Myst Blogs

Just watched the season finale of Doctor Who.

I....I....I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL NOVEMBER?!?

That is all...

This is based on last year’s equivalent, but much of that turned out not to be true, so I might as well repeat myself. Second time’s a charm, and all.

Sources of Inspiration

Mostly the same as before:

• Its sister OS, OS X. Smartly, the two share a lot of the underlying architecture. iOS happens to have received some more modern frameworks first since they had a chance at a clean slate, but other than that, iOS has more of a mobile/”console” focus, and OS X is more of a traditional desktop OS.
• Other mobile OSes; in particular:
  • Android, of course. One feature that comes to mind is allowing multiple users on Android tablets; a cynic might argue that this would be against Apple’s hardware business interests.
  • Windows Phone 8 / Windows 8 / Windows RT. Brief tangent: Phone 8, unless Phone 7, is NT-based, so while its UI looks much the same, its core is now much more similar to ‘regular’ Windows. Also, Windows RT is really just Windows 8 running on ARM instead of x86, with consequences like virtually zero Desktop apps being available.
  • Blackberry 10. Its one and only selling point: well-separated private/business spaces.
  • There’s more, like SailfishOS, Firefox OS, and so forth, but I don’t see much innovation coming from them.
• iOS’s own jailbreak community.

Now, keeping in mind that I have virtually no personal experience with other mobile OSes, I do have plenty with Windows 8 (in various settings, including on a tablet), as well as with some of what I deem to be more interesting jailbreak tweaks.

Let’s start thusly: iOS 6 disappointed me. Part of it goes back to what I wrote last year:

With each successive release having been a little more mature than its predecessor, iOS 5 has perhaps reached roughly the point of satisfaction that 10.4 Tiger had: plenty of features, not all of which you’ll use every day, and some you wish it had. But unlike Tiger, you’re largely stuck with what the OS has to offer. Extensibility mechanisms are few and far between. Apple has shown no sign of willingness to change that, and each passing year proves them more right in their conviction that they won’t have to.

And yet, 10.5 Leopard felt like a much bigger (if somewhat controversial — glass Dock, anyone?) leap than iOS 6 did. It’s not that it made the experience worse (to me, Apple Maps worked okay from the start, though I’ve found Street View to be far more useful and far less glitchy than Flyover, which isn’t really available here anyhow); it’s that people are using iOS devices more and more, in the “post-PC” way Jobs predicted, and in various ways, the OS hasn’t grown to accommodate for that. Hence, like I said, a bit of a repeat of last year.

Inter-app Sharing Workflows

Various design choices make carrying a bit of information from one app to another fairly cumbersome: typically, only one app will be actively running in a multitasking sense; only one app will be visible; mechanisms like Springboard, the app switching bar and the Notification Center are less about temporarily interacting with an app than they are about switching to it and fully bringing it frontmost; and each app lives in its own sandbox, including file management, so accessing a file you’ve created in another app isn’t as easy you might expect either.

iOS does provide a means of opening applications with URL schemes, enabling several sharing workflows. 3.0 and 5.0, respectively, added APIs to show sheets for sending off e-mail messages or tweets, so you won’t have to leave the app at all. And 3.2 introduced support for an Open With feature. The main limitation with these is that (the middle one excepted) they’re “push”-type workflows: you’re sent from one app to another, and then never back. Rather, what you frequently want is to “pull” information from another app, returning to where you had left off afterwards. The original app lacks a means of getting any result.

For some cases, app developers have become inventive to work around this:

• Writing Kit, a word processor, advertises its built-in browser and Quick Research abilities.
• Many apps rely on Dropbox for sharing files with each other, effectively eschewing the local system entirely in favor of one whose API affords them more flexibility.
• Some apps now have a “Launch 1Password” button on their login screen specifically to make password look-up less awkward.
• Techniques like x-callback-url or Audiobus (even adopted by Apple’s own GarageBand) help.

But those aren’t desirable hacks, and many cases simply cannot be handled well at all. Tools such as 1Password and TextExpander come off as more cumbersome than their Mac counterparts through no fault of their own. Moreover, when integration is available, it is often limited to hardcoded, specific apps; you’d have a hard time launching a TextExpander competitor now simply because so many third-party apps have already been integrated with TextExpander itself in particular. You cannot, as an app, offer your services to other apps.

So, wanted: a means where app A (e.g., a word processor) can ask the OS for available apps of a type of service X (e.g.: text expansion), where app B in turn can register itself to offer just that, and where A can launch B with the special “bring me back my info when you’re done” parameter. Workflow-wise, it may make sense (and be less confusing to the user) to show the app’s relevant bits in a sheet; in particular, no navigation in the app’s UI should be possible.

Defaults

The built-in apps are hardly bad (unless you count Reminders, the UI of which clearly only happened in some nightmare of mine), but Apple won’t and shan’t try to cover all situations — they’ve made a conscious choice to make their apps simple, leaving plenty of room to allow third parties (or themselves, as in iPhoto vs. Aperture) to offer something more advanced. Some may prefer using the GMail web interface as their mail client, iCab as their browser, or Calvetica as their calendar. There’s APIs for accessing some or all of the same data, but there aren’t ones to set defaults. Most jarringly, opening a web link in some app will still launch Safari, unless the app happens to provide its own means of choosing a different browser.

This doesn’t affect me much, but one scenario where I recently saw this as a problem is wanting a locked-down browser for a kid without relying on Safari’s own rather limited Parental Controls, but rather by using a third-party browser that’s designed around kid use. Making that the default browser, and preventing app installation as well as launching of Safari itself through Parental Controls, ought to do the trick.

And if this capability were to arise, it would encourage third-party developers to build alternative apps we can’t even dream of yet.

Plug-Ins / Bundles

I know plug-ins go against Apple’s “everything is an app” grain that they’re apparently carrying over to the Mac as well, but they’ve already violated that principle in a few ways:

• Apps can provide their own preferences that show up in the Settings app. This is effectively just a hierarchy of data, rather than a means to run code, so it’s limited (e.g., you wouldn’t be able to provide a button), but it is nonetheless arguably a form of hooking into the system.
• iOS 4.1 added a VPN API, which to my knowledge is sadly still undocumented, but (by necessity) has code of yours running system-wide.

