It’s not one of Cyan Worlds’ legendary classics like Myst or Riven, but it’s definitely worth seeing what has just launched on Steam: a puzzle adventure that took seven years to make, featuring a soundtrack largely written by a teenager.

While Myst and its sequel Riven remain omnipresent thanks to Cyan Worlds’ constant re-releases, games directly inspired by them are rare. One of the most famous examples is Jonathan Blow’s labyrinthine puzzler The Witness, which will turn ten in January. Veteran publisher MicroProse has now released Neyyah, a first-person, 3D, point-and-click puzzle game.

Created over seven years by Adam Gwynaire (under the Steam handle Defy Reality Entertainment), the game sends players to a series of remote islands filled with unusual vegetation and mysterious structures. Much like Myst, it challenges players to solve interconnected puzzles to reactivate enigmatic machines. Its story unfolds through FMV sequences, a few of which are shown in the video below.

According to the press release, the cast includes Gwynaire’s ex-wife and stepchildren, as well as several theater actors from Perth, Australia. Perhaps the most striking detail is the music: Neyyah features more than 80 original tracks, about a third composed by Gwynaire, while the remaining two-thirds were created by Zaedyn Turner, who was only between 10 and 14 years old during development. In other words, much of the game’s soundtrack was written by a teenager.

The system requirements are remarkably low. Recommended specs list a 13-year-old Intel Core i7-3770K processor, 8 GB of RAM, a decade-old Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 GPU, and 40 GB of free storage. That means virtually no hardware upgrade is required to run it. Neyyah launched on September 2 and is available for €20, currently discounted by 20% until September 16.

Source: PCGamer, Steam