Myst: The Pursuit

a Minecraft Adventure Map by Smashmello

About Myst
The Myst series is based on the idea that people are able to "write" worlds (called "Ages") in books with a certain language. Touching the linking panel of the book teleports the user to that world. The Myst games are known for their great art design and their well made puzzles as well as the giant universe that stands behind it. Cyan, the developers, created a level of atmosphere and immersion that is absolutely unique.

With this map I wanted to get as close to that standard as I could and for what it's worth I am really happy with the result! As you will see, some of the worlds are obviously inspired by worlds from the Myst games as well as the soundtrack that I wrote specifically for the map.

The Map
You start on a world with just a rough explanation of what is going on. There may be contact with other people at the start but from there a journey begins where only you can help yourself. Notes and diarys left behind are all the clues you will find. The player must rely on logic and his understanding of the worlds to unlock the next steps.

Trailer

What the map offers

Several hours of fun and frustration
Immersive worlds to discover
An interesting story
Alternative live-action ending sequences
Custom soundtrack with custom sound mod
Logic and math-related puzzles as well as puzzles involving reading and looking around
Puzzles ranging from really simple to really hard
100% free of jumping puzzles
A small bit of the spark of the Myst games

...and what it requires

A tiny installation process (see "Installation Instructions" further down)
A platform that is able to run modded Minecraft Java Edition
The usual frustration tolerance needed for any Myst game

Download

Version 1.3.2 Mirror on Mega.nz

Installation Instructions

(Also included within the map-pack!)

Attention: if you skip any step the game might not be able to start let alone load the map correctly!

Open the Minecraft launcher, create a new profile, choose release 1.6.4 as the version; start the game and then exit directly
Install (double click) the forge version that is inside the map-pack (the path should lead to your Minecraft installation)
Start the Minecraft launcher, create a new profile, choose "forge 9.11.1.1345" as your "use version"
Start up the game which should now show you 3 mods installed, exit instantly
Go into the ".minecraft" and drop off the contents of the "Map Pack" Folder (make sure there are no mods in the "mods" folder beforehand)
Start the game, it should show 17 mods installed.

Shaders:
For shaders I recommend using SEUS 10.1 Ultra, downloadable here:

Download Shaders

Within the "Forge" folder you will find a folder called "shaderpacks".
Just drop the downloaded file in there, then open the file with Winzip or a similar programm and drop the "composite1.fsh" (which is within the map-pack) into that zip-archive!
As for recommended shader ingame settings, go to "Options -> Shaders" and set "cloud shadows" to "false"

Development

From start to finish...

In December 2012 my brother and I had a small Myst nostalgia flashback - one of the big games of our childhood. Since we were playing Minecraft at the time we quickly discovered a mod called Mystcraft and started playing around with it. At some point I thought to myself that an actual Myst-like adventure map would be really cool. So I figured out I would build some redstone puzzles in two or three worlds.

Those expanded to 5 main worlds and a few smaller ones with cool puzzles, lots of backstory, a custom soundtrack, live action alternative endings, custom mods and loads of technical difficulties.

After the initial buildings were done in beginning of 2013 our server got griefed and everything was destroyed. Luckily from screenshots and a really early backup I was able to rebuild everything. From that point on, after transitioning the map from Minecraft 1.4 to 1.6.4 until sometime in 2015 most of the game was finished at least from the design point of view.

There were tons of technical difficulties left to deal with though like making all the puzzles failsafe, ensuring the players can't escape the assigned areas and such. Updating to a newer version than 1.6.4 seemed to be impossible with the modpack. Also Java 8 posed a problem since it stopped Forge 1.6.4 from working which forced me to use and distribute the specific installation instructions for this map pack. Also the design of the whole map went through many different iterations regarding building blocks in several areas, puzzle design, decorative additions, structural design of the worlds and general gamedesign. As it turned out, having the "fun" building part done doesn't make the map work on itself and I could experience the old saying "The last 10% make 90% of the work" first hand myself.

"It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law" (Hofstadter's Law)

After all that was mostly taken care of with many breaks inbetween and after many polishing and testing runs I still wanted to get the custom soundtrack that I wrote into the game which required a Java programmer. Some failed attempts later my brother decided to give it a go and created a functioning mod. Finally, the live action scenes were a must-have to me as a Myst fan and again after a long search I found an actor who was willing to be a part of the project in 2018 (special thanks to Alonzo Allen!).

Now in June 2019 I finally took the time to put everything together and round off most of the edges.
So all in all seeing this finished after 6.5 years with many moments of being close to giving up on it because of technical problems is pretty nice.

In the background you can see the building it all started with in December 2012