The Starry Expanse Project is a dedicated fan effort to remake Riven: The Sequel to Myst in real-time 3D. Riven was released over 20 years ago and is one of the all-time classic point-and-click adventure games. Developed by Cyan Worlds, it’s often regarded as one of the best in the genre. Now The Starry Expanse Project, more recently known as realRiven, is a full remake of that classic game using modern technology.
Recently, the team announced that realRiven, when it releases, will have full VR support. The blog post reads:
“We’re very excited to finally announce that we are officially developing realRiven for virtual reality… Simply, the tools for developing a game in VR have become more ubiquitous and easy to use, and our team now has several members with experience in shipping titles for VR. We have the talent and the technical barriers are no longer an issue, so we’re pleased to make this announcement and we hope you’re as excited as we are.”
Interestingly enough, the original creators of both Myst and Riven have also moved onto VR projects as well. Most notably, Obduction, which was an adventure game heavily inspired by Myst that released with optional VR support two years ago. Their next project, Firmament, is still in early WIP stages.
Let us know what you think of the news down in the comments below! What are some other classic non-VR games you’d love to see remade in VR?
Cyan World’s Myst is regarded as one of the most revolutionary and influential PC games of all-time for good reason. It ushered in a new era of gaming with the CD-ROM format and pushed boundaries of what was visually possible on existing PC hardware at the time. In many ways, Obduction, Cyan World’s previous game, did a lot of the same things for VR gaming that Myst did for PC gaming.
However, Obduction wasn’t a full commitment. Since it was both a VR and non-VR title it wasn’t able to take full advantage of the medium and initially released without roomscale or motion controller support. To this day it still suffers from technical issues. Firmament, the next project from Cyan Worlds, aims to remedy all of those mistakes.
We first caught wind of the new game a few weeks before GDC and finally got our hands on the game at the conference in San Francisco, CA. While it’s still a very early prototype of the game, clearly the team learned a lot from their work on Obduction. Firmament is built from the ground-up to be a VR-exclusive title.
My demo was on the Oculus Rift using Touch controllers and even though it only lasted about 10 minutes total, I saw a lot of promise.
Specifically, it was an absolutely beautiful world. The ice-capped mountaintops and snow flurries in the distance felt like a wonderful change of pace from the dark, tainted landscapes of Obduction. If Skyrim were designed from the ground up again for VR, I feel like its enormous mountains and vast landscapes could learn a lot from Firmament’s environmental designs.
At the very start of the GDC demo my character is frozen alive in a block of ice. Things begin with a machine drilling me out of the ice and letting me explore a creepy old cave that looks like it could almost be part ornate mansion. You can see glimpses of the area in the screenshots and teaser trailer here.
I’ve only got teleportation for movement in the demo so I make my way down the hall and up a staircase to a small orb ingrained in a waist-high pedestal. Once I remove the orb it buzzes up into the air and follows me around. Lifting my hand up above my head calls the orb to me and I can even point at things for it to interact with in the distance.
Immediately the orb becomes part of the game’s puzzle solving. The next few minutes of the demo involve raising and lowering bridges to cross vast chasms. Nothing really stumped me at all and it was all very intuitive and simple to understand. I’d imagine the final game will include some of the classic head scratchers that Cyan’s games are always so well-known for.
Since Firmament is a VR-only game the way you explore and interact with the world is going to be different from the likes of Myst and Obduction, so I’m eager to see more. Unfortunately the onsite developer at GDC informed me the game is likely one or even two years away from release, so we’ll have to wait a while before we get to see the final product. In the meantime at least we’ve got Torn to look forward to.
Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Das Entwicklerstudio Cyan Worlds (bekannt für Myst, Riven und Obduction) kündigt ihren neuen VR-Titel Firmament an. Dabei soll es sich um ein VR-Steampunk-Adventure handeln, das erstmals auf der anstehenden Game Developers Conference 2018 in San Francisco vom 19. bis 23. März vorgestellt wird. Die Entwickler veröffentlichten als Apptetithäppchen einen ersten Trailer zum neuen VR-Titel.
