good, you'll be rewarded :p.
with the recent disapearence of the Vault, we needed something to focus on, I decided to made my own little vault; you just entered it <:)
I already told about it some weeks ago on the rivenguild boards, I started one year ago -almost day to day- a real time version of Myst island, working with the Quake engine -yes I like those kind of game too- i spend roughly a week end on it and dropped the thing. With the announcment of realMyst and recently the disaperance of the vault i decided to get over the project again.
I just fired up my Quake3 level editor and spent the whole nigh working on it; so don't begin to bitch at me, it is the work of about 3 or 4 days, so it is a very rough work, but for a 4 day work it is a good starting point.
If you didnt understood yet it requires Quake3arena to be tried :] it does not work with the demo version of q3 alas :/ and theres not much i can do about that
However, I am proud to present you: SURREALmyst. :p


not realMyst yet, but something to hold on to til it comes out. (2.02mo)

What is the difference with realMyst™? well first Im not a team of 15 people working on it 8 hours a day ;) Im working however 8 hours a night ;p Then Im trying to RECREATE myst, just as it is in the original game..the closest possible. realMyst is gonna be pretty different of the original island as you all have seen. Im recreating it exactly the same.. This is merely the begining, I will work on it untill realMyst comes out, then..we ll see. Until that time I will update the page pretty often, lets say 2 times a week, as soon as I have something worthy to post..
if you have any technical problem do not hesitate to mail me.
now I let you explore, enjoy

yours,
Aloys.

At least in the US. It seems like everybody is singing and dancing, as we (Myst fans) have been waiting for this game for four years now, since Riven's release. In fact Exile has been announced officially last year, on may 7th. One year ago day to day. How ironic :)
   Exile has been made by the great peoples of Presto studios; after Myst and Riven Cyan handed them their universe, and they seem to have make the right choice according to the previews and number of peoples waiting for it. It has taken a bit more than two years to make and will be first released in the US and Canada tomorrow, then in the rest of the world in.. september. Needless to say this upset a lot of people as it had been announced previously that Exile was going to be released worldwide.

   The recent buying of Exile's publisher (TLC) by French company Ubi Soft has done a lot of noise since they did several things going against the fans, this terrible delay of four months marks a break between the fans and Ubi Soft. Let's hope that it will not affect the game in itself. Being in France I am halas concerned by this. As several people I had to pre-order the game online, with the additional (high) cost of the internationnal shipping and the fact that is has been massively pre-ordered, and a lot of sites have run out of stocks. However this is currently the only solution.. :(

   Words have poped here and there that it has already been seen (and bought ;) in stores. Everybody say the same thing: "Exile is awesome!" Still the official release date is tomorrow, so you will see it at a store near you :) My personnal copy should be shipped whithin the end of the week hopefully, so I will be able to write pages about how great it is :p

Very special congrats to Presto for getting this baby out, we can't wait to play it =)

   
*** 01/04/2001
  Hi there, just a quick note to say that it is my last update for some time as I have got a new job and I'm currently moving from my native France to the United States :o So my email has changed, you can now write me at... Aloys@Cyan.com :) You read it right =) I'll be entering the mythical wooden building next week as a Game Designer on Mudpie, where I will help on the puzzles and a bit on the level design. More details later as I am currently packing everything and stuff.
More serious news soon :)

Okay, one serious news now, though slightly off topic. I was telling about Chaman last time. They are currently making a movie, a fully computer graphics made movie like Antz and Toy Story titled Axis (formerly Gaïna), which will be the first European CG movie. I cannot tell much right now because the film will only be released next spring, but I have seen finished sequences and... [jawdrop] it is simply the most beautifull thing I have ever seen... Truly. I am not personally working on it, I am not a 3d artist, I am working on an online game of which I will speak later. But I can tell you that it is really going to be a.m.a.z.i.n.g...


