The following is a brief introduction to the topic:
When most children were trick-or treating and building teepees on Halloween 1997, I was locked up in my room with the lights off. Hunched over an enormous CRT screen weighing 40 pounds, I obsessively studied every pixel.
Five islands were ripped by unknown forces. Ancient civilizations that could create world bridges using books. Man who thought he was god. Woman determined to liberate her people.
In the following weeks I pressed buttons and levers to unlock doors, until in my dreams I could hear their pneumatic steam. The journals of the residents in Riven were read. At least 12 times I gasped and said, “Oh my god.”
Riven is The Lord of the Rings, if Myst were The Hobbit of adventure point-and click games. It was created by Cyan, a small Washington studio, and had photo-realistic graphics that were on par with Hollywood films of the era, as well as a narrative complexity comparable to a novel.
For many, the experience was much more than a technological marvel. The experience was life-changing.
Sam Winkler is narrative director for Gearbox Software, and co-writer of Borderlands 3 says: “I have a direct connection to Riven.”
David Howe is the lead editor for Netflix’s Castlevania. He says, “I credit Myst & Riven with being my main source of inspiration today.”
Jeff Stewart, engineering leader on Diablo 4, says Riven is “the most inspiring game” that he has ever played.
The three creators of the game split in 1998. This was a year after Riven, which had been released on October 31st 1997. Before it reached 4.5 millions copies sold and even became second to Myst for the most popular PC games ever until 2002.
Rand Miller, who in the franchise played the protagonist Atrus, became the CEO of Cyan, America’s oldest independent studio. Robyn, his brother, who was the composer and artist behind the sounds and sights of Myst and Riven, has left Cyan to pursue different interests. Richard Vander Wende returned to filmmaking after his work on Disney’s Aladdin. He was the designer behind the Millers sequel’s iconic images and character-driven realism.
Rand Miller waited two decades before he asked the question.
If we returned to Riven, what would happen?
Now, what if it was bigger and even better?
Rebuilding A World
Rebuilding A World
The forest around Cyan’s HQ is ablaze with gold and red leaves, 26 years after Riven first came out. I immediately recognize the front door from Richard Kadrey’s 1997 coffee table book, From Myst to Riven – an otherworldly arch that looks like it was torn away from the rest of the Arts-and-Crafts-style building by an earthquake.
Atrus’ voice tells me “The bricklayers enjoyed that.” They said that it was one of the best things they had ever done.
Rand Miller is not the same bespectacled academic (and doubtful father) that he played in six Myst consecutive games. Miller, 64, is a relaxed and warm surfing instructor, complete with his long gray locks and Birkenstocks. Miller speaks in a slight southwestern accent, no doubt influenced by his time spent living in New Mexico or Texas.
Miller takes me on a tour of the House That Myst Built. The display case is full of award certificates and I can see Adam Savage’s massive prop knife, which he built before Mythbusters became famous. We reach the conference room in the rear of the building. It has a blue-cyan ceiling and overlooks an algae-filled lake, ponderosa trees, and a forest of ponderosas.
Why remake Riven all those years later? I asked.
Miller draws a long breath. He says that Riven was extremely important to him, and he waited for the time when technology would allow us to create something even more beautiful than the original in 3D. “[And] My first thought was that we needed to make it exactly the same.”
Miller then reached out to Vander Wende with an intriguing question: If you could make any changes about Riven (the original game), what would you do?
Vander Wende, who just arrived from Hawaii by plane in the early morning hours of Cyan, arrives a bit later. The man is also in his sixties, taller than Miller, but with a more softly spoken voice. The perfectionist that he used to be in the 1990s is still there.
VanderWende: “I cannot do anything half-assed until someone puts a pistol to my head.” Miller continues, “I wasn’t sure when you asked me to come back to Cyan. Why would I remake something that I’ve already done? The original game was released years ago and I have never played it. “It was not my interest to do an imitation.”
