cyan worlds – Page 3 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

July 14, 2020

Firmament’s 2020 Launch ‘Wildly Optimistic’, now Expected in 2022

Last year Cyan Worlds – the studio behind Myst, Riven & Obduction – held a successful Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign for a new project called Firmament, raising over £1.3 million USD in the process. A launch was initially slated for this month, however, a recent campaign update has now pushed that window back massively.

From its initial outset Firmament was always billed as a grand narrative adventure and as development has continued the team notes: “we wanted to build out a richer world, new kinds of gameplay, and a bigger story arc.”

So of course expanding upon the original idea means delays, a very long delay in fact: “With that in mind, Firmament’s Estimated Delivery date of July 2020 was- as it turns out- a wildly optimistic one,” explains a Kickstarter update post. We know some of you had your heart’s set on playing Firmament this summer, and we’re genuinely sorry that you’re not going to be able to play it yet! We’re really bummed about that too!

“Although there is no Release Date to announce today, we can tell you a couple things with some level of certainty: Firmament is not coming in 2020. And unless the stars align (which we all know happens rarely in game development), it is unlikely that Firmament will be coming in 2021.”

That means 2022 at the earliest. While that does mean quite a wait for backers, Cyan Worlds does have a good legacy of titles rather than some fly-by-night studio. “We’re making something bigger than a studio our size would ordinarily be able to produce, and because we’re an indie without a deep pool of publisher money to draw from, the only way we can accomplish something ambitious like Firmament is to invest extra time it will take to do the work.”

For the Kickstarter Cyan Worlds confirmed there would be support for a range of platforms including VR headsets like Oculus Rift S, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. The way the market is moving currently in two years a whole new selection of devices are likely to be available possibly including PlayStation VR 2.

As the studio continues to release further updates on Firmament, VRFocus will let you know.

July 13, 2020March 10, 2023

VR Adventure ‘Firmament’ Releasing in May, From Studio Behind ‘Myst’ & ‘Riven’

Cyan, the studio behind iconic puzzle adventure games Myst (1993) and Riven (1997), garnered their fair share of success with their April 2019 Kickstarter campaign, which sought to bring to life their next VR-compatible title, Firmament. Now Cyan says the long-delayed game finally has a release date: May 18th.

Update (March 10th, 2023)

According to a Kickstarter backer update, Firmament is now set to launch on May 18th, coming to PC VR headsets including Meta Rift and Rift S, HTC Vive, Valve Index, and Meta Quest headsets through Quest Link. A flatscreen mode is also available for play on MacOS and Windows. A previous version of this article claimed it was coming in March, however this is untrue, as the game is confirmed to release on Thursday, May 18th.

The studio says it’s also set to target PSVR 2, PS4 and PS5 at some point “down the line.”

Two months ago the studio released an extended look at some of the game’s preproduction footage, which we’ve included below:

Update (October 26th, 2022)

Once targeting a July 2020 launch, Firmament has slipped again and is now targeting a Q1 2023 launch date. Here’s that statement is full; we’ve also included a 9-minute look at the work-in-progress game, embedded below this update:

“As a result of discussions with key team member and staff, Cyan is making the important decision to move the launch of Firmament to Q1 2023. The game is very closed to complete, and the development is rapidly approaching its final phase.

To our Backers, Fans, and Friends, thank you for your continuing patience and support. Your enthusiasm and excitement lifts our spirits daily. We cannot wait to share launch day news with you in (early!) 2023.”

Original Article (July 13th, 2020): Firmament’s launch window seemed a bit tight from the onset, however from an experienced studio that had previously created its latest VR-compatible puzzle adventure game Obduction to both PC VR and PSVR, it seemed not all together impossible.

The reality of creating a game however is admittedly “often quite a bit messier,” the studio says in a recent Kickstarter update.

Here’s a bit of Cyan’s reasoning behind the delay, which is said to push the game’s release date possibly to 2022.

With that in mind, Firmament’s Estimated Delivery date of July 2020 was- as it turns out- a wildly optimistic one. We know some of you had your heart’s set on playing Firmament this summer, and we’re genuinely sorry that you’re not going to be able to play it yet! We’re really bummed about that too!

