Tag: Music

  • December 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    December 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 188th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Claidi is stepping down from moderation. In January, the role will be taken on by PodHopper!

    Contents

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

    OpenUru

    A number of issues cropped up lately on the Minkata shards, so the next update, planned for Q4, will most likely be postponed to Q1 2026.

    ☛ The Ae’gura Messengers Pub should be ready for testing on Alpha by the year’s end.

    ☛ Descent is currently being tested on Minkata Alpha: Ametist is working on the node doors, while Calum Traveler is gradually planning out the stages beyond the river. Some new music tracks have been added as well, courtesy of Semjay!

    Testers are invited to poke around in groups, as some bugs will only show up when multiple people are present (e.g. music cues firing off in the entire Age despite being meant to be local).

    ☛ Progress on other Ages that have been under testing in Alpha in the past is either on the back burner, or on hold.

    Mysterium

    ☛ Lanyard designs have been announced! They will sport the carpet pattern from the Portland airport. Submissions for events, art, T-shirt, pin designs are still open. No hotel info is available yet, the Committee is working with local hotels to settle on one.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for December–January is “Tradition“. Entries for the “Orange” prompt for October–November were from Calum Traveler, Anna and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ On Monday 1st, Skyisblu finished up the year with her recipe for a ‘Buche de Noel‘, a chocolate rolled Yule Log cake. The Cooking Sessions will be back in February, 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 19 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month she will draw listener requests. 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.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium“, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ 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. Currently they are reading the story of Flavia Albia, a young detective in ancient Rome trying to solve a case of espionage, corruption and murders.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 15 at 12:00 KIT. The theme for this month will be “Our hearts are full of expectation“.

    ☛ Like last year, Radio Free D’ni‘s DJ Alan will host an extra show on Sunday 21 at 13:00 KIT. This year he will read Susan Cooper‘s The Dark Is Rising, a coming-of-age story that spans the Twelve Days of Christmas, and is rooted in the British countryside where Susan Cooper grew up.

    ☛ Prad gave an update on the revived Cavern Choir project. Participants are asked to be able to: 1) carry a tune, 2) sing along a demo track, 3) record a good quality audio track (microphone, headphone, a computer with a soundcard and a recording program).

    They selected three songs: “We Wish You a Merry Christmas“, “Oratorio de Noël: Tollite Hostias” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer“. Participants are asked to send their recording by December 15, as the plan is to perform at Seeker’s Christmas Country Special.

    If you are interested, or need assistance with recording, please contact Babbeltje40 (aka Vrouwdinges)  or Prad (KI #08406189).

    ☛ Augur’s Speculative Fiction Book Club will start 2026 with a familiar book, The Book of Ti’ana by Rand Miller and David Wingrove! Their next meeting will be in Nezetahn(1)’s Hood’s Eder Delin, on January 24 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ Brooketh presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome,  regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    ☛ On the Open Cave shard, Ayohiker holds an analogous event every Monday at 14:00 KIT in the Ayohikers’ hood. There are also two new games: Tic-Tac-TOC and Connect Four, in the City of Dimensions.

    ☛ The Cavern Tours are on hold until late 2026.

    ☛ There will be no Town Hall in December.

    ☞ 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

    Claidi had two updates on behalf of Shokhootahn Rehn, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights. A new student has started taking the classes last month!

    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 just started the story from the Riven game. Eventually they 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 14:30 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 some experimental Ages from 2008: TINA Testing Area, Soundgarden, Kahntinoy, Fena Barel and Set Age. In the Open Cave, they will conclude the Fifth Journey (Ahnonay, the hourglass cave, K’veer, the Watcher’s Pub), then close the year in the City of Dimensions!

    The expeditions in December will be a bit shorter, to let attendees help each other catch the elusive 12th sparkly. There will be no expedition on the 28th.

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

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, January 3, 2026 (Leevosahn 2) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • September 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    September 2025 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 185th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Claidi announced that for various reasons she will need to step down from moderation after December. If you are interested in moderating the meetings after December, please get in contact via the Cyan Chat or MOULa Events Discord servers.

