Designing Adventures for the Future

[DCillusion]

I keep beating this around in my head....

What if Sierra never went crazy?  Forget FMV & Mario 64 point & click embarrassments.  What would adventure games be like if they were like every other game right now & pushed the envelope of technology?

I'm thinking of something like Max Payne where you have your character who walks around 3D enviornments with "crosshairs" representing the mouse.  You could "right-click" to toggle actions, (like look, talk, use, etc.).  Maybe you fight, maybe you sneak, (Splinter Cell), maybe you don't.

Adventure games used to be about assuming a role, using a simple interface to allow you to do most anything you could do in real, or semi-real, life.  They started using text parsers, then mouse control; so I refuse to believe they reached their ABSOLUTE epoch in 1991.  No other genre that exists today is using a 14-year old interface for their games.

So does anybody have any other ideas of how the evolution of adventure games might've gone?  Please, no nostalgic flaming about adventure "purity".  People say the same things about platformers & action games.  I'm asking for something a large company might've actuallly put into practice.

[Babar]

A different type of control GUI perhaps? As you say, the "right click to change action" and "choose action from list" GUIs have been used to death. There was the keyboard button thing for a while, but that was only because it was difficult at the time to incorporate mouse with 3D. The thing is, so many different GUIs have been used, it is very hard to come up with something original now. Perhaps when some new type of input becomes popular (Voice? Data Glove?), new types of GUIs will follow.
First Person Adventures could be possible (I think the new MYST could be considered one).
Perhaps more "realism" could be added, where you could interact with your environment to the fullest. I always got pissed off with those puzzles where "There is someone blocking the door". Why not push them? or squeeze through? Or jump over them? Nooo, you HAD to give them the chocolate chip cookie so that they let you pass.
If adventure games ever re-emerge to such a great extent as they once were, I think they will be vastly different from what they are like now.

[DragonRose]

I'm thinking they'd be like a combination of URU and Gabriel Knight 3. The player character runs around with the camera either following along or controlled by the player, like in URU, and clicking on objects brings up a list of options, like in GK3.

That would actually be quite a nice interface, I think.

The WORST thing that could happen would be having a camera and walking speed of GK3 combined with the interaction of URU. Eeeeeeeewwwww...

[Afflict]

First Person Adventures could be possible (I think the new MYST could be considered one).

Well I think alot of companies have tried new interfaces and lets agree some of them suck you probably
never even heard of "The secret of the Nautilus" inspred by 20000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Done by Cryo..  :'( I was dissapointed felt robbed ect..

And then yes oh YES. There was LIGHTHOUSE a game i did enjoy.. Just one problem it had the same style
engine as the rpg games of earlier years like heros of might and magic. I enjoy RPGs alot cause there is
a very thin line between the adventure realm and the rpg realm. Thats why QFG is a great game and I have
all of them every single one even downloaded Heros quest ! FPA is a risky sector and games like Dues X
and stuff are already there so why bother.. !?

Perhaps more "realism" could be added, where you could interact with your environment to the fullest. I always got pissed off with those puzzles where "There is someone blocking the door". Why not push them? or squeeze through? Or jump over them? Nooo, you HAD to give them the chocolate chip cookie so that they let you pass.
If adventure games ever re-emerge to such a great extent as they once were, I think they will be vastly different from what they are like now.

I Agree I got annoyed with the fact that every puzzle was just so sucky you had to do it that way or
no way I think off the adventure as I am Indiana jones and I want to do this NOW! So wheres my whip..
O lala mr jones... ( SORRY of topic) Indy adventures where like that in some extend multiple ways to solve
the puzzles more than one why to do things. It takes more effort and time from the developers as they
have to cater for people with different opinions. So I think RPG and adventure must merge as they have in
the past. Just not exactly the same why times change and things improve.

The biggest most boring and sucky game WAS Kings quest I didnt like any of them not a single one.
And then in all its glory KQ8 Mask of eternity or sumthing came and just crashed and burned...
well from my POV anyway..

The WORST thing that could happen would be having a camera and walking speed of GK3 combined with the interaction of URU. Eeeeeeeewwwww...

He he.. Talk about 80 hours gameplay garaunteed! I think the grim fandango MI 4 thing went down well I liked it
The tomb raider 3rd person thing will never sit to comfy in adv genre.

Any adv that ever made any tidal waves in the market went Daring! Look at full throttle! People related to the character
and had a field day with the game they got to do what the lil devil in dem wanted to do!

Working on a new user interface takes time dedication and well frankly everybody is too into a comfort zone
with how things are to actually change things.. or are they?

