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Myst creators reach $1.2 million funding goal for Obduction
Obduction, the upcoming first-person adventure game from Myst creator Cyan Inc, has reached $1.2 million with its fundraising campaign. The project is being built with the strengths of Myst and Riven in mind - players will be abducted by an artifact and placed upon a bizarre world with a minimalistic explanation. Answering questions beyond that is up to the players. The project's Kickstarter page explains that "even the toughest puzzles should be designed so that you know that all the pieces to solve it are there in front of you." Those pieces may indeed be present, but if Obduction is to be anything like Cyan's previous works, grabbing a notebook and forming a team amongst friends to persevere might not be a bad idea. Windows and Mac users will be among Obduction's targets, once it begins kidnapping people in "mid-to-late 2015."
New games flood App Store before impending holiday release freeze
The App Store is in constant danger of new release bombardments, sure, but many companies adhere to a regular, weekly bombing run beginning each Wednesday, through the wee hours of the night (UTC), dropping their new iPhone and iPad games on Apple's marketplace while many of us are snoozing. Last night was no exception -- actually, scratch that. It was exceptional! Pending the start of the "iTunes Connect Holiday Shutdown" next Thursday -- a six-day lockout period when developers will be unable to release or update apps, including games -- an army of companies, armed with their big holiday releases (for little iDevices), launched a massive attack on the App Store last night. What began as a few warning shots yesterday grew into a full-on assault, led by Gameloft's crisp clones, NOVA 2 and Shadow Guardian, and Square Enix's surprise (and apparently rushed) port of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Even Sega couldn't resist launching a few more classics in Altered Beast and Sonic Spinball. And what's this ... Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3? Hey, if Street Fighter IV worked ... Pursue our complete list of new release highlights after the break, and then make double-sure "Santa" knows you've been good enough for an iTunes gift card this year.
Riven: The Sequel to Myst now available for iPhone
Riven, the sequel to Cyan Worlds' bestselling game Myst, is now available on the App Store. The original version of Riven came out in 1997 for multiple systems and was widely acclaimed; 13 years later, Riven has an opportunity to reach an entirely new audience of gamers. In August of 2008, Cyan announced that they'd port Myst to the iPhone, and it became available in July of 2009. Following the success of the original Myst on iOS, we heard back in February that Riven would be coming to the iPhone "by early summer at the latest." In Cyan Worlds' defense, they didn't say which hemisphere's summer they were talking about... Riven is available for US$5.99 and is a huge download -- it's over a gigabyte, and due to iOS installation quirkiness, the game requires 2GB of free space before it will install on your iOS device of choice. Riven also has Game Center integration, but there doesn't appear to be an iPad-specific version of the app available. I never played the original version of Riven, but for six bucks I might give it a look... assuming I can find room for it in my monthly download cap, that is.
Riven coming to iPhone
Here's great news for Myst fans with iPhones -- a port of Riven will be available this year. According to a post on the Myst Online Forums, the game is in development and will be released "...by early summer at the latest." Just in time for gaming at the beach! Riven is the sequel to Myst, the adventure game that revolutionized the industry when it was first released for the Mac in 1993. The goal of Myst is to solve a series of complicated puzzles and ultimately answer the question, "What's going on here?" Riven is the sequel to Myst and describing its plot would reveal spoilers for both, so we'll let you play it for yourself. Myst for iPhone was released last July to the praise of the game's dedicated fans. I've played both the Mac and iPhone versions, and am happy to say that the iPhone port is faithful to the original while the touch interface adds a whole new level of fun (don't click on that lever, go ahead and touch it!). With that in mind, I expect an equally pleasant experience with Riven for iPhone. Of course, they'd both be gorgeous on the iPad (and huge -- the iPhone build of Myst is 533MB!), but we're getting ahead of ourselves. [Via Touch Arcade]
GoG weekend sale: Myst, Riven and The Manhole for $14
If you've been sitting around, staring at the ceiling and wondering what you're going to do this weekend, you may be interested in the GoG.com weekend deal. It's a bundle of three Cyan Worlds games, all for under $14 -- a 25-percent savings. You'll get Myst: Masterpiece Edition, Riven: The Sequel to Myst and The Manhole: Masterpiece Edition. All three games recently arrived on the DRM-free service, ready to show you just how out of shape your brain's logic center and not-getting-lost-in-Myst's-maze cortex are. The sale lasts until Monday, January 25 at 11:59PM ET.
GOG.com gets Cyan Worlds' Myst games
If you consider the daily crossword puzzle a suitable mental exercise routine, then, buddy, you've got it all wrong. That's child's play for baby brains and yours needs a bit more stimulation than that. Thankfully, GoG.com is here to put a few wrinkles in all the right spots, as it's announced Cyan Worlds' beloved Myst series is coming to its library of DRM-free titles.You can actually check out Myst: Masterpiece Edition right now for $5.99, but you'll have to wait a bit for Riven: The Sequel to Myst and The Manhole: Masterpiece Edition -- the latter of which is admittedly not part of Myst canon, but comes from the Myst creators and should interest fans nonetheless. Both will also be priced at $5.99 and can be yours "soon."
