Firmament
Another busy month meant that the Meeting went straight to the Cyan news, starting of course with the Firmament Kickstarter.
Backers should have received an email from Fangamer with a link to a survey page, that should be filled (or confirmed) with their mailing details. From there, they will also be able to upgrade their pledge or add on other tiers.
If you did not get the email, you can use the resender link, or if that does not work, send an email to orders[at]fangamer.com with your Kickstarter backer number.
If you missed the Kickstarter campaign, you can still back the game through the Fangamer page!
Myst XXV Anniversary
The goodies of the unlucky few who still have not received them (because they did not fill the Blackbox survey in time or because their rewards were lost, returned, or with defective pieces) will be shipped directly from Cyan in the next few weeks.
You should receive an email soon; it is a time-consuming process, so please give it a week before re-contacting Cyan.
Cyan Ventures
Cyan Ventures’ first publication, ZED, by Eagre Games, now has a lauch date: June 4!
On the same day, at 1:00 pm EDT, there will be a live stream with Chuck Carter, on Cyan’s Twitch Channel.
On June 3, at 1:00 pm EDT, there will also be a AMA with Chuck Carter on Reddit.
Mysterium
The Early Bird registration ends today, so hurry if you are planning to attend and you like discounts!
From tomorrow, T-shirts and coloring books will no longer be available for pre-order (there may be a small number of extras available on-site), the registration price will increase by $5, and no free swag will be guaranteed (there may be extras on-site).
The hotel is basically booked solid at this point, though there may be one or two rooms still available. The Commission is actively working with the hotel to secure a block of overflow rooms; in the meantime, some people on the Discord server have expressed an interest in sharing rooms.
After Russell Brower, Chuck Carter and Jack Wall, another special guest has been announced: Tim Larkin! He started as sound designer for Riven, and later as the Audio Director and composer for Uru and Myst V. Currently he works at Valve for games such as DOTA, CSGO, Half Life, Portal, and more.
And that was it for this month. Don’t forget to donate to keep the Cavern open!
The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, July 6 at 13:00 KIT.
Until then!
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Firmament
A busy month and a certain Kickstarter meant that the Meeting went straight to the Cyan news: first of all, the successful conclusion of the Firmament campaign, up to its first stretch goal!
Consequently, the game is planned to support Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Rift S, Valve Index, both Windows and macOS (no Linux at the moment), and will have EFIGS support.
During the campaign, Cyan had AMA sessions on Reddit and Discord, a live streaming on Facebook, and linked Proof of Concept demo streamings.
As with the Myst 25th Kickstarter, there were community goals, which of course were achieved; rewards will be:
- a 3D printable model of the Adjunct;
- some concept and in-game arts; and
- one of the first music tracks.
Cyan also clarified that the $49 tier and higher will include custom narrative elements and unique skins only available to the campaign backers. There will be of course ways to back the game for those who missed the campaign.
Myst XXV Anniversary
As part of the campaign, Cyan partnered with Nvidia to provide exclusive codes to gain access to the free GeForce Now beta (Archivist tier and higher).
Also, the Myst eBook novels and the Riven digital map rewards for Writer tier backers have arrived; details for their distribution will arrive soon.
Mysterium
conventions were held in: Denver, Boston, Rochester, Cleveland, Columbus, Portland, Salt Lake City; the only non-U.S.A. event was held in Berlin, Germany. The Melbourne, Australia one has been postponed to a soon-to-be-announced date.
Participants enjoyed escape rooms, scavenger hunts, museum visits, puzzles, souvenirs, and some people have already started making plans for next year.
Registration and hotel reservations for regular Mysterium are still open; the location will be the Ruby River Hotel in downtown Spokane. The Committee has secured a rate of $119/night for one-bed rooms and $129/night for two-bed rooms (plus tax).
Besides the hotel, the registration to the convention itself is also open: from now until June 1, you can purchase a weekend registration for $35 or a premium registration (weekend + shirt + coloring book) for $60. After June 1, the price will increase and shirts/books will not be available.
Event submissions are still open, but the deadline is close, May 20. The Committee is also collecting memories from past editions, to be displayed in some fashion.
D’ni Language Classes & Story Nights
Shokhootahn Rehn’s move is done, but is still putting things away; so there will be no daytime D’ni classes until further notice. They should return sometime in June. Night-time lessions however will resume this week.
Story Nights – Europe will conclude the events from The Book of Atrus and start those from the Myst game. Original Story Nights will soon conclude the events from The Book of D’ni, explain the various prophecies and start the events from the Myst III: Exile game.
Explorers
Korov’ev concluded the speaker session announcing that explorer Peke’s operation went well: she is doing fine, and already visited the Cavern again a few times!
