Mac game publisher MacPlay made some major announcements at Macworld Expo San Francisco last week. One announcement almost got overlooked because it wasn’t official until the show’s last day: the Mac game publisher has struck a deal with Ubi Soft Entertainment to bring realMYST to the Macintosh.
MacPlay president Mark Cottam said that his company is excited to bring realMYST to Mac OS X.
“Myst debuted on the Macintosh in 1993 and Macintosh gamers were the first to experience the wonderful world of D’ni. RealMYST will continue that tradition,” said Cottam.
Billed as “the final, director’s cut of Myst,” this is a version of the now-legendary 3D puzzle game designed around an entirely new, real time 3D graphics engine. Developer Cyan has said that this game brings the world of Myst to life the way they originally envisioned it, free of the game’s technical constraints at the time.
The original Myst, developed using Apple’s own HyperCard engine, was a point-and-click adventure game comprised of thousands of frames of pre-rendered imagery. Certain key frames supported animated puzzles that you then had to figure out by manipulating various elements.
RealMYST is different; it uses a 3D graphics engine to let you walk and look anywhere you want to, in real-time with 360 degrees of freedom. The game sports 3D effects and dynamic weather and daylight conditions.
Last year Ubi Soft released Myst III: Exile for the Macintosh and PC. The latest edition of the popular Myst line, Myst III was developed by Presto Studios. That game also featured a point-and-click 3D engine, although it did feature immersive panoramas that you could use to spin around.
realMYST was developed by Myst’s original developer, Cyan, and has been available for the PC for a year. MacPlay and Ubi Soft reached an agreement to enable MacPlay to publish the title during last week’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Calif.
MacPlay plans to publish realMYST for the Mac in March for a suggested retail price of US$29.99.