Category Archives: News

Special Guests Round 2

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Congrats to the Avs here in Denver on winning the Stanley Cup, a belated happy Canada Day to our friends up north, and happy 4th to anyone in the US! And that said, we have even more guests to announce for next month!

Special Guests

We have guests to announce from two of Cyan’s partner companies. Mighty Coconut are the developers of the VR game Walkabout Mini Golf, planning to release a new course based on Myst Island this fall. Pontoco are the creators of the Cyan Ventures published game The Last Clockwinder, released last month.
  • John Austin is a co-founder of Pontoco and project lead on The Last Clockwinder
  • Don Carson is the Senior Art Director at Mighty Coconut and former Disney Imagineer
  • Henning Koczy is the Level Designer for Walkabout Mini Golf at Mighty Coconut
  • Lucas Martell is the head of Mighty Coconut and creator of Walkabout Mini Golf
  • Anita Tung is the art director for The Last Clockwinder
Longer bios for all guests can be found on our Special Guests page. We still have more to announce in the coming weeks as well!

Cyan Q&A Panel

Cyan will be running a Q&A panel at this year’s Mysterium. They have asked us to collect questions in advance, so if you wish to ask any questions, please submit them via this form by August 7. Note: this is a general Q&A panel, so feel free to ask questions about Firmament, Cyan Ventures projects, or anything else!

COVID Update

We have a couple minor updates regarding COVID policies.

First, in order to keep procedures as simple as possible, we will be checking proof of vaccination at the time we issue badges. Once your information has been verified and you have collected your badge, you will not need to show your vaccine info again during the weekend. We will also be allowing anyone who registers online to pick up their badges Thursday evening to save some time on Friday. We will announce the time for this closer to Mysterium. The registration table will also be open on Friday as usual.

Second, a number of other conventions have created uncertainty by changing COVID policies relatively close to the event. With that, we will not be making changes to our policies except in the extremely unlikely case we are legally required to by the United States, the State of Colorado, or the City and County of Denver. Specifically, the following will not be changed:
  • Vaccines are required for all attendees
  • Vaccine boosters are required for most attendees
  • Second boosters are not required for any attendees
  • Masks are required at all times in the convention space
  • Masks are not required in other areas
Our COVID page has details on these and other COVID-related questions.

More guests and this year’s schedule coming soon!

Dan
Mysterium 2022 Chair

Special Guests

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Hello! We are finally ready to start announcing some special guests for this year.

Special Guests

We’re ready to start announcing guests for this year. As always, all current and previously announced guests can be found on our Special Guests page.
  • Katie “Kha’tie” Postma is a long-time fixture within the Myst and Mysterium community. She is now the Social Media Manager for the Myst Documentary.
  • Philip Shane is an award winning documentary filmmaker, working on such films as Being Elmo and The Beatles Revolution. Myst fans know him for his upcoming Myst Documentary.
  • Ryan “greydragon” Warzecha is Cyan’s resident tiki bar authority. He was Head of Developer Relations for Cyan Ventures, and was recently promoted to Associate Designer on Firmament.
We have several more confirmed guests to announce very soon. We’re still finalizing bios and photos, so they weren’t quite ready in time for this post.

Meow Wolf Sensory Advisory

If you are planning to go to Meow Wolf, we would recommend anyone with sensory concerns take a look at the “Light & Noise Sensitivity” section of Meow Wolf’s Accessibility page for further information.

May Community Prompt

This month we received several great entries for the topic “Villains”, and we have our first repeat winner: Grayson aka redwoodrroad provided this excellent image of Gehn. As always, you can see his and others’ works on our Discord server.
Villains - Gehn

Family Feud Reminder

Our survey for Family Feud is still open here. Remember there are no wrong answers, and the more responses we receive the better this will be, so please take a few minutes to give whatever answers you can come up with!
That’s it for now, but as mentioned, we will have quite a few more guests to announce in the coming weeks!

