Myst is a series of adventure video games. The first game, Myst, was released in 1993 by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller and their company, Cyan, Inc. The first follow-up game, Riven, came out in 1997. It was followed by three more direct sequels: Myst III: Exile in 2001, Myst IV: Revelation in 2004, and Myst V: End of Ages in 2005. A different version of the game called Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, which includes multiplayer features, was released in 2003 and had two expansion packs added later.

The story of Myst follows an explorer named Atrus, who can write books that act as gateways to other worlds, called Ages. This method of creating linking books was invented by an ancient civilization known as the D'ni, whose society fell apart after a deadly disease spread. Players take the role of an unnamed character called the Stranger, who helps Atrus by exploring other Ages and solving puzzles. Throughout the series, Atrus creates a new Age for the D'ni survivors to live in, and players decide the future of the civilization.

The brothers created Myst after making successful games for children. They used ideas from childhood stories and spent months designing the Ages players would explore. The name "Myst" was inspired by the novel The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. After Riven was released, Robyn Miller left Cyan, Inc., to work on other projects, and Cyan began developing Uru. Other companies, Presto Studios and Ubisoft, made Exile and Revelation before Cyan returned to finish the series with End of Ages. Myst and its sequels were widely praised and sold more than twelve million copies. The games helped increase sales of personal computers and CD-ROM drives and attracted players who enjoy calm, nonviolent gameplay. The success of the games led to three published novels, soundtracks, a comic series, and ideas for television and movies.

Plot

The story of Myst begins with a group of people called the D'ni arriving on Earth nearly 10,000 years ago. The D'ni are an ancient people who used a special skill to create magical books that act as doorways to other worlds, called Ages. They built a large city and a prosperous society inside caves. A young geologist named Anna from the surface discovered the D'ni civilization. After learning the D'ni language, Anna became known as Ti'ana and married a D'ni named Aitrus. The couple had a son named Gehn. Soon after, the D'ni were destroyed by a disease caused by a man named A'Gaeris. Aitrus saved his wife and child by killing A'Gaeris, allowing Ti'ana and Gehn to escape to the surface as the D'ni civilization fell.

Ti'ana raised Gehn until he left home as a teenager and learned the D'ni Art of writing descriptive books. Ti'ana also cared for Gehn’s son, Atrus, until Gehn returned to teach Atrus the Art. Atrus discovered that his father was reckless and greedy. With the help of Ti'ana and a young woman named Catherine, Atrus trapped Gehn on an Age called Riven, cutting off all links to the outside world. Atrus and Catherine married and had two children, Sirrus and Achenar. The brothers became greedy and stole Ages from their father. They trapped Catherine on Riven. When Atrus returned to investigate, the brothers stranded him in a D'ni cavern before being themselves trapped in special "prison" books. With the help of a Stranger, Atrus was freed and sent the Stranger to Riven to rescue Catherine from Gehn. Sirrus and Achenar were punished by being imprisoned in separate Ages until they showed remorse.

Atrus created a new Age called Releeshahn for the surviving D'ni to rebuild their civilization while he and Catherine returned to Earth, where they raised a daughter named Yeesha. As Atrus prepared to take the Stranger to Releeshahn, a mysterious man named Saavedro stole the Releeshahn Descriptive Book. The Stranger followed Saavedro through several Ages (used to train Sirrus and Achenar in writing Ages) and recovered the book. Ten years later, Atrus asked the Stranger to help determine if his sons had repented after their long imprisonment. The Stranger saved Yeesha from Sirrus’s plans, but Sirrus and a repentant Achenar were killed. The D'ni civilization was fully restored only after the creatures the D'ni enslaved, called the Bahro, were set free.

Development

Myst was first thought of by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller. As children, the Millers created imaginary worlds and stories, inspired by authors like J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert A. Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov. Together, they formed a video game company named Cyan, Inc. Their first game, called The Manhole, won an award in 1988 for best use of digital technology. Cyan made other games for children, but later decided to create a game for adults.