In addition to wanting an OpenVPN plug-in (sigh), there’s various obvious places where plug-ins would help:

• You can already search for your app in Spotlight (and, to my knowledge it takes advantage of keywords developers can provide in the App Store, so searches don’t have to be exact matches), but being able to search its data (and to tap on an item to launch the app straight to that very item) would be great.
• 5.0’s Notification Center has two widgets for Weather and Stocks, which scream for extensibility, but alas, that currently requires a jailbreak. Here, too, the problem of default apps becomes clear: if you prefer a third-party weather or stocks app, tough.
• A “Quick Look” of sorts — tapping an attachment in Mail works for some formats, but what if your app could provide viewers for additional ones?
• Safari Extensions. Performance considerations aside, these should port just fine, so they can actually sync through iCloud.

Search

The silo nature of “files belong to an app” isn’t for everyone, but it’s presumably here to stay. One thing that should alleviate the pain is system-wide search (see above). OS X has had this since 10.4 (though it really didn’t start working well for me until much later); resource constraints (e.g., battery life) aside, this arriving in iOS is hopefully just a matter of time.

In a sense, this will be more useful than on the Mac, due to so many native apps being available: search for a name, and see phone calls with them, their Facebook, LinkedIn, whatever profiles, your e-mail exchanges, replies and direct messages via Twitter, games you’re playing with them, and appointments you have with them. Search for a genre, and get the Wikipedia article as well as the iTunes songs or movies, or the books in iBooks or Kindle. Search for a subject, and get e-mails, articles, even news.

Text editing/selection

iOS gets this one so wrong, Apple’s own Pages has additional gestures to make it far less painful. Various jailbreak tweaks work similarly, and the whole thing screams for a UX overhaul.

Phone

While the phone app got some nice improvements in iOS 6, such as being able to set a call-back reminder or send a predefined text message response, it’s mostly the way it’s been since 1.0. It feels, perhaps to evoke familiarity, too much like a 90s’ era telephone brought to a touchscreen UI, ignoring technologies and capabilities like the Internet. It doesn’t even integrate with VoIP (though third-party apps have some limited hook-in abilitiy, such as being able to run in the background).

Eevn without a long-needed overhaul, though, there are improvements one could wish for:

• Better look-up of unknown numbers. Apparently, US versions of the iPhone can at least resolve the area code to give you a rough idea of who it might be; this doesn’t seem to work in Germany. In addition to area code look-up, it could also try and perform a Google search. In the case of businesses, this may often be enough to provide a best guess approximation.
• Blocking numbers. Perhaps carriers are pressuring Apple not to implement this, as they can now up-sell you on the amazing deal of being able to block up to 30 numbers for a mere additional 5 bucks a month. Anyway, one can wish.

Miscellany

There’s various smaller stuff — Mail ought to have OS X Mail’s better threading and junk filtering support; important toggles like Airplane Mode require far too many taps; Settings has gotten far too nested (maybe add a search field?).

You’ll also note that I skipped the current prevalent discussion entirely; that of 7 supposedly featuring a Jony Ive-inspired flatter UI. There’s not much for me to add to that discussion, really. Lastly, the discussion of whether Apple should add a Gatekeeper-like “allow me to run non-Store applications” switch is complex enough to warrant a separate post.

I think it’s a terrific OS. Let’s make it even better.

The following is a list of D'ni names that appear in the Myst games and novels. Parentheses enclose the D'ni originals (in OTS) where these differ from the official Romanized spelling, or where the official spelling is unknown. Where necessary, sources are given in italics.

Note that for many of these names the D'ni original is unknown, and if they were taken to be direct transliterations, would yield bizarre or impossible pronunciations.

Ader Jamat
Age

Ae'gura
Place

(Ahdesh) Adesh
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

(Ahlsendahr) Ahlsendar
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Ahnonay
ahno ‘water’ + nay ‘root’
Age

Ahrotahntee
ahro + tahn + tee

(Ahsemlef) Asemlef
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Ailem
Personal name (male)

Airem
Personal name (male)

Airis
Personal name (male)

Aleshay
Personal name (female)

Andritus
Personal name (male)

Anem
Personal name (male)

Arren
Personal name (male)

Ar'tenen
Personal name (male)

Ashem
Personal name (male)

Ashem'en
Named after Ashem
Place

Athsheba
Personal name (female)

Aurack
Age

Avonis
Personal name (male)

(Aylesh) Ailesh
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

(Aytrus) Aitrus, Atrus
Personal name (male)
Revelation family tree

A'gaeris
Personal name (male)

Bahro
bah ‘beast’ + ro

Belari
Age

(Benahshiren) Behnashiren
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Besharen
Personal name

Bevin
Place

Bilaris
Age

Birenni
Personal name (male)

Calam
Personal name (male)

Ces
Star

(Cheecho)
Place
Pod map

Chor bahkh
Food

Corlam
Personal name (male)

Dereno
Place

Deretheni
Stone

Derisa
Place

Devokan
'hope'
Age (Terahnee)

(Dimahth) Demath
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Direbo
Age

(D'nee) D'ni
de + nee 'new'
Age
Aitrus’s map

Eamis
Theater company

Eder Delin
Age

Eder Gira
Age

(Eder Keemo) Eder Kemo
Age
http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=31872#31872

Eder tomahn
'rest' 'house'

(Eder Tsogahl) Eder Tsogal
Age
http://forums.drcsite.org/viewtopic.php?p=31430#31430

Ederat
eder 'rest' (uncertain etymology)
Age

Eedrah
Personal name (male) (Terahnee)

(Efahnis) Efanis
Personal name (male)
RealMyst red and blue pages

Ejemah’terak
Book

Emen
Personal name (male)

Eneah
Personal name (male)

Erafir
Personal name (male)

Er'cana
Age

(…doo…) Er'duna
doo 'food'
Age
http://linguists.bahro.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1388

Er'jerah
Age

Esel
Personal name (male)

Esher
Personal name (male)

Fahlee
Personal name (male)

Faresh
Personal name (male)

Ferras
Personal name (female)

Fhal
Personal name

Fihar
Personal name (male)

Gadar
Age

Gadren
Personal name (male)

(Gahn) Gan
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Gahreesen
gahro ‘great’ + ahreeu ‘protect’ + senahren ‘structure’
Age

(Gahrohevtee) Garohevtee
gahro ‘great’ + hev ‘word’ + tee

(Gahrten)
Personal name (male)
Aitrus’s map

(Gahrternay) Garternay
gahro ‘great’ + ter ‘tree’ + nay ‘root’
Age

Gehallah
Place (Terahnee)

Gemedet
Game, Age

(Gen) Gehn
Personal name (male)
Revelation family tree

Gerad’jenah
Personal name

Geran
Personal name (male)

Gihran
Personal name (male)

Gish
Personal name (male)

