Questions about Robyn Miller's "Dunny Hut"

Main_Avvie · **Posted:** Thu Oct 13, 2011 7:18 pm

From what I understand, Robyn Miller's unfinished novel "Dunny Hut" served as the basis for much of the backstory of Myst and Riven. I'd like to pose some questions about Dunny Hut to the original author himself...

For starters, how much progress was made on Dunny Hut and how much of that material still exists? If it does, would it hurt to share?

Also, how similar is Myst and Riven to what work had been done on Dunny Hut in its unfinished state and how much does the Myst series and URU resemble whatever may have been in mind while Dunny Hut was being written? What plans were there for the story of Dunny Hut had it been completed?

What made Dunny Hut a good choice to base Myst's backstory on? And if Dunny Hut serves as the basis for Myst's backstory, what served as inspiration for Dunny Hut?

Is Dunny Hut really incomplete? If not, are there any plans to fully write and publish Dunny Hut someday?

oh, and for good measure, why "Dunny"?

from what i've heard of Dunny Hut, it seems rather reminiscent of Will Crowther's text adventure game Colossal Cave. its got the hut and the secret entrance to the cave beneath the hut. was the basis for Dunny Hut derived from Colossal Cave?

These questions are reaching back to primordial Myst. Not just Myst but the basis and inspiration for Myst which was another work entirely. Figured it would make for an interesting history lesson

robynmiller · **Joined:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:09 pm **Posts:** 39

Main_Avvie wrote:

From what I understand, Robyn Miller's unfinished novel "Dunny Hut" served as the basis for much of the backstory of Myst and Riven. I'd like to pose some questions about Dunny Hut to the original author himself...

For starters, how much progress was made on Dunny Hut and how much of that material still exists? If it does, would it hurt to share?

Also, how similar is Myst and Riven to what work had been done on Dunny Hut in its unfinished state and how much does the Myst series and URU resemble whatever may have been in mind while Dunny Hut was being written? What plans were there for the story of Dunny Hut had it been completed?

What made Dunny Hut a good choice to base Myst's backstory on? And if Dunny Hut serves as the basis for Myst's backstory, what served as inspiration for Dunny Hut?

Is Dunny Hut really incomplete? If not, are there any plans to fully write and publish Dunny Hut someday?

oh, and for good measure, why "Dunny"?

Lot's of questions... I'll anwer them quickly...

Not much progress was made on Dunny Hut. I wrote a bit of the story and an outline, both of which are lost. Both of which should be lost. I still have the map of the Dunny cave system and that's all I have. It was about a boy who lives in a large junky house (or hut) with his family, but he doesn't really feel connected to any of them. Over the course of the story he inadvertently, almost accidentally, finds his way down to Dunny, where he discovers that he is the son of the Dunny King. He also discovers the reason he was hidden away on the surface for so long... to stay safe away from veovis (your classic bad guy of the realm). The whole thing was classic good guy bad guy fantasy thing.

The name of the realm was Dunny. Why not? All the names were slightly whimsical. The name of the house where Matty (our hero) lived, which was actually massive and held hundreds, was Dunny Hut. The ideas found a better home in Myst!

Main_Avvie · **Posted:** Fri Oct 14, 2011 1:06 am

SHOW US THE MAP!! SHOW US THE MAP!!

erm... i mean please? :oops:

alswaiter · **Joined:** Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:12 am **Posts:** 93

robynmiller wrote:

He also discovers the reason he was hidden away on the surface for so long... to stay safe away from veovis (your classic bad guy of the realm). The whole thing was classic good guy bad guy fantasy thing.

That makes Veovis the oldest character is Myst, conceptually speaking. I find that extremely interesting.

Thanks for that answer, Robyn! I'm glad that you're on this board, answering questions. I love it when the creators talk with their fans. This isn't the first fandom I've been in to do that, but it's always makes it feel like a close knit online family.

robynmiller · **Joined:** Thu Oct 06, 2011 7:09 pm **Posts:** 39

Main_Avvie wrote:

SHOW US THE MAP!! SHOW US THE MAP!!

erm... i mean please? :oops:

I think I've included the map of the original Dunny Hut caves...

Some of the Dunny Hut ideas, like how the hero is hidden on the surface by a kindly and well-meaning older person, or how the hero finds his way through the ruins of Dunny down to the Dunny kingdom, eventually found their way into the Book of Atrus. But really, we basically rewrote the entire thing. In Dunny Hut, there was still a remnant of a society left and, after they had mostly been destroyed, they had rebuilt a small city and were hanging on.

