Contents

1. Cavern Tours
2. Korman update released
3. State of Minkata
4. Fan Ages Touring Club
5. D’ni Language Classes
6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
7. Cyan news
8. Mysterium news

Cavern Tours

CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to recap the seventh Cavern Tour of 2020, that took place right before the Meeting. The next one will be either on Saturday 1 or 8 (the latter date would be during Mysterium) at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. Stay tuned for the definitive date!

The Nexus is currently malfunctioning, and the neighborhood is not showing up; if the problem persists, you should ask Susa’n for an invite.

The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour.

The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

Korman update released

Version 0.10 of the Guild of Writers Age creation plugin Korman has been released, with a slew of updates and fixes! In particular, it adds the ability to print dynamic decals, various templates (e.g. linking books), the ability to export the Age and launch Uru directly into the Age from Blender, adds a simplified linking book modifier, and fixes for at least 24 bugs. The release also celebrates the day the first version was released in 2015.

State of Minkata

Rarified gave a quick update about the Minkata testing shard. There is a persistent bug still present – a crash during activities such as seeking markers – he is trying to ger rid of, and a few others that should not have as much of an impact on gameplay.

It has been noted that those issues are not present in fan shards like Gehn. Rarified said the reason is the initially different goals of OpenUru, that was keeping the client closer to the one in use on MOULa. Now that those differences are being ported to MOULa, OpenUru needs to bring in almost ten years of updates from the H’uru client.

On the topic of fan Ages, Rarified stated that the ones on Minkata are ready to be released on MOULa, possibly before August. How they will be released, whether there will be an IC event with DRC members, and how the fan Library will be accessible – currently on Minkata it is a new alcove in the Watcher’s Pub – is still to be decided and agreed upon with Cyan. Rarified said the preferred place to discuss is the OpenUru forum. In any case, it is important that such discussions are kept going and not let unanswered.

Along with fan Ages, modifications to Cyan’s Ages themselves were mentioned, now that they are allowed. The most common are fixes to collisions and improvements to textures. Altered assets will probably be treated the same way as fan Ages.

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev then gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. In July, the Touring Club will visit Semjay’s new Age, Tovaht!

Then, it will be the turn of Jamey’s Ages, like Tsoidahl Sheegahtee; after that it will be more Ages from early 2009, like Terrati Lab, Hayal, The Maze, Wianeroy, and Soundgarden. A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki.

After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (look for threads that start with “Fan Age expedition”). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.

One of the main objectives of the Touring Club, besides getting more explorers to know and appreciate the many Ages created in the last 15 years, is also to give some feedback to the authors, who are very welcome to attend the tours and talk about their works.

Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

He is still putting things away after his recent move. As a result there will not be any daytime classes until further notice. They should be able to return sometime in autumn. Night time classes, however, are unaffected. One more student is working on the final exam.

R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Nights and Story Nights – Europe are now at the same stage. They will be finishing the story arc of the D’ni kings, and learn about the years between king Kerath’s death and the start of the story of the Fall.

And that was it for this month.

Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, August 1 (Leetahr 1, 9676 DE) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

Young, Gifted & Black

On Monday 15 at 13:00 KIT, Nosila will host a music event; the location will be the Ae’gura plaza, and the stream will be at nosilaradio.caster.fm.

Cavern Tours

CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to announce the sixth Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 13 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. The Nexus is currently malfunctioning, and the neighborhood is not showing up; if the problem persists, you should ask Susa’n for an invite.

The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour.

The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

Future physics update

A recent update to the MOULa client reportedly included a physics update, stirring the longstanding question of the future of ‘skydiving’ (a.k.a. glitching), the practice of jumping on invisible colliders to reach normally out-of-reach places, stemming from an older practice of jumping off high places. Innumerable marker games have been created to map skydiving paths along the Ages, and more recently a robot-assisted training course.

Skydiving, however, depends on broken physics engine (PhysX) implementation, causing an uneven game experience depending on computer and network characteristics, fixing which has been part of the open source roadmap since the beginning in 2011. Perhaps even more importantly, upgrading the physics engine (to at least version 4) will lift a major obstacle to a truly native macOS and Linux clients.