Goshen
Personal name

Hadre
Personal name (male) (Terahnee)

Haemis
Personal name (male)

Haghen
Personal name

Hailesi
Personal name (female)

(Hayvu)
Place
Pod map

Hajihr
Personal name (male)

Hamil
Personal name (male)

Haran
Personal name (male)

Heejaf
Personal name (male)

Hemelah
Personal name (male)

Hemelin
Personal name (male)

He'darra
Place (Terahnee)

(Hinahsh) Hinahsh, Hinash
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Hisha
Personal name (female)

Horen
Personal name (male) (Terahnee)

Huldref
Personal name (male)

Ikhah nijuhets
Food

Imas
Personal name (male)

Iradun
Personal name (male)

Irem
Personal name (male)

Irrat
Place

Ishek
Personal name (male)

Ishem
Personal name (male)

Jadaris
Personal name (male)

(Jahron) Jaron
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

(Jah’kreen) Ja’kreen
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Jaken
Personal name (male)

Jakooth
Religious figure

Jalak
Age

Jamen
Personal name

Jaren
Place

Jaysem
Personal name (male)

Ja'ir
Personal name (male)

Jedur
Personal name

(Jee) Ji
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Jenir
Personal name (male)

Jenniran
Personal name (male)

Jerahl
Personal name (male)

Jethhe
Personal name (head of Ro'jethhe family) (Terahnee)

Jiladis
Personal name (male)

Jimel
Personal name (male)

Jolatha
Personal name (female)

Jo'irimah
Personal name

Jura
Personal name (male)

Juurtyri
Personal name (male) (Terahnee)

J'taeri
Named after a king's son
Place

Kahlis
Personal name (male)

Kaleh
Place

Kali
Place

Karim
Place

Katha
Place

(Kaydish) Kadish
Personal name (male)
Kadish’s note

(Kaydish) Kadish Tolesa
‘vault, sealed place’ (to ‘place’)
Age
http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=394509#394509

(Kedree) Kedri
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Keman
Personal name (male)

Kenri
Personal name (male)

(Kerahth) Kerath
'brave one'
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

(Kerahth...) Kerath'en
Named after Kerath
Place

Kimal
Personal name

Kinef
Personal name (male)

Kirel
Place

Koreen
Personal name (male)

Korenen
Personal name (male)

Korfah V'ja
kor ‘book’ + fah ‘one’ v'ja ‘celebration’

Koris
Personal name (male)

Korokh Jimah
kor ‘book’ + okh ‘of’ jimah ‘prophecy’
Book

(Kortee’neeah) Kortee’nea
kor ‘book’ + tee + neeah ‘new’

Ko'ah
Age

Kura
Personal name (male)

K'veer
Place

Lahkeer
Personal name (male)

(Lahnahren) Lanaren
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Laki'ahn
Age

Lalen
Personal name (female)

Lashem
Personal name

(Lemahshahl) Lemashal
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Lemash
Personal name (male)

Leshena
Personal name

Lianis
Personal name (male)

(Loshemahnesh) Loshemanesh
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

(Mahrahron) Mararon
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Manesah
Personal name

Manesh
Personal name

Manesmo
Personal name (male)

Me'emen
me ‘from’ + emen
Personal name (male)

(Me'ertah) Me’erta
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Milane
Personal name (female)

Minkata
‘heavily scarred’
Age

Moleth
Personal name (male)

Najun
Personal name (male)

Namen
Personal name (male)

Namis
Personal name (male)

Nara
Stone

Naygen
Personal name (male)

Needrah
Personal name (male)

Neferus
Personal name (male)

Negilahn
Place

Nehir
Personal name (male)

Nehw'eril
Place

Nemiya
Personal name (female)

Neref
Place

Nidur Gemat
Age

Ni'ediren
Place (Terahnee

Noloben
Age

Oma
Personal name (male)

Oren
Personal name (male)

Oorpah
Personal name

Payiferen
Place

Penjul
Personal name (male)

(Rahkeree) Rakeri
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Raman
Personal name (male)

Ramel
Personal name (female)

Ramena
Personal name

Rebek
Age

Reekoo
Animal

(Regeltavokh Oorpah) Regeltahvok Oorpah
re ‘the’ + geltahv ‘writing’ + okh ‘of’
Apparently transcribed into journal in Dnifont mapping
Book

Regeltovokum
Place

(Regolahntahnteeokh Yahvo) RegolantantEok Yahvo
re ‘the’ + golahntahn ‘judge’ + tee + okh ‘of’
Apparently transcribed into journal in Dnifont mapping

Rehevkor
re ‘the’ + hev ‘word’ + kor ‘book’
Book

Releeshahn
re ‘the’ + leeshahn ‘whole’
Age

Relto
re ‘the’ + el ‘high’ + to ‘place’
Age

Relyimah
ril ‘not’ + yimah ‘seen’ (etymology not completely certain)

Renyaloth
re ‘the’ + enyaloth ‘sickly one’
Nickname (Terahnee)

Reshan
Personal name (male)

Re'dantee

(Rigilahs)
Place
Pod map

Rijahna
Personal name (male)

Rikooth
Personal name (male)

Ri'neref
Personal name (male)

Rolep
Place

Ronay
ro + nay ‘root’

Rudenna
Place

Ro'addarren
Family name (Terahnee)

Ro'derraj
Family name (Terahnee)

Ro'eh Ro'dan
Personal name (royal) (Terahnee)

Ro'hedrath
Family name (Terahnee)

Ro’jadre
Family name (Terahnee)

Ro'jethhe
Family name (Terahnee)

Ro'tanak
Family name (Terahnee)

Ro'tanaren
Family name (Terahnee)

R'hira
Personal name (male)

Sajka
Personal name (male)

Sedona
Age

Senomar
Animal

Shama
Personal name (female)

Shamathen
Named after Shama
Place

Shemef
Personal name (male)

(Shomaht) Shomat
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Sijarun
Personal name (male)

Sirreh
Personal name (male)

(Solahth) Solath
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Suahrnir
Personal name (male)

Taeri
Personal name (male)

Tahgira
Age

(Talashahr) Talashar
Personal name (male)
Book of Atrus inside cover

Tamon
Personal name (male)

Tanaren
Personal name (head of Ro'tanaren family) (Terahnee)

Tarvis
Personal name

(Tahserah) Tasera
Personal name (female)
Revelation family tree

Ta'nerin
Personal name (male)

(Tee'ahnah) Ti'ana
'storyteller'
Personal name (female)
Revelation family tree

(Tejahrah) Tejara
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Tekis
Personal name (male)

