Interview with Dan Irish

By Orb

As an avid gamer for most of his life, Dan Irish brings many years of project management and gaming experience to Myst III: Exile. Dan's career began at the age of 18 at Spectrum HoloByte, Inc. the makers of Falcon 3.0™. He first played Falcon on his parents' Compaq Computer, running on an Intel™ 8088 chipset, when he was 13 years old. The love for the Falcon product eventually inspired him to obtain his pilot's license and kept him from pursuing a traditional collegiate educational background. Instead, he focused on the intricacies of entertainment software development and effective project management.

When the opportunity to join Mattel Interactive as the Producer for the Myst and Riven product line presented itself, he jumped on it. He is currently responsible for all aspects of the Myst product line including Myst, Riven, realMyst, and Myst III: Exile. This includes fiscal responsibility, the overall production schedule, video shoot production, and acting as the primary contact for third-party developers Presto Studios, Inc. and Cyan, Inc.

We are pleased to present Orb's interview with Mr. Irish, where he gives us his take on Myst in general and Exile in particular.

With record sales of 9 million in the Myst franchise, does taking on a project like Myst III: Exile feel like throwing yourself into the center of the maelstrom?

To a certain degree, yes. When I first interviewed for this job, I realized why Mindscape had invested so long in recruiting for this position. This isn't a title that most gamers want to be associated with. However, I looked at this as an opportunity to take the best parts of Myst and Riven and find the right team to mold them into an awesome gaming experience for the fans. The fans are very passionate and, as a result, have extremely high expectations for this product. We'll meet those expectations, but it took a lot of hard work, commitment, and vision to get to that point. It is both a blessing and a curse. Being responsible for one of the top-selling product lines is a challenging role to fill, especially when the quality of the first two titles was so extreme.

One of the other challenges was creating a product within certain budget and time constraints that Riven didn't face. Since Cyan owned that title, they could invest as much time and resources as they saw fit. My challenge was to balance the development schedule time frame with the amount of money we were able to invest in the product.

I hear that there will be more character interaction than in Myst or Riven. Considering the degree of character interaction in the Journeyman Project series, is this a Presto touch brought to the Myst mythology?

Unlike Myst and Riven, I think players will feel the presence of other characters more in Exile. Rand Miller, playing Atrus, is featured prominently and did an excellent job bringing the story to life. However, don't expect to see the amount of character interaction seen in the Journeyman games. You are still the main character driving the story and determining the action and events that take place around you.

What is the design of the game puzzles like? Will they be as broad as the ones in Riven?

The puzzles were designed to flow out from the story, rather than be just a bunch of puzzles. Since each Age in Exile had its own designer, it's safe to say that the puzzles fit in very well with their surroundings and will present a significant number of challenges that the player must overcome.

I understand that some of the worlds were brainstormed separately from the story while it was also being developed, and as production has continued, these began to merge. Can you tell us a little bit about this process? Isn't this a little unusual in that stories are usually created and the game drawn around them?

We purposely kept our visual concepts completely independent of the story because we didn't want to limit our ideas by imposing story constraints that hadn't been resolved yet. As our story solidified, we were able to pick and choose elements form our best visuals and weave them into the fabric of the story. At the same time, visual concepts were spawned from story elements. The two became inseparable, and all of the ideas merged together quite nicely.

What was involved in Cyan's passing of the production torch to Presto?

The process was long and complicated. First, we learned that Cyan was interested in developing a different type of product than we anticipated. This new venture meant that their resources were committed elsewhere. But they were still interested in working with us on the development of more chapters in the Myst saga. They were highly skeptical that any other team could do the license justice, but they were open to seeing ideas on how it could be accomplished. We approached several different top-notch developers to pitch ideas to Cyan. In the end, we chose Presto Studios and delivered a concept to them for approval. Although Cyan did not approve the first concept that we presented, it took several months of working with them to create a basic framework for a product, or as we like to say, "a tapestry for us to paint the masterpiece upon." Once that was approved, we had earned their trust. When they reviewed the movie trailer before it was released at E3, their entire staff cheered and clapped at what had been created.

Does the Presto team feel any pressure to live up to the Cyan legacy, given public expectations and media hype?

Yes, the Presto team was under a lot of pressure at first. Fans of the series have very high expectations, and because they are not Cyan, we expect that Presto will be scrutinized. All of us involved in the project are aware of the pressures in creating a game like Myst, but we remain focused on creating the best product we can. Now that the fans have seen the quality of graphics that Presto is capable of producing, the pressure has shifted to their looming deadlines.

