question for myst creators

[g00d3d3s1gn]

2 quwstions actually:

1. what's next? what after myst? if the 5th is to be the last, will you promise to build/create new stories? new places... sure, they might not be created witht he myst story line, but myst has been a wonderful break from the shooter games... something to make you think... I truly get lost in your worlds... your games have infected my dreams and i explore the vastness of the beyonds of your games. there are places in the games i've been that postcards will never detail... thanks for the experience, but i'd love more.

2. have you thought about putting together a movie based on the games. truly something the fans would watch... possibly, you'd gain new fans.

finally, a great product for those true fans: create a line of postcaards that collectors could buy and send out.

well, i'm looking forward to what's next... and i hope to get an xbox to play revelation soon... it's cheaper than buying a new Mac. and it's really sacriledge to play it on a real Windows box... that's an insult to your gorgeous graphics.

[g00d3d3s1gn]

2 quwstions actually:

1. what's next? what after myst? if the 5th is to be the last, will you promise to build/create new stories? new places... sure, they might not be created witht he myst story line, but myst has been a wonderful break from the shooter games... something to make you think... I truly get lost in your worlds... your games have infected my dreams and i explore the vastness of the beyonds of your games. there are places in the games i've been that postcards will never detail... thanks for the experience, but i'd love more.

2. have you thought about putting together a movie based on the games. truly something the fans would watch... possibly, you'd gain new fans.

finally, a great product for those true fans: create a line of postcaards that collectors could buy and send out.

well, i'm looking forward to what's next... and i hope to get an xbox to play revelation soon... it's cheaper than buying a new Mac. and it's really sacriledge to play it on a real Windows box... that's an insult to your gorgeous graphics.

[Deg__]

I don't work for Cyan, but I might be able to answer your questions.

1) Right now the only snippit we know is that Cyan's next project "should not be considered a game."

2) There were originally plans for a Sci-Fi made-for-TV movie, but those plans have fallen apart. I think Cyan is cautious to give anyone too much creative control over a Myst movie, because it's hard for Hollywood to be true to the Myst story.

Cheers,
- Deg -

[thewebb]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Deg__:
I don't work for Cyan, but I might be able to answer your questions.

1) Right now the only snippit we know is that Cyan's next project "should not be considered a game."

2) There were originally plans for a Sci-Fi made-for-TV movie, but those plans have fallen apart. I think Cyan is cautious to give anyone too much creative control over a Myst movie, because it's hard for Hollywood to be true to the Myst story.

Cheers,
- Deg - <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

just looking at those two points, cyan's next project after myst V is not a game and they don't want to give creative control to anyone else for a myst movie - it almost suggests that cyan themselves will be making the movie. a bit farfetched maybe, and obviously if they did do it they couldn't make it entirely by themselves, rather just be an active part of it. also, they are software developers not movie makers. but if they aren't making a game what then?

i do think a myst movie would be cool though. could potentially be done well couldn't it? didn't the rights for an exile movie get sold a while back?

[mszv]

Well, sometimes they call the next thing they are working on a game, in the gameshelper interview. In the gamesplanet interview, Rand Miller says "Our new project is called Latus - a completely new type of interactive entertainment that mixes linear storytelling and interactive 3D in a way that has never been done before. It's hard to describe. It feels like a new kind of genre."

There are links to all these interviews in the Myst V End of Ages press thread, Myst V general section of the forum. After a bit of a dry spell, there's more stuff being written, about Myst V, also, vaguely, Cyan's future projects.

The focus does seem to be on interactive entertainment, so I'm thinking that it's not a movie.

[Mowog]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> "Our new project is called Latus - a completely new type of interactive entertainment that mixes linear storytelling and interactive 3D in a way that has never been done before. It's hard to describe. It feels like a new kind of genre." <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Wow, that's very interesting indeed! I very much look forward to seeing this one, whenever it comes out.

I sincerely hope that the online side will be better thought through than Uru was. It seemed like the low turnout for Uru Live caught Cyan completely by surprise. I got the impression that they'd conceived the whole Uru Live concept on flawed marketing data, or perhaps in hopes that the market would adapt to such an advanced product. Alas, it didn't happen. So whatever their plans are for this "Latus," I hope the concept is a little more grounded in reality. It sounds like it might be a bit Uru-like, and if so, that's fabulous! But it should be interesting to see how they apply the lessons they surely learned from Uru.

[thewebb]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mszv:
The focus does seem to be on interactive entertainment, so I'm thinking that it's not a movie. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

yeah i never really thought it would be. like i said they are software developers not movie makers. i still would like to see a movie one day though

[Alahmnat]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mowog:
So whatever their plans are for this "Latus," I hope the concept is a little more grounded in reality. It sounds like it might be a bit Uru-like, and if so, that's fabulous! But it should be interesting to see how they apply the lessons they surely learned from Uru. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I agree Latus does smack of Uru's style of storytelling, which IMHO is a good thing. I've actually been mulling over why I really enjoyed Uru so much and it finally hit me... it was a huge world with its own running story in which you could exist and do your own thing. It's like D&D, or any other traditional pencil-and-paper RPG... there's this really enormous universe that's surrounding your characters, and you've got pretty much free reign to act out adventures and games and grab a foothold in the world while there's an over-arching sequence of events driving activity in the background. I think the promise of Live was something between linear story-telling (like in, say, Homeworld, Final Fantasy, or even Myst) and "sandbox" gameplay, like GTA or any of the scores of multiplayer components in RTS or FPS games. The draw to Live was always having something ne to find, and always being able to share and discuss your findings and advenures with other people. I think that's partly why the community around the game was so strong, and I think the different style of "play" that it involved, where the onus partly fell on the player to participate in the world to make things happen, was something that too few people grapsed too late, but it really was amazing seeing people "get it"... dawning realization is a great look to see on someone's face http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif.

I wanna go help 'em do this... this's stuff I love participating in, and it's something I'd love to have a hand in building, too. *bouncedy!*

[Mowog]

Excellent thoughts, Alahmnat.

Remember early in Prologue, when Cyan was actually working player experiences into the storyline? I seem to recall that player names were even showing up in some of the journals we found. That was amazing. There was the whole Phil Henderson episode, from the kidnapping through his apparent death, which developed and was propagated in realtime through the fanbase. Then there was the tension between followers of the DRC and disciples of Yeesha. It was pretty exciting when breaking news was spreading via KI chat. I was accustomed to uncovering a pre-scripted story in adventure games, but here were new plot twists taking place during gameplay, and the atmosphere was electrifying. Add to this the cryptic postings on the DRC site, updates to Douglas Sharper's journal, occasional sightings of DRC personnel, and it became vividly clear that Uru was a whole new ballgame in the adventure genre. How exciting it was to link into the cavern, see from the tone of the KI chat that something big had just happened, and get into the chat yourself to catch up on the details; or to discover that a new area of the City had just opened up, and run to see for yourself.

Anyone coming into Uru who didn't experience Prologue has missed out on a small sample of what Uru could have been. I mention all this in hopes that Latus will recapture some of that magic!