[Interview] What Makes Riven Different Than Other Games?

[@Otisdub]

Thank God you've returned. I need your help.

[@jdng86]

Riven's different because it's only got five, maybe six puzzles tops and the rest is just figuring out how the world works normally, this isn't a complaint.

[@PikaLink91]

Rand got deep with that tee cup analogy at the end there, but I totally get him. Everything has a history. Whenever I explore old buildings where stuff has been left in a certain place, I look at those objects and think "What's your story? Who put you there and why?" (talking to the object like it's a person)

[@recoveringsoul755]

I always worry about the single shoes found on the road, usually child sized. So sad

[@PikaLink91]

@@recoveringsoul755 I wouldn't worry too much. Kids lose their footwear, clothing, and accessories all the time. Trust me, I work at a kindergarten.

[@JaneXemylixa]

I have the same brainwave sometimes in the sense of "everything handmade was somebody's design project". If a tea cup has a handle shaped in a certain way, it has a certain diameter, height, color of glaze, etc. - someone has discussed it and come to the decision that this was the best choice for certain reasons.

[@halfdragoness8767]

As I was listening to him describe that I realised that has shaped my thinking. I watched my mum playe Riven when it came out (I was 7) and I tried to play it too but couldn't grasp the puzzles at that age, but when I moved through the space of Riven I really had this sense of... Someone put that there for a reason, someone built this, there is history here and there were people here, and there are stories here that I can't fully understand but I know they happened. Whenever I've designed anything as an adult it's always with that same mentality that there is no 'set dressing' everything that is in my designs has a reason for being there.

[@recoveringsoul755]

@@PikaLink91 it's not always a wholesome outcome

[@MdGuardian1032]

I still remember the awe and amazement 13 year old me felt when I first heard that cage slam shut, when I first "clicked" out of that cage and explored Riven 27 years ago. You recaptured that feeling when I stepped out of the cage again. Only this time I actually stepped out of the cage; I turned looked out, and out across to jungle island, I peeked behind the telescope and behind the fissure, I walked up the steps to the rotating room. You took me back again, and it was amazing... with a fresh twist or two here and there. Thank you so much.

[@basic-decaf]

The original was highly impactful for me when I played at ~8 years old and never completed it. The puzzles seemed godlike in their designs. I played it again after graduating from college and I was blown away when I began to really solve them. But this time I genuinely got goosebumps that can't even compare. It felt so immersive and real from first setting foot. The lighting and shadows and textures are simply perfect, the realism is unparalleled. Peering over the edge of the cliffs with parallax and seeing the rifts in the ocean was jaw dropping, after reading about them in the journal. It blew me away.

[@Nero_Jero]

Best puzzle game ever made, no question.

[@FenPhoenix]

The thing that most stood out to me about Riven '24 is the painstaking respect for the original world in both the things it keeps the same and in the things it changes. Not a single change felt jarring. When I think of '24 vs. '97, they just feel like slightly alternate universes, both fully formed. The changes feel so perfectly integrated that I bet new players wouldn't even be able to point out what changed. And not to mention of course that the world in general has stunning fidelity to the original. It almost doesn't even feel "remade", it feels like someone sprinkled magic dust on those old images and they just sprang to life. Incredible work. This game was made with love, that's for sure!

[@henningKO]

I just started replaying last weekend and finished the happy ending last night. Perfect timing! So much about my taste in games comes from this one hitting me when I was 16... thanks for the re-release, Cyan.

[@SystemStarArt-2016]

I have severe dissociation, did, derealisation and so on, and nothing is really real but these worlds 'games' like Myst and Uru give me such connection, and i dont even have vr. So thank you for creating these pieces of art!

[@nickmosca1718]

Will there be a developer walkthrough video and/or dlc that describes the technical/story-based backstory of the game as it is played? That would be amazing!

[@amarug]

The World Building in Riven was and still is, out of this world, literally. I still see it as a place "I went to" as a child, rather than a game I played. I can safely say it had an impact on my life. To this day my engineering presentations have high quality renderings because Riven got me obsessed with 3D modelling and CG. I literally think about Riven like once a week for the past 20 years. ❤

[@massimilianocaputo2074]

With Riven, Randy and the other guys didn't just create a game, they opened a secret chapter in people's mind. A new universe came to us and we had to figure it out. Some of us are still playing the original game every once in a while... I've always wondered if we could whitness a prequel, some sort of "Ages before Myst" game. That would help people to continure living in this otherwise sad world, seriously... Anyway the remake is veeeeery amazing, u guys did a fantastic job. Would b cool to see myst 3 and 4 with this kind of technology. Myst believer since the beginning

[@Divector8]

The Riven remake is my favorite game I played this year. I was super impressed with it!

