Please introduce yourself and tell us your role in the development of Myst IV Revelation.

My name is Geneviève Lord and I am the second producer of Myst IV Revelation—the first one having left on maternity leave.

Myst is obviously one of the most established and best-selling series in the history of PC gaming. How much pressure do you feel to live up to the expectations of fans?

I have been a fan from the first game, so I would have hated to produce a Myst game that I would have not wanted to play myself!

What led to the decision to develop in-house rather than use Cyan? To what extent did you consult with Cyan throughout development?

The decision to develop Myst IV Revelation in-house made sense since Cyan was busy finishing Uru at the time. The team was frequently in contact with Cyan, in order to check our general concepts, get help for the D’ni translations, and finally we went to Spokane in order to present our first version.

For a Myst fan, the opportunity to present a Myst game to Rand Miller and Rawa was just too unreal to be true, and it will remain one of the great experiences in my life—especially because they liked what the team did. :-)

Did the production team at Ubisoft Montreal have a lot of experience with Myst, or did the development require a lot of research before getting started?

Two main members of our team had worked on Myst III Exile:

Mary de Marle, our scripter who had also written the script for Exile. From what she told me, she was very happy to be able to work on Myst again, with a slightly different twist. Her experience was invaluable, since in addition, she had previous experience with pre-rendering and the inclusion of live action in games.

Jack Wall composed the award-winning music for Exile. Jack brought all his experience and dedication to the project. He was familiar with the music sequencer, having initiated its use on Exile. Also, his extensive experience in making music for games gave him the patience to deal with all the delays and surprises that we encountered on our first foray into the pre-rendering world.

In addition, a lot of time (a good year and a half) was passed conceptualizing the worlds and story.

The decision to move to DVD-ROM only for this game is a controversial one. Do you truly believe that DVD-ROM drives are standardized enough to take this step? Was this a difficult decision, or was it always going to be developed this way?

Less than a year ago we realized that we were already at 10 CD's and going up. Having played Exile, and hating the swapping of disks involved, I could not see anyone enjoying their Myst IV experience swapping between that number of CD's. From that point on, the decision to produce Myst on DVD's was evident.

We felt that more and more people have DVD's, and for those who don't the price is very reasonable. Furthermore, we all know that more and more games are going to come out on DVD's in a very near future. Hopefully, Myst IV will do for DVD's what Myst did for the CD format.

We will come out on 1 DVD5 and 1 DVD9, which represent close to 14Gb of high quality graphics, animations, special effects and live action in 6 languages. Insert the DVD and enjoy!

Will Myst IV push other system requirement limits besides the DVD requirement?

No, all our other systems requirements are very low. However, it is important to make sure that you have updated the latest graphic card drivers for your system.

For long-time fans of the Myst series, what will be the most radical change in Myst IV?

Fans have confirmed that the experience is at level with the original Myst’s, in terms of story and immersion. However, our in-house team developed A.L.I.V.E. technology (Advanced Living Interactive Video Environment), allows us to bring the world to a "living" level never experienced before.

Uru left a bad taste in the mouth of many Myst fans with the way the online component never seemed to be given a fair shake. Do you have any concerns about former Myst fans being alienated by Uru?

While I know there were some who were disappointed by the online component of Uru, most Myst fans I’ve come across are excited about the continuation of the series and the storyline in Myst IV Revelation.

The demo certainly reveals a sharper focus on the brothers and the background story in general. Are you trying to create more of an active experience for the user in experiencing the plotline as compared to previous Myst games? Should we expect more character interaction in this game also?

Yes, you should expect more interactions with the characters than in other Myst games. Using the plotline directly, we created many situations where the player interacts with the family members or animals. You will see them reacting to your actions or non-action.

You will also find many more live action characters that do not belong to the family. Most ages are filled with character interactions that are directly linked to the exploration. The player can decide to interact or just go. Some will be friendly, others less so, and you will have to trust your own judgment. We push the interaction with the different characters to the point where they are part of the puzzles.

What, if any, adventure games have inspired you in the development of Myst IV?

Well, in the development of Myst IV Revelation, our biggest inspiration was first and foremost, the previous Myst titles. Each was so deep, compelling, beautiful, and strong that we wanted to make sure we stayed true to those core values. As players go through Myst IV, they’ll experience some of the same feelings and sense of anticipation found in the previous Myst titles but they’ll also have a chance to engage in the game in new ways, unique interactions and enjoy the game as never before. Overall, this was our underlying inspiration, to create something unique, challenging, fun, and new.

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