The new Riven, as a result is not a carbon-copy of the original. The world is more consistent with the story thanks to new puzzles and locations. This time it will be fully navigable in 3D real time instead of interconnected still images or quick-time events.
Vander Wende explains, “We studied the history that led to Riven’s world and its characters.” We found inconsistencies and fixed them, and filled things in that were missing.
I raise my eyebrows. Miller notices. He asks, “This is dangerous, but what did you expect when we announced that we would remake Riven?”
It takes me a couple of seconds to think about this. I describe to him the areas of the game I would like to see more and the other two worlds that we had only seen in the first version. As I worry that I have described a vision of the Riven I cannot possibly achieve, I wince.
But Miller smiles. “So far? Check, check, check, check.”
Rewriting a Memory
Rewriting a Memory
Was there ever a staircase here?
Book Assembly Island is also called Crater Island and Boiler Island. The turquoise waters lapping on the volcanic caldera’s shore and wind rushing over the cliffs are all I can hear. It’s the same sky I remembered from childhood. But now, I can look anywhere.
I am playing Riven in their version, and Miller, VanderWende, as well as seven or eight other “Cyantists” are watching.
Hannah Gamiel is Cyan’s Development Director and will be one of two leaders when Miller leaves. She tells me there wasn’t always a staircase here. As I enter a cave with a mysterious atmosphere, a series of new puzzles and new perspectives on the world are revealed.
In a matter of seconds I am lost. I hear Gamiel, who is sitting on my left side saying “Always keep following the pipes.” Our games should’ve been named Follow the Pipes 1 & Follow the Pipes 2.
Gamiel played Riven for the first time at age 4, sitting on her mother’s lap. She says, “I swapped the discs.” Original game split into five CD-ROM disks – one disc for each island. Gamiel’s mother Robin would marry Rand Miller later.
In 2013, Gamiel began working for Cyan, first as a QA manager and later as a software developer. She recalls the years before Obduction in 2016, the Kickstarter return of Cyan.
The interior of the regal lab built by Gehn, Atrus’s dad, who is a world conqueror with a God complex and has been stuck on Riven since decades, was completely different from the original.
Vander Wende says, “When I returned to Riven I wrote a rough outline for Gehn’s thirty years of service. We had never written one before.” Once I had done that, making decisions about what to add or change was much easier.
The other island Cyan, which was made available to me during my demonstration, is where Gehn watched over the Rivenese from an underwater Gothic stronghold. Miller tells me that the structure I remembered is completely missing on the surface, and the puzzles are different. But the other islands will hold bigger and wilder surprises.
Miller asked me, “What’s your opinion?” You’re the only person outside of the company who has seen this.
I’m stunned. In some ways it’s like my memories of Riven,” I said. It’s almost like playing the game for the first-time. There are so many new locations and things that I haven’t understood.
Vander Wende frowns. He says, “All I see is the mistakes.” But he laughs with others.
The Technical Problems
The Technical Problems
Miller says, “It is a puzzle.”
We are no longer in Riven a few hours after we left. We are in Cyan’s parking lot and Vander Wende and I cannot figure out the way to open Miller’s Tesla Model Y’s passenger door. Miller is one of America’s most famous puzzle creators, along with Will Shortz, the guy who buried a chest in Rocky Mountains and the guy who hid a treasure in those mountains. I believe Miller is enjoying our confusion.
After we have solved the puzzle, (I can’t remember how) Miller takes us to lunch in a restaurant north of Spokane, where Eric A. Anderson is the creative director of Cyan, and the person who will be leading the company after Miller retires.
Anderson tells us, “I discovered Cyan while I was collecting issues of Cinefex Magazine in Art School.” He still has that same energy as a Cyan enthusiast who’s dreams are coming true, even though he is in his forties. The ad said, “We are making Myst II and we need 3D Artists.” Anderson emailed Cyan to ask if they hired interns. But fate would not bring him to Spokane before 2000, when Miller spearheaded the ambitious MMORPG.