    Contents

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

    OpenUru

    ☛ Calum Traveler announced that Ami‘s crew work of surveying everything in Descent from 2024 again has been progressing nicely. Elevator work will be taken on by Ametist. Once the elevators are all working, they are hoping to have Tweek go through and handle any lighting that need fixing or recalibration. Assuming everything goes according to plan, hopefully the first leg of Descent will be open sometime in 2026.

    ☛ A few assorted fixes and updates are planned for a release in the last quarter of this year, including a maintenance pass of Kalamee.

    Mysterium

    ☛ Calum Traveler shared some highlights from the survey:

    • The staff apologizes for canceling the Unconference, but factors related to the Georgia Aquarium excursion led to the decision. They do plan to include it, or a similar event, in future years.
    • Panels or presentations may not always be available every year, but they aim to balance activity and presentation content.
    • They plan to showcase local attractions or unique and interactive activities again in upcoming years; a Myst-inspired outdoor excursion will hopefully be included next year.

    ☛ All the streamed presentations have been uploaded to YouTube.

    ☛ For 2026, the Con Chairs will be M13 and Rayne. Next year, the convention will be held in Portland, OR, indicatively in July or August.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for September is “Round”. Entries for the “Bubbles” prompt for August were from Kh’reestrefah, IwonK, Kefrith, Talashar, and Nina.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 19 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “Space 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.

    She is also working with Kefrith on an idea originating from the Mysterium Discord: a Mysterium-like online event. The work title is “Rivenium“, they are looking for ideas, events and presentations or panels. If you are interested, you can find IwonK or Kefrith on the Mysterium Discord, at the dedicated forum.

    ☛ 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 15 at 12:00 KIT. The theme for this month will be “Latin American Music, Part 2“.

    ☛ 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. Due to traveling, the discussion is postponed to November 15 at 12:30 KIT. Everyone is welcome to discuss their opinions on the book, using either voice or text chat.

    ☛ Isa and Cid, along with a few others, recently started the “MOULa Community Music, Movies, & Games” Discord server, a place where anyone can stream a movie they want to share. Anyone is welcome to host and plan single or recurring events. In addition to movies and shows, they will have other kinds of stream like music, video games, or live feed of hobbies like painting or building Lego. They are also hosting Augur’s Book Club’s meetings.

    ☛ Brooketh briefly presented the Competitive Myst Online Group, hosting an Ahyoheek game every Saturday at 21:00 KIT in the Competitive Myst Online Hood. All players are welcome,  regardless of skill level. If you don’t know how to play, they will teach you. Or you can just hang out and observe. Voice chat is encouraged, but not required; both are used.

    ☛ Due to traveling, Skyisblu’s Cooking Session for September will be skipped. In October, she will showcase a chocolate cake recipe.

    ☞ 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. 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. Due to family obligations, there will be no story on Saturday 27.

    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

    ☛ Cid announced the release of Neyyah, by Defy Reality Entertainment (Aaron Gwynaire), a game styled after Riven, with pre-rendered static nodes. While officially only released for Windows (for now), it is reported to work well under MacOS with CrossOver, and under Linux with Proton.

    ☛ This month, the Age Expeditions in Deep Island will visit Janga by Itep Edor, then Jo’nae and Jo’nae Hood by Jonnee, including a restored version by SereneTiki. In the Open Cave, having completed the First Journey, there will be a Fissure Party! Since they already completed the Second Journey (Tsogahl and Delin), they will then tackle the Third, i.e. the Pod Ages.

    ☛ The Cavern Today podcast just turned 20! They have plans to commemorate the big anniversary; in the meantime, you can listen their debut episode here.

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

    July ended with the CavFunding at 110% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 629%.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, October 4 (Leevot 17, 9681) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • Moula Summer Festival 2025

    Moula Summer Festival 2025

    Moula SummerFest 2025: Streams of Friendship

    August 4–10

    This year’s SummerFest will focus on activities in the cavern using audio streams and video streams. For the first time, SummerFest will show how Ages make it into Moula, but also how they are tested before being added to Moula. Another video stream will show what The Open Cave shard has to offer.