Firmament – Neues Steampunk-Adventure aus dem Hause Cyan Worlds
Cyan Worlds verkündet die Veröffentlichung ihres neuen VR-Spiels Firmament, das erstmals auf der anstehenden GDC 2018 in San Franciscovorgestellt wird. Kürzlich veröffentlichten die Entwickler eine eigene Webseite zum Spiel, die einige Bilder sowie den Teaser enthält.
Die Entwickler verrieten bisher, dass es sich um ein Steampunk-Adventure handelt. Dabei begeben sich Spieler auf eine magische Reise durch diverse Welten gefüllt mit riesigen Maschinen und metallischen Türmen. Dabei steht euch ein uhrenähnlicher Begleiter zur Verfügung sowie ein verstorbener Mentor, der euch als Geist gute Ratschläge gibt.
Während der Geschichte werden vier monumentale Bereiche offengelegt, die sich in ihrer Umgebung grundlegend unterscheiden sollen. Im Trailer wird eine schneeüberdeckte Berglandschaft präsentiert, die sich nach dem Betreten eines mit einer Schneeflocke symbolisierten Portals offenbart. Die weiteren Symbole auf der Pforte präsentieren eine Flamme, ein Blatt, einen Blitz sowie eine Gruppe von Personen. Wir dürfen gespannt sein, was uns in diesen Welten erwartet.
Ansonsten ist noch nicht viel zum Spiel bekannt. Beispielsweise, für welche VR-Plattformen der Titel erscheint oder wann es offiziell erhältlich ist. somit müssen wir uns bis zur GDC 2018 vom 19. bis 23. März gedulden, auf der Firmament erstmals in der Öffentlichkeit präsentiert wird.
Wir werden euch über Neuigkeiten zum kommenden Steampunk-Adventure auf dem Laufenden halten.
The creators of Myst, Riven, and most recently Obduction, Cyan Worlds are back with a brand new VR game: Firmament. It’s unclear whether this is related to any of their existing properties or not, but it very clearly seems to be inspired by their past work at the very least.
Firmament will be shown for the first time at GDC in the Indie MegaBooth area. We don’t know much of anything about the game yet, but you can watch its teaser trailer right here:
From Cyan, the indie studio that brought you Myst and Obduction, comes a new steampunk adventure.
The game of Firmament is a resplendent, magical journey — a monumental voyage through four diverse and curious realms where you work in concert with an ever-present clockwork companion, under the guidance of a long-dead, ethereal mentor.
Everything is not as it seems.
There’s a few more screenshots up above to give you an idea of what to expect. We’ll be going hands-on with the game in just a few weeks at GDC in San Francisco, CA. Let us know what
Xing: The Land Beyond from White Lotus Interactive has been around for a very long time in game development years. The Kickstarter campaign originally launched in 2013, raising $30,000. Now today, Xing is shaping up to be one of the most visually pleasing and highly anticipated new classical-style adventure games in some time. With the success of last year’s Obduction from Cyan Worlds, there is clearly still a market for these sorts of games.
Today, we finally found out the release date of Xing and can set aside the long 4+ year wait we’ve had to endure. Xing: The Land Beyond will officially release next month on September 18th, 2017, for Rift and Vive (as well as non-VR PCs.) You might recall our inclusion of Xing in the 50 Days of PSVR countdown, and the PlayStation VR version is still coming, just at a later date. You can see the new launch date trailer right here:
In anticipation of the upcoming release, we spoke with members of the development team to learn more about the game’s creation process, challenges, and inspirations over the years. You can read the full Q&A with White Lotus Interactive Co-Founder, Developer, and Artist, Koriel Venus Kruer, as well as Developer, John Torkington:
UploadVR: What are the biggest inspirations you had while working on XING?
