Cyan Worlds Confirms They're Back
Cyan Worlds, makers of Myst, laid off their entire development crew earlier this month and shut their doors for, what the gaming industry assumed, was forever. Turns that's not the case.
MercuryNews.com recently posted an article on their website that claims Cyan has once again hired back almost their entire production crew, and have returned from death.
Rand Miller, Cyan's founder, told Mercury News that, "We've had a reprieve. Managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat (that I can't give details about yet), so we rehired almost everybody. Crazy industry. It's giving me whiplash!"
Is it possible the game industry has not really lost one of its original pioneers? Turns out we haven't. While Cyan Worlds' is tight lipped on the subject in terms of details, they've confirmed to GamesFirst that they have indeed rehired some portion of their development team.
"Yes, we have rehired most everyone," confirmed Ryan Miller, co-founder of Cyan Worlds. "At this point, I can't really say more."
The original Myst combined pre-rendered images with music and sound effects to create one of the most moody and atmospheric environments in video game history. The game's puzzles were clever, and kept you playing as you unlocked a number of truly fantastic worlds. Myst severed as an introduction to the video game industry to many people that had previously only known the solitaire that comes preinstalled with Windows. In my own experience, Myst opened the door to a lonely and fascinating world on my Mac Color Classic, and was instrumental in my launch into the world of adventure games. Before I discovered King's Quest, Quest for Glory, and Space Quest (all Sierra, by the way - and not before finding Gold Rush), I found Myst. So did my friends, and while the slow pacing and unresponsive screens would be considered archaic in modern day, it still rocked the house.
How well you remember Myst helps separate the true old school gamer from the young blood that are only aware of the current console generations. I picked up a nearly mint condition copy of the original Myst about a week ago in a used game store just for old time sake. At the time I thought it was going to be a collectors item, and I was glad I owned it when the word came down about Cyan Worlds. Now, it might be less of a collector's item than I'd thought. We can only hope so.
