![]() "They gave us the canvas on which we could paint, we chose the colors, type of paint, and vision of the painting."Īnd just what direction does Exile take? Though set after the events in Riven, Exile doesn't pick up precisely where that game ended. "Once they had a clear idea of the direction that we were going, they turned us loose," Irish says. Though Rand and Robyn Miller weren't involved in the development of Exile, Rand Miller and Richard Watson of Cyan worked with Ubi Soft and award-winning development house Presto Studios-whose Journeyman Project games are often favorably compared to Myst-from the very beginning of the project, outlining the direction the story would follow. New Faces, New Worlds Click for full size image Take the game's lush, fully orchestrated soundtrack: "No one argued with me on that issue, since it was a direct reflection of our commitment to developing a quality product." "Educating the top executives from each of the various companies became a regular event during the development of Myst III: Exile." And like the Millers-who longtime fans might be disappointed to learn had virtually no involvement in the game's development-Irish was dedicated to making Exile a top-quality product. "With every change came a new set of challenges and standards that needed to be met, in addition to my own," notes Irish. ![]() He also oversaw the development of Myst Masterpiece, realMyst, and Myst IV (yes, it's already in the works). That state of flux brought unique stumbling blocks to the development of Exile, says Dan Irish, Ubi Soft's producer for the game. Three different companies-Mattel, The Learning Company, and Ubi Soft-have held the rights to the Myst and Riven product line over the last several years. When it comes to Myst III: Exile, however, the single biggest reason for the long hiatus between it and Riven is that the franchise has gone through some turbulent changes. The other reason was artistic: Cyan and the Millers wanted Riven not only to feature the same compelling gameplay of the original but also to incorporate the very latest advances in graphics technology. The reason for the long gaps between Myst games was partly financial: Myst stayed at the top of sales charts for years, and it would have made little sense to release a sequel when sales of the original game were so incredibly robust. Instead, fans had to wait four years for Riven and another four for Myst III: Exile, which is slated for release this May. ![]() ![]() With that type of popularity, it wouldn't have been surprising to see four or five sequels to Myst hit shelves since that game's release in 1993. And literally dozens of Myst and Riven Web sites sprang up, all dedicated to feeding fans' interest in the music, language, and mysteries of the D'ni, the civilization around which both games revolve. Hungry for all things Myst, fans devoured three Myst novels penned by Rand Miller, co-designer of Myst along with brother Robyn Miller. The numbers alone speak for themselves: More than 10 million copies of Myst and its sequel, Riven, have been sold over the past seven and a half years, thanks in no small part to the fact that women-generally considered an inconsequential segment of the target audience of PC games-comprised nearly half of those who played the game. Regardless of which camp you belong to, though, there's no denying that Myst changed the face of PC gaming forever. On the other, are the strident critics who dismiss it as "twiddleware" and who simply can't understand how someone can become so immersed in a gameworld that they consider lifeless and empty. Has there even been a game that generated as much division among PC game fans as Myst? On the one hand, there are millions of adventurers who consider it the closest thing to the perfect PC game ever created, a groundbreaking game that ushered in a new era of graphical excellence and that immediately captured the imagination of gamers across the globe. ![]()
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