- the status message on the login screen now works, and also displays the donations coverage for the previous month;
- marker games are now limited to 300 markers, as some of the larger decoration sets were causing issues to the server. However, the problem persists, so for a while all marker games will be disabled.
The anniversary celebrations have been a success, with spikes of over 70 attendants. If you could not attend, or if you wish to relive the experience, be sure to watch the videos from Minasunda’s Youtube channel.
In the opening ceremony, Ghaelen D’Lareh retold the last minutes of the closure of Prologue, back on February 9, 2004, and the first days of MOULa’s reopening on February 8, 2010.
In the Door Run competition, team A was the winner (2′45″), followed by team B (3′06″) and team C (3′38″). Team A included ghoul (caller), Ro”Jethhe, Malim Praedari, Boywhith, Jet Blast, allie page, Rhys, maree. Team B included Kneb (caller), etelka, Sleeper Jan, Mak Raves, Adrian Green, ondine, Boris, aqua. Team C included Susa’n (caller), thoekenem, Maleficent, EthanEver, PodHopper, Mevvah, angelmyst, Umo.
Each team suffered from setbacks: team A suffered from a lag spike at the very last symbol; team B suffered interference from a mean person/people; team C had little practice, the most substitutes, and a position swap.
On Saturday, for the Cavern Tour, for the first time Larry LeDeay streamed the event through his Twitch channel. Despite technical difficulties for a few attendees, the new format was on the whole a success. The stream is not meant to replace actually being there, but will allow showing extra materials that would otherwise not be possible.
The NULP Dance Show (featuring Aeonihya, Calisia, Claidi Song, Lu*, Mabe, Roland, Eternal Seeker, Willy, tsuno) was, as always, excellent and perfectly color-coordinated. The music was provided by Piboc, who was present at the show.
For the Story Night Special, in the Baron’s office, r’Tayrtahn recounted Douglas Sharper’s experience with the restoration, and the rising tension that led to the bahro incident.
On Sunday, in the Fashion Show competition, five contestants won the votes of the public: Ondine was 1st, with 32 %; Kamikatze, Claidi Song and Mabe were 2nd ex aequo, with 16 %; Aristocat was 3rd, with 8 %.
For the Explorer Memorial, Ghaelen read the names of the explorers we lost along the way; 2019 was a particularly hard year, with the loss of Tai’lahr. Korov’ev took the occasion to remind everyone that he took charge of keeping the OpenUru page updated, so if you know of names that are missing, please contact him.
Closing the weekend, of course, Yoda performed a Magic Show on the cliff in Kadish Tolesa, followed by a dance party in the Pyramid.
A big thank you to the organisers: Minasunda, Eternal Seeker, PodHopper, Larry, Fil, Donahoo, the participants at the contests, and to all the explorers, in the Cavern or on the Surface, who keep making Uru the unique place it is.
In other news
On the aftermath of the announcement of the official forums closure, Yali announced the revival of RivenGuild. The initiative was greeted with mixed reactions, some rejoicing at seeing the return of one of the most beloved fan hubs, others worrying it will never be the same. Cautious optimism!- A couple days later than expected, the MOULa and Cyan forums are now read-only. Chogon announced that the previously hidden MOUL beta sections of the forum, including the GameTap Live Rehearsals, have been made visible to everyone.
- On the first day of the anniversary celebrations, Korov’ev suggested the idea of an Ahyoheek tournament, to be held sometime Soon
. Not much has yet been planned, but stay tuned if you are interested! - A new Cyan Venture has been announced: Area Man Lives, from Numinous Games!
- Rel.to is back! At the time of this post, most of the links point to websites that do not exist anymore. In the following days and weeks, each link will be checked, and new ones will be added.
Mysterium
La Riunione è cominciata con un riassunto di tutto quello che è successo alla convention della comunità Myst/Uru Mysterium. Molti dei panel sono stati trasmessi su Twitch e sono al momento disponibili qui. Appena potrà, il Comitato copierà quei video nel canale YouTube.