Although there is no Release Date to announce today, we can tell you a couple things with some level of certainty: Firmament is not coming in 2020. And unless the stars align (which we all know happens rarely in game development), it is unlikely that Firmament will be coming in 2021.

In the studio’s own defense, Cyan says it has “always been about shipping things when they’re ready to be shipped, not picking a date and then trying to shoehorn the game into the box in an artificially limited amount of time.”

Firmament is said to be “something bigger than a studio [of Cyan’s] size would ordinarily be able to produce,” and that it will include a “richer and more substantial story” than was previously planned.

Whatever you thought of Obduction (and its initially uneasy technical performance on both PC VR headsets and PSVR) Cyan has a good track record of delivering, leaving the only real concern to when Firmament will arrive, and not if.

Food for thought: a prospective 2022 release of Firmament is slated to happen well within the lifecycle of next-gen consoles and PC hardware—and possibly VR hardware as well—so there’s no telling what technical advances the studio will need to adopt along the way if it’s looking to significantly lengthen the development roadmap. I guess we’ll see in a few years. As it is, Firmament is targeting PC, SteamVR headsets, macOS, and PS4 & PSVR.

July 13, 2020

Cyan’s Firmament Delayed To Likely 2022, But Project Being Expanded

Bad news if you were hoping to play Cyan World’s Firmament at its projected release date on its Kickstarter campaign (in other words: this month); the game probably won’t be out for another two years.

This might come as a surprise if you’ve only been keeping a passing interest in the VR-compatible game. Cyan raised $1,433,161 for its ambitious new adventure game in April 2019, and the developer estimated delivery for July 2020. But as those that have been following backer updates will know, that goal has slowly slipped back over the course of the past 15 months.

“Although there is no Release Date to announce today,” the developer explains, “we can tell you a couple things with some level of certainty: Firmament is not coming in 2020. And unless the stars align (which we all know happens rarely in game development), it is unlikely that Firmament will be coming in 2021.”

But this isn’t just a simple delay because the game’s taking longer than expected. Cyan has actually expanded the project since it completed its crowd-funding campaign.

“In late summer of 2019, the team made the tough call to take another pass at the overarching story and gameplay,” the post reads. “You can read more about why we did this in Eric’s update, Update #23, but the gist of it is that we wanted to build out a richer world, new kinds of gameplay, and a bigger story arc.”

Much of the game’s aesthetic is still in place, but the developer is now promising a much deeper game. The only issue is that this new vision for Firmament is only in the very early development stages.

“We understand how frustrating a (non)answer like this may be for some of you, but we are standing firm in the idea that it is better to not commit to a hard ship date until we can be reasonably certain we will be able to hit the date, while also completing a game we can be proud of,” Cyan wrote.

It’ll probably be a long while before we hear from Firmament again, then. But, on the bright side, at least this probably means we’ll have the chance to play it on better VR headsets. For now the game is intended for PC VR devices and PSVR on PS4. Any bets on that latter target slipping to PSVR 2?

The post Cyan’s Firmament Delayed To Likely 2022, But Project Being Expanded appeared first on UploadVR.

May 30, 2019

Get ‘Obduction’ for Free on PC VR from Now Until June 1st

GOG is giving away Obduction (2016), the latest VR puzzler from Cyan, the studio behind iconic ’90s adventure puzzlers Myst (1993) and Riven (1997).

To get it, simply log into (or sign up for) your GOG account, and add the game by clicking this link.

The game is free to keep, but you have to make sure to add it to your account before June 1st at 10 PM UTC (local time here).

We wouldn’t go as far to spoil the game (even slightly) for newcomers, but it’s safe to say Obduction is a both mentally taxing and hardware-intensive; we felt confident enough to give the game a very solid [8.5/10] in our review even its ‘experimental VR mode’ state, which it has since been shed with its official launch a few weeks after our initial review.

It definitely reflects the studio’s brand of visually stunning environments mixed with cerebral puzzles, although it did suffer from somewhat of a rocky launch—in part due to high hardware requirements at the time.

