Tag: Doobes

  • August 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    August 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 184th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Guild of Messengers Website
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    Guild of Messengers Website

    Korov’ev reported [a bit too soon, evidently] the loss of the Guild of Messengers news site, and addressed a few immediate repercussions:

    1. the community calendar is based on Google, so the public link is still valid; Bitly-based short URL versions are also available: US, EU, UK, RU, JP.
    2. Raw and cleansed chatlogs since 2016 (and a few from before that) are available from Korov’ev’s Dropbox folder, but perhaps saving them in a wiki could be a better option.
    3. The tutorials about MOULa errors and installing shards on macOS and Linux are being imported into the Guild of Writers wiki; as an added benefit this will allow anyone to update and fix these tutorials, as they have fallen behind the latest developments.
    4. Rel.to admin login depended on the GoMe website, so the Myst-specific URL shortening tool is locked and unchangeable at this point.
    5. AGM summaries, new Age announcements, etc. are in the most uncertain position at the moment; for now they’ll be posted in this subreddit.

    Mysterium

    ☛ The Mysterium 2025 (virtual) shirts are now available in the New Messengers Pub, so grab them while you can!

    ☛ The 2026 edition of Mysterium will be held in Portland, Oregon.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for August is “Bubbles”. Entries for the “End of Ages” prompt for July were from Calum Traveler and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.
    However, due to travel she will skip September’s session. In October, she will show a luscious chocolate cake recipe inspired by suggestions made during post-stream discussions.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 15 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Hungarian Games”. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!
    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Saturday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 18 at 12:00 KIT. The theme for this month is yet to be announced.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on September 13 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Rehn had two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Augur completed the final exam and passed the D’ni 201 class; votahret ah’shem khebahrtahtahvom! He also decided to continue his studies to become a teacher in the Guild, and will be mentored by Shokhootahn Ana.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    D’ni Language Classes schedule (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (#80428). Be sure to include your KI number, so that Rehn can send you a reply!
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • Daytime openings are on Monday to Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday to Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times will be announced via Magic Bot (#27527) or Mimi Bot (#71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the story of young Atrus as told in the novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ This month, the Age Expeditions in Deep Island will visit Pre Swaltu0 by Tolip Ydob, then more ages from 2006: Tyndior, Prad, Ahra Pahts (only the city around the shells), and The Maze.
    In The Open Cave, they will continue the First Journey in Teledahn, Gahreesen and Kadish Tolesa.

    That was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    June ended with the CavFunding at 40% (CavCon 2.4) and the reserve at 618%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, September 6 (Leetahr 24, 9681) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • July 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    July 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 183rd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. OpenUru
    2. Mysterium
    3. Events in the Cavern
    4. Events in the Shards
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    OpenUru

    ☛ Rarified mentioned that OpenUru is 15 this year. They could use a hand helping with administration of the website: it requires some knowledge of the Linux-Apache-Mysql-PHP stack, as well as forum and wiki upkeep. If you are interested, please contact Rarified on the OpenUru Discord server.

    ☛ Work on a unified client for the Minkata constallation of shards, rolling in all the improvements of the H’uru codebase, continues. They are at the stage of testing the client on a private testing server, to iron out any remaining issues. A major update to the MOSS server is also on the drawing board.

    ☛ Both the 2024 and 2025 Mysterium T-shirts should be added to the Ae’gura Messengers Pub later this year. The East Wing of the Ae’gura Messengers Pub is planned to be opened soon-ish.

    ☛ A Sameehn book should soon be added to the Chiso Preniv ring. Pod 12 is still scheduled for release later this year. There are plans to replace some of the harsher announcer lines for the Gahreesen Wall with other, more polite ones, as there have been some complaints over the years.

    Mysterium

    ☛ The schedule for Mysterium 2025 is live, and includes two excursions: on Friday, breakout rooms at Breakout Games, Atlanta/Buckhead; on Saturday, trip to the Georgia Aquarium.

    ☛ Deadlines: guaranteed hotel dates expire on July 9, while premium registration closes on June 16. Writing & Art Table submissions closes July 15.

    ☛ You can find more info on Mysterium on BluSky, Facebook, Discord, and their website.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for July is “End of Ages“, the deadline is July 31. Entries for the “Beach” prompt for May were from Redwoodrroad, TeaL, Talashar, and Calum Traveler.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 7, Skyisblu made ice cream sandwiches, with homemade spice cookies and no-churn vanilla ice cream.
    The Cooking Sessions are on the first Monday of the month at 12:00 KIT, via Twitch, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. You can find past recipes and recordings at Skyisblu’s blog and YouTube channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 11 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Non-human characters in Games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!
    Besides streaming, IwonK is making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge, using Bitsy; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting Ancient Stories, every Saturday at 15:00 KIT in Chiso Preniv, reading folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction.
    Currently they are telling the story of Roman detective Flavia Albia and the mysteries about the unfortunate barmaid Rufia.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 21 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Delightful classical music”.

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will discuss their current book, A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers, in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on July 12 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ PodHopper made three announcements: first, his new websites (podhopper.nl and hoppertunes.nl) are now up and running; if you visit the old ones you will be automatically redirected.
    Second, for this year’s Summer Festival, planned for the week of August 4–10, he would like to showcase activities and events in the Cavern, but also the work involved in how new Ages make it into MOULa. He is asking creators if they would like to contribute a short video about the work they are doing, like Age building and testing. The resulting videos will be presented using a Twitch stream he will set up for the occasion.
    Third, he is also planning a Cone Race event for the Festival, but at the time of writing is just a possibility. The Festival schedule has not been nailed down yet, as soon as it will PodHopper will make it available.

    ☞ For a more complete list of upcoming events, check our calendar. Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

    Events in the Shards

    ☛ Korov’ev reminded the Fan Age Expeditions attendees that the fourth cycle will alternate between Deep Island and The Open Cave (MOUL). In TOS, they will also visit Cyan’s Ages, trying to see them from perspectives a single explorer usually can’t get (e.g. see the Teledahn hut being drained).
    The expeditions are held every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. July 6 and 20 will be in The Open Cave; July 13 and 27 will be in Deep Island. In TOC they will gather in the “Fan Ages Touring Club” Hood. Attendees will get Nexus invites to the particular Age they are exploring, as a sort of ‘public’ instance of that Age.

    ☛ The Open Cave has a website and a Discord server. Deep Island has a forum section on the Guild of Writers’ website. Most events happening in shards are listed in our calendar.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will continue this month with the story of the Fall, which will last for the next 2 weeks. Then, they will begin the story from Myst: The Book of Atrus. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games, as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    Videos now also come with auto translated captions in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. Automatic translation often has trouble with words like “D’ni” or “linking books”, so your mileage may vary 😉

    Story Nights schedule (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (#58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    May ended with the CavFunding at 150% (CavCon 4.5) and the reserve at 682%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, August 2 (Leesahn 25) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • Mysterium 2024

    Mysterium 2024

    The XXV Mysterium was held in Montréal, Canada on July 12–14, with the panels and presentations streamed to both Twitch and YouTube.

    Belford wrote a summary in his blog, giving his perspective on the various updates.

    Friday started with the Opening Announcements with a few words and reminders from the convention chairs.

    ☛ In the Cyan ‘State of the Union’ prerecorded panel Rand Miller, Hannah Gamiel and Eric A. Anderson gave a few updates on their games. While Riven‘s critical reception has been phenomenal, sales have not been correspondly positive. Riven costed “less than 2%” of a AAA game of comparable quality to make; it was a “monumental effort” and they really want to scale down their workload.

    Touching on the design process, they started with drastic redesign ideas, narrowing them them down to only those that directly supported the game experience. They also had to iron bugs and glitches quite close to launch.

    For the immediate future, they will be working on porting Firmament and Riven to more platforms, and improving Myst on the Quest 3. After that, Rand confirmed they have started on a new game in the D’niverse; it will be a new storyline and you will not have to be familiar with the Myst series to play it. They expect to have more to say next year.

    Also, Rand is retiring: with Riven released, he feels it’s the right time to cut back considerably; he will still be involved with advising on game design and such, but not as often and as much.

    ☛ In the Myst Reverse Engineer panel, Jeff Barbi showed how to hack the original Myst (thanks to Uli Kusterer’s HyperCard work), and a few interesting results of editing the HyperTalk source code. The original fireplace puzzle accepted two codes, from page 158 but also page 148. The HyperCard stack was password-locked against editing, but this feature can easily be bypassed with modern tools, and Jeff was able to recover the original password.

    ☛ In the Myst Online Update, a group of fan developers (AgeExplorer, Doobes, DPogue, Harley, Semjay and Yali) gave a few updates on what’s been going on in the Cavern. The writing team is trying a long-term story arc (“Diplomacy”) involving first contact with an unexpectedly inhabited Age. On the open source client front, DPogue has continued to improve the Korman Blender plugin, as well as the MacOS client, which however is not yet ready for testing on the live servers.

    As for upcoming Ages, Doobes and AgeExplorer are still working on the Descent: you can now take the elevator down the Shaft and mostly solve the puzzles there, and walk down the spiral staircase that runs the entire length of the Shaft. Doobes is also working on a major Chiso expansion. Tweek is working on a library Age, a garden homage to Myst, a rework of of Fahets, and a new Neighborhood. Semjay is working on completing one of Cyan’s cancelled Ages for Uru, Venalem, and also on the Explorer’s Emporium. Harley is working on expanding Naybree and on an Age called Rei’schu. Yali is working on a private city area and on UI updates for the client.

    ☛ The rest of the day was dedicated to events that were not streamed. In Uru Live, a devious marker mission ws released (video). For Puzzle Time, Rayne and m13 challenged the participants with a set of devious puzzles. For the Dance Event, Annacat explored the music of the Myst series through dance and creative movement, teaching a simple short choreography.

    Saturday started with a few events that were not streamed: the Mysterium Unconference, an unstreamed set of participant-driven discussion sessions; What Would Catherine Build? (Atrus was too busy this year!), where teams were asked to build something that met certain requirements, and delivered clever presentations for why they built like that.

    The subsequent three panels were all about Myst IV: Revelation:

    ☛ In the Designing Worlds panel, Patrick Fortier (Creative Director & Lead Game Designer), Mary DeMarle (Designer & Writer), Sebastien Yelle (Level Designer) and moderator Katie “Khatie” Postma (Community Manager) discussed bringing Myst IV’s world to life, the creative process, technical challenges and innovative design choices.

    ☛ In the Living Worlds panel, Meinert Hansen (Senior Art Director) and Guy Sprung (Actor for Achenar) shared their experience bringing the worlds and characters of Myst IV to life through visuals, sound, and motion.

    ☛ In the Retrospection panel, Mary DeMarle, Patrick Fortier, Meinert Hansen, Katie “Kha’tie” Postma, Guy Sprung and Sebastien Yellel shared behind-the-scenes insights, stories and the creative processes that brought the game to launch.

    ☛ The rest of the day was dedicated to events that were not streamed. In the Guildmaster event, Taerun assigned the participants a variety of unique tasks to complete.

    ☛ Sunday started with the Myst Documentary panel, where Philip Shane (filmmaker), Katie “Kha’tie” Postma and Joshua Reinstein gave the latest updates and showed some footage of the Riven launch event at Cyan HQ. The documentary is having trouble funding the full production. David Van Taylor was brought in to help with pitching, and Julie McElmurry is helping with production. The working title now is “A World I’d Want To Live In: Myst and the Video-Game Revolution“.

    ☛ The Closing Ceremonies wrapped up this year’s convention, running the prize drawing, and announced next year’s location: Atlanta, GA!

    ☛ After the Closing Ceremonies, attendees joined unofficial excursions to see some of Montréal’s many attractions, including the Biodôme and the Jardin Botanique.

    Thanks and kudos to the Mysterium Committee, who did a great job at organising and managing the event.

    Looking forward to next year!

  • August 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    August 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 160th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. Chiso Preniv
    4. OpenUru
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ Planning for next year’s Mysterium – which will be held in Canada – has already started. The Committee for 2024 will be Dan Binder (Fused Shadow) and Hannah Catherine Mills-Woolsey (Annacat).

    ☛ All of the videos are now available on the convention’s Youtube channel. The 3D model files for the maze boxes and cryptexes, puzzle packets, and other downloadable files are now available on the website, and more items will be added soon.

    ☛ A survey was taken right after the convention concluded. Here are the highlights:

    • pre-orders for swag were a huge hit: the Committee adopted a new registration system that allowed to print badge numbers, labels for the swag bags, and pack them in a very efficient manner, and will definitely be used again;
    • quite a few people asked for Paypal support. Unfortunately they are not accomodating to organizations like Mysterium, so they will have to stick with Square and Stripe for processing;
    • the noise in the con room was frustrating for everyone, and they are looking into better options;
    • there were some great suggestions on how to improve accessibillity even more;
    • it is too early to anticipate 2024’s Covid policy, but they hope they will find more inclusive solutions.
    • the newsletter got a surprising amount of support, and they will look into doing that this year.

    ☛ The creative prompt for August is “Blazing”; the deadline is August 31. Entries for the “Sun” prompt for June were from Calum Traveler, Triss, Salvo Ludus, Redwoodrroad (2), Floydman, Talashar, and IwonK.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ PodHopper announced the Moula Summer Festival 2023, planned for August 7–11. Preparations were difficult for various reasons, but it will be a week full of activities. Unfortunately the “Mayak” Jalak game was cancelled, but will likely be played later this year.

    Other events includes a Wall game (please register beforehand! the deadline is Wednesday 9), a Cone Race contest – Iwonk made a video about how to play it –, a Relaxing Session in Kalamee and a new marker game, “A brief history of Kalamee”.

    A schedule is available in our dedicated post. For last minute changes and for questions, check the Discord server MOULa Events, #summer-festival channel.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 18 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic is sport games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Chiso Preniv

    Patrick Dulebohn mentioned that work is still ongoing with the Great Shaft and the path from surface to D’ni. The hope is still to have the first section of that open to everyone later this year.

    Then he talked about the expedition to the outside of the Chiso Preniv library, where they learned of the nearby Caltauc people and their conflict with the D’ni.

    The original way to the outside is severely damaged: the D’ni, in their planned yet hasty exit from the library, imploded the tunnel to the surface to keep potential outsiders from getting in once they were gone. The tunnel is now almost completely blocked by debris.

    To open a way outside, Patrick enlisted the talents of AgeExplorer, who will use an invention of his own design that combines D’ni and human tech to properly sound the rock within the tunnel and determine which is structurally viable, and eventually dig a safe passage.