Telanis
Personal name (male)

Teledahn
Age

Teman
Personal name

Terahnee
ter ‘tree’ + nee ‘new’
Age (Terahnee)

Tergahn
Personal name (male)

(Terokh Jerooth) Terokh Jeruth
ter ‘tree’ + okh ‘of’ jerooth ‘possibility’

Teshan
Personal name

Tetsonot
Place

Tevahr
Personal name (male)

Te'negamiris
Age

Tijali
Place

(Ti'ahmel) Ti'amel
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Ti'Lanar
Personal name

Todelmer
to ‘place’ + del + mer ‘watch’
Age

Tokotah
‘place of the locked doors’ (to ‘place’)
Place
http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=394509#394509

Tomahna
tomahn ‘home’
Place

Tremal
Personal name (male)

Tre'merktee
te ‘in, with’ + re ‘the’ + merk ‘poisoned water’ + tee
Place

Trisari
Personal name (female)

Tulla
Personal name (male)

Urakh'nidar
Book

Uran
Place

Urren
Personal name (male)

Vamen
Place

(Veeshah) Veesha
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Ventus
Personal name (male)

Veovis
Personal name (male)

Veshar
Personal name (male)

Windring
Age

(Yahbleshahn) Yableshan
Personal name (male)
Hall of Kings

Yahvo
Religious figure

Yakul
Age

Yamen
Wood

Yasefe
Age

(Yeeshah) Yeesha
‘laughter’
Personal name (female)
Revelation family tree

Yema
Wood

Yemas
Personal name

Yena
Personal name (male)

Yf'jerrej
Personal name (male)

Yteru
Personal name (male)

Today we have a special surprise for you. We were recently interviewed by Screen Invasion about the project and its direction for the future; you can read (and listen to) the interview there as well as check out some new screenshots!

Unfortunately, it looks like yesterday’s announcement of support for the Nokia 5110 was a bit premature. It turns out, we don’t actually have any way of distributing the game to the 5110, due to limitations in the hardware.

As much as it saddens us to say it, we’re going to have to rescind our support for the platform. Perhaps one day, technology will be sufficiently advanced for us to renew our support of the Nokia 5110, but for now, you’re going to have to play the game on Mac OS X or Windows.

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. Back in 2011 I had a lot of ideas for how Cyan could improve Uru. To that end, I traveled to Cyan Worlds headquarters in February of this year to cut a deal. I am happy to announce that, after long negotiations, I have been given the rights to Uru Live. Let me take a moment to go over the changes which will be going in effect in the coming weeks and months as my team and I work to convert Uru Live into the bustling economic powerhouse it was meant to be.

The first change is to the name. We are rebranding the game “Whil’s Quest™” to fit with the content updates we have planned. Those updates include a complete reboot of the Uru storyline and a shift in the game’s core mechanics. The game will now be a primarily single-player experience with optional multiplayer servers. The player will take on the role of Whiller McWhillington Esq. III Jr.™ who finds the ancient city of D’ni following the trail of his father, Whiller McWhillington Esq. III Sr.™. Players will enjoy hours of repeatable gameplay and unique custom content on a large-scale sustainable recycling program complete with reticulating splines, updated localization files, and 20% less Herobrine than Minecraft.

Speaking of Minecraft, fans of the popular sandbox game will be pleased to know that Whil’s Quest™ will be rendered entirely out of cubes and will come with a fully-featured crafting and resource-gathering system.

On the topic of resources, this new version of Uru Live will launch with a much-asked for feature: player currency. Single and multi-player experiences will reward players with currency for completing activities such as: quick-time events, block stacking, D’ni tax filing (it’s all in base 5!), mowing your Relto’s lawn, in-game drug-smuggling missions, playing a game of Bastion, listening to old D’ni YouTube fads, quick-time events, posting to the official forums, making a sammich, and quick-time events. Players can use these “Whilbucks™” to purchase additional costumes and hats for their character, purchase season passes to additional levels, purchase the solution to any puzzle in the game, unlock better weapons and armor, purchase hats for their character, trade for useful items such as health, mana, and stamina potions with other players, and unlock the ability to actually play the new SimCity.

As for the online component, the game will be available on a wide range of platforms and will feature mini-games which players can use to accrue currency. The game will be primarily web-based with the new flash-based game engine. New ports will be coming out for Android phones, the PSP, the original GameBoy, and Java.

Now, with all that good news there must come some bad. First off, obviously the plans for open source are cancelled for the foreseeable future. We will try and get a modding API out sometime in the next decade, depending on whether or not I feel like it. Another piece of bad news is that I am afraid in the corporate streamlining that many of Cyan’s employees had to be let go. Rand Miller, who of course started the company, has been given a very nice severance package including free parking in the lot next door, an early beta of Whil’s Quest™, as well as 1500 Whilbucks™. RAWA was let go, but we have yet to be able to find him. If you’re out there, Richard, we’ve got some nice parting gifts to give you, buddy, come on out. We’re pretty sure that’s you in the ducts. We’re honestly surprised you got up there.

So I hope this has given you a window into the plans my team and I have for the future development of Uru Live aka Whil’s Quest™. I look forward to working with some of you and I look forward to playing with all of you. Remember: Where there’s a Whil, there’s a way.™

Filed under: Uncategorized

ufo-3d.fr

   Hier, l'oeuf polymère fait par Tchérie d'Amûr transposant l'effet Greeble de la 3D sur un objet réel m'a rappelé une astuce utilisée il y a longtemps pour rendre un effet "Star Wars" en 3D. En quoi consiste l'effet "star Wars" ? Ben, sensiblement la même chose que le Greeble : recouvrir une surface d'excroissances [...]

Effet Star Wars

Historically, our stance on platform support for the Starry Expanse Project has always been that Mac OS and Windows come first, and everything else is a possibility for the future. But as technology advances, so must our project. Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ll be bringing The Starry Expanse Project to a new platform – a mobile one.

We recognize that mobile platforms, particularly phones, are the way of the future. More and more games are being released for the iPhone, Android, and sometimes even Windows Phone platforms. These devices all have their pros and cons, but we have found that none of them really have the staying power, the resilience that we require of our technology.

There is, however, one platform that does meet these criteria. A powerful, flexible, mobile platform, with the strength to resist any and all competition.

We are, of course, talking about the Nokia 5110.

