1 Concept Art (in the Gallery...)

Tired of standing in line at your favorite video game store? The Path of the Shell will be avaible for online download!

(although we haven't seen any game stores look THIS beautiful)

(thanks again to Chucker, Amon-re, Kehrin, Deg, mszv, and Aloys, without whom...)

Foo: For those who don't know already, what was your role in the development of Uru? What is your role now in the development of Something Else (TM)? Are they similar, or is there a different feel to working on a different project?
Bill Slease: I had 3 different credits in Uru - but mainly for live I was the live content director. For Ages Beyond Myst I was "technical game design." On The Path of the Shell I ended up "producer" which means I, um, worked with all the produce. I'm partial to bananas.

Hastin: What do you think the best new thing about path of the shell is?
Bill Slease: Wow there's so much to choose from... In some ways it's a return to things I think we do best... puzzles that require more thinking than maneuvering. But we still added features like swimming that enhance exploration. Ahnonay should be a real challenge. It would be for me. I'm looking forward to how you all handle it :)

athena510: Will there be any Uru in Something Else?
Bill Slease: I can't say much about it right now.

Aloys: Now that Uru will soon be 'over', how do you look back at it?
Bill Slease: Well, I'm sleeping more now. Boy we wanted that to work out so much... we're still all just processing it all. I think it'll be a wound that needs tending for quite some time.

Deg: Bill, do you plan to attend Mysterium this year?
Bill Slease: Unfortunately I won't be able to make Mysterium this year :(

spokanejeremy: Bill, how long have you been with the Myst project, and how does it feel working on what has become such a large project?
Bill Slease: I came to Cyan in 1999... so almost 5 years now. I've learned tons in that time and worked on all different parts of a few different projects. It feels good where we've arrived at now despite the hard road getting here.

mszv1: On the difficulty of the new puzzles. You said they were hard. The trend in adventure games seems to be going in the opposite direction - easier puzzles. Any comments?
Bill Slease: We're all about selling hint books. :) Just kidding... honestly we thought that with an expansion pack like this we could take some liberties and make something to really challenge folks.

Gadren: Can you enlighten us any more regarding your recent blog post?
Bill Slease: Heh. Recently it seems like I come in and everyday see something new and cool. What we've got going now looks better if you can believe it than Uru. And it has a feel... We're tapping back into something I think we may not have fully been working with on Uru. I think that's all I can say. It feels right.

BlackRaven: How large do you think the fan community for Something Else (TM) will be if you compare it with the fan community for Uru and why?
Bill Slease: I think it will be bigger because of people like all of you and Katie and Ron. Either that or it won't. It could also be very much the same. [I wouldn't make a very good prophet - or maybe I'd make a good one - I can never tell.]

AoW: If Myst were made today, with today's technology and audience do you think it would have been handled differently?
Bill Slease: RealMYST was a shot at that. I don't know if 2000 counts as 'today... ' There were alot of unique factors that came together to make Myst what it is. If we could bottle that, we'd sell it... wait...

Eleri: What can we, the fans, do to support you guys?
Bill Slease: We have a meeting every morning with Rand, Tony, Josh, etcetera - I was thinking of reading a fan letter at every one of those to keep people excited... If you want me to read something email me at slease AT cyan DOT com. [I must be insane - did I type that out loud.]

Jerle: My only question is to ask Bill if he's finally gotten to drive Tim's Porsche yet. ;)
Bill Slease: No. *grumble*

TheM1-4: Bill do you know when we might start seeing some marketing/previews for Something Else (TM)?
Bill Slease: I don't know any dates - I do know that you'll see Something Else come to light in a much shorter time than we usually take...

chip: What is your favorite place to eat lunch in Spokane and why?
Bill Slease: I'm lame - I like to eat lunch in my office. The service is miserable but the price is right.

Deg: Do you prefer working on prerendered or realtime 3d games?
Bill Slease: realtime 3d without a doubt (course I never worked on the prerendered games). Realtime is so... dynamic--you can really bring places alive.

tokzic: What games/projects, outside of Cyan Worlds, pique your interest these days?
Bill Slease: I've been poking around the World of Warcraft beta... They're doing alot of things very well and doing a fantastic job running their beta.

spokanejeremy2: Have you guys had to travel to places other than Spokane for further "inspiration" for the games?
Bill Slease: In Terry Brooks's book about writing he said "Go somewhere you've never been then come back and tell us all about it." He was talking about imagination, but we do also travel for inspiration... haven't done that recently as a company. But individuals will go places and bring inspiring stuff.

