Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
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| Uru: Ages Beyond Myst {{#if:{{{image|}}}|<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">{{{image|}}} | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Cyan Worlds {{#if:{{{publisher|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)<td>{{{publisher|}}} |
| Release date(s) | November 11, 2003 (PC) |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer online {{#if:{{{ratings|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)<td>{{{ratings|}}} |
| Platform(s) | PC, Xbox (cancelled) {{#if:{{{media|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media<td>{{{media|}}} |
Games and their Ages
Miscellaneous
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is a computer game developed by Cyan Worlds and published by Ubisoft available on a single CD-ROM, featuring several diverse D'ni Ages designed in the style of the Myst game series. Although Uru and the Myst series share the theme of the D'ni civilization and culture, Uru takes place in the present time. Unlike previous games, where you play the role of a stranger who lived 200 years ago, in Uru you actually play yourself. The gameplay is more sophisticated than in previous Myst games, and the graphics are now in real-time 3D (cf. realMyst) rather than being pre-rendered stills.
Contents |
Development
Codenamed "DIRT" ("D'ni in real time"), then "MUDPIE" (meaning "Multi-User DIRT, Persistent / Personal Interactive Entertainment / Experience / Exploration / Environment") or "Parable", and later "Myst Online", Uru takes its players to "The Cleft," Atrus's childhood home in New Mexico, and invites them to "take the journey" to D'ni, and help the D'ni Restoration Council (DRC) rediscover the ancient civilization and its remains. As planned, Uru would not only feature a complete offline game ("Uru Prime"), but also an online component ("Uru Live") that would be constantly expanded. Alas, Uru Live was cancelled shortly before it would have been launched, although it survives in part as Untìl Uru.
Uru uses version 2 of the engine used in realMyst, known as Plasma. Cyan purchased this engine as part of the acqusition of Headspin, but the version in Uru is much more advanced than the one in realMyst. Plasma renders almost all objects on the screen, including most of the terrains and the avatars (which made it essential for Uru Live). In addition, Uru makes use of the Havok physics engine. Its use is especially noticeable when moving around objects on the floor, such as stones or pieces of wood. The use of the Havok engine apparently made it impossible to port Uru to the Macintosh platform, as Havok is currently not available for that system.
Inspiration
According to the creators, Uru was inspired by Snow Crash, a book by Neal Stephenson that featured a virtual reality-based successor to the Internet. This does not refer to the story or content of the game (which is deeply rooted in the D'ni/Myst universe), but rather the format of the multiplayer environment, Uru Live.
Gameplay
Puzzles remain a main theme in Uru. Uru Prime's puzzles are solvable by a single person, but Uru Live subscribers were able to solve the Uru Prime puzzles with others. Also, a few Uru Live-only puzzles required multiple persons to solve.
Uru Prime
The story line to be played "out-of-the-box" is usually referred to as "Prime", and is usually played in single-player mode. In it, the player arrives near the Cleft, an earth gap next to a volcano. In front of the Cleft, a man who introduces himself as Zandi sits in front of his trailer, encouraging to you to discover the environment and to "join the exploration". Later, you stumble upon a hologram of Yeesha, Atrus' daughter, whose speech remains unclear throughout most of the Prime story, until she re-appears once you have travelled through various Ages, solving their puzzles. At the end, however, you are left uncertain whether you should have trusted Yeesha at all, or if she has actually abused your work for her own goals.
Uru Live
Uru Live was taken offline due to a lack of subscribers in early 2004. Cyan Worlds founder Rand Miller made the announcement to the Myst community on behalf of Ubi Soft and Cyan Worlds on February 4, 2004.
From the features it was meant to end up having, several — such as voice chat with fellow explorers or jointly-solved puzzles in new Ages — never saw the light of day in the public version, as the failure had already became apparent in the last of the several more or less public test runs, which took off much slower than planned in late November 2003.
Probably due to the preceding Ubisoft-run beta test from January to October 2003, the Uru Live idea created a significant following, causing many web sites to be launched, most of which are still very active trying in various manners to preserve what, in their eyes, made Uru Live unique and great.
Uru Expansion packs
Instead, two expansion packs for the Prime game were made: Uru: To D'ni, which mostly introduces the (formerly) online content to those who never had a chance to join Uru Live, thus focusing mostly on the City of D'ni, and Uru: The Path of the Shell, which extends the story of Prime and consists of multiple Ages that had not been seen before.
Uru: To D'ni
To D'ni tried to fill the gap created by the Uru Live's end by giving players — especially those who didn't manage to finish Live's content — access to the Ae'gura, Bevin, and Kirel neighborhoods, and the Great Zero which was used in much the same fashion as a GPS receiver when in the D'ni cavern. The story of To D'ni was very limited, although it featured some fan treats, like the many report notebooks about the kings of D'ni, and also journals by Douglas Sharper and Dr. Watson, in an attempt to finish off the idea of the D'ni Restoration Council.
Uru: The Path of the Shell
- "The gathered will tell the Path of the Shell"
Unlike the first expansion pack, Uru: The Path of the Shell was not free, but instead sold in two ways: as a boxed version in stores (either separately, or bundled with the Uru as The Complete Chronicles) as well as via paid internet download. All versions included To D'ni.
