Riven is one of my favorite games and IMO the best of the Myst series of games. My recommendation is Outer Wilds, which doesn’t necessarily require real life note taking although you could. However it is a fantastic puzzle/exploration game that is easily on par with Riven, and will hit that same vibe of learning more and more about the world and using that knowledge to progress. Trust me, its very worth it. Also get the DLC too!

Its still being developed! The discord is not patreon only, but it looks like the invite links on the wiki are broken and invites are turned off at the moment, Ill see if I can find a link that works…