The scope of this project (for now) is limited to Myst 3’s version of Tomahna.
I will be following Starry Expanse’s lead and using camera matching and UE4. It will be VR enabled (definitely for Vive).
Now, if I’m being honest I kinda hope this project could possibly one day turn into a sister project to Starry Expanse for purposes of a realtime recreation of Exile.
Trouble with that idea is of course the rights to the game. At the time I was involved with Starry Expanse we had no idea if Cyan would approve or not. It was problematic to spend time working on something knowing that with one email it could all be for not, and was a big factor in my leaving Starry Expanse.
Back then it was nearly impossible to communicate with Cyan.
It took forever for Starry Expanse to become legitimate. And Cyan owned Riven. Completely. To say nothing of the fact that they have NEVER had even the slightest interest in making realRIVEN themeselves (I have chat logs from RAWA saying so in 2003!)
So I’m fully aware of how complex a situation it must be when Presto (long defunct) and Ubisoft are involved. Sure Myst’s 25 anniversary kickstarter has the rights for rereleasing the original games, but it’s unlikely that would extend to allowing for a full 3d recreation. Honestly, I don’t know what is possible with any of that.
What I do know is I have been particularly interested in recreating Tomahna. Not sure why exactly, but I tried to once, a LONG time ago. And I thought it was time to dust it off, and try again with the newer, fancier tools and skills I have now. If this turns into something bigger, yay!
But until then, this will just be a showcase passion project.
The upcoming posts will be covering things I’ve already done up until now.
But here is a teaser of things to come:
