Some Adventure Game Research

Meowster · Fri 16/04/2004 17:49:21

They say adventure games are dead. Some say they committed suicide. Some say they are dormant, sleeping, like dragons from a Terry Pratchett book. Or something like that, anyway.

Well, I'm doing a little bit of research, and there's some stuff you might be able to help me with. Because we are such good friends.

Davis · Fri 16/04/2004 18:02:23

1. Monkey Island.

2. An inventory.

3. If we all listed all the developers and titles we knew, there would be a LOT of redundancy.

4. Monkey Island 1, the Space Quest about time travel (I think IV), Sam & Max, the entire Quest for Glory series (except V), DOTT.

Wormmaster · Fri 16/04/2004 18:03:09

1. I think AGS-games.

2. An inventory and character moves

3.

---> Sierra (I don't know... Gasp.)
---> Gaspop Software (Dunno... Gasp.)
And lots more!
If I write them all in here, there could be about 42 publishers/developers!!!

4.

1. Garfield: Attack of the Mutant Lasagna
2. Little Johnny Evil
3. Rob Blanc 3: Temporal Terrorists
4. 5 Days a Stranger
5. Perils of Poom

Happy now?

Privateer Puddin' · Fri 16/04/2004 18:11:23

1. Early 90s Lucasarts and Sierra games.

2. Strong story, character developement, comedy too (i'm not really one for serious adventure games)

3. Could tell you adventure games from the last 3 years, not who developed / published them without googling them.

4. always changing (MI2 will always be top) Depends what i've played lately and my mood

1. Monkey Island 2
2. Space Quest 4
3. FOA
4. Beavis and Butthead virtual stupidity
5. Full Throttle

jetxl · Fri 16/04/2004 18:59:59

1: A jungle. (When I focus I can see FOTAQ for some reazon)

2: Adventure puzzles. Some games have them, but focus on fighting. They fall in the rpg or action-adventure genre. The action-adventure genre is very vague...

3:Revolution software, Broken sword.
Infogrames/Atari, Alone in the dark.
Infogrames has done alot for adventure games. They should get more respect for still publishing adventure games.

4: I always get a fealing I forget a good title when I make those top 5 lists.
(no oppinion)

Haddas · Fri 16/04/2004 19:15:25

1. I'm thinking... 256 colour... No wait, Hamburger... No, that doesn't count. I'll stick to 256 colours... Yes, definetley.

2. An inventory. Mouse or keyboard. It doesn't really matter. I count both as adventure game styles. LOT'S of humour. Strange humour. Things that make you laugh for a long time. Like "Just another point n' click adventure"

3. Oh god. I haven't really followed the news. I have seen some interesting new games. Last week there was a review of an adventure game on TiLT. It was loosely based on "The journey to the center of the Earth" It got bad reviews. Bad voiceacting and 3d chars on pre-rendered 3D bg's didn't look good this time. I agreed...

4.
----1. Monkey Island 2
----2. Police Quest 2
----3. Just another point and click adventure (For some reason I love it)
----4. Indiana Jones and he fate of Atlantis
----5. Monkey Island 1

Kweepa · Fri 16/04/2004 19:22:06

1. Infocom, then LucasArts.
2. A story that you influence and progress, and an inventory.
3. The Adventure Company, Revolution, Broken Sword, Syberia, ummm....
4. Planetfall, Sorceror, Monkey Island, Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max. Damn, I just couldn't leave any of those out. Depends on my mood.

TerranRich · Fri 16/04/2004 19:51:44

1./2. When I think of adventure games, I think of a game where you use logic and reason, talk to characters, use inventory items, and solve puzzles, all in order to further develop the plot and continue the story. Adventure games usually aren't open-ended (like Grand Theft Auto III/VC). Before you ask, yes I do consider Tomb Raider to be an adventure game; it does have all the elements, after all (inventory, characters, interaction, puzzles, plot development).

4 is a rather annoying question. How many times a day do we need a thread that asks us over top 5 favorite adventure games? You should know better, Yufster!

m0ds · Fri 16/04/2004 20:42:52

1. Screen 7. LOL. That or, Fate of Atlantis.

2. Specifically, an inventory (I would class LBA as an adventure but I know a lot of people wouldnt), a decent storyline which unfolds. When buying a game in the shops, I usually look at the screenshots because they give me a good hint as to whether the game looks like an adventure or not.