Eleri: How do you feel working for Cyan has changed you?
Bill Slease: It's made me older... one day at a time... um, but seriously... there is no seriously sorry... I'm not sure I've changed in ways I wouldn't have any way... it's a great place to work - full of talent and creativity.

Foo: Have you played Revelation yet, or are you looking forward to it?
Bill Slease: I haven't seen anything other than the E3 demo that looked really good - we're all eagerly awaiting it here :)

TheM1-: Can you tell us anything about what Ages are in The Path of the Shell?
Bill Slease: The two big Ages are Ahnonay and Er'cana. There are other places to go that are cool and that you folks of all people should really enjoy seeing.

JBrigsMcAndrews: What will happen to the unreleased ages and areas designed for Uru Live?
Bill Slease: That's hard to say. TPoTS is the end of what was really "ready to go". Over the years we've built up basements full of ideas... They all just kind of hang out there.

Linkingbookmaster: Will there be any beta testers for Revelation? [Kha'tie says: There already have been. There won't be a public beta.]

BlackRaven: (for Eric L) Is there anything we can do to help The Path of the Shell get a good start?
Bill Slease: You're already doing a great job, keep doing things like you have been (the demo cd, the participation at mystworlds etcetera). But it wouldn't hurt to purchase prime time commercial space for oh a month or two and produce a 60 second commercial... just throwing that out. You know, in case no one's thought of it.

MYSTeriousSage (and many others): Is Negilahn or Noloben in TPotS?
Bill Slease: this is where I think of some clever way to say "no" that makes you still wonder if they're there. Neg and Nol didn't make the cut.

Foo: What is the meaning of life?
Bill Slease: Not sure about life specifically... but life, the universe and everything is of course 42.

BobFM: What do you think makes a good adventure game?
Bill Slease: Me personally? Places I want to explore filled with epiphanies that are well-paced.

Eleri1: What do you think of the fans' marketing efforts?
Bill Slease: You all are GREAT!

TheM1-: How good is Rand at DDR?
Bill Slease: Bob is good at DDR. Good in a way that precludes just about anyone else in the world from being good at DDR. Bob will hate me for describing it like this but it's like tetris that you play with you're feet... to music.

Ian-Atrus: Is there a chance for The Book of Marrim to get published now that Uru has been published and the other books have been reprinted?
Bill Slease: The book of Marrim is... the same place it was yesterday... and the day before that. It hasn't moved in a while...

mganus: Can you give us an idea of where Cyan is going with the D'ni? Will the story continue through it's creators?
Bill Slease: Rawa has instructed me to respond "no" and "yes".

JBrigsMcAndrews: Why aren't the linking books in Uru animated?
Bill Slease: In the beginning - there were some technical issues...and just rendered movies wouldn't have portrayed the Ages correclty. as dyanmic (esp. in live) as they are.

Kha'tie: I want to thank Bill for coming and taking his time to answer so many GREAT questions! Thanks to all who attended and asked these cool things. Also SPECIAL THANKS to Chucker who set this chatroom up in a VERY short time for us today! Also very big thanks to our Moderators Kehrin, Deg, mszv, and Randomos for their question-taking abilities extraordinaire! The chat transcript will be available on the MystWorlds.com site by tomorrow. See you all again soon!

From Alahmnat on the DPWR Site: "This is a concept that was originally created for The Echo, Uru Live's Community-created online newspaper, which I had a great fondness for. In essence, this is an Uru photography contest. There are no real "prizes" beyond simple recognition (though Kha'tie has said she'd like to feature it on MystWorlds.com). [and voila! Here it is!]

The competition will run on a bi-weekly basis, so you'll have two weeks to send in your entry each round. Additional rules and information can be found on the new Golden KI page."

Thanks Alahmnat! The entries are all gorgeous, so far!

Questions will be taken during the chat, which Bill will answer for the fans, so think of some great things you can ask Bill. Hope to see you there!!

"From the description on gamespot - "Hosted by the California History Museum and nVidia, GameSpot's Vince Broady moderates a panel discussion titled "Graphics: Then & Now" which features Will Wright, Jordan Mechner and Rand Miller as speakers." The panel discussion is on Gamespot, though it's a little tricky to find. Go on Gamespot and do a search on "Uru" ("Myst" will also work). The main Uru page will come up, and other entries will be listed. Look for "Special Features: Graphics then and Now". You can stream it for free. If you are a Gamespot complete member, you can also download it via the utility they use - Kontiki. The downloaded file is enormous, it's in Quicktime.

