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Myst (series)
Encyclopedia
Myst is a franchise centered on a series of adventure video game
s. The first game in the series, Myst
, was released in 1993 by brothers Rand
and Robyn Miller
and their video game company Cyan, Inc
. Riven
, the sequel to Myst, was released in 1997, and was followed by three more direct sequels: Myst III: Exile
in 2001, Myst IV: Revelation
in 2004, and Myst V: End of Ages
in 2005. A spinoff featuring a multiplayer component, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
, was released in 2003 and followed by two expansion pack
s.
Mysts story concerns an explorer named Atrus who has the ability to write books which serve as links to other worlds, known as Ages. This practice of creating linking books was developed by an ancient civilization known as the D'ni, whose society crumbled after being ravaged by disease. The player takes the role of an unnamed person referred to as the Stranger and assists Atrus by traveling to other Ages and solving puzzles. Over the course of the series Atrus writes a new Age for the D'ni survivors to live on, and players of the games set the course the civilization will follow.
After producing award-winning games for children, the Millers decided their next project would be for adults. Drawing on childhood stories, the brothers spent months designing the Ages players would investigate. The name Myst came from Jules Verne
's novel The Mysterious Island
. After Riven was released, Robyn left Cyan to pursue other projects and Cyan began developing Uru; developers Presto Studios
and Ubisoft
created Exile and Revelation before Cyan returned to complete the series with End of Ages. Myst and its sequels were critical and commercial successes, selling more than twelve million copies; the games drove sales of personal computers and CD-ROM drives
, as well as attracting casual gamers with its nonviolent gameplay. The video games' success has led to three published novels in addition to soundtracks, a comic series, television and movie pitches, and a feature film adaptation of the second novel, The Book of Ti'ana, that is currently in development.
Mysts story begins with the arrival of a people known as the D'ni on Earth, more than 10,000 years ago. The D'ni are descendants of an ancient race who used a special skill to create books which serve as portals to the worlds they describe, known as Ages. The D'ni build a great city and thriving civilization in underground caverns. A woman from the surface, Anna, stumbled upon the D'ni civilization. Learning the D'ni language, Anna becomes known as Ti'ana and marries a D'ni named Aitrus; the couple have a son named Gehn. Soon after, D'ni is ravaged by a plague created by a man named A'Gaeris. Aitrus sacrifices himself to save his wife and child, killing A'Gaeris while Ti'ana and Gehn escape to the surface as the D'ni civilization falls.
Ti'ana cares for Gehn until he runs away as a teenager, learning the D'ni Art of writing linking books. Ti'ana also cares for Gehn's son, Atrus, until Gehn arrives to teach Atrus the Art. Atrus realizes that his father is reckless and power-hungry, and with the help of Ti'ana and a young woman, Catherine, Atrus traps Gehn on his Age of Riven with no linking books. Atrus and Catherine marry and have two children, Sirrus and Achenar. The brothers grow greedy and after plundering their father's Ages they trap Catherine on Riven. When Atrus returns to investigate, the brothers strand him in a D'ni cavern before they themselves are trapped by special "prison" books. Through the help of a Stranger, Atrus is freed and sends his benefactor to Riven to retrieve Catherine from the clutches of Gehn. Sirrus and Achenar are punished for their crimes by being imprisoned in separate Ages until they reform.
Atrus writes a new Age called Releeshahn for the D'ni survivors to rebuild their civilization as he and Catherine settle back on Earth, raising a daughter named Yeesha. As Atrus prepares to take the Stranger to Releeshahn, a mysterious man named Saavedro appears and steals the Releeshahn Linking Book. The Stranger follows Saavedro through several Ages (which were used to train Sirrus and Achenar in the art of writing Ages), before finally recovering the book. Ten years later, Atrus asks for the Stranger's help in determining if his sons have repented after their lengthy imprisonment; the Stranger saves Yeesha from Sirrus' machinations, but Sirrus and a repentant Achenar are killed. D'ni is not fully restored until the creatures the D'ni enslaved, known as the Bahro, are freed.
and Robyn Miller
. The Millers had created fictional worlds and stories as young children, influenced by the works of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien
, Robert A. Heinlein
, and Isaac Asimov
. They formed a video game company together called Cyan, Inc.; their first game, called The Manhole
, won the Software Publishers Association award in 1988 for best use of the digital medium. Cyan produced other games, aimed at children; the Millers eventually decided their next project would be made for adults.
The brothers spent months designing the Ages comprising the game, which were influenced by earlier whimsical "worlds" Cyan had made for children's games. The game's name, as well as the overall solitary and mysterious atmosphere of the island, was inspired by the book The Mysterious Island
by Jules Verne
. Robyn's unfinished novel, Dunnyhut, influenced aspects of Mysts story, which was developed bit by bit as the brothers conceptualized the various worlds. As development progressed, the Millers realized that they would need to have even more story and history than would be revealed in the game itself. Realizing that fans would enjoy getting a deeper look at the story not in the games, the Millers produced a rough draft of what would become a novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus
.
