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Cyan Worlds To Open-Source Myst Online: Uru Live
644bd346996 writes "Cyan Worlds, Inc., creators of the Myst franchise, has decided to make their unsuccessful MMORPG Myst Online: Uru Live into an open source game. They will release all the source code for the client, server, and tools. They will continue to host the data on their own servers. Uru was originally intended to be an online-only game. The publisher, Ubisoft, requested that a single-player version be made as well. They then canceled the online version in February 2004, while it was still in a closed beta. Cyan allowed fans to run their own servers as part of a completely unsupported service known as Until Uru. In February 2007, GameTap picked up Uru as one of their biggest games, only to cancel it a year later."
The engine Uru is based on (Plasma) was acquired by Cyan from a startup that hadn't released any products with it yet. Cyan bought it expressly for building what eventually became Uru. Along the way, they did make RealMyst, a fully 3d remake of the original Myst.
RealMyst and Uru were the first Myst games that weren't all pre-rendered graphics. The previous games (Myst 1-4) were built with various technologies, and by various 3rd parties. Myst 5, however, was built off the Plasma engine, because the content of the game had originally been planned to be part of Uru.
Isn't the original just a hypercard stack? It certainly could be written that way. I'm sure it needed some emulation doohicky for the Windows port, but nothing that can't be done.
If it is a hypercard stack, I doubt there is any leftover code. But the game is basically a sequence of hyperlinked image maps with some quicktime vids thrown in. You could implement the whole thing in HTML and minimal JavaScript.
Not a typewriter
As Atrus would say, "Sometimes the past is painful to remember..." "I've opened the door for my dreams to escape." That is esentially what Rand Miller has done. Bravo, Atrus, bravo.
This is very good news. Myst Online has an amazingly dedicated fanbase consisting of people who have patiently waited for years for the game to come back up after it went back to a coma. This is now the third time it will rise from the ashes. Like a phoenix it keeps coming back. A big 'hurray' to all the Cyan people out there for doing their best for their dedicated fanbase! I will be very happy indeed to be able to roam the Ages again.
-- Cheers!
yes, the first myst was a hypercard stack, which is why it came out on the mac earlier than the pc. and why, if you had the developer/s hypercard, you cou find out different things (not that i remember that far back - i *do* remember deleting hypercard and seeing myst die a horrible death).
- r
To me the best thing about Myst was that you were alone and trapped in a mysterious place left to discover what happened to the world and its inhabitants. In a way it reminded me of Planetfall. You "crash land" onto a world and have to fix what is wrong and find out what made it that way. I don't know how you could extend that to an online MMORPG. I never played it though so it may be the best thing since free cake...but the original with its isolation, loneliness, and haunting music is what made it fun.
I actually had the pleasure of beta testing this one. It was quite fun (if you like the complex puzzles that Myth/Riven presented you).
One of the best beta-testing experiences I have had and if I remember correctly, I'm actually in the credits on the retail CD.
Besides all that, it's a great game and I'm pleased they are open sourcing it!
I say don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink. Before you get behind the wheel just stop and think.
On that note, you might want to take a look at the Guilds already in existence. These are all fan-run groups that are working on the future of Uru and have been since before the servers were even shut down.
In particular, the Guild of Writers has made many fan-created ages already using Blender and a custom plugin for Myst. I have no doubt that with the release of the Myst Online source from Cyan their tools will become even more refined, and lead to much greater development from the fans.
If the Uru community has shown anything, it is that they are resourceful, determined, and refuse to let Myst die no matter how much time or effort they need to spend.
So sayeth Tim.