It seems to have rebounded somewhat with successive optimizations as well as new content, which has garnered the game a ‘Mostly Positive’ overall user rating on Steam, a 78% positive rate out of a total of 1,635 reviews.

Obduction supports SteamVR headsets including HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The game, when launched through the GOG Galaxy downloader, is initially in non-VR mode however.

To get into the VR version, simply go into the settings and click More -> Other -> Obduction VR and SteamVR will automatically launch.

The post Get ‘Obduction’ for Free on PC VR from Now Until June 1st appeared first on Road to VR.

April 29, 2019

‘Firmament’ Kickstarter Reaches Funding Goal in Final Hours, PSVR Support Confirmed

It wasn’t clear last week whether Cyan, the makers of iconic puzzle adventure games Myst (1993) and Riven (1997), would be able to make up the remaining Kickstarter funds for their next VR-compatible title, Firmament. Miraculously the studio was able to rally support for the game in the final hours. Firmament is coming.

A total of 18,420 backers pledged $1,433,161 to the project, placing it over the $1,285,000 goal by a fair margin.

However, on April 16th—only ten days before the campaign’s official end—the project had only just crossed the 10,000 backer mark, which put them only 60% of the way to a fully funded campaign. With 48 hours to spare, the project crossed the ‘all-or-nothing’ funding threshold.

In case you haven’t been following along, Firmament is an upcoming adventure puzzle game with VR support. In typical Cyan fashion though, not much is known about the story behind Firmament. What we do know is it will be built ‘in the spirit of Myst’, however not in the Myst universe itself. Furthermore, system specifications will be similar to those of Obduction (2016), the studio’s first VR game and first Kickstarter campaign, which reached success back in 2013. Like Obduction, Firmament will equally support VR headsets and motion controllers, as well as traditional monitors.

However, going on to unlock a $1.4 million stretch goal, Firmament is also now targeting PS4/PSVR and macOS. The stretch goal also includes support for English, French, Italian, German and Spanish localization. This comes in addition to the originally promised support for PC, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index. The game is set to arrive to backers in July 2020.

The makers celebrated the final moments in a Facebook livestream where they popped bottles of cyan-colored champagne and took a few community questions.

One of the most pertinent questions addressed the issue of whether Firmament would ever support Oculus’ upcoming standalone headset, Quest. The studio says that the visual bar for Firmament will be high, although it isn’t entirely outside of the purview of Oculus Quest support. However Cyan CEO Rand Miller remarked that “Quest is hard.” A Cyan spokesperson maintains that Quest support isn’t a focus for the studio at the moment.

The success of Firmament’s Kickstarter means more to the studio than you might think. In the campaign’s FAQ, the company explains that they had spent the majority of the Myst 25th Anniversary Collection’s Kickstarter funds to fulfill backer obligations. Leftover funding allowed the studio to further optimize their first VR project Obduction, design Firmament, create a video and proof-of-concept for Firmament, and “basically stay in business for a number of months.”

Simply put, the studio either needed to fund Firmament or face running out of money. So here’s to another few years of insanely complicated, and equally engrossing puzzle games from Cyan yet to come.

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April 22, 2019April 25, 2019

Myst Creator’s Firmament Needs Final Push To Clear Kickstarter Goal (Update)

Update: As of afternoon time on 4/25/19, Firmament has reached its Kickstarter goal and will be funded. The campaign ends at 3PM PT on 4/26/19. In the most recent update, Cyan Worlds confirmed that they have “decided to commit to find a way to make up any shortfall, so we can guarantee Firmament for Mac, PS4, and EFIGS” and they’ve also scheduled an assortment of streams and Q&As for tomorrow to celebrate.

Original: The company behind genre-defining atmospheric puzzle adventure games Myst and Riven, as well as the VR-optional spiritual successor Obduction, have until Friday to clear their Kickstarter goal.

Spokane-based Cyan Worlds, Inc. launched its Kickstarter crowdfunding project last month for Firmament — a new VR puzzler that also works on traditional PC screens. The project so far raised support from more than 12,000 people and, as of this writing, those backers promised more than $975,000 to the cause.