[@numinousluminary41]

These exact points, that everything in Riven had a reason and a story, is why i made my website "Riven Illuminated" way back when. I was so engrossed and immersed in the world i had to share all the details i had learnt about it with everyone else. Riven has been a part of my core being since that first moment and always will be. I have surround my real life with Riven artifacts and i have filled my mind with lore and integrated it into my philosophies of life in many ways. Still amazes me what Cyan achieved with this. It is the gift that keeps on giving!

[@SibylleLeon]

Yeah, I ended up playing the last 2/3 of it on the PC, but jumping in on VR was incredible. After all these years, to feel like I was actually there... it blew my mind.

[@mattcoe5195]

Riven set the precident and the standard for all the games that sit proudly within this genre. The Witness, Quern, Schizm etc. All great games, all inspired by this wonderful series. Yes Myst laid the foundations but Riven took it all to another level. As they said in the video, there's a real feeling of interconnectivity, a great sense of meaning within the environment. The immersivness in this game is like none other. The feeling that you are not alone in this ancient place, with the presence of Gehn constantly acknowledged.

[@jayceneal5273]

you guys should really release a documentary on this stuff!

[@TheRandomView]

Thank you to everyone at Cyan for my favourite game experiences of all time!

[@jochemr.a.bakker8048]

the soundtrack. All the songs and sounds were such a fantastic immersive experience. I remember sitting in my dark room at 3am and feeling sucked into the world.

[@robertopontone]

The new Riven is my dream game, I own all the other “old” games from the Myst saga. Unfortunately my pc is way underpowered to run Riven 😢

[@SkynetSys0908]

I'm SO HAPPY you guys did this! Very excited to play this tonight with my daughter. She loved the original, too.

[@cfibanez]

One can talk a lot about 3D and VR and environment and graphics and all that. In the end, RIVEN is so strong because it has a very good story behind it. No other game in the franchise (may be Obduction, but that is not a MYST game) comes close to it in that regard. Yes, the graphics are amazing, but a game without a good story will be always weak. Firmament comes to mind in that respect.

[@MuttleyMutter]

Firmament is OK, just not as complex as Riven. More Myst-like in complexity. Nice reveal at the end though.

[@chrisr9764]

There really are no other games that feel like Riven, even the remake manages to capture that same feeling. I never played the original growing up so there’s no nostalgia colored glasses. Sadly I don’t think there ever will be more games like it.

[@ivanbraidi]

Riven is a milestone in gaming. One of the best videogames ever made in history.

[@mit4951]

The Myst series as a whole provided endless intrigue and the world building made me dream of vast secret worlds! It'll always hold the biggest place in my heart! I still listen to Robyn's amazing music compositions!

[@Goland454]

From the original to the remake to any of Cyans games, the atmosphere is part of the experience. I myself love writing & describing worlds & visually Cyan does that & is absolutely phenomenal at it. I’ve always been the curious gamer or watcher. Wondering what’s over there or I look a little past it and see what’s around the corner and I feel like Cyan games feed that curiosity & show you what’s over there & what’s around the corner. Fan for life. 😎🤘🏻🙋🏽‍♀️🥰

[@MuttleyMutter]

Just being able to move around the world gives us that parrallax that Rand was talking about. I don't know how it feels in VR, I'm not that rich :) I do get the same feeling that being able to see the distant views is special, an additional piece of immersion, that works in the flat-screen free motion version. It is a pity that VR doesn't allow you to duck under the gate, or to jump into the minecart. But then that did make for some more thinking. And the Steam achievement that you get if you use your old Riven notes... that made me laugh :) Alan Dicey, yes it's me.

[@saosaoldian6742]

Bought my first Gateway 486 computer in 1997 to play Riven. Welcome back.

[@rogamur]

Riven was great in 1997 so the remake was expected to be too. A creative world both comfortingly familiar yet unlike anything I knew before. It took wonderful imagination to create. It was mysterious, even a little frightening, yet benign, because it was, after all, just a game, right? Tons of cool art, & it's fun to unravel a new language that is not just the shape of sound like our Alphabet, but also includes objects, sound etc.. There's also the intrigue of discovering a lost civilization. VR does make a massive difference, but that's true for every game so it's not what necessarily makes Riven different to other games. I enjoy Riven because it's an interactive, immersive art gallery...& a conversation with a new world, & so, so much more

[@sandrafaith]

I remember playing this with my partner when it was new and being absolutely awestruck by it... hoping to re-experience this remake with the same partner (now spouse) sometime soon. What an experience it was (and will be)!