The larger res version can be seen here...

http://tinselman.com/files/Dunny%20Hut%20Cave.jpg

dadguy · **Posted:** Fri Oct 14, 2011 7:48 pm

Can't see it. Too many % signs in the URL I think. :-(

Dadguy

janaba1 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:26 pm

??? ... Just remove those signs, dadguy ... I don't have them when linking, btw... /hugs ...

Try this one ... Enjoy ...

And thanks a lot, Robyn, this is so awesome and very kind of you, thanks for sharing
so much with us ... and I'm glad you already know that we really deserve it haha ...

Main_Avvie · **Posted:** Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:30 pm

I see it! It's there and it's so shiny!

Thanks Robyn!

making sense of this map it seems as though there's two main caverns connected by tunnels. In URU we know of other caverns other than the main cavern in which Ae'Gura and the city proper are located (honestly though we aren't provided much of a sense of spacial relation between the various cavern areas in URU) but most areas of D'ni use the same environmental backdrop, leading me to believe they're all in the same cavern.

The Book of Atrus also spoke of some desert, I don't recall its proper name, that Karath was exiled to before his return as king. Sounds very reminiscent of the "Wild Domain" listed on the map. This is fantastic! I always liked the idea of vast subterranean wilderness areas.

If anything, Myst might be considered Dunny Hut's spiritual successor.

dadguy · **Posted:** Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:09 pm

So strange, the %20s stay in my browser address bar and I get a blank page with one of those tiny JPG icons you see when a photo is blocked or obsolete. I backspace out the %20s and get an HTTP404 error.

I also can't see the embedded pic just above his hi-res link.

Dadguy

Neereus · **Joined:** Sat Nov 18, 2006 7:22 pm **Posts:** 243

dadguy wrote:

So strange, the %20s stay in my browser address bar and I get a blank page with one of those tiny JPG icons you see when a photo is blocked or obsolete. I backspace out the %20s and get an HTTP404 error.

I also can't see the embedded pic just above his hi-res link.

Dadguy

Try replacing the %20 with spaces. (Not removing them)

Not to be off topic, but what browser do you use?

Edit: Nevermind, just saw janaba1's post.

%20 is what browsers use as spaces, so seeing it in the address bar isn't unusual, but your browser seems to not like it for some reason.

Artic_Wagon · **Joined:** Fri Oct 13, 2006 6:00 pm **Posts:** 4095

dadguy wrote:

So strange, the %20s stay in my browser address bar and I get a blank page with one of those tiny JPG icons you see when a photo is blocked or obsolete. I backspace out the %20s and get an HTTP404 error.

I also can't see the embedded pic just above his hi-res link.

Dadguy

Same bug for me. I'm using IE 8.

dadguy · **Posted:** Sat Oct 15, 2011 3:47 am

IE 8 with default settings.... no special security settings. Janaba1's link gave the same result.

Can't have spaces in URLs. That's why the %20, but neither works. :-(

Dadguy

JWPlatt · **Posted:** Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:50 am

Fails in IE. Works in Firefox. Try that.

Marten · **Posted:** Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:34 am

SOLUTION FOR IE8 USERS IN LAST LINK, BELOW.

The spaces in the filename are not the problem. I saved the file, renamed it to "DunnyHutCave.jpg", and IE8 still will not display it.

IE8 doesn't like something about this specific file. I've managed to create a version that works, but the colors are changed slightly. Not sure why. (A friend suggested it is because the original image encoding is in CMYK format... maybe re-saving it as I did converted it to RGB?)

Original image (Won't work in IE8, try it with and without spaces, doesn't matter):
http://tgtmarten.dyndns.org/Uru/Dunny%20Hut%20Cave.jpg
http://tgtmarten.dyndns.org/Uru/DunnyHutCave.jpg

"Corrected" image after loading in Microsoft Photo Editor and then re-saving - works in IE8:
http://tgtmarten.dyndns.org/Uru/Dunny%2 ... e%20MS.jpg

Artic_Wagon · **Joined:** Fri Oct 13, 2006 6:00 pm **Posts:** 4095

Marten wrote:

SOLUTION FOR IE8 USERS IN LAST LINK, BELOW.

"Corrected" image after loading in Microsoft Photo Editor and then re-saving - works in IE8:
http://tgtmarten.dyndns.org/Uru/Dunny%2 ... e%20MS.jpg

Your solution does work for me.

Many thanks (tgt)Marten. :lol:

Questions about Robyn Miller's "Dunny Hut"

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