Webby 2024 – Submission Page

Thank you for considering Riven for the Webby Awards.

To view Riven‘s store page on Steam, which includes ratings information from the public, screenshots from the game, and more, click here.

Riven is a challenging environmental puzzle-adventure game released on June 25th, 2024 that can be played both in VR and flatscreen platforms. It supports Windows and Mac for flatscreen playthroughs, and Windows and Quest platform (Quest 2, 3, and 3S) for VR playthroughs.

Riven is a from-the-ground-up remake of the original game released in 1997. Gone are the days of pre-rendered, completely still images that the original game was composed of – this modern remake of Riven contains a fully 3D environment, optionally playable in VR, to experience the world in the most immersive ways possible.

Additionally, this brand-new, re-imagined, and expanded version of Riven offers a deeper story, new captivating visuals, completely new areas to explore, new characters to meet, and a journey that stays true to the original release while also expanding on Riven’s breathtaking world.

ACCOLADES

Riven is currently sitting at a 98% “Overwhelmingly Positive” recent review rating on Steam. It was a “Best Of” selection for 81.Venice International Film Festival’s Venice Immersive exhibit (2024), was a Polygon Recommends choice for 2024, and was an Editor’s Choice (2024) for CGM. It was a finalist for the Golden Joystick Awards for the category of “Best Indie Game – Self-Published”.

Riven accolades trailer

The following are brief in-game videos showcasing various strengths of the title:

Additional information for your consideration for TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT:

  • THE ABILITY TO PLAY RIVEN IN 2D AND VR IN THE SAME SKU: Riven can be played in either 2D or VR. This introduced a vast number of technical considerations to a project, including systems that have to gracefully handle both situations: UI, character interactions (eyetracking from characters, gestures, etc.), gameplay interactions with puzzles, scale that works appropriately in both flatscreen and as a player experiencing it in VR. Custom systems were built to ensure that the VR user interface and 2D user interface would not conflict and instead sync up with each other.
  • WIDER RANGE OF SCALABILITY COMPARED TO MOST OTHER TITLES: Riven can be played at 60FPS on a Steam Deck without compromising visuals, and in VR be played on a Quest (mobile VR) OR a PC (high-fidelity VR or 2D), and be played at max settings in 4K with realistic visuals on Windows or Mac in 2D/flatscreen. It supports a very wide range of hardware and scalability settings to make sure that it can achieve maximum fidelity for the device it is on. This isn’t done just from what Unreal Engine has built-in (Cyan does not use Nanite) – Cyan has an automated (and optionally manual) in-house tech stack called the Optimization Commandlet that breaks high-resolution meshes down into mobile-friendly formats from the same source data, akin to what Simplygon does, but completely created/managed/owned by Cyan. Observe the Meta Quest trailer vs. the Desktop trailer above to see direct scalability differences with mirrored shots, or this video showing direct comparisons.

Additional information for your consideration for INDEPENDENT CREATOR:

  • Cyan is the publisher AND developer, of Riven, which seems to come as a rarity nowadays for many games who receive recognition. The budget for Riven was approximately 3% of the budget of fairly high-profile games, such as the Last of Us: Part 2, or about 1.5% of the budget for the latest Spiderman game.
  • The team that worked on Riven at Cyan was composed of approximately 30 people total.

Thank you for your consideration. For more information, please contact [email protected].