Myst was one of the first major graphic intensive video games for the home personal computer. It involved solving puzzles to move through a steampunk inspired fantasy world. Released in 1993, it was a surprise hit. It generated a couple sequels and spin-off games and there was even a rumor that the makers of Myst, Cyan, Inc., were working with Walt Disney Imagineering to transform part of Walt Disney World into a real life version of the game.
A new interview with Myst‘s creators, brothers Robyn and Rand Miller, who are out with a new game called Obduction, reveals that they were indeed working with Disney:
“That was absolutely true. At some point, there were some really cool plans to do some stuff with Disney. We were looking at it as the ultimate incarnation of our world. Basically, there was a place down in Florida—it’s one of the island areas that they had that wasn’t used very much. But it had some walkways among trees, and an island area, and we went down and looked at it and walked around it, and it was incredibly Myst-like. It was perfect for Myst.”
Interesting. I wonder if they were thinking of something inside the park, like Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom, or a stand alone experience like taking over the former Discovery Island.
“Their imagineering team was excited about embracing that and building some stuff into it and tying it into the rest of the park, where you could explore and have this real-world experience.”
It would have been great if Disney could have basically invented the Escape room phenomenon using the Myst world as a launching pad.
The project fell apart due to some internal factors at Disney, my guess is the money people couldn’t figure out how to make it work, but also how difficult it can be to work with Disney if you own third party IP. Disney likes to have totaly control and final say. That doesn’t work if you’re trying to see a brand, not theme park tickets – ask J.K. Rowling.
Disney just recently made its first Escape Room experience, but it’s only for corporate events. Would you like to see Disney try again with Myst Island or at least some sort of puzzle solving escape room experience?
(Via AV Club)
Discovery Island in Bay Lake was considered.
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