I thought that this would be a fun thread!
1. There are convoluted puzzles that you have to do in order to get information/get an object. Sticky taping a cellphone to a cat, anyone? (Secret Files Tunguska)
2. You must do favours for NPCs. No, they can't just give you important information or objects vital to saving the world out of the goodness of their own hearts.
3. Walk, don't run! I have played a lot of adventure games in my time and most PCs walk painfully slowly. It drives me nuts!
I got one word: CROWBAR. 8)
Newspaper under the door + key on the other side! :D
>Bubble gum and a paper clip is worth more than gold.
> stealing.
> "A food item. I bet it tastes so good, but for no apparent reason I'll keep it for later."
> Piece of glass
> I know exactly how to solve this puzzle! Oh but wait I have to "look at" some obscure pixel-hunty thingie FIRST. Otherwise the in-game character doesn't understand yet what he has to do.
Oh, and the second part of it :
> I've done the action that has made the character understand what he has to do, but the game hasn't made it clear to me, the player. So I never retried doing "that thing" I knew exactly would solve the puzzle.
...Out of desperation, you randomly retry after 5 hours of game -- This time it works!!! But you don't know why. You've tried that very same action one billion times before!
(the Runaway series is doing that for a living : cracking the lab's code with fingerprints --making the monkey drunk by swapping water with alcohol -- fishing under the ice with an improvised fishing rod)
You know, I can't think of a single mainstream adventure game that ever used the newspaper under the door thing...perhaps I haven't played enough :D
But yeah...what pmartin said: KLEPTOMANIACAL STEALING :D.
You Can't Get Ye Flask.
Things hidden under floorboards or carpets. Or behind paintings or posters.
> the main hero gives sarcastic remarks about every single object around him
Quote from: Babar on Fri 16/09/2011 16:54:00
You know, I can't think of a single mainstream adventure game that ever used the newspaper under the door thing...perhaps I haven't played enough :D
off the top of my head:
Alone in the Dark 2
Back to the Future
The Whispered World
Also Simon The Sorcerer and one of the Zorks. I've always wanted to make a game where you escape the dungeon by accidentally stabbing a nosy guard in the eye.
> I think I can gather these ingredients from the five rooms immediately around me, but I might have to make some substitutions.
> These cigarettes use a tobacco from Morocco. TO THE AIRPORT!
> "Adventure" or "Quest" (or "Conquest") in the title.
Quote from: Ascovel on Fri 16/09/2011 17:26:12
> "Adventure" or "Quest" (or "Conquest") in the title.
DemoQuest :=
Quote from: Eggie on Fri 16/09/2011 17:24:32
> I think I can gather these ingredients from the five rooms immediately around me, but I might have to make some substitutions.
Oooh, I had forgotten about that...I think Monkey Island 2 popularised that, with the voodoo substitutions, right? Or was it 1 and the map recipe?
Seems a fairly silly puzzle idea, and it's a bit sad that it got overused so much, especially in games it did not fit..."Oh, I need an apple for this puzzle? I shall take a pineapple, and dip it in red paint!"
I am still new to adventure games but I like the following:
- Making a makeshift gun with a metal pipe, nails, and gunpowder.
- Using chewed bubble gum to fix a broken piece of pottery.
Let's not forget the most important one.
- Wasting time trying to figure out a puzzle/problem only to find out that you missed an important item/object.
Quote from: Babar on Fri 16/09/2011 18:58:44
Oooh, I had forgotten about that...I think Monkey Island 2 popularised that, with the voodoo substitutions, right? Or was it 1 and the map recipe?
The first (e.g. instead of using a pressed human skull, you use a flag with a skull motif).
However, the second lets you make a voodoo recipe normally early in the game, and then repeating it with substituted ingredients late in the game. That's rather clever.
To be honest I don't recall ever having a reaction like "omg, not
this puzzle again", at least, not in an adventure game.
I noticed it in very many AGS games especially...it just seemed odd to me, someone taking a very specific puzzle from a game, and then turning it into some sort of "puzzle type" that is repeatedly applied to several games.