That’s right, folks. As of today, we are officially adding the Nokia 5110 to our lineup of supported systems. The game will be made available for the mobile platform on the same day as it’s available for Mac OS and Windows, and it will be a fully functional version of the game – not the usual crippled fare you’ll find in a mobile edition. We aren’t cutting any corners; check out some of these screencaps below, taken from our dev unit:

Keep in mind that, as with all screenshots that we post, these are a work in progress. We are aware there are some problems and glitches, so please refrain from reporting them.

We’re feeling extra generous today, so we decided to give you guys a sneak peek at another aspect of the project, one that we are asked about quite a lot: sound! For a long time now, we’ve been debating how we’re going to be handling the music in our game, whether or not to remake (or even replace) the score originally composed and performed by Robyn Miller. Well, we’ve finally reached a decision, and well…we hope you agree that we made the right one. Have a listen to a sample of the soundtrack from the upcoming Nokia 5110 edition of the Starry Expanse Project:

We are really excited about the new platform, let us know what you guys think of it! What other platforms would you like to see the game ported to?

Update: Unfortunately, development issues have forced us to rescind our support for the Nokia 5110.

ufo-3d.fr

 Tiens, dépoussiérons un peu ce blog qui s'endort… Je ne fais plus guère de 3D ces temps-ci, mais comme chaque année à la même époque, C4D nous gratifie de son Easter Egg pascal, ça me donne l'occasion de respecter la tradition. Les plus perspicaces d'entre-vous y verront peut-être une référence à un objet étrange apparu dans [...]

À vos pâques. Prêts ? Tracez !

As of today, The Starry Expanse Project now has an official page on Facebook. Be sure to express your interest via the thumbs-up button for more updates!

Check it out at https://www.facebook.com/starryexpanse.

Also, stay tuned for a surprise next week!

Update (2013-03-27): Sorry guys, the surprise has been postponed till next week. We’ll post on Twitter, Facebook, and here when it’s ready, and thanks for following us!

Just a quick update to say that I'm not dead! Just busy. :p

Also: every zoo is a petting zoo if you're quick.

It’s time for the T-shirt logo contest for Mysterium 2013! This year’s Age theme is Myst Island itself, in honor of 2013 being Myst’s 20th anniversary. Please send us your submissions!

GENERAL:

Entries must be submitted by April 15th, 2013.

Entries not meeting submission guidelines will be discarded. The submitter will be notified and given the chance to resubmit.

Entries are to be kept confidential until after the winners are announced. Entries found posted in any public format prior to that date will be disqualified. (This includes publicly asking people to look at your entry elsewhere, but does not include privately asking people for help.)

Screenshots from any of the games are not allowed.

The Committee reserves the right to make small design adjustments as needed to facilitate printing. We will do our best to work with the submitter.

You may submit as many designs as you like. If submitting one or more monocolor designs, please specify if it is for the front or the back.

All submissions become the property of Cyan Worlds Inc.

IMAGE QUALITY:

Entries must be high quality (300 DPI minimum for raster images), however vector images (.svg, .ps, .eps, .ai) are strongly preferred.
Our preferred file formats are: .ai, .psd, .ps, .eps, .svg
We will also accept: .png, .pdf
Please do not submit: .gif, .bmp, .jpg

The Falling Man Logo – .jpg, .eps, .tif, and .svg – http://www.mysterium.net/logo/

FRONT LOGO:

The shirt front logo should be a simple, easily recognized design. It must incorporate the falling man. It will be used on the front of the Mysterium t-shirt and on other convention memorabilia.

Grayscale – keep in mind that this will be black pigment on a white background, and thus we cannot guarantee the accuracy of halftone reproduction.
Must use Falling Man logo
May contain Location and Date
May contain word “Mysterium”
Print size should be no less than 8” x 8”

The FRONT LOGO may alternately be substituted with a maximum 3” x 3” POCKET LOGO with the same requirements listed above.

BACK LOGO:

The shirt back logo is more detailed than the front logo, and often visually represents the location Mysterium is being held.

Up to four colors – these may contain halftones/shading, but no color blending/gradients
May use Falling Man logo
May contain Location and Date
May contain word “Mysterium”
Print size no less than 9” x 12”

Please direct all submissions, concerns or questions to logo@mysterium.net and the committee will respond promptly.

The following is an overview of the known phonology and grammar of D’ni, the fictional language used in the Myst games and novels. D’ni is the creation of Richard Watson and belongs entirely to Cyan Worlds, not to me. This overview is an expanded version of an article on Mystlore, to the best of my knowledge taking only the portions of the article that I contributed.  It should not yet be taken to be complete, and will be updated sporadically.


I will be using a variant of the standard transliteration of D’ni (the Old Transliteration Standard), preferring to leave out unnecessary hs and using ai for the accented ah.

Phonology

Voiceless plosives: p /p/, t /t/, k /k/, ' /ʔ/

Voiced plosives: b /b/, d /d/, g /g/

Voiceless affricates: ts /ts/, ch /tʃ/

Voiced affricate: j /dʒ/

Voiceless fricatives: f /f/, th /θ/, s /s/, sh /ʃ/, kh /x/, h /h/

Voiced fricatives: v /v/, dh /ð/, z /z/

Nasals: m /m/, n /n/

Tap: r /ɾ/

Lateral: l /l/

Glides: y /j/, w /w/

Vowels: ee /i/, i /ɪ/, e /ɛ/, a /æ/, ' /ə/, ah /ɑ/, uh /ʌ/, o /o/, oo /u/

Diphthongs: ay /ei/, ai /ai/, oy /oi/

These values for the sounds of D’ni are of long standing among students of the language. The value of /r/ as a tap is confirmed at http://www.uruexplorers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1795

The majority of D’ni syllables are of the form (C)(liquid)V(r)(C). The consonants w, y, and h do not occur in codas or complex onsets. Codas also exist of the form nasal-stop (as in umt or mahnshootahvting), and, more rarely, /st/ (as in eest). /st/ occurs in the onset of stofah, attested in Aitrus’s map, but this may be an error for tsofah.

Geminate consonants do not appear, and when a concatenation of morphemes would lead to a repeated consonant, one is deleted. (So mot-tee becomes motee).

The placement of stress is uncertain, although a couple of words are known to have stress on the final syllable, and no known word has a schwa in the final syllable.

For word-final stress see http://web.archive.org/web/20040409180946/sirrus.cyan.com/Online/D%27ni/Writing

The glottal stop and schwa are heavily restricted in position, neither occurring at the beginning or end of a word and in complementary distribution elsewhere, with the glottal stop occurring after vowels and the schwa after consonants. (Both are represented by the same symbol in the D’ni alphabet.)

See http://forums.drcsite.org/viewtopic.php?p=16654#16654 for information on the apostrophe.

