Making of Myst

"2500 rendered images, 40 minutes of original music,
66 minutes of Quicktime animation, 2 years in the making."

A graphic adventure computer game created by brothers Robyn and Rand Miller under Cyan, Inc., their Spokane, Washington based studio, and published and distributed by Brøderbund. The Millers began working on Myst in 1991 and released it on September 24, 1993. The Windows 3.1 version came out the following spring, in March of 1994.

Myst Postmortem by Robyn Miller

Extended Interview with Rand Miller

Original Myst system requirements

Mac:

• Mac LC or faster
• System 7.0.1 or higher
• 4 MB RAM
• 3 MB free disk space
• CD-ROM drive
• 256 Colors

PC:

• 386 or 486 Pentium Processor
• Windows 3.X or Windows 95
• 8 MB RAM
• 4 MB free disk space
• CD-ROM drive
• SVGA Video
• Soundcard

Development

The game was created entirely on Apple Macintosh computers, especially Quadra models. The entire game was essentially a very large, color HyperCard stack, with each card consisting of a three-dimensionally rendered scene.

Graphics and Construction tools

• HyperCard (Apple)
• Think Pascal (Symantec)
• Photoshop (Adobe)
• Premier (Adobe)
• Illustrator (Adobe)
• Painter (Fractal Design)
• Morph (Gryphon Software)

Music and Sound tools

• MasterTracks Pro 5 (Passport)
• Proteus MPS Plus (E-Mu)
• Pro Tools Audio Interface (Digidesign)
• Sound Designer II (Digidesign)
• SoundEdit Pro (MacroMedia)

Additional Tools

• Infini-D (Specular International)
• De-Babelizer (Equilibrium Technologies)
• MovieShop (Apple)
• ComboWalker (Apple)
• Picture Compressor (Apple)
• ConvertToMovie (Apple)
• MoviePlayer (Apple)
• SoundToMovie (Apple)
• QuickTime XCMDs (Apple)
• Fontographer (Altsys)
• Tilod PICS Import/Export filters (John Knoll)

Images and animations were modeled and rendered on six Macintosh Quadras using StrataVision 3d by Strata, Inc.

HyperCard was colorized using a proprietary version of Symplex System's HyperTint, written by John Miller.

Concept Art

Myst Island - Interior of Spaceship

Myst Island - Interior of Clocktower

Myst Island - Planetarium Star Plotter

Channelwood - Pumphouse

Channelwood - Temple Altar

Channelwood - Achenar's Room

Stoneship - Compass Room

Mechanical - Overview

Mechanical - Sirrus' Throne Room

Selenitic - Overview