> pencil + notepad => revealing a secret message left by the villain
> people using their birthday dates as safe codes (and computer passwords) or leaving notes with the code/password lying around
Your hero awakens in a strange location - begin game
Your hero has no memory - begin game
Quote from: Big GC on Fri 16/09/2011 23:17:13
Your hero awakens in a strange location - begin game
Your hero has no memory - begin game
That happens even more often in other genres. :)
Quote from: Ascovel on Fri 16/09/2011 23:40:12
Quote from: Big GC on Fri 16/09/2011 23:17:13
Your hero awakens in a strange location - begin game
Your hero has no memory - begin game
That happens even more often in other genres. :)
this happenes after every good party...
Monkey Island like anachronisms in the majority of comedy adventures.
Severed body parts and fingerprint/DNA scanners
Quote from: gameboy on Fri 16/09/2011 17:00:50
Things hidden under floorboards or carpets. Or behind paintings or posters.
But that's where I keep all my stuff! Where do you store your socks and pencils and spare change? In drawers? Closets? What if you're robbed? They'll clean you out in seconds, without having to solve any puzzles at all. If I could only find a way to make the lock to my house a sliding tile puzzle, I'd be set! 8)
Quote from: blueskirt on Sat 17/09/2011 01:45:25
Severed body parts and fingerprint/DNA scanners
So that doesn't work in real life? Wait, what am I saying? Of course you'd know. You're a doctor! :D
Quote from: Ascovel on Fri 16/09/2011 17:02:22
Quote from: Babar on Fri 16/09/2011 16:54:00
You know, I can't think of a single mainstream adventure game that ever used the newspaper under the door thing...perhaps I haven't played enough :D
off the top of my head:
Alone in the Dark 2
Back to the Future
The Whispered World
How about... Downfall?... ;) I'll go and sit in the corner now, shall I?... ;)
Downfall is about a guy that mixed smoking with drugs and gave some to his wife. And then they got caught by some douche. :D :D
Adventure game cliches - Escape THIS ROOM. Done SOOOOOOOOOOOOO many times, it's almost a wonder i loved Technobabylon !!
Quote from: Grim on Sat 17/09/2011 03:44:34
How about... Downfall?... ;) I'll go and sit in the corner now, shall I?... ;)
Downfall is excused because of not being mainstream.
Same goes for Scratches.
I'd be more curious to play the most cliched adventure game ever. You know, the one that recycles puzzles everyone else has done before and better. Someone should make such a game, called Cliche Quest. We could even make a contest of it.
LET IT BEGIN.
Quote from: ProgZmax on Sun 18/09/2011 00:59:19
I'd be more curious to play the most cliched adventure game ever. You know, the one that recycles puzzles everyone else has done before and better. Someone should make such a game, called Cliche Quest. We could even make a contest of it.
OR- it could be SWARM's second project?... I know the Draculator II isn't even finished yet, and maybe the Swarm will never make more games... but it seems like something we should make using all our combined experience... Well it's just an idea, anyway. ;)
Wait, I just thought of another cliche! :) ----> finding crowbars on meteors in space... ;)
Quote from: ProgZmax on Sun 18/09/2011 00:59:19
I'd be more curious to play the most cliched adventure game ever. You know, the one that recycles puzzles everyone else has done before and better. Someone should make such a game, called Cliche Quest. We could even make a contest of it.
LET IT BEGIN.
You wake up on a pirate ship with no memory of who you are or how you got there...
...where the only thing on the table is an old newspaper and a quill pen. The door is locked...
When you open the newspaper, a crowbar falls out. You try to use it on the door, but it turns into a talking red herring and slips out of your hands...
...the talking red herring informs you that you have to save the kidnapped princess...
But the princess is in another castle.
You loot people's homes without getting into trouble. I think this is more common in RPG games though. Then again, RPGs are pretty much adventure games that involve violence.
The player must pick up a stick at some point. Great for poking things. Also can be turned into a fishing rod with a bit of string.
Quote from: PatientRock on Sun 18/09/2011 16:21:30
The player must pick up a stick at some point. Great for poking things. Also can be turned into a fishing rod with a bit of string.
... and of course a magnet is needed ;)
I think one of the greatest cliches is the relationship between the main character and the NPCs. In adventure games it's always like this:
>The char is in a somewhat strange place, nobody knows him.
>Most of the people don't actually like him.
>He's somehow inferior to the people around him.
( Not a pirate yet, American in france, not a hero yet...)
> He needs to prove himself to the people around him.
Quote from: pmartin on Sun 18/09/2011 19:45:20
> He needs to prove himself to the people around him.
And he never gets treated any better until the endgame movie,
even if he's spent the previous two-three games saving those very people that don't like him.