And that was it for this month. Don’t forget to donate to keep the Cavern open! The CavCon status has not been updated yet; internal sources assure that the situation is good, but that can only continue with your help.
The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, June 1, 2019 at 13:00 KIT.
Until then!
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Minasunda began the speaker session with the parades planned for Paddy Day, on Sunday, March 17:
- 13:00 KIT – the first parade will starts from Ae’gura Plaza, led by Eternal Seeker (stream);
- 14:00 KIT – special Radio Free D’ni show, an hour later than usual (stream);
- 17:00 KIT – Dance Party in the Greeters’ Pub, you will need to get the green shirt from Kirel, as Mir-o-Bot will be on holiday (stream); and
- 19:00 KIT – the second parade will starts from Ae’gura Plaza, led by Fil (stream).
Keep in mind that Daylight Saving Time starts on March 10 in most of the U.S., but on March 31 in most of Europe, so the events will start an hour earlier than usual in Europe.
For further updates, check the MO:ULa forum post by Minasunda.
International Women’s Day
Max outlined the music events for the International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8; they will start at 12:00 KIT and will run until at least 17:00 KIT, and will be hosted, among others, by Minasunda, Ghaelen, Mystitech, AlanDJ and Fil. The definitive schedule will be finalized in the MO:ULa forum post by Max.
The call is for female D’niJs, or tracklists with female artists, or suggestions for tracks composed, played or sung by female artists.
State of Minkata
rarified announced that the Age state retention bug in the OpenUru.org testing shard Minkata has been finally fixed, and the shard is open again!
First, a couple of fixes will soon
be sent to Cyan, to be added to MO:ULa. Second, rarified found the mechanism to sync Minkata-alpha (the second shard planned for testing fan content) with regular Minkata: the alpha shard will mirror your progress in the regular shard, but not viceversa. The login will be the same for both shards.
The first goal of Minkata-alpha will be to make the client and fan content compatible with the current MO:ULa client. As the fan Nexus is not yet ready for testing, the initial Minkata-alpha client will be an internal client, that uses a console command to link to fan Ages.
Minkata-alpha is planned to be released in a few weeks. To sign up to the regular shard, visit the OpenUru.org Foundry page.
Ages of Doobes
Doobes was back with a quick update on the Ages he is working on, specifically Veelay Tsahvahn, which is nearly complete and will feature original music composed by Mystler! The track, appropriately titled “House of Reminiscence”, captures the tone Doobes wanted for the Age.
On Mystler’s website you can
On a sadder note, Doobes mentioned the passing of Jeff Zandi, friend of the Miller brothers and inspiration for the character that greets the explorers by the Airstream in the Cleft. You can read more about him here.
An entry for Zandi has been added to the MO:ULa memorial and in the Veelay Tsahvahn’s journals. Explorers will be able to submit short memories to agesofdoobes[at] gmail[dot]com about any of the explorers and have it added to the journals for all to read.
If a name happens to be missing, the best action is to update the memorial page at OpenUru.org, as updates will regularly be picked up from there.
To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.
Ages of Tweek
Tweek gave a quick reminder that the deadline (March 9) for the submissions for Eder Fahsee, his Age dedicated to Myst’s 25th anniversary, is nearing. He is asking explorers for chronicles about their first interactions with Myst and the impact it had on their lives.
Eder Fahsee is planned to be released for offline Uru and any shards willing to host it. To keep updated on Tweek’s work, check his blog and his Facebook page.
The Lost Art
Korov’ev was joined by Nora of the MystyTech team for an update on their machinima, The Lost Art. In the last year they managed to enlist the help of Mirphak and recently Yoda for advanced lighting and special effects, Dulcamara and Doobes for special sets (two of which will appear in future episodes), and Larry LeDeay and Tweek for graphics.
Episodes 7, 8 and 9 are completely filmed and edited, apart from a few pickups; the two things that are holding up their release are the music and the titles sequence. Filming and editing of episodes 10 and 11 are also well along.
If you have a question, or you want to help with the making, you can send an email to enquiries[at] mystitech[dot]de.
Myst25 Kickstarter & Mysterium
Korov’ev then gave a quick update about the Myst25 Kickstarter. Quite a few backers cannot find the inkwell pen: it is in the hidden compartment close to the ‘spine’, on the bottom; there is a flap you can pull. You can see where all the compartments are in this video, and the controls of the linking panel in this diagram.
As for Mysterium, event submissions are now open! The deadline is May 20th. The events include ‘Microtalks’, short (max 10 minutes) presentations covering almost any interesting topics.
The special guest for this year will be Russell Brower, three-time Emmy Award winner, Composer, Musical Director and Conductor. Myst fans will know him best from the Myst 25th Anniversary Kickstarter, for which he composed several Myst-inspired musical pieces available to backers. He is also known for World of Warcraft’s soundtrack.
