It looks a lot different than what^ Myst looks like
because the technology's come a long way. My
style, I mean obviously I've done a lot of work
since that point of time in my life. So I’ve had
the chance to do a lot more and I've learned a
lot during those years. I'm not trying to be
another Myst, I don't want to be another Myst
but the demo is Myst-like at least in the
experience. That that's great, you know, but it's
not something that's intentional.
DAL: Now, I'm interested in how you started.
Did you look at blank piece of paper and start to
draw the map of the game map of ZED? Was it
organic, or did you have a clear idea of how it
may be structured how it look?
CC: Oh, I have a very clear idea in my head
almost everything looks. I've got this actual
active game design document. I was just trying
to sketch out some ideas that we were having
some issues with, in some of the early versions
of the demo, asking how we could simplify it. So
we're going over and that picture is basically
going through it, kind of clarifying it for my
programmer. He and I were working on the
design of the layout of all the pathways, and
how it would work. So that's pretty much what
that was. But I do have a very strong vision of
what the game is, and that is on paper now. And
it’s always available for everybody — at least
within a team — to be able to understand what
the roadmap is.
DAL: On the Kickstarter campaign you just do
get some sneak peeks of some of those
sketches. Definitely some interesting and
outstanding looking architecture, a twisted
lighthouse structure. What are some of your
influences in terms of the architecture and canyou describe some of your favourite pieces in
the game so far?
CC: Sure the Lighthouse is one of my favourite
pieces. It was a very simple object, a very
simple model, it took me maybe two hours three
hours to build it. I had this kind of picture my
head what it's going to look like, and I've been
building all the buildings up to that point. I'm
making it slightly askew, like everything's not
perfect. It's not symmetrical, a little twisted
here and there — it just sort of organically came
out of my mind. There's some sort of character
about it, like Dr. Seuss. I'll start with one idea
in my head and I kind of work through it, and
then other things start to take over and let me
kind of try some different thing. That's the one
thing about such a small team, there's no time
to do concept art, so I pull from every which
way. Anything I can find... there are a couple of
objects in a couple of the other worlds that are,
such as a large sculptural head that looks like
it's being held down by chains. It's just this very
ominous looking thing, like something out of a
horror story — some strange kind of gothic place
where there's just this overseer looking down on
you. Then there’s this large bird, like a bird of
prey. That is sculpted in a way that has a kind
of odd hungry look about it.
In a level the demo there's another object that I
like a lot, that’s based on a bank or a landmark
called the Standpipe in Bangor. Here we are the
home to Stephen King and he lives a couple
blocks away from me. He's used the Standpipe
in some of his books as like the source of all evil.
We’re going to use it in our game and there's a
very large puzzle associated with it. In order to
get inside of it you have to do something youPictures: Screenshot from an
early version of ZED; Chuck at
work; Cyan’s original Myst island
seen from above.