The brothers spent months designing the game’s worlds, which were influenced by earlier playful worlds made for children’s games. The game’s name and the mysterious, lonely feel of the island were inspired by the book The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. Robyn’s unfinished novel, Dunnyhut, influenced parts of Myst’s story, which was developed gradually as the brothers created the game’s worlds. As the game developed, the Millers realized they needed more story and history than could be included in the game itself. To give fans more details, they wrote a rough version of a novel, later called Myst: The Book of Atrus.

After Myst’s great success, Cyan quickly began work on the next game. The company moved from their garage to a new office and hired more programmers, designers, and artists. The game was planned to release in late 1996 but was delayed by a year. Development costs were between $5 and $10 million, much higher than Myst’s original budget. After Riven was released, Robyn Miller left the company to work on other projects, while Rand stayed to continue the Myst series.

Although Rand said Cyan would not make another Myst sequel, Mattel (then the owner of the Myst franchise) asked several companies to create story ideas and technology samples for a sequel. Presto Studios, known for making the Journeyman Project games, was chosen to develop Myst III. Presto spent millions on the game and used all of its staff to complete it, which took two and a half years. After Myst III: Exile was released, Presto shut down, and Ubisoft, the game’s publisher, made Myst IV: Revelation internally. Meanwhile, Cyan created a spinoff game called Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, which included a multiplayer feature that was later canceled.

Cyan later made what was called the final game in the series. They removed live-action scenes in pre-made graphics and instead used real-time rendering. Actors’ faces were turned into textures and placed on digital characters, with their movements recorded using motion capture. Shortly before release, Cyan stopped development, but the game was still released. The company later rehired its workers and continued making non-Myst projects and trying to restart the multiplayer version of Uru, called Myst Online. In 2010, servers for Myst Online were set up through donations, and the game became open-source in 2011.

Cyan also created detailed elements of the Myst universe, including the language and culture of the D’ni people. The D’ni numbers and writing first appeared in Riven and were important for solving some puzzles. The D’ni language was used in Myst games and books, created by Richard A. Watson. Online D’ni dictionaries have been made by fans as part of the ongoing interest in the game.

Music

The music for each game in the Myst series was created by different composers. At first, the Millers thought that any music or sound other than background noise might distract players and reduce the game's realistic feel. Because of this, the original Myst game was not meant to have any music. However, after a sound test, the developers realized that music could actually help players feel more immersed in the game. Robyn Miller then composed 40 minutes of synthesized music for Myst. He also created the music for Riven, where each main character had a unique musical theme. Virgin Records purchased the rights to the music and released the soundtracks in 1998.

For Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation, composer Jack Wall created the music. He developed a more active musical style, different from Miller’s background themes. Wall saw the growing complexity of games as a chance to make a soundtrack as powerful as a movie score. He aimed to create a unique sound that still felt connected to the Myst series. In Revelation, Wall reused the musical themes from previous Myst games and worked with Peter Gabriel, who contributed a song and provided voice acting for the game.

The music for Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and Myst V: End of Ages was composed by Tim Larkin. He had previously worked on the series by designing sound effects for Riven. Larkin moved away from his background as a jazz musician to create music with less structure and no clear beginning or end. He made different music for each location, giving each setting a unique tone. For End of Ages, Larkin could not afford a full orchestra, so he used individual instruments combined with many synthesizers to create his score.

Adaptations

After the success of Myst, the publisher Hyperion made a deal with Rand and Robyn Miller. The deal included three books and one million US dollars. David Wingrove used the story ideas from the Miller brothers to write the books. The three books—Myst: The Book of Atrus, Myst: The Book of Ti'ana, and Myst: The Book of D'ni—were released in 1995, 1996, and 1997. Later, the books were grouped together as The Myst Reader. A fourth book, Myst: The Book of Marrim, was planned but was never made.

In 1993, Cyan worked with Dark Horse Comics to create a four-part comic series called Myst: The Book of Black Ships. The comic would have told a story about Atrus and his young sons before the events of Myst. The first comic was released in September 1997, but more comics were canceled after the first issue did not meet expectations. A later comic called Myst #0: Passages was shared online.

Disney asked Cyan Worlds to create an attraction based on Myst at a place called Discovery Island in Florida's Walt Disney World. Rand Miller visited the island and thought it was a good match for the Myst setting, but the project was not completed.

