

Myst creator Cyan Worlds announces Kickstarter for Obduction - timkeller
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cyaninc/obduction

======
GrantS
For those wondering why the introduction is so long, I'm betting they realize
that the opening Cyan logo animation and music instantly transports many
people back to firing up Myst for the first time 20 years ago with a nearly
identical animation. There's a huge emotional attachment there for me, and
probably for anyone who played the game as a kid and now has $25 to spare to
bring back some great memories of a different era. In fact, there may be
millions of people who are already sold on the idea just from that opening 20
seconds, and they only need a tiny fraction of those folks to reach their
funding goal -- best of luck to them.

This is one of those projects I would back even if there were no reward simply
because I want to live in a world where Cyan is making Myst-like games again.
Very excited to see this.

~~~
HCIdivision17
Absolutely. I am thrilled they're going back to making games that give that
sense of lost curiosity. Even before Myst there was The Manhole, which I
remember visiting as a little kid, very cool.

Someone made a great word that I forgot and can't find that described this
feeling. Of being unstuck in time and space, a sort of vertigo upon
realization that the universe is huge. Cyan Worlds manage to nail that effect
while removing fear or tension. It's a childlike feeling that is rarely
focused on, and they're masters of it.

Heh, I spent too many words in that, but Rand had trouble describing it too,
so I don't feel too bad.

------
joshdance
This article came out a month ago about Cyan and Myst. It is a very good read
- [http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9713372/looking-back-
gam...](http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9713372/looking-back-game-
myst-20th-anniversary)

------
dublinben
I'd love to see an indie studio like this providing something more than pre-
orders and deluxe editions to backers. If we're not getting any equity for the
money, at least the product should be freely released upon completion.

~~~
ijk
Investment crowdfunding was, until very recently, highly illegal. It's present
legal standing is complex and most crowdfunding platforms, like Kickstarter,
have deliberately avoided it, for good reason.

A freely-released product would be very expensive for the developer. The
crowdfunding would have to cover all of the development costs, since the
project would have no further direct revenue. There's probably a clever way to
fund a free-to-play or DLC-supported platform that way, but that only makes
sense for a subset of games.

~~~
Roritharr
For some strange reason most people in Germany misunderstood Crowdfunding with
Crowdinvesting and so we have a lot of Crowdinvesting platforms like
Companisto, Seedmatch, Bergfürst...

------
tobr
I'm surprised how good this looks. Cyan hasn't really been able to produce
anything of high quality or good taste for the past 10 years (and I say this
as a huge fan of some of their earlier games). What little they show here
though looks both tasteful and intriguing.

I hope this will be a turning point for this struggling company.

~~~
timdorr
Yeah, their most recent efforts are some really shitty-looking mobile games:
[http://cyan.com/games/stoneship/](http://cyan.com/games/stoneship/) and
[http://cyan.com/games/bug-chucker/](http://cyan.com/games/bug-chucker/)

They've been struggling under the shadow of Myst. Hopefully this will get them
back on track.

~~~
sjm-lbm
This project does seem to play to their strengths more - during the Uru era,
they got hugely involved in the technical side of things (running an MMO game,
creating their engine in house, stuff like that) - and their major successes
were almost entirely graphics and story, with only the minimum tech needed to
pull that off.

------
lazugod
That's quite a visual nod to Zork, there.

~~~
leejoramo
My thoughts too.

"You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front
door.

There is a small mailbox here"

------
dabernathy89
I'm excited that this is happening, but I do wish they would have shown more
than just concept art and the vague intro to the video. I can't tell from the
Kickstarter page whether they've put significant effort into this yet or not
(I hope that they have).

~~~
tobr
I think their philosophy has always been to show as little as possible for as
long as possible, to avoid spoiling things... I get the impression that they
have a story and a concept but no actual gameplay or content.

------
chimeracoder
This looks amazing - I'd love to back it. Too bad it's not available on Linux.
Oh well.

~~~
i80and
"Additional platforms" is listed as a stretch goal. Linux might be a big bet
in a year or two with SteamOS, but right now, wrangling Unreal 4's third-tier
PC OS support is probably not the best time investment for a small studio
considering that Linux only has 0.93% in the August Steam hardware survey.

Regardless, we can hope!

~~~
lmm
There's a bit of a selection bias using the steam hardware survey - I'd bet
that a greater proportion of windows gamers than linux gamers are using steam.

~~~
cbhl
I suspect there are also a lot of Linux users who keep around Windows to run
Steam and games in general, and who happened to be in Windows when they ran
that survey.

~~~
msg
Each time the survey appears you can elect whether or not to participate. If
you are a Linux user currently dropped into Windows to whom this issue of OS
identity matters, you can opt out.

~~~
cbhl
True, but that still then requires that they then reboot into Linux for the
sole purpose of completing the survey, and it assumes that they can install
the Linux version of Steam on the distro they are running so that they can
take part in the survey in the first place.

------
ozh
zomg, I _loved_ Myst. One of the real few highlights of my gaming life along
with Elite and Quake.

I tried firing up Myst a couple years back, I was shocked to realize it was
all still images in small sizes, I would have sworn that I used to be
completely immersed in a real size 3D world :)

------
chiph
I'm not expecting a AAA title, but are they going to be able to deliver for
only $1.1 million?

How much is a license for the Unreal Engine?

~~~
gte910h
Little tiny 2 man shops can afford unreal.

[http://www.unrealengine.com/udk/licensing/commercial_license...](http://www.unrealengine.com/udk/licensing/commercial_license_terms/)

>If you create a games or commercial applications using UDK for sale or
distribution to an end-user or client, or if you are providing services in
connection with a UDK based game or application, the per-seat option does not
apply. Instead the license terms for this arrangement are US$99 up-front, and
a 0% royalty on you or your company’s first US$50,000 in UDK related revenue
from all your UDK based games or commercial applications, and a 25% royalty on
UDK related revenue from all your UDK based games or commercial applications
above US$50,000. UDK related revenue includes, but is not limited to, monies
earned from: sales, services, training, advertisements, sponsorships,
endorsements, memberships, subscription fees, in-game transactions, rentals
and pay-to-play. You or your company will only need one commercial license to
cover all the UDK based games or commercial applications you develop.

>Here are some examples:

>A team creates a game with UDK that they intend to sell. After six months of
development, they release the game through digital distribution and they earn
US$60,000 in the first calendar quarter after release. Their use of UDK during
development requires no fee. At some point prior to the UDK
Applications’srelease they would to secure a royalty-bearing commercial UDK
license with its US$99 license fee. After earning US$60,000, they would be
required to pay Epic US$2,500 (US$0 on the first US$50,000 in revenue, and
US$2,500 on the next US$10,000 in revenue). On subsequent revenue, they are
required to pay the 25% royalty.

------
arbutus
It's amazing that it's been 20 years already since Myst. Really hope to see
this project funded and shipped!

------
notjustanymike
Wadsworth constant in full effect. It takes a full two minutes to get to any
kind of point.

~~~
loceng
Yeah, unfortunately they didn't implement any strong understanding of
marketing into their video. I was excited to see what the creators of Myst
were up to - and the video introduction was "neat" \- but it dragged on. Their
$25 price point, they need to convince 40,000 people to pledge to make their
minimum - and sure that video will make general gamers super excited to share
this video/campaign page.

------
sandGorgon
If not Linux, and if they were doing Unreal 3, then there was a hope for
Android....

------
equator
Wonder if they will develop the game with the oculus rift in mind.

~~~
Zecc
From the FAQ:

> 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.