A process of vowel reduction occurs, in which certain monosyllabic morphemes have their vowel replaced by schwa when attached to a following word. These include:
Prepositions of the form Ce. Reduction is obligatory. Before the article re the vowel may drop out altogether. A form terth (te-erth) also appears.
The perfect prefix le. Reduction is optional and has only been observed to occur before a vowel.
The definite article re. Reduction is optional and has only been observed to occur before /r/ or a vowel. When a sequence of two identical vowels would occur, the vowel of re may be reduced (as in r'erem) or deleted (khe-re-elahthtee becomes khrelahthtee).
The conjunction gah. Reduction is optional. Before re the vowel may drop out.
The prefix de 'again'. Reduction is optional.

A schwa or glottal stop will sometimes appear between two morphemes for uncertain reasons. Some known occurrences are between a noun and a possessive suffix (e.g. vaytsoo'on), between a noun and a preceding ah or re, and between the two elements of a compound (such as doo'shol).

Nouns and Noun Phrases

It should be noted that overall D'ni morphology is agglutinative and regular.

The structure of a noun is: stem-(plural)-(possessor)

Several noun-noun compounds exist, with the modifying noun either preceding or following the main noun, as in kormahn 'existence book' and hevkor 'word book'. Adjective-noun and noun-adjective compounds may also form new noun stems, as in korvahkh 'linking book' and gahrohev 'great word.'

Nouns may be formed from adjectives with the addition of the suffix (e)th, the vowel being present only when the adjective stem ends in a consonant. The resulting noun may refer to an entity with the property of the adjective, or to the abstract property itself, so that gahroth may mean either "great one" or "greatness." A few nouns are derived from adjectives with the suffix ahth, but the distinction between this and (e)th is uncertain.

Plural number is indicated with the suffix tee.

Pronominal possession is expressed with a suffix giving the person and number of the possessor. The second person plural possessive suffix is unknown.
First person singular: oy
Second person singular: om
Third person singular: on
First person plural: ot
Third person plural: os

The personal pronouns are as follows. No third person singular pronoun is known.
First person singular: zoo
Second person singular: shem
First person plural: set
Second person plural: shemtee
Third person plural: eest

There is a two-way contrast of distance in demonstratives: met 'this' and mot 'that'. The plural of the distal mot is motee; a plural proximal demonstrative is not yet attested.

Negative pronouns are rilrov 'no one' and rildil 'nothing'. Other known pronouns include bivdil 'everything' and pod 'each'.

The definite article re and indefinite article erth precede their head noun, and are most commonly attached to the beginning of the noun phrase they modify.

Quantifiers, which include biv 'all, every', een 'any', and tren 'a few, some', follow the modified noun but can also be used pronominally. Quantifiers do not co-occur with articles, but the combination can be expressed using a partitive construction, as in the following example from Aitrus’s map.

biv t=re=gahn d'nee
all in=DEF=empire D'ni
All of the D’ni empire

Demonstrative adjectives are identical to the demonstrative pronouns, save that they do not agree in number, so hevtee met 'these words.' They have been observed to either precede or follow the head noun, and do not co-occur with articles or quantifiers.

The particle ah stands at the beginning of a noun phrase, preceding demonstratives and articles, but its meaning is a long-standing subject of controversy. Frequently it is used with direct objects, but there is an example occurring in a locative phrase.

tahg-em-ah b'=zoo ah re=kor
give-2SG-IMP to=1SG ? DEF=book
Give me the book.
Riven (Gehn’s guard)

ko-hoor-et ah met m'lah
PST-find-1PL ? this lizard
We found this lizard
Aitrus’s map

r'=ahchah te ah sev mot
DEF=? in ? Age that
The ? in that Age
Gehn’s journal

The suffix ets produces an adjective when applied to a noun stem. When added to a numeral, it produces an ordinal number.

A number of adjectives end with the suffixes et or t applied to a verb or noun stem. It is not possible to know for certain from the small sample available whether the distinction between these two suffixes is based on the word class of the stem (verb for et, noun for t) or their phonological shape (t being used when the stem ends in a vowel). Nor is it clear what distinguishes such an adjective from participles in ahl.

The D’ni numeral system is based on the number 5. Distinct stems exist for 1-4 and multiples of 5.
0: roon
1: fah
2: bree
3: sen
4: tor
5: vaht
10: nayvoo
15: heebor
20: rish

Numbers of the form 5x+y combine a reduced form of the fives stem with the ones stem using the conjunction gah. 6=5+1 is vahgahfah, 12=10+2 is naygahbree, 18=15+3 is heegahsen, 24=20+4 is rigahtor.

Powers of 25 are formed with the addition of suffixes.
25: fahsee
50: breesee
625=25^2: fahrah
15,625=25^3: fahlahn
390,625=25^4: fahmel
9,765,625=25^5: fahblo

Combinations of powers of 25 are formed with juxtaposition, so 27=25+2 is fahseebree.

Alternate number stems are visible in the names of the months, featuring vowel alternations that are seen nowhere else: Leefo, Leebro, Leesahn, Leetar, Leevo, Leevofo, Leevobro, Leevosahn, Leevotar, Leenovoo.

Numerals may stand alone or modify a preceding noun.

Adjectives and relative clauses follow their head noun. An exception is the adjective gahro 'great', which precedes the noun in the definite phrases regahro zeero and regahro tiwah. (It should be noted that gahro also precedes the noun in compound words.)

D'ni makes use of prepositions, many of which consist of a consonant followed by e and undergo vowel reduction when cliticized to the following word. Prepositional phrases follow a modified noun and occur at some point after the verb in clauses.
be 'to' (destination and indirect object)
ben 'for' (duration)
don 'like'
fe 'on'
khe 'for' (purpose)
me 'from', 'of' (composition)
ne 'around'
okh 'of'
rilte 'without'
se 'at'
te 'in', 'with' (instrumental and comitative), 'of' (partitive), agent of passive clause
tso 'of' (non-possessive relation)

Prepositional phrases of the form b'-(number) are used to express degree, ranging from b'fah 'a little' to b'fahsee 'extremely, most'. Numbers greater than 25 can be used for exaggeration. Adjectives, nouns, or entire clauses may be modified in this way.

re=doyhah-tee pradteegahl tor gahro b'=fahsee
DEF=machine-PL rockworking four great to=twenty_five
The four greatest rock-working machines
Aitrus's map

erth nudah-tahv b'=rish
INDF ?-NMLZ to=twenty_five
Gehn's journal

tsahn bo-taygahn shem b'=fahsee
always FUT-love[1SG] 2SG to=twenty_five
I will always love you exceedingly.
Keta

Possessive noun phrases are of the form (noun) okh (possessor). okh may attach to the end of the preceding noun.