Hoikas and Doobes therefore agreed to illustrate the developer side of the issue, and clarify a few questions and misconceptions regarding the client update roadmap:

• the latest update did not break the bot functioning itself, but the physics that the marker games dispensed by the bots depend on;
• the ‘physics update’ mentioned in the release notes is a bump from PhysX version 2.6.0 to 2.6.4, the same version used in the Gehn shard in the last six years;
• the entire process of updating the MOULa client happens in the clear, on the Writers’ IRC, on GitHub and on the OpenUru Discord server;
• explorers who create content for the game based on bugs are invited to be active participants in the discussion on how development moves forward, as developers cannot be aware otherwise of them.

As for future options, a ‘skydiving client’ was released years ago by Lyrositor – who in the meantime retired from the community – but an update to the KI functioning made it unusable. The source code, and some guidelines on how it could be brought up to date, are publicly available to any coder willing to take up the challenge. However, the long-term solution to preserve skydiving would be a dedicated skydiving shard.

As an addendum, it was noted that another planned update is the transition from the exceedingly obsolete Python 2.3 to 3.8; for robot makers, this will require checking their code for no longer compatible syntax (e.g. from print "string" to print("string") ).

Ages of Doobes

Doobes’ latest releases – Chiso Preniv, Veelay Tsahvahn and the New GoMe Pub – have been ported to the Minkata shards, where the heavy testing will begin. From then, if all goes well, they will be ported to Cyan’ staging server for the last quick checks, and eventually on MOULa, hopefully very soon.

But the big news was the announcement of another, yet unnamed Age in the works! It will be a competitive puzzle Age, based on the Gahreesehn Wall idea, but as a circular maze with configurable (or randomizable) walls. The player or team that will manage to reach the center of the maze, will win.

There will also be a one-in-four chance to remove the walls to gain an advantage, using a control panel beside each wall; but it may also be a disadvantage, so you will need to make a strategic decision! To make things even more challenging, a timer will also be available. During the Q&A, Theo suggested implementing a command to save and load wall configurations.

As for his other Ages in the work, the next release will likely be Kotsahvosahn, a.k.a. the Waystation, the beginning of the journey of D’ni citizen and Messenger Lothias, so it will be more story-heavy than Doobes’ previous Ages.

After that, Doobes has started a new project with AgeExplorer, which promises to be both story and puzzle-heavy.

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev then gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT.

• On May 10 the Club adventurers visited TikiBear’s recently updated Ages (Duck Knee Skydiving Club, Sprite Gallery, and Paper Pagodas);
• On May 17 they visited Doobes’ Ages (the New GoMe Pub, Chiso Preniv, and Veelay Tsahvahn), finally released on the shard only a few days before;
• On May 24 they started the 3-part expedition to the Geologica series, by Ametist and Metabasalt, starting in Dragon’s Tooth, but also visiting Ametist’s latest release, Tiam.

In June, the Touring Club will visit Enobmort and Noidrocca by J’Kla, Paah’kweh and Sonavio by Boblishman, and Pre-Swaltu by Tolip Ydop. A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki.

After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (look for threads that start with “Fan Age expedition”). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.

One of the main objectives of the Touring Club, besides getting more explorers to know and appreciate the many Ages created in the last 15 years, is also to give some feedback to the authors, who are very welcome to attend the tours and talk about their works.

Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.

The Lost Art

Korov’ev mentioned that Mystitech Productions released Episode 10 of its The Lost Art machinima, on Saturday 30.

Cyan news

• realMyst: Masterpiece Edition has been released on Thursday 21 for the Nintendo Switch.
• After more than three months, a new update was posted in Thursday about Firmament. Among other news, it mentioned the need to improve on the gameplay and setting aspects of the game, and the official hiring of a member of the Starry Expanse team.
• May ended with a CavFunding of 90% (CavCon 1.9), a population of 35,052 explorers, and 1441 unique visits. The reserve covered 29% of the costs and is now empty. The server costs were the same as last month.

See also the News Roundup #4 and #5.

Mysterium news

The convention will be held virtually, with a combination of Twitch and Zoom for presentations, and Discord for live chatting. The convention dates will be the same as planned, August 7–9, with a possible extended weekend. Refunds will be available, but roll-overs to next year’s in-person convention will too.