Koriel Venus Kruer: Games that inspired us while working on XING include: Portal, Myst, the Zelda games, Golden Sun, and Dear Esther. I think we were also inspired by stories of small indie studios with few members (like us) actually releasing their games, because it made it all sound actually feasible. We also found inspiration in a lot of other media, like movies and TV shows. Some of those include The Lord of the Rings, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
John Torkington: We’ve all had our different influences. I’ve been moved by games since early childhood, so an appreciation for an earlier generation of games should be readily visible in XING. In some ways, the early days of VR remind me of the early days of 3D, where doing things like a 3D menu and emphasizing level design with vertical spaces were first explored.
UploadVR: How do you think the game compares to other VR adventure titles such as The Gallery and Obduction?
Kruer: Though all three games are within the first-person puzzle-adventure genre, XING sets itself apart in so much as how you play and interact with the world, through objects you pick up that have a variety of uses, burning fire mechanics, jumping (yes there’s some platforming), throwing etc.. Did I mention that in XING, you are dead? Though the stories that players follow throughout XING primarily deal with death, the world is vibrant and colorful, almost as a contrast between the beauty of nature and life, and the reality of mortality. So I suppose thematically it’s quite different too.
We are friends with both Cloudhead Games and Cyan, and have swapped lots of tips and tricks with both studios during development. Since Cyan is using UE4 for Obduction, we were able to talk to them about their solutions to tech art stuff, and vice versa. It’s actually been amazing. We wish for those studios all the best, as Cloudhead works on their release of the 2nd episode of The Gallery, and Cyan prepares for their PS4 and PS VR Port, both coming very soon!
Torkington: Funny story about Cyan – back in 2014 at PAX Prime we had a few people come up to our booth and exclaim “Oh, a Myst-like game”. Our friends who were hanging out with us there from Cyan turned to the attendees and told them that XING stands alone as something very different from Myst. I felt a great sense of validation hearing that from them, and while the similarities in genre are there, our approach to design, world building, and gameplay is very different from Obduction.
UploadVR: How does VR enhance a game genre like this and make it even more immersive for players?
Kruer: Virtual Reality is an exciting and incredible new medium that will surely bring about a multitude of changes in how we design and play games. For the first-person puzzle-adventure genre, it allows us to focus even more on atmosphere and mood within the game world, because the payoff seems to be even larger in VR versus playing on a standard screen. To truly feel like you are transported to another place, you need to feel the consistency in rules, design and visuals of the new world you are in. With XING, we have tried to make sure that we’ve added enough detail (and tested enough for consistency) to make the game as immersive as possible.
As far as the puzzle aspect, it’s been an interesting challenge to not have things like timed puzzles as part of our design language, to make it more open to wider audiences, and more playable for new-to-VR players. There are extra puzzles things put in the game for more hard-core fans too. It’s just been a matter of figuring out that balance.
Then there’s the adventure aspect, which I find to be the most appealing part in terms of VR. I believe most people naturally like to explore, especially when their exploration is rewarded with amazing new places they can run through, or fun little secrets they’ve discovered. This is something we’ve definitely put a lot of thought and effort into
UploadVR: What were the biggest challenges you faced when making a game like this?
Kruer: This biggest challenges have mostly had to deal with Scope, Time Management and Living Situations.
Scope because even though we have a vision, we have to constantly remember that we are just a 3 person team, and that we can only get so much done in the time we’ve given ourselves. Continually testing and then adding layers of depth, or adding/fixing mechanics to make the game better, or designing for VR and non-VR at the same time – all of these things have cost us a lot of extra time, and will hopefully show when the game comes out.
Time Management goes hand in hand with scope. For us, we started this game in a sort of crunch mode, and have tried over the years to get into a more “normal” schedule. Still, for the majority of making this game, our hours have been Sunday–Friday, 10/11 AM – 10 PM at night (Fridays till 4 PM). All in the name of getting the game out as fast as we can. Haha. It’s a rigorous schedule that I personally wouldn’t want to maintain again in my life for any longer than a month or 2, due to how time-consuming it is. I think that has taken a toll on us. The plus side of the situation is being able to take time off when we want to for some day or weekend events. Owning your own company can mean flexible hours for things like going to friends’ birthday parties and not having to “ask for time off”. Still, it’s important to maintain a certain level of discipline, because it’s easy to start sliding down that slippery slope.