It's a really good discussion. I enjoyed listening to their different approaches to computer games. All of the participants were excellent and they all had very interesting things to say. There are some games visuals, though I'm not sure if footage from Uru is included (it was when I saw it in person). Scanning the file, I saw some realMyst footage, but I didn't seem to see any Uru footage."

The story is here and the 50-minute panel discussion is available here in the Gamespot Exclusive Movies here. Enjoy!

Thanks to Ryan "Grey Dragon" Warzecha and Cyan for this special treat!

Shorah, everyone :)

I'm happy to announce the upcoming "Mysterigon", a Mini-Mysterium to be held Friday Aug 13 through Sunday August 15 in the area of the cities of Bend & Sisters, Oregon. It's nothing big, fancy, and formal like the official Mysterium--there's just a few of us Myst fans who are all going to be in central Oregon for various reasons, so we decided to get together (especially since I'm one of the many people who can't make it to Toronto :'( ). And we'd like to invite anyone who would like to attend to come :)

Bend and Sisters are 2 towns, about 25 miles apart, in central Oregon, just east of the Cascade mountain range. Bend is named thusly because it was built on a "bend" of the Deschutes (deh-SHOOTS) river, and Sisters is named after the "Three Sisters" mountains directly to the west of it. From Portland OR, it's about 155 miles and a 3-hr drive to Sisters, and 180 miles and a 3.5 hr to Bend. From Boise ID, it's about 340 miles and a 6.5-hr drive to Sisters, and 365 miles and a 7-hr drive to Bend.

We don't have a really structured schedule--we just want to get together with our fellow Myst-fans and have a good time as riends :) With that in mind, we do have a few ideas for things we can do in the Bend/Sisters area, which I'll put at the bottom of my post. If anyone has any suggestions for what we can do (whether you plan on attending or not ;)), don't hesitate to speak up.

Lodging and Transportation--There's no big, official committee planning this out; we just want to get together. So anyone who comes will need to provide their own lodging and transportation. But we do have a few suggestions:

Flying in: If anyone comes by plane, you could fly into Redmond airport. Redmond is 30 minutes due north of Bend and 20 minutes due East of Sisters. Or you could fly into Portland and rent a car, or take the bus to Bend, Sisters, or Redmond.

Lodging: Bend River House is a decent Hotel. And there are many cheaper ones there, I just dont know off hand what they are. You can search the Bend Chamber of Commerce for a list if you want to do that. Sisters has the Comfort Inn and the Ponderosa Best Western. Also there is Conklins Bend & Breakfast which is very very nice and quaint although it may be booked up or it may be expensive. You would have to check it out. Also you can go on line and search for Tollgate Vacation Rentals. These are actual vacation houses that a bumch of people could rent if they wanted to.

Transportation: I guess that anyone who comes by car would get around that way. Anyone who comes by plane could either rent a car, or we could almost certainly carpool.

Here's a few links that may help:

Bend's Official Website: http://www.ci.bend.or.us/

Bend Chamber of Commerce: http://www.bendchamber.org/

Bend Area Guide: http://www.oregoncitylink.com/bend/

You can also Google for Bend+Oregon or Sisters+Oregon :)

Initially I'm going to Bend because my Aunt & Uncle live there, so my family is taking this trip to go visit them. And since my whole family's going, my parents are paying for the trip <.< >.> My Aunt is a travel agent, so she should be able to help me answer people's questions about the area, lodging, activities, etc.

That's all the info I've got at the moment. I don't expect to have nearly as good of attendence for "Mysterigon" as Mysterium gets, but I hope we'll have a nice turnout :) I'm really excited for this, because I went to Mysterium last year, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life--I wouldn't trade it for anything. An online social life may not be a substitute for an in-person social life, but I've made real friends in this community, some of the best I've ever had. Even just walking around the parks in Spokane--not really doing anything, just walking around & talking--was great, because I was doing it with friends. And no matter what we actually end up doing in Oregon, that's what I'd like Mysterigon to be.

Go ahead and reply here on the Lyst if you plan to come, or if you have any questions about activities, transportation, dates, etc. But for personal questions, or if Mysterigon discussion starts to clog up the Lyst, go ahead and just e-mail me at this addy (k'laamas@thelysts.com) :) I hope to see some of you this August :)

Shorah, K'laamas

Scraper's message reads as follows: "!shorah

We are pleased to congratulate NetWatcher for designing the winning image for the Mysterium 2004 Tshirts! To see his and the rest of the images submitted, you can go to http://www.mystcon.com/back2004/ A very hearty thanks to everyone who contributed!