The deadline for event submissions has been extended to June 30, with the option to submit pre-recorded presentations. The deadline for the Digital Activity Book is also extended to June 30.

The existing T-shirt design will be used for Mysterium 2021, with altered dates. A store page will be opened soon. The 2020 pin designs will also be rolled over into 2021.

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

He is still putting things away after his recent move. As a result there will not be any daytime classes until further notice. They should be able to return sometime in autumn. Night time classes, however, are unaffected.

There are currently two students working on lesson 6. Meanwhile, Aqua completed her final exam and passed the D’ni 101 class! Votahret ah’shem khe-bahrtahtahvteeom!

R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Nights and Story Nights – Europe are now at the same stage. They are continuing with the story arc of the D’ni kings, and will continue for the next four weeks.

Rehn hinted at a possible special Story Night on the Gehn shard, in a “certain memorial Age”.

And that was it for this month.

Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, July 4 11, 2020 (Leesahn 2, 9676 DE) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

MOULa 10th Anniversary Celebrations

Minasunda was first, with a reminder to register to the three events of the celebrations that require it: the Door Run Quest, the Fashion Show Quest and the Magic Dance.

She also had another important note about the Door Run Quest: occasionally the gate seems broken, some players cannot see the symbols, while others can. After extensive experimenting, the conclusion was that this happens when using an internal client. It is therefore recommended to play with the standard client.

Also, some events are likely to be disrupted by using the bot. Please avoid using an internal client and avoid using magic commands, in order to prevent malfunctions, lag or crashes.

An outline of the celebration events is available on the MOULa forum thread, or in our dedicated post.

Cavern Tour

Among the celebration events there is the second Cavern Tour of 2020, on Saturday 8, 11:00–12:45 KIT, starting in the Cavern Tour’s Hood for a brief orientation. CT Hostess Susa’n was on stage to announce the date and answer some questions.

The first tour gathered 43 participants. The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places (but not places like e.g. Kerath’s Arch). Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour (but do try to arrive in time).

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn is still putting things away and finding homes for everything after his recent move. So there will be no daytime classes until sometime in Spring. Nighttime classes are unaffected.

r’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Nights and Story Nights – Europe are now at the same stage. They are continuing with the story arc of the D’ni kings, and will continue for the next 26 weeks.

Next week’s Story Night – Europe is part of the celebrations for the 10th anniversary of MOULa, with a special story of the Restoration. The event will be held in Mir-o-Bot’s Baron’s Office and will start at (or after) 14:30 KIT.

Cyan social media pages

On late January, Cyan announced their decision to retire a bunch of social media pages: Myst, Obduction and Firmament on Facebook; Myst, Obduction and Firmament on Twitter; Myst and Firmament on Instagram.

All the news will from now on come only from their main social media pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The given rationale is that Cyan has a small team, and an even smaller subset of the team is responsible for PR. Time spent managing social media is time spent not working on game development. So, to avoid stretching their resources, they decided to limit the number of channels they use and monitor.

Fan-managed websites, pages, groups and forums are of course not affected, as Cyan is not directly involved in their management. In this regard, we are aware that Rel.to is not accessible, we are working on it

No news has yet came out about the state of the cavcon, and whether other channels will be set up if and when it will be restored.

Retirement of the MOULa and Cyan forums

More controversially, Cyan also announced the retirement of the MOULa and Cyan forums. On Tuesday, February 4 the forums will become read only. Registering an account for the forums will also be turned off, which is effective immediately. On Tuesday, June 16, publicly-accessible threads will be archived, and the forum sites will no longer be hosted.

The last point has been poorly worded in the announcement: the content of the forums will still be available in some form, so the history of the community will be preserved, except for hidden threads, or personal messages. Also, the MOULa website itself will still be accessible.

Because of this, users are encouraged to archive any PMs or specific threads they wish to keep personally before the change takes effect. PMs can be exported en masse as table files (by clicking on “Export this view” at the bottom of the PM list), and for single posts it would be a good idea to save the BB code, to keep the formatting for an eventual export to another forum.

Even more controversially, Cyan announced that the replacement of the forums will be the Official Cyan Chat Discord server. Many fans have expressed their objections that Discord is not a suitable replacement for a forum.

OpenUru.org, the Guild of Writers, the Guild of Archivists, the Guild of Messengers, and other fan groups with their own forums will welcome anyone who prefer this time-tested format of discussion.