    Audio streams will provide various music genres, a Music Quiz and a new DJ is making his debut during SummerFest.

    For those who want a little bit more action, another game of Cone Race is held to see who gets the cones in the fountain the fastest.

    PodHopper #7116825

    Festival Schedule as PDF

  • August 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    August 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 172nd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

    1. Mysterium
    2. Summer Festival & D’ni Palooza
    3. D’ni Language Classes
    4. R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights
    5. Miscellanea

    Mysterium

    ☛ The recordings of the panels that were streamed on the official Mysterium Twitch channel have now been uploaded to the YouTube channel.

    ☛ Some of the speakers for the MOULa panel shared their experience at the meeting: Skyisblu, Semjay, Calum Traveler, Doobes, Darryl Pogue, Murry,

    ☛ A large part of the MOULa presentation was taken using the experimental MacOS client. “Nightly” (i.e. untested) development builds of the H’uru client and 3DS Max plugin are available at the GoW’s GitHub page. You can also find a one-click Destiny shard setup tool for testing your newly-built Ages at Hoikas’ GitHub page.

    ☛ The Creativity Prompt for August is “Revelation”, the deadline is August 31st. Entries for the “Serenia” prompt for July were from Calum Traveler and Talashar.

    ☛ Calum Traveler announced a new Age called Gahlahno. He will be streaming the building process on his Twitch channel, and will upload recordings on his YouTube channel.

    Summer Festival & D’ni Palooza

    ☛ The Summer Festival is back, on August 5–11, organized by PodHopper. This year the festival will also be a comeback for the D’ni Palooza, showcasing music made by explorers, be it people playing, singing or DJ-ing. You can find a schedule in PDF format here, courtesy of PodHopper. All the events are also marked in our calendar.

    Schedule (all times are KI time) (click to expand):
    • Monday, August 5
      • 12:00-14:00: “Cooking Session with Sky” by Skyisblu
      • 14:00-16:00: “Wall Game” by Dah’mpa
      • 18:00-20:00: “Cooking Session with Sky” by Skyisblu (same recipe)
    • Tuesday, August 6
      • 13:00-15:00: “Relaxing Palooza” by PodHopper, featuring: Edison Rex, Jodok, Maurus, Mystler, Piboc & Semjay
    • Wednesday, August 7
      • 14:30-16:00: “Cone Race” by PodHopper
    • Thursday, August 8
      • 13:00-14:00: “D’Marnah/Lillo Minniti” by PodHopper, featuring: Turjan Aylahn & Lillo Minniti
      • 14:00-15:00: “Karaoke Mix” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Dah’mpa, Prad & Skyisblu
      • 15:00-16:00: “Money Show” by AlanDJ, featuring: Music with the theme “Money”
      • 16:00-17:00: “Rock Music” by PodHopper, featuring: Jet Blast, Jodok & Skyisblu
      • 17:00-18:00: “Piboc (Part 1)” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Piboc
    • Friday, August 9
      • 13:00-15:00: “Classical with Babbel” by Babbel, featuring: Classical music & music by Babbel
      • 15:00-17:00: “Wonky Draws” by Iwonk
    • Saturday, August 10
      • 14:00-15:00: “Story Night Special” by r’Tay
      • 15:00-16:00: “What’s That Tune?” by AlanDJ [Guess the name of a song by a few notes
      • 16:00-17:00: “Turjan Aylahn” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Music from Turjan Aylahn other than D’Marnah
      • 17:00-18:00: “Piboc (Part 2)” by PodHopper, featuring: Piboc
      • 21:00-23:00: “Ayoheek Tournament” by Bogusmeatfactory
    • Sunday, August 11
      • 13:00-16:00: “Radio Free D’ni 10th Anniversary Show / Review of the Decade by Edison Rex” by RFD

     

    ☛ There will be three gaming events: a Wall Game, organized by Dah’mpa, a Cone Race, organized by PodHopper, and an Ahyoheek Tournament, organized by BogusMeatFactory.

    ☛ The Wall Game will be hosted by Dah’mpa (#11225300) and Nosi La (#09902277). The game format was conceived with the aim to involve all players interested in taking part, including those who have never played or watched a Wall Game before.