    To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

    OpenUru

    Rarified gave a brief comment about schedules and the pipeline into MOULa. Summer has been a busy period; a lot of updates are in the works, but none is ready for release. They hope to start preparing content for release in September. A schedule will be posted soon on the OpenUru Discord server (channel #test).

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.

    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. A new student has begun the 101 class.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Tuesday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of Myst: The Book of D’ni as told in the novel. After that they will begin the story from Myst III: Exile. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In August, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will solve the mysteries of the last two chapters in the Secret of the Rainbow series by Jhon J. Jaguar, Somahoglahn and Edereden. After that, they will explore Kodalan and Tyldalan, by Itep Edor, Corvus, Wodan, Falke, Fruti, Dulcamara.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, September 2 (Leetahr 20) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • July 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    July 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 159th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. MacOS MOULa client
    4. D’ni Language Classes
    5. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    6. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    Calum opened the meeting with a recap of the annual Myst convention, this year held on June 30–July 2 in Spokane (WA). Over 300 badges were issued this year. A more detailed coverage can be read in our dedicated post.

    ☛ The Cavern Today podcast recorded a live episode at Mysterium, plus a bonus episode detailing their visit to Cyan the day after.

    ☛ Doobes held an Age building demonstration using Korman. As a finale, he showed a trailer for the first area of Descent he has been working on.

    ☛ The creative prompt for July is “Sun”; the deadline is July 31. Entries for the “Scream” prompt for June were from Calum Traveler, Talashar, and Redwoodrroad.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ PodHopper announced the Moula Summer Festival 2023, planned for August 7–13. Preparations are still ongoing; so far the schedule includes a Wall game, a Jalak game named Mayak, and a few music or video events. PodHopper will host a Cone Race contest, a Relaxing Session in Kalamee and a new marker game, “A brief history of Kalamee”. A schedule should be finalized in the coming weeks.

    Information about the Mayak game can be found on the Discord server MOULa Events, #summer-festival channel.

    MacOS MOULa client

    Darryl Pogue shared that several members of the H’uru team were at Mysterium, meeting in person for the first time. A few people saw an informal demo of the macOS client for Uru being developed by maccodemonkey, including Chogon from Cyan.

    They hope to be able to share it with more people in the near future, but there is a bit more work to do before beta testing, hopefully before the end of the year. Work also continues on the Linux client, but it is definitely not ready for testing.

    The work on the macOS client is leading to improvements to the Windows H’uru client too: they recently merged support for high-DPI displays.

    If you are interested in getting involved, visit the OpenUru Discord server, #code-dev channel.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of Riven as told in the game. After that they will begin the story from The Book of D’ni. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In July, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will begin the Path of the Lost Ages, consisting of Palamary bay, Peridia, Myst Refuge, and concluding in Ruins of Azmar, by Melvin. This will take most of the month; after that, they will visit some Ages by Doobes.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    June ended with the CavFunding at 97% (CavCon 3.0) and the reserve at 592%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 48,397 (⇑225), with 1060 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, August 5 (Leesahn 27) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • Mysterium 2023

    Mysterium 2023

    The XXIV Mysterium was held in Spokane, WA on June 30–July 2, with the panels and presentations streamed to both Twitch and YouTube.

    Belford wrote a summary in his blog, commenting on Cyan’s announcements.

    Friday started at 11:00 KIT with the Opening Announcements with a few words and reminders from the convention chairs.

    At the 12:00 panel D’ni Linguistic Fellowship, Christopher “Kh’reestrefah” Gilson discussed word formation in the D’ni language, first showing how words in D’ni can be used to form other words, then looking at known D’ni words to discover patterns that point to historical rules that have not been explained before.

    At the 15:00 panel Uru World-building, Patrick “Doobes” Dulebohn gave a demonstration of Blender for Korman, the free plugin currently used to create Ages for MOULa and CC. He also briefly showed the use of ZLZ Age Importer, to get Cyan Ages converted to blends.

    At the 16:00 panel Art of Shoomlah, Claire “Shoom’lah” Hummel showed a retrospective of her Myst art over the years, and how the games have impacted her career as an art director and concept artist in the games industry (including hiding a Riven easter egg in Half-Life: Alyx). She runs a “real places that look like Myst” blog.

    At the 17:00 panel The Cavern Today Podcast, Dalken Starbyne, Esto Centura, Maurus and Sh’aeri held a live episode right at Mysterium, discussing the convention, D’ni, Cyan, and did a brief audience Q&A. The Cavern Today podcast has been bringing listeners news from the Myst fan community since 2005.

    At the 18:00 event Moving the Slider (not streamed), Rayne and m13 challenged the attendees at a group game, working together to solve puzzles, find clues, and trying to figure out what in the world the Thing is for.

    At the 19:00 panel Unwritten Character Creation Workshop, Faroguy, Eleri Hamilton, Vee Hamilton and Thomas “Curator” Steele announced the Modern D’ni expansion for Unwritten, and gave tips on how to plan a good character for the game.

    Later, Curator and Eleri hosted two parallel Unwritten sessions.

