Half-Life 2’s City 17 and Dishonored’s Dunwall architect Victor Antonov has died

Various video game industry professionals have confirmed the passing of Victor Antonov, Half-Life 2’s art director and the mastermind behind some of gaming’s most harrowing cityscapes.

Antonov was born in Bulgaria and later moved to the US, where he received training at the Art Center College of Design in California, which he described as one of the harshest schools in existence. Antonov joined Valve in 2000 as the art director of Half-Life 2 and states that its development proce♒ss anཧd working with Gabe Newell was the best .

Half-Life 2 featured a huge shift to a more realistic neo-steampunk world design from the more gamey hallways of the original Half-Life, and a lot of that was owed to Antonov. He’s the architect of the inhospitable City 17, the contrastingly beautiful seascape of Half-Life 2’s Lost Coast DLC, and the co-creator of City 17’s most iconic element, the Combine Citadel.

Many former colleagues have taken to social media to celebrate the man’s fantastic contribution to video games. Dishonored’s director, Raphael Colantonio, shared the regret of having never expressed how much admiration he had for Antonov, who was also the architect behind the beautifully dystoℱpian Dunwall🌠.

After leaving Valve for Arkane to make Dishonored, Antonov worked as an additional art director for Wolfenstein: The New Order and stayed at Bethesda to serve as a consultant on titles such as Fallout 4, Dishonored 2, DOOM (2016), and Prey.

On top of his brilliant and visionary contributions to gaming, Viktor Antonov will be remembered by the people he has worked with as a unique and remarkable human b🃏eing.