*** 25/03/2001
  Oïe oïe oïe, one month without news, baaad boy :/ A lot of things have been going on on my side, and I am currently having an internship in a french great game studio named Chaman. You may not have heard of them but there are two great projects going on there, and I'll talk about this in a few days.
  Myst4 has become more or less official as Ubisoft (who three weeks ago became the publisher of Myst3:Exile by buying former publisher TLC) stated they'll be publishing the next TWO episodes of Myst, the first being Exile and the second one not being Mudpie.. draw your own conclusions.. :) I will just add that recently as I was contacting companies for my internship I had an interview with Ubisoft. But no alas I don't have any earthshattering infos :p, or at least none I am allowed to talk about ;)
  As the site is nearing its end before Didanka is launched I would like to put a last wallpaper here before the new set of ones come with Didanka. This is made from CyanWorlds' site, as everyone I love the main picture so I thought it could make a nice little wallpaper, there it is:


*** 24/02/2001
  Grmlml everyone is jumping about Spyder's clues for realMyst easter eggs, twenty threads on the RG boards, fifty six mails or so on the Lyst and I don't have time to search for them :/ Im reserving time to polish Didanka a bit, it will be online soon, and with it my easter egg pages :)
  I added two links just above, the 'Fly mode' and Mudpie realMyst hidden shots. So it is more visible and people may stop looking here and there to find answers :)
  One last thing, about this Myst 4 'rumour'. Georges Chastaing, producer of the Myst product line at Game Studios formerly TLC and appreciated lyster, told us this a few days ago:

Fellow Lysters,
First and foremost, Mattel no longer has anything to do with the MYST product line. As for Stormfront, anything is possible, but not all things are probable. Hopefully, I will have more to say in a few weeks!
Continued good luck on all speculations.
George Chastain Jr.

  Speaking of this, this Myst4 story appears more and more confusing, with contradictory infos, and begin to go out of proportions. And we still can't get an official statement. RAWA at Cyan says 'if its true, its news to me', Gordon at RivenGuild says 'no comments at this time :+))', an employee at Stormfront says 'Untrue as far as I know.' while another seems to say 'No comment.', and Mattel/TLC/Game studio doesn't answer...
  So for the moment this is the big status quo, while the storm is raging on the boards :p As far as I am concerned I will wait for a more definitive answer from one of the officials (though RAWA's answer seems quite straight)..
  For reference purposes here are some of the threads on RivenGuild: there, there, and there.

  Aside this the newly released Cyanworlds site has seen its first update of the news page, with in fact -oddly enough- old news. Here is one of the very first articles about Mudpie: an interview of Rand Miller published last year at Adrenaline Vault. We can see that in one year not much has been told about this wonderfull project, one sentence though catch the attention: "This is large enough that the company will be defined right along with the title". Today about 50 peoples are working on it, one of the very few things we know about Mudpie is that it will be Cyan's last project, "one final new world.." "a world that will never end." and above all Cyan has renamed itself in CyanWorlds.
  What does it mean? What do we exactly have as informations and ideas? This leads me to the last info of the day: I just receive the confirmation that my space at my new hoster for Didanka has been reserved so I should begin to put all the Mudpie pages and all the other ones online this week end :)
This make me realise that I didn't speak yet of CyanWorlds, but the news spread quicker than you can say "I've got many questions for you my friend", so I bet you must be aware now :) We're having some busy days hmm? :)
Stay tuned.

***
05/02/2001
Yepeeee, great news!! while it has not been announced officially yet, it appears that:
A MYST 4 IS IN DEVELOPMENT!
  We know very little about it, I stumbled upon an enigmatic sentence on a french gaming news site saying that a Myst 4 was in development at Stormfront Studios.
  After checking with the concerned peoples, the answer is that a new Myst episode has indeed been in developement for already half and a year and is in full 3d (just like realMyst)!! Bummer. Does it use the same Plasma engine as realMyst? What is the plot? Many questions, so few answers :)
  The only thing I know is that it will split from the original story of Atrus and his family. So it will stay in the D'ni universe of course, otherwise it wouldn't be Myst >:) but with new characters, a new plot, etc... :o Some may be worried about the fact that Stormfront is doing it -who is not specially known for its adventure games- , and that it may be 'another Myst game'. Currently we have no answer to that, except that Cyan wouldn't let anyone make a Myst episode.
Can't wait to hear more about it.
One last thing.. I'm just thinking... those Huevo and Vika shots...maybe..huho, gotta check this right now!!!

