How Bricks and Mortar Helped Save Cyan

Hot dogs and history at Cyan Worlds

Phil “Shadsy” Salvador:

Yet because of this building, they have persisted. In a tour of Cyan headquarters with PC World, Cyan co-founder Rand Miller said that owning their own property kept them in business. “I don’t know if we’d be alive if Myst hadn’t built this house,” he said. “Not paying rent… having it paid for and having a space to work, it means your expenses are so much lower.” With their own building, they could afford to take on quality assurance contract work in order to keep the lights on. They’ve been able to lease parts of the building to other local companies (or that church). They rent out the grounds for events, for which they even built a stage next door, nestled in a picturesque alcove of conifer trees that could have come out of Channelwood. It’s weird to think of Cyan, a company so vital to the development of multimedia and exploratory games, as essentially being a landlord now, but those boring, practical business decisions are why they’re still making games while other studios from their time have closed.