DIRT
 | This article is written from an OOC point-of-view. Events and elements in the D'ni Universe are regarded as fictional. |
| Developer | Cyan |
|---|---|
| Publishers | unreleased |
| Genres | adventure, puzzle |
| Mode | single-player |
DIRT, short for D'ni in Real Time, was the codename for a project Cyan Worlds undertook immediately after Riven.
Using the Plasma engine to provide a real-time 3D environment, the game was to be an immersive experience of starting at the Cleft, descending the tunnels inside the volcano and the Great Shaft, and ultimately ending up in the Cavern. During this journey, the player would have encountered many of the same aspects, curiosities and obstacles as Ti'ana and later Atrus did, and would have had a chance to read journals of theirs. Ages such as Noloben (quite different from the Noloben as depicted in End of Ages) would be available for rest during the journey, and the arrival at the City would be the final perk.
Cyan Worlds's vision, however, eventually shifted towards an online game, played together. This is generally known by codenames such as Mudpie and Parable. Because Plasma was very unsuited for the networking requirements Mudpie posed, a lot of time was spent developing Plasma 2; in the meantime, some at Cyan and Sunsoft would focus on realMyst instead, which used Plasma 1. Many of realMyst's internals are heavily based off DIRT.
The DIRT project itself never made it beyond a few test versions, though some Ages had actually already reached an impressive state of development. Most of this content has since been been integrated into later games. Examples include:
- Many textures and a few structures from the Cleft, as depicted in DIRT, have been altered for use in Eder Gira in Uru. The Cleft as shown in Uru is vastly different, but it does share a few aspects, such as the wahrk skeleton. DIRT's Cleft does not fence off the volcano; rather, going inside is a central part of the story.
- As evidenced by some old and rare screenshots, Teledahn, as rendered in DIRT, has somewhat different looks compared to the Teledahn people actually got to see in Uru, mainly due to technical differences between Plasma 1 and 2.
- End of Ages would later pick up some of DIRT's aspects. For instance, both in DIRT and in End of Ages, you jump through a hole to start making the descent, and both DIRT and End of Ages feature the Great Shaft, in a very similar manner.
- As mentioned before, Noloben had vastly different aspects, and aside from the existence of a beach and a cave really doesn't resemble the final rendering End of Ages at all. It also had an entirely different (and very brief) storyline and set of puzzles. Ironically, some of Uru's early screenshots, such as a banner across Ubisoft's Uru Live website, showed Noloben as rendered by Plasma 1; it wouldn't actually have been possible to use this content as-is in Uru at all (Teledahn, instead, was ported).
- Of note, DIRT completely lacked the Yeesha/Bahro aspects introduced in Uru and End of Ages.
DIRT also marks the first time Cyan attempted to distributed a game without the traditional middle-man of a game publisher, presumably out of frustration with the ever-increasing amount of control publishers seek over the final product. Instead, they approached a number of financial investors as well as sponsors, some from the entertainment business, but with little success. Some contacts remained,[1] however: one of the companies Cyan had attempted to partner with was Turner, and ultimately, this hope would come to fruition with Uru Live.
External links[edit | edit source]
- Pre-Mudpie DIRT/Descent demo released by Eric A. Anderson
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ In an interview with IGN, Rand Miller stated: "We had a relationship with Turner for years. Never did anything with them but there were people we knew there."