*** 28/01/2001
I am busier than I would like, Didanka is being delayed :( You can still check the journal for progress info.
The big news today is about Mudpie. Frob managed to clear up the pics, and fully extracted the shots! Though it is a great news it worries me a bit as he has posted all the shots publicly on the RG boards. As I said recently I wouldn't want another 'Vault closed'.
Go to the Mupdie journal.

*** 21/01/2001
Things are finally taking shape.
Im progressing on the new site, I began reserving a new hosting and a brand new domain name, so in a close future the whole site will be moving to my new Age:
 Didanka
Among other things I am thinking of hosting M/R/D sites on it, check out the progress journal for full details.

***
14/01/2001
Happy new year everyone!
First post of the year, so I had to say it :). First post of the millenium too by the way. I guess it must mean something special.. Okay.

***
22/11/2000
  Hi everyone, short word to say I'm off for the holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy new year! :)
Ahh, the year 2000 is already gone, it's been years we've been talking of it, it has come and and gone, great. At least did I saw the firewoks at the Eiffel tower :p It's been a nice year, I don't have time at the moment to make a review, I leave in a few minutes everyone is packing all around me, but realMyst has comed out, my surrealMyst project didn't complete as I intented (but I'll go back to it) and I didn't finished the site, but then again I'll have time during the holidays ;) at least some secret info on Mudpie has been giv...oops 'was supposed to be secret <:) Enjoy. Come back after the holidays for the full scoop..

Merry Christmas Happy new yeaaaaar!! See you next millenium =)

***
12/11/2000
  Hi there, as promised here is a wallpaper of Channelwood. I think I found myself a new playing ground, this place is so wonderfull..

I have a full bag of great photos to post here soon, stay tuned..

***
12/04/2000
  Ahh realMyst is so good..damn, two weeks here and no updates, nothing. hm that's what personnal homepages are made for, no? :p   I keep playing realMyst, Cyan and Sunsoft trully did an amazing job on it, both technicall wise and artistic wise..Their Plasma Engine is impressive, and they used it in a great way. I bless my GeForce and my 19" everytime, all lights down, all speakers up and ready for linking, "link me up Atrus!" :p
  Seriously, I put my work here a bit on hold, while I finish, I thought I could put up some treat. New view of Myst island:
  Hope you like it, I have several wallpapers that are going to be posted, next update before the end of the week.
Back to Channelwood.

***
11/21/2000

I GOT IT! At last =)
A veeery nice delivery boy rang to my door two hours ago saying he was coming on behalf of AirborneExpress and took me 45 Francs (6.5$) for taxes grr :p Im still hesitating to play it right now, it's full day, lots of light lots of noise .. Ok maybe just to see Myst island, and the rest this evening, just to make the suspens last a little bit ;)
One or two pics quickly, you have already seen them everywhere, but I had to took them, so now you'll have to bear with them :p



***
11/20/2000

Hi. Bad day today. An awfull weather and realMyst hasn't arrived at my mail box.. and everyone is bouncing all around "I got it! I got it!" Oh well, let's rejoy, because: TODAY IS THE OFFICIAL RELEASE DAY OF REALMYST! WHOOHOOO! And though I don't have it in my hands..I can't help but gaze into space, and looking a few years ahead...this day marks a great day in games history and more. Not only because it is the rebirth of MYST by its own creators, but because it is a breeze. A breeze which announces that things are going to move..   -"let's prepare for the wind called Mudpie..."

we are about to live interesting times.