    In each game both players will face the same maze, created and input by the organizers; players will therefore just climb the Wall, without setting the barriers. This simplified format allows new players to deal with only a few simple rules, without fiddling with the sometimes tricky to set up panel.

    Players can enroll at the beginning of the competition, but booking is encouraged, as it helps with organizing the rounds.

    ☛ 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 will be “Myst games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 19 at 13:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Summer“.

    ☛ 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 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
    • Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn, preferably on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317), or via KImail (KI# 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, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, at 10:00, 11:00 or 12:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
    • Evening openings are on Monday, Tuesday, 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 will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Story Night Europe and Original Story Night have begun a new season. 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 😉 The channel is current through February 20, 2021.

    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 😉

    More about the Story Nights
    • 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.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ For most of August, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will explore the vast Age of Somewhere by Denost, solve its puzzles and wonder about the ultimate fate of its first explorer, Gary. Then, they will explore the caves of Gavster by Calena, and the experimental features of Denkasen and Canyon by Sirius. Likely in September, they will then be back looking for Gary in Iceworld by Denost.

    A couple of Ages from the same time period – Turtle Isle by DenDwaler and R’Oshanhnin Korvahkhn by Calena, Dustin, Wamduskasapa and Tachzusamm – will unfortunately have to be skipped, as there are unsolved bugs affecting these Ages.

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

    At the time of this writing, no CavCon is known for July. June ended with the CavFunding at 115% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 607%, with no extra expenses.

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, September 7 (Leetahr 25) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • Summer Festival / D’ni Palooza 2024

    Summer Festival / D’ni Palooza 2024

    Coming August a new Summer Festival will take place on August 5-11, and will be combined with an older music event from 2013: D’ni Palooza. We have a lot of creative and talented people in our community and we would like to invite anyone who makes music in some way to share his or her music with us. The music will be broadcast by several event hosts during the festival.

    If you are a musician and would like to participate in this event, please see the requirements below for submitting your music. You can submit 15 minutes or more of music. Depending on the number of participants, we may opt to use only 15 minutes. The number of songs can vary, and you are free in the choice of music genre for each song.

    Musician’s Requirements:

    • Avatar name and KI #
    • Email and/or Discord id (we will use this to contact you when needed)
    • List names of songs, genre of music, original or cover.
    • It would be appreciated (but it is not required) that you submit a short, personal biography. You can simply state your musical experience and/or tell us about your cavern life. Links to your music on the Internet would be welcomed. Please be sure to notify your band members that you are sharing information.

    Your music can be submitted to a private server or by providing links to a webservice like Soundcloud or Bandcamp. Login details will be provided in case you choose to upload them to us.

    Please contact PodHopper (KI# 7116825 ingame or podhopper on discord) for any questions and requests.

    (PodHopper)

    You can find a PDF schedule here.

    Schedule (all times are KI time) (click to expand):
    • Monday, August 5
      • 12:00-14:00: “Cooking Session with Sky” by Skyisblu
      • 14:00-16:00: “Wall Game” by Dah’mpa
      • 18:00-20:00: “Cooking Session with Sky” by Skyisblu (same recipe)
    • Tuesday, August 6
      • 13:00-15:00: “Relaxing Palooza” by PodHopper, featuring: Edison Rex, Jodok, Maurus, Mystler, Piboc & Semjay
    • Wednesday, August 7
      • 14:30-16:00: “Cone Race” by PodHopper
    • Thursday, August 8
      • 13:00-14:00: “D’Marnah/Lillo Minniti” by PodHopper, featuring: Turjan Aylahn & Lillo Minniti
      • 14:00-15:00: “Karaoke Mix” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Dah’mpa, Prad & Skyisblu
      • 15:00-16:00: “Money Show” by AlanDJ, featuring: Music with the theme “Money”
      • 16:00-17:00: “Rock Music” by PodHopper, featuring: Jet Blast, Jodok & Skyisblu
      • 17:00-18:00: “Piboc (Part 1)” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Piboc
    • Friday, August 9
      • 13:00-15:00: “Classical with Babbel” by Babbel, featuring: Classical music & music by Babbel
      • 15:00-17:00: “Wonky Draws” by Iwonk
    • Saturday, August 10
      • 14:00-15:00: “Story Night Special” by r’Tay
      • 15:00-16:00: “What’s That Tune?” by AlanDJ [Guess the name of a song by a few notes
      • 16:00-17:00: “Turjan Aylahn” by Dah’mpa, featuring: Music from Turjan Aylahn other than D’Marnah
      • 17:00-18:00: “Piboc (Part 2)” by PodHopper, featuring: Piboc
      • 21:00-23:00: “Ayoheek Tournament” by Bogusmeatfactory
    • Sunday, August 11
      • 13:00-16:00: “Radio Free D’ni 10th Anniversary Show / Review of the Decade by Edison Rex” by RFD
  • April 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    April 2024 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 168th All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Mysterium

