RM: Let’s face it, every shooter I’ve ever played as they’ve progressed– I mean, I remember playing Tomb Raider and thinking ‘oh my gosh, this is incredible! It’s really cool doing this in 3D!’ I had to shoot… what was it? The Nazis and the dogs, but once that was done it was a really cool feeling to get to explore. PSLS: With Obduction, what were some of those things that pushed you to the next level? There’s a decidedly Myst feel to it, it still feels like a Rand Miller game, a Cyan game, but it also feels like it’s got a lot of influences from other places as well. Anyway, all of those things, even when I play them are just like ‘oh my gosh, this has things in it that I want to do.’ I don’t want to copy those things, but they inspire me to the next level. It’s arguably a game, or not a game, but there’s one aspect of it that is just exploring this kinda cool – you know, depending on how you look at it. Even other indie titles, like let’s say Dear Esther. He built an island, but it’s not like Myst. He wasn’t inspired to do something just like Myst, he was inspired by Myst to do the things he likes, which is the intricate puzzles, and the puzzles that educate you as you go. If all you do is kinda sit in your box, you lose a little something, so it’s nice. RM: They inspire me! It’s an iterative process where I think everybody inspires everybody else. Coming from that, where you were the original person to inspire these people, and then you’re still making games as well, who inspires you at this point? PSLS: Myst is credited by a lot of developers and a lot of games… you’ve got The Witness for example, Jonathan Blow, a lot of his ideas were inspired by Myst. So yeah, every one of those makes me not want to retire. We knew what our course would be for that game.įrom there, as real time 3D started to get more and more realistic, again it gives you a kick in the ass and says ‘wow, oh my gosh, the stuff that we were doing only with still images back in the day is now in real time,’ and then to have all that power on a console is amazing, and the leap to VR is insane and motivating. It wasn’t real time, but it would allow you to make these images that looked… started to look real, and we were blown away. We wanted it to feel like someplace you lost yourself in, and then we found 3D rendering software. My brother’s the artist, he would draw images for kids’ games that we were doing, and they were amazing, but for Myst we wanted this to feel like a real world. All we had done up to the time we did Myst was hand draw things. It feels like, and I would assume everybody feels that way, but when you get new boost of technology… Like I remember starting Myst. RM: Yeah! Oh, that’s actually a great question. PSLS: Have each of those moments helped to boost you forward? Have they given you the kick that you need each time to move forward with new games, new ideas? Now, you know, my jaw is mostly just on the floor. All these things are like these epic moments in gaming that have blown me away. Having something color, color graphics, and then real time 3D stuff. And I bought the first Magnavox Odyssey game machine. I mean I was making computer games before you could have a computer in your house. The early ones are weird cause it’s simple things that people don’t appreciate that I had to live through, like you can have a computer in your house. RM: Well there’s jaw drop moments that may come every now and then. What has been your observation as you’ve seen video games grow and evolve over that time? PSLS: You’ve been around the industry for 25 plus years. PSLS: Legendary is a nice way of saying that. RM: Legendary! (laughs) I’m old, that’s what it means! Yeah, I’ve been around a long time. PlayStation LifeStyle: So you are Rand Miller, founder of Cyan, creator of Myst, Riven– I got the opportunity for a face to face with Miller about his experience in game development, people that he’s inspired over the years, and those that have influenced him. 2017 will see the launch of Obduction on PlayStation 4 and PSVR, the first time that Cyan has ever worked natively on consoles (previous console ports were not handled in house). In 2016, he released the Kickstarter backed Obduction for PC, a spiritual successor to his CD-ROM classic, with an Oculus VR version that quickly followed. It’s been more than 23 years since Myst’s release, and creator Rand Miller is not resting on the laurels of early success.
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