Prison Island (Riven, 2024)

Prison Island – Riven (2024 Remake)

As the environment artist leading the early development of Prison Island, I was responsible for taking this area from initial mass-out and graybox through to final art on key structures. My work focused heavily on early spatial ideation and problem-solving, particularly around new explorable areas not present in the original game.

One of my first tasks was designing and building the secret Moiety cave beneath the massive tree’s roots. Leveraging our custom spline tools, I was able to quickly iterate on organic root forms, shaping them dynamically to fit gameplay needs and narrative beats. Special care was taken to ensure that the path to the cave felt naturally hidden yet discoverable, with traversal designed to feel intentional without drawing undue attention.

While most of the island was later handed off to other talented team members, my foundational work—including blockout, traversal logic, and environmental storytelling—served as a guide for further development.

Another key challenge was reimagining the prison room. Early on, we explored whether to preserve the original layout, mirror it, or pursue a new design entirely. Much of the original space didn’t translate cleanly into real-world dimensions, so we devised spatial and architectural solutions that retained the original spirit while making the space believable—especially as a lived-in environment for the character of Catherine.

I carried the prison structure from initial graybox through to final art. Using our custom material blending system, I brought the environment to life with distressed, photorealistic textures that emphasized the isolation and narrative tone of the space.

Beyond visual development, I also contributed to collision setup, lighting polish, bug fixing, and general environment support tasks.