Verbs

The structure of the verb is:
(future)-(past)-(progressive)-(perfect)-stem-subject-(imperative)/(passive)

Verb stems derived from adjectives with the addition of the suffix on may have a causative meaning, as suggested by the following text.

ken-en gor kh=re=zith-ahth-tee b'-ken el-on-ij
COP-3SG time for=DEF=low-?-PL INF-COP high-CAUS-PASS
It is time for the low(?) to be made high.
Uru (Kenen Gor note)

ken-en gor kh=r=el-ahth-tee b'-ken zith-on-ij
COP-3SG time for=DEF=high-?-PL INF-COP low-CAUS-PASS
It is time for the high(?) to be made low.
Uru (Kenen Gor note)

The future prefix is bo. The past prefix is ko. A verb may have both of these prefixes, in which case it has future perfect meaning.

The progressive prefix is do. Other uses will be discussed below.

The perfect prefix is l(e). The vowel in this prefix is absent if other prefixes precede it.

Subject agreement suffixes:
First person singular: 0
Second person singular: em
Third person singular: en
First person plural: et
Second person plural: tee
Third person plural: eet

The imperative suffix is ah. Imperatives are not inflected for tense or aspect. There are no examples of passive imperatives.

The passive suffix is ij, discussed further below.

Non-finite verb forms include two participles and an infinitive.
The suffix ahl results in an active participle.
The suffix in results in a passive participle. Both participles modify preceding nouns.
The prefix b' results in an infinitive. The vowel drops out when the verb stem begins with a vowel.

Suffixes that derive nouns from a verb stem include:
tahv, which results in a noun expressing either the result of the verb's action or the action itself. Some nominalizations of this kind are identical in form to the verb stem, without any suffix added, such as eder 'rest' and say 'design'.
tahn, which results in a noun expressing the agent of the verb.
oth, which when added to an ahl participle seems to result in a noun expressing the patient of the verb. The meaning of oth is somewhat uncertain. Another suffix that may have a similar meaning is ah, as in yimah 'seen.'

There are a few examples of objects being incorporated into verbs: doo'shol (food-prepare) and the active participle pradteegahl (rock-working).

Words expressing mood follow the main verb and include voohee marking potential and yeret marking wishes. Adverbs tend to follow the verb they modify, but this is not absolute: there is a tendency for temporal adverbs in particular to fall on either side of the clause as a whole.

The suffix (e)sh forms an adverb from an adjective. The vowel in this suffix is only present when the adjective stem ends in a consonant.

Simple Clauses

Nominal, adjectival, and locative predicate clauses are of the form subject-copula-predicate. The copula is ken, which is inflected like any other verb.

gen ken-en nahvah-ot
Gehn COP-3SG master-1PL
Gehn is our master.
Riven (schoolroom)

ken chevet
COP[1SG] thankful
I am thankful.
Atrus’s prayer

re=gerahn=okh re ter ken-en t'=nay-on
DEF=?=of DEF tree COP-3SG in=root=3SG
The ? of the tree is in its root.
Uru

The verb ahnee 'become' also takes an adjectival predicate.

ahnee-tee-ah sifay
become-2PL-IMP wired
Get wired.
Wired

Intransitive clauses have word order subject-verb, and transitive clauses have order subject-verb-object. The indirect object follows the verb, and may fall on either side of the direct object.

The personal pronouns do not occur as explicit subjects of the verb. The subject of an intransitive clause is grammatically identical to the subject of a transitive clause.

Possessive clauses use the verb sek. (In Aitrus’s map the form sekh occurs, but I do not know whether this is normal variation or an error.)

ril=sek-eet re=dhelim b'-poget set
NEG=have-3PL DEF=? INF-rule 1PL
They do not have the ? to rule us.
Kenen Gor note

There are examples of verbs being used in passive clauses without any explicit marking for voice, such as reeslo 'dissolve' in the following examples. In the second example the patient of the clause has been promoted to subject.

do-reeslo-en re=mahrg melin m=re=prad
PROG-dissolve-3SG DEF=layer outer from=DEF=rock
dissolving the outer layer of the rock
Aitrus’s map

t=re'=irvan-tee […] mot le-reeslo-eet
with=DEF=mineral-PL […] REL PRF-dissolve-3PL
with the minerals […] that have dissolved
Aitrus’s map

The progressive prefix do is common in passive clauses and may in these cases mark a distinction in voice, rather than aspect.

re=bishtah ko-do-say-en
DEF=tunnel PST-PROG-design-3SG
The tunnel was designed
Aitrus’s map

Frequently passive clauses are reinforced with -ij or ken.

khahpo re=zunu ril=do-l-gel-en-ij gahth
perhaps DEF-ending NEG=PROG-PRF-write-3SG-PASS yet
Perhaps the ending has not yet been written.
End of Ages Collectors’ Edition

ken precedes the passive verb, the two verbs taking the same inflection for tense, aspect, and subject. Modals and the negative word ril modify ken, rather than the main verb. If the agent appears, it is expressed in a prepositional phrase headed by te.

re=tiwah ko-ken-en ko-say-en t'=telooknahvah gahrten
DEF=shaft PST-COP-3SG PST-design-3SG by=surveyors:guild:master Garten
The shaft was designed by Surveyors Guild Master Garten.
Aitrus’s map

The passive suffix ij may also be used with the ken construction, in which case it is the only inflection present on the main verb, as in the example below.

ril=bo-ken-et veren-ij
NEG=FUT-COP-1PL ?-PASS
We will not be ?
Uru (Kenen Gor note)

ril is the negative particle. It precedes the word it negates.

Complex Sentences

Verbs prefixed with do may be used in adverbial clauses, as in the following example.

ko-hoor-et ah=met=m'lah do-tsahv-en t'=fah t=re=gahlpo-tee vogets
PST-find-1PL ?=this=lizard PROG-live-3SG in=one in=DEF=cave-PL natural
We found this lizard living in one of the natural caves.
Aitrus’s map

There are also instances of a verb prefixed with do acting as the head of a verb phrase following a preposition.

oonray-ot gen le-pahboy-en set te do-tahg-en b'=set ah r'=raiway b'-bahrel re=kor-tee
lord-1PL Gehn PRF-bless-SG 1PL by PROG-give-3SG to=1PL ? DEF=procedure INF-make DEF=book-PL
Our lord Gehn has blessed us by giving us the procedure to make the books.
Riven (Gateroom)

In both constructions the do verb is inflected for subject but not for tense and aspect.

