>Myst is the bestselling pc game of all time
>Cyan made hundreds of millions
>broke by 2005

Many such cases actually

>>11833803
At least their HQ was cool

Frankly it's one of the few examples of "lightnings in a bottle" in vidya. It was a very short time when prerendered CGI was still impressive, and point and click games were not yet obsolete.

>make a ton of money off popular thing
>can't follow it up
>keep spending to try to generate another hit
>lose everything
>Myst gets rereleased
>barely anyone even remembers it existed

>>11833836
Yeah, the very short time from 1993 to 2003.

>>11833837
Cyan still exists

>>11833840
>can't afford 12 employees
It's over.

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/myst-developer-cyan-worlds-has-laid-off-half-of-its-workforce

>>11833839
By 2003 no one was impressed by prerendered stuff.

>>11833845
Stunning pre-rendered games were coming out as late as 2002 with Resident Evil Remake. FFX and Onimusha were in 2001. Yes, everyone was impressed. That is why I said 2003, because they kind of just stopped making them.

>>11833837
Riven was superior to Myst though, cyan went broke the same reason the entire adventure game genre did
Gamers had moved onto real time fast action oriented 3d games namely FPS by the end of the 90s
Adventure games became a niche
Myst games required a good deal of artistry and tech compared to most FPS games so it's not surprising they went broke since it was literally the only thing this developer had
Their sole cashcow became outdated and so they went broke
A major misstep of theirs was investing so much into the Uru MMO thinking this was going to be a hit when it was a complete failure

>>11833801 (OP)
Much like people who win the lottery, when most people are given a massive amount of money in a short time they tend to waste a bunch of it on dumb shit. Cyan did this and probably spent half the myst money on stupid ass shit before realizing hey we might need to make another game, they then wasted all the rest of the money on Riven, as a matter of fact they wasted so much money on Riven there's almost no way in hell it could have made a profit, yet it did. Now Cyan feels like they are unstoppable and went even more insane with their spending. You can guess how that went. It's amazing they never went completely under if I am honest, and they eventually got smart after nearly biting the dust

Meanwhile, Blue Prince came out in 2025 and is the finest puzzle game I’ve ever played - yes, even better than Myst and Riven.

Even now in 2025 there are opportunities in the puzzle genre; they just kept fucking up back then. But Riven, Myst 3, and even to a certain extent Myst 4 are all enjoyable. Everything after that was….. regrettable.

>>11833896
>procgen slop
>better than Myst and Riven
Fuck off back to /v/.

>>11833801 (OP)
myst 3 remake never ever? I'm glad they've managed to remake riven cuz it's one of the best things I've ever played for sure.

>>11833917
Sorry the truth hurts. This is coming from someone who played the original Myst back on Saturn and loved Riven on PC and eventually conquered Myst 3 on my PS2. So I have been in the trenches.

And I was never as obsessed with those games as Blue Prince. It’s one of the finest games ever made. Cope and seethe, won’t change the facts

>>11833848
>Resident Evil Remake
>Stunning
Yeah, sure thing buddy

They spent years trying to make an MMO (Uru), I think that's where all the money went

>>11833862
I never got the appeal of Riven. Everything looked brown in it. At lease Myst had some variety.

>>11833896
Blue Prince is big long indie fart. It starts off amazing - then like a fart it becomes worse and worse and wastes tons of your time in the process.
The actual modern puzzle game that absolutely destroys Myst is The Witness

>>11834391
Lolno. People are retarded, that's why it's a 92 on Metacritic. I'd say the game isn't even as clever or well-written as The Talos Principle. But it tugs at the heartstrings a bit because of the mother character, which is the actual reason why people like it

>11834686
Has contrarianism gotten so bad that we're saying REmake looks like shit for a 2002 game now?

>>11834686
It looks objectively phenomenal.

>>11833836
>point and click games were not yet obsolete.

People still like them. Especially chicks. Not a big fan of indie pixel shit myself desu

>>11833845
I was, I always thought Myth looked really damn cool in 2003-2004. Never got a chance to play it though as I was like 10 at the time

>>11833815
Does anybody do shit like this anymore? Everything seems so corporate now. I would post a picture comparing old and modern McDonalds but that's not VR so have a picture of Nintendo's headquarters from 1989 instead.