After the enormous response to Myst, work quickly began on the next Myst game. Cyan moved from their cramped garage to a new office and hired additional programmers, designers, and artists. The game was to ship in late 1996, but the release was pushed back a year. Development costs were between $5 and $10 million, many times Mysts budget. After the release of Riven, Robyn Miller left the company to pursue other projects, while Rand stayed behind to work on a Myst and Riven franchise.
While Rand Miller stated Cyan would not make another sequel to Myst, Mattel
(then the owner of the Myst and Riven franchise) offered the task of developing a sequel to several video game companies who created detailed story proposals and technology demonstrations. Presto Studios
, makers of the Journeyman Project
adventure games, was hired to develop Myst III. Presto spent millions developing the game and used the studio's entire staff to complete the project, which took two and a half years to develop. Soon after Myst III: Exile was released, Presto was shut down, and Exile publisher Ubisoft developed the sequel, Myst IV: Revelation, internally. Meanwhile Cyan produced the spinoff title Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
, which included an aborted multiplayer component allowing players to cooperatively solve puzzles.
Cyan returned to produce what was billed as the final game in the series, discarding live action sequences embedded in prerendered graphics for a world rendered in realtime. The actors' faces were turned into textures and mapped onto digital characters, with the actor's actions synchronized by motion capture
. Shortly before release, Cyan closed down development, although this did not impact the release of the game; the company was able to rehire its employees a few weeks later, and has continued work on non-Myst projects and an attempted resurrection of Urus multiplayer component, Myst Online.
Among the detailed elements of the Myst universe Cyan created was the language and culture of the D'ni. The civilization's numbers and writing first appeared in Riven, and were important to solving some of the game's puzzles. The D'ni language was the language presented in various games and novels of the Myst franchise, created by Richard A. Watson. Several online D'ni dictionaries have been developed as part of the ongoing fan-based culture associated with the game.
The music for each game in the Myst series has fallen to various composers. Originally, the Millers believed that any music or sound besides ambient noise would distract the player from the game and ruin the sense of reality; Myst, therefore, was to have no music at all. A sound test eventually persuaded the developers that music heightened the sense of immersion rather than lessening it, and as such Robyn Miller composed 40 minutes of synthesized music for the game. He would also produce the music for Riven, which featured leitmotif
s for each of the main characters. Virgin Records
bought the rights to the music and produced the soundtracks, which were released in 1998.
For Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation, composer Jack Wall
created the music, developing a more active musical style different from Miller's ambient themes. Wall looked at the increasing complexity of games as an opportunity to give players a soundtrack with as much force as a movie score, and tried to create a distinctive sound that was still recognizable as Myst music. In Revelation, Wall adapted the themes for the recurring characters of Myst, and collaborated with Peter Gabriel
, who provided a song to the game as well as voicework.
The music for Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and Myst V: End of Ages was composed by Tim Larkin
, who had gotten involved in the series doing sound design for Riven. Larkin stepped away from his background as a jazz composer and musician to create music with less structure and without a definite beginning and end. Larkin created different music depending on the location, giving each setting and Age a distinctive tone. For End of Ages, Larkin was unable to afford a full orchestra to perform his score, so he combined individual instrumentation with an array of synthesizers.
signed a three-book, US$1 million deal with the brothers. David Wingrove
worked from the Miller brothers' story outlines. The first three books, entitled Myst: The Book of Atrus, Myst: The Book of Ti'ana, and Myst: The Book of D'ni, were released in 1995, 1996, and 1997, respectively. The books were later packaged together as The Myst Reader
. A fourth novel, entitled Myst: The Book of Marrim, is planned.
Cyan partnered with Dark Horse Comics
in 1993 to release a limited four-part comic series called Myst: The Book of Black Ships. The series would have focused on Atrus and his young sons, taking place before the events of Myst. The first issue was released on September 3, 1997, but further books were canceled after Cyan decided the first issue did not live up to expectations. Another comic, Myst #0: Passages, was later released online.
After the Myst series' success, various proposals for films and television series based on the franchise were planned or rumored. The Sci Fi Channel
announced in 2002 that a TV miniseries would be produced based on Myst, to be produced by Mandalay Television Pictures
in association with Columbia TriStar Domestic Television
and Cyan, but never materialized. According to Rand Miller, none of the various proposals met Cyan's approval, or were too formulaic or silly. Independent filmmakers Patrick McIntire and Adrian Vanderbosch, themselves Myst fans, took it upon themselves to produce a motion picture based on the story revealed in the Myst novels. In 2006, the filmmakers sent a DVD proposal to Cyan. The developers gave the filmmakers permission to begin production. The film is based on the novel Myst: The Book of Ti'ana.
surpassed its sales in 2002. The first three games in the series have sold more than twelve million copies.
