Behind the scenes of Avowed's beautiful world

Taking an early-game tour of the Living Lands with Obsidian Entertainment.

Avowed. Screenshot: Obsidian Entertainment, Xbox Game Studios (All Avowed images in this article captured by Game File)

I had Myst on my mind several weeks ago, when I was playing the role-playing game Avowed.

I’d reached a cliff near the shore of this new fantasy role-playing game, looked out at an island and had a flashback to an old video game memory.

This…

… reminded me of this…

Box cover for classic 1993 puzzle game Myst. Screenshot: Cyan, via MobyGames user Burning tickMan

Technically, though, it was just my imagination.

“I don’t think it’s supposed to evoke that,” Dennis Presnell, lead environment artist at Avowed studio Obsidian Entertainment told me a few days later, when I showed him Myst’s box art and a screenshot I’d snapped.

Avowed’s game director, Carrie Patel, was also in the conversation and could appreciate where my mind was at, as I beheld Avowed’s so-called Living Lands.

“At a very high level, what we wanted to do with the Living Lands as a setting—and I think maybe that led to the happy accident we see here—is evoke this space that is explorable and discoverable,” she said.

I was chatting with Patel, Presnell and Avowed region director Berto Ritger about the spectacular virtual world they and their colleagues had made. Our interview amounted to a meditation on a few spectacular scenes from early in the adventure and the strategy around making a game that turns its players into sightseers of the spectacular.