[@ThePolicenaut]

I wish they made games like this still

[@Freddy-f3i]

You know what's nice is that the team isn't all Uni grads they are genuine guys working on projects they're passionate about ;)

[@DoctorTex]

Despite being a puzzle game, there arent that many puzzles in Riven, and I like that. It focuses more on exploring this living, breathing.....rapidly dying world.

[@koltrasten]

Could not agree more!

[@chromebox]

Any plans for Myst III + VR in the near or distant future?

[@crystalization0928]

I still have my original Riven cd rom. Along with quite a few other pc games from the mid to late 90s .I actually played it few months ago on my lap top and tried getting my kids (23) (15) to see how amazing it is. Along with downloading my zork grand inquisitor but unfortunately they are more into shooting online games.

[@pedazodeboludo]

VR shadow fix please! Love you guys.

[@benjima100]

Will Cyan be going over and remastering Exile in the future?

[@numinousluminary41]

Cyan never held the rights to Exile or Revelation so unless something major changes in that regard we'll likely never see any kind of remakes of those two games.

[@MountainManGamingPSVR]

Please bring this to PSVR2. It's a masterpiece that should be experienced in VR.

[@evanmiller2438]

Riven has always felt like you were dropped into a world that was alive and you had to figure out how that new world works. In a lot of ways it felt like being dropped on an alien planet or even traveling to a foreign country where the culture is very different from your own, but you have to figure out how that culture works with context clues alone. It has always felt like a complete experience, similar to how a great film feels like it does everything to immerse you. The sounds, the music, the visuals, the story, the acting. In a time where games felt artificial, Riven felt real to me as a kid. It was my escape.

[@trapez77]

The original version of Riven is the greatest game/experience of all time. I prefer the more limited views of the original because it makes seeing something at a different angle or seeing an animation, a reward in itself.

[@Wheelman_PCAS]

Would you say it’s worth getting the new one for the VR experience?

[@trapez77]

@ yes

[@lrochfort]

The point about being able to move around to get a sense of scale is interesting. However, I do wonder about what comes with that freedom. In the original every single image was carefully composed to deliberately show you something, as intentional as the placement of the cup Rand talks about. I wonder how they managed that change.

[@Alahmnat]

Still haven't gotten over GD's Riven beard... 🤣

[@PacNW]

Agree! Can't wait to see it turn gray, then he will truly be GD. 😊

[@hasso9]

Where do I find the full interview?

[@crystalization0928]

PLEASE When is Firmament getting released to PS4? !!I thought fall 2024 but havent heard or seen any updates since May. I keep checking cyan website and on here but i only see videos about firmament from 1 year ago. I understand Riven rerelease is exciting but ive been waiting for years for Firmament on PS4 since my computer doesn’t have nearly any of what it needs to run the game.

[@harounalkanderi5128]

PSVR2 PLEASE PS5 PLEASE

[@NeoRazor]

What makes Riven different is its amazing Live-action filmed sectio--ouuhhh....uh...woops. I guess you lost those. Well at least we can still play the original.

[@crunchbar777]

that guy Andrew has a deep voice, he should do some voice work

[@12345gerrard]

This interview was unreal engine!

[@Finger112]

Nah it was "Rivening".

[@jimyhf4]

Riven for iPad please?

[@MichaelM28]

PS5 Release PLEASE!!! 🙏🙏🙏

[@MarquisDeSang]

its not on ps5 and not psvr2

[@ALEakaKorwin]

Fix subtitles please.

[@F.R.B.Synths]

🫀🫀🫀

[@filouk2]

Agree with most things but please stop talking about this "new generation of players" marketing crap. Back then when I played Riven at the age of 14, intellectually lazy kids already existed. What used to set Riven apart was precisely that you didn't care about making your game mainstream. I wish the firemarble puzzle had been modernized while keeping its challenging aspect, and I wish you had not removed these iconic wooden spheres. Sound was what used to set Myst and Riven apart. You removed the sound component in Riven's Big Puzzle, which is a great empoverishment. You say that nothing is here just for the sake of decoration but now what's the point in listening to the Sunners or Ytrams?... Why use the Star Fissure for local transportation, while the Link provides for everything we can dream of, and the Fissure was supposed to be wrapped within that mysterious aura?... And why would the so careful Moietys take the risk to leave the key to Tay, i.e. the lens, in open area? Amazing game yes, for sure, but a few questionable choices.