Myst's story concerns an explorer named Atrus who has the ability to write books that serve as links to other worlds, known as Ages.

The player takes the role of an unnamed person referred to as the Stranger and assists Atrus by traveling to other Ages and solving puzzles.

Myst and its sequels were critical and commercial successes, selling more than twelve million copies; the games drove sales of personal computers and CD-ROM drives as well as attracting casual gamers with its nonviolent, methodical gameplay.

The video games' success has led to three published novels in addition to soundtracks, a comic series, and television and movie pitches.

The D'ni /dəˈniː/ are an ancient race who used a special skill to create magical books that serve as portals to the worlds they describe, known as Ages.

Aitrus sacrifices himself to save his wife and child, killing A'Gaeris while Ti'ana and Gehn escape to the surface as the D'ni civilization falls.

[3] Atrus writes a new Age called Releeshahn for the D'ni survivors to rebuild their civilization as he and Catherine settle back on Earth, raising a daughter named Yeesha.

[9] In 2011, Cyan Worlds and OpenUru.org announced the release of Myst Online's client and 3ds Max plugin under the GNU GPL v3 license.

The Millers had created fictional worlds and stories as young children, influenced by the works of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert A. Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov.

[21] Realizing that fans would enjoy getting a deeper look at the story not in the games, the Millers produced a rough draft of what would become a novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus.

[25] After the release of Riven, Robyn Miller left the company to pursue other projects, while Rand stayed behind to work on a Myst franchise.

[29] Meanwhile, Cyan produced the spinoff title Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, which included an aborted multiplayer component allowing players to cooperatively solve puzzles.

Cyan returned to produce what was billed as the final game in the series,[15] discarding live action sequences embedded in prerendered graphics for a world rendered in real time.

Wall looked at the increasing complexity of games as an opportunity to give players a soundtrack with as much force as a movie score,[34] and tried to create a distinctive sound that was still recognizable as Myst music.

[5] In Revelation, Wall adapted the themes for the recurring characters of Myst,[35] and collaborated with Peter Gabriel, who provided a song to the game as well as voicework.

[37] For End of Ages, Larkin was unable to afford a full orchestra to perform his score, so he combined individual instrumentation with an array of synthesizers.

They include: In May 2015, Unwritten: Adventures in the Ages of MYST and Beyond was published by Inkworks Productions as an authorized,[49] Myst-based pencil-and-paper role-playing game.

Robyn, who had left Cyan before this point, collaborated to help score the game and take on the role of one of the in-game characters.

[53] On June 26, 2019, Village Roadshow Entertainment Group announced that they have acquired the rights to the franchise and plans to expand its mythology to develop a multi-platform universe that includes movies and TV series.

Rand and Robyn Miller were expecting Myst to perform as well as previous Cyan titles, making enough money to fund the next project.

"[59] Game industry executives were confused by Myst's success, not understanding how an "interactive slide show" turned out to be a huge hit.

Online magazine writer Russell Pitts of The Escapist called Myst "unlike anything that had come before, weaving video almost seamlessly into a beautifully rendered world, presenting a captivating landscape filled with puzzles and mystery.

[68] The Millers' decision to develop Myst for the nascent CD-ROM format helped boost interest and adoption of disc drives.

Approximately 200 people attended the meeting in Spokane, Washington, which was held at the headquarters of Cyan Worlds, developers of the game.