This website contains many spoilers for Riven: The Sequel to Myst.
It's an amazing game, so don't spoil yourself!
If you're curious about what this website/project even is, it's a remake
of the aforementioned game. You can learn more about our project by visiting
What is Starry Expanse?.
Are you any good with Blender/Maya/3DS/Other 3D Modeling Program? Do you have experience in programming, particularly in Python, particularly in Blender? Do you pride yourself on your texture-creation abilities? Do you have a deep and undying love for Riven? Then we want your help!
We are (as always) seeking out new souls to join our little project. If you’re interested, send an email to cho102997@gmail.com and let us know what you’re good at.
Here are some skills we’re looking for in particular:
Scripter
Python (bonus points for Blender, Twisted or wxPython)
PHP
C coder (we’ve got one project for ya!)
Character artist
Character animator
Blender artist
Graphical artist (icons, logos, etc.)
Sound expert
Audio asset tracker (lots of spreadsheet work and going through riven, recognizing sounds)
Please note that we are looking for passionate, dedicated people. You may not have all the time in the world, but you can make the time that you do have worthwhile. Please don’t apply if you aren’t serious about this.
– Cho
(Note: “beta tester” isn’t a team member position, don’t even think about it!)
As you probably know by now, we publicly unveiled the project to Mysterium. If you were unable to attend Mysterium, you can watch the presentation here:
Well, we kind of hoped that allowing beta signups to go through only for a limited time would raise hype and that people would sign up for beta like, as soon as they could.
Turns out that wasn’t the case. Despite our weirdly gigantic spikes in unique visitor counts each time we posted something containing the word “beta,” we only got around ten beta testing applications.
So! We’ve decided to re-open the beta test signup process until we get more beta signups than we know what to do with (note: this doesn’t mean we won’t be checking for quality in your application). At our previous rate of beta signup, that would’ve happened around year 2121, so let’s hope we get some more signups quicker this time. 😉 Beta is officially open again!
Here is the signup page. If you find out who we are (not that hard) please don’t tell anyone. Thanks!
We will be closing beta signup this Friday, January 8th, 2009 at 11:59 PM EST. If you haven’t signed up yet, now is the time! We are most certainly not anywhere near being maxed out, so tell your friends too! For quick reference, here is a link to the signup post.
Apologies for the delay; a team member failed to meet a deadline so we couldn’t post the Beta signup program immediately. The problem has been fixed, and we hope you understand. We promise we’ll get it right this time!
The release will instead occur today, December 21, at 8:00 PM EST (two hours later than originally planned).
Our Beta Signup program will be released this coming Monday, December 14 21, at 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Be ready! 🙂
A few technical details: there will be three applications, one for Mac, one for Windows, and one for either platform. The former two will be standalone executables but very large (the Mac one we know is upwards of 28 Mb) so if you’re absolutely set on being one of the first to sign up for Beta, we’d recommend going with the Python one, since it is smaller and will download more quickly. It will require some version of Python 2 (NOT 3) and each of the following Python modules: wx, wx.richtext, wx.wizard, os, cStringIO, base64, tempfile, subprocess, platform, re, urllib2, urllib.
In response to some of the comments, the programs we will distribute on Monday are only signup programs. Beta itself will come later, and we will invite users to it in chunks in order of signup. The actual Beta program (to be released later) will be distributed for use with an existing copy of URU.
We’re still working on some server-side things, but in a few days (really, this time) we will post a downloadable that will let you sign up for beta testing. Keep in mind you must be willing to submit bug reports and feedback on a regular basis, not just willing to get a sneak peek!
The lists will *probably* fill up fairly quickly, and we’re running this thing on a first-come-first-serve basis. (hint, hint.) So you may want to camp out around here when it comes close to Beta-signer-upper release time.
We will make another post announcing the exact time of release at least twenty-four (24) hours in advance.
Some good news from the Starry Expanse Project team:
We have decided that before the year is out, it will be necessary for us to have formed a beta testing team. “But Cho,” you may ask, “who will form this elite team of testers?” “Why,” I would answer, “you! You, my dear friend, could be invited to participate in the testing of the Starry Expanse Project!” (screenshots of which are readily available in other posts on this very blog).
All that will be required to use the Beta is a working installation of URU: Complete Chronicles and the latest version of OfflineKI (or your favorite flavor of age management tools). Although we will start with a small pool of testers at first, we do intend to increase the size of the beta-testing team, so even if you are not accepted at first, you may still be given the opportunity to test.
That’s all we can tell you for now, but check back soon for a signup!
Have a burning question you want to ask us?
Want to interact with fellow Starry Expanse fans?
For that and more, join and connect with us on the following platforms!
