New Directions

We’ve been spending a lot of time discussing our little project, and we’ve come to the conclusion that re-making Riven in 3D just isn’t what we want to be spending our time on. There doesn’t seem to be enough support from the Myst community in general for the project to be worth it. So we’re officially canceling The Starry Expanse Project.

That being said, we’d like to announce two projects that are, at this point, well under-way and nearing the beta testing stage! We hope you’ll have as much fun playing them as we’ve had putting them together.

The first is a game born from a brainstorming session about how to broaden the appeal of Riven, and make it more palatable to the general public. 59 Volt Entertainment presents the first-ever screenshot from Riven: Stranger’s Wrath:

You can play as the Moiety, or as Gehn’s supporters (pictured). There will be the usual assortment of guns, knives, and grenades, as well as traditional Rivenese weapons, and Gehn’s poison dart rifle. We plan on having some really great competitive online gameplay, via Xbox Live. The great part about this game is that we can actually continue to use the assets we’ve already produced, and just port them all over to Source!

The other project is a bit riskier, but we think that it will be a big hit as well. Say hello to Riven: The Board Game:

Also check out the really big version.

After spending the past few months designing the boards, writing up the rules (we managed to trim it down to about 550 pages), and extensive playtesting, I can tell you that this is a seriously fun game. If you liked the Myst board game, you’re going to love this one. The average game lasts between six to twenty hours, and is playable by up to 25 people! The final game is going to be printed on this really high-quality glossy cardboard, but for beta testing we’ll just put up pdfs for you to print out.

Check back here over the next few weeks for more updates on these two!

Edit: Yes, this was an April Fool’s joke. Starry Expanse is still in production, and the two games described below are not. That being said, if you want to work on Riven: The Board Game, send Zib and e-mail at zib@starryexpanse.com 😀