    ☛ Mysterium 2024 will be held at the Alt Hotel Quartier Dix30 in Brossard. Single and double queen rooms are available and can be booked directly through the hotel. The deadline for booking is June 11. After that date, the hotel may release unsold rooms to the general public. For more info on the hotel, pricing, parking, and booking, see the locations page.

    ☛ Event submissions are still open until May 12, while writing and artwork table submissions are open until June 30.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for April is still “Memories”: the prompts are now bi-monthly, so the deadline is now April 30th. Entries for the “Ice” prompt for February were from, Calum Traveler, Redwoodrroad, and Talashar.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ Skyisblu presented her recipe to make eggs Benedict in a simple, more accessible way at home; she also shared her recipe for English muffin loaf, a seriously delicious discovery.

    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.

    ☛ Sunday 21 is D’ni New Year 9680! To celebrate, the Nulp Dance Group will host a show on Monday 22 at 13:00 KIT, introducing Sestra and AKAA as new dancers in their first performance!

    To get to the event location, PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot (#32319); pictures will be posted on Facebook and Discord, marking the area for the audience. Seeker will provide the music stream, starting with some pre-show music at 12:35 KIT.

    After the show, there will be a dance party; Magic Bot will be there, so you will be able to use the “minadance[1–7] [name]” command to dance with a partner of your choice.

    ☛ IwonK will host a Wonky Talk (on her Twitch channel) on Friday 19 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be “male protagonists in video games“. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    IwonK is also making some games of her own as a year-long gamedev challenge; you can find them at her itch.io page.

    ☛ Every Tuesday, Ereshkigal is hosting an Ancient Stories event at 12:00 KIT in Kalamee, reading (via stream) folktales, translated ancient texts, historical fiction from all over the ancient world, as well as the occasional historical-inspired fan fiction, and also a collection of D’ni fairytales Ereshkigal wrote as a kickoff event.

    ☛ Babbel will host her next classical music program in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura, on Monday 15 at 12:00 KIT. The theme this month is “Barock or Baroque“.

    ☛ For many years, the weekly Karaoke event with DonahooDJ (#7501) was held at 16:00, but it has now been moved to 11:00 KIT, every Saturday in the Ae’gura Guild of Messengers Pub. The event is also held in Second Life, with a different location each evening.

    The stream has a cap on the number of people who can listen; if that’s exceeded, Seeker will host the backup stream. To participate, submit a Karaoke card on the event forum (you’ll need to be registered).

    ☛ 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:

    OpenUru

    Rarified mentioned that, after a somewhat spirited discussion last month, they are going to hold off on new content for this quarter. There may be a couple of small updates to memorials and the like, but nothing more than that.

    D’ni Language Classes

    Shokhootahn Jo 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# 80428), or on Discord (r’Tayrtahn#1317).
    • The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session. Classes are individual.
    • There will be no daytime openings for the next two months and no evening openings for all of April, as r’Tayrtahn is moving and his hours are spent packing;
    • Daytime openings are on 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 will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

    Starting April 20, Story Night Europe and Original Story Night will begin the special, five-part chapter play “Jae’s Journey“, written by explorer Janai and posted to the Mystonline.com forums in 2008; if anyone is still in contact with her, please let her know that her story is about to be performed, and that she is welcome to attend.

