Closing the Book on Riven

The highly anticipated remake of the 1997 adventure classic Riven: The Sequel to Myst was released last week. This was a significant moment for most Myst fans, but it was absolutely massive for me because I’ve been an active member of the semi-official Riven remake project Starry Expanse since early 2011.

Back in 2019 I led the charge to get Starry Expanse fully recognized by Cyan (the developers of both the original and the new remake) and our project was eventually absorbed into the new Riven. Our hard work successfully became a large part of the foundation upon which the new game was built. This was a huge win for us and remains a highlight of my career.

It was through my involvement with Starry Expanse that I was honored to score an invite to the new Riven’s launch. I’m still reeling from the energy and excitement of those jam-packed days under the Spokane sun, although this may also be from the ~38 hours of flights it took to get me there and back. Time will tell!

With Riven’s release now in the rear view mirror the longest ongoing project I have ever taken part in finally comes to an end, and with it also ends a major chapter of my life. In one way or another I have been working on a Riven remake for more than half of my adult life, and even though I knew this day was coming for years it’s still hard to grapple with the fact that it’s over.

You should play Riven

Before I dive too far into my own self-indulgence I just want to unequivocally say that the new Riven is a fantastically well-realized creative and technical achievement that is absolutely worth your time. Cyan remains a titan among adventure game developers, and this is one of the best games they’ve ever made.

If you’re at all curious I highly recommend having a look at some trailers and see if it sparks an interest. Just try not to dig too deep into the comments. There are a lot of new things to discover, even for veteran players, and some of these are all too easily ruined by an over-eager comment section.

Don’t make my mistake. Avoid checking out the accompanying The Art of Riven until after you’ve finished with the game.

Falling into the Starry Expanse

I can’t overstate how much Myst and its bigger brother shaped my life, both personally and professionally. A huge part of my creative career has been spent chasing down that unique liminal aesthetic that the original Myst captures so well, as well as the earthy realism that exudes out of each frame of the original Riven.

Given its monumental influence I suppose it was inevitable that I would find a Riven remake project to attach myself to, although it was only when I saw their Mysterium 2010 demo that I decided to finally reach out to Starry Expanse. Over the years I slowly grew into a leadership role on the project, and as a team we worked diligently on our own Riven remake for over a decade before we were politely but firmly asked to cease development in mid-2019.

A proper history of the project with all of its many ups and downs is currently being collectively written by the Starry Expanse Team, and they remain passionate as ever to share their journey now that the dust has finally settled. I will link to that history in whatever form it takes when it’s ready.

We’re (in)famously sticklers for accuracy and detail so it might be a little while yet before that one sees the light of day.

Why make something that already exists?

“Why are you remaking something that’s already perfect?“

“Do you not have ideas of your own?“

“Why can’t you just admit you’re trying to insert yourselves into Myst’s legacy?“

We would receive comments like this back when the project was more active on social media, and it was always a tricky one to address. It always comes down to what each individual values in a creative endeavor, and this is naturally deeply personal. I’m not going to tell you what you should find important in the things you create.

That said, if you can look past the prickly attitude these comments do follow a valid line of inquiry. It’s something we would ourselves interrogate from time to time to make sure our work was coming from the right place.

I can’t answer for anyone on the team but myself, but for me recreating Riven was simultaneously a way to share a world that means so much to me with people who may never have heard of it, as well as it being an incredibly enticing technical challenge.

I strongly resent the insinuation that a remake has no creative merit, but I understand how one might get to this opinion. I hope it suffices to say that there was a lot of room for artistic freedom within the scope of the Starry Expanse Project, and that we had a lot of fun breaking down Riven’s environments and rebuilding them into an almost completely different medium.

In many ways it was a giant puzzle waiting to be solved, and the Starry Expanse Team loves puzzles.

Why Riven?

There are a lot of amazing yet forgotten games that deserve a second chance in the spotlight. We simply felt Riven deserved it more than most.

There was never really any doubt that if any game merited a remake in realtime 3D it was Riven. Even as Myst was famously remade a number of times over the years, Riven was different – almost sacred. We took the responsibility very seriously.

There’s another angle as to why Riven was a good choice that’s not so readily mentioned. At the time I joined Starry Expanse, Cyan Worlds seemed to be scaling back its operations from the Uru: Ages Beyond Myst days.

Their last two games had been self-published mobile games that didn’t seem to make much of an impact, and there was a real (albeit very speculative) concern that they might not be able to continue making the games we all loved.