Events will still be regularly announced on the usual channels, like Facebook groups, Discord, and through the GoMe calendar (which, if you have a Google account, you can add by clicking on “+Google Calendar” at the bottom right of this page).

Bug reports should be reported on the recently-reopened Support page, or by sending an email to support[at]cyan[dot]com. MOULa downtime reports will be most quickly received via Discord.

Mysterium

Submissions for art designs are now open. There will be four categories: T-shirt, pins, activity books, writing and artwork table. Deadlines will be staggered through early-to-mid 2020.

• For the T-shirts, the Triumvirate encourages the artists to incorporate contrasts in their designs: Sirrus vs Achenar, Red vs Blue, Haven and Spire, etc. Tying in the host city of Washington, DC is also encouraged. The winning design will be rewarded with a free Mysterium shirt. The deadline is February 16, 2020 (hurry!).
• For the pins, they are once again planning a set of enamel ones. Pin design is an easier and faster process than shirts. The deadline for these is March 15, 2020.
• For the activity books, which are the new thing for 2020, artists can create a coloring book page, a word search, a crossword puzzle, etc. The deadline is April 19, 2020.
• For the writing and artwork table, artists will be able to showcase their Cyan-related artwork or writing. All content must be in by July 31, 2020.

Also, barring any unforeseen issues, registrations should open on March 1. Stay tuned for more info about this year’s hotel and how to book your room, as well as transportation and parking details!

Assorted news

As you probably know by now, the Starry Expanse team is now working with Cyan to complete the Riven remake. In a recent post, the team has outlined how they are dealing with objects that are small and blurry in the original game, but that you will we able to look at up close in VR – specifically, the blue light pole globes in the Mag-Lev dock.

Ars Technica posted an interview with Rand Miller, about the development of Myst and Riven, and how they pushed the limits of the then-new CD technology.

Some time ago, the MYSTAges wiki was put offline. The data has been salvaged, however, and posted on Archive.org by Deledrius. The Guild of Archivists is looking into merging some of the lore info from there into their own wiki.

And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 7, 2020 (Leevotahr 24) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

Ere dei fan

Senza tanto rumore, quattro nuove ere sono state rilasciate di recente. Due in aprile, piccole ma ricche di atmosfera: Kahntinoy, di Rich, e Fena Barel, di Wodan e Hans. Entrambe le Ere sono state in lavorazione per molti anni, e sono ora disponibili su Deep Island e per Uru offline via Drizzle. Assicuratevi di leggere i (numerosi) diari!

Alla fine di giugno, altre due ere sono state rilasciate: Terahgrahm e Zahlto, entrambe di Semjay. Sono (molto) più ampie di quanto sembrano a prima vista! Terahgrahm in realtà è stata annunciata due anni fa, ed è ora disponibile attraverso i soliti canali.

Zahlto è nuova, con vari graziosi miglioramenti estetici per il KI, magliette, segnalibri … peccato che la proprietaria del negozio Ella Darrington non è presente, perciò potrete solo guardare. Ma anche passaggi segreti, molti passaggi segreti!

A causa di problemi tecnici, Zahlto non è ancora su Deep Island, ma dovrebbe esserlo presto.

Firmament

La campagna per Firmament continua su Fangamer, con nuovi stretch goal. Il primo, “commenti degli sviluppatori e creazione”, a $1.5M, è stato quasi raggiunto.

Inoltre, tutti i backer di Kickstarter che hanno finanziato a tier di almeno $250 dovrebbero aver ricevuto il Proof of Concept. Val la pena ribadire che il PoC non è esattamente un demo, il gioco vero e proprio potrebbe avere un aspetto diverso.

Mysterium

Il programma è ora disponibile. Sarà un weekend pieno, che includerà una visita a Cyan il sabato.

Venerdì ci saranno due sessioni di autografi con gli ospiti speciali. Gli autografi saranno gratuiti, ma dovrete portare le vostre foto o fogli da autografare (fino a tre per visita, ma potete rifare la fila). Potrete farvi una foto con uno degli ospiti, ma dovrà essere un selfie veloce col vostro telefono, pronto a scattare.