    After that will be the story of the third, human explorer-driven restoration of the Cavern. Then, finally, the bi-annual Bahro Glyph Tour! And after that, the Stories will restart from the beginning.

    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 😉

    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.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ The Spring 2024 issue of The Cavern Today podcast is out, featuring Riven remake news and hype, a TCT year-in-review, a Preafter Deep Dive, and more. In addition to Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other services, The Cavern Today is now also available on YouTube Music (which is replacing Google Podcasts).

    ☛ In April, the Fan Age Expeditions in Deep Island will visit an assortment of Ages from 2009 and 2010. They will start with a few Ahra Pahts shells, including #111, the Black Fortress. They will then visit Hayal by Corvus & Race, Ahrkane by Ekimmai, Chamassa and Aquh by Brattin; but also smaller Ages like Pakin by Race, or Cass and Fahets (Basin) by Tweek.

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

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 4 (Leefo 12, 9680) at 13:00 KIT.

    Until then!

  • October 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    October 2023 All Guilds Meeting Summary

    Here is the summary for the 162nd All Guilds Meeting, moderated by Claidi Song, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

    Contents

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

    Mysterium

    ☛ Submissions for pins are now open, until March 31, Pins are not required to follow the Mysterium 2024 theme of Serenia, and/or the host city of Montreal. Shirt submissions are also open, until February 25.

    ☛ A new COVID vaccine has been made available for the latest variants of the virus. The Committee recommends everyone to get it as soon as possible. Also, there have been reports of pharmacies no longer updating or providing vaccine cards; if you are looking for an updated proof of vaccine, it is advisable to specifically request a card, or look into electronic vaccine records if available.

    ☛ The creativity prompt for October is “Noir”; the deadline is October 31. Entries for the “Back to School” prompt for September were from Calum Traveler, Talashar,  Redwoodrroad, Salvo Ludus.

    Events in the Cavern

    ☛ October 31 is the 26th anniversary of the release of Riven: the Sequel to Myst! Cyan is still at work on the VR remake, some glimpses of which were shown and discussed at this year’s Mysterium.

    ☛ Skyisblu hosts “Cooking Sessions with Sky” (on her Twitch channel) every month on the first Monday at 12:00 KIT in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood; recently she made okonomiyaki. The recipes are explained in both English and French.

    Every month is something new and different, a lot of times inspired by what is coming from Skyisblu’s garden, or what is in season in her corner of the world. She also tries to answer any questions regarding the recipe she is cooking, other dishes or cuisines, and takes suggestions for future sessions.

    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 13 at 15:00 KIT in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood by the heek table. This month’s topic will be robots in video games. Feel free to suggest interesting games she could talk (and draw) about. As always, there will be cookies!

    ☛ Karel will host a Music Session in the Ae’gura Messengers Pub on Friday, October 13 at 13:00 KIT; the theme will be “Game Music over the Years“.

    ☛ Diranda, on behalf of the Guild of Authors and Artists, invited everyone to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 2023. They will hold workshops, write-ins, writing sprints and other NaNo-related gatherings in the Cavern as well as on their Discord server.

    Event dates will be posted soon; they will try to accomodate schedules as best as possible, so if you are interested, you should get in contact to help plan the events. They plan to have a concurrent event for artists as well as other creative types, including Age writers, to join in the fun. Suggestions for concurrent activities are definitely welcome.

    If you would like an invite to the Guild’s Discord, or for more info and questions about NaNoWriMo events, you should contact Diranda. For more about National Novel Writing Month, you can visit the official website.

    Magic Ages

    Mister Magic is back in the Cavern! He has now restored all of his Magic Ages, including the fireworks, and the numerous Magic Games are playable again. Mister Magic is currently working on making the Fabulous Magic Treasure (FMT) available to players again.

    To get help with the magic commands in the game, send “help” in PM to one of the bots with and they will send you a KI-mail with all the commands:

    • Magic Bot #27527,
    • Mimi Bot #71459,
    • Magic Treasure #26224,
    • Magic-Treasure #24891,
    • Mimi Treasure #21190.

