Writer Fuel: World-Building Lessons from the Video Game Myst

by Gabriela Pereira
published in Writing

Have you ever played Myst? It’s an immersive adventure video game from 1993 and I was obsessed with it when I was in high school. It was a time long before you could easily Google for clues or hints, so it took me months to solve all the puzzles. I remember when I finally figured out how the library with the revolving tower actually worked. That breakthrough alone must have taken me several weeks.

This past summer, I rediscovered Myst as a smartphone app (called RealMyst) and I’ve been thoroughly sucked in all over again. While the crisp graphics and immersive sounds are great for setting the tone of the game, the thing that has really captured my attention this time around is the storytelling and world-building.

If you’ve ever wondered what makes a story world come to life, it’s a number of different things. The primary element, though, is that sense of the world being three-dimensional and truly immersive. The minute a reader (or gamer) becomes aware that they’re in a story world, it loses its magic and the spell is broken.

What can we learn about storytelling and immersive world-building from Myst? Here are three things. Note: If you’ve never played the game and you think you might want to in the future, be forewarned—there are spoilers ahead.

1) There has to be something at stake.

The game starts with us materializing on an island with a series of buildings on it. The buildings range in architecture from a classical style with imposing stone columns to more scrappy and makeshift structures like the wooden cabin at the far end of the island. As we meander around getting the lay of the land, we suddenly discover a note left on a patch of grass, giving us the first set of instructions. This note tells us to go to a specific place on the island and explains how we can decode a secret hidden message left there for us by one of the characters in the game.

When we decode this message, immediately we discover that there is something deeply wrong on this island. The creator of the island world, Atrus, has been trapped and he suspects his sons are the culprits. Now it’s up to us to assemble all the clues and free him. But there’s a catch. In the library, we find two books—one red, one blue—and when we open them, we see garbled video messages from what appear to be Atrus’ sons. Our mission in the game is to figure out how to free Atrus without accidentally freeing one or both of his malevolent sons.

In this way, Myst puts the stakes right up front in the story. We know that freeing Atrus is the goal, but we also know that bad things can happen if we inadvertently free his sons instead. And if we don’t figure out all the clues, Atrus will be trapped where he is forever.

Examine your own writing: Are the stakes clear? Are they buried in the narrative, or are they right up front in the story?

2) A story world is not static.

The way Myst is designed, you can travel to and explore the different Ages in any order. And yet, there is also a logical progression to the game. This progression gives the game a sense of story—an arc—and if you unlock a particular achievement too early (like accidentally finding the white book page before you’ve visited all the Ages) the game will not make sense. There is an internal logic to how the story is put together and most players will go through the steps in a particular order.

First and foremost, players tend to focus their attention on the main Myst Island. They find the hidden message right at the start of the game (establishing the stakes) and then they explore the island and figure out how to find the Linking Books that connect to the various Ages.

Most players will solve the puzzles leading to a specific Linking Book and then they will go to that Age and explore it. Once in that Age, they will solve multiple puzzles there before coming back to Myst Island. Once the player has explored all four Ages (Mechanical, Selenitic, Stoneship, and Channelwood), they will have enough information so that they can solve the final puzzle and release Atrus from where he is trapped.

While the graphics and sounds of Myst make the various worlds (or Ages) come to life, what makes them interesting is that there is activity. There’s something to do. The world of the game is not static. The player can make choices and change things as they solve the various puzzles. They have agency, just as the character in a story must also have agency.

Speaking of characters, while we don’t interact with many characters throughout the game and most of the adventures are solitary, we do feel the characters’ presence in the world. When we visit the various Ages, they feel lived-in, as though the characters might walk in at any moment. This lived-in quality makes the world feel dynamic and interesting because it puts characters at the center, rather than emphasizing the setting for the sake of itself.

Look closely at your story: Is there a clear arc or path through the story? Are the characters at the center of the world? If so, do they have agency, or are they just buffeted to and fro by story events?

3) The world must be a multisensory experience.

Perhaps Myst’s greatest claim to fame when it was first released was the quality of the graphics. I remember playing a demo version of the game in a computer store and when I got to that place where you click the painting in the library and it swirls around and makes a bwowooo sound, my fifteen-year-old mind was blown. Clearly the graphics are an important part of making this world feel real, but the sounds are even more important.

The place where you might notice it most is in the Channelwood Age. When you’re at ground level, the background sounds are of swampy things like frogs and flowing water. Then, when you go up into the trees and you’re walking along the canopy, you can hear birds chirping and wind blowing as well as the creaking wood of the bridges between the tree houses.

Sounds play an especially important role in the Selenitic Age, where you need to use different sounds in order to solve the puzzles. To get into the Selenitic Age, you need to decode a puzzle using the keys of an organ inside the spaceship. Then in the Selenitic Age, you have to use a combination of different sounds in the right order to open up the doorway leading to the spaceship back. Finally, once inside the return spaceship, you have to use sounds to navigate your way through a maze, eventually leading you to the Linking Book that brings you back to Myst Island.

In some areas of Myst there are only background sounds (as in the Channelwood and Selenitic Ages), but in other areas, there is also the use of a soundtrack to set the scene. For example, some of the buildings on Myst Island have music that plays when we go inside. There is an oboe theme when you go into the observatory and there’s a pulsing, almost metallic song when you climb into the tower. These snippets of soundtrack all add to the immersive experience of the game.

The key to this game’s success is that it really makes you feel like you are in that world, and a large part of that is that it doesn’t just rely on fancy graphics—it also uses sounds.

Consider your story’s world: Do you create a multi-sensory experience for your reader? Where can you tap into the five senses to add more dimension to the world? 

At the end of the day, world-building is not just about creating a nice setting for your story. The world needs to feel almost like a character in its own right. A story’s world is like a living, breathing organism that can change as the characters interact with it. This is not unlike the way the Ages of Myst change as the player discovers clues and unlocks various puzzles.

Until next time, keep writing and keep being awesome!

P.S. For more info on Gabriela Pereira, the founder and instigator of DIY MFA, check out her profile page.

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