This year we’ll have a set of guests from Myst IV: Revelation as well as from the Myst Documentary team. Check this page for updates as we’ll be adding more names in the coming weeks!
Mary DeMarle
Mary DeMarle’s introduction to the games industry began by playing arcade games like Joust and Gauntlet. Then, in 1993, her sister invited her to try a bizarre, much talked about Macintosh program called Myst. Little did she know her first games industry job would be writing the third (and later fourth) installment in this franchise!
20-plus years later, Mary is lucky to have built a successful game-writing career. She’s worked as an award-winning game writer, narrative designer, and narrative director on multiple successful titles, including fantasy games (Myst series, Dungeon Siege 2), sci-fi adventures (Homeworld 2), action-adventure espionage games (Splinter Cell Conviction), cyberpunk RPGs (Deus Ex series), and superhero adventure games (Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy). She is currently working for BioWare on the next installment of the Mass Effect franchise.
Patrick Fortier
Patrick has been passionate about video games from the very first time he was exposed to them back in the 70’s (pong). Having now spent over 25 years in the industry, he’s had the privilege of working on a variety of projects with a multitude of talented people on such titles as Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Myst IV: Revelation, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and more recently Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Patrick is currently celebrating 10 years at Eidos Montreal as a Senior Gameplay Director. The rest of the time, he continues to enjoy reading and introducing his twin son and daughter to the joys of classic gaming and Japanese anime.
Meinert Hansen
A native Montreal illustrator, Meinert has a variety of credits in film, television and games. He has worked in animation, visual effects and production design. His concept art work in films include Arrival, Mirror Mirror, Upside Down, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Leatherheads, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and 300. In games, he was the senior concept artist for Batman: Arkham Origins, and also worked as an art director and senior concept artist on Myst IV: Revelation. As a visual effects concept artist and matte painter, his credits include Silent Hill, Across the Universe and Stranger Than Fiction. His television credits include The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, Inside the Space Station and Alien Planet. As an animation director, Meinert’s credits include Bad Dog, Bob Morane, and his own cartoon short for Hanna-Barbera, The Adventures of Captain Buzz Cheeply. He recently retired from teaching Illustration at Dawson College.
You can find some of his work at his website, meinerthansen.com.
Katie “Kha’tie” Postma
Kha’tie has been a Myst fan since 1995, when she and her then new husband Rick (aka “Timeposter”) played with a small group of friends on a borrowed computer. She soon discovered the incredible Myst fan community online, first in Cyan Chat, then on the Lyst, and later in Myst Community, where she learned a ton about community and how to best manage them.
After volunteering as a Community Manager for a few years, she got a job at Ubisoft as Community Manager for Myst Worlds in 2003 during the development of Uru (and the secret development of Myst IV). After Myst V and the Uru sequels launched, she moved to other studios including Cartoon Network, Gazillion, Disruptor Beam, and Stoic, and worked on titles including Stargate, Star Trek, Marvel, and Game of Thrones. After the Myst 25th Kickstarter, she worked with Cyan as a community, social media, and marketing management consultant. She is currently Social Media Manager for the Myst Documentary.
Joshua Reinstein
Joshua is an editor for narrative and documentary films with over 8 years of experience. After majoring in Film Production at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, he began his career interning at WHYY and PBS as a video editor and producer’s assistant.
For the past few years, Joshua has been working closely with director Philip Shane on The Myst Documentary, a project he contributes to as both editor and researcher. As a huge fan of Myst and indie gaming, he is honored to help tell the story of this groundbreaking series and everyone who worked on it throughout the years. Joshua’s work for The Myst Doc is available to view on social media, including Instagram and TikTok.
Outside of Myst, Joshua has worked for various other media organizations including radio station 88.5 WXPN, PhillyCAM and the Alzheimer’s Association, as a photographer, production assistant and social media manager. He continues his interest in the creative arts through directing short films, writing poetry and short stories, and performing as a musician.
Philip Shane
Philip is a documentary filmmaker with more than 30 years of experience. He was co-director and editor of Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey (Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival), and most recently was editor of Dancing in Jaffa, which had its World Premiere at the 2013 TriBeCaFilm Festival, and for which he and fellow editor Bob Eisenhardt won the Best Editing Award at Israel’s prestigious DocAviv Film Festival. He produced and edited Einstein (2008, History Channel).
At ABC News for nearly a decade, Shane edited many distinguished programs including Ted Kopple’s Iraq War documentary, Tip of the Spear, which won the 2004 DuPont Columbia Award for Broadcast Journalism, and Martin Luther King: Searching For The Promised Land (1999) which won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Program. A short film he made with Peter Jennings and Senior Producer Richard Gerdau, Witness to History, preserved Jennings’ personal memories of 9/11 and has been placed in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
In addition to Dancing in Jaffa and Being Elmo, Shane has edited many films about performing artists. With Paul McCartney, his daughter Mary, and director Alistair Donald, he made the film Wingspan (2001), about the McCartney family’s life after The Beatles. His previous project, The Beatles Revolution (2000) told the story of the band through the memories of musicians, artists, politicians, writers, and other celebrities. Other artists he’s worked with include Carly Simon, Bruce Springsteen, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
He is currently working on the upcoming Myst Documentary.
Guy Sprung
Guy is a veteran Montreal actor, director and writer. He has acted on stage and screen in English, French and German. Besides playing Achenar in Myst IV, among other video game shows, he more recently played the Vizier in the Prince of Persia remake. He has been Artistic Director of five different theatres in England and Canada, directing the likes of Academy Award winning actor William Hurt in William Shakespeare’s Richard The Third at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. He also directed Academy Award winning actress Kim Hunter in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at the Stratford Ontario Festival. His production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream ran for eleven years in Russian at the Pushkin Theatre, Moscow.
Sebastien Yelle
Sabastien has been a fan of the license since Myst. He was supposed to become a teacher but the Myst IV project in Montreal made him deviate from his university training. So he worked at Ubisoft to create the world of Spire, its electromagnetic and sound puzzles and then on the world of Haven. It was an exciting adventure! He has since left the video game industry and has now been teaching children for 20 years! Teaching… It still seems to him to be within Myst’s ropes. Cyan has created a great story for those who see more than the gameplay. Reflection, archives, spirituality, moral dilemmas… this game is noble.