Category Archives: Location

Mysterium Returns Home

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Hello all! This will be my last blog post for quite some time (you can stop celebrating now), as I am handing off the reins to next year’s co-chairs - although first a few 2022 housekeeping details.

YouTube Videos

If you’d like to relive any moments from this past year’s convention, all YouTube videos from Mysterium 2022 are now available on our channel.

Survey Highlights

Thank you to everyone who filled out our 2022 survey. There were a few responses we’d like to highlight:
  • Meow Wolf went over quite well. We’ll look into similar excursions for future locations. (Chair’s note: I’m really glad people enjoyed this. I went there in January and my immediate reaction was “we have to do this during Mysterium”).
  • Cavern Feud was well-received. We’ll see if we can come up with enough questions to do it again, but regardless, we’ll aim for any game show events to involve larger groups like this.
  • A number of people asked about the possibility of ASL or captions. An ASL translator is most likely out of our budget; however, while we cannot yet make any promises, we are looking into captioning options for 2023.

August Prompt Winner

We received what might have been a record number of submissions for August’s topic of "Travel" and this was not an easy one to choose. However, we ultimately had to go with laughingpineapple’s submission of the three siblings on a trip together:

Mysterium 2023

As you may have heard at the end of this year’s Mysterium, we will be heading to Spokane for 2023! Cyan has once again invited us to their area, and we hope to see you all join us there. We have not yet determined dates, but we hope to announce those sometime this fall. That said, I’d like to introduce you to next year’s co-chairs:

Elliot "Taniith" Borenstein - Known primarily for chairing several Mysteria over the past 10+ years, you may also recognize him from his brief stint in the early 90s on the hit U62 show, "Cooking With Esher". Despite saying in 2019 that he would never chair a Spokane year again, his plan to talk Kelly into the role backfired spectacularly, leading to their partnership this year.
Kelly "Rayne" Coston - Kelly hails from the Pacific Northwest and has been drawing since she could crawl. Her days are usually filled with coffee, running a small business, and staring at her screen until art magically appears. Her evenings are usually filled with husband or cat snuggles and video games. A long-time Myst fan, she discovered her Myst family in 2014 and quickly joined the staff as the primary Creator of All Things Pretty and the Tormenter of Attendees on the Puzzle Team. She and the other members of the Puzzle Team are looking forward to tormenting attendees with brain melting puzzles this year!

Once again, thank you to all who joined us for Mysterium 2022 in Denver, whether in person or online. I’m glad I was able to welcome so many of you here, and look forward to seeing you all in Spokane.

Dan
Mysterium 2022 Chair

Rocky Mountain High

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Hello! Mysterium is only a week away, and we’re looking forward to seeing you all in Denver!

Special Guests

We have a final set of guests to announce from Cyan, The Myst Documentary, and Myst IV: Revelation.
  • Eric Anderson has been with Cyan for several years, contributing to Uru, Myst V, and Obduction.
  • Rand Miller co-founded Cyan and brought us Myst, Obduction, and all the other Cyan titles that are the very reason for this convention’s existence.
  • Joshua Reinstein is an editor and researcher for The Myst Documentary.
  • Guy Sprung is an accomplished thespian, but Myst fans should know him as Achenar from Myst IV: Revelation.

Hotel & Transportation

As mentioned previously, parking at the hotel will be free. If you are local and only parking for the day, you will not have to pay for parking unless you leave your car at the hotel overnight. For anyone staying at the hotel, if you booked at the Mysterium rate, your parking will automatically be comped.
The hotel offers a shuttle to provide transportation within a 2-mile radius. This includes the Central Park A Line station. It runs 6 AM to 11 PM. When you need a pickup, call the hotel at 303-321-3500.
For more information, see our Location page.

Cyan Q&A

A quick reminder that the Cyan Q&A will not be accepting live questions during Mysterium. If you have a question you’d like the team from Cyan to answer, submit it by August 7 via this form.

Writing & Artwork Table

The deadline for submitting entries to the writing and artwork table has passed; however, if you have a late submission you would like to display, please bring it to Denver and we’d be happy to feature it on the table.

July Community Prompt

We had some excellent submissions in July, but we particularly want to feature Talashar’s story “Future Motion”: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40537716.

I am very much looking forward to meeting you all in person next week!

Dan
Mysterium 2022 Chair

Schedule

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Hello again! This will be a bit of a long one since we have quite a lot to announce.

