LM: When you are speaking of exploration, interaction comes to mind — things to do that may not be directly connected to advancing the game. What engages the player along those lines in this game?

Rand: That's always an interesting balance. You put things in just to be interesting and the puzzle people gripe. They will say, "I messed with that thing forever to try and figure out what it was and it wasn’t even important!" Then there is the interactive stuff you can achieve with real-time graphics. Besides the fact that the grass always moves in the breeze, this is a real breeze in a real space. So if I open one window and then open the one on the other side, the breeze blows through and has an effect. And it is persistent. So if I open the windows and I leave and come back, I don't have to wonder whether they will be open.

LM: You do notice it intuitively; it just feels right when you walk around this place.

Rand: That is exactly right. You don't even have to think about it, but somehow if it didn't work, you start to get bugged out like it's not a real place. Then there is the balance of story in the game. The important thing is that this is a magic show and in a real magic show, sometimes the story all by itself would sound a little bit stupid. "Oh, so you just made an elephant disappear — now tell me his story." It's like that. There's plenty of entertainment out there on the floor that is story lite. But in adventure gaming, even though the story is integral, I think there are other ways to build story into interactive entertainment than just telling it.

LM: About the music in the game, will Peter Gabriel contribute again?

Rand: No, just Tim Larkin. We have been using him for a long time. He feels as close to this project as anyone, except for myself and Robyn.

LM: Will you have a compilation soundtrack available for this game, like you offered with the others?

Rand: I am sure we will. I don't know what the plans are back at the office, but it would be easy to produce, so yes.

LM: How are you looking on the release date for this fall?

Rand: We are in beta or pre-beta now. Pretty close to trying to get the bulk list down.

LM: Would you see this as a fitting end to this portion of your professional life?

Rand: I am not going to portray this as the best thing since sliced bread. But it is a fitting ending to the story. It's a Myst ending. It is not about the bang as much as the subtleties and the story wrapping up in a way that's effective. So that's a satisfying thing. The bang may be in the way the technology is being used. There are so many features and unique aspects to this that will surprise people. Real-time 3D alone is unique for an "official" Myst game.

LM: Are there days when you miss your time in that garage? Not the setting itself, but the way it was in the beginning, before all the hype and Mystique erupted. Seems like things were so pure for you then.

Rand: They were. But like anything, there is good and bad. When you are in the garage, you are living from paycheck to paycheck and then not always knowing if the next one will be there. There was something about it, though, because when I was working in the garage, I was working at home. There is something good about that — being there with your family and then after dinner going back to work. So I was still with my family. They can see what you are doing and are a part of it. There is also something exciting about not knowing what you are doing; not having a clue about what will happen with it all.

LM: There has been a lot of talk and thought about distribution of games, particularly adventure games. Perhaps the standard publisher model isn't working or it needs some adjustment. What are your thoughts on this?

Rand: Frankly, it seems to go the opposite way. You can't have the boxes [consoles] that are on the front cover of the daily magazines coming out with the capabilities they have, and then develop grass roots or smaller stuff for them. You have to throw 20 or 30 million dollars into your development end to establish yourself in a real business sense. But on the other hand, particularly with the internet and such, there's a lot of room for smaller people to produce scaled-down products for a niche market as well. The adventure market in particular is a dilemma, because as much as I like that, I am not sure what all that category encompasses. The economics don't allow for the huge 30 million dollar development costs. So it's not the epics that are in the adventure category. But maybe that's okay. Maybe the independents in that regard will join.

LM: There are scaled down games coming and some are really quite good. But you still want to see a few games at least that are ambitious and try to have a wider reach, and that is what I am wondering if we will still see in the adventure genre sense.

Rand: I still think there is room for innovation. Whether or not yesterday's adventure category is up for grabs, this is what I call that story-driven category — where it's not that the story is attached to the gameplay; it is where the gameplay is wrapped around the story, and adventure occurs within that frame. I do think there's a place for that and a way to do that. It is one of the things that a blank slate makes possible. But there are no guarantees on that. It is a risky business. Nobody is going to throw huge amounts of money at it. But maybe some of the smaller stuff will click and when it does, money will gravitate towards it.

LM: Thank you so much for sitting down with us today. Any last words?

Rand: It may feel like an ending… but it never really is. It is always a new beginning as well.