ADJUNCT to the Moon Town Podcast, FEB 23, 2008
Character Based Design in Myst and Riven
(Myst ©1993, Cyan, Inc. and Broderbund. Riven © 1997, Cyan Worlds, Inc., and Red Orb. All Rights Reserved.)

In the original Myst, on Myst Island there doesn't appear to have been a unified character-based approach to the visual design as a mish-mash.



Sirrus' Throne Room in Mechanical Age shows Sirrus' affinity for the finer things in life. It also shows his affinity for the color red. These two attributes differentiate Sirrus' rooms from his brother's.



Sirrus' Room in Stoneship Age really shows that Sirrus likes the best of everything. What else does a room like this tell you about the person who owns it? Would you expect much humility from Sirrus?



By contrast, Achenar's throne room shows the coarser brother's preference for weapons, chains and the color blue.



In Riven, the environments took on flavors of several different characters or group of characters. This Rebel Hive in the Moiety Age of Tay is an example of one of the incredible Ages Catherine (Katran) was able to write. It suits the Moiety as a refuge from Riven, at once similar to and different from the stucco huts in which the Rivenese lived, and it shows Catherine's Age Writing prowess.



This area of Riven's Jungle Island shows the pod-like stucco houses of the native Rivenese.



The height of character-based design in Riven is the multi-faceted portrait of Gehn the game paints. This shot outside his lab hints at Gehn the Scientist while also showing Gehn's Western mentality, taming every inch of this tropical wilderness. There are walkways like this everywhere in this game, and although they are key elements in an adventure game like Riven - since the game was pre-rendered, and there would be no way to render every view of the world, and therefore you have to corrall the player - there is no mistake where these walkways came from. It is clear from their design that they are a product of Gehn's tame-the-world (or even pave-the-world) aesthetic.



The prison Age where Gehn had imprisoned Catherine shows two things. First, Gehn thought nothing of spoiling the natural beauty of this idyllic environment with his ugly metallic structures. Second, he plainly cut down what must have been a glorious tree to do it. If you keep your eyes open during the course of gameplay, you will also learn that Gehn cut that tree down to spite his son Atrus and his beloved Catherine. This makes Gehn all the more the monster.



Not content simply to rule through fear and intimidation, Gehn built temples to exalt himself and the D'ni society he so desired to rebuild. This room is a typical grandiose monument to himself. The cage in the middle of the room is rigged to show a holographic image of Gehn the Man who would be God.



Gehn put a network of MagLev transports all over the islands. This is as much a product of gameplay - getting the player from island to island in an efficient and ain't-it-cool manner - as it is a product of Gehn's attempts to impose order on top of chaos.

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