I wish my memory could be erased so I could experience playing Riven the "first time" again. It feels so real, so natural, so deep. No other game I have played ever came close to it.
One of my most favourite games ever. At first I spent hours just looking at the amazing graphics, listening to the music, trying to figure out the puzzles. Then I began playing it properly. The hours of enjoyment and fascination took me many times into the night, figuring things out. Even now I will play the game and am still spell bound by Riven.
I cannot even begin to conceive of anybody being able to do this today (even if anyone wanted to). This thing with a half dozen or so blokes doing business out of a garage with little more than passion and some technical aptitude was common place in the 80s and 90s. The video game industry in the US at least was *built* by teams of a half dozen or so blokes running a successful business out of their garage all over the country - And not just releasing quality products that were massive commercial successes but being able to grow and improve and expand their business until they had their own offices and staff. What HAPPENED to that?
The change is that the industry is far faster and far more competitive, and people with this kind of skill are far more willing to work for a big company where they'll get paid 100k/year than to make an indie project that might never even pay for itself.
I think a lot of it has to do with what VC Donovan says about the rise of video game giants like EA, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, etc making the business more competitive. However, I think the bigger problem is that modern technology, while making it easier than ever to create games, has inadvertently diluted the gaming world by over-saturating the industry with developers. Since games are easier than ever to make, everybody and their mama is developing games -- from simple puzzle games for smart phones like Candy Crush to the umpteenth iteration of the Call of Duty series on home consoles. The marvel of the Myst series (like dozens of games on the NES, SNES, N64, etc) comes from the fact that it was developed in the early 90s when gaming was just emerging from it's infancy. Arguably toddler-aged. During these early developmental years of gaming, there was a massive need for experimentation, which in turn led to both a wide variety of games and much more creativity. Creativity in this case came out of necessity. Modern console gaming has basically devolved into FPSs, racing/sports, or 3rd person adventure RPG. Meanwhile, handheld mobile devices now have a monopoly on puzzle & strategy simulation games like Tetris or Battleship. Each new generation console since the GameCube/XBox/PS3 has just been a glorified version of it's predecessor, boasting better graphics & sound, but offering hardly anything new in terms of gameplay. Unfortunately, I feel this is probably because console/PC gaming as we know it has more or less reached an impasse. Going back as far as Atari, the goal with each subsequent generation had always been to make games more immersive, more realistic, more cinematic, etc. The most recent game graphics are almost indistinguishable from real life, but the gameplay is no different than that of say, Shadows of the Empire or Ocarina of Time. In other words, there's only so much you can do with console/PC gaming setups. Gaming under this approach are as immersive as they're going to get. What modern developers fail to understand is that graphics/sound alone won't make a best-selling game -- the player must also enjoy *_playing_* it, and so gameplay is equally as important. I think this largely contributed to the monumental success of Notch's Minecraft. Less emphasis on graphics/sound and heavy emphasis on gameplay. Doesn't matter how pretty & shiny a game is; if people don't like playing it, they won't. Nevertheless, this doesn't mean it's the end of the road. The next evolutionary step for gaming should be highly immersive virtual reality (like what Oculus Rift is attempting to do). Many indie developers are already experimenting with the interface and what new games could be realized with it. Thus, we once again find ourselves with a completely new approach to gaming, so the opportunities are wide open again for experimentation & development.
I think another big thing that publishers are missing is that immersion is more than realism. I just don't mean in terms of having fun, either. What made Riven work so well was that the developers spent so much time imagining what it would actually be like to inhabit the Age that playing the game really does feel like stepping into another world. One thing I've noticed in a lot of lets plays is that people are so jaded by lack of this type of immersion that they no longer try to pretend that they are actually "in" the game. They'll think "what is the normal game pattern for what's in front of me?" in order to progress rather than doing what a real person would do. It makes me really sad.
Ron @ 5:23 "We want people to be really impressed" Sure, you did it ! This is pure Art, and more, you changed Art itself because with Riven after Myst you confirmed that video game was entering the world of Art. Nobody could envision this a year before.
