What is Cyan up to?

[Sirius]

I'm definitely of the mind of Tweek and Christopher. The number of Fan-Ages I think worth of being on MOULa, side-to-side with Cyan's, is below 5. There are a few that look good (such as Tweek's Fehnir House), but in most case, the graphics are not up-to-par with Cyan's, or the Age doesn't really fit with the rest of the game.

(that said, some of Cyan's "Ages" don't really fit themselves, such as the spyroom. But since it's more like a linking hub, it's ok for me)

About this new realMyst: I'm really amazed to see Myst Ages on such engine, but I have to agree some models and textures still do not fit at all. For instance, in Mechanical, if you remove the sky, shadows, sea... well, everything handled by the engine... it's horrible !
About Channelwood: it still feels a bit unfinished (for instance, no ripples around the trees), but otherwise I think the lighting really fits.
Man, it looks like they even used this sunshaft shader... too cool !
Finally, the Myst island... It's nice, but it's a bit too welcoming to my mind. Too lushy-greeny. Somehow I liked the almost barren island from the original game, with the dense mist everywhere. Plus the way the stone blends into grass is crap IMO.

Besides that, I guess (though I can't know) that Cyan does not really develop a completely new, revolutionary game engine. My assumption is that it's still based in many points on plasma.

Based on Plasma ?
You mean, this would be running on an upgraded Plasma engine ? With new distortion, sunshafts, bloom etc shaders ?
Plasma is years behind the current engines. I doubt Cyan has the resources to upgrade Plasma.
They used Unity (IIRC) for the iPad version of the game. I rather think they are using another game engine again.

[Calena]

Hmm . . . very interesting discussion. We're all bringing up excellent points to think about. My personal thoughts on Cyan releasing RealMyst again, is that if they want to really succeed and re-grow the company, they need to develop new content rather than recycling what they've already done . . . and done . . . and done. Yes, there is such a thing as content that is truly in the realm of "Masterpiece", such as The Bible, Jane Austin, Leonardo DiVinci, Bach, Beethoven, etc. that never seems to age or go out of demand. Even in the gaming worlds, there's games like the various renditions of Tetris (Bejeweled anyone?) that just keep going and going and going.

The Myst series may well be one of the best video games ever designed. The fact that the work was chosen to be featured in world class museums can't overlooked. They did something very, very right and very well to earn that distinction. But is it enough in this medium to keep going forever unaltered? It doesn't appear to be working very well. I've spent time searching through the interwebz and Reddit and other gaming sites to try to ascertain exactly how much buzz Cyan generates outside this very small community. From what I've been able to discover, not much.

My personal opinion from what I've managed to gather is that what will bring Cyan back into the spotlight is . . . us! The writers and devs that Cyan desperately needs but can't afford to pay. But let's face it, we aren't going to work on anything that requires that large of a commitment unless we each have a personal reason for wanting to be involved. I believe we still do have the talent in the community. We have at least one extremely talented artist (Tweek), a technical mastermind that can make almost anything happen in the game engine (tachzusamm), and enough highly skilled and dedicated "others" to do the work. Oh, I can't forget Dulcamara and the talent she recently displayed in game design. What we've never managed to do is pull it all together to really make it happen and build the age that will get everyone excited again.

I think the real question going forward is not what is Cyan trying now, but rather, what can be done to make Open Source happen the way it was originally envisioned by each and every one of us? I have no answer to that question.

In the meantime, I'm busy building a pirate cave for my grandson and patiently waiting for tach to release the latest version of "Relativity". We aren't dead yet. Just stumped .

[tachzusamm]

Based on Plasma ?
You mean, this would be running on an upgraded Plasma engine ? With new distortion, sunshafts, bloom etc shaders ?
Plasma is years behind the current engines. I doubt Cyan has the resources to upgrade Plasma.
They used Unity (IIRC) for the iPad version of the game. I rather think they are using another game engine again.

A-ha. Good to hear my assumption was wrong. So there's still hope
Using Unity seems to be a better choice. I did not know that (and I don't own an iPad).

I doubt Cyan has the resources to upgrade Plasma.

Looking at the new Team Page, I think you are right. 15 People are a bit too few.

[Christopher]

They are using either Unity or Unreal. But I don't know exactly which one of those. But Sirius is right. Everything handled by the engine (lighting, water,...) looks wonderful, whereas the texturing looks aweful.

BTW, I would like to see "Real Riven"

Christopher

[Sirius]

Calena:
The reason they release yet another version of an existing game is the same they don't upgrade Plasma - they don't have enough people to do anything else.