L’albergo a questo punto è pieno, con circa 200 partecipanti! Ci sono ancora un po’ di stanze disponibili in un albergo vicino.

Dopo Russell Brower, Chuck Carter, Jack Wall e Tim Larkin, altri due ospiti speciali sono stati annunciati!

Il primo è Marty O’Donnell. Marty has lavorato a tante cose, da pubblicità per Flintstones Kids alla pluripremiata serie di videogiochi Halo. I fan di Myst, tuttavia, lo riconosceranno come sound designer di Riven … e per l’ytram. Oggigiorno Marty è co-fondatore e co-proprietario di Highwire Games a Seattle.

L’altro ospite speciale è la cyantista Kha’tie Postma. Nei primi anni 2000 è stata Community Manager per Ubisoft per i giochi di Myst. Dopo il lancio di Myst V e dei sequel di Uru, è passata ad altri studios. A partire dal Kickstarter del XXV anniversario di Myst, ha lavorato con Cyan come consulente per la gestione della comunità, social media e del marketing.

Per quanto riguarda gli argomenti dei panel, e altre idee, maggiori info arriveranno presto.

Ci sarà anche un tavolo di Scrittura e Arte per le creazioni dei fan! La scadenza è il 30 luglio. A proposito, il libro da colorare è splendido.

Corsi di lingua D’ni

Shokhootahn Rehn ha finito il trasloco. Evviva! Tuttavia mettere via le cose richiede tempo, perciò non ci saranno lezioni diurne fino a una certa data in autunno; le lezioni serali non subiranno modifiche.

• Chi volesse cominciare le lezioni (in inglese) dovrà contattare Rehn via PM o KImail (KI# 58324); accertatevi di includere il vostro numero KI nel messaggio, o non sarà in grado di rispondervi!
• Shokhootahn Rehn si trova nel Quartiere quasi tutti i giorni (quando non è in trasferta) alle 18:00 CEST e 4:00 CEST per rispondere a domande relative alla lezione corrente;
• il quartiere Guild of Instructors’ Hood sarà aperto e pubblico a meno che ci sia una lezione in corso, al momento di martedì e venerdì mattina, a partire dalle 4:00 or 5:00 CEST, a seconda degli impegni degli studenti;
• il proiettore a sinistra e Magic Bot sono impiegati per annunciare modifiche dell’ultimo minuto agli orari delle lezioni: per ricevere le notifiche, aggiungetelo come buddy (KI# 27527), poi mandategli un PM con la parola “advert”. Se Magic Bot non è online, potete mandare un PM a Mimi Bot (KI# 71459).

Serate del racconto di r’Taytahn

Le serate del racconto – Europa continueranno con gli eventi da The Book of D’ni; non saranno rivelati spoiler degli enigmi durante il racconto. Le serate del racconto originali continueranno con gli eventi da Myst IV: Revelation.

Per via dei viaggi di lavoro di r’Tayrtahn, la serata del racconto – Europa del 27 luglio sarà saltata. Gli eventi delle 7:30 non subiranno modifiche, ma i temporali possono causare delle interruzioni di corrente; in questo caso, r’Tayrtahn cercherà di contattare qualcuno tra gli spettatori abituali, in modo da far sapere la sua situazione.

• Le Serate del Racconto si tengono nel quartiere Tsahno’s Hood ogni domenica, il ritrovo è alla fontana intorno alle 7:00 CEST, il racconto comincerà intorno alle 7:30 CEST;
• per le serate del racconto – Europa, il ritrovo sarà di sabato a partire dalle 21:30 CEST, il racconto comincerà intorno alle 22:00 CEST. Nei giorni di Riunione Generale delle Gilde, l’evento comincerà alle 22:30 CEST o 30 minuti dopo la conclusione della riunione;
• i racconti sono narrati via chat vocale, perciò dovrete avere gli altoparlanti accesi, le cuffie addosso o i KI accesi. Se volete ricevere un promemoria, mandate una KImail a r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) col vostro numero KI incluso nel testo e sarete aggiunti alla sua lista Buddies.
• Magic Bot è impiegato per annunciare modifiche dell’ultimo minuto agli orari dei Racconti: per ricevere le notifiche, aggiungetelo come buddy (KI# 27527), poi mandategli un PM con la parola “advert”. Se Magic Bot non è online, potete mandare un PM a Mimi Bot (KI# 71459).

