had something about a week and a half ago, and^
that's gonna find its way into the game.
Because it was unusual and I think it would fit —
you go around a corner and you see something
and you say: “what the heck is that!” I want to
create that sense of the unexpected in the
game, and a lot of that comes from that part of
my mind that dreams. The dreamscape element
of it, so that that's fun thing. To be able to pull
art out of an inspiration.
DAL: So you've got that's that skill of being able
to do lucid dreaming. So was it because of that
dream, you were encouraged to try and control
your dreams? So you could gain control over all
your dreams?
CC: The one thing about controlling your dreams
— lucid dreaming — is that it doesn't always
happen. I mean you can go to sleep and you
know there are times when I really want to try
to lucid dream and I can sit there and think
before I fall asleep. I fall asleep very fast, so I'll
just lying there and all this start thinking to
myself... you know... “I'm gonna remember my
dream, and remember my dream... my dream...”
Now silly as that sounds, that's what I do and
when I am successful I have a dream that I can
sort of be aware that I’m dreaming. It's very far
and few in between where I actually have lucid
dreams, but the ones you have typically tend to
be like that.
I think that this is something where the game
itself, the story itself, asks: are you the dreamer
or an aspect of his memories or his mind? Or are
you somebody invading somebody else's
dreams. I think my lucid dreams are kind of
always like that, where I look at myself almost
outside myself. In every single lucid dream I am
in I always lose control at some point? And then
it turns pretty dark, so you know that's
something that will also make its way into the
game.
DAL: Now you had the idea for ZED even before
Myst, which is some time ago now. So tell us
about the very roots of ZED please?
CC: Right, there was a game that is still firmly in
my in my mind, that I want to do. That ZED was
sort of part of at one time. It grew out of the
idea of this little boy dreaming and being able to
explore all these strange worlds through his
dreams. That was sort of the origination of that
came from. It's based on this one game that I
had, that was called The Magic Shop. We've
always wanted to do The Magic Shop and
probably will still at some point. But right now
that's where ZED sort of originated from. That
was something I had prior to Myst, by about
three or four years. Having seen... Cyan had a
little game called The Manhole that Robin Miller
did, it was a little black-and-white... a slideshow
like Myst is... but it's all hand drawn and in the
computer. It was a wonderful little project, I
mean it was really inspiring and it gave me all
kinds of ideas. Because it was like the first time
I've ever seen a story based game that was
illustrated, that you could move through much in
the same way you did the story games. It spoke
amazingly loud to my mind, because I was
always wondering how can I take what I know,
how can I build a world and somebody else
share it. Then something a little game pops up
and it tells a story — and it’s: “that’s the way to
do it”.
DAL: Now would you say that something
distinguishes the artwork style of ZED from
Myst? I think there are similarities, but are there
new ideas or different nuances there with the
look and feel of ZED?
CC: The way Myst was designed... they had very
strong ideas about what the world was supposed
to look like. Robyn and I — Robyn Miller, who
worked on the other half of the game art wise —
Robyn and I, our work was very distinct. Robin’s
stuff was a lot more studied, more orderly in a
lot of ways, and his stuff was based more...
almost in reality. Whereas I kind of took off and
just sort of made it up as I went along. Robyn’s
was beautiful in the game and I think my stuff
was pretty good, though I cringe nowadays
looking at it. But back then that style was
something that we just started. I personally sort
of made up, so I went along — based on what
their designs were. I was like building things
and seeing what happened, and boom there it
was.
Now ZED is sort of the same way, but you know
I think ZED is also pulling a lot of inspiration
from some of my favourite artists. I still go back
to my roots is my favourite artists like Moebius
who was a French comic book artist who was
amazing his work is phenomenal. There's a
science-fiction illustrator James Harris whose
work is amazing, you can get lost by looking into
it. So those types of things are really appealing
to me. The game level that's our demo level has
some of its roots and inspiration from another
artist named Sean Bann — who is a children's
book illustrator. His work is very dreamlike.