I felt a strong energy on the team that this was our opportunity to take our own shot at Riven, and that it would be warmly received as it would provide Cyan with a leg up when they might have needed it the most.

Despite having Cyan’s informal blessing for most of its existence, the team was never ignorant of the reality of copyright law and the shaky legal ground upon which we built our game. We knew from the beginning that we might have been cease-and-desisted into oblivion at any time. We just hoped that by the time Cyan was ready to work with us we’d be far enough along that we could have pushed the game over the line together.

What none of us anticipated was Kickstarter, and the incredible success of Obduction being followed so closely by the over 1100% funded Myst 25th Anniversary celebration. It was a joy to watch Cyan go from strength to strength and start making ambitious adventure games again, even as it significantly weakened our position as the team best suited to handle their intellectual property.

I always felt that Starry Expanse bet against Cyan and lost. As a result the Riven torch was passed, which was a very bittersweet moment for many of us. As fans, in the bargain we also gained Obduction, Myst 2021, Firmament, and the promise of exciting new Cyan projects to come. All things considered, it feels like a pretty good deal.

In defense of an unrealized future

I went back and forth on including this section as I feel like there is little to be gained from speculation and what-ifs, but I also don’t think I’d be doing myself and my team justice if I didn’t plant our flag in the ground and make a fair defense of our work.

It’s my belief that the Starry Expanse could have made Riven, and it would have been a faithfully beautiful game worthy of the name.

We had a long history, much of which was spent growing as artists and developers, exploring different engines, and figuring out just what we wanted to be as both project and team. By the time we were in direct communication with Cyan, however, we had grown from a rag tag group of students and hobbyists into a professional studio environment successfully operating remotely years before that was a normal way of life in our industry.

I would like people to know that we were ready, willing, and able. We just never got the chance to prove it.

On the other hand, I also want to acknowledge that as much as game development can be really hard at the best of times, actually finishing a project is so much harder. Who’s to say if we could have achieved what we had planned? There is no way to tell if it would have turned out anything like the amazing Riven remake that Cyan has so carefully crafted.

At the end of the day there were a lot of ways the Starry Expanse Project could have ended. We tried our best to anticipate them all, and this was always one of the best scenarios. I’m glad things turned out the way they did, although at times I still find it difficult to resist indulging in hypotheticals.

Writing the ending for ourselves

I enthusiastically let the Starry Expanse Project consume most of my 20s, and barring a few exceptions I gave most of what I had to give. As the project ramped up in productivity in 2018-19 the hours I was pulling was well on the level of a second full-time job. It was intense, but it was also incredibly thrilling.

Our contribution to Riven came to an abrupt end in 2019, immediately following a meeting with the Cyan team at their headquarters in beautiful Mead, Washington. We experienced our highest and lowest moments back to back within a span of about 2 months.

Each member of the team has had to deal with this closure in their own way. Some celebrate, others grieve. Most do both. I love and respect them all.

Over the years since we’ve been in regular communication with Cyan, and they have been incredibly respectful to both the team and the work we did. They have treated us as peers, and they didn’t need to be as kind as they were. I hope I’ve effectively shown just how much I appreciate it.

We couldn’t have chosen a more wonderful group of people to presumptuously steal borrow intellectual property from. They’re on their guard now so it’s unlikely we’ll be able to get away with it a second time.

2019 was a rough year for me. I lost two long-term passion projects almost simultaneously (albeit for very different reasons) and it set me back a lot. I was beginning to wonder how many decade-long projects I had left in me if they were to all end up on the cutting room floor. When the new Myst came out in 2021, I didn’t play it. It just made me sad.

I was fully prepared to give the new Riven a miss as well, although I still hadn’t made up my mind when I received an invitation to the launch event. My friends and family helped me recognize this for what it was; a kind gesture and an opportunity for closure.

The one unanswered question I’ve carried with me ever since the Riven torch was passed is a simple one.

Was it all worth it?

Even as I signed the launch night guest book and walked out into the night air surrounded by all these people I’d come to know and respect, I still didn’t have an answer to this question. It wasn’t until I took the time to sit and write all of this down that I finally figured it out.

Looking back over my experiences as part of the Starry Expanse Project, my memories of the long hours spent in asset reviews, project logistics, and endless camera matching have already started to blur. What still remains clear are the people. Those debates into the night over what to do about a specific bridge, the victories and defeats of each and every Mysterium presentation, and those all too few days where I was able to meet some of you in person. Those are the moments I find myself looking back on with nostalgia.

Those were the times that made all of this worth it.

I hope to see you all again one day soon.