1UP.com
writer Jeremy Parish noted that there have been two main opinions of Mysts slow, puzzle-based gameplay; "Fans consider Myst an elegant, intelligent game for grown-ups, while detractors call it a soulless stroll through a digital museum, more art than game." Game industry executives were confused by Mysts success, not understanding how an "interactive slide show" turned out to be a huge hit. Online magazine writer Russell Pitts of The Escapist
called Myst "unlike anything that had come before, weaving video almost seamlessly into a beautifully rendered world, presenting a captivating landscape filled with puzzles and mystery. In a game market dominated by Doom clones and simulators, Myst took us by the hand and showed us the future of gaming. It took almost a decade for anyone to follow its lead." Critics from Wired
and Salon
considered the games approaching the level of art, while authors Henry Jenkins
and Lev Manovich
pointed out the series as exemplifying the promise of new media to create unseen art forms.
The series caused a major trend shift in the adventure game genre. Unlike previous games, Myst attempted to keep players immersed in the world by removing all information not associated with the fictional world itself — no explanatory text, inventory, or score counters. Myst has also been cited as the reason for the decline of the adventure game genre; eager to capitalize on Mysts success, publishers churned out mediocre Myst clones, which flooded the market. By Exiles release, games like Myst were considered to be an "antiquated" form of gaming by some critics.
Mysts effects extended to those who played the games and technology. The title was widely credited as one of the first games to appeal not just to hardcore gamers but to casual players and demographics that generally did not play games, such as women. Mysts lack of conventional game elements — violence, dying, and failure — appealed to nongamers and those contemplating buying a computer. The Millers' decision to develop Myst for the nascent CD-ROM format helped boost interest and adoption of disc drives.
The game inspired a CD parody game entitled Pyst
, written by comedian Peter Bergman
and featured John Goodman
in video scenes. Players traveled across the spoiled island of Myst after millions of players walked over it, with the parody game poking fun at elements of the prototype.
conventions around the world. Mysterium has been held since 2000, which grew out of the plans of a small group of fans who wanted to meet face to face. Word spread, and eventually approximately 200 people attended the meeting in Spokane, Washington
, which was held at the headquarters of Cyan Worlds
, developers of the game. Subsequent conventions have been more formally planned, involving presentations and live music. Similar to Mysterium, Mystralia is a gathering for Australia and New Zealand and has been held since 2005.
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
s. The first game in the series, Myst
Myst
Myst is a graphic adventure video game designed and directed by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. It was developed by Cyan , a Spokane, Washington––based studio, and published and distributed by Brøderbund. The Millers began working on Myst in and released it for the Mac OS computer on September...
, was released in 1993 by brothers Rand
Rand Miller
Rand Miller co-founded Cyan with brother Robyn Miller and became famous from the unexpected success of their computer game Myst, which remained the number one-selling game for the remainder of the 1990s...
and Robyn Miller
Robyn Miller
Robyn Charles Miller co-founded Cyan Worlds with brother Rand Miller. After releasing a number of children's adventure "worlds", the brothers finally hit on a success with the computer game Myst, which remained the number one-selling game for the remainder of the 1990s...
and their video game company Cyan, Inc
Cyan Worlds
Cyan Worlds, Inc. is a video game development company, founded by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1987, and best known as the creators of the Myst series. After Myst and its sequel Riven sold several million copies each, Cyan went on to create the massively multiplayer online adventure, Uru,...
. Riven
Riven
Riven is a puzzle adventure game and the sequel to Myst. Developed by Cyan Worlds, it was initially published by Brøderbund. Riven was distributed on five compact discs and released on October 29, 1997, in North America; it was later released on a single DVD-ROM, with improved audio and a...
, the sequel to Myst, was released in 1997, and was followed by three more direct sequels: Myst III: Exile
Myst III: Exile
Myst III: Exile is the third title in the Myst series of first person adventure video games. While the preceding games in the series, Myst and Riven, were produced by Cyan and published by Brøderbund, Exile was developed by Presto Studios and published by Ubisoft...
in 2001, Myst IV: Revelation
Myst IV: Revelation
Myst IV: Revelation is the fourth installment in the Myst computer game series, developed and published by Ubisoft. Revelation was the first game in the series released exclusively on a DVD-ROM format; a multiple CD-ROM version was not produced as it would have taken twelve compact discs to fit all...
in 2004, and Myst V: End of Ages
Myst V: End of Ages
Myst V: End of Ages is a 2005 adventure video game, and the fifth and final installment in the Myst series. The game was developed by Cyan Worlds, published by Ubisoft, and released for Macintosh and Windows PC platforms on September 20, 2005...
in 2005. A spinoff featuring a multiplayer component, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is an adventure video game developed by Cyan Worlds and published by Ubisoft. Released in 2003, the title is the fourth game in the Myst canon. Departing from previous games of the franchise, Uru takes place in the modern era and allows players to customize their onscreen...
