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 I began my decent down into the basement or lower level of the CYAN building. This building was unlike most commercial buildings I had seen in the past as the whole
downstairs was quite dark and included plenty of stone, rock pillars, wood posts and the star chamber
( not a common addition to most firms I am
sure). As I winded my way down the stairs, you can go one of two ways. Left towards the kicthen area and the music studio and computer rooms, or right towards the artists area.
As soon as I walked in, Doug popped his head up from behind a large desk complex. There were three of these in total in the artists area and each was
marked by large wooden poles on end clamped together by metal straps and rope. Very unique indeed! Doug motioned me over to his desk. The room was quite alive with a number of
new artists hard at work. Each was working on a unique "component" of what appeared to be a much larger project. I didn't want to scare anyone about my presence so I followed Rand over to Doug's work station.
Doug's desk was pretty neat with two large computer monitors and lots of really special drawings taped up on the back of the desk. Software boxes and manuals lined the top shelves. Next to these manuals was a tall clear plastic aquarium
in the shape of a Crayola crayon. Swimming around was Doug's fish "Jpeg". Attached to the aquarium was a whole wad of tickets to the new Star Wars movie. As mentioned on Jim Stephensen's website, CYAN had another movie day for the Star Wars movie and Doug was part of the ticket purchasing team. Thankfully, Jpeg was on guard to watch over these tickets.
Rand and Doug then showed me around the artists area and introduced me to a group of new artists.  Steve Ogden was the first guy I met. Steve, as many of you will remember, was working at Luna Entertainment before joining CYAN. His enthusiasm and energy was 150% and it was
great finally meeting him. Steve would give me ( with Rand standing guard behind me ) a cool tour of the next project CYAN was working on. Rand and Doug had now setup a special tour of the next project on Steve's
desk. Steve ran the tour and all I can say was WOW! I can't reveal too much at this point but I was shown some details, some cool graphics and the software /
hardware being used to create this new project. One thing that really impressed me was the technical background and level of expertise these artists had. I
really never grasped how complicated or complex the world building / graphics could be until Steve starting explaining stuff. These guys are the best in their
field and I could see how CYAN could jump ahead of the competition with the talent they had on hand.  Sensing the opportunity of a lifetime, I quickly pulled out the digital camera I had brought and asked Rand if I could snap a few picks. One of these was a quick
screenshot of one of the models used in the new game. You can't see too much but there are a few giveaways that some fans may notice from the enlarged version of the graphic.
In addition to meeting Josh Staub, Jason Baskett
and other CYAN artists, I also got to meet Ryan Miller for the first time. Ryan is one of the younger
brothers but was incredibly talented and very creative. He had worked on a project at Land of Point
and was now back working at CYAN on their next project. I would see what I could dig up here.
I wandered around and met some more artists and chatted with the newcomers. One really cool guy that I was introduced to was from a unique country and
went by the nickname "Smeggy". He was a true 3d luver and had a very interesting accent, D'ni or Rivenese but I wasn't sure. More research into his background was due.  After an hour of oogling over my special tour, I was summoned upstairs to meet
with RAWA again. Since my last visit, RAWA had moved his office as well and I was invited up to say hi. I loaded a new disk in my camera and headed upstairs. Rich's office was situated in the solar
wing and faced south towards the beautifully landscaped trees and shrubs. Larger than the previous office, it appeared CYAN was spending a great
deal more effort researching D'ni and was providing their Senior D'ni Historian more space to spread out.
I reached the solar wing and was greeted by RAWA. It was great to see him
again and I sat down and spent some time and chatted. New developments were underway and boy was he busy. After a short visit I asked RAWA if I could
snap a few shots of the new office. No problem, but nothing to detailed.  Hmmmmm....lying amongst the artwork and research papers on his desk was a cool rock with RIVEN engraved on it. How about a quick picture of the rock? I quickly snapped off a few stills and then
sat back down. The rock, Rich explained was presented to everyone at CYAN when Riven was completed. It was engraved using a high powered water jet. Very cool! Interesting artifacts were starting to
present themselves and I was having a great deal of fun documenting all I had seen. Have digital camera, will travel Part Three
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