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Demos, Screenshots Of Cyan's Next Projects

Posted by timothy on from the lotta-linkage dept.

Stop Making Sense! writes: "First, an overview: To put it simply, Cyan has been a very busy little adventure game company lately. So busy, in fact, that it has left the job of a third Myst sequel, Myst III:Exile, to the notorious Presto Studios. With the impending release of realMyst, a realtime 3D version of Myst, and the accompanying Demo and Trailer, quite a few revelations about Cyan's long-term project have been woefully missed by most. A word about this project, before we get to the sweetness: It is codenamed MUDPIE." (Read on for more.) [updated by timothy] Due to a defective brain node, certain sentences were posted redundantly in this story. The node has been cauterized, and the sentences too.

"It is going to be an organic, realtime multiplayer game running on the same 'Headspin' 3D engine (which Cyan bought from the now-defunct Headspin Technologies along with a bunch of Headspin's programming staff)as realMyst and is going to take place in the Myst/Riven universe.

In the blizzard of Myst information, the sweetest snippet of all has basically gotten lost in the shuffle: a Screenshot of MUDPIE. People think at first it's a small chamber until the realize that the blob front and center is a person.

The engine is very pretty and relatively low on bugs, if a bit slow. Some people think the edges of the front pillars aren't soft enough, but they look fine to me :). For more info and clarification, see [this info page on Cyan's site]."

6 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Re:notorious? by moriya · · Score: 4
    Okay, late on the posting. Thought I'd give my two cents in. Rather than trying to find who said what, I'll just refer them here...

    A friend of mine who's on the other side of the US didn't like it. He thinks that it's all boring fancy slide-show puzzle game. I thought it's interesting. Sure it didn't have any action but that's the point when you look at how much power a PC needs to render all that in real-time (which is now made possible via realMYST). I thought the puzzle was great, even though it took me a couple of months to actually finish the game.

    Someone brought up the point that it had a rather shotty ending. Yes, it had a shotty ending and it blatently advertises a sequel to the next game which we now know as Riven. But there's backing to that, if anyone went out and bought the 3 supplemental novels that're published. Because of the success of MYST and because it raises so many questions to the history of the characters themselves, these 3 novels were created to add depth to the culture and personalities behind Atrus, Catherine, Gehn, Sirrus & Achenar, as well as background information to the D'ni culture itself.

    The novels themselves explained how Gehn came to be. It also explained how the intro speech was created when you played MYST. These novels, to me, are essential to understanding more of Riven's background, to me that is.

    I've read all 3 supplemental novels to the MYST game. They're great reading, IMO. I found myself more fascinated by the fictional D'ni culture as I read the books.

    For Riven's ... uh, "substance" or core or plot or gameplay or puzzles (however you wanna define Riven in itself), I didn't find anything wrong with it other than the puzzles being harder than MYST was. Riven's puzzles were a lot more complicated in that it requires users to write down specific information or forever find yourself getting stuck at a particular point. But that's the only problem I ran into when playing it. And while Riven's ending brings a close to the MYST & Riven story, I thought that there won't be any more sequels. Guess I was wrong...

    I viewed the MYST 3 trailer and looked through the credits. And I knew as I watched the trailer that something was missing. The Miller brothers who created the MYST & Riven world aren't doing the game. Somehow it seem to lack that authentic feel. Or maybe it's just my imagination. It just strangely doesn't seem right anymore to have a MYST 3. But that, and everything else, is, of course, my opinion.

    --
    ~ Old Warriors Society
  2. Re:At last, the unified news item... by sanderb · · Score: 4

    No longer content to post the same story two times in a day, the editors decided this time to just post the duplicates together in one news item! Everyone is, of course, required to submit comments subtly different in appearance yet identical in content. No longer content to post the same story two times in a day, the editors decided this time to just post the duplicates together in one news item! Everyone is, of course, required to submit comments subtly different in appearance yet identical in content.

  3. Good/Bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    Good: Copy. Paste. Submit.
    Bad: Copy. Paste. Paste. Submit.

  4. Geez... by NMerriam · · Score: 4

    With the impending release of realMyst, a realtime 3D version of Myst, and the accompanying Demo and Trailer, quite a few editors are having trouble paying attention to what they're doing...



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    --
    Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
  5. At last, the unified news item... by SuperKendall · · Score: 5

    No longer content to post the same story two times in a day, the editors decided this time to just post the duplicates together in one news item!

    Everyone is, of course, required to submit comments subtly different in aperance yet identical in content.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  6. The quality of the game is controversial by MrShiny · · Score: 4
    Some thought Myst was a brilliantly original and simple game concept and others thought it was boring and stupid.

    Personally, I think it's a little of both. There are some good ideas there and some nice art direction but the puzzles aren't very interesting or well integrated into the game. You can get the same effect by stopping every 5 minutes to play minesweeper.