***
11/18/2000
Hi, word is that It is already on stores, and avids are rushing to get it. As of me, being in Europe I'm waiting for Outpost to deliver it, should be there monday or tuesday if I refer to the last mail I get from them..so..I'm beginning counting the hours now =)
All this to say that the official release date is still the 20, and I'm working hard here to get my stuff ready for this, so hopefully, both the new site and a newer version of surrealMyst will be ready on Monday.. let's don't swear already ;)
'Hope I won't be lost in the hurry of the release day =(
;)

At least I will get the game the very day of the official release :)

***
11/15/2000
Hi there, things are moving slowly but surely; realMyst didn't came out as soon as I hoped, but as everyone should know by now, the news broked out yesterday afternoon: realMyst has now begun shipping to retailers, and will be on stores the 20, whoohoo!! =) Note to all of those who ordered it through e-stores such as Amazon, Outpost, EBworld and others: e-stores usually ship before traditionnal stores, so you may be able to get it...maybe saturday? :p let's hope, cross fingers everyone! ;) To all those like me who ordered it from Europe: hmm that's gonna be short, Outpost is usually the fastest, though EBworld with express delivering can be very efficient too (30us$ delivery though, d'oh!) personally that's what I choose anyway :p
'ain't gonna miss the release of a game I've been waiting for years :Þ

Concerning the personnal news, my new 'island' is building up, so surrealMyst is a bit on hold consequently, I'm readying up for some sleepless nights to get all this ready before the 20.. :)

By the way, since we are the 15 and realMyst is coming out from the seas the 20, I tought I could put up this little countdown :)

realMyst Countdown

Days left untill release:

hum..this is pretty ugly, I'll fix this later :]

***
11/02/2000
Hi everyone, short word to share my excitement, tomorow is the nov. 3, which is one of the supposed release date for realMyst =) this is getting exciting hu? Things on my side here are getting exciting too as I'm rebuilding the site and preparing for fresh new content; oh, I'm not done yet, but it's comming along, new design for the page, new version of surrealMyst (at last) and something else I'm readying; it should be nice :p
Until now I'm trying to sleep until realMyst comes out, if anyone has a good method ... :)


***
10/20/2000
The demo is sucking up my time, it's impressive <:) I've passed the day between work and Stoneship. Why ? Because this game is great? yes, of course, but there's something new about the "fly mode" we were talking about. It's been pointed on the Rivenguild's board that there actually is a way to go up and down =) The trick is this one:
"In the Game_init.dat (open it with notepad or whatever) look for the word 'gravity' (about a page down), I set it a 90, since at first it is at -90, but depending on your computer you may set it higher, personnally I had to put it at 160.." The exact value rely on your computer's hardware, basically try values until you get something correct and it should work (not to high or you will float up to the sky and will not be able to go down : p ) Now, to go up look down, and to go down look up, I know this is strange, but remember thats all this was not intented by Cyan, so it is already great that we can do this at all :) Enjoy!
Don't hesitate to mail me if you get problems experimenting this.

-Here are two new wallpapers I made while floating around Stoneship, they began as simple screenshots, and end up, well, like this:

I'm not totally happy withthem, so maybe I'll touch them a bit, we'll see.
Enjoy

***
10/19/2000
So, what's up? first realMyst has gone Gold, yes, just yesterday, and not previously has it had been told :/ but now it is official, so it is great news! =) There even is an official demo, but I bet everyone here know that by now :p So why did you came here for ? SurrealMyst maybe? I talk about it tomorow, don't be affraid; for the moment the current news are:
realMyst Demo: Fly Mode
"To fly in realMyst? whoa! but I would sell my own mother for this!" err eeh.. maybe not, but here is the trick I managed to make:
"Go to the directory where you installed the demo, (default is c:\realMystTest) the go in the \init directory, look for the win_init.dat file, open it with notepad or whatever text editor you want, then at the fifth line change the "RealTimeMin = 4" to "RealTimeMin = 100". Then, a program called ".dni Extractor" by Ken Taylor has been distributd on the Lyst here which can extract the .dni files of the demo, but if you do not want to mess with it just download this file and put it in your init directory. Now start the game, you should be some feet above the ground, go towards the lighthouse, since you are some feet above the ground you will face the floor of the upstairs room, go right into it, you will pass THROUGH it and end up on the other side of the lighthouse. You are now free of the normal 'walk mode' to fly around the island.." That's how I made the screenshots bellow. Enjoy.