That’s still quite a bit less than the all-or-nothing funding goal of $1,285,000. Firmament ends its fundraising on Kickstarter Friday, April 26 at 3 pm Pacific time.

$30 is the minimum pledge to receive a digital version of the game. More than 4,000 people are backing at that level while another 4,000+ people are opting for exclusive content promised with a $49 pledge. Thousands more are supporting above those levels with $120 or $250 pledges promising physical collectibles and a “proof-of-concept” build of the game. Firmament is slated to arrive in July of next year, though we should note crowdfunding projects often miss delivery targets.

We reviewed Obduction highly [8/10] when it debuted in 2016 before the Oculus Rift supported Touch controllers. Though hand control support was added later, Obduction also suffered from some cumbersome controls and performance issues. We first tried an early prototype of Firmament last year and the game was built from the start with VR support in mind although it’s fully playable outside of VR too.

A lot is on the line with Firmament. Cyan explains that if this project isn’t funded then the company may run “out of money” in the page’s FAQ section:

Blah, blah, blah… here’s the bottom line. Cyan spent the majority of the Myst 25th funds to fulfill the obligations – happy to do it. The leftover funding continued to fuel Cyan, allowing us to optimize Obduction, design Firmament, create a video and proof-of-concept for Firmament, and basically stay in business for a number of months. No private island, no Tesla, no huge bonuses, no shopping sprees – but we get to keep working!

So that’s why we are turning back to Kickstarter. We either need to fund Firmament or run ourselves out of money, because (as much as we’d love to) we just don’t have those proverbial buckets of cash.

The company added PSVR support as a stretch goal earlier this month if the project clears $1.4 million in funding. Separate from Firmament, Cyan is also publishing VR adventure ZED from developer Eagre Games.

Here’s the link again to the Kickstarter page for Firmament.

Tagged with: cyan worlds, Firmament

The post Myst Creator’s Firmament Needs Final Push To Clear Kickstarter Goal (Update) appeared first on UploadVR.

April 19, 2019

‘Firmament’ Kickstarter Boasts 10,000 Backers, But Still Needs Over $400K to Succeed

Cyan, the creators of genre-defining puzzle adventure games Myst (1993) and Riven (1997), are only a week away from the end of their latest campaign, a new VR puzzler called Firmament. With still over $400,000 to go, the company is now asking backers to tell friends about the project in an ostensible race to the finish.

As an ‘all or nothing’ campaign, the project will only come to fruition if it reaches the $1,285,000 mark. At the time of this writing, it’s garnered over $860,000, or a little over two-thirds of the way there.

In a bid to breathe new life into the campaign, the studio released an update to the Firmament Kickstarter recently asking backers to contact friends to get the campaign to the finish line:

Today we reached 10,000 backers, and we’re more than 60% funded. That’s 10,000 fans supporting Firmament and affirming that this type of game is important. We love making these worlds, with their meticulous integration of story, environments, and puzzles. And we know that there is a subset of gamers (like you) that love these worlds that we make. That’s what motivates us, keeps us authentic and focused on our passion.

We are so grateful for people like you – 10,000 strong so far. With little fanfare or prodding, you raise your voice in support of Firmament. Without you, we can’t build these worlds.

Based on our previous games, we know there are more of us out there – more people who truly enjoy this kind of adventure — easily ten times as many. With only 10 days left, we’d like to ask you to do one more thing — help find the missing people and bring them along. If each of you can reach out to just one more person who shares our interest in the deep, immersive worlds Cyan builds; one more person who is willing to support us before we ship – instead of after, we will easily meet our goal and be able to build Firmament.

We have come this far, let’s complete this journey!

Thank you so much for your support,

The Cyan Team

The studio’s penultimate Kickstarter saw Obduction (2016) brought to life, a game that launched on desktop, PC VR and PSVR headsets. Obduction’s crowdfunding campaign exceeded its initial goal of $1.1M back in November 2013, garnering a total of $1,321,306 with more than 20,000 backers.

