“In the mid-’90s, more than 6 million cardboard boxes and jewel cases of Myst flew off shelves faster than retailers could restock them, and a tiny indie studio called Cyan, Inc. (now Cyan Worlds) became the first garage band to go multiplatinum in the punk-rock days of CD-ROM”
“A long-awaited sequel, 1997’s Riven, was heralded as a visual and narrative masterpiece in its own right. But in the 2000s, Cyan made a bold investment in the future of gaming that backfired, forcing the CEO to lay off all but two of its 40-person staff”
“After nearly a decade with no major releases, a 2013 Kickstarter campaign revived the studio. Now, it’s making award-winning games again in an industry dominated by corporate behemoths and buyouts”
“Robyn Miller: I was really into Jules Verne at the time, and I was reading The Mysterious Island, so there are a lot of similar themes. The name Myst definitely came from that book”
“Robyn Miller: We went back and forth and argued about the name. I was on the side that said, “We’re going to name this thing Riven, and we’re not even going to put Myst on the box!” And Rand was on the side that said, “No, this is Myst II, we need to put Myst on the box.” In hindsight, I think Rand was right. A lot of people went into stores who wanted to buy the next Myst, and they never saw it”
“After licensing the rights for Myst III and Myst IV to another studio, Cyan began staffing up for Uru, an ambitious online RPG with real-time 3D environments set in the underground city of D’ni and other worlds. But the fate of Uru — and of Cyan itself — may have been sealed the day they signed a deal with Ubisoft”
“Eric A. Anderson: Double Fine was making big news for raising millions of dollars on a Kickstarter for Broken Age, and Ryan Warzecha was like, “If Double Fine can do it, Cyan should be able to.””