LM: Can you go anywhere you want in this world?

Rand: Sure! We are trying to make this a Myst that everyone can enjoy. Quite frankly, I think a lot of people have dismissed previous Myst games because they weren't real-time 3D, because they felt old, because the technology felt like it was slightly winded. But this excuse is gone. At the same time, we don't want to leave people behind, either. It gets so complicated. My parents enjoyed the first Myst game and can't even play many newer games. Well, why not let them enjoy this as much as any other player?

LM: Would you say that was the greatest challenge? Making the game not just accessible in practice, but making the players see the game as accessible?

Rand: Right! That's one of the reasons I think Myst was so intriguing to people, because you were plopped on a dock. You can click and until you hit a wall, why would you stop clicking? It's just click and go, click and go.

The point is you can set people down and they don't have a reason to not keep moving. We also have tried to make it accessible in the plot line. These games have gotten pretty difficult puzzle-wise. A lot of times people were viewing it as a puzzle game versus an adventure game. It is interesting to look at it that way. There are actually two sets of players. One is the people who like to vacation; they just like to explore interesting places. The other ones are the puzzle achievers who like that aspect of the games. Frankly, we left the explorers behind a bit on the previous Myst titles. It is time to go back to them and say, "Let's knock the puzzles down a bit and let the people get to some of these places and explore."

LM: That's good to hear. If you run smack into a puzzle blocking you every time you move, that part of the game is frustrating to many players.

Rand: There is still this balance — puzzle people want them to be harder and it's the same thing they said after Myst: it's too easy or it's too hard.

At this point, we are definitely trying to say we have given the puzzle people harder and harder. Now it is time to give explorers a chance to wander this game before they hit a wall. They just want to click and go. These are beautiful places and if people can't get to them, what good does it do to build them?

LM: How difficult is it to balance the wants of the Myst devotees with the rest of the gaming world? I mean, you have a mixed blessing. A near-fanatical group of dedicated fans, but do they put some pressure on you to have your games stay the same; to not evolve too far from their origins in terms of gameplay and style?

Rand: The fan base has been nothing but good for us. They have never hurt us or held us back that I know of. They are critics the same way we are critics. When Richard Watson and I sit down, we try to think of the continuity issues that they're going to find so that the story doesn't have holes. Sometimes we do take some artistic license, because it is allowed in the characters' life experiences. But most of the time we would complain about the same things that they would. So we might push the story a little bit this way and pull back a little here, but they have always been great.

LM: So what are you going to do with these guys when you're finished? You going to have a home for nervous Mysters in withdrawal?

Rand: *Laugh* Well now, who knows what the future will hold. We have some things still going on. There is possibly a fourth book. Who knows what will happen with that. After people play the game and they see the ending, they will realize, "Oh, well, it is an ending, but of course every ending is also a new beginning." It's not like the world is destroyed and blown up.

LM: I am glad you brought up the fourth book. Is it a sure thing?

Rand: We have got pieces of it done and have outlines done. But we just don't know. Books are not what we do well, but the story is great.

LM: Are there other people in the game? Besides the Bahro creatures, I mean.

Rand: Yes there are. In real-time 3D, it is very difficult to do live action characters. That's not what we wanted to do. So we built real-time 3D characters. We used motion capture to make their movement as realistic as possible. We built real physics into the clock to make it look like they are moving with the world. It was very difficult to get the kind of emotions and subtleties we wanted from hand animating the bones in the face. So we captured video of the actors' performance while they were in the rig and taped a live performance of their faces. Then we projected this onto the head of the character, which gave us a lot more subtlety to their expressions.

If the actors blinked, we even got that movement. You could do it so the person was totally realistic, but then they would stand out rather than blending in. The point is to make it feel like you are there and he's really there. And he's a person who belongs there and not fully rendered. This way he casts shadows and he blends into the environment.

LM: Now, the player's progress in the game... Is it written down by the game somewhere or automatically recorded?

Rand: Instead of making you write down everything in the game, yes, we have a journal as well allowing you to snap photos. Every picture you take is actually a saved game as well. You don't have to use them, though. Frankly, in the game, you don’t need to save at all. You can play through the whole thing without ever using a save. But if you want them, you can make them.

LM: How many levels are in this game?

Rand: We have numerous ages and in a lot of ways this game is reminiscent of the first one as much as anything; where the choices you make in the story pull you in a couple of directions. There will be an age that feels like a hub, where you branch into different places. And they are all huge. I mean, it is amazing to me that we built up what we have in such a short amount of time. These are vast levels. Because we pulled back from the puzzles, it makes you want to get through them a little bit faster. I was asked earlier if I play faster through the game because I know it. Actually, when I know the game, I go through it slower. I just enjoy being in the places. I can go sit by the water. There's a place where you can sit by the water and every now and then there will be a bird that dives into the water. If you don't stop and enjoy that place, you'll never see that.

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