    Saturday started at 9:30 KIT with a few words from the convention staff, then the attendees headed over to Cyan HQ. At 11:00 Jeff Lanctot gave a brief welcome talk and order of events.

    At the 11:15 Cyan State of the Union, Hannah Gamiel and Eric Anderson discussed the recently released Myst (VR) and Firmament, and gave some updates about the Riven remake; notably, there will be some changes giving more lore details.

    Currently all resources are focused on Riven; future projects will likely be smaller, a bit more experimental, and possibly more related to the Myst universe. The presentation ended with a preview of the Riven remake, specifically the Boiler Island area!

    Starting at 12:15 the attendees were divided in three groups, alternating between lunch at the Squee Conservatory, a guided tour of the campus at DRC Headquarters, and an opportunity to meet some Cyan employees and guests at Gehn’s Temple.

    At 14:30 Mike “RIUM+” Ando showed off another one of his amazing creations: the Andotrope, a recreation of Gehn’s holographic imager from Riven. As RIUM+ put it, he “accidentally invented new technology while trying to make a videogame prop more screen-accurate”.

    At 15:10, at the Special Mystery Presentation, Phil Salvador from the the Video Game History Foundation announced they got permission to digitize a huge stack (about 100 hours of footage) of videotapes from Cyan’s vault, recorded in the Nineties, found by Philip Shane while he was collecting material for the Myst Documentary. They hope to finish digitizing the tapes and make them available by the end of this year.

    At 16:00 Rand Miller held a Keynote Q&A, discussing a few design choices for the Riven remake, and taking questions from the audience. Cyan is now focused on the remake. Richard Vander Wende has returned as creative leads, along with Rand Miller. The game logic is in place, but a lot is still needed for the visuals. They confirmed they will not use live-action video for the characters. No release date or platforms were announced, but they want to release it by the 30th anniversary (2027).

    The remake will expand a bit the lore, under the premise that they uncovered more archaelogical material from the New Mexico desert, and they will incorporate those discoveries into the new game. For the occasion, Rand showcased a metal plate with a relief of D’ni letters (possibly a gahrohev), originally used to cover the Fissure around the telescope.

    After Riven, they want to focus on smaller games, with more replay value, going back to the Myst universe.

    Wrapping up at 17:30, the crowd headed back to the hotel for the rest of the events.

    At 21:00 four parallel events started:

    Harley hosted the Gemedet Tournament, a game in which two players take turns placing pieces of their color in a three dimensional grid nine wide, nine long, and nine layers high. The objective is to complete an unbroken straight line of six pieces of the players color. Any direction the line of six can fit will count, including diagonals.

    Dan Binder hosted Name That Tune, a competition in which the attendees identified songs and tracks from the Myst games.

    Eleri and Curator hosted two more Unwritten sessions.

    After some announcements from the convention staff, Sunday started at 11:00 KIT with Cyan Games Completed Rapidly Live, a marathon of Myst games hosted by the Guild of Speedrunners, to show the differences and the development of its various iterations, in celebration of 30 years of Myst.

    At the 12:00 panel Uru Demake, Phil R showcased his ‘de-make’ of Uru, a recreation of some of the Ages in a very simple 2D pixel art engine called Bitsy; he discussed the process of translating puzzles from Uru into a minimalist style and redesigning some of the puzzles based on player feedback.

    After lunch, at the 15:00 panel Myst Documentary, filmmaker Philip Shane and team members Randy Woods, Joshua Reinstein, Katie Postma and Elana Bogdan gave an update about The Myst Documentary, highlighting how it will be structured and showing a few clips about the Miller family. Attendees were given an exclusive sneak peek.

    At 17:00 the Closing Ceremonies were held, wrapping up this year’s convention, running the prize drawing, showing the “Crafting With Watermelon” video, and announcing next year’s location: Montreal, Canada!

    Thanks and kudos to the Mysterium Committee, who did a great job at organising and managing the event.

    Looking forward to next year!

  • June 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    June 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 158th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Firmament
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. Mysterium
    4. OpenUru
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Firmament

    Firmament has been released on May 18 on Steam and GOG. Discussion forums can be found on Facebook, Discord, Reddit, Steam, and there is also a wiki. Let us know if you find other venues 🙂 Reviews have been posted on (possible spoilers) The Spokesman-Review, GeekWire, Shacknews, Inverse.

    Interestingly, the game includes “AI assisted content” for journals, logs, songs, letters, backer portraits, wallpapers, banners, voiced announces and other speeches.

    Unfortunately, the release was marred by various bugs, mostly related to missing voiceover lines or getting stuck in places. So far three patches have been released, fixing most of the issues; Cyan is hard at work at fixing the remaining ones. Most bugs related to getting stuck can be fixed by pausing the game, select “Settings”, then from the “Controls” menu (the default), move the cursor all the way to the bottom and select “Teleport to safe spot”. This will reset both your position and that of the objects and devices you have interacted with.