Living Situations primarily have to do with us not having jobs that make us money. We all moved back in with our parents after college so we could devote ourselves more than the average “full-time” to working on XING. Of course, we never intended for it to be this long. Over time, our parents have become more and more skeptical about our release time tables and calendars we’ve made, and we can’t blame them. That backlash is of the reasons why, for the last year, we haven’t put anything out like that until today. Our inexperience has clearly been shown in the past through our public estimates of how long things would take, and even now we are still nervous about hitting all our goals. Living at home has benefits like not paying as much in rent as we might somewhere else, and having people around to take care of us. It also has the downside of us not being independent, and therefore not having the freedom (and responsibility) that that independence would bring.
UploadVR: Are there are any particular lessons or takeaways that you want players to have after playing XING?
Kruer: Perhaps the best takeaway we could hope for would be that people who play: enjoy themselves, are entertained, are challenged to think in new ways, and come away with the feeling that they want to show their friends or family this game too. There are a lot of little lessons in XING, similar to Aesop’s Fables, and we hope that people will enjoy that aspect of the game, and maybe even think about how those things might be relevant to their own struggles or experiences. Of course, we are just people who wrote this game, so it’s not like there are any divine revelations in the game about people or the afterlife (haha), but rather ways in which we try to relate to and understand one another, as human beings. For many people, gameplay is king, so we’ve also spent a lot of time making sure that the gameplay is interwoven with the narratives in ways that make sense and feel rewarding. Ultimately, everyone will have their own ideas about, experiences with, and interpretations of the game, so we are just excited (and maybe a little nervous) to see and read what people think.
For more details on Xing: The Land Beyond as we build up to the game’s release next month on September 18th for Rift, Vive, and PC, check back at UploadVR for the latest. Let us know what you think about Xing and any questions you have down in the comments below!
Cyan’s spiritual successor to Myst is launching with all-new motion control support on March 22nd for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch. The game originally released on Steam in August 2016, receiving initial VR support for the Rift in October.
Following in the legendary footsteps of Myst and Riven, Obduction presents an ideal VR setting, taken at a slow pace, encouraging players to study the environments carefully, finding clues to solve puzzles in a curious new world. The original VR support for Oculus Rift began as a stretch goal during the game’s 2013 Kickstarter campaign, and arrived in October 2016, a couple of months after the standard game launched on Steam. The game received a free update and launched on the Oculus Store at the same time, and was praised for its visuals and puzzle diversity.
Using the ‘blink’ teleport feature, the game feels the most like Myst, although a freeform movement with snap turning was also available, which was then updated in November to include a smooth turning option for those unaffected by this contributor to VR sickness. Since then, Cyan have focused on bringing the experience to other headsets, announcing the game would come to PlayStation VR and HTC Vive in 2017, with the major addition of motion controller support.
The new version arrives on HTC Vive and Oculus Touch on March 22nd on Steam, GOG, Humble Store, and the Oculus Store for $29.99. Existing owners will receive the update for free. Motion control should be a perfect fit in a game scattered with detailed objects to study, and involves extensive button and lever interactivity.
“We have over 200,000 fans on our Steam wishlist, many who have been asking for hand controls for Obduction. As a VR-centric studio, we’re thrilled to be delving even further into these platforms, bringing ever deeper immersion to our worlds and pushing the edge of what’s possible”, says Rand Miller, CEO, Cyan.
Visitors to PAX East this weekend will have a chance to preview the Oculus Touch version in the Indie MEGABOOTH, and there is a further opportunity to try the game at the Indie Corner of the SXSW Gaming show floor, from March 16th to 18th, 12-8pm at the Austin Convention Center, Exhibit Hall 2 – plus Rand Miller will be taking questions on the SXSW Gamer’s Voice stage at 7:45pm on March 17th.