let's hope so =)


***
10/18/2000
Hi, very short news to say that there are four wallpapers (resolution:1024*768) I made from the demo,
here they are:

Enjoy

***
10/12/2000
Hi, sorry for the lack of update, but with september coming back, work has been back too, and some time consuming work; I have been beta-testing an adventure game I help designed some times ago, whom I'll tell you more when it is released on stores. Aside this I've got some cool and less cool feedback, most people seems to really like the idea of the project and enjoy the screen hots, but it looks like the red fog bug whose I was speaking of is still here, I have figured out whats wrong so I will upate this; but thats not the point. The point today is:

Piscez pointed out quite an annoying bug which causes the whole island to be in the middle of a thick orange fog :-( Not very beautifull; it coul give some atmosphere but actually it prevents from seeing anything past 10 inches :/ So here is a small fix: here. Just put in in your quake3/baseq3 directory along the myst1.pk3 and it should be fine by now.
Sorry for the annoyance, it will teach me to work a 5am :[

***

09/02/2000
Hi everyone, three weeks whithout an update.. 'bad boy...' Sorry about this, I am on holidays right now, so I m a bit lazy :] Anyway, I've done some work on it, so I will put all this together pretty soon. I have received some very nice mails about my project, I appreciate very much, so I will keep working on it, and I will try to make it a bit quicker so the final thing can comes out before realMyst hits the stores :]
I'll put a new update of the level tomorrow or so, so, stay tuned.

UPDATE: small word to say two great things:
-1st I've just been told -though I havent tryied it myself- that the quake3myst level is supposed to work on Macintosh just right. So I think this is good news, if anyone can download it and try to tell me that would be great :)
-and 2nd I just saw that it also perfectly works on the demo of quake3,so this is good news too. If you want to give it a try you can download the demo at the official site here. and Myst island here
update: there seems to be some problem with the demo, since actually two differents demos had been published and I have only one, grr - More info on this tomorrow..

***

08/11/2000
Here I am, I didnt update as I intented to, but yesterday was my birthday =) so I spent all day eating cake and unpaking presents.. I am now an happy 22 years old boy. And, be careful, I am now armed with a brand new webcam, and as soon as I will have finish configuring it, it is very possible that I flood the page with all sorts of wacky pics :p So be warned..
For the time being, I just receive Cyan's response, so I can now continue to post actual work; but not today. Since Im having some technicall difficulties with the trees, and some sleep delay, I guess it will be for tomorow..
byyye

ps: happy birthday to me :)

pps: I put the file back online, you can find it HERE
and in case some may be interested I just put the readme.txt provided with the file, on line too; which includes much more information such as a FAQ, technical infos and so on. I will put all this content here soon.

***
08/08/2000
Hi all,
It's been some busy days here, and its coming very well, lots of stuff has been added and modified, I made some nicer textures before i get time to make real ones. 'Totally revamped the trees (wow it looks much better now), optimised the polygon count; and above all added a sweet water all around, so you can swim, go into the sukken boat and so on :)
However Im waiting for Cyan's response to continue to post actual playable things.
I thought for the moment I could show some 'behind the scenes' pictures :) so here are two screenshots of the editor (1024*768 pics, 150k) :

I will post fresh screenshots of the island tomorow, it begins to look like something..

***
08/06/2000
I am sorry, but I prefered to put the file off line while I check copyright permissions with Cyan. I hope you will understand.
For the moment I put together some screenshots for everybody to have an idea of what it actually is.



Enjoy.



~ HOME Aloys.