Mass Mysteria is also close, on Saturday, May 4th in various locations in the U.S. and around the world! Opt-in channels have been added on the Discord server for each location, so that you can communicate with other attendees and decide on plans.
And that was it for this month. Don’t forget to donate to keep the Cavern open! The CavCon status has not been updated yet; internal sources assure that the situation is good, but that can only continue with your help.
The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, April 6, 2019 at 13:00 KIT.
Until then!
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IX Anniversary Events
Minasunda began the speaker session outlining the events planned for the weekend of the IX anniversary of MO:ULa (from Friday 8 to Sunday 10).
There will be music, light shows, dance parties, but also a memorial for the friends we lost along the way.
More details in the ☞ dedicated post.
Max Music Sessions
Max announced the reprise of his Sunday Music Sessions on Sunday 24, the theme being “From Cover to Cover”. As always, suggestions are welcome!
Next, he announced the now traditional celebrations for the International Women’s Day on Friday, March 8: the call is for female D’niJs, or tracklists with female artists, or suggestions for tracks composed, played or sung by female artists.
Max concluded mentioning the International Mother Earth Day, which is also fairly close, on April 22.
Korman 0.08
Korov’ev announced the latest overhaul of the Age creation plugin for Blender, released by the Guild of Writers. The new version focuses on improving the existing functions and fixing the occasional bugs.
More details in the ☞ dedicated post.
Intangibles & Eder Fahsee
Tweek bore news of the Intangibles project. Specifically, he completed the modeling work on the Gateway Nexus; after some final checks, he will send it to Hoikas and Deledrius for the programming. RAWA (who is still recovering) was kind enough to assist with some of the lore.
Second, he announced that the deadline for the submissions for Eder Fahsee has been pushed to March 9, to give people a bit more time. He is asking explorers for chronicles about their first interactions with Myst and the impact it had on their lives.
Third, he is going to release an interim build of Fahets, based on the first version but with updated textures and geometry, to bring it more in line with the newer build. Version 2 will make the Age a lot larger.
To keep updated on Tweek’s work, check his blog and his Facebook page.
More Ages by matthornb
Korov’ev announced five more Ages in the works by Writer matthornb: Sevkor, D’ni Temple, Eder Vikae, Nay’elas, and Alepahnay.
Part of D’ni Temple (area 1) is already available for offline and online visitors, but will be vastly expanded with areas 2 and 3. You might have heard about Sevkor in discussions about porting fan Ages into MOULa, as one of the proposed ways to access them. Eder Vikae, Nay’elas, and Alepahnay are all new Ages, loosely inspired by old concepts.
On top of that, he’ll release a Unity remake of Sehv T’devokan, his standalone game, including a version that can be played in a web browser.
He is planning to release them very soon for offline Uru and any shards willing to host them (as Korman allows to easily export for both types).
You can read more about matthornb’s creations on his website.
State of Minkata
rarified gave an update on the status of the OpenUru.org testing shard Minkata. Specifically, he is still trying to find a solution to the Age state retention issue; to this end, he locked down the Vault, so at the moment the shard is unavailable.
In the meantime, he has been updating the server to test the latest updates to the OpenUru.org server MOSS.
Myst25 Kickstarter status
Korov’ev then gave a recap of the last updates from Cyan about the updated Myst games and the physical rewards.
The DVDs have all been shipped; those who haven’t got them yet should try contacting support[at]cyan[dot]com. Cyan will reach out to any backers whose DVDs are being returned due to various delivery issues.
Inkwells and linking books are being shipped separately; if you receive damaged rewards, or with missing pieces, please contact support and include pictures of the damages. U.S. backers are getting their books and inkwells a few weeks later than other countries; Canadian backers are getting the DVDs later. If you haven’t received them yet, don’t lose hope, and try contacting your local post office.
Some backers have reported getting a virus alert when they tried to plug their linking books into their computers. It’s not clear how serious the alerts are yet, and it appears that only specific batches have them. The investigation is still ongoing.
Some backers never finished the Blackbox survey, or completed it long after the due date; their rewards will shipped from Cyan directly, but only after all those who did complete their surveys got them.
RIUM+ posted a thorough review of the Linking Book and the inkwell.
D’ni Language Classes
Shokhootahn Rehn closed the speaker session announcing two more students who have completed the 101 class. More groups are still making their way through at various stages.
- Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324); be sure to include your KI number in the message!
- Shokhootahn Rehn is in the Hood most days at 10:00 KIT and 20:00 KIT to answer questions regarding the current lesson;
- Magic Bot is employed to announce last-minute changes to class times: to get notified, add him as a buddy (KI# 27527), then send him a PM with the word “advert”. If Magic Bot is not online, you can send a PM to Mimi Bot (KI# 71459).
r’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
Story Nights Europe will conclude the events from The Fall. Original Story Nights will continue the events from the Myst game.
