Cyan’s Obduction was supposed to come out next week (July 26). However, the studio put the game on hold for a few more weeks. Now, you’ll have to wait until August 24 to play it.
The August 24 launch date marks the second delay for Obduction. The initial launch was set for June. However, it was delayed to July 26, primarily to polish and stabilize the build after the then-recent updates to the Unreal Engine 4 and to continue work on the game’s Oculus Rift version.
According to a blog post by producer Ryan Warzecha, the team spent most of the extra time adding “the last couple of systems” instead of eliminating game-breaking bugs. At one point, he said that the game almost came out last week.
“Last week we still had a chance, if everything worked perfectly. At the end of the week the leads met to discuss our options. We were so close, we could ship. But we came to the unanimous decision that if we shipped it was driven mainly by the deadline — not because we were satisfied. Obduction is a product that we’re very proud of, and we don’t want to let unpolished edges get in the way of an amazing immersive experience.”
During the delay, Cyan also took advantage of new graphics technologies from Nvidia, like high dynamic range imaging and Simultaneous Multi-Projection (SMP). The SMP feature also includes the new Lens Matched Shading process for virtual reality, which renders the image to match the shape of the lens and projects it through up to four viewports. In the past, the image was compressed and then projected to a single viewport.
In the meantime, all you can do is wait (although, you can read my impressions of the game from E3). Warzecha acknowledged the fact that some might be skeptical about the release date. However, he assured readers that the game is worth the wait. “We wish you could be here with us, play Obduction, see how good it is, and how close we are,” he said. “We think it would change your mind.”