>>11835681

>>11833862
>Myst games required a good deal of artistry and tech compared to most FPS games
art yes, tech no. they were pretty slideshows, using pre-rendered 3D made with expensive machines that some film makers used too.
best selling and most iconic FPS game were cutting edge tech that had to render nice graphic in realtime, not just slideshows.

graphic adventure games dominated only because they didn't have much competition back in the day.

>>11835681
>mcdonalds 2corpo
nintendies building literally looks like a generic factory.

>>11835838
i hate valve/steam and its fat basterd owner, but its office's got SOUL.

>>11835947
When Myst was released, there were no FPS games with "nice graphics".

>>11835681
most of them were pretty boring. Id Soft was a soul glasscube.
at least SEGA used to have giant picture of a pinball machine?

can't find anything from smaller corpos like Apogee the Shareware guys.

>>11835952
yes they lacked competition. then Unreal and Quake happened.

>>11835968
>most of them were pretty boring. Id Soft was a soul LESS glasscube.
at least SEGA used to have A giant picture of a pinball machine?

>>11835947
>graphic adventure games dominated only because they didn't have much competition back in the day.
Not even close. They didn't dominate anything, they were popular but so was Wing Commander, Ultima, and Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Graphical adventure games had popularity since most people didn't have easy access to walkthroughs. Making progress was mostly trial and error, trying new things, and talking with friends who played. Once you could hop online and get every answer you needed, only people with good self control would still slowly digest the games. Everyone else just downloaded the answers and played through once and then moved onto the next one.
Back in the pre-internet era, part of the appeal of puzzle games and RPGs was that they weren't games you were going to beat in a week or so. If you played a lot of games, then you were probably good enough to git gud at your average action game and beat in a week or month tops. A game that still had content you hadn't seen after a month was pretty attractive. Once you could play through the entire game in a day or two with a walkthrough handy, they lost their luster.

>>11834704
….are you implying you find farts are amazing at first? And it only “wastes your time” in the sense that it gives you challenging puzzles to solve. By the ‘end game’ you should have mastered the rng and purely be solving the big mysteries. The only legit criticism of it I’ll accept is that the current “end” feels like it falls woefully short of what it should be.

>>11834713
Maybe you’re the retarded one since you disagree with literally everyone else? Sorry you lack the intelligence to play and solve Blue Prince.

>>11835947
Weren’t the first Cyan games like Myst and The Manhole originally done in HyperCard and, later, QuickTime?

>>11836240
Farts are amazing at first, yes. Are you implying they aren't? Sorry to be you, must be depressing everytime you fart. Once the fart goes on long enough then you know something is wrong, so yes it was a perfect analogy

>>11836240
The puzzles are mostly terrible in Blue Prince. It only exposes you as a dumbass, possibly zoomer if you think that game is an all-timer

It's a game that could've been an all-timer, if they actually delivered on the execution of it

>>11835681
Rare HQ

On this day, anon's worldview was shattered when he discovered that office buildings look like office buildings instead of like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

>>11835950
He's not even fat anymore.

BREAKING: it's over.

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/myst-developer-cyan-worlds-is-making-more-layoffs

>>11836567
nigga got AIDS

>>11838013
I think he was just forced to realize that he wasn't gonna be very long for this world if he was gonna continue being fat as fuck like he used to be.
He's in his 60s now, does he want the strain on his aging heart that is living as a ham planet?

>>11833801 (OP)
>make hundreds of millions
>give each employee a few million so they are set for life
>keep some money for the company
>have employees make games without worry
What was stopping this from happening?

>>11838026
Greed, lack of forethought.

>>11838026
That's a pretty cool idea, though I would try to set up half of the money for all the guys as a fund which would be used to primarily provide for things like rent, food, medical expenses, car expenses, etc, to make sure they don't burn it all in one go.

>>11835947
Myat was successful because, in addition to looking pretty, it told an original fantasy story and immersed you in the slide show. Gameplay wise it was a puzzle adventure game, but all the puzzles were logical. The only trial and error was seeing what button did what. Not whatever outlandish whim the dev wanted to throw in to show you a joke.
Puzzle games are still made and popular today, examples shown in this thread.

For cyan: obduction is really good.

>>11838030
This is the way to do it.

