looks like a dream of history - neither past nor present, real or imaginary. it seems to exist somewhere in between these planes. This is in contrast to the videos i have seen of tel mahre - much more photo-realistic and historically accurate. I think that choosing to design the game around this image will give you more creative freedom. This image alludes to an imaginary world: one more interesting to me than the realist fantasy world of Myst.

Great comments Kellee, thanks! I totally agree with you. I guess that's why I wanted to bring in a concept artist in the first place: to sort of take in my vision, digest it, then re-interpret it in ways I never would have thought of. In particular, there is a segment in the Making of Riven (Myst 2) Documentary, where they talk about how refreshing it was when they brought in Richard Vanderwende (a former Disney artist) to do art design on the sequel. They commented that his influence gave the sequel an edgyness that it never would have had otherwise.

Michael, as we've discussed I think part of the problem that you've had to date is the visual style of the piece. People see a "crude version of Myst" and respond accordingly. However, Ken's illustration is elegant, rich, and will surely help you evolve and sell the concept. Now the tough part is to capture his brilliant style in a 3D game engine.

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