Who Really is The Stranger

robynmiller · **Joined:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:09 pm **Posts:** 39

Main_Avvie wrote:

unless way back in 92 rand and rich were hammering out 20 years worth of d'ni cannon from their secret lair...

Hah! And it was underground too! And rand wore a cape and Rich drove him around in the black atomic D'ni car!

Of course, we never expected Myst to be the success it was and never planned for anything past Myst, though we did create backstory.

here's how it went...

1) Rand and I spend years making children's worlds.

2) Rand and I think we can evolve past this and create a world that communicates story, and is aimed at older audience.

3) We propose such a project to Activision, they reject it.

4) Disheartened, Rand and I make more children's stuff.

5) A japanese company comes to us, out of the blue, and asks to fund a world aimed at an older audience.

6) We pee our pants with joy.

7) Rand and I begin designing the story, gameplay, interface, back-story and the philosophy of the Myst world. We do this all day, everyday for about two months, non-stop. Drawing after drawing. I still have the notebooks of outlines and sketches. During these sessions, we came up with the idea of books as a way to transport oneself to other worlds (you should have seen some of our other ideas!)... I don't remember when we started calling the writing of books "the Art"; I'd have to look at my notes. Conveniently enough, we are able to use some of the good ideas of a mediocre novel I had been working on: namely, the concept of the underground kingdom of D'ni, or "Dunny" as we had then called it back then.

Also, as Myst is created, Rand and I begin describing some rough ideas for why Myst island exists. Why is Atrus there with his sons? Who is Atrus? We begin to rough out a larger story but, at this point, our own answers are blurry, like a sketch that doesn't know what shape it'll take, but it knows it has to take a shape. Ryan (our other brother) had a part in this as well.

9. So time passes, Myst is released and, much to our surprise, it's a massive success.

9. Rand and I and, at this point, now feel we need to answer some of our own very large unanswered questions. That's when The Book of Atrus came along. And then Riven.

Chogon · **Joined:** Wed Aug 02, 2006 7:13 pm **Posts:** 1069

robynmiller wrote:

Tell Cyan you don't want just another re-release of Myst. Or even a junky hi-res version of Myst (rendered from original low-res assets, or something like that). You want a Myst made from scratch, that blows you away. All new sound, all new visuals, all new acting, all new everything. It's been 20 years and you, the fans, deserve it. Petition Cyan... the fans really have the power... and if there's enough of you, it might even help them garner the funding for such a project!

Obviously you missed the numerous fan petitions in the past.
And obviously you haven't tried pitching a game for funding in a long time - maybe something you could ask your brother about… speaking of brothers. Your brother used a large portion of his money to fund most of Uru. And him and another brother of yours spent a lot of hard work creating Uru, MystV, MystOnline and several pitched projects that got no funding - maybe you could step up to the plate this time? It wouldn't have to be a Cyan reunion tour. It could even be done by a different studio… maybe a studio like, say, Land Of Point?

:-)

(Some said I never put enough smiles in my posts, so here they are. But I would still caution you about where you get your water from!)

--Chogon (aka MarkD)
(BTW, if I'm a hobbit then that would explain how I can sneak up on RAWA all the time ;-)

)

dragossh · **Joined:** Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:39 pm **Posts:** 517

Funding? Take a look at Kickstarter

I believe the old-fashioned way of going with a big name studio isn't working anymore. I see lots of companies self-publishing on Steam and having huge successes. I know you don't want to run the company into the ground, and neither do I want to see that happen, but maybe it's time to try something else other than "try get funding from big studios for our next project?"

Buzzle1 · **Joined:** Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:36 am **Posts:** 329

Quote:

Your brother used a large portion of his money to fund most of Uru. And him and another brother of yours spent a lot of hard work creating Uru, MystV, MystOnline and several pitched projects that got no funding - maybe you could step up to the plate this time?

Heeheehee....
Back to lurking, Buzzle - back, BACK...

Teknobubba · **Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 10:57 pm

Chogon wrote:

Obviously you missed the numerous fan petitions in the past.
And obviously you haven't tried pitching a game for funding in a long time - maybe something you could ask your brother about… speaking of brothers. Your brother used a large portion of his money to fund most of Uru. And him and another brother of yours spent a lot of hard work creating Uru, MystV, MystOnline and several pitched projects that got no funding - maybe you could step up to the plate this time? It wouldn't have to be a Cyan reunion tour. It could even be done by a different studio… maybe a studio like, say, Land Of Point?

robynmiller wrote:

Tell Cyan you don't want just another re-release of Myst. Or even a junky hi-res version of Myst (rendered from original low-res assets, or something like that). You want a Myst made from scratch, that blows you away. All new sound, all new visuals, all new acting, all new everything. It's been 20 years and you, the fans, deserve it. Petition Cyan... the fans really have the power... and if there's enough of you, it might even help them garner the funding for such a project!

