Obduction is now fully playable in a "very rough" state

Work on the Myst-inspired Obduction is proceeding apace, according to the latest update on Kickstarter, and in fact the game is now playable from start to finish, albeit in a very pre-alpha state. And even though it should probably go without saying under the circumstances, developer Cyan also made a point of noting that despite what you may have heard, it has not actually run out of money.

I'm not sure where the "no more money" impression came from, to be honest. The October 16 update offers a Kickstarter post-mortem and a breakdown of what, in Cyan's opinion, made it such a successful campaign. But nothing else about it, at least to my eye, has a ring of, "Oh, by the way, the money is gone." Yet that's how some backers took it, and so in a second update, posted the day after, Obduction Project Manager Ryan Warzecha clarified that this is not the case at all.

He also revealed that the full game is now playable "in a very rough pre-pre-pre-alpha state," and that the studio is actually expanding to meet the project's needs. There's now a website up at obduction.com as well, although it doesn't yet contain any new information about the game.

There is one small spot of bad news: Backer rewards, specifically the Obduction t-shirts, have been delayed. "Everything takes longer than expected, and because we want to keep the team small, everyone is taking on multiple roles. (Rand is even the maintainer of the Kickstarter/Paypal database code.)," Warzecha wrote. "This all to say, we are being very careful up front so we can provide you the best possible experience later."

Receipts will be sent to backers within the next few weeks, he added, and once shipping information has been confirmed, the order will be placed and shipped. Obduction itself, a "real-time, first-person adventure that harkens back to the spirit of Cyan’s earlier games Myst and Riven," is currently scheduled to come out in mid-to-late 2015.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.