, was released in 2003 and followed by two expansion pack
Expansion pack
An expansion pack, expansion set, or supplement is an addition to an existing role-playing game, tabletop game or video game. These add-ons usually add new game areas, weapons, objects, and/or an extended storyline to a complete and already released game...
s.
Mysts story concerns an explorer named Atrus who has the ability to write books which serve as links to other worlds, known as Ages. This practice of creating linking books was developed by an ancient civilization known as the D'ni, whose society crumbled after being ravaged by disease. The player takes the role of an unnamed person referred to as the Stranger and assists Atrus by traveling to other Ages and solving puzzles. Over the course of the series Atrus writes a new Age for the D'ni survivors to live on, and players of the games set the course the civilization will follow.
After producing award-winning games for children, the Millers decided their next project would be for adults. Drawing on childhood stories, the brothers spent months designing the Ages players would investigate. The name Myst came from Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
's novel The Mysterious Island
The Mysterious Island
The Mysterious Island is a novel by Jules Verne, published in 1874. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a sequel to Verne's famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways, though thematically it is...
. After Riven was released, Robyn left Cyan to pursue other projects and Cyan began developing Uru; developers Presto Studios
Presto Studios
Presto Studios was a computer game development company of the 1990s, especially famous for its award-winning The Journeyman Project series and the 2001 sequel to Cyan's hit Myst series, Myst III: Exile....
and Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
created Exile and Revelation before Cyan returned to complete the series with End of Ages. Myst and its sequels were critical and commercial successes, selling more than twelve million copies; the games drove sales of personal computers and CD-ROM drives
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
, as well as attracting casual gamers with its nonviolent gameplay. The video games' success has led to three published novels in addition to soundtracks, a comic series, television and movie pitches, and a feature film adaptation of the second novel, The Book of Ti'ana, that is currently in development.
Story
Ti'ana cares for Gehn until he runs away as a teenager, learning the D'ni Art of writing linking books. Ti'ana also cares for Gehn's son, Atrus, until Gehn arrives to teach Atrus the Art. Atrus realizes that his father is reckless and power-hungry, and with the help of Ti'ana and a young woman, Catherine, Atrus traps Gehn on his Age of Riven with no linking books. Atrus and Catherine marry and have two children, Sirrus and Achenar. The brothers grow greedy and after plundering their father's Ages they trap Catherine on Riven. When Atrus returns to investigate, the brothers strand him in a D'ni cavern before they themselves are trapped by special "prison" books. Through the help of a Stranger, Atrus is freed and sends his benefactor to Riven to retrieve Catherine from the clutches of Gehn. Sirrus and Achenar are punished for their crimes by being imprisoned in separate Ages until they reform.
Atrus writes a new Age called Releeshahn for the D'ni survivors to rebuild their civilization as he and Catherine settle back on Earth, raising a daughter named Yeesha. As Atrus prepares to take the Stranger to Releeshahn, a mysterious man named Saavedro appears and steals the Releeshahn Linking Book. The Stranger follows Saavedro through several Ages (which were used to train Sirrus and Achenar in the art of writing Ages), before finally recovering the book. Ten years later, Atrus asks for the Stranger's help in determining if his sons have repented after their lengthy imprisonment; the Stranger saves Yeesha from Sirrus' machinations, but Sirrus and a repentant Achenar are killed. D'ni is not fully restored until the creatures the D'ni enslaved, known as the Bahro, are freed.
Games
| Game | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Release year | Developer | Platforms | ||
| Myst Myst Myst is a graphic adventure video game designed and directed by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. It was developed by Cyan , a Spokane, Washington––based studio, and published and distributed by Brøderbund. The Millers began working on Myst in and released it for the Mac OS computer on September... |
1993 | Cyan, Inc. | 3DO 3DO Interactive Multiplayer The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer is a video game console originally produced by Panasonic in 1993. Further renditions of the hardware were released in 1994 by Sanyo and Goldstar. The consoles were manufactured according to specifications created by The 3DO Company, and were originally designed by... , AmigaOS AmigaOS AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000... , CD-i CD-i CD-i, or Compact Disc Interactive, is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N.V. CD-i also refers to the multimedia Compact Disc standard used by the CD-i console, also known as Green Book, which was developed by Philips and Sony... , iOS, Jaguar CD Atari Jaguar CD The Atari Jaguar CD or Jag CD is a CD-ROM peripheral for the Atari Jaguar video game console.Late in the life span of the company, Atari released this long-promised CD-ROM unit. The unit hit shelves on September 11, 1995 and retailed for $149.95. The device sat atop the Jaguar console, snapping... , Mac OS Mac OS Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface... , Nintendo DS Nintendo DS The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP... , PlayStation PlayStation The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000... , PSP PlayStation Portable The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004... , Saturn Sega Saturn The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Windows Mobile Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is... |
|
