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Myst Creators Announce Obduction
vivIsel writes "Cyan, the company behind Myst, is taking another shot at an game in that vein — this time in a new game universe, with the Unreal 4 engine. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they haven't gotten a lot of traction with traditional game publishers, so they are turning to Kickstarter with a $1.1M total ask. The Kickstarter video also has some neat shots of the Cyan headquarters — which looks a bit like one of the buildings on Myst island itself."
Are they supporting the old standard - the PC?
and comes free with Windows. What other game has you endlessly clicking on things, hoping that something will do... anything.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I use Linux exclusively. According to their kickstarter page, Linux support is currently up in the air with no promises. This makes me weary as in the end that usually equates to no. I suppose I could dust of my MacBook, but all the same, I would rather be able to play it on my main OS of choice. If they could commit 100% to Linux support, they would already have my money. As long as they are not sure, then neither I am I.
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Back when Myst came out on the Mac, my then-wife got sucked in. She was glued to the computer for a couple of weeks. She would say, "I'll be right down" at 10 PM and finally come to bed at 3AM or 4AM. I don't know if she ever got through the whole thing. I helped/watched for a while here and there, and it was pretty interesting. Afterwards, she told me she finally understood how I could get so focused on the computer and lose track of time. So that was a win.
So, I'm not a gamer (outside of a bit of Solitaire, but if they can make it as interesting and engaging as they did before, more power to them.
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So this isn't made up (At least, not by Cyan) at all. Perhaps you should endeavour to expand your vocabulary somewhat. Or, to put it in terms you might more easily understand: "Use dictionary, learn words, speak better."
Given that they've almost met 20% of their funding goal in the first of thirty days, I wouldn't give up on the ol' girl just yet. The core Myst franchise fanbase is exceptionally devoted—they've been keeping the Uru Live servers going for a few years now entirely through donations.
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First off, most actual studios who ask for KS funds are only asking for a kick-start in the finances, and will be looking for more cash (as 1 million is nothing when it come sot game design my actually full studios).
Secondly, no they do not. You try running a studio full of people for ten years without producing anything even slightly viable. They were the most successful studio coming up on twenty years ago, and they had 2 successful projects, many ports, and a few licencing deals. Then the AG industry went to shit and they could not produce anything that even got close to breaking even. They spent like 6 years creating the abysmal failure that was their MMO adventure game, that never even really got a proper launch, and really was never that good of an idea, or well executed to begin with. I have no idea how they did not declare bankruptcy 5 years ago, but they have dragged themselves along with remakes and ports to tablets in recent years, but the audience is small and those games are always super cheap. I doubt they have two cents to rub together.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Buried deep in the Kickstarter info: "We are excited about Oculus Rift (we have a dev kit) and VR in general, and we'd love to have a stretch goal that heads that direction." Woot!
"False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
You left off a closing parenthesis. You inconsiderate bastard. )
I don't think it's shady at all that they're asking for 1.1m. Consider Mighty No. 9, where they asked for 900k, developed by veterans of both the industry and the genre (who have insanely strong credentials, like Keiji Inafune, who was Capcom's Head of Production until 2010 and co-created Megaman).
You do have to consider that studios that go with Kickstarter tend not to be massive development studios like you see with EA-style development. Bioware, for example, has about 800 people spread across 5 studios, so in the ballpark of 160 people per studio. A budget of $1m doesn't go very far in that environment, but Cyan only has 40 employees.
Myst was released 20 years ago, and the fact that Cyan feel the need to trade on the reputation of a property that old ought to be at least as much a warning sign as it is a cause for excitement. Yes, Cyan may technically be the company that produced it - but, whilst companies can theoretically live for ever, people move on. It's an absolute certainty that any new property would be produced by different people, under different management, with potentially different attitudes and values (and I've seen at first hand just HOW much of a difference 20 years of change in a company can make), using a different engine, to vastly different market expectations (Myst was good in its day - but if it launched today, I suspect it would barely make the discount shelves).
Good luck to them, by all means - new, quality products in the market are always welcome. And if they get to market, and it's any good, I may buy it. But this is no different to any other company coming along and saying "We plan to develop a new game, and it's going to be great, so give us the money to let us do it".
I feel just the opposite. I loved Myst but never really got into the sequels, and all their accumulated lore is just confusing to me. I'm sure it would be confusing and daunting to new players too, who haven't done any of the old games -- and many, many of today's gamers weren't even born back in the Myst days. It's sort of like going into the comic shop and seeing Fooble's Adventures #50 and thinking, "Neat cover... But do I even have a hope in Hell of understanding what's going on, if I haven't read the first 49 of them?"
A new world means no baggage, no preconceptions, a fresh start. Anybody can dive into it without misgivings.
I did wonder why Myst was getting attention in various places like Slashdot after all this time. Stir a memory in the thirty-somethings and then announce your "new, fresh game that isn't at all trading on a name from decades past".
You can advertise in this sig from as little as £99.99 a month!
Exactly! The hoops you had to jump through to get the BFG sucked!
I drank what? -- Socrates