Shell was much more comprehensive in terms of new content than To D'ni. Also, instead of continuing directly where To D'ni ended, it picked up Yeesha's story, and featured several new Ages, such as Er'cana and Ahnonay, which were previously slated for a later introduction in Uru Live.
Untìl Uru
In August 2004, Cyan in cooperation with fan-based communities opened up Untìl Uru, where privately-owned, fan-run servers could be used to meet as if they were in Uru Live. Cyan stressed, however, that this was not Uru Live: there was to be no new content, bug fixes, or updates of any kind. In fact, Cyan has revealed that "untìl" was actually intended to be two separate Sumerian words: "un," meaning people or community, and "tìl"(with an accented i), meaning to live or keep alive. Thus, "Untìl Uru" means roughly "the community keeps Uru alive."
Untìl Uru provided the same content and errors as the public beta test (known as the Prologue), with two exceptions. First, server administrators have additional access (for example, cones and barriers in the style the DRC had put them up can be positioned inside the caverns). Second, voice chat, which was unavailable in the Prologue for technical reasons, has been re-activated. Other than that, the same content is available — Prime, the Ahyoheek and Gahreesen Wall mini-games, and the ability to access large parts of the city together.
Kagi Key issues
In order to actually use Untìl Uru, players had to purchase a "Kagi key" for a small one-time fee. Unfortunately for future prospective players, Cyan took down the purchasing page for unknown reasons in October 2005. Players who purchased keys in the past can still use them to create their account. Very few Cyan employees have commented, giving no more information than this:
- The only official comment is still that the Until URU keys have been temporarily suspended.
- I can add this, however: we plan on having more information within a month.
- Thanks (and I'm sorry for the confusion - I really am)
- — Ryan Miller, October 31, 2005 [1]
No information was released by Cyan in November. As of January, 2006, some Untìl Uru players were contacted by gamerZunion, an online game service Cyan has invested in, to participate in an UU beta test on their servers. Cyan employee Richard A. Watson has commented on this:
- Just a bit of info to clear things up a bit...
- - gamerZunion is using Until Uru to test their servers - feel free to help.
- gamerZunion is using only the Until Uru content.
- gamerZunion will not be adding any additional content.
- This is not a long term Uru solution... - ... we're still holding out hope for that.
The Kagi Keys are no longer available and so many of the shards running Until Uru can not be accessed by newcomers to Until Uru. However Cyan has recently opened a shard known as the D'mala shard, this is free to access by everyone and requires an invite that can be found Untíl URU Site however requesting a current invitation/KAGI key holder for an invite can speed up the process.
D'mala shard
In February 2006, Cyan announced that they would be running an official Untìl Uru shard called "D'mala" (D'ni for "Return"). The announcement said that D'mala was being funded by an unnamed third party; several pieces of information, including server IP addresses and sighted player names, point to GameTap as the likely source of these funds. The announcement advised cautious optimism regarding the possible future return of Uru Live. There was a further announcement to call for a grass roots movement to draw people to the D'mala shard.
Currently D'mala shard has around 2000 members and this number is growing daily, a patch created by fans has been applied to the Until Uru shards that opens up one area, adds several small items and fixes some of the loading bugs was recently realised. There are also unexpected visits from Cyanists and the IC (In Character) DRC members.
However D'mala shard will not have any new content, as it is a way for Cyan to show what Uru Live could have been to the community and to potential investors. The uru fan community has started a petition to support the D'mala shard in this effort.
Quotes
"The word "Uru" means "city" in Sumerian and also has a side meaning of "deep", and, of course, anyone who knows our storyline knows it has to do with that deep city. One of the nice sidelines of that name is just how it's spelled, U-R-U ["you are you"]. It represents what we've always done with our worlds, which is not make you play a roleplaying game where we force you into being someone you're not, you really are you in this place, so that also is a nice little sideline of the name itself." - Rand Miller
External links
Official websites
- MystWorlds.com (Official website)
- Uru: Ages beyond Myst website
- Until Uru
- Uru: The Path of the Shell website
- Uru Complete Chronicles
- Rand's letter to the community about the closing of Uru Live
- D'ni Restoration Council
- The Echo E-Zine - Archive.org
- Rand's Letter to the Community about D'mala shard and Until URU
Game Archive and Review sites
Fan forums
- Clockwork Orange BBS
- DutchMYSTCommunity Dutch fan site
- esD'ni - Spanishsite
- Guild of Greeters' site
- MYSTcommunity forums
- Myst Embassy
- The D'ni Jazz Club fan site & forums
- The Great Tree site
- Uru Obsession site
- Uru Tapestry: UU Shard and "Recreating the Neighborhoods"
Fan sites
- Bring Back Uru Live Petition 2006
- Eat_My_Shortz' Relto - Australian fan site
- Google Video UU trailer
- Myst Világ Hungarian fan site
- The D'mala Shard FAQ
- The Meeting Place - Until Uru Shard
- Third Restoration fan site
- Uru Day Planner - Untíl URU Event Calendarit:Uru- Ages Beyond Myst