3. LucasArts, Sierra, Cryo (ha, dead), Binary Illusions.. erm. Don't really know of any titles tho.

4.
- FOA
- The Dig
- Teen Agent
- Pleurghburg
- Full Throttle

EDIT- terranRICH, one of those people in your avatar looks like old-skool 2ma2!

Mats Berglinn · Fri 16/04/2004 21:06:08

1: Lucas Arts, Monkey Island and AGS.

2: Iventory, Lucas Arts-style speech, mind-boggling puzzles (although not too hard) and a good plot (like Monkey Island, Grim Fandango Day of the Tentacle ect.)

3: M0ds: Kinky Island, Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth and no more that I know so far.

4: Grim Fandango, Curse of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max and Neverhood (first ever played adventure game in my life).

DanClarke · Fri 16/04/2004 21:54:29

Quote from: Ami on Fri 16/04/2004 17:49:21
They say adventure games are dead. Some say they committed suicide. Some say they are dormant, sleeping, like dragons from a Terry Pratchett book. Or something like that, anyway.

Well, I'm doing a little bit of research, and there's some stuff you might be able to help me with. Because we are such good friends.

1. When you hear the term "adventure game", what do you think? Point n' Click in 256 colours? Keyboard Controlled with 3D enviroments such as Grim? Or Lara Croft? What's the first, and most familiar/comfortable image that springs to mind when you hear that term?

2. What do you think are absolute neseccities for a game to fall into the adventure genre? I mean, is an adventure game the same without a Point n' Click interface? Is a keyboard control system as good as a mouse control system?

3. Name the current developers/publishers of Adventure Games that you know, and the titles they've released/are working on in the past three years.

4. Name your top five adventure games of all time.

I think MI, and LucasArts Adventures. You'll notice that most of the adventures after that borrowed heavily in the way they were displayed. But MI was miles ahead of it's time.

2. Interesting plot, beleivable characters, solid graphics, inventory, no dying.

3.

-MI2
-MI1
-DOTT
-SamNMax
-GRIM FANDANGO

Notice a pattern? Im not biased i just think they're the best.

Rui 'Trovatore' Pires · Fri 16/04/2004 22:12:07

1) - I think "interactive story that can entertain me as much as a good film/book". The first image is the main menu of Gabriel Knight 1.

2) Those are technicalities. A true adventure game is beyond that. A good example of that is Grim Fandango. What makes an adventure game is the concept, not the execution.

3) Sierra (don't think they have been making adventures), LucasArts (ditto), Microids (Syberia 1 and 2, Post Mortem)... plus assorted games whose company is unknown to me, like CSI, Black Mirror...

4) Gabriel Knight (the whole series), Phantasmagoria, Syberia, Loom, Black Dahlia (despite the amount of hard, gratuitous puzzles. The game is so good, it survives those).

EDIT - Damn, I forgot Grim Fandango and King's Quest 2 VGA. Oh well. So much for top 5... anyone go for top 7?

Archangel (aka SoupDragon) · Fri 16/04/2004 22:43:39

1. My first image is of an AGS game (any one), or maybe Broken Sword, that was a classic of an adventure game.

2. Well, defining genres is always tricky and often pointless. I'd say, a story-driven game with the majority of the action not relying on timing. Of course, that could also apply to most RPGs, so I'd have to add the lack of a battle system

3. I don't know who publishes any of my games, it makes no difference to me

4. The Longest Journey, Broken Sword I... ok, now I'm stuck. It's not that I haven't played any more adventure games, it's just that they seem to blend into mediocrity in my memory. If you insist, Broken Sword II, BaSS and DoTT, but only because I couldn't think of anything else to say.

m0ds · Sat 17/04/2004 01:06:11

This is an interesting topic. More people post answers ._.

Ben · Sat 17/04/2004 01:24:13

1. Indiana Jones being totally badass.

2. Any story in which the player character interacts in a substantial way (talking, fixing things, etc.. not just shooting monsters or driving through the place). An edventure does NOT need an inventory, a point-and-click interface, or weird humor. Those of you who mentioned those things, would you care to explain?

3. Revolution: Broken Sword 3. Siberia (not sure who made that).. I guess those are the more "traditional" styled adventures. But there are tons of new games with adventurey elements, though some "purists" (elitist dicks

) would probably stone me to death if I called them adventures.

4. Monkey Island 2, Indiana Jones - FOA, Simon the Sorcerer, Loom.. Um.. Hugo 2?

Hollister Man · Sat 17/04/2004 02:29:44

1: I think of King's Quest 6, my first adventure game. The essence is captured in two words, conflict avoidance. Macguyver pops into mind (why hasn't there ever been a Macguyver game?)

