The Myst Graph: A New Perspective on Myst

Upon reflection, Myst has long been more analogous to a graph than a traditional linear game, owing to the relative freedom it affords players. This is particularly evident in its first release (Macintosh, 1993), which was composed of interconnected HyperCard cards. It is now literally one. Here is Myst as a graph: The Myst graph, a comprehensive representation of the game’s structure that maps the connections between various views and locations, is downloadable as a poster-size PDF. ℹ The second article, which analyzes Myst through the lens of this graph to reveal new findings about the game, is already available online Introduction Origins of the Myst Graph I fondly recall creating, just like many others (including more skilled cartographers), a rudimentary topological map of the infamous Myst Mazerunner puzzle when I was young. The idea recently struck me: could this approach be extended to the entire game? The HyperCard implementation’s deterministic connection of cards s ... Read full article.