Platform exclusivity, project funding, and cross-platform compatibility are hot-button issues in the VR industry. Many developers do their best to bring their games to as many devices as possible, but it doesn’t always work out that way. With the release of the Oculus Touch controllers late last year, we’re getting closer to a world of platform parity between the Rift and Vive, but some differences still exist in terms of how they handle full 360-degree roomscale tracking configurations.
The vast majority of the games on Oculus Home that include support for “experimental” roomscale setups also provide 180 options as well. According to Tony Davidson, founder at Innervision Games and developer of Thunderbird, that 180 tracking setup is the default configuration expected from the folks at Oculus to get your game on the Home Store in the first place, at least for the original launch lineup of titles for Touch.
We’ve asked for clarification from Oculus about whether this forward-facing support is a guideline or a requirement for developers supporting Oculus Touch. Games released after the Touch launch window, such as HordeZ and Unearthed Inc: The Lost Temple as well as some Gallery Apps, for example, only feature 360 support in Oculus Home, but those apps may not get the same level of attention or promotion within the store.
Thunderbird is a slow-paced, puzzle-focused, atmospheric adventure game. It takes heavy inspiration from genre classics like Myst (Obduction is a recent VR game from the creators of Myst, following a similar idea) and infuses those concepts with full roomscale support, requiring players to physically move around and interact with the environment to progress. It truly transports you to a beautiful fantastical world, placing you in the shoes of the game’s intrepid traveler.
We were blown away by the 20-minute introductory experience that lands on Steam today of Thunderbird: The Legend Begins. Naturally, something that requires so much interaction and activity from its users is best played with full 360 tracking and roomscale support.
“Back in the summer [of last year] when Oculus started investing heavily into content that supported motion controllers, we began discussions and working with them on creating a port of Thunderbird for their Touch launch,” explained Davidson in an email to UploadVR. “We spent a good deal of time trying to accommodate them on their default 180′ format requirement for Home but the results were far from ideal…The whole exclusive ordeal with Oculus last summer would have been a big help to our project but we just couldn’t agree with the whole 180′ approach and having us dumb-down our experience for them. After making all of the necessary changes to support a 180′ experience we ended up with a product that we felt was not representative of our vision of VR. There were so many sacrifices made to accommodate it and the end result was not very appealing and was considerably different compared to our original design.”
When Davidson mentions the need to “dumb-down” the game, it is not an exaggeration. Oculus’ sensors might have trouble tracking below your knees in the default 180 arrangement and there are objects you’ve got to pick up off the ground in Thunderbird. One puzzle in particular necessitates 360 movement and they couldn’t figure out an elegant and non-immersion breaking way around that hurdle that retained the quality of the game they wanted to ship.
“We tried very hard to make it work with our project but there were just too many obstacles blocking the way and in the end, we ended up with an experience that we just couldn’t endorse,” wrote Davidson. “For games like wave shooters it makes sense to limit the user to a 180′ format but for something like Thunderbird it’s a much different scenario. One of the key assets in our first chapter is a periscope that requires 360′ interaction and we spent days trying to redesign it so that it would work with a 180′ format but no matter what we tried, nothing worked. It was literally impossible to make a simple 360′ interaction like rotating a periscope functional within a front-facing format. In our case, we would have been forced to eliminate this from the experience entirely which would be a real shame because this is the type of interaction that is so fun to do in VR.”
As someone that has used Oculus with Touch in a variety of configurations, I can see why Oculus would prefer developers support the lowest common denominator (which is 180, front-facing tracking) when building apps for Touch. Anyone that has Touch should be able to play a game standing, facing forward, with two sensors since that is the easiest way to set it all up. I’ve expanded that to three or even four sensors personally at times to get a full 360 or roomscale effect, but not everyone with Touch can do that. Two months after release it is still considered an “experimental” arrangement by Oculus. In fact, recent patches have introduced bugs making the tracking even less reliable for some buyers.