    You can ask questions regarding the Magic Ages and everything that goes with them on the dedicated channel on the MOULa Events Discord, or on the dedicated thread on the Mystpedia forums.

    To celebrate the return of the Magic Bots (and as a thank you to Mir-o-Bot for remaining loyal despite all the difficulties), there will be a party, on Saturday, October 14 at 11:30 KIT, in Mir-o-Bot’s Kalamee (to get there, PM “to kalamee” to Mir-o-Bot, #32319).

    Eternal Seeker will provide the music, and the Nulp Dance Group will open the evening with a short but cool performance. In order to see all the effects, it is important not to use an internal client. Please come to the party with the vanilla MOULa client. After the performance, the dance floor will be open.

    Dances

    There will be no ‘guided dance’, but you can dance with a partner of your choice, with the help of Magic-Bot. There are different dances for this:

    • dancewith [name] [x]
      • abbreviated: dcw [name] [x]
    • slowdancewith [name] [x]
      • abbreviated: sldw [name] [x]

    where [name] is the avatar name of your desired dance partner, and [x] is the number of repetitions (max 3). All the seven dances that were available with the ‘guided dances’ are also available:

    • minadance [x] [name]

    Odd numbers are slightly faster dances, even numbers are slightly slower. Be polite and ask your desired dance partner to dance beforehand 😉

    Note that after calling the command, you will automatically be teleported to your dance partner and take a step backwards to assume the correct position. Make sure that your dance partner is not looking into an abyss, otherwise you would fall!

    If you need a KI note with a recap of the commands, you can ask Minasunda to send you one when you are in the Cavern.

    OpenUru

    ☛ Calum Traveler mentioned an upcoming fix to a long standing issue: in 2007 the DRC locked open the doors to the Library and Museum in Ae’gura, due to technical issues with the automatic sensors that were causing the doors to close in peoples faces, or stay shut when they should have opened.

    After almost 17 years, thanks to the hard work of Hazado, the functioning of these doors will be restored to proper functionality, opening and closing for a person coming close to their sensor regions, but staying open if multiple people are close by and not closing again until all people have transited. If someone links out while inside the sensor region, the doors will not close again until another person has gone through.

    ☛ Rarified gave a brief comment about the update schedule for MOULa. If all goes well, they should be able to send Cyan the new material later this month, with a possible release date for mid-November.

    ☛ TikiBear announced the restoration of the Age of Mirtahm, by Ametist and himself. There is no set date yet for when the Age will be made available.

    Mirtahm was found by Rebus and his friends, and is apparently deserted, after a cataclysmic flood that leaves much under water. There are structures remaining above the water that they have been restoring.

    From what they have found, the D’ni rescued and evacuated the original inhabitants. They then stayed for some time, with a small crew, to excavate a mineral. Now, after some cleanup, the Age is peaceful, if moody. There will be plenty of swimming and diving, though there will be fauna to contend with.

    ☛ Semjay is still working on refurbishing the Explorers’ Emporium (currently available on Deep Island); she is hoping to have it ready for testing by Christmas.

    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. Another student has finished the 101 lessons 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# 80428), 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 will be announced via Magic Bot (KI #27527) or Mimi Bot (KI #71459); to be notified, add both as buddies, then PM them “advert”.

    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.

    Miscellanea

    ☛ In October, the Fan Ages Expeditions in Deep Island will explore Jo’nae and Jo’nae Hood by Jonnee (from the book room in Janga, if possible), Takla Ma’kan by the German group H’Uru (not to be confused with the Writers’ developers group), and Paah’kweh by BobLishman.

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

    The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, November 4 (Leevofo 12) at 13:00 KIT (20:00 CET).

    Until then!

  • International Women’s Week

    Various events have been planned in the Cavern to celebrate the International Women’s Week. A thank goes to Nosila for organizing and sorting it all out, and to everyone who planned the events. Here is the schedule, more details for each event will be posted in their calendar entries.

    Monday 6

    12:00–13:30 KIT: Cooking Session, hosted by Sky, in the Guild of Caterers’ Hood. Sky will be preparing a cozy pumpkin curry and homemade naan breads, while answering cooking question and perhaps recounting her experience as a female chef in a male dominated industry.

