Viktor Antonov, visionary art director of games such as Half-Life 2 and Dishonored, has died aged 52.
Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw confirmed the news in an automatically deleted Instagram Stories post. “Brilliant and original,” Laidlaw said of Antonov. “Made everything better.”
According to a recent social media post by Marc Laidlaw, Viktor Antonov – Half-Life 2’s visionary art director – has passed away.
Assuming this is true, we are extremely saddened to hear this news. pic.twitter.com/3MqNbXkS64
— LambdaGeneration (@LambdaGen) February 16, 2025
Raphael Colantonio, founder of Arkane Studios and current president and creative director of WolfEye Studios, tweeted to say “You were instrumental to the success of Arkane Studios and an inspiration to many of us, also a friend with whom I have many fond memories.”
RIP Viktor Antonov.
I wish I told you how much admiration I had for you but we get caught in our lives until a surprise lime this hits us.
You were instrumental to the success of Arkane Studios and an inspiration to many of us, also a friend with whom I have many fond memories pic.twitter.com/phdnVH3Scy— Raphael Colantonio (@rafcolantonio) February 16, 2025
Antonov was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and moved to Paris before entering the world of video game development in the mid-90s at Xatrix Entertainment, the Los Angeles-based studio that became Gray Matter Studios. He went on to become one of the chief creatives behind the world of Half-Life 2 for Valve, where he most famously designed Half-Life 2’s iconic City 17.
Later, Antonov worked on the influential Dishonored as visual design director at Arkane Studios, co-creating Dunwall. Outside of video games, Antonov was co-author on animated movies Renaissance and The Prodigies, and worked at an indie production company called Darewise Entertainment.
In a Reddit AMA held eight years ago, Antonov discussed his early career leading into video game development.
I was formed and started my career as a transportation designer. Then I worked in advertisement, but both of those industries were very established and didn’t offer me much choice for creative risk taking. As a designer, I was very lucky to find a brand new industry that could use my skills. At this time, the video game industry did not have clearly define positions and an artist could create entire worlds. So I joined the gaming industry relatively early: my first game was Redneck Rampage, a crazy funny experience in which I was able to create a big part of the art & world, before moving to more “serious” projects.
Antonov based the Orwellian City 17 on his childhood city of Sofia, mixing elements from Belgrade and St. Petersburg. “I wanted to capture this specific atmosphere of Eastern and Northern Europe,” Antonov said.
Most recently, Antonov appeared in Valve’s 20th anniversary documentary for Half-Life 2, where he discussed the inspiration behind his work on the project and its visual design.
Image credit: Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Documentary / Valve.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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