Some of the excitement around Obduction invariably came from the prospect of stepping into a wholly new world built by Cyan, which had previously released both remastered versions, and an additional chapter to Myst. Virtual reality played no small part in its funding either. At the time, native Oculus support was a stretch goal, which the company promised at the $1.3 million mark. The prospect of stepping into a Cyan-built world, created in the tradition of its past games, was nothing short of tantalizing.

According to the recent backer update, the company says that meeting the crowdfunding goal is a prerequisite to building Firmament; if the project falls short, its possible the company will move onto ‘safer’ projects. Considering Obduction was their first title with VR support, the studio has likely taken home plenty of critical VR-specific learnings that could be applied to a game if built from the ground-up.

We’re wishing Obduction all the best, but with only a week to go in the campaign and no publicly playable demo (a short demo is available to backers) it may have a difficult time in repeating Obduction’s success.

Check out a video of the demo below (no commentary), recorded by YouTube user ‘EPICO’.

The post ‘Firmament’ Kickstarter Boasts 10,000 Backers, But Still Needs Over $400K to Succeed appeared first on Road to VR.

March 27, 2019April 8, 2019

‘Firmament’ Kickstarter Heads Towards Halfway Mark with Less Than 3 Weeks Left

Cyan, the studio behind genre-defining puzzle classics Myst (1993) and Riven (1997), launched a Kickstarter campaign for their upcoming VR puzzle game Firmament. While the campaign initially rushed out of the gate by garnering over 25% of funding in the first two days of going live on March 26th, it appears the momentum has slowed somewhat as it hovers around the halfway mark.

Update (April 8th, 2019): With a little less than three weeks to go before the ‘all or nothing’ crowdfunding campaign comes to an end, support for ‘Firmament’ seems to have stalled somewhat on its quest to reach the $1,285,000 end goal. Currently the campaign is sitting around the $600,000 mark, and has 18 days until the bell tolls, which will take place on April 27th.

We’re wishing Cyan lots of luck moving forward as they strive to drum up further support for another highly-polished, atmospheric VR puzzler.

Original Article (March 27th, 2019): The studio is searching for $1,285,000 USD in total within the next 30 days. Although it’s an ‘all or nothing’ campaign, Firmament looks to be well on its way to its goal; at the time of this writing the campaign has already garnered over $291,000.

Backers at all funding tiers are said to receive the completed game by July 2020. The lowest funding tier offers a digital download of the game for $30, which includes a digitally delivered manual and strategy guide. Owning to Cyan’s iconic puzzle games, many of the higher funding tiers have already seen a healthy glut of backers. At the time of this writing 36 people have donated $1,000 to the campaign. A single backer has also chosen the $5,000 funding tier.

Cyan previously created two successful Kickstarters that helped launch the 25th Anniversary Collection of Myst and atmospheric VR puzzler Obduction (2016).

First announced March 2018, the studio is still staying pretty tight-lipped on details surrounding Firmament. Cyan CEO and co-founder Rand Miller however says the game won’t be as solitary as previous titles, this time including a companion device that will be “an integral part of both the story and puzzles.” Some of the puzzles, Miller says, are call-backs to Myst regarding the “steam punk, magic vibe.”

There’s also some more teaser text found on the Kickstarter page which you might find more than a bit tantalizing (Cyan flaunting its storytelling chops).

A gasp for air… a release of chilled breath… the crackling sounds of melting ice.

You wake in a glacial cavern — perfused by blue. It’s crowded with metal pipes and adorned with curious, clockwork gears.

Echoing machinery resonates in your ears as a massive metal door opens before you…

As you enter a dark chamber, warm lights flicker to life, revealing a frigid, yet intimate stone interior, supported by riveted iron beams. In the middle of this room is an ancient table – a tea cup on one end and a frozen body slumped over the other. The corpse’s hands hold an exquisite clockwork device — held out like an offering.

You reach for the device, and suddenly… a small whir… a blue glow is birthed from its core as it comes to life and lifts from the outstretched palms of the rigid stranger. It hovers above you, watching.

An apparition appears with a message from the woman that left this gift. She planned to mentor you…

…but something has gone terribly wrong.

