It may seem quaint by today’s standards, but the 1993 adventure game Myst was fairly groundbreaking upon its release. Notable for necessitating a CD-ROM drive and ushering in a new era of expanded media, the title was the brainchild of brothers Robyn and Rand Miller that redefined what was possible for “indie” developers. That term hadn’t really come to fruition yet (basically every studio was indie back then), but Myst blew the door wide open for the possibilities of game development.
There’s way more history there than I can reasonably share in this post, but that’s where our story truly begins. For the past month, a Kickstarter project titled The Myst Documentary has been seeking funding from fans to create a comprehensive look at the development of Myst and the impact it has made on our lives. Directed by Philip Shane -who has previously directed other pop-culture centric documentaries-, I got a chance to speak with him and Myst’s creators about what they hope to accomplish through this film.
The biggest hope is that by getting funding to revisit certain locations from their childhood, the Miller brothers may be able to better understand some of the inspirations behind design choices in Myst. “I think there are a lot of things we don’t know the inspirations for,” Robyn said. Growing up in the Midwest, the two would frequently go on trips with their father and explore what seemed like abandoned mines and towns.
“There were a lot of places we used to go to. Carlsbad Caverns, old mines, mountains, dormant volcanoes: a lot of these things were just sitting in the back of our heads when we made Myst,” Robyn continued. “In hindsight, some of those things were totally present when we were working on Myst and Riven. So, I hope we get the chance to actually go back and stand in front of these places, such as Caddo Lake. If we get the chance, it’s going to be a blast to compare it to Myst.”
As is common with Kickstarter campaigns, the more funding that can be secured for a project, the better it can theoretically become. Shane started to mention how much more comprehensive the project could be before Rand added; “You mean the better hotels we can stay in?” Everyone involved seems to be very happy about the ideas that this project will bring to life.
For Rand, one of the locations he is particularly interested in revisiting is Madrid, New Mexico. “One of the things that come to mind immediately when talking Myst is Madrid. It’s this little town near Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was like a ghost town when we were kids,” Rand explains. “Off to the side of the town is this mine and there’s an old engine from a railroad in front of it.”
He recounted how years ago, there weren’t as many people to tell you something was “wrong.” He and Robyn would climb on the engine and explore the mine without supervision. They were able to touch, feel, and smell everything about this location. “It’s so weird how much freedom we had and I know that freedom to go to these places was what inspired us.”
The two mentioned a few times that they tried to recapture a sense of otherworldliness when creating Myst. As Rand explained, being a child, you don’t fully understand how the world works. You can see something like the Redwood Forest and it’s hard for your younger mind to comprehend. It doesn’t feel like it should be real, but you’re standing among nature and are able to interact with it. “When we made the first Myst, that was something that was sucked out of some deeper place within us,” Robyn said.
As for Shane, his hopes for the documentary aren’t to place Myst on a pedestal. “One question the film will not ask out loud is, ‘Why was Myst successful?’ Great works of art, which games can absolutely be included in, have a sense of meaning and profundity," Shane explained. “One of my favorite movies is Close Encounters by Spielberg. One of the craziest things about that movie is they never utter the word UFO or Alien. What happens is, the main character (Roy Neary, played by Richard Dreyfuss) repeatedly says, ‘This is important.’”
His goal is more to explain why people are still drawn to Myst and how the game has gone on to inspire different generations well past its release date. The project will be less a direct making-of and more a look at the cultural impact that video games can have on an individual through the filter of Myst. While it will be full of insight into the Miller brothers’ design process and highlight where certain areas of the game came from, this is more about a film about how passion and lived experiences can blossom into a creative expression of one’s life.
Myst may not be the most recognizable name to younger generations, but there’s still a lot of value to be had in looking back to the past and seeing how games were previously made. We might possess the power to scan a rock and create a 3D model from that, but there will always be space for a more personalized and intimate game to exist in this industry. That’s what the goal of The Myst Documentary ultimately is.
Funding for the documentary will be running for the next four days. Shane is fairly close to his goal, being around $45,000 off at the time of writing. If you feel this is something you’d like to see, don’t hesitate to lend support to the project. You can find the Kickstarter page here.
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