Founded in 1987 by Rand Miller and his younger brother Robyn, the developer started out from very humble beginnings. Working out of their parents’ basement, the pair initially made adventure games for children such as The Manhole and Cosmic Osmo, but their big break came in 1993, with the pre-rendered adventure puzzle game Myst.
Even if you’ve never heard of Cyan, I imagine you might have heard of Myst at some point. The game has been remastered and re-released on numerous occasions, most recently in 2020, and this is how I came to know Cyan and fall in love with Myst. It was unlike any game I’d ever played, where the player must set out to explore and solve devious puzzles if they have any hope of finding out what’s going on. The places you visited were so compelling, and the atmosphere was wonderfully cool and mysterious. And it’s good to know that, upon its initial release in the 1990s, most critics and audiences agreed with me.
The game attracted major attention. It became the best-selling PC game of all time until the release of The Sims, and became one of the most famous games to be released on CD-ROM. It spawned numerous sequels, notably the even more acclaimed Riven in 1997, and made the Miller brothers unlikely celebrities - they were even in a Gap ad.
those who love their work will never hesitate to jump back into Cyan’s wonderful worlds
However, Cyan didn’t maintain the same level of success they had in the 90’s. Their style of games, slower methodical adventures, fell out of favor against fast-paced shoot-em-ups and action-based titles. Part of it was also intentional - after the first two Myst games, Cyan went quiet while they worked on more niche but ambitious ideas.
But what followed over the next two decades was a mess of trouble. Robyn left the company shortly after Riven, and Cyan outsourced production of Myst sequels to other companies while they worked on an online version of the game. Yet their plans were repeatedly scuppered by Ubisoft, and all efforts to make an online version of Myst were short-lived. In 2005, Rand was forced to lay-off all but two employees, and the company was in limbo for years after.
Luckily, Cyan has a small but dedicated fanbase who were eager to see the company return to making games in the style of Myst. Their recent projects, Obduction and Firmament, are the result of successful Kickstarter campaigns and serve as spiritual successors to Myst, recreating the feel of the work that made them famous while exploring new worlds and concepts.
Not only that, but the long-term legacy of Cyan can be seen in a recent wave of atmospheric adventure games. Quern: Undying Thoughts, made by Zadbox Entertainment, continues in Myst’s tradition of unfamiliar settings, and the hugely popular The Witness owes a debt to Cyan’s work too.
Cyan’s brand of puzzle-heavy adventure games is not for everyone, and it’s a shame that they will never be as successful as they once were. However, those who love their work will never hesitate to jump back into Cyan’s wonderful worlds, and there’s always room for the odd new fan along the way.