Feste della Fenditura
Tornando alla Caverna, due feste dalla Fenditura si sono tenute subito dopo la Riunione, con reahrotahn e thoekenem. Le feste dalla Fenditura sono eventi in cui la gente si raduna nel Relto di qualcuno per festeggiare la conclusione del Primo Viaggio (spoiler!).
Magic Skydiving
A seguire, l’ultimo progetto di Mister Magic: un robot per lo skydiving! Con Magic Skydiver le aerobazie non avranno più segreti per gli esploratori, che otterranno certificati di volo partecipando a missioni assistite da un instruttore, partendo dal primo livello, ‘Iniziato’.
Lushun sta traducendo il gioco in inglese. Non saranno richiesti client speciali. L’evento inagurale della Magica Alta Scuola di Skydiving si terrà verso la fine del mese. Potete trovare maggiori info e consigli sul gruppo Facebook Uru Magic Worlds.
Stato di Minkata
Rarified è tornato con qualche notizia dallo shard di OpenUru.org Minkata. La Vita Reale è stata dura sin da maggio, perciò scarsi progressi sono stati possibili. Alcuni dei contenuti di Minkata sono fuori sincronia con i server MO:ULa di Cyan. Questo si manifesta durante una nuova installazione: la gente lanciava il client Minkata, ed esso si lamentava di non riuscire a trovare dei file.
Rarified si prenderà il weekend per portare le cose su Minkata di nuovo in sincronia. Quando il server sarà aggiornato, le installazioni funzionanti esistenti di Minkata smetteranno di funzionare, dovrete di nuovo copiare i file del gioco da MO:ULa. Istruzioni saranno postate nella sezione dello shard del forum OpenUru.org.
Poi, le correzioni che erano sottoposte a test su Minkata sono rimaste ad aspettare per un po’; Cyan ha sviluppato un meccanismo automatico per acquisire gli aggiornamenti dallo shard, ma a Minkata mancava la sua parte della pipeline. Rarified spera di inviare tutte le patch (inclusa la correzione per il mouse sotto Windows 10) a Cyan perché siano rilasciate sul server MO:ULa tra qualche giorno.
Dopodiché, tornerà a lavorare al server Minkata-Alpha, dove i primi contenuti dei fan dovrebbero apparire per il testing.
In memoria
Korov’ev ha dovuto concludere la sessione degli oratori annunciando la dipartita dell’esploratore Zander the Heretic, alias Zanda. Era uno dei primi esploratori della Caverna, a partire almeno dal 2006
E questo è tutto per questo mese. Non scordatevi di donare per tenere aperta la Caverna!
La prossima Riunione Generale delle Gilde è prevista per sabato 7 settembre alle 21:00 CEST.
Alla prossima!
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The day started with the guidelines for the trip and parking instructions (including the hard-to-follow recommendation of “try to keep to the path”) for the various groups headed to Cyan HQ: some shared cars, while others went by a rented bus.
At 11:00 am the crowd, gathered in the courtyard, greeted Rand Miller with a cheer. Rand, who gave up celebrating National Watermelon Day to be present, started the event (“me talking”) by claiming that the office was not set up as a giant puzzle. In an emotional moment, he invited Rawa on stage, to say hi and get a heartwarming applause from the crowd.
Then, Rand gave a few announcements: a big performance update for Obduction, and its future porting to the Xbox; the release of ZED for macOS on August 15, on Steam and the Mac App Store; their future venture plans including a collaboration with Numinous for their VR series Into The Mind; and a not-a-game mobile app (initially only for iOS) named Crowbox, related to the photo library.
Next, he noted how the Myst25 and Firmament kickstarters have given them the chance to make more and bigger plans. First, Cyan want to make a definitive, VR edition of Myst. Next, a VR edition of Riven (without “real-” attached), in collaboration with the Starry Expanse project. Then, they feel it is time for new stories in the Myst universe; not specifically a “Myst VI”, perhaps the start of a new series.
