They had been funding the conversion of The Manhole in Japan. Robyn Miller (co-founder): We wanted to do something for adults, but we felt like it was never going to happen. But in 1991, a surprise $250,000 investment from a Japanese developer changed everything. Over the next three years, Cyan made some of the first-ever children’s games on CD-ROM: The Manhole, Cosmic Osmo, and Spelunx, all critically acclaimed. In 1987, when Rand Miller asked his younger brother Robyn to illustrate an interactive storybook, they formed a two-person company called Cyan, inspired by the open-endedness of a bright blue sky. Like Myst itself, the story of Cyan begins with two brothers. “We wanted to do something for adults, but we felt like it was never going to happen.” 'Myst' c/o Cyan Worlds Now, it’s making award-winning games again in an industry dominated by corporate behemoths and buyouts.Īs we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Myst this year, Inverse presents an oral history of Cyan Worlds according to the visionaries who made Myst, Riven, Uru, and Obduction - as well as new glimpses at some of their forthcoming games. After nearly a decade with no major releases, a 2013 Kickstarter campaign revived the studio. 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. “People were writing articles for big magazines and coming to take photos of us, but it wasn’t until much later that it sank in for me.”Ī long-awaited sequel, 1997’s Riven, was heralded as a visual and narrative masterpiece in its own right. “Even when Myst started being really successful, I didn’t believe it,” Cyan co-founder Robyn Miller tells Inverse. (now Cyan Worlds) became the first garage band to go multiplatinum in the punk-rock days of CD-ROM. 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. It was built by seven people working out of their homes in the rolling hills near Spokane, Washington - a town so far east of Seattle, it’s almost in Idaho. The bestselling PC game of the 20th century wasn’t made by Activision, Blizzard, or Electronic Arts.
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