[Ozwalled]

Something I was thinking about just now that COULD be a major leap for the genre would be if voice recognition could be incorporated into gameplay. This would essentially be an evolution from the parser (possibly coupled with "point and click"), and if enough options were recognized (and the game had enough variety for what you could do in any given situation),  this could add an awful lot of flavour to a game.

A game that piqued my interest lately, in how it was described to me by my brother, was Return to Mysterious Island (or something like that). I haven't read up much about it yet, but the way he described it anyway, it sounded marvellous. A whole lot of different options available for you in terms of what to do, and a lot of them with very real different outcomes, depending on the choices you make. In short, I guess that making games have more actual, meningful options could be a way of heading in the right direction (which relates, again, to my first point).

Adventures could also make a leap forward with some really cunning AI from characters in the games, as well as from the games themselves. This could be done legitimately, though keen programming... An alternative, though, would be for developpers to diligently "cheat" a bit, with ongoing developpment. To explain better, let me illustrate a possible example: picture an adventure game that's played online (or that certain portions on the game need to be played online) and that the game would upload information about EVERYTHING the player had done to that point. This data could be collected and patterns of what the player did (or didn't do) could be analysed (sp?) and the game could be changed appropriately. Say, for example, that a lot of players tried to use a given item on another (but there's no effect), then chances are there's something that the developpers missed -- figure it out and change it accordingly. OR, say that a lot of players are frantically clicking or not doing anything useful at a given part of the game, then it may be a signal to the developpers that a certain part of the game is a sticking point, so they can get back in there and provide an extra clue or two at that part for the players who get stuck. All of the feedback the developpers would be getting would give ample opportunity to make an interesting ongoing adventure for palyers, definitly on a single-player level and quite probably on a multiplayer level, too. All of this would be in an aim to better understand what EXACTLY the player wants to do in a game, and actually letting them have the freedom to do it. It's the difference between hitting a window, smashing through it, tapping on it, openning it, or blowing on it to fog it up and then drawing little faces on it. It's about realism through depth and immersion without the need of realistic graphics (hough they could still be used).

On the other hand, on could argue that some games have been pushing the enveloppe in the adventure genre by merging with other genres, and thatthey've been doing it for a long time. There are plenty of games out there that are very adventury in spirit, though most would not think of them in that light. Deus Ex, Arx Fatalis, Ultima: Underworld, Planescape:Torment, Resident Evil 4, Metoid: Prime (1&2)... all are examples of adventures being absorbed into a different format, as all have elements of the traditional adventure, at least in my opinion.

[DCillusion]

There are plenty of games out there that are very adventury in spirit, though most would not think of them in that light. Deus Ex, Arx Fatalis, Ultima: Underworld, Planescape:Torment, Resident Evil 4, Metoid: Prime (1&2)... all are examples of adventures being absorbed into a different format, as all have elements of the traditional adventure, at least in my opinion.

I was thinking about this at the beginning.  A lot of games incorporate adventure aspects and people go WILD.  It seems natural that adventure games would do a lot better if they used this tactic in reverse.  People, obviously, still love a good adventure, or placing it in a game would be wasted code.

I didn't think about it, but Resident evil is a great example.  When you get right down to it, it IS the next generation of adventure games.  When you're near something you get a description of it.  You talk to people to further the story.  You get items; you combine items.  That's new Sierra.  It's called Survival Horror, but that's ridiculous.  What other genre is catalogued by its difficulty or by the enemies you battle.  In that vein, Half-Life should be in a genre called VR Space Invasion or the Sims would be in the Building-Peeing genre.

[Ozwalled]

Resident Evil 4, of course, seems to be a real step forward, though, whith its pretty much seemless environmental interactions, effectively turning you into a quite the action hero. There's a "context sensitive" button that can do anything if you're in the right spot under the right conditions, but for some things, a lot of the context sensitivity is repetitive (i.e., there might be alot of windows you can jump through, but jumping through all of them probably wouldn't be wise -- and whether or not it would be a good idea is probably dictated by the situation in the game, giving the player a clue to the "should I jump through THIS window" puzzle. Though the solution is a simple yes or no kind of answer, having to think on your feet about whether or not to make that move turns it into an interesting one. But this can only work really well if a lot of the same options are given enough times to get you accustomed to seeing it. THEN when you make a good "window puzzle" choice that really benefits you, you feel pretty smart about the whole thing. The window idea is, of course, just one example.)

Keep in mind, though, that I've not had the chance to play RE4 yet, so that's just the impression I have of it through hearsay and whatever.