Benoit Sokal, Belgian comic artist and creator of the "Siberia" adventure game series, has died at age 66. According to a statement from publisher Microïds, Sokal died on May 28 from an unspecified long-term illness.

Sokal began drawing comics in the 1970s for the Belgian magazine À Suivre ("To Be Continued"), featuring the anthropomorphic duck detective Inspector Canard, in which a journalist is trying to prove the existence of a mysterious white bird that has not been seen since 1932, and which is now in South America The story is about a journalist's visit to South America to prove the existence of a mysterious white bird that has not been seen since 1932.

Sokal's next games, "Syberia" (2002) and "Syberia 2" (2004), were his breakthroughs, successful years after adventure games were no longer a regular bestseller. Syberia, featuring lawyer Kate Walker, was a game that took players on a journey through Europe and Russia and showcased Sokal's talent for unusual architecture and atmospheric backdrops.

After serving as art director at Microïds, Sokal co-founded White Bird Productions, which created adventure games like Paradise and Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals in the 2000s Syberia. Neither of these games achieved the cult success of the "Syberia" series, but he returned with 2017's "Syberia 3. Syberia The World Before will be released in 2019, at which point it had been in development for a year and a half; according to Microïds, Sokal had been working on it at Koalabs Studio for several months before his death.

"Benoit made a tremendous contribution to the international development of the videogame medium," Microïds wrote.