Overview
Doug TenNapel and DreamWorks Interactive broke standard graphical conventions by creating a world built entirely out of raw modeling clay with The Neverhood. Following the adventures of Klaymen across an empty, surreal clay world, players solved clever environmental puzzles to uncover the historical lineage of their world.
With its gorgeous frame-by-frame animation, wonderful physical humor, and an avant-garde soundtrack by Terry Scott Taylor, the game stands out as a unique masterpiece in the adventure genre.
Visual Archive
Behind The Scenes
The creation of The Neverhood required compiling over three tons of industrial modeling clay. Animators painstakingly captured every single environmental shift frame-by-frame using high-precision digital cameras, then mapped the images into a custom asset streaming script running over Windows 95 DirectX hooks.
This custom delivery setup streamed high-quality animation frames directly from the CD-ROM layout tracks, giving the game world seamless transitions between active gameplay blocks and cinematic story sequences.