| The first game in the Myst series was the eponymous Myst Myst Myst is a graphic adventure video game designed and directed by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. It was developed by Cyan , a Spokane, Washington––based studio, and published and distributed by Brøderbund. The Millers began working on Myst in and released it for the Mac OS computer on September... , developed by Cyan, Inc. Cyan Worlds Cyan Worlds, Inc. is a video game development company, founded by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1987, and best known as the creators of the Myst series. After Myst and its sequel Riven sold several million copies each, Cyan went on to create the massively multiplayer online adventure, Uru,... and Brøderbund Brøderbund Brøderbund Software, Inc. was an American maker of computer games, educational software and The Print Shop productivity tools. It was best known as the original creator and publisher of the popular Carmen Sandiego games. The company was founded in Eugene, Oregon, but moved to San Rafael,... . Originally released in 1993 for Macintosh and PC platforms, the game was later ported or remade for the Saturn Sega Saturn The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Jaguar CD Atari Jaguar CD The Atari Jaguar CD or Jag CD is a CD-ROM peripheral for the Atari Jaguar video game console.Late in the life span of the company, Atari released this long-promised CD-ROM unit. The unit hit shelves on September 11, 1995 and retailed for $149.95. The device sat atop the Jaguar console, snapping... , 3DO 3DO Interactive Multiplayer The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer is a video game console originally produced by Panasonic in 1993. Further renditions of the hardware were released in 1994 by Sanyo and Goldstar. The consoles were manufactured according to specifications created by The 3DO Company, and were originally designed by... , CD-i CD-i CD-i, or Compact Disc Interactive, is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N.V. CD-i also refers to the multimedia Compact Disc standard used by the CD-i console, also known as Green Book, which was developed by Philips and Sony... , PlayStation PlayStation The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000... , AmigaOS AmigaOS AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000... , PSP PlayStation Portable The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004... , Nintendo DS Nintendo DS The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP... and iPhone IPhone The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007... . In Myst, players travel across Ages using a point-and-click Point-and-click Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device... interface, using the mouse to interact with puzzle objects such as switches or gears. |
||||
| Riven Riven Riven is a puzzle adventure game and the sequel to Myst. Developed by Cyan Worlds, it was initially published by Brøderbund. Riven was distributed on five compact discs and released on October 29, 1997, in North America; it was later released on a single DVD-ROM, with improved audio and a... |
1997 | Cyan, Inc. | iOS, Mac OS Mac OS Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface... , PlayStation PlayStation The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000... , Saturn Sega Saturn The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Windows Mobile Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is... |
|
| Flush with the success of Myst, Cyan moved to a new office and began work on Riven Riven Riven is a puzzle adventure game and the sequel to Myst. Developed by Cyan Worlds, it was initially published by Brøderbund. Riven was distributed on five compact discs and released on October 29, 1997, in North America; it was later released on a single DVD-ROM, with improved audio and a... , which was released in 1997. Like Myst, Riven was a commercial and critical success, selling more than 4.5 million units. |
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| Myst III: Exile Myst III: Exile Myst III: Exile is the third title in the Myst series of first person adventure video games. While the preceding games in the series, Myst and Riven, were produced by Cyan and published by Brøderbund, Exile was developed by Presto Studios and published by Ubisoft... |
2001 | Presto Studios | Mac OS Mac OS Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface... , Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... , PlayStation 2 PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Xbox Xbox The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console... |
|
| The third game of the series, Myst III: Exile Myst III: Exile Myst III: Exile is the third title in the Myst series of first person adventure video games. While the preceding games in the series, Myst and Riven, were produced by Cyan and published by Brøderbund, Exile was developed by Presto Studios and published by Ubisoft... , was developed by Presto Studios Presto Studios Presto Studios was a computer game development company of the 1990s, especially famous for its award-winning The Journeyman Project series and the 2001 sequel to Cyan's hit Myst series, Myst III: Exile.... and published by Ubisoft Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries.... in 2001. Exile continued with the frame-based method of player movement, but used a game engine to allow a 360-degree field of view from any point. Exile was a commercial success (though not to the extent of Myst or Riven), selling millions of units. |
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| Uru: Ages Beyond Myst Uru: Ages Beyond Myst Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is an adventure video game developed by Cyan Worlds and published by Ubisoft. Released in 2003, the title is the fourth game in the Myst canon. Departing from previous games of the franchise, Uru takes place in the modern era and allows players to customize their onscreen... |
2003 | Cyan Worlds | Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... |
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| Uru: Ages Beyond Myst Uru: Ages Beyond Myst Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is an adventure video game developed by Cyan Worlds and published by Ubisoft. Released in 2003, the title is the fourth game in the Myst canon. Departing from previous games of the franchise, Uru takes place in the modern era and allows players to customize their onscreen... was a departure from the previous games in the series, featuring graphics rendered in realtime and a third-person camera. Through avatar customization, players could create their own character to solve puzzles and uncover story information. Uru was to ship with a massively multiplayer online Massively multiplayer online game A massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on... portion, Uru Live Myst Online: Uru Live Myst Online: Uru Live is an open source massively multiplayer online adventure game developed by Cyan Worlds. The game is the multiplayer component to the 2003 video game Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. Like Uru, Myst Online takes place in 2000's New Mexico, where an ancient civilization known as the D'ni... , but the initial release was canceled shortly before the single-player aspect was released. Uru Live was rereleased in several incarnations, being canceled each time. Though initially well-received, Uru was considered a financial disappointment. Its expansion packs and originality earned the title a cult following Cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base... . |