    In a post on Facebook, they asked anyone still experiencing issues, to submit an email to support(at)cyan(dot)com with the subject line “Firmament Bugs” and the following information:

    • on Windows PC: attach the dxdiag report, and attach the complete contents of your %LocalAppData%\Firmament\Saved directory, zipped up, to your email;
    • on MacOS: attach screenshots of the “About this Mac” page, and the Hardware and Graphics/Display, and attach the complete contents of your Application Support/Epic/Firmament/Saved folder inside your Home folder to your email;
    • include details of the bug, with any repro steps if possible.

    The system requirements are a minimum of an AMD Ryzen 7 2700X eight-core processor (16 CPUs), ~3.7 GHz or Intel i5 7000 series; 16 GB RAM of memory; AMD Radeon RX 5700XT or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB graphic card; DirectX 11; 20 GB disk space.

    The game will release for PS4, PS5 and PS VR 2 at a later date. PC VR includes free roam and teleport modes and supports Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Rift S, and Quest 2 via Oculus Link.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ June is Pride Month; banners are on display in the Guild of Messengers pub.

    ☛ Since Mysterium begins on June 30 (see below for more), the July All Guilds Meeting willl be postponed to July 8.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 16 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic is child protagonists in video games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    Mysterium

    The annual Myst convention is less than a month away, on June 30 in Spokane (WA). The schedule is packed, with a visit to Cyan’s headquarters on Saturday, where Rand will answer questions; on top of that, a New Thing from Rium+, a mystery panel, Unwritten sessions and more.

    Standard registration is hovering around the capacity cap of 250 people. The Committee has opened up an overflow registration queue for attendees who do not wish to go to Cyan, or would like to go if someone cannot attend. There are a total of 275 purchasable tickets for Mysterium this year, which  means there are only 25 overflow spots (likely less, at the time of this writing). The overflow tickets are also discounted.

    If you are planning on attending Cyan on Saturday, a registration ticket has opened on the registration page for a bus ride; there is a limited number of these, and a buy in is required, as bus rental rates are very high right now. There is also a signup spreadsheet on the Mysterium Discord “Looking for People” subforum in the “Cyan Ride Share” thread for anyone who is bringing or renting a car, and would like to offer seats for other attendees.

    ☛ During the “Uru World-Building” panel on Friday 30 at 14:00 KIT, Doobes will hold a 50 min demonstration of Age building, using Blender for Korman. He also plans to show Age import via Sirius’ ZLZ Age Importer, to show how Cyan’s Ages are converted to Blend files for fixing, updating, etc., and what goes into that. There is also a chance that other programmers, Age builders, etc. will be able to join for a roundtable discussion during the demo.

    ☛ The creative prompt for June is “Scream”; the deadline is June 30. Entries for the “Spring” prompt for April were from Redwoodrroad, Laughingpineapple, Calum Traveler, IwonK, Talashar, and Tweek.

    ☛ For the latest info and more details, check the official website of the Mysterium Convention.

    OpenUru

    ☛ Christopher Therburg gave an update on his Fall of D’ni Memorial Island project. The island is almost ready to open, possiblly in July or later in the summer. Christopher wrote and left a journal on the island, which describes the work on the memorial and the island and also tells the motivation for building it in the first place. The official name of the island is Bahntefoonet, D’ni for “Memorial Island”; the original name of the island is unknown.

    Christopher also mentioned the other Age he found: he explored this Age a little more closely and at first glance it might be a watery Garden Age. Restoration for this Age is now at phase 1, and is tentatively planned to be released in 2024 or 2025.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. Another student has completed the 101 class and is working on their final exam!

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday to Friday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of Atrus as told in the book Myst: The Book of Atrus. After that they will begin the story from the game of Myst. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In June, the Fan Ages Expeditions will continue the exploration of Tentsahveet by Jhon J. Jaguar, the third chapter in the The Secret of the Rainbow series about a group of defectors from the Black Ships’ flagship and its cruel captain Krakon. This Age will take one or two more sessions to complete. After that, they will begin the exploration of Semjay’s Ages: Terahgrahm, Zahlto, Tovaht Bay, Ahreesen Melin.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, July 8 (Leesahn 5) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • News Roundup #28

    ☛ As mentioned in the MOULa update post, the Relto start was given a new video, which was premiered on YouTube on the day of the update; you can watch it in English, French and German.

    Eder Bahvahnter will open on April 17 at 12:00 KIT; you can get there via Elonin, or by sending “to Bahvahnter” in PM to Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319).

    Kalamee will open on May 1 at 13:00 KIT, in Chiso Preniv; Nosila will provide the music.

    ☛ A new update for the Myst Documentary was posted. There has been great progress on several fronts. The film’s treatment is now complete. A new trailer was completed, to be shown to potential partners to gather the additional funds required to finish the documentary; the trailer will be showcased at Mysterium 2023. Two new excerpts are also available in the article. The Vault of Stories so far has gathered more than 90 volumes with 535 pages.

    ☛ Doobes’ work on the Descent path and the possible integration of more Myst V ages was the focus of an article on Massively Overpowered.

