To say that Myst Online: URU Live has had a rather odd run would be an understatement. The game has proven that it has more lives than a cat and has the ability to adapt an amazing number of ways and it still keeps coming back for more. In 2008, Gametap discontinued service for the game, but Cyan Worlds acquired the rights to title later that year and in December 2008, Cyan Worlds announced that it would make the game's assets open source.

It's been a slow process and many have wondered what happened to the game since that announcement, but developer Cyan Worlds is back in the news and the open source bells are once again ringing. In a recent announcement picked up by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Cyan Worlds and OpenUru.org jointly announced the open source delivery of the CyanWorlds.com Engine client and 3ds Max plugin, aka Plasma, the engine used to power Myst Online: Uru Live.

Sources:

Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Cyan Worlds Announcement


The progress on our open source roadmap has been slow but has never stopped. And now what will look like a large step is really the result of numerous people, both inside and outside of Cyan Worlds, slowly cutting the rock into shape...

Today we are announcing that the sources for the MOULA client engine and development tools (CyanWorlds.com Engine) will be made available as open source. At the same time, MOSS which is a MOULA server replacement (written by a'moaca' and cjkelly) will also be released. Both open source projects will be hosted on OpenUru.org.

The goal of the open source CyanWorlds.com Engine and the MOSS server is to provide a "playground" where new writers can learn their craft, and new maintainers can inspect it, and new cartographers can map it. The Cyan Worlds MOULA servers will continue to provide a (relatively) safe environment for the D'ni faithful to mingle and share.

The path forward from here seems fairly obvious and very exciting - with amazing parallels to the D'ni universe itself. As new writers arise with new books, the books are tested and documented - and books that are approved by some new kind of maintainers guild will (hopefully) find their way to the MOULA server where the public can enjoy new worlds once again.

These are exciting times, but not without risk. The tools and skills are new and need to be sharpened. There will be disagreements and strongly expressed opinions. And there will be decisions and mistakes. But keep in mind that the big picture is a lot like rebuilding a long dead civilization - and the forest of common goals far outnumber the few trees of differences. Let's keep it civil. ?

There have been numerous people cutting on the rock, and they've kept this project alive. We sincerely thank all of them for the wonderful help. Specifically there are a few people who went above and beyond - JWPlatt, a'moaca', Mac_Fife, cjkelly, rarified and Chogon.

Thanks again for the continued support!

Shorah,

Rand


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Myst Online: URU Live Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Stacy "Martuk" Jones was a long-time news editor and community manager for many of our previous game sites, such as Age of Conan. Stacy has since moved on to become a masked super hero, battling demons in another dimension.

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