Make: Technology on Your Time Volume 08

The Secret History of MYST

Co-creator Robyn Miller reveals why it became the best-selling adventure game of all time.

“HOW DID YOU MAKE MYST?” This has to be the question we still hear the most. So we begin to talk about the production: how we created mountains out of grayscale grids, or how we attempted to create a sense of detail using textures instead of geometry. But typically people are not overly interested in these things. What people usually want to know is, “How did you come up with the ideas for a game like Myst?”

I’m always left fumbling for a sound-bite answer to this question. Something quick and easy like, “Designing a world like this is largely an intuitive process ... we made decisions because they felt right.” And although this ...