    13:30–15:30 KIT: Women in Classical Music, Past and Present, hosted by Babbel, in the Hall of Kings in Ae’gura.

    Tuesday 7

    11:00–12:00 KIT: Music of Usha Uthup, hosted by Ereshkigal, in the New Messengers Pub.

    13:00–15:00 KIT: Relaxing Sessions, hosted by PodHopper, in Podhopper’s Hood.

    Wednesday 8 (I.W.D.)

    12:00–13:00 KIT: Through the Decades, hosted by Nosila, at the Kings Lookout in Ae’gura.

    13:00–14:00 KIT: Fil Live, hosted by Fil, in the New Messengers Pub.

    14:00–15:00 KIT: Music by, about and for Women, hosted by AlanDJ, in the Ae’gura plaza.

    Thursday 9

    13:00–15:00 KIT: Seeker’s Country Evening Special, hosted by Eternal Seeker, in Mir-o-Bot’s Cleft (send “link” in a PM to Mir-o-Bot).

    Friday 10

    13:00–14:00 KIT: De Todos os cantos do mundo, hosted by Dah’mpa, at Sutherland’s Point in Ae’gura.

    15:00–17:00 KIT: Wonky Talk, hosted by IwonK, in the Guild of Cookies’ Hood. The theme will of course be female protagonists.

    Sunday 12

    13:00–15:00 KIT: Ladies of Jazz, hosted by Radio Free D’ni, in the Ae’gura plaza.

    Websites

    Times and events may change at the last minute; you can find the latest updates at:

  • 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!

  • News Roundup #21

    Cyan news

    ☛ An update to MOULa was released on July 12, bringing the avatar dance animations from Uru: CC. You can now pick the awkward dance style of your choice 😀 The new animation is activated using /retrodance .

    ☛ The music for Firmament will be composed by Maclaine Diemer, who previously worked on ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2, Harmonix’s Rock Band franchises, Riot Games’ League of Legends, Amazon Game Studios’ first major original title Crucible, and most recently Salt and Sacrifice from Devour Studios.

    Mysterium news

    ☛ As announced during the AGM, a Mysterium Concert will be held live on August 5 at 13:00 KIT, in NDG Elonin, during the Summer Festival 2022. The concert, conceived by Minasunda, will be a tour across the Myst games and the Cavern and its community.

    For in-person Mysterium attendees, a special highlights video of the concert will be premiered on August 13 and shared on Facebook and Discord. For online attendees, a link to the full concert will be provided on August 14, for those unable to attend the concert live.

    The concert will feature three special guests who will play live: Olivier Maurey aka Piboc, Lillo Moon Minniti aka Lyllus, and Phil Rounds aka Fil. You can find more info about the artists on Calum Traveler’s blog.

    ☛ A new round of special guests has been announced:

    • John Austin, co-founder of Pontoco and project lead on The Last Clockwinder (a Cyan Venture);
    • Don Carson, Senior Art Director at Mighty Coconut and former Disney Imagineer;
    • Henning Koczy, Level Designer for Walkabout Mini Golf (a VR game planning to release a new course based on Myst island) at Mighty Coconut;
    • Lucas Martell, Head of Mighty Coconut and creator of Walkabout Mini Golf;
    • Anita Tung, Art Director for The Last Clockwinder.

    ☛ There will also be a Cyan Q&A Panel; if you wish to ask any questions, please submit them via this form by August 7. It will be a general Q&A, so feel free to ask about Firmament, Venture projects, Starry Expanse, etc.

    ☛ The Myst Documentary crew will share an update and sneak peeks of the film progress, as well as show off the Myst Story Community Vault. There will also be a Q&A session.

    ☛ Proof of vaccination will be asked at the time badges will be issued, you will not need to show proof again for the rest of the weekend. The up-to-date COVID policies are available here, the Committee will avoid changing them unless necessary.

    Other news

    ☛ The third episode of the WaterCooler Show, by the Cavern Communications Network, will be an interview to Aaron Gwynaire, developer of the upcoming Myst-style point-and-click adventure game Neyyah.