Dan
Mysterium 2022 Chair

COVID, Pt. 2

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Hello again. After receiving questions and feedback about our plans for handling COVID, we’ve put together a revised comprehensive policy that should help people better plan for August. The full policy can be found on our COVID page, but the summary of changes is as follows:
  • Most attendees will be required to obtain a vaccine booster. Requirements depend on when the first vaccine course was received, and details can be found on our COVID page.
  • All attendees will be required to wear an N95 respirator (or equivalent), or a surgical mask in the event room. We recommend bringing your own masks, but we will have a supply of surgical masks available.
  • We will not be able to accept CLEAR Health Pass for proof of vaccination due to cost concerns.
  • Additionally a couple clarifications to existing policies:
    • The second dose of a two-dose or the single dose of J&J must be obtained at least two weeks before Mysterium.
    • Attendees over 18 must show a photo ID along with proof of vaccination.
We do not plan to make further significant changes to our COVID policy, except to add some additional details on verification procedures. If you have any remaining questions, feel free to ask via our website or on social media.
More news to come soon!

Dan
Mysterium 2022 Chair

COVID & Meow Wolf

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Hello everyone! We have a few announcements to share.

COVID

As a reminder, we will be requiring COVID-19 vaccines to attend Mysterium this year. Our COVID page now has a bunch of information on how this will be handled. If a question is still unanswered, there’s a good chance we’re still working out the details.

Meow Wolf

We are planning an optional excursion to the interactive art exhibit in Denver called Meow Wolf: Convergence Station. We’ll be heading out there for a 7:20 PM entrance the Friday of Mysterium – August 12. Information is available on their website, but it’s better seen than described. Tickets are available for $35 through our Registration page until June 30. Note: all ticket purchases will become nonrefundable after this date, regardless of any other refunds allowed.

April Community Prompt

This month we received several great entries for the topic “Atrus Family Road Trip”, and the winner was this alternate timeline image involving Gehn being around for Sirrus and Achenar, by Grayson aka redwoodrroad. As always, you can see his and others’ works on our Discord server.
Atrus Family Road Trip

Submission Reminder

Submissions for the activity book and for events are open for just over another week, until May 22. See our submissions page for details.

Registration Reminder

There are still a couple days to purchase an early registration for $25 (or premium with a t-shirt for $40)! After this Sunday, May 15, the price will increase to $30, and t-shirts will no longer be available for presale, although some may be available at the door.

That’s it for now. We’re working out some details with Cyan and will hopefully have some special guests to announce soon!

Dan
Mysterium 2022 Chair

Hotel

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Happy Spring! We finally have a big announcement several people have asked about: we have a hotel set for this year!

Hotel

First, the big news: we have signed a hotel contract, so you can start booking rooms! Our hotel this year is the Holiday Inn Denver East in the Central Park neighborhood, east of downtown Denver. The Mysterium rate, which includes free parking, will be $121/night. The discounted rate will be available until July 20. See all the details on our Location page.

Quabitats

An important announcement from Quabitat for Squeemanity Director Kelly “Rayne” Coston:

Is your home feeling like it’s missing something? Maybe you need a friend? Well, you’re in luck! Due to a sudden uptick in the squee and quab population from one of Atrus’ breeding experiments that went awry, Quabitat for Squeemanity has a nice variety of pets for you to adopt! Here at Quabitat for Squeemanity, we care about the safety and happiness of your pet. So if you stop by and adopt a pet today, we’ll throw in a free, customizable habitat! That’s right! It’s free. You get to choose the patterns of the walls and floor of your pet’s new home and supply it with a plethora of decorations, customized for the optimum happiness for your pet. So stop by today and adopt a quab or squee!

Family Feud

A common thread in recent surveys has been that people like having interactive events. With that, we’re planning a Family Feud style game show for this year’s convention. However, if you’re familiar with the show, you’ll know we need survey responses. If you have a few minutes, please fill out the questions here (there are no wrong answers!). You don’t have to answer all questions, but the more responses we get the better it will be, so try to fill out any you can come up with an answer for.

Activity Book Submissions

A reminder that we’re still taking submissions for this year’s activity book. Additionally, after checking publishing needs, we have decided to extend the deadline a month to May 22. This is the same date as the deadline for event submissions. See our Submissions page for more information.

Until next time,
Dan
Mysterium 2022 Chair