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| Myst IV: Revelation Myst IV: Revelation Myst IV: Revelation is the fourth installment in the Myst computer game series, developed and published by Ubisoft. Revelation was the first game in the series released exclusively on a DVD-ROM format; a multiple CD-ROM version was not produced as it would have taken twelve compact discs to fit all... |
2004 | Ubisoft | Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... , Xbox Xbox The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console... |
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| Myst IV: Revelation Myst IV: Revelation Myst IV: Revelation is the fourth installment in the Myst computer game series, developed and published by Ubisoft. Revelation was the first game in the series released exclusively on a DVD-ROM format; a multiple CD-ROM version was not produced as it would have taken twelve compact discs to fit all... was produced entirely by Ubisoft, and marked a return to the prerendered graphics of earlier Myst titles. Since the studio had little experience with such games, Ubisoft hired new employees who had experience in the field. The game was seen as an improvement over Uru, and was favorably received upon release. |
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| Myst V: End of Ages Myst V: End of Ages Myst V: End of Ages is a 2005 adventure video game, and the fifth and final installment in the Myst series. The game was developed by Cyan Worlds, published by Ubisoft, and released for Macintosh and Windows PC platforms on September 20, 2005... |
2005 | Cyan Worlds | Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... , Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... |
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| Cyan returned to develop Myst V: End of Ages Myst V: End of Ages Myst V: End of Ages is a 2005 adventure video game, and the fifth and final installment in the Myst series. The game was developed by Cyan Worlds, published by Ubisoft, and released for Macintosh and Windows PC platforms on September 20, 2005... , billed as the final game in the series. As with Uru, End of Ages featured graphics rendered in realtime, allowing uninhibited player movement. Three control methods were offered to players, including schemes similar to those used in Myst, Exile and Uru. The game was judged a fitting end to the series, though a lack of financial backing for new, non-Myst projects nearly caused Cyan to shut down before the release of the game. |
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Development
Myst was originally conceptualized by brothers RandRand Miller
Rand Miller co-founded Cyan with brother Robyn Miller and became famous from the unexpected success of their computer game Myst, which remained the number one-selling game for the remainder of the 1990s...
and Robyn Miller
Robyn Miller
Robyn Charles Miller co-founded Cyan Worlds with brother Rand Miller. After releasing a number of children's adventure "worlds", the brothers finally hit on a success with the computer game Myst, which remained the number one-selling game for the remainder of the 1990s...
. The Millers had created fictional worlds and stories as young children, influenced by the works of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
, Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
, and Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
. They formed a video game company together called Cyan, Inc.; their first game, called The Manhole
The Manhole
The Manhole is a computer adventure game intended for children in which the player opens a manhole and reveals a gigantic beanstalk that can be climbed either up or down, leading to fantastic worlds in either case.-Summary:...
, won the Software Publishers Association award in 1988 for best use of the digital medium. Cyan produced other games, aimed at children; the Millers eventually decided their next project would be made for adults.
The brothers spent months designing the Ages comprising the game, which were influenced by earlier whimsical "worlds" Cyan had made for children's games. The game's name, as well as the overall solitary and mysterious atmosphere of the island, was inspired by the book The Mysterious Island
The Mysterious Island
The Mysterious Island is a novel by Jules Verne, published in 1874. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a sequel to Verne's famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways, though thematically it is...
by Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
. Robyn's unfinished novel, Dunnyhut, influenced aspects of Mysts story, which was developed bit by bit as the brothers conceptualized the various worlds. As development progressed, the Millers realized that they would need to have even more story and history than would be revealed in the game itself. Realizing that fans would enjoy getting a deeper look at the story not in the games, the Millers produced a rough draft of what would become a novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus
The Myst Reader
The Myst Reader is a bound collection of three books in the Myst franchise, and was published on September 1, 2004. The collection combines three works previously published as separate novels: The Book of Atrus , The Book of Tiana , and The Book of Dni...
.
After the enormous response to Myst, work quickly began on the next Myst game. Cyan moved from their cramped garage to a new office and hired additional programmers, designers, and artists. The game was to ship in late 1996, but the release was pushed back a year. Development costs were between $5 and $10 million, many times Mysts budget. After the release of Riven, Robyn Miller left the company to pursue other projects, while Rand stayed behind to work on a Myst and Riven franchise.
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from...
(then the owner of the Myst and Riven franchise) offered the task of developing a sequel to several video game companies who created detailed story proposals and technology demonstrations. Presto Studios
Presto Studios
Presto Studios was a computer game development company of the 1990s, especially famous for its award-winning The Journeyman Project series and the 2001 sequel to Cyan's hit Myst series, Myst III: Exile....
