Rand Miller (born January 17, 1959) is a C.E.O. and co-founder of

Cyan Worlds Cyan, Inc., also known as Cyan Worlds, Inc., is an American video game developer. Founded as Cyan Productions by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1987, the company is best known as the creator of the ''Myst'' series. The company is located in ...

Myst creator Rand Miller teases new Kickstarter project during IndieCade
PCWorld. Retrieved on 2014-01-14. (originally Cyan). He and brother

Robyn Miller Robyn Charles Miller (born August 6, 1966) is the co-founder of Cyan Worlds (originally Cyan) with brother Rand Miller. He served as co-designer of the popular computer game ''Myst'', which held the title of best-selling computer game from its ...

became famous due to the success of their

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback ...

'' Myst'', which remained the all-time best-selling computer game from its release in 1993 until that record was surpassed by ''

The Sims ''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation video games developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and it is one of the best-selling video game series of all time. The games ...

'' nearly a decade later. Rand also worked on the game's sequel, ''

Riven ''Riven'' is a puzzle adventure video game. It is the sequel to '' Myst'' and second in the ''Myst'' series of games. Developed by Cyan Worlds, it was initially published by Red Orb Entertainment, a division of Broderbund. ''Riven'' was distri ...

'', and later reprised his role as protagonist

Atrus The Myst (series), ''Myst'' series of adventure computer games deals with the events following the player's discovery of a mysterious book describing an island known as Myst. The book is no ordinary volume; it is a linking book, which serves as ...

in '' Myst III: Exile'', ''

realMyst ''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's character t ...

'', '' Uru'', '' Myst IV: Revelation'', and '' Myst V: End of Ages''. He also co-authored Myst novels '' The Book of Atrus'', '' The Book of Ti'ana'', and '' The Book of D'ni''.Rand Miller
MobyGames (2009-04-10). Retrieved on 2014-01-14. He remains the C.E.O. of

Career

Prior to the success of ''Myst'', Rand and

released ''

The Manhole ''The Manhole'' is an adventure video game in which the player opens a manhole and reveals a gigantic beanstalk, leading to fantastic worlds. Summary The game was first released on floppy disks in 1988 by Cyan, Inc. (now ''Cyan Worlds'') and d ...

'', ''

Spelunx ''Spelunx and the Caves of Mr. Seudo'' is an educational computer game intended for young children developed by Cyan (now Cyan Worlds) in 1991. Gameplay and plot Spelunx is a first-person point-and-click adventure game. It is structured as a c ...

'', and ''

Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel ''Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel'' is a graphic adventure computer game for the Macintosh computer line (Plus, SE, SE/30, II Series, Classic, LC) created by Cyan, Inc. It was published in 1989 and won the 1990 Mac User's Editors' ...

''. Miller, his brother, and the company they founded came to international prominence with the success of '' Myst'' in 1993 and its sequel ''

'' in 1997, both of which broke sales records. Following the success of ''Myst'' and ''Riven'', Miller spent nearly seven years spearheading development of '' Uru: Ages Beyond Myst'', an online massively-multiplayer extension of the '' Myst'' franchise. Miller noted that "the essence of ''Uru'' was people love to explore and the fault in the one-off games is you get to explore until it stops. Well, what if it didn't stop? What if the worlds continued?" Upon its release in 2003, ''Uru'' was a commercial failure. Online services were ceased by original publisher Ubisoft in 2004. Despite this earlier setback, Cyan Worlds announced in Los Angeles at E3 2006 that they would be partnering with

GameTap GameTap was an online video game service established by Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) in 2005. It provided users with classic arcade video games and game-related video content. The service was acquired by French online video game service Met ...

to bring ''Uru Live'' online again. On February 15, 2007, '' Myst Online: Uru Live'' was released. However, this version also failed to attain sufficient popularity and was shut down in 2008. ''Uru''s failure caused

to briefly cease operations. Miller appeared shocked by ''Uru Live''s ultimate failure, as reflected in his letter to the ''Uru Live'' community, which he wrote to explain why the game had to be shut down for an indefinite amount of time. In a previous interview, Miller had stated that finance from outside investment, not technology, was the reason for the failed project: "I think the biggest failure was running out of money, and thus running out of time, and thus losing control of our own destiny. No matter what promises are made or common goals are agreed upon, whoever pays the bills has the final say." On October 17, 2013, Miller announced the development of '' Obduction'', intended to serve as the

spiritual successor A spiritual successor (sometimes called a spiritual sequel) is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous work, but (unlike a traditional prequel or sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, ...

to the ''Myst'' series, via a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign. The game was released in 2016 (for PC) and 2017 (for Mac OS). Reviews for ''Obduction'' were largely positive.

Personal life

Miller lives in Spokane, Washington, and has a wife, Robin, three daughters, and two step-daughters.

References

External links

wohba.com is purportedly Miller's ''amazing stuff'' blog
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Rand 1959 births Living people American chief executives American male video game actors American video game designers Businesspeople from Philadelphia