A "Mystery" in Writing

Open a book and a world opens up to you as the reader. Pages fly by and you pass through places, by people, faces familiar and new. Ideal worlds or dystopia, real or fantasy, these are the things which flow from the consciousness of the writer to the reader.  The ultimate goal of writing is to compel the reader to continue reading, to want to return to that world in which the writer inhabits with a facsimile of life.  The best result: a world in which the reader is a character making choices and wanting to return to that world in which there is a sort of second life.

This idea is not unfamiliar to writers of books as much as movies and even video games, though in the latter one deals with a medium in which all senses are enabled and do not have to be described through words. Movies as well as games have teams of writers, they have scripts and treatments which follow many of the same guidelines of any novel. Even so, there is a nuance to making something like a game feel like a book and nowhere is this best done than in the Cyan Worlds games Myst and especially it's follow up, Riven. 

Cyan Worlds did not go into their profession of wanting to make games.  Indeed, they wanted to make worlds in which the player was a character exploring, interacting and making choices. They used many tools to create this illusion, but at the heart of their goal was a story of writing and the creation of worlds in itself.  To describe Myst and Riven as games is a disservice to them and to the creators Robyn and Rand Miller.  The Miller brothers wanted to create a world in which the player is a character making choices, exploring places and solving puzzles.

The puzzles are one of the stand out features of the series, ranging from fiendishly difficult to more direct in approach where one can solve them with a little research, reading and intuition.  Yes, I mention reading. There's a lot of reading in these games because they take place -within- books or "ages" as they are called and in order to uncover most of the story you must read journals found throughout your travels.  I could go into a long history of the game development and the story, but for the purposes of this writing I want to focus on what makes these games stand out from a writing perspective.

A burnt linking book, incapable of teleportation to the world it linked to.

1. Worlds Within Books.

At the heart of Myst and Riven is the D'ni (pronounced Dun-knee) culture, a long lost civilization which could link to worlds through the art of writing. The D'ni were so good that they could write everything down to a grain of sand and visit these worlds, or ages, and explore or colonize them.  They could also influence these worlds to an extent, but this made the ages unstable. I don't know any writer I have ever met who didn't wish they could visit the world's they themselves create. While it is made clear the D'ni don't actually create the ages they visit, the fact they can influence them to an extent is an extension of the creative idea.

One needs only open a book of the D'ni and place the hand on the living image to be transported away. These linking books open up into civilizations with their own culture, anthropology, flora and fauna. Each one is unique, and Cyan Worlds does their best to make them feel lived in by populating them with extraordinary beings.

A Whark, a native species similar to a shark in Riven. The Rivenese fear and worship these creatures.

|2.  A Living World of Creatures and People.

Imagine The Hobbit without Hobbits.  It just couldn't exist if we as readers did not know what they were, what they looked like, the way they acted, their culture.  The same can be said of the people and creatures in Riven.  Myst has no fauna, and only three characters to speak of other than the player character, mostly due to the constraints of game creation.  In Riven that is not the case.  You find an island of villagers, who live in huts and fish for food.  While their island is crumbling at the seams, they maintain the lives they have for centuries, no doubt, though influenced by the D'ni that has been infused into their culture by an outside source. 

A lot of Rivenese culture and Riven itself centers on the sounds and shapes of animals. From beetles that buzz around to the Whark fish or Sunners.  Even the occasional glance at the shy villagers is a great way to get the player character invested.  Having the world be populated makes it feel lived in, like you could knock on a door and have tea (if they are hospitable.)  They also serve as tools in puzzles if you know how to observe them. Of course, you cannot have people without a place, without a sense of living and surrounding.   Atmosphere is essential to books and games and Cyan excels in this regard.

The infamous "golden elevator" of Riven.  Impressive, but the gold facade hides a simple wooden interior.

3.  Atmosphere.

Riven is dripping with atmosphere.  I distinctly remember one specific instance walking through a tunnel with glowing orange light emanating from the water.  One can almost feel the heat of magma that permeates the room.  Chains dangle from the ceiling with a lever.  You pull on the lever, and the chains clink and clank, the water ripples as a golden elevator rises up from the water and opens up.  It is such a palpable memory, that I still recall it today.  Then there's more subtle things like fish roasting in an oven, where one wishes to smell the fire.

Riven and Myst deal a lot with senses, especially sight and sound. Music is found in the games to lend to the atmosphere, and that it does, with tracks ranging from mysterious to ominous to add to tension. These are things that writers wish they could impart into books, and yet here they are alive, and adding to the dimension of the game.  There are also more subtle parts to the atmosphere, like when the player arrives in a school house and finds that the people of Riven have an infrastructure for learning.

School House in Riven, the placards show D'ni lettering and the object on the table is a macabre method to learn numbers.