“Thunderbird was originally designed from the ground up as a true room-scale experience with the intention of targeting the various location-based entertainment venues like the VR arcades that are popping up around the globe,” elaborated Davidson. “From the start, our intention with Thunderbird was to create a premium VR experience that showcases the full capabilities of room-scale VR and the Vive allowed us to really make progress in that direction…We personally don’t consider 180′ experiences to be true VR and so we won’t be offering this on Oculus Home. To us, VR is a 360′ experience by default and so we don’t want to dumb the experience down that far. At least not just yet because we really don’t support what Oculus is doing for VR with their default 180′ format.”
The version of Thunderbird players will try at home will have teleportation as a way of getting around though, in case your play space isn’t large enough, but if you have the room, you can freely move around just like you would in the large location-based booths they’ve demoed the experience in previously. Davidson’s issue isn’t so much with the existence of 180 tracking. It is just not the type of content he wants to create.
“It’s no secret that Oculus shunned the whole room-scale approach as being nothing more than a ‘niche within a niche, within a niche’ and so, fortunately for us, Valve and HTC had the insight to see its potential and gave us devs the option to create content that was more conducive to what I consider to be true Virtual Reality,” said Davidson. “I guess you could say that I’m a purist at heart because I’m not personally interested in creating or even playing games and watching movies in VR as much as I am in experiencing virtual environments with the same sort of freedom and interaction that we all enjoy in our actual realities…The seated experience is very limiting in terms of what we can offer as developers and the approach of restricting user’s movements to a front-facing format goes directly against our whole concept of VR which I believe, by default, is a 360′ experience.”
If you’ve only got a Rift, but do have the Touch controllers with a 360 setup, you’re not out of luck; Innervision still wants you to enjoy the game. They are still supporting the Oculus SDK through the version that is on Steam, so if you have the appropriate setup with your Rift you should still be able to enjoy it roomscale.
Thunderbird: The Legend Begins is a short, 20-minute interactive adventure (now available on Steam for $5.99) that serves as the foundation for the base game and lore. Longer chapters are expected to release soon episodically. More is coming soon.
The renowned author was heavily interested in game design, and Douglas Adams' beloved series was once on track to become the subject an adventure game. Influenced by 'Myst', the game would have been Adams' fourth.
As if taking a page from the iconic franchise that inspired it, when Obduction [Review: 8/10] released on PC back in late August, the VR version of the game was Myst-eriously absent. At the very last second, Cyan delayed the VR edition of the cinematic puzzle adventure with a label of “Coming Soon” instead of “Available Now.” Luckily, the wait is over.
Originally, the game was slated for a July 26th release date, but got pushed back a full month for additional polish and bug fixes. In addressing Obduction for the VR platform, it involved overcoming many of the same technical hurdles and limitations that the company first did when creating the original game on PC all those years ago.
Now, 20 years later, gamers can enjoy a new adventure in a new game from the same creators that popularized the immersive first-person adventure genre in the first place. After receiving over $1.3 million in funding on Kickstarterover three years ago, it’s refreshing that the project actually lives up to expectations.
And according to official communication from Cyan, “Obduction’s 23,000 Kickstarter backers will receive access to the VR version a few days early. Details will be provided in an update from Cyan being sent to all Backers this week.”
As a fortuitous twist of fate, Riven, the original successor to Myst, originally released on Halloween 19 years ago. Fitting.
Everyone that already owns the non-VR game will receive this update automatically and it will be included in all future purchases. Oculus Home will also finally display the game starting on Halloween as well. You can view more information about the game on Steam, where it is available for purchase for $29.99. And also make sure to read our full review of the VR version.
Find out about the challenges of devising puzzles for games like Myst, Riven, and Obduction from designer Rand Miller — and discover how the development process influences his approach.