, makers of the Journeyman Project
The Journeyman Project (series)
The Journeyman Project is a series of award-winning first-person science fiction adventure games, created by Presto Studios and released by various publishers, including Bandai, Sanctuary Woods, and Red Orb Entertainment.- Plot :...
adventure games, was hired to develop Myst III. Presto spent millions developing the game and used the studio's entire staff to complete the project, which took two and a half years to develop. Soon after Myst III: Exile was released, Presto was shut down, and Exile publisher Ubisoft developed the sequel, Myst IV: Revelation, internally. Meanwhile Cyan produced the spinoff title Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is an adventure video game developed by Cyan Worlds and published by Ubisoft. Released in 2003, the title is the fourth game in the Myst canon. Departing from previous games of the franchise, Uru takes place in the modern era and allows players to customize their onscreen...
, which included an aborted multiplayer component allowing players to cooperatively solve puzzles.
Cyan returned to produce what was billed as the final game in the series, discarding live action sequences embedded in prerendered graphics for a world rendered in realtime. The actors' faces were turned into textures and mapped onto digital characters, with the actor's actions synchronized by motion capture
Motion capture
Motion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics...
. Shortly before release, Cyan closed down development, although this did not impact the release of the game; the company was able to rehire its employees a few weeks later, and has continued work on non-Myst projects and an attempted resurrection of Urus multiplayer component, Myst Online.
Among the detailed elements of the Myst universe Cyan created was the language and culture of the D'ni. The civilization's numbers and writing first appeared in Riven, and were important to solving some of the game's puzzles. The D'ni language was the language presented in various games and novels of the Myst franchise, created by Richard A. Watson. Several online D'ni dictionaries have been developed as part of the ongoing fan-based culture associated with the game.
Music
Leitmotif
A leitmotif , sometimes written leit-motif, is a musical term , referring to a recurring theme, associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical idea of idée fixe...
s for each of the main characters. Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
bought the rights to the music and produced the soundtracks, which were released in 1998.
For Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation, composer Jack Wall
Jack Wall (composer)
Jack Wall is an American video game music composer. He has worked on video game music for over 20 games including the Myst franchise, Splinter Cell, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect...
created the music, developing a more active musical style different from Miller's ambient themes. Wall looked at the increasing complexity of games as an opportunity to give players a soundtrack with as much force as a movie score, and tried to create a distinctive sound that was still recognizable as Myst music. In Revelation, Wall adapted the themes for the recurring characters of Myst, and collaborated with Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
, who provided a song to the game as well as voicework.
The music for Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and Myst V: End of Ages was composed by Tim Larkin
Tim Larkin
Tim Larkin is the audio director for Cyan Worlds, a software company that produced the Myst series of computer games. While working at Cyan, Tim worked as a sound designer for Riven, and as a composer for realMyst, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and Myst V: End of Ages.He has twelve years experience in the...
, who had gotten involved in the series doing sound design for Riven. Larkin stepped away from his background as a jazz composer and musician to create music with less structure and without a definite beginning and end. Larkin created different music depending on the location, giving each setting and Age a distinctive tone. For End of Ages, Larkin was unable to afford a full orchestra to perform his score, so he combined individual instrumentation with an array of synthesizers.
Adaptations
Rand and Robyn Miller both wanted to develop Mysts back-story. After the success of Myst, publisher HyperionHyperion (publisher)
Hyperion Books is a general-interest book publishing part of the Disney-ABC Television Group, a division of The Walt Disney Company, established in 1991. Hyperion publishes general-interest fiction and non-fiction books for adults under the following imprints: ABC Daytime Press, ESPN Books,...
signed a three-book, US$1 million deal with the brothers. David Wingrove
David Wingrove
David Wingrove is a British science fiction writer. He is well-known as the author of the Chung Kuo novels . He is also the co-author of the three Myst novels....
worked from the Miller brothers' story outlines. The first three books, entitled Myst: The Book of Atrus, Myst: The Book of Ti'ana, and Myst: The Book of D'ni, were released in 1995, 1996, and 1997, respectively. The books were later packaged together as The Myst Reader
The Myst Reader
The Myst Reader is a bound collection of three books in the Myst franchise, and was published on September 1, 2004. The collection combines three works previously published as separate novels: The Book of Atrus , The Book of Tiana , and The Book of Dni...
. A fourth novel, entitled Myst: The Book of Marrim, is planned.
Cyan partnered with Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
in 1993 to release a limited four-part comic series called Myst: The Book of Black Ships. The series would have focused on Atrus and his young sons, taking place before the events of Myst. The first issue was released on September 3, 1997, but further books were canceled after Cyan decided the first issue did not live up to expectations. Another comic, Myst #0: Passages, was later released online.
