Firmament – The Guild of Messengers

Weekly news roundup #2

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 00:15:42 +0000

On Thursday, a small update for MOULa was released, 918.OpenUru#153:

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.

Cyan also retweeted the announcement from Limited Run of the pre-orders for the physical edition of realMyst for the Nintendo Switch, on February 28 at 10 am ET.

A new update for Firmament was also published, with a video giving some insights into the development process.

If you enjoyed Ars Technica’s recent interview with Rand about the making of Myst, a nearly 2-hour long extended version came out on Friday.

The Digital Antiquarian wrote a detailed essay on the history of (the original) Myst, in the context of what people were playing in 1993.

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February 2020 All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 01:08:09 +0000

Here is the summary for today’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

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.

Details about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)

July All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sat, 06 Jul 2019 21:40:27 +0000

Here is the summary for today’s short Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Fan ages

Quietly, four new ages have been released recently. In April it was two small but atmospheric ones: Kahntinoy, by Rich, and Fena Barel, by Wodan and Hans. Both Ages has been in the works for many years, and are now available on Deep Island and for offline Uru through Drizzle. Be sure to read the (numerous) journals!

At the end of June, two more ages have been released: Terahgrahm and Zahlto, both by Semjay. They are (much) larger than they look at first! Terahgrahm was actually announced two years ago, and is now available through the usual channels.

Zahlto is new, with many nice aesthetic upgrades to the KI, T-shirts, bookmarks … pity that shop owner Ella Darrington is away, so you can only look. Also, secret passages, many secret passages!

Because of technical issues, Zahlto is not yet on Deep Island, but should be soon.

Firmament

The Firmament campaign is continuing on Fangamer, with new stretch goals. The first one, “developer commentary and making of”, at $1.5M, has almost been reached.

Also, all Kickstarter backers who pledged at tiers $250 and higher should have received the Proof of Concept. It is worth repeating that the PoC is not exactly a demo, the actual game might look different.

Mysterium

The schedule is now available. It will be a packed weekend, which will include a visit to Cyan on Saturday.

On Friday, there’ll be two special guest signatures blocks. Signatures are free, but you will need to bring your own photos or signature sheets (up to three per visit, but you can redo the queue). You can take a photo with one of the guests, but it will have to be a quick selfie on your phone, out and ready to go.

The hotel is booked solid at this point, about 200 attendees! There is a handful of rooms at a nearby overflow hotel available.

After Russell Brower, Chuck Carter, Jack Wall and Tim Larkin, two more special guests have been announced!

The first one is Marty O’Donnell. Marty has worked on everything from Flintstones Kids commercials to the multi-award-winning Halo games series. Myst fans, however, will know him as the sound designer for Riven … and for the ytram. These days, Marty is co-founder and co-owner of Highwire Games in Seattle.

The other special guest is cyantist Kha’tie Postma. In the early 2000s she was Ubisoft’s Community Manager for the Myst games. After Myst V and the Uru sequels launched, she moved to other studios. Since the Myst XXV Anniversary Kickstarter, she has been working with Cyan as a community, social media and marketing management consultant.

Regarding panel topics, and other submissions, more info will come soon.

There will also be a Writing & Art Table for fan creations! The deadline is July 30. By the way, the coloring book is gorgeous.

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn has finished moving. Hooray! Still, putting things away takes time, so there will be no daytime classes until sometime in fall; nighttime classes are unaffected.

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 (when he is not on the move) at 10:00 KIT and 20:00 KIT to answer questions regarding the current lesson;
the Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session, currently on Monday and Thursday nights, starting at 20:00 or 21:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule;
the left-hand imager and Magic Bot are 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 continue with the events from The Book of D’ni; no puzzle spoilers will be given during the story. Original Story Nights will continue with the events from Myst IV: Revelation.

Due to r’Tayrtahn traveling, there will be no Story Night – Europe on July 27. 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, so that he can add you to his buddies list;
Magic Bot is employed to announce last-minute changes to Story Night 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).

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, August 10 at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

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June All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 22:32:36 +0000

Here is the summary for today’s short Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

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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May All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 12 May 2019 14:40:24 +0000

Here is the summary for yesterday’s short Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

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

The Mass Mysteria conventions were held on May 4 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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Firmament by Cyan Inc.

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 18:49:45 +0000

At the time of this post, there are about 50 hours left in Cyan’s Kickstarter for their new game, Firmament! The game will be designed for VR, but it will run on PC just as well. A macOS version will be possible if the $1.4M stretch goal is reached. But let’s hear it from Cyan themselves:

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

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April All Guilds Meeting Summary

Sun, 07 Apr 2019 08:59:55 +0000

Here is the summary for yesterday’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

D’ni New Year & Mother Earth Day

Minasunda began the speaker session with the parties planned for this month’s festivities.