If anyone comes across this video, look up the Starry Expanse project. It's a remake of Riven in Unreal Engine 4, officially sanctioned and partnered with Cyan at this point.
I played Riven when I was a kid and I didn't think too much about the complexity and how much work was done to make it. I just took for granted what I saw. Now, playing it over again fairly recently with the knowledge of how the game was made and how much work designing such a world would be, it's actually quite impressive. Especially for the tech they had back then. I can only imagine a game like Riven being made with the tech we have now. How much better would it have looked?
I have been playing every Myst game including the 2014 and 2021 edition. I really like the 2014 version as it let's you use the w a s d key's. I think all of these games should have that. The 2021 version movement is pretty good but would still be nice to have w a s d. The 2021 version looks absolutely stunning in Unreal engine which I think all the other's would benefit greatly from. They just released Myst Remake. Keeping my fingers crossed that it can happen with Riven. I'm currently playing Myst 4 Revelations. Currently in Spire trying to figure it out. One of my early thought's last night when I got there, is it reminded me of Minas Morgul from Lord of the Rings. Then I thought this seems a harsh place to have prisoned Sirrus and then I thought is it as bad as this for Achenar on Haven? Glad I have finally taken the time to start playing these. I played Myst 3 twice over 2 day's. Love the pinball rollercoaster ride. Be like weeeee weeeeee.
There is something I dont quite get! Despite the fact that Riven and ALL of myst series are by far my favourite ever games, but how did they manage to take pictures and turn it into this graphical entirely fantasy place? I don't get it, I would love to learn how to do that! Are there any engines out there that can support first person click to move graphic adventure thingy like Riven? If so would it be possible to render the background as they did making it look realistic but knowing its not a real place?? I just admire each and every second of their work ..
Coding the kind of movement in these games is very easy. My coding knowledge is pretty darn limited--I don't, for instance, know very much about avoiding spaghetti code and am still doing lots of research. But even with my very limited experience I know at least one way of creating this type of movement in a game. You just have to treat every individual image as a separate room. I recommend picking up a simple engine like Gamemaker--heck, you could even start with AGS (Adventure Game Studio). It's not the most powerful engine in the world, but it's free and can give you some experience so you can decide whether you want to spend money on pursuing game making or not. I have the book From Myst to Riven and they talk a lot about messing around with and layering in Photoshop the images that they used for textures. I think that's how that got that mysterious, fantastical aesthetic. It also helped that they tried to think outside the box and look at the images from a purely texture perspective (like using a handprint for the blanket on Ghen's bed). Looking into creating sets for movies would probably give you good ideas. Watching the process of making Mirkwood in The Hobbit is pretty inspiring, for example. In general, what you want to do is ask yourself "what emotion do I want the player to have in this area?". Then you think of symbols and themes that come into your mind, personally, when you feel those emotions and find a way to work them into the world that you have created--making sure that they follow the scientific and cultural rules that you have established for your fantasy world. Cyan has also talked about how they had no idea what they were doing and spent about 90% of their time figuring it out and 10% actually doing it. I guess the best way to get started is to just dive in?
Definitely a great way to create a game. I have always been into art and storytelling, and when I found out how the designed Riven and Myst I was straight away hooked and haven’t looked back. This was back in 2003. I am now developing a point n click adventure game in the style of Riven called Neyyah which you can find out more about on facebook.com/DefyRealityEntertainment. I use Blender and the engine is visionaire Studio 5. Fantastic for creating this style of game with very little coding knowledge :)
yesterday finished by scummvm again. hated colorful marbles puzzle again at big dome. should be better and obvious connection between islands. also traveling for small detail became exhausting. still 7/10 game for me.
See for me the animal puzzle was 10x harder, the fire marbles was much easier to me. But everyone is different. Also I like how it's a 7/10 game for you but you have a picture of riven in your profile haha.