4.  A Language of Its Own.

One of the most fascinating parts of Riven is the D'ni language, which is an actual language created by Cyan Worlds.  Cyan took hints from Tolkein in this regard, creating not only letters but numbers, colors and ideas surrounding the D'ni Culture.  In fleshing this out, they created a world beyond the world which influences the events and characters in Riven.  While the Rivenese are not D'ni, they are taught the language, and the power of the D'ni as if they were gods.  The school house is another touch of realism because it informs us that there are children on this island, there are innocents.  It also shows us that the "benefactors" of the Rivenese want to impart a sense of learning and culture.

One of the key features of this building is a macabre counting tool which uses dangling figurines descending upon a Whark to teach numbers.  Pull the pin and it spins, and the little figure descends a certain number of times to a correlating symbol.  It's a sort of "game" correlating to the punishment of individuals in Riven who are fed to the carnivorous Whark fish.  Gruesome as it is, it instills both learning and a sense of the power over the people here, and how they are kept in line.  But who controls Riven, and why?

A stained glass window of Ghen, a D'ni, representing himself as a godlike being creating through his writing

5.  Compelling Characters.

The world of Riven has a human population with its own history and culture; however, the interactions the player has with the locals are sparse at best.  They are a shy people, frightened of intruders and for good reason that I would rather not spoil. 

Much of the plot centers around Ghen, a man trying to revive the D'ni culture. Ghen specifically comes off as a somewhat tragic figure with a complex past.  He clearly thinks he has done or is trying to do the right thing, but whether he is or not is up to the player to decide upon finding clues.  He is ingenious in his inventions, observations, and when the character finally does meet him the encounter is a strange psychological one.

Riven itself has become a "cage" for Ghen, but when face to face the player is placed in a cage once for "Ghen's protection" as he doesn't know their full intentions. Ghen presents a choice so that he might find his freedom, but in the end, the player has more power over Ghen from that cage than he does over himself due to exploration, reading and interaction with the world.  

A carved Whark in the side of a tree hides an elevator among other secrets from villagers who would not dare step foot into its mouth.

6.  Exploration.

I mention exploration above, and in the worlds of Myst exploration does not just mean looking around unusual landscapes.  Sure, one can wander the woods and the shores of Riven.  Even in the books and journals, one finds exploration.  Ghen himself catalogs things with the eye of an explorer and researcher, and one finds similar threads in other journals. Coupled with the atmosphere of the game, the sense of exploring a world is extremely well done and something Cyan would perfect in other games.  In Riven, however, the sense of a lived-in world with people, animals and unique architecture and ecology find a perfect mix.

I specifically remember rounding a corner and finding a giant carved Whark fish in a tree.  With the lighting, the music and the surrounding sounds, there was something about this that spoke to me.  This fearsome visage said, come closer, observe me, learn about me, and I did.  This is something that every writer wishes to capture when creating a world themselves.

The infamous "Rotating Puzzle Room," dedicated to the worship of Ghen, and the art of Writing.

7.  Creating Worlds.

I cannot conclude my conversation about Riven without talking about the concept of creating a physical world from the tip of a pen.  The art of writing is a central theme of the D'ni and it is no better exemplified than in this game.  The creation of a book is an art in itself even before the writing of it, but Ghen transforms the art into an almost religious experience.  Part of this is to affect the world and his power over it, but I think part is a subtle nod from the game creators to writers everywhere.

In the game there is one particular puzzle, the rotating room.  This room serves as a worship area to the creation of books.  The designs of pillars invoke the trees which are used to make the paper.  Upon the trees are beetles which are used for ink.  Inside the beetles are little glass windows which show Ghen creating books, creating the world, writing, and banishing usurpers. Upon the floor is Ghen's symbol which consists of five pen tips with the symbol for Riven in the center (the number 5 is important to D'ni). Finally, above the room is a dome of the night sky, with another pen tip as a chandelier, as if the pen of the almighty hovers over the page that is the room.

It's a striking feature and a remarkable game puzzle for its time, and it's clear that the love and effort that went into all of Riven is essentialized in this single room. Ghen is a visitor to Riven, just as the character, but it is his perception of himself and his art of writing that fascinates me.  

I always wondered what I would do, how I would present myself if I were to enter the worlds I wrote.  Could I consider myself a creator of that world?  True Ghen only influenced it, but his mission to restore the D'ni is noble if perhaps misguided. A passion and love for writing can extend too much, until the author becomes lost in the work. I think this is the true genius of Cyan, presenting stories yet to be written and worlds yet to be experienced by the inquisitive creative spirit.

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Cyan Worlds, the company that made the Myst games, has moved on from that series to create Obduction, which is something of a spiritual successor.  The 25th anniversary of Myst made a crowdfunding effort which exceeded their goal of $247,000 to update the Myst collection of games.  They raised over two million dollars in less than a day.

Obviously, the fans of Cyan are still going strong and all share a common thread:  the mystery of the ages they explore still calls even decades after the pages have fallen away.  One needs only look and become lost in the worlds of Myst.

(All images are copyright Cyan Worlds and are used with their explicit permission.  Images are not to be reused or disseminated without permission and will be taken down upon request.  Special thanks to Cyan Worlds for allowing me the usage of these images and publishing of this article with their insight.)