2: Absolutes? there are none, but I think a big important part IS the inventory, or the dialog system (depends on developer) These two help the player interact with his/her environment. Personally, I think deaths make the game better as well, is there any thing such as a safe adventure in reality?

3: Dunno if it was in three years, but Origin (UXO is kinda a adventure, kinda RPG), Lucasarts (crapped out), AGDI (not commercial)

4:
KQ6
LSL6
SQ6 (seeing a pattern (I'm a young person who got into adventures by accident))
BASS
Ultima 9 - wasn't technically an adventure, but it WAS much more of an adventure than MoE, which I liked too.

Timosity · Sat 17/04/2004 03:23:22

1. When you hear the term "adventure game", what do you think?

Sierra, Lucasarts, AGS, AGI, SCI, - the amount of colours isn't important

2. What do you think are absolute neseccities for a game to fall into the adventure genre?

An inventory is probably the most important. keyboard (navigation or parser), mouse, it's not really important, it depends on the game.

Games like Grim F & MI4 used keyboard to control, very different to your average adventure, but I guess they were really designed during the revolution of consoles, hence designed to be easily converted to a format that used game controllers or joysticks. cause they were released on playstation I think.

3. Name the current developers/publishers of Adventure Games that you know, and the titles they've released/are working on in the past three years.

I don't know any, and don't really follow this stuff, (apart from people in this community) I hear about newly released games from developers I can't recall from these forums but I've never bought any of them.

Is the CSI game any good? I saw it the other day but I wasn't prepared to pay like $70 at Kmart for it.

4. Name your top five adventure games of all time.

As this bit has been done to death I'll just add series

1. SQ & LSL series (number 3 of each being my favourite)
2. Quest 4 Glory series (Hero's Quest being my favourite [never played no.5] {being the theif was always my favourite method})
3. Monkey Island series (1 & 3 being my favourites)
4. Grim Fandango
5. DOTT, MM, Indi's, PQ's Codename Iceman etc

NOTE: 'etc' does not include KQ series (they might have paved the way but don't really interest me, I still enjoyed them but are further down the list)

Meowster · Sat 17/04/2004 04:18:39

Another question:

Would you consider these games to be adventure games (And yes, I realize that some of them are not adventure games at all, it's part of the question):

remixor · Sat 17/04/2004 04:57:04

1. When you hear the term "adventure game", what do you think? Point n' Click in 256 colours? Keyboard Controlled with 3D enviroments such as Grim? Or Lara Croft? What's the first, and most familiar/comfortable image that springs to mind when you hear that term?

"LucasArts"

2. What do you think are absolute neseccities for a game to fall into the adventure genre? I mean, is an adventure game the same without a Point n' Click interface? Is a keyboard control system as good as a mouse control system?

None of these things have to be crucial design decisions in an adventure game. It's all in the implementation and story/puzzle/character elements.

3. Name the current developers/publishers of Adventure Games that you know, and the titles they've released/are working on in the past three years.

LucasArts (har har): in the last three years they've worked on Full Throttle 2, Sam and Max 2, and Monkey Island 5, all of which were cancelled of course.
The Adventure Company develops and/or publishes about 5000 shitty adventures per year.
FunCom is currently working on the sequel to The Longest Journey.
Microids released Syberia and Syberia 2.
White Birds Productions is developing Lost Paradise
High Voltage is developing Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, to be published by VU/Sierra
Revolution released Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon and are currently working on Beneath a Steek Sky 2
Pendulo developed Runaway and are working on the sequel
Ubi Soft is internally developing Myst 4
Jane Jensen is working on an as-yet-unnamed adventure project

I'm sure I know of more, but this is getting tiring

4. Name your top five adventure games of all time.

Grim Fandango, Monkey Island 2, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle

remixor · Sat 17/04/2004 04:59:31

Another question:

Would you consider these games to be adventure games (And yes, I realize that some of them are not adventure games at all, it's part of the question):

Tomb Raider
No

LBA
Yes

Alone in the Dark 4
Not familiar with it

Dino Crisis
No

Zelda - Ocarina of Time
The Zelda games are console adventures, which differ from PC adventures, the genre to which AGS refers, but yes I would consider this an adventure in a console context

Mario 64
No

Resident Evil
No

A few of those games are close to adventures, and most are action/adventure, but I would only actually define Zelda and LBA as 'adventures'

Some Adventure Game Research

m0ds

m0ds