Myst V: End of Ages - Development

Development

Robyn and Rand Miller, Myst's creators, had initially decided against creating sequels to 1997's Riven. However, the publishing rights to the series later transferred to Ubisoft, who commissioned two sequels: Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation. Myst V: End of Ages was officially announced at the 2005 MacWorld Expo by Myst and Riven's developer, Cyan Worlds. In the announcement, Cyan stated that the game would be the final installment in the series.

Whereas most previous Myst titles had forgone 3D graphics rendered in real-time in favor of interactive prerendered environments, Rand Miller decided that technology had advanced to the point that End of Ages could use real-time graphics without sacrificing player immersion. "Over the years the Myst games have become increasingly sophisticated, culminating in Myst V, where we offer striking graphics that players can walk smoothly through," Miller stated in an interview. Miller emphasized that the goal of the game remained for players to become immersed in Myst's alternate worlds.

A focus in development was to make End of Ages more accessible than previous Myst games, which had often stymied uninitiated players with their puzzles. Learning from the control scheme used in another real-time Myst game (a remake of the original entitled realMyst), Cyan decided to develop multiple control methods to allow new players to quickly learn the controls, as well as provide a familiar interface for franchise veterans. Esher's experiences with the player's quest allowed a hint system to be built into the story. Miller wanted to make a significant change from previous games in the series, in that the player's actions decide the fate of the characters. When asked about the ending, Miller explained, "The future of civilization is down to this point, and the choices you make determine where it goes."

Myst games had typically used chroma key to insert footage of actors into digital backgrounds. The models of End of Ages's characters were instead computer-generated, but Cyan did not want to lose the warmth and feeling provided by using a live actor. Instead Cyan created a contraption mounted to the actor's faces that captured video of the actor's faces while they spoke their lines. The video was then manipulated and used as a facial texture which was mapped onto the 3D characters, and the facial movement was also tracked and used to animate the faces of the characters in-game. Motion capture of the body was also used to ensure lifelike movement. Cyan staff were worried that the audio synching for animation would not be finished in time for the E3 unveiling of the game, but were happy with the end results. Critical reaction to game previews and impressions at E3 was highly positive. Miller was relieved, stating that when the mostly shooter game-dominated showcase declared that End of Ages might be the best game in the series, "That feels good".