Genevieve Lord - Myst IV interview
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.
There's no question that adventure gaming fans are very divided over the Myst games--many who believe it to be the pinnacle of adventures, and many who find it boring and hollow. What elements in Myst IV do you believe will appeal to those who have found the previous installments too obscure?
There are a lot of elements in Myst IV that should appeal to non-hardcore Myst fans. Among them, maybe the most obvious are the very dynamic and different environments that you can explore at your own pace. It’s a real feast for the eyes and for the ears!
In those environments, you’ll also notice rapidly that there are far more characters, animated elements and creatures than in any previous Myst games.
Another aspect is certainly the rich storyline that unfolds itself while the player is involved in the game. The inclusion of the amulet, a device that let you witness events that happened in the past, alleviates the burden to search for the clues and eases the understanding of back story elements. In addition, we also integrated a help system that should provide all the necessary information to players who just don’t want to deal with certain types of puzzles …
In Myst, you’re playing yourself, so we just wanted to make sure that most player will feel free to play the game the way they want it to be played.
Uru took the Myst legacy in a very different direction with the third-person perspective. Why the decision to return to the node-based engine?
We didn’t decide to return to a node-based engine: Uru and the Myst series are completely different projects with different targets.
In Myst, the player plays himself and experiences the Ages by his own point of view. We didn’t want to detract from this. So, we came to the conclusion that by combining the node-based engine with multilayered real-time effects, we could achieve a brand new signature for the game and bring the feeling of immersion to new heights. By doing so, we were able to keep the simplicity of the navigation, improve on graphic quality and add a real feeling of life. Thus, we were able to get the best of the two worlds! It also allows us to attain a very high quality on very low configurations. Uru was built with Uru Live in mind, the online component, and therefore a third-person perspective was a much widely accepted and standard for MMO titles.
Talk about the hand interface--how was it conceived? What was the most difficult aspect of implementing it?
This idea of changing the traditional white cursor for the player’s hand was motivated by the intention to increase the immersive feeling. This transformation helps the player to feel the surrounding by--touching--instead of clicking. They can now visualize the action when they are turning, pushing, pulling, and taking an object…
The challenge when creating the player’s hand was to have a nice-looking hand with realistic animations. Its aspect needed to be done so as to fit the Myst Revelation Ages. Then, since the player’s hand was becoming a much more important part of the interface, its animations needed to be fine tuned. We tried to find the perfect balance between realism and efficiency so as to have a quick, fluid and nice response. Feedback from the team and from play testers (our target audience) helped a lot.
Discuss the puzzles--obviously a very important element of the Myst franchise. In both type and quantity, should we expect the same as in previous installments?
We created different kind of puzzles. They were made to follow an intention of diversity, to be integral parts of the ages and also directly support the plotline. Electricity, electronics, acoustic, music, physics, communication, mathematics, writing, reading, colors, reflexes, natural sciences, and enigmas are some examples of thematic you will find in some puzzles.
We can say that you’ll find the inspiration of all three past Myst games in them, and many other new kinds. Some puzzles are following the simplicity and clue-hunting style of Apogee (Myst). One Revelation Age possess interlaced puzzles inspired from Riven (fans will love it). And because Exile is rich in puzzles diversity, Revelation has something in common with that game as well.
How long is Myst IV, in comparison to the other games in the series? With all the talk in reviews these days about games being "too short", did you feel pressure to meet a certain level of gameplay time?
One of our preoccupations is that the player who buys one of our games feels that they have enough time to play the game. On the other side, we have also to consider that many players don’t invest a large amount of time playing a single game. So, from the start we aimed for about 30+ hours of gameplay, which seemed long enough to satisfy the most hardcore fan and short enough to not discourage the casual player. Obviously, this estimation will vary according to the level of help the player will use and also to the ease that specific players will have with the puzzles we created for the game. Nevertheless, the results of our internal playtests indicate that we succeeded to reach our goal. Also, we feel by creating a great and immersive experience, time sort of becomes obsolete and players just … enjoy!
The gaming market is certainly different than when Myst and Riven were so successful. Did you feel that you had to do a lot of "adapting for the times" with this game to appeal to a new audience, or is it more a matter of just making another excellent Myst game believing that it will find its market?
Most of the time, an excellent game will find its market and the Myst series has always been recognized for its overall quality. Videogames are very technologically oriented products. In order to produce an “AAA grade” game, we had to make sure that Myst IV incorporates not only very strong gameplay aspects, beautiful graphics and music, but also cutting-edge technology that any player would perceive and recognize at a glance.
Talk about Peter Gabriel's contribution to the soundtrack. What is it about his style that appeals to you and the developers and makes him your choice for the soundtrack?
Many aspects in Peter Gabriel’s international reputation appealed to us. He is considered as a very creative artist always wanting to explore new musical avenues. He is also very interested by the electronic media as a mean of expression. His multimedia projects, “Xplora 1” and “Eve,” are vivid examples of this interest. On another side, Peter Gabriel has been working with human rights organizations for years. All of this made him the obvious choice for our collaboration.
There have been some concerns about the quality of the FMV in Myst III:Exile. Can you give us some technical detail about how you made use of the DVD-ROM capabilities to take the video and graphical quality to the next level? How much live-action footage is there compared to prior Myst games?
Myst IV Revelation holds more than 60 minutes of live action (and much more CG animations). It’s more than the combined total of live action footage contained in the 3 previous games. To ensure quality results we hired a team of experienced filmmakers, rented a professional stage of 9000 sq ft and used the most up-to-date HD digital equipment.
What is the single thing you're most proud of about this game?
Whatever part of Myst IV I am looking at is always my preferred, but for different reasons: It might be the surprise of an unexpected moment, a particular view, a funny animal, an emotional moment, a fabulous special effect, a song...the list is endless. Maybe that is what I like best about Myst titles overall - the sheer variety of them.
Are there any plans in existence for a Myst 5? What will your next project be personally after Myst IV is completed?
Like any good mystery and very much be-fitting a Myst-like conclusion to this interview...you’ll just have to wait and see!
On behalf of the Myst IV Revelation development team, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I hope many enjoy our team’s hard work and dedication in what we’re both privileged and proud to present in Myst IV Revelation.