The reason they always use the first game is that they already have all the assets from realMyst sitting somewhere on their computers, and it must be relatively easy to port them to modern game engines (the only difference in the models I can see is the vegetation, which might be generated by the engine anyway. They didn't even bother re-detailing the meshes).
Getting Riven in it, on the other hand, means re-creating almost everything from scratch, which is a deal harder (and that's what the guys at the Starry Expanse are doing).

Plus, no version of the first Myst was ever as "beautiful" as Riven, Exile or Revelation was, so there is always room for improvement .

About us being able to bring Uru back, I wouldn't give it much hope Development on Plasma is going slowly and it's difficult to get an Age good-looking.
Let's face it: old ps2 games have better lighting/physics/sounds than most of the GoW's most praised fan-Ages...

[Karkadann]

Realistically speaking nothing last for ever, be it good or bad.

[Christopher]

The reason they release yet another version of an existing game is the same they don't upgrade Plasma - they don't have enough people to do anything else.

You can't tell me they don't have enough people to do anything new. I've seen enough Indy companies with less developers which made great games. For example the game "Magicka" was (in the beginning) created by 5 swedish students. Another example is "The Five Cores". I don't know exactly how much people did this, but I think it was less than 15. And this game looks a hundred times better than the screenshots I saw on Cyans website.

Christopher

[Annabelle]

Let's face it: old ps2 games have better lighting/physics/sounds than most of the GoW's most praised fan-Ages...

Maybe you are right Sirius but I don't own a PS2 console, I saw their library and I have no attraction toward any of their games. You can make the best game ever, you won't sold it to me if I'm not interest in it . Even if Assassin Creed offers top notch graphics, I don't see why I would play a guy who go on a killing sprey to achieve his goal whatever goal it is...

I prefer exploring 3D worlds with an avatar. Since this activity is not a favorite among the gamers community in general, there are not many choices. If a fan can provide me that, I will praise their creation more than the latest most super duper console game out there. It's down to what interests me.

Bottom line is you won't find any game that will be "the best one ever". You'll always find a flaw or someone not liking it.


I'm feeling you are more interested in the graphics/visual quality of a game (or an age) than its playability, its possibilities of exploration. It makes the complexity of the whole "fan age publishing". It won't satisfied everyone. When you'll be satisfied, I might not be satisfied at all or the exact opposite in other case figure.

Cass/Fehnir's House/Trebid'vil & the likes are really sharp and well done but there's nothing for me there. I call them the postcard ages...
Dulcamara's/Huru team's/Jonnee's/denost's/Calena's & other ages have many graphics flaws but I'm returning there a lot. I never get tired of them.

[Deledrius]

I'm feeling you are more interested in the graphics/visual quality of a game (or an age) than its playability, its possibilities of exploration.

Those things aren't mutually exclusive. It's possible to have quality standards in both (and other) categories.

[janaba]

The reason they release yet another version of an existing game is the same they don't upgrade Plasma - they don't have enough people to do anything else.

You can't tell me they don't have enough people to do anything new. I've seen enough Indy companies with less developers which made great games. For example the game "Magicka" was (in the beginning) created by 5 swedish students. Another example is "The Five Cores". I don't know exactly how much people did this, but I think it was less than 15. And this game looks a hundred times better than the screenshots I saw on Cyans website.
Christopher

That's something which has always been beyond me resp. my understanding, really ... no man power I mean ... Under 15 people?, no guys, that was a french guy and maybe a couple helpers ...

There is another excellent example of a new game (and that's only one, there are many more), means a world resp. it is about to unfold and develop into a huge and almost unimaginable magical and extraordinary universe of a gorgeous beauty and a high high quality the Uru/Myst worlds cannot be even compared to, cannot come even close to IMHO ... I'm talking about 'Xing - The Land Beyond' (the development blog with many awesome screens and state of the dev progress), and the reason I'm exaggerating this one here, though it cannot be hyped up enough lol, is that this awesome adventure game (if one likes that style or not) is created by only 3 young talented and passionate people, two guys and a beautiful lady, you can see a picture on their main page, but there are many more recent pictures of them on that blog page too ... The reason the release date is postponed to early-mid 2014 is that they're constantly working on more and new ideas and technologies for the game, on its quality improvement and that they're making it 100% compatible for the Oculus Rift ... And they are only three, you see ...

Yeah, that's what makes me think sometimes, but what do I know ... Those creative talents at Cyan will have their reasons why they cannot come up with some new awesome stuff in so many years, to just put it bluntly ...