What tools are the designers using to create Myst III: Exile?

The vast majority of the 3D world is being constructed using 3D Studio Max by Discreet. The availability of talented artists who know the package, affordable software, and an integrated package where you can make changes to models, textures, and lighting at any step in the process were a must-have for the creation of worlds as large as these. The new renderer in version 3.1 was also an important factor in our decision to use 3D Studio Max.

The word is that Presto has developed its own proprietary engine to give the game Riven-style scenery with a greater freedom of movement. How will the navigation differ from previous games?

We've stayed consistent with Myst and Riven regarding the use of fade transitions. Animated transitions were implemented in Journeyman 3, but Presto noticed that players had a slightly negative reaction because the speed in which the animations were played determined how fast or slow they could move in the game. With Myst and Riven, the players determined their own speed by clicking faster or slower through several locations. We wanted to keep this method of navigation and let the players decide their own pace. Worlds in the game are prerendered, ensuring the highest quality graphics possible. But to immerse players more deeply into the experience, we're using real-time 3D technology to display those graphics. With the added feature of being able to look around a node in full, 360-degree pans, even with animations and movies playing in the background, the navigational freedom of Exile is unmatched.

Is there a firmed-up date yet for the upcoming theatrical movie trailer? Is it on schedule?

Myst III: Exile is scheduled for release on May 7, 2001. As with any production, the first trailer shown is meant to be a teaser. Our second theatrical trailer will reveal much more about the story and debut the characters integrated into the environments. Due to the amount of material going into this trailer, it is safe to say that the theatrical trailer release will coincide closely with the release of the product.

How is Brad Dourif doing regarding having taken on the role of Exile villain? It seems as though it would be as daunting a task for an actor as taking on the job of becoming the next Star Trek ship captain.

Over dinner the first night, we found out that Brad is very much an adventure gamer. He had played Myst and Riven even before we thought of him for the role. The blue screen experience for him at first seemed very surreal because there were no sets, no backgrounds, and often no other actors. But at the same time, it was rewarding for him to see results very quickly and adjust his performance as necessary. We spent five days with Brad while shooting his role as "the villain" of Exile. Even before he made it to the set, I found him to be very intense. Once he got into character, it seemed that Brad no longer existed. Only the villain remained. Watching him perform, we all witnessed the story of Exile coming to life. His work is exceptional.

I'm particularly interested in finding out if some or any of the project is being created on Macs, and if so what? Also, can you address the Mac versus PC release dates? Are versions for both platforms to be released at the same time? If not, what is the anticipated release date for each version?

Both Mac and PC versions will launch simultaneously on May 7, 2001. It will be a hybrid product. Plans are underway to release Myst III: Exile on one DVD disc. The DVD Collectors Edition will be available Q3 of 2001.

All of Exile's video compositing work is being done on Macintosh computers. The program scripting is being done exclusively on the Mac platform, as well as most of the game's programming, which is being handled on a PowerBook G3 (except the PC-specific stuff). Both of our audio designers rely heavily on their Macintosh computers for sound and soundtrack design. And finally, also on the Mac, we used Electric Image Animation system and FormZ's modeling package to create the look and feel we knew we needed for one specific Age. You'll have to guess which one.

How did Presto and Mattel become involved in creating the next in a series that many consider the seminal first-person adventures?

In early 1999, we phoned Presto Studios and informed them that we were searching for top developers to create games within the Myst universe. Cyan was embarking on another large project and wasn't going to continue Atrus's story in an interactive form. Presto quickly agreed to create a preliminary design document and technology prototype. We gave them five weeks to come with a pitch and told them they would be competing with other developers. Five weeks later, representatives from Presto delivered their presentation to a room full of people in our Novato, California, offices. Since then, our publisher-developer relationship has grown into one that should be envied by the world of game development.

Last but not least, is there anything else you'd like our readers to know about Exile?

Exile will appeal to gamers of all ages. A story-driven, nonviolent adventure is hard to come by these days. Children will be able to play with their parents, and both will enjoy the experience. Grandmothers can play with their grandchildren and not be pressured by timed puzzles or too many movements to remember. Students can present the game to their classes and not worry about the content being to harsh or inappropriate. We think we have a big hit on our hands. Only time will tell.