Viktor Antonov Has Passed Away

Viktor Antonov the art director for Kingpin Life of Crime, and several other classic games, has passed away.

From Rock, Paper, Shotgun:-

One of video gaming's great urban fabulists, Half-Life 2 art director and Dishonored visual designer Viktor Antonov, has died at the young age of 52.

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Antonov started out in gaming as a map painter for Redneck Rampage in 1997. He subsequently worked on art deco-inspired shooter Kingpin: Life Of Crime, before landing a reputation-making job at Valve in 2004. He was the principle mind behind Half-Life 2's City 17, a wintry expanse of Brutalist concrete and Combine panopticons, which continues to influence more pessimistic sci-fi game developers today. I'm confess, I'm more fond of his achievements as visual designer for Dishonored's oily brickwork labyrinth Dunwall.

Following the release of Dishonored, Antonov worked in more of a supporting role on several ZeniMax Media projects. He consulted on development of 2016's Doom reboot and 2017's Prey. He also worked on a number of cancelled games, including Arkane's hybrid FPS The Crossing and Bethesda Game Studios Austin's multiplayer offering Battlecry. In 2022, Antonov co-founded Eschatology Entertainment to work on the mysterious Project DG, a game about a gunslinger exploring a world "on the verge of destruction".

Rest in peace.

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