After the Myst series' success, various proposals for films and television series based on the franchise were planned or rumored. The Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
announced in 2002 that a TV miniseries would be produced based on Myst, to be produced by Mandalay Television Pictures
Mandalay Entertainment
Mandalay Entertainment Group is a multimedia entertainment vehicle in motion pictures, television, sports entertainment and new media. It was formed in 1995...
in association with Columbia TriStar Domestic Television
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
and Cyan, but never materialized. According to Rand Miller, none of the various proposals met Cyan's approval, or were too formulaic or silly. Independent filmmakers Patrick McIntire and Adrian Vanderbosch, themselves Myst fans, took it upon themselves to produce a motion picture based on the story revealed in the Myst novels. In 2006, the filmmakers sent a DVD proposal to Cyan. The developers gave the filmmakers permission to begin production. The film is based on the novel Myst: The Book of Ti'ana.
Reception and impact
Overall, the Myst series has been commercially and critically successful. Rand and Robyn Miller were expecting Myst to perform as well as previous Cyan titles, making enough money to fund the next project. Instead, Myst sold more than six million units, becoming the top-selling PC game of all time until The SimsThe Sims
The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity...
surpassed its sales in 2002. The first three games in the series have sold more than twelve million copies.
1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
writer Jeremy Parish noted that there have been two main opinions of Mysts slow, puzzle-based gameplay; "Fans consider Myst an elegant, intelligent game for grown-ups, while detractors call it a soulless stroll through a digital museum, more art than game." Game industry executives were confused by Mysts success, not understanding how an "interactive slide show" turned out to be a huge hit. Online magazine writer Russell Pitts of The Escapist
The Escapist (magazine)
The Escapist is an online magazine covering video games, gamers, the gaming industry, and gaming culture. Published by the Themis Group, it was edited by Julianne Greer up to June 30, 2009, then by Russ Pitts through September 2011, and is currently edited by Steve Butts. The Escapist was first...
called Myst "unlike anything that had come before, weaving video almost seamlessly into a beautifully rendered world, presenting a captivating landscape filled with puzzles and mystery. In a game market dominated by Doom clones and simulators, Myst took us by the hand and showed us the future of gaming. It took almost a decade for anyone to follow its lead." Critics from Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
and Salon
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
considered the games approaching the level of art, while authors Henry Jenkins
Henry Jenkins
Henry Jenkins III is an American media scholar and currently a Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC School of Cinematic Arts...
and Lev Manovich
Lev Manovich
Lev Manovich is an author of new media books, professor of Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego, U.S. and European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where he teaches new media art and theory, software studies, and digital humanities...
pointed out the series as exemplifying the promise of new media to create unseen art forms.
The series caused a major trend shift in the adventure game genre. Unlike previous games, Myst attempted to keep players immersed in the world by removing all information not associated with the fictional world itself — no explanatory text, inventory, or score counters. Myst has also been cited as the reason for the decline of the adventure game genre; eager to capitalize on Mysts success, publishers churned out mediocre Myst clones, which flooded the market. By Exiles release, games like Myst were considered to be an "antiquated" form of gaming by some critics.
Mysts effects extended to those who played the games and technology. The title was widely credited as one of the first games to appeal not just to hardcore gamers but to casual players and demographics that generally did not play games, such as women. Mysts lack of conventional game elements — violence, dying, and failure — appealed to nongamers and those contemplating buying a computer. The Millers' decision to develop Myst for the nascent CD-ROM format helped boost interest and adoption of disc drives.
The game inspired a CD parody game entitled Pyst
Pyst
Pyst is a computer game published in 1996. It was created as a parody of the highly successful adventure game, Myst. The parody features full motion video of John Goodman as "King Mattruss", the ruler of "Pyst Island". Pyst was written by Peter Bergman, a co-founder of the Firesign Theatre, and...
, written by comedian Peter Bergman
Peter Bergman (comedian)
Peter Paul Bergman is an American writer and comedian, best known as a member of The Firesign Theatre. He plays Lt. Bradshaw in the Nick Danger series....
and featured John Goodman
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
in video scenes. Players traveled across the spoiled island of Myst after millions of players walked over it, with the parody game poking fun at elements of the prototype.
Fan conventions
The game has spawned annual fanFan (person)
A Fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person with a liking and enthusiasm for something, such as a band or a sports team. Fans of a particular thing or person constitute its fanbase or fandom...
conventions around the world. Mysterium has been held since 2000, which grew out of the plans of a small group of fans who wanted to meet face to face. Word spread, and eventually approximately 200 people attended the meeting in Spokane, Washington
Spokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
, which was held at the headquarters of Cyan Worlds
Cyan Worlds
Cyan Worlds, Inc. is a video game development company, founded by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1987, and best known as the creators of the Myst series. After Myst and its sequel Riven sold several million copies each, Cyan went on to create the massively multiplayer online adventure, Uru,...
, developers of the game. Subsequent conventions have been more formally planned, involving presentations and live music. Similar to Mysterium, Mystralia is a gathering for Australia and New Zealand and has been held since 2005.