An immense, unexpected adventure now lies ahead…

There’s no word at this time on exactly which VR platforms will see support, although it’s clear PC VR headsets will be supported alongside the flatscreen version of the game. We’d imagine this means the standard set: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows VR headsets.

Check out the whole Kickstarter pitch for a few more clips not seen in the teaser trailer linked above.

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March 26, 2019

Obduction Dev Cyan Launches Kickstarter For Next VR Game, Firmament

Cyan Worlds, the developer behind VR adventure game Obduction and, of course, Myst is back. But the developer’s new VR game, Firmament, needs your help to become a reality.

Today, Cyan launched a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign for its latest project. The studio is hoping to raise a hefty $1,285,000 over the course of the next month. At the time of writing the campaign has been live for a few hours and already raised close to $40,000. This isn’t a new move for Cyan; both Obduction and a 25th Anniversary Edition of Myst were both funded via Kickstarter.

Firmament very much follows in the footsteps of Myst and Obduction. It’s a visually-striking adventure in which you solve puzzles and learn about the mysteries of the world around you. We actually went hands-on with the game all the way back in April 2018. We fell in love with the highly-detailed world, which you’ll explore alongside an AI companion known as an adjunct.

Why Kickstarter?

“Though our goal of $1.3 million seems high, it is a relatively modest budget for the kind of experience that Cyan creates,” the developer writes of the decision to take the game to Kickstarter. “But Cyan has plenty of experience, and a small, but talented team. We’ve learned over the years that a smaller, experienced team, working closely together can be very efficient and satisfying.”

As with Obduction, Firmament’s VR support is optional. Crucially, though, Cyan is working on VR integration from the off this time. That means no retroactive additions like motion controllers, it’ll all work naturally from the start. Cyan itself says the game is specifically designed for VR.

Interested? Backers of the campaign will get exclusive access to downloadable content like unique skins for the adjunct and other skinned items. You can pledge $40 to get a copy of the game on PC with VR support. Supported headsets haven’t been announced yet, and neither has a possible PSVR port (Obduction did eventually reach PSVR). Cyan is estimating a July 2020 launch at this time.

Elsewhere, Cyan is also publishing another VR adventure named Zed. We’re expecting that one to launch pretty soon.

Tagged with: cyan worlds, Firmament, kickstarter, VR adventure

The post Obduction Dev Cyan Launches Kickstarter For Next VR Game, Firmament appeared first on UploadVR.

November 28, 2018

Cyan Announces New VR Adventure ‘ZED’, Development Led by ‘Myst’ Creator

Cyan, the studio behind iconic adventure games Myst (1993) and Riven (1997), are putting their stamp of approval on a newly announced VR game from Eagre Games, a studio led by original Myst artist Chuck Carter.

Dubbed ZED, the adventure game is currently under development by Eagre Games and New England-based Skymap Games. Zed will be the first game published by Cyan Ventures, Cyan’s newly formed publishing arm.

Outside of his work on Myst, Carter has worked on 25 other games including many in the Command & Conquer series, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, and Pac-Man World Rally. Carter is also known for his work on a number of non-game projects such as art for TV series Babylon5, NASA, National Geographic, and Scientific American.

To create Zed, the studios have also assembled a cast of industry talent including writers Joe Fielder (Bioshock Infinite, The Flame and the Flood) and David Chen (Metal Gear Solid series, Narcosis). Long-time games industry voice actor Stephen Russell (the Thief and Fallout series) will be lending his voice to the game.

Here’s Cyan’s description of what to expect from Zed:

ZED is the story of an aging artist, lost in regret, and the haze of dementia. Inside the dreamscape of this creative mind come undone, players reassemble the artist’s fragmented memories into a final, lasting legacy: a loving final gift to his unborn granddaughter.

Making its debut with VR support for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and non-VR support for PC, ZED is a surreal trip, with an unexpected narrative that unfolds across fanciful, fractured lands. Spanning regret, reconciliation and redemption, it’s a bittersweet story that’s both deeply personal, and undeniably universal.

Zed is slated to release in Spring 2019, targeting Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and non-VR support for PC.

A Steam page is now live, although there’s no pricing information or specific release date yet.

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