Mysterium 2004 Tshirts will be available shortly in our store at www.cafepress.com/mysterium Mysterium 2003 Tshirts will be discontinued at that time, so order yours now if you haven't yet!

Again, thanks to all the artists who have submitted their wonderful artwork for Mysterium this year. We couldn't do it without you!

- Scraper -

- Mysterium Committee -"

The project is being led by Eleri, and she is assisted by Foo and the help of the Myst community. The first version, "Mach 1", contains the demo, a gallery of images (if you look out you might find an exclusive TPotS shot), a links page, and the Uru Trailer, playable both on computer and in some DVD players. The CD has had several thousand downloads, and seems to be very popular. "Mach 2" is currently in production, and will feature a new interface and new features. There are many ways to distribute the CDs, such as Geocaching, giving them to friends, colleagues or your family, or even leaving them in public places. Be creative! And remember if possible to take a photo of where you're leaving them, and add it to this thread at Uru Obsession. Special thanks to Eleri, Foo and ALL the fans helping on this incredible project! Happy distributing!

~ Kha'tie

As you may have noticed, we've made some changes to the site recently... Actually, this is just the start of a major effort to remake the site in many ways.

First and foremost, we want to make it easier for you to publish news, articles, graphics, journals, songs, movies and more- all of the creative and beautiful, the fantastic and the funny, things this community makes that are inspired by the worlds of Myst. We hope to be a place for the community to come and create and enjoy together. So look for many upcoming changes in the weeks ahead, as we finish the tools and galleries and other sections of the site that aren't quite ready yet. This community has so many talented people, we want to step back and let the wonders unfold.

We also hope to be a hub of connections to the many excellent resources and fan sites already in the community- a community calendar, a list of current projects- we hope to even create personal profiles, so that people can share a bit more about themselves.

And yes, your feedback is very much appreciated. Like the community it is designed to serve, a website is always changing, hopefully always growing- let us know what you want to see please...

And thanks! For coming here, for coming back... for visiting.

randomos and Kha'tie (and so many others who've helped to bring this into being...)

1. What is it like, being the Producer of the next Myst game in the series?

Being the producer of Myst Revelation is at the same time:

- Very exciting and scary (I want to help Myst be worthy of its predecessors)

- Intense (No day is without its surprises - good and bad)

- Very hard (a lot of work and dedication - but that applies to all the members of the team)

2. What is your team like?

As I said, the team is extremely dedicated, they want to produce the best, each in its own field, and can be quite passionate about it. Above all, they want Revelation to respect the Myst legacy.

3. How does Revelation differ from the previous three Myst titles (Myst, Riven, Exile)?

Our goal was to keep what makes the essence of a Myst game, while stressing to a higher degree:

- A story which is compelling and intricately related to the puzzles and the environments

- Worlds that are alive, through the use of a new hybrid technology mixing 2D and 3D, 60 minutes of live action and numerous animations.

- An increased accessibility: Very low configurations, easy-to-use controls and customizable help.

4. How is Revelation different from Uru?

Uru and Revelation are different ways of enjoying the same universes. In Revelation, like in the 3 first Myst, the player is immersed right into the game. For example, the mouse react as an extension of his/her hand and there is no avatar.

5. How did you like E3?

I loved it. People told me that I would get a headache and would be glad when it would finish. But truly, the only thing is that I grew progressively a bit tired (slept 2 days afterwards J) I only got about an hour ½ to see the other games, but I had the chance to speak some more with Rand & Tony Fryman. I also was able to pass some more time with Kathie, Ron, Mary De Marle and Jack Wall, and that was really great.

6. What was the best part of E3? The worst?

- The best: the people we met, in particular Myst fans who looked happy with what we achieved.

- The worst: Finding that there had been a mistake in the booths layouts and that we were partially hidden by a bunker! (I tried to have it moved but it was a bit too heavy)

7. Is Revelation on target for fall release?

Well, we certainly are doing all we can to make it happen.

8. What is your best memory of working on Revelation? Your worst?

Too many best memories: meeting with Rand, presenting the game to Peter Gabriel, seeing some fabulous effect or scene as I come in the office in the morning,...

Many bad memories too: These I prefer not to dwell on!

9. Is there anything else you want to tell the fans?

I am a fan myself. Do I want to play this game? Yes. (Even though I have seen quite a bit of spoilers!)