    ☛ The Cavern Communications Network has released the 5th episode of its podcast The Water Cooler Show: an interview with Ametist.

    ☛ A few ages have been ported to VRChat, with Cyan’s approval: Bevin, Eder Tsogal, Kadish Gallery, Ahnonay Cathedral, and more. More info is available at the Virtual Reality Guild Discord server and VRC group.

  • April 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    April 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 156th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. OpenUru
    4. Ages of Doobes
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    Early bird registration and shirt orders are now closed; regular registration (slightly more expensive) will be open until June 16, and other swag items may still be purchased until June 3.

    The prompt for February is “You Fool!”; the deadline is April 30. Entries for the “Idle Hands” prompt for March were Kefrith, Redwoodrroad, Calum Traveler, Talashar, and Laughingpineapple.

    ☛ For the latest info and more details, check the official website of the Mysterium Convention.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 14 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic is male protagonists in video games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    ☛ April 21 is Leefo 1st in the D’ni calendar, the first day of D’ni year 9679. Hahr rahm gah shoraht!

    OpenUru

    ☛ The Q1 update is on its final leg of testing before release, sometime next week. Briggs and Hazado have worked hard to restore the old DRC stage by the Tokotah plaza tent: its intended use will be for things like the story Town Halls or for speaking or music events.

    There will be two versions for it: one is the full DRC build with microphone, which will be reserved for Cyan if they will ever wants to use it; it will have a fully blocked off collision wall. The other, public version will be a generic stage with reduced collisions, letting people get onto the stage and not getting in the way of tent climbing activities 😉

    ☛ Eder Bahvahnter, by Ametist, will be available immediately after the update; the book will be found in Elonin, and it will be a public instance available from all versions of that neighborhood.

    ☛ Another surprise Age will also be included in the update. Details are kept under secret; Doobes stated to be very impressed with it.

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.

    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    Ages of Doobes

    Doobes announced that phase one of the Descent expansion is likely to be completed in the very near future! If all goes well, he will be able to submit it for the Q2 update testing, and if no major bugs show up, this first phase will be ready in time for Mysterium.

    Phase one consists mostly of the tract from the surface to the bottom of the Great Shaft you may be familiar with from Myst V or the Dirt demo. The biggest difference is that spiral path of the Shaft has been fully repaired, and you will be able to walk up and down the entirety of it (about two hours of continuous running). The elevators will still be there, and you could also try to just jump down if you dare!

    There is a lot of stuff in this build that has never been tested for multiplay, so that is going to be a key item to test when the time comes. Doobes has also worked on a more realistic lighting of the location, while still keeping the mood of the scene.

    Ultimately the goal is to open the full path from the surface to D’ni. Cyan has provided just enough with the Intangibles content for a phase two, but it still needs all the rough edges sanded down, so Doobes opted for a release in stages to keep up interest. Beyond phase two no concept art is available, so unless Cyan will have specific features they want included, the design of the path up to the Cavern will be open to suggestions.

    To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings Monday to Friday, at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of Atrus as told in the book Myst: The Book of Atrus. After that they will begin the story from the game of Myst. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    There will be no Story Night on April 8, due to it being Easter weekend and because r’Tay will be traveling.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    In April, the Fan Ages Expeditions will complete the expedition to Elsewhere by Denost. It is a huge Age, with a lot of swimming, running and many puzzles, so they have not finished it yet! After that, they will begin the exploration of Alabaster by Dulcamara.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    March ended with the CavFunding at 85% (CavCon 2.9) and the reserve at 691%, with 20% extra expenses. Population was at 47,581 (⇑252), with 1174 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 6 (Leefo 13, 9679) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • February 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    February 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 154th All Guilds Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Events in the Cavern
    3. OpenUru
    4. Doobes
    5. D’ni Language Classes
    6. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    7. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    The Committee, always striving to make the convention as welcoming and accessible to as many people as possible, has released an accessibility survey to solicit feedback and ideas. The survey is short and all questions are optional.

    The big news was of course that registrations are now open! The Committee is using a new registration software for this year, and possibly into the future: you will need to open an account, and through that you will be able to access the shop section to purchase tickets and swag.

    Speaking of swag, there will be plenty this year, such as lanyard charms (Riven dagger, Gehn crest, quab, watermelon), Myst series timeline coffee mugs, and a poster print with awesome artwork! More will be added at future dates as things like pins get settled and finalised.

    As for the Covid-19 policy, it will be mostly the same as last year: full vaccination is required (including a bivalent booster) by June 23, and masks (N95 or equivalent) will be required and enforced.
    At Cyan’s headquarters the policy will be different and a bit more lax: special guests and Cyan staff will be allowed to remove their masks while presenting or taking part in a panel, and may not be guaranteed to be fully vaccinated.

    Hotel registration is also open; pricing is a bit higher than usual, because many unrelated events will be hosted at Spokane at around the same time, and the convention is just before US Independence Day.

    A few submission deadlines are still open:

    • pin designs are open until February 12;
    • events are open until April 29 (if you require special seating arrangements or equipment, you will need to inform the Committee in the submission).