On April 21, D’ni new year 9675 (heeborah naygahbreesee, in D’ni), there will be a party and a Yoda Light Show in Mir-o-Bot’s Eder Tsogal at 13:00 KIT. To get there, PM “link” or “meet” to the bot (KI# 32319). Seeker will provide the music.

The next day, April 22, is the International Mother Earth Day, and it has become a tradition for the Nulp Dance Group to host a show, also with a Yoda Light Show. To get to the location, PM Mir-o-Bot at 13:00 KIT. Seeker will provide the music.

For both events, attendees are asked to:

not use magic commands, to avoid interfering with the show and avoid crashes and lags;
keep the stage free for the dancers, and consequently
arrive on time before the show starts.

The dancers will be very busy during the show, so they will not be able to answer questions; volunteers are welcome (please contact Minasunda). Of course there will be rehearsals. If you do not want the surprise spoiled, avoid linking to Mir-o-Bot if he is with five or more people until the show. If you do, please keep quiet and do not use magic commands. And keep the secret!

For further updates (and videos, after the shows), check the MO:ULa forum posts (New Year, Mother Earth Day) by Minasunda.

State of Minkata

rarified announced that he managed to restore the proper behavior of the OpenUru.org testing shard Minkata. This month he has been working hard to deploy Minkata-alpha, the second shard planned for testing fan content.

Bringing up the new shard has required some changes (fixes) to the game client, as well as bringing up a second server. There is no fan content there yet, but rarified is This Close to ask Doobes for a current copy of the New GoMe Pub, to start working with that.

There are also a couple of changes that have to be brought over from the H’Uru client code base in order to use content generated with the current Korman plugin for Blender.

A wide-open test for Minkata-alpha might happen soon. Once fan content works there, they will be working on a process for submitting it to Cyan for their approval and hopefully integration into MO:ULa.

The New GoMe Pub probably will not be the first fan Age to appear there, though; Cyan prefers to have a bridge (such as the fan Nexus) in place first. There are a few projects nearing completion for that purpose, so stay tuned!

Firmament

Korov’ev then mentioned the Kickstarter everyone is talking about: Firmament!

It got 40% funded in the first week or so (you can follow a live projection if you enjoy anxiety), but the more funds it gets the better, so if you have not backed it yet, it is time!

The game is being developed for VR first, but it will work fine as a classic PC game too. Unfortunately, support for macOS is not planned for the Kickstarter. Cyan is working on it, but for now it will be for Windows only. The release is currently planned to be on Steam, GOG, Viveport, and Oculus Store.

Regarding the Myst25 Kickstarter, the eBook novels and the Riven digital map rewards for the Writer tier have not yet been released, and there is no estimate of when yet. Also, the Fangamer coupon has been extended: you now have until April 30 to use it. Fangamer also confirms new items will be available soon.

If you were at PAX East or Indie MegaBooth, Cyan showcased Firmament and ZED there, respectively.

Mysterium

Mass Mysteria is coming on May 4 in various locations around the world (which also means that the next All Guilds Meeting is postponed to May 11).

Registration and hotel reservations for regular Mysterium are now open! The location will be the Ruby River Hotel in downtown Spokane, in walking distance of the downtown core and Riverfront Park, and overlooks the Spokane River. The Committee has secured a rate of $119/night for one-bed rooms and $129/night for two-bed rooms (plus tax).

After Russell Brower, the second special guest will be: Jack Wall! ASCAP award-winning, BAFTA nominated, best known for his video game scores (as in Call of Duty: Black Ops, Mass Effect, and more to the point, Myst III and IV).

This year’s shirt will sport Xemylixa’s design on the front and calumTraveler’s design on the back.

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.

The Committee is also collecting memories from past editions, to be displayed in some fashion.

D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn is in the process of moving, so there will be no daytime classes until further notice. They should return sometime in June. The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public; Rehn will announce the availability of classes on the Hood imager.
Two more students who have completed the 101 class; due to the afore-mentioned issues, Rehn has not been able to grade them yet, but will do as soon as possible.

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 (when he is not on the move) 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 continue with the events from The Book of Atrus. Original Story Nights will continue with the events from The Book of D’ni.

Due to Easter weekend, there will be no Story Night – Europe on Saturday 20. Rehn’s actual move will be towards the end of the month, so there may or may not be a story on Saturday 27. 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.

Explorer memorial

Korov’ev had to close the speaker session announcing the passing of explorer Dichromus. He and explorer Zeddy celebrated 5 years of marriage last year.

He was instrumental in preserving karaoke songs by founder Sil-Oh-Wet and regularly played some of her songs at his karaoke shows after she passed away. He was also a musician and singer.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 11, 2019 at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!

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