In the early stages of Riven’s remake, Anderson and Gaimel thought that they could reuse the 3D models from the original, even though the majority of these had already been destroyed by the demise of SGI computers, which were the same machines used by Industrial Light & Magic to create Jurassic Park. When they found and opened a file from the 1990s, the resolution was so low that it forced them to start from scratch.
Cyan met with the Starry Expanse team, a group of Riven enthusiasts who had painstakingly translated the old Riven models for over 13 years into their own 3D Riven version. Anderson says that they used some of the assets to measure, but were still replicating an old Riven. We knew that things would change once Richard Vander Wende returned, and it was much easier to build the entire thing ourselves.
The biggest challenge for Anderson and Gaimel was bringing Riven’s characters to life. In the original version, several actors performed live-action videos, such as Rand Miller, Sheila Goold, Regina Altay, as Catherine Atrus’s wife, and Royal Shakespeare Company alumni John Keston, as Gehn.
It’s impossible to convert a 2D clip from 1997 and graft it into a high-resolution, real-time 3D world. Cyan’s 2021 VR and PC Myst version, which won an award, used computer-generated actors instead of live performances. Miller chuckles, “It’s an experiment.” But for Riven, Cyan brought on a full time animation leader, Autumn Palfenier to help raise the uncanny Valley.
Anderson explains that “for Gehn we tried to analyze the [old] videos and track certain features but it was just not possible because the resolution is so low and there’s no full shot. They’ve instead been using motion capture technology to film performances in Cyan’s basement.
Gamiel, referring the labor guild which represents Hollywood actors says: “I can state on record that this production is a SAG-AFTRA union.” We wanted some amazing talent to be part of this game.
She will not tell me which actor is playing whom, but she confirms that Miller returns as Atrus. The studio also managed to save an audio recording from John Keston who passed away in February 2022 due COVID-19-related complications at age 97. Anderson explains that they had an actor analyze John Keston’s performance, and then sync it with the original audio. This gave Gehn his full body. The close-up they show of Gehn’s face is beyond my expectations.
Gamiel finds the experience of working with actors to be the most fulfilling part of this project. When I saw some of the performances, I felt shook. We were moved to tears. “People are going to be amazed.”
It is not yet written the ending
It is not yet written the ending
Before leaving Spokane, I return to Cyan’s HQ and try to record one last surprise.
Can you confirm the release date for Riven? I ask.
Miller, Anderson, and Gamiel look each other in the eye and all make different faces. Gamiel tells us that the game will be released sooner than most people think. Gamiel also couldn’t confirm (or deny) any plans to release a VR-version, but only said that the game would be for PCs.
After Riven, Will we Revisit the D’ni Universe in a Future Cyan Game?” I asked, referring the fictional civilization that created the “linking books” of Myst, Riven and Atrus, which are their practicing descendants.
Anderson and Gamiel agree to say “100%”. Anderson says, “Star Wars was able to go beyond the Skywalker story and tell a larger tale. We’re doing the same.” There are many stories in the D’ni universe, and not all of them are about Atrus’ family. It would be a waste not to use the other characters that our fans are already familiar with.
Vander Wende’s words from the previous day keep coming to mind as I prepare to leave. When Riven was released, my family and friends didn’t want to play it because of its difficulty. He said, “I didn’t really know if what we did meant anything or not to anybody.”
My 7-year old daughter, who lives in North Carolina with her parents, walks to my desk a few days later as I am writing this article. My daughter notices that the image of Riven is on my second monitor – it’s a dramatic view of a golden dome, surrounded by sea stacks.
She asks with wide-open eyes, “Where is this place?”
It’s almost like I told her that it was a game. I remember playing Riven and Myst together with my brother. When I tell my mother that I am flying to Spokane, I remember how excited she was. I am thinking about VanderWende, Miller Gamiel and Anderson, as well as the impact that art can have on people.
You will be there very soon, I promise.
This article originally appeared in
Issue 362
of Game Informer