The infinitive form of the verb may modify a preceding noun or serve as the non-finite complement of a preceding verb. The infinitive’s subject is the subject of the main verb. Some verbs may take both a noun phrase as object and a following infinitive as their complement, in which case the object noun phrase is the subject of the infinitive.

oonray-ot gen le-shokhoo-en set b'-tahgahm biv
lord-1PL Gehn PRF-instruct-3SG 1PL INF-know all
Our lord Gehn has instructed us to know all.
Riven (Survey Island)

The subject of an infinitive may also be expressed with the preposition khe. Pronouns in this position are apparently preceded by the definite article, although the only text in which this occurs is heavily parallel in structure.

ken-en gor kh=re=set b'-mahlah winis
COP-3SG time for=DEF=1PL INF-come ?
It is time for us to come ?
Uru (Kenen Gor note)

The following example shows a passive infinitive, in which only the auxiliary verb takes the infinitive prefix.

ken-en gor kh=re=kahntintahn-tee b'-ken shentome-ij
COP-3SG time for=DEF=?-PL INF-COP take:from-PASS
It is time for the ? to be taken from
Uru (Kenen Gor note)

The finite complement of a verb is introduced with the word roo, although this is apparently not obligatory.

bo-tahgahm-eet roo ken-et ril=voohee ahtmay-ij
FUT-know-3PL COMP COP-1PL NEG=can ?-PASS
They will know that we cannot be ?
Uru (Kenen Gor note)

tahgahm-em tsahn bo-taygahn shem b'=fahsee
know-2SG always FUT-love[1SG] 2SG to=twenty-five
You know I will always love you exceedingly.
Riven (Keta)

Relative clauses are introduced by mot or, in one case, roo (though the relativizer is not obligatory if the modified noun is the object of the relative clause) and follow their head. Within the relative clause there is a gap in place of the head noun.

re=m'lah sekh-en poahnt bonooets b'=rigahsen mot torn-en f=re=prad-tee
DEF=lizard have-3SG saliva acidic to=twenty-three COMP spit-3SG at=DEF=rock-PL
The lizard has highly acidic saliva, which it spits at the rocks.
Aitrus’s map

met ken-en erth=klay stofah t=re=gilo-tee bahronet ko-lon-et
this COP-3SG INDEF=example of.one of=DEF=plant-PL phosphorescent PST-discover-1PL
This is an example of one of the phosphorescent plants we discovered.
Aitrus’s map

ken tomet te biv roo mairu
COP[1SG] here with all COMP ?[1SG]
I am here with all that I ?
Uru (Kadish note)

Headless relative clauses also occur, introduced by relative pronouns such as dho 'how' and kam 'what', with compound forms kamrov 'who', kamto 'where', and kamfah 'which'. dho seems to be used to refer to the degree of an adjective or the adjectival complement of ken, though it occurs only in a text (Atrus's prayer) that remains grammatically obscure in many places.

A headless relative clause may be embedded inside a prepositional phrase, as in the following example.

ril malo-et-ah me kamto ko-mahlah-et
NEG forget-1PL-IMP from where PST-come-1PL
We must not forget from whence we came.
Exile (Releeshahn book)

Focus may be placed on a noun phrase by using a cleft construction of the form kenen NP [mot VP].

ko-ken-en re=vog miro okh re=vaidu mot ko-poogo-en
PST-COP-3SG DEF=nature toxic of DEF=? REL PST-?-3SG
It was the toxic nature of the ? that ?
Gehn’s journal

Conjunctions such as gah 'and', pahm 'or', and roob 'but' link two independent clauses. The same conjunctions are used for nominal and verbal coordination. gah may attach to the following word.

Imperatives occur with first person plural and second person subjects.

Polar questions are identical in form to declarative sentences, a difference in intonation likely marking them as interrogative.

ken-en ahtsoo
COP-3SG ready
Is it ready?
Riven (Keta)

In the one known example of a content question, the interrogative word appears at the beginning of the sentence. This example may use non-standard transliteration, making it possible that interrogative thoe is connected to relative dho.

thoe ken-em
how COP-2SG
How are you?
Book of Ti’ana

We’re hard at work on the next big Starry Expanse announcement, but we wanted to take a moment to address a question that has come up a lot recently, the Oculus Rift. For those of you who are not aware, the Rift is an upcoming head-mounted virtual reality display, specifically built for video games. It blasted through its Kickstarter campaign, raising over 900% of its original goal (that’s over 2 million dollars!), and is now well on its way to becoming a reality. It is backed by a lot of really big names, like Valve and Epic games, and already natively supports Unity and the Unreal engine.

So naturally, everybody wants to know – will The Starry Expanse support the Rift?

Our answer to that is, unfortunately, a vague one. We here at 59 Volts all agree that the Oculus Rift looks pretty dang cool. Playing our game on a head-mounted display as great as the Rift promises to be sounds like a dream – Myst is all about immersion, and what better way to immerse oneself than through VR?

At the same time, as much as it pains me to say this, our game is far from being complete. Like, still a few years, at least. With that in mind, we’re unwilling at this time to commit ourselves to supporting anything beyond what we’ve already promised – that the game will play on a standard Windows computer, or on a standard Mac OS X computer.

To be clear: this is not to say that we will not support the Rift. In all likelihood, we will ultimately do what we can to support the Rift. But we’re not promising anything until the game is a lot more complete.

Thank you to everyone who has contacted us about the Oculus Rift, we hope that this is enough of a satisfactory answer. As always, stay tuned for more updates about the project soon!

 

Rochester has a great location in upstate New York. It’s right alongside Lake Ontario and less than a day from from many major cities, including Toronto, New York City, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Washington DC, and Boston. The city is beautiful in the summer, and packed with things to do that will appeal to Myst fans. Here’s a short list:

-Strong Museum of Play (complete with an International Center for the History of Electronic Games, plus a Butterfly Garden!)

-The George Eastman House, a museum of photography and film

-A science center with a planetarium

-Seabreeze amusement park (accessible via bus routes)

-The Dryden Theatre (one of the few places in the US able to show nitrate film)

-A variety of attractive parks and walking trails

-And much much more.

My girlfriend complains a lot about a couple of the things in avatar custom. Have you guys ever considered making a skirt option for the female avatar? Also, she’s found it impossible to get a pink color setting for the clothing. The maintainers shirt is the pink-est thing in uru:moul. My girlfriend and I are [...]