Hole 4: The Sights Outside

Once we finished our tour of the lower level, we exited through the back doors and entered the patio area. The main feature behind the building is the waterfall, which cascades over several rocks and into a pond. The entire Cyan office is built in a "crater", and the waterfall runs down the embankment behind the building. The pond, which is home to a school of goldfish, if level with the lower floor of the office building. Cyan fans who have been around a while might remember that pictures of the frozen waterfall appeared on the CyanCam about two winters ago.

This photo was taken from the top of the waterfall, looking down towards the building. Gordon and RAWA can be seen talking on the patio. The large windows on the upper floor look out from a conference room. Gordon and RAWA can be seen below by the doors which lead into the kitchenette area on the lower floor.

As long as we were outside, our guides also wanted to show us the vanity plates on a few cars parked in front. This photo shows two of the three vehicles owned by Cyan employees that have very unique license plates. The red car on the left belongs to RAWA, and the truck on the right belongs to Rand. It may be difficult to see in this picture, but Rand's license plate says "RIVEN".

Here is a closeup of RAWA's license plate. As you can see, not only is the plate customized, but the plate holder around it says "I'd rather be working on Myst II". There is a third vehicle owned by a Cyan employee which has a license plate which reads "Myst II".

Another thing we wanted to see was the location of the old Cyan office. We knew the address, but we couldn't tell where the exact location was, because the entire block was part of a shopping center. Later that day, the Cyan team pointed out the location. It was here in this building, which is now a mattress store, that Myst came to life.

"As you can see in a few of these pictures, the grounds right around the Cyan office is lightly wooded, and actually very pretty," says Doug. "It made me wonder if these trees were the inspiration for Channelwood or Jungle Island. I was also impressed with how much of the area behind the building is landscaped. You don't really get a scope for it from these few pictures. I can imagine that the Cyan team enjoyed coming back here to relax and take breaks while Riven was still in production. The office is really in a beautiful setting."

"I agree with Doug about the outdoors and landscaping around the CYAN Headquarters " commented Gordon. "You don't tend to see most companies put this sort of effort into building a creative environment. The wood, stone, water makes such a cool background. The waterfall is visible from the offices and pretty much all of the first floor looks out through windows. If I ever get a chance to expand my own business, there are some neat lessons one can pick up at CYAN. I should mention that at night the building and the shadows it created impressed me as well."