Ya know.....there's plenty of talent in this here bunch. Say we used Steam to distribute it. Just how much could it cost if you got art, sound, etc. from (gasp) people willing to do it for next to nothing. Pennies. Or, maybe just for actual nothing. I'd pitch in voice work, sound mixing and the like.

Call it a labor of love. Call it pay back to the Millers, Mark, Rich, and the rest o' the gang for the oodles of fun we've all had over the years.

JWPlatt · **Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:11 pm

Teknobubba wrote:

I'd pitch in voice work, sound mixing and the like.

* This is not an idle threat.

Teknobubba did an awesome job with his audition demos and ultimately as the credited voice of Riccum, The Man in the Tree, in Creative Kingdom's MagiQuest Online.

Teknobubba · **Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 11:13 pm

JWPlatt wrote:

Teknobubba wrote:

I'd pitch in voice work, sound mixing and the like.

* This is not an idle threat.

Teknobubba did an awesome job with his audition demos and ultimately as the credited voice of Riccum, The Man in the Tree, in MagiQuest Online.

::blush:: Thanks, JW.

Free Bird · **Joined:** Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:52 pm **Posts:** 179

Chogon wrote:

:-)

(Some said I never put enough smiles in my posts, so here they are. But I would still caution you about where you get your water from!)

All the smileys in the world can't change the fact that it didn't really seem appropriate. You don't have to take my advice, but I'd keep this kind of stuff behind the scenes if I were you, lest people think badly of how relations are between current and former Cyan employees.

Main_Avvie · **Posted:** Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:58 am

Wow, Chogon brings on the heat. I'm not gonna lie, Robyn's return to the company he helped create would be grand, from my perspective... but it's such a limited perspective...

though Robyn's long removed perspective from Cyan's pov has provided a lot of context.

Buzzle1 · **Joined:** Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:36 am **Posts:** 329

Lighten up Free Bird (recommendation only) - things have already been said back and forth - Chogon has as much right as anyone to participate.
Smilies all around

jek · **Posted:** Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:46 am

Thank you Robyn Miller for coming to this forum and posting this post. I find it as a treasure of new information. Thank you Rand, Ryan, RAWA, and Chogon and everyone past and present of Cyan for the joy you have given me in the playing of the games. Myst I found so wonderful that when I discovered the sequel Riven I saved it as a fine wine for a special time to play. Ended up I became afraid to crack the cork for quite a long time. I finally did and then ran headlong into every title I could find. Yes some were not of Cyan's making and I learned this. I found the online world in Until Uru. I rejoiced with the opening of MOUL. I cried with the closing. I have all the single player games and play them over and over giving myself time to forget just enough to make the replay a challenge. Hmmm how many times have I replaced this or that games disk because of a cracked hub? Found out trying to use a cracked disk can have EXPLOSIVE results to the drive. Haha drives are cheap and I can find another copy of that disk. Thanks to you all for the wonderful times.

Lightkeeper

Chogon · **Joined:** Wed Aug 02, 2006 7:13 pm **Posts:** 1069

I know to outsiders this looks like the comments of Robyn, RAWA and I to be a feud and "bad relations" between former and current Cyantists. But it is really just the push and push back that happens in a creative environment - and it might not always look like it, but it is always with the utmost respect for each other (and let me tell you, I've witnessed and have been a part of some really heated discussions at Cyan but in the end, everyone was still very good friends - well, except for those two "never-to-be-named-again" people).

--Chogon

robynmiller · **Joined:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:09 pm **Posts:** 39

Chogon wrote:

well, except for those two "never-to-be-named-again" people)

You mean Voltomort and Darth Vader?!

They were always such complete asses.

Mark, I totally see what your getting at... and yeah, just so everybody knows... I respect Mark, and Rawa, enormously. They were part of a great group of people that I totally loved working with. There was a lot of passion that went into Riven, at every level, and went into Uru as well, which you can see by the passion in Mark's previous post. I think that's amazingly cool.

Free Bird · **Joined:** Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:52 pm **Posts:** 179

All we need now is Rand posting in this thread and the party will be complete.

JWPlatt · **Posted:** Fri Oct 14, 2011 7:34 pm

Free Bird wrote:

All we need now is Rand posting in this thread and the party will be complete.

+Ryan. I haven't seen him since the Ae'gura Tent Rope controversy.

Oh, and please be careful throwing around phrases like "...will be complete" so close to mentions of Darth Vader.

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