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 10 agosto alle 21:00 CEST.

Alla prossima!

Firmament

Un altro mese impegnativo ha fatto sí che la Riunione è passata subito alle notizie da Cyan, cominciando naturalmente col Kickstarter di Firmament.

I backers dovrebbero aver ricevuto un’email da Fangamer con un link a una pagina questionario, da riempire (o confermare) con i loro indirizzi postali. Da lí, potranno anche aumentare il loro finanziamento o aggiungere altri tier.

Se non avete ricevuto l’email, potete usare il link resender, o se quello non funziona, mandare un’email a orders[at]fangamer.com con il vostro numero backer Kickstarter.

Se vi siete persi la campagna Kickstarter, potete ancora finanziare il gioco attraverso la pagina Fangamer!

XXV Anniversario di Myst

I premi dei pochi sfortunati che non li hanno ancora ricevuti (perché non hanno compilato il questionario Blackbox in tempo o perché i loro premi sono stati persi, ritornati, o avevano parti difettose) saranno spediti direttamente da Cyan nelle prossime settimane.

Dovreste ricevere presto un’email; è un processo che richiede tempo, perciò attendete una settimana prima di ri-contattare Cyan.

Cyan Ventures

La prima pubblicazione di Cyan Ventures, ZED, da Eagre Games, ha ora una data di uscita: il 4 giugno!

Lo stesso giorno, alle 19:00 CEST, ci sarà uno stream live con Chuck Carter, nel canale Twitch di Cyan.

Il 3 giugno, alle 19:00 pm CEST, ci sarà anche un AMA con Chuck Carter su Reddit.

Mysterium

L’iscrizione Early Bird finisce oggi, perciò affrettatevi se avete in mente di partecipare e vi piacciono gli sconti!

Da domani, le magliette e i libri da colorare non saranno piú disponibili per il pre-ordine (potrebbe essercene un numero limitato in piú disponibile sul posto), il prezzo dell’iscrizione aumenterà di $5, e gli oggetti gratis non saranno garantiti (potrebbe essercene qualcuno in piú disponibile sul posto).

L’hotel è praticamente pieno a questo punto, potrebbero esserci una o due stanze ancora disponibili. La Commissione sta lavorando attivamente con l’hotel per garantire blocchi di stanze in piú; nel frattempo, un po’ di persone sul server Discord hanno espresso l’interesse a condividere la stanza.

Dopo Russell Brower, Chuck Carter e Jack Wall, è stato annunciato un altro ospite speciale: Tim Larkin! Ha cominciato come sound designer per Riven, e in seguito è stato direttore audio e compositore per Uru e Myst V. Attualmente lavora con Valve per giochi come DOTA, CSGO, Half Life, Portal, e altri.

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 6 luglio alle 21:00 CEST.

Alla prossima!

Firmament

Un mese impegnativo e un certo Kickstarter hanno fatto sí che la Riunione è passata subito alle notizie da Cyan: prima di tutto, la riuscita conclusione della campagna per Firmament, arrivata la suo primo stretch goal!

Di conseguenza il gioco sarà sviluppato per Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Rift S, Valve Index, sia Windows che macOS (niente Linux al momento), e includerà il supporto per EFIGS.

Durante la campagna, Cyan ha tenuto sessioni AMA su Reddit e Discord, un live streaming su Facebook, e segnalato streaming per la demo del Proof of Concept.

Come per il Kickstarter del 25º di Myst, c’erano obiettivi per la comunità, che naturalmente sono stati raggiunti; i premi saranno:

• un modello 3D stampabile dell’Adjunct (Aggiunto?, N.d.T.);
• alcuni concept art e scene dal gioco; e
• uno dei primi brani della colonna sonora.

Cyan ha anche chiarito che il tier da $49 in su includerà elementi narrativi esclusivi e skin uniche disponibili solamente ai backer della campagna. Ci saranno naturalmente altri modi per finanziare il gioco, per chi si fosse perso la campagna.

XXV Anniversario di Myst

Come parte della campagna, Cyan si è associata con Nvidia per rendere disponibili codici esclusivi per avere accesso alla beta di GeForce Now gratuita (tier da Archivist in su).