Special Guests

We have another round of guests to announce. Numinous Games are the developers of Area Man Lives, published by Cyan Ventures and released this spring. We also have several members of the ongoing development team for Uru/MOULa and an additional member of the Myst Documentary team.
  • ametist first started building ages for MOULa in 2008
  • Elana Bell Bogdan created the soon-to-be-revealed “Vault of Stories” for the Myst Documentary
  • Colin “Maccodemonkey” Cornaby is currently focused on bringing Uru to the Mac
  • Patrick “Doobes” Dulebohn has been creating content for Uru since 2007
  • Amy Noel Green has created games with Numinous including That Dragon, Cancer and Area Man Lives
  • Ryan Green is the Creative Director and Head of Narrative for Numinous Games
  • Harley “Calum Traveler” is a writer, artist, and tester for MOULa
  • Adam “Hoikas” Johnson is a developer on the open-source Uru client
  • Keith “Tweek” Lord works on Age development and helps support other developers in MOULa
  • Mike Perrotto is a software developer and producer for Numinous Games
  • Darryl “Paradox” Pogue is a software developer for Uru
  • Paul “rarified” Richards is a fan content coordinator for MOULa
Again, full bios can be found on our Special Guests page, and we’re still not quite done announcing guests.

Schedule

Here’s the big announcement: the schedule for Mysterium 2022 is now live on the website! Check it out on our Schedule page. We are still finalizing one or two events so it will likely change in the next few weeks, but most of it is ready to go.

June Community Prompt

Once again we received some great submissions, this time for the topic of “Resilience”, and our winner is Harley “Calum Traveler” for the Narayani word “resilience” in pride flags.
Narayan Resilience Pride Flag

Social Buttons

Do you like warm hugs? Not quite into all the unknown people around you? Or maybe people should just ask what would be the next right thing for you? We’re providing social buttons this year to let everyone know your comfort level! They’ll be available all weekend in the con room.
  • Yes button – I’m comfortable with conversations, come on up and talk to me!
  • Ask button – I’m unsure about my comfort level. Please ask before approaching me.
  • No button – I’m not comfortable with conversations. Please give me space.
Social Buttons
Feel free to swap out buttons whenever you feel you need to! We also ask that you please be respectful in regards to these social buttons. Don’t harass other people for wearing them. Be a kind human.

Writing & Artwork Table Submissions

Just a quick reminder that submissions for the writing & artwork table are open through July 31. Check out our Submissions page for details.

Registration

Registration is still open through August 1. After that date, online registration will close. We will sell admission at the door starting Friday morning, but the early badge pickup on Thursday will only be available to those who purchased their badge online.

Hotel Booking Deadline

If you plan to stay at the official Mysterium hotel this year, the Holiday Inn Denver East, you only have a few days left to book a room at the Mysterium rate. After July 19 there will be no guarantee of availability as any remaining rooms in the block may be released to the public. See our Location page for more information.

OK if you made it through that whole thing, thank you for reading. We’ll have more guests, as well as information on the hotel shuttle and parking, 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

Mile High Mysterium

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Dan

Mysterium will be in a hotel, not on top of a mountain

Greetings from your Mysterium 2022 chair! You’ve probably seen my name on some blog posts and announcements over the past few years, and I’m looking forward to welcoming you all to Denver next summer! That said, we have quite a bit to announce regarding next year’s event.

Dates

This is probably the information you all are most looking for. We can officially announce Mysterium 2022 will be August 12-14, so feel free to start planning! We will be returning to our traditional in-person schedule with events being most of the day Friday and Saturday and ending around noon on Sunday.

Theme and T-shirt designs

Mysterium 2022’s theme will be based around Myst III: Exile, celebrating its 21st birthday next year (so buy it a beer while you’re in town!) with a particular emphasis on Voltaic (think Colorado’s red rock and canyons). With that we are also opening submissions for t-shirt designs. If you’re looking for ideas, aside from this year’s theme, Colorado is particularly famous for its mountains. We will also favorably look upon any design incorporating Blucifer, Denver International Airport’s demon horse sculpture. See our submissions page for more information.

Survey Highlights

Thank you to everyone who filled out the Mysterium 2021 survey. We hope you all like the more streamlined format relative to previous years. A few recurring items we noticed:
  • Rand Miller’s let’s play was really popular. We can see if he’d be up for doing something like this again, as well as adding Robyn to the party!
  • People appreciate the opportunity online activities give when it’s impossible to be physically present. Going forward we will look into some hybrid events that are held both in-person and online.
  • Back-to-back panels are tiring. When we run panels in the future we’ll plan for short breaks between them.

Starry Expanse

We additionally received several survey responses asking for an update on Starry Expanse. While Mysterium provides a platform for announcements, we cannot guarantee regular presentations or updates on specific topics. Future updates regarding Starry Expanse are solely at Cyan’s discretion.

We’ll have plenty more to share in the coming months, including more details about next year and additional participation opportunities.

Until then,
Dan
Mysterium 2022 Chair