>>11833803
>>11833837
It's the same thing that happens with musicians and athletes. At some point the money stops coming in for most of them.

>>11837458
Most devs are overstaffed anyway.
Don't really know what Cyan could do to make another hit. Only thing I can think is "something different".
Or a different monetization model. I like their big pretty point and clicks, but it's niche now. Something snappier for phones and tablets maybe. Lower level of player commitment per play time.

Dunno

>>11837458
>is making more layoffs
ESLs402s

Why is she such a little cunt, bros? What did I ever do to her?

>>11838026
>What was stopping this from happening?
they were running a studio
so a lot of money prolly gets re-invested in game development, which is stupid expensive, and takes time. and sometimes often those expensive games totally flop and make you literally zero monies.
suddenly you got no money, and no prospects, but youre still supposed to pay everyone that works there
so you take on debt to keep the lights on.
couple rounds of that and it doesnt matter wtf you made, nor how much it sold: its ogre
if youre lucky and have a strong enough IP, maybe someone might buy you out. but thats usually a kiss of death in its own right see: bethesda

now idk if thats what happened in cyans case in particular, but id bet it was part of it, without even looking.
AAA game development is kind of an inherently all-or-nothing gamble. and the odds ARENT great even in the best of times. you gotta swing for the fences every time, and pray you dont miss too many times in a row

>>11838284
I didn't mean to post this here, now I can't delete it. Please ignore.

>>11838068
>logic
doubts. Space Quest series was full of nonsense, but it somehow survived for a long time. Likewise for the Leisure Suit Larry series.

>>11838021
Losing weight is based, but he just looks like he has GRIDS now. Guy needs some muscle.

>>11838426
Leisure Suit Larry's entire series sold less than Riven, let alone Myst. Maybe less than Myst 3.
People don't like moon logic. Those games were saved by their humor.

Myst puzzles are all completely logical once you figure out the mechanics of the world. Even if the world itself doesn't make a lot of sense - the spinning room in Riven comes to mind. But once you see the room soon you go "oh, it can line up x and y ways but not z and u..."

Which is why used copies of Myst come with shit like pic related. You can logic the whole game out. Riven did it even better imo, with intuitive ways to teach the base 5 number system and all.

>>11838103
Here's a wild and crazy idea, stop aiming to make giant sized point and click games.
Indie games made by a few people blow up all the time. Mobile gaming is as big or bigger a market than consoles and PC's. So instead of making a traditional massive point and click game, make a smaller point and click game designed specifically for playing on smartphones and their small screen. Make it auto-save progress the moment it loses active status(player turns screen off, switches to do some texting, make or get a call, etc), and auto-resume on being brought back up. Keep the puzzles simple and self-contained, to help keep the game pick-up-and-play in nature.
Cyan could be printing money if they targeted the audience that would enjoy their games the most, instead of trying to pretend it's still the 90's and graphical adventure games are best sellers.

>>11833801 (OP)
>>Myst is the bestselling pc game of all time

Is this even true?

>>11838434
True. I've never been as fat as Peak Gabenfat, but I should shed some of this fat and build some muscle.

>>11838898
I agree. They did release old game for iPhone ages ago and sold well. Should have been an indicator.

>>11838905
It was for a decade. The Sims overtook it in 2002 or some such.
Don't know what is now. Games aren't even sold the same way now. Can't compare fortnite to unreal tournament in terms of sales.

>>11839029
>Don't know what is
Oh, fucking duh.
It's Minecraft

>>11838898
offtopic already. >>>/vmg/ they literally do made causal ass puzzle game for free on Google's store. they're full of cancerous ads and my mom and fat hag neighbour plays them.
those MIGHT make money. but they're absolute cancer. some go as far as add pay-to-win or even "stamina" points in those games. fucking horrible idea and many many horrible devs already tried it.

the shitty Flash games of the past had less ads AND some actually had excellent quality... but flopped anyway. at least the paid ones i knew of, which were made in Flash.

>>11835950
>i hate valve/steam and its fat basterd owner
i will now forever associate fat gabe insults with this /v/ pasta

>>11841013
Damn, someone was angry at Gabe.

>>11841013
Man, he sure is angry. Also, Gaben isn't fat anymore, so he'll probably be waiting a lot longer than he thought.