Inoltre, i romanzi eBook di Myst e la mappa digitale di Riven, premi per il tier Writer, sono arrivati; i dettagli per la loro distribuzione arriveranno presto.

Mysterium

Le convention Mass Mysteria si sono tenute il 4 maggio a: Denver, Boston, Rochester, Cleveland, Columbus, Portland, Salt Lake City; l’unico evento non-U.S.A. si è tenuto a Berlino, in Germania. Quello a Melbourne, Australia è stato rimandato a una data che sarà presto annunciata.

I participanti hanno preso parte a escape room, cacce al tesoro, visite a musei, puzzle, souvenir, e alcune persone hanno già cominciato a fare piani per l’anno prossimo.

Le iscrizioni e le prenotazioni dell’hotel per il Mysterium regolare sono ancora aperte; il posto sarà l’hotel Ruby River nel centro di Spokane. Il Comitato ha ottenuto una tariffa di $119/notte per una singola e $129/notte per una doppia (più tasse).

A parte l’hotel, le iscrizioni alla convention stessa sono aperte: da adesso fino al 1º giugno, potete acquistare il pacchetto weekend per $35 o un pacchetto premium (weekend + maglietta + libro da colorare) per $60. Dopo il 1º giugno, il prezzo aumenterà e le magliette/libri non saranno più disponibili.

Le richieste per gli eventi sono ancora aperte, ma la scadenza è vicina, il 20 maggio. Il Comitato sta anche cercando di raccogliere memorie dalle edizioni passate, da esporre in qualche maniera.

Corsi di lingua D’ni & serate del racconto

Il trasloco di Shokhootahn Rehn è concluso, ma sta ancora mettendo via le sue cose; perciò non ci saranno lezioni diurne fino a ulteriore notifica. Dovrebbero ricominciare verso giugno. Le lezioni serali invece riprenderanno questa settimana.

Le serate del racconto – Europa concluderanno gli eventi di The Book of Atrus e cominceranno quelli del gioco Myst. Le serate del racconto originali continueranno con gli eventi di The Book of D’ni, spiegheranno la varie profezie e cominceranno gli eventi del gioco Myst III: Exile.

Esploratori

Korov’ev ha concluso la sessione degli speaker annunciando che l’operazione dell’esploratrice Peke è andata a buon fine: lei sta bene, ed è già tornata a visitare qualche volta la Caverna!

E questo è tutto per questo mese. Non scordatevi di donare per tenere aperta la Caverna! Lo status del CavCon non è ancora stato aggiornato; fonti interne assicurano che la situazione è buona, ma questo può continuare solo col vostro aiuto.

La prossima Riunione Generale delle Gilde è prevista per sabato 1 giugno 2019 alle 21:00 CEST.

Alla prossima!

Firmament is a deeply immersive narrative adventure game for both VR and PC that stays true to the storytelling, artistic integrity, and inventive puzzles that Cyan holds dear.

This is an entirely new property – the beginning of an exciting new Cyan universe, delivered using Unreal 4, one of the most powerful game development technologies available.

Firmament is designed for and will be built from the ground up to take advantage of the VR sense of presence and a seamless interface. Stunning and enigmatic locations (with a certain callback to the steampunk roots of Myst) were conceived to allow for highly immersive and eclectic visuals for which the world-building artisans at Cyan are known.

But unlike previous games you don’t travel this world alone. You’ll have a clockwork adjunct…

Firmament will be designed for VR, but built to play on PC as well. All backers will be able to play the game on both platforms, and effortlessly switch between VR and PC to continue your progress in the game.

A Word to Mac Users

Cyan has always been a big Mac supporter. Myst started out as a Mac title, and over the years, Cyan has always tried to release each of our games for the Mac. We’d love to continue that tradition with Firmament, as an indie studio, but with the minimum funding and resources we anticipate having available, and the complexity involved, this campaign will be focused on Windows (PC and VR).

BUT… We’ve have announced a Stretch Goal!

The stretch goal would allow us to build both a Mac version and PS4/PSVR version. We’re really hoping that we can reach the extra level of funding that allows us to build the Mac version. And of course, the world of gaming is changing quickly, and we’ll continue to keep an eye out for other solutions that allow as many fans as possible to play Firmament.

☞ Firmament’s Kickstarter page