    The prompt for February is “Heart”; the deadline is February 28. Entries for the “Beginnings” prompt for January were Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, Kefrith, and Talashar.

    ☛ For the latest info and more details, check the official website of the Mysterium Convention.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Minasunda presented the schedule for the XIII MOULa Anniversary Celebration Week (see our dedicated post). This year is also the 30th anniversary of the original Myst game, and the 20th anniversary of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst!

    If Mir-o-Bot is present for an event, please use it solely for traveling, respect the events and do not use bot commands. Minasunda will release videos of the events some time (13 events will take a while to process!) after the anniversary week, in her YouTube channel.

    ☛ Dah’mpa presented the Wall competitions. Both will take place at Wally’mpa’s Gahreesen; the meeting point will be the Watcher’s Pub. If Wally’mpa (Dah’mpa’s doppelgänger) is unresponsive, please wait until he gets back to you: entry will be put on hold during matches to minimize chances of bugs.

    Player can participate in either or both sessions. The goal is to give players (and spectators) more opportunities to participate. There will be only individual competitions (1 vs 1). This is because in team competitions bugs show up pretty quickly. Devs and testers are working hard to get rid of these issues, but for now it is safer to stick with the simpler mode.

    Participants can register until February 4 at midnight, 24:00 KIT, in order to better plan the format of each competition. Only players that really know how to play the game can sign up. That is because explaining how the Wall works during the competition would take too long and is very hard to do without drawings.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 17 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic is cooking games. Feel free to suggest more interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    OpenUru

    The first quarter update testing is underway on Minkata Alpha. Testers are asked to to be discrete about a certain project they can find there until it will be ready to be released, and only report issues on the OpenUru Discord. This quarter has a wide gamut of contributions, from fixing old cold bugs in existing Ages, to (maybe) a couple of new Ages.

    How to be a tester (click to expand)

    To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata prime shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.
    To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the Testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

    Doobes

    Doobes gave a few updates. First, he will be attending Mysterium to do a presentation: he will demonstrate Blender for Korman, to show in real time how to build a basic Age, and the ZLZ Age Importer, to show the process of converting Cyan Ages into usable Blender files. If you will not be able to attend, the event will be streamed live and archived to Mysterium’s YouTube channel sometime after.

    Next, he is back to work on Descent. The main focus has been relighting the section already available, just beyond the bottom of the Shaft. The current lighting is a bit unrealistic and too bright. The plan is to give this area a more natural and atmospheric lighting. After that, he will tackle the mechanics of the Great Shaft and all the wiring they will require.

    If all goes well, a new version of Descent should be uploaded to Minkata before the end of Q1, with a tentative release after the Q2 update, possibly in time for Mysterium. All this hinges on who difficult the wiring will turn out to be, so as always temper expectations!

    A change that should be coming this quarter will be the ability to delete fan Age books via Chiso Preniv. This will be possible due to coding from Hazado and graphical assets provided by Tweek.

    Doobes also mentioned Hazado has also been working on squashing more bugs with the Gahreesen Wall, so as many testers as possible are needed at the Minkata shard to give things a proper stress test.

    Finally he mentioned the release of Blender for Korman 0.14 (see our dedicated post).

    To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

    D’ni Language Classes

    R’Tayrtahn gave two updates, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

    Visitors are asked to not post pellet points into the hood imager: one of his former students and a close friend, Yutiel Yoshi, who passed away in 2018, is listed there. He has refrained from posting pellets to maintain her name at the top, as a form of memorial.

    More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. There are daytime openings on weekdays at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, though availability is subject to change with little or no notice;
    • evening openings are on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 20:00, 21:00 or 22:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Daytime availability is subject to change with little or no notice. Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night are telling the story of the Fall as told in the book Myst: The Book of Ti’ana. After that they will begin the story from Myst: The Book of Atrus, followed by the story from the game of Myst. Eventually they will cover all of the books and games. as well as the three human attempts at the restoration of D’ni.

    On February 11 there will be no Story Night, as it would clash with the anniversary celebrations.

    R’Tayrtahn records videos of the sessions (via an avatar named “I’m a bot, do not message”), that he will eventually upload to his YouTube channel. Be careful if you PM r’Tay or the bot during the events, as messages will be visible in the videos 😉

    More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
    • Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
    • For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT.
    • On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 15 minutes after the meeting, whichever is later.
    • The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
    • Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.

    Miscellanea

    In February, the Fan Ages Expeditions will visit Lonirvan, the second chapter in the ‘Secret of the Rainbow’ journey by John J. Jaguar.
    They will then complete the exploration of the Maintainers Gateway by Melvin.
    Next will be the Cathedral by DenDwaler; the month will conclude with the first few steps (and swims) in Elsewhere by Denost.

    And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

    January ended with the CavFunding at 240% (CavCon 4.14) and the reserve at 715%, with no extra expenses. Population was at 47,027 (⇑324), with 1220 unique visits.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, March 4 (Leevotahr 21) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!