Many plans for movies and TV shows based on Myst were made or talked about but never happened. These include:
– In 2002, the Sci Fi Channel announced a TV miniseries, but it was never made. Rand Miller said none of the ideas met Cyan's standards or were too simple or silly.
– In 2006, filmmakers Patrick McIntire and Adrian Vanderbosch sent a proposal for a movie based on Myst: The Book of Ti'ana, but the project is no longer active.
– In 2014, Legendary Entertainment said it was making a TV series, but nothing happened.

In May 2015, Unwritten: Adventures in the Ages of MYST and Beyond was published by Inkworks Productions. It is an official Myst-based role-playing game that uses the Fate Core system. The game focuses on solving puzzles and exploring stories. Two guides were added to help players: The D'Ni Primer, which explains the history of the D'Ni people, and The Myst Saga, which gives a timeline of the Myst series.

In 2016, Cyan Worlds released Obduction, a game funded through Kickstarter. While Obduction is not connected to Myst in its story, Rand Miller said it is inspired by Myst in its themes, puzzles, and use of video. Robyn Miller, who had left Cyan earlier, helped create the game's music and played a character in the game.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first Myst game in September 2018, Cyan Worlds got the rights to release all Myst games updated for modern computers. With help from GOG.com, the games were released as a physical collector's edition. A Kickstarter campaign in April 2018 raised $2.8 million to provide digital versions of the seven games and special rewards, including a simulated Linking Book with an LCD screen.

On June 26, 2019, Village Roadshow Entertainment Group announced it had bought the rights to the Myst franchise. The company plans to expand the Myst story into movies and TV shows. They will work with Rand Miller, his brother Ryan, and Isaac Testerman and Yale Rice of Delve Media.

Reception and impact

The Myst series has been very successful in both reviews and sales. Rand and Robyn Miller hoped Myst would earn enough money to fund their next project, similar to their previous Cyan games. However, Myst sold over six million copies, becoming the best-selling PC game until The Sims surpassed it in 2002. The first three games in the series sold more than twelve million copies combined.

1UP.com writer Jeremy Parish noted that people have two main views about Myst’s slow, puzzle-based gameplay. Some fans believe it is a smart, well-designed game for adults, while others think it feels like a lifeless tour of a digital museum, more like art than a game. Game industry leaders were surprised by Myst’s success, as they did not expect an "interactive slide show" to become so popular. Russell Pitts of The Escapist wrote that Myst was unlike any game before it, blending video smoothly into a beautifully created world filled with puzzles and mystery. In a market dominated by games like Doom, Myst introduced a new vision for the future of gaming. It took nearly ten years for other games to follow its example. Critics from Wired and Salon described the games as nearly artistic, while authors Henry Jenkins and Lev Manovich highlighted the series as an example of how new media can create unique forms of art.

Myst changed the adventure game genre. Unlike earlier games, Myst focused on keeping players fully engaged by removing elements not directly related to the game’s fictional world, such as text explanations, inventory systems, or score counters. However, Myst is also credited with the decline of the adventure game genre. Publishers rushed to create many average copies of Myst to take advantage of its success, which flooded the market. By the time the game Exile was released, some critics considered games like Myst outdated.

Myst was widely praised for attracting not only hardcore gamers but also casual players and groups who rarely played games, such as women. Its lack of typical game features—like violence, dying, or failure—made it appealing to people who were not regular gamers or considering buying a computer. The Millers’ choice to develop Myst for early CD-ROM technology helped increase interest in CD drives.

The game inspired a parody called Pyst, created by comedian Peter Bergman and featuring actor John Goodman in video scenes. In Pyst, players explored a ruined island that had been visited by millions of Myst players, with the game humorously mocking aspects of the original.

Fan conventions

The game has led to annual fan conventions around the world. Mysterium began in 2000, coming from the plans of a small group of fans who wanted to meet in person. About 200 people attended the first meeting in Spokane, Washington, which was held at the main office of Cyan Worlds, the creators of the game. Later conventions became more organized, including presentations and live music. Similar to Mysterium, Mystralia is an event for Australia and New Zealand and has been held since 2005.