If you ever wanted a new Myst game and didn't get one, here's the bittersweet news: Cyan Worlds built one, and you're never going to play it. The studio behind the iconic puzzle-adventure series has released a teaser trailer for Project Anglerfish, a canned prototype set in the Myst universe that was originally meant for publisher eyes only. For fans of atmospheric mystery games like Moon Mystery, this kind of archival reveal hits differently.
What Project Anglerfish actually was
Creative director Eric Anderson introduced the footage with a frank explanation: Cyan spent roughly four months developing this prototype over a year ago. The teaser was never meant to go public. It was publisher pitch material, the kind of internal work that usually disappears into a hard drive somewhere when a deal falls through.
Development director Hannah Gamiel confirmed the game is no longer in active development and won't be released in its current form. The reason given was vague, "a variety of reasons" that prevented it from moving forward, but the studio decided to share the footage anyway because they're proud of what their team built in that short window.
The teaser itself: books, tentacles, and a very stressed man
The footage is pure Myst DNA. A man in a green cardigan tasks you with finding a book inside a mansion, with strict instructions to keep it closed. From there, things spiral: objects in the mansion start breaking, strange tentacle-like growths appear, and the man requesting the book becomes increasingly unhinged over the course of the teaser. By the end, he's screaming about ages and deaths in a way that makes it clear this book is very much not a light beach read.
The atmosphere is exactly what you'd expect from the series. Slow-burn dread, environmental puzzle logic, and a narrative that raises more questions than it answers. Four months of development and it already had that signature Cyan tension.
The studio's situation behind the scenes
The timing of this reveal matters. Back in March of last year, Cyan laid off 12 employees, which represented roughly half of their entire team at the time. The studio was direct about it: securing financing for their next project was their top priority. Project Anglerfish, it seems, was one attempt to find that path forward that didn't pan out.
Sharing the footage now reads as both a thank-you to the team members who built it and a signal to the community that Cyan hasn't gone quiet by choice.
What Cyan says comes next
Anderson didn't leave things on a purely retrospective note. He confirmed that Cyan is "still hard at work on new games and experiences in the Myst universe" and plans to share more information when they're able to. That's a carefully worded statement from a studio that has clearly learned to manage expectations after a difficult stretch, but it's something.
The Myst series has always found its audience among players who appreciate puzzle-adventure games that trust them to figure things out without handholding. That same crowd tends to be patient. Fans of exploration-driven mystery games, including those who have been building out their Moon Mystery guides collection while waiting for the next great atmospheric puzzler, will likely be watching Cyan's next announcement closely.
For now, Project Anglerfish joins the long list of games that almost existed. The teaser is live on YouTube and worth watching if you have any affection for the series. It's a four-month prototype that already felt like a Myst game, which says something about what Cyan can do even under pressure. Keep an eye on the studio's channels for whatever they announce next, because based on this footage, there's clearly still something worth building in that universe. For more gaming coverage and deep dives, the full gaming guides hub has you covered across genres.