Rand then mentions their plans for the TV series (“this time for real!”). Cyan is much more involved than on previous attempts, with Rand and Ryan working on a treatment and a pilot script. It will be a different take, not based on the Myst novels or games, set in the “lost years” – between The Book of D’ni and Uru, perhaps?
Then, Rand answered some fan questions, with his proverbial obscurity: are the gahrohevtee a different script? It was never determined, they were always meant to be the vague, ‘magical’ part of the story. Will there be a Making of Firmament? Sure, they have a ton of video. The Book of Marrim? It is now off the back burner! Will Cyan work with external publishers? Difficult choice, they don’t want to be locked in exclusivity schemes, but more funds mean bigger and better games.
After being gifted by the Committee with a pair of ‘birken-socks’, because of his habit of doing presentations wearing sandals, Rand then invited the crowd to visit the studio building – with some of the props and costumes from the games on display! –, try VR demos of Obduction, Firmament and ZED, get signatures from him and Rawa (with scenes like this one), and of course have lunch (with cookies provided by a fan!). There was also a shop, where you could get posters, the Obduction artbook, sondtrack, Hex Isle and a free, vintage box of The Manhole. At some point, a raffle was held: the prizes were a life-sized journey cloth, an Obduction banner and a highly detailed 3D model of the Myst island, printed by Rand himself.
Back to the Ruby hotel, some time after 3:00 pm the Soundscapes Beyond Myst panel (hosted by Katie ‘Kha’tie’ Postma, Russell Brower, Tim Larkin, Marty O’Donnell, and Jack Wall) shared their experiences designing, conducting, and directing music and sound for games and media published by Cyan, but also Blizzard, Valve, Microsoft, Disney, etc. The question about the meaning of the Myst III: Exile lyrics remains unaswered once again, Jack Wall gave a sample of his a cappella singing, Tim Larkin expressed his preference for electronic instruments, contrary to the rest of the panel, and they mentioned their involvement with the Video Game Live concerts.
At around 5:00 pm, the Evolution of the Myst Community panel (hosted by Elliot ‘Taniith’ Borenstein, Katie ‘Kha’tie’ Postma, Ryan ‘Grey Dragon’ Warzecha, Blake Lewin, and Vicki ‘Tor’i’ Almond) looked back at the history of Mysterium, the changes the community has gone through, and its resiliency through the years. Memes from the original Cyanchat were mentioned; the reasons behind the Gametap cancellation of Uru Live were explored; and Kha’tie noted noted how she kept jumping between game cancellations.
At around 6:00 pm, the return of the Mysterium Showtunes was announced. After the dinner break, the crowd splitted: some of the attendees continued to work on the puzzles; some tried the Starry Expanse VR demo; some tried the Escape the Age card game; and some sung songs with Myst and Uru inspired lyrics.
Other attendees just chilled out with new and old friends, chatting about games, puzzles, and ideas.
And now, we are ready for the third and last day!
]]>Hollywood Reporter mentioned that the project will be “both scripted and unscripted”. Some kind of reality TV? The move to adapt Myst comes shortly after a new mandate by Village Roadshow to make the company into a ‘broad-spectrum content creator’ focused on television, streaming and other distribution platforms.
This of course is not the first attempt at bringing Myst to the small screen: Legendary Entertainment had plans for a transmedia series with a companion video game in 2014; the following year the rights were moved to Hulu, but never materialised. As for a film, the story goes back to 2002 if not earlier.
As Zarf cautioned, ‘paid for the rights’ is a long way from ‘greenlighted the production of a show’; and in Myst’s case, ‘artistic differences’ have brought these attempts to a halt too often.
Hopefully this time will be the charm!
Some more articles related to the announcement:
(Thanks to catherwood and Hoikas for collecting the links used in this post.)
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