Due to the IX anniversary weekend, Story Night Europe will be postponed to Saturday 16 at the usual time, barring any last-minute travel plans. The 23:30 events are unaffected, but thunderstorms can cause power outages; in that case, r’Tayrtahn will try to contact someone from the regular audience, so they can relay his situation.
- Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday night, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
- For Story Nights Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT. On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:30 KIT or 30 minutes after the end of the meeting.
- The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KI mail with your KI number included in the text; he will add you to his buddies list.
And that was it for this month. Don’t forget to donate to keep the Cavern open! The CavCon status has not been updated yet; internal sources assured that the situation is good, but that can only continue with your help.
The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 13:00 KIT.
Until then!
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Ages of Doobes
Doobes was first, with an update on the Ages he is working on:
- The revamped GoMe Pub: a fitting start to the ‘Journey’ and Doobes’ first official release; the other Ages will be found somewhere in the Pub.
- The Library: Doobes hopes to feature other fan Ages here as well, but it will also act as a ‘Nexus’ of his own.
- Veelay Tsahvahn, a.k.a. the Memorial Age: a remembrance for explorers who have passed away, and a place to gather, mourn and celebrate those we have lost over the years; it will be available in the Library right away.
- The Vale: a mysterious garden Age that has distinctly D’ni architecture, but a bit of a mysterious origin; it is known that a D’ni Writer did not Write it, which was quite unusual at the time it was Written.
- Kotsahvosahn, a.k.a. the Waystation: the journey begins and ends right where it should, in the Cavern; this was a port used by the D’ni Guild of Messengers right up until the Fall and will be the beginning of Lothias’ journey (more on that in the future).
A couple of these Ages are just about ready, while some have several details that still need to be knocked out. The plan is for a tentative early 2019 release on Gehn Shard, The Open Cave, and Deep Island. Later, Minkata and (hopefully) MO:ULa!
To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.
guildofmessengers.org
Next, Doobes announced the launch of the website you are currently reading! The GoMe site has been absent for over a year; the old “.com” domain lapsed and fell into the hands of some sort of… gambling thing. The new site now ends in “.org”, in line with the Guild of Writers’ site.
Some of the information pages need to be carried over; you yourself can help! The look is similar to the 2.0 site (WordPress with the ColorMag theme), mostly for consistency. The All Guilds Meeting chatlogs, which have been previously hosted on Doobes’ own website, will from now be located here, both raw and cleansed.
The new domain is hosted and maintained by Doobes, so it will not be going anywhere for the foreseeable future; the maintenance costs are fairly cheap to maintain, so he will not be looking for donations.
Videos will need to be linked to instead of being stored on the site, as the storage space has its limits; an RSS feed for the news page is likely, and the rel.to link is in the process of being updated.
Ages of Tweek
Tweek gave an update on Eder Fahsee, a familiarly unfamiliar garden Age that celebrates Myst and the impact it had on all of us. As such, he is inviting any one who is interested to contribute to the Age: he is compiling 25 books (and maybe another 25 later) to go within the library on the Age that will chronicle the first interactions the explorers had with Myst. It can be something short or long (but not too long!), expressing your thoughts, feelings, etc. Not all submissions will make it into the Age, but Tweek will try to fit in as many as possible.
To keep updated on Tweek’s work, check his blog and his Facebook page.
Myst25 deliveries
The discs for Cyan’s 25th Anniversary Kickstarter have been shipped, and in many cases already reached their destinations! If you are still waiting, check your emails for a tracking code to know where your discs currently are. For those living in the UK, if your tracking is showing a “failure to deliver”, you probably have additional custom charges to pay.
At the moment, it appears that only the Windows discs have been shipped; macOS users unfortunately will have to wait a bit longer.
The Cyan staff took a winter break from December 21 to January 2; if you sent inquiries at support[at]cyan[dot]com, info[at]cyan[dot]com or press[at]cyan[dot]com during this period, please allow a few days as they are preocessing them in order of receipt.
The Lost Art Season Two
Not one but two videos have been released on their Youtube channel: a Christmas teaser on December 16, and Episode 6 on Christmas Eve.
Around March some extra avatar operators will be needed for some special scenes; requirements will be the ability to use an internal client and a Skype account to coordinate acting. If you are interested, you can contact .
Get well, Chiro
Korov’ev ended the speaker session wishing get well soon to explorer Chihiro.
And that was it for this month. Don’t forget to donate to keep the Cavern open! The CavCon status has not been updated yet; internal sources assured that the situation is good, but that can only continue with your help.
The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, February 2, 2019 at 13:00 KIT.
Until then!
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