Puzzles.
Inventory.
Maze.
Timed Maze.
Timed Maze with limited or blocked option for saving.
Unscramble the picture / letter / sliding block puzzle.
- Cogliostro
It is impossible to die unless one of the following is true:
- The occasional enemy shows up.
- A bomb or whatever is about to destroy the place.
- Your character dies at the end of the game.
It seems like the main character always has someone important in their life dying or dead in a tragic way...like a wife who died tragically a few years ago being shot by a mugger, or the main character's parents were killed in a car accident, or someone's dog expired after being hit over the head with a giant rubber anaconda stuffed with bacon bits and forced to drink industrial carpet cleaner while being hung around the neck by a custom-made rope made of human hair and bat dung, you know, old cliches like that.
Jokes for when the player clicks on their own character - joke about touching yourself a must.
Wearing the same clothes for days, weeks or even months!
Ablution? Bowel evacuation? Bah!
Quote from: Turtiathan on Mon 19/09/2011 02:04:14
It is impossible to die unless one of the following is true:
- The occasional enemy shows up.
- A bomb or whatever is about to destroy the place.
- Your character dies at the end of the game.
I think this holds true for life in general...
Quote from: Ali on Mon 19/09/2011 14:12:02
I think this holds true for life in general...
Yes, adventure games are more realistic than say first-person shooters. In adventure games, it does seem characters are more helpless against enemies. You usually kill them in more creative ways like dropping a heavy box on them or releasing hot steam on them once they walk to a certain point.
The characters seem to not be good with hand-to-hand combat either. It is rarely that you have a gun. Yep, sounds like real-life unless you live in Texas where guns are popular.
You'd think the people who make retina/fingerprint scanners would fix it so that they only unlock the door if the eyes/fingers being scanned are still alive. Lose extra points if you have to kill the person to get their eyes/fingers.
Adventurer: What? You mean I sawed off some guy's hands and head and the door still won't unlock?!?
Quote from: Turtiathan on Mon 19/09/2011 16:20:40
It is rarely that you have a gun. Yep, sounds like real-life unless you live in Texas where guns are popular.
I have a gun everyday. But I also live in Texas. ;)
Pick up something shiny.
Quote from: Ponch on Mon 19/09/2011 22:13:34
I have a gun everyday. But I also live in Texas. ;)
so do I
However, I don't have a gun.
Apparently .50 cal sniper rifles are legal here too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hioPReoo10A&feature=channel_video_title
> This architect must have been very rich, very good at obtaining planning permission and been REALLY into his twiddle puzzles.
Infinitely big pockets.
But I love to pocket everything I can, and love to steal everything from other people's rooms (only in the games, of course!), so please stick to the cliches, game developers! :=
Hell yes, stick to them!
/me goes off to see how many of these are documented tropes...
Quote from: Wonkyth on Fri 23/09/2011 08:49:38
Hell yes, stick to them!
/me goes off to see how many of these are documented tropes...
Adventure Game Tropes will become the new TV Tropes.
I highlighted some apples in "Gray Matter", and clicked on them, and the character informed me that they are apples. Well, I'll be!!
Quote from: ManicMatt on Thu 29/09/2011 23:35:31
I highlighted some apples in "Gray Matter", and clicked on them, and the character informed me that they are apples. Well, I'll be!!
Yes, GM has very lousy object descriptions. The most pathetic ones was the series known as "This *insert object name here* reminds me of Laura" and "Laura was radiant that day". Just how many times can you say the same thing!?
When you're 1st person....a book of some kind will always zoom open into your face and defy the laws of physics by floating there whilst you have a good gander.
(http://www.adventuregamers.com/images/db/6632t.jpg)
It's called telekenesis! Duh! Even Cole from LA Noire has that!
having to replace an object with another object of equal weight, in a classic reference to raiders of the lost ark. Though i only remember that happening in Monkey Island 2 and Sam and Max hit the road.
Uninhabited residences. Hell, uninhabited everything. Adventuring must be a lonely business.
Quote from: stepsoversnails on Sat 01/10/2011 18:30:23
having to replace an object with another object of equal weight, in a classic reference to raiders of the lost ark. Though i only remember that happening in Monkey Island 2 and Sam and Max hit the road.
And Discworld!
I also seem to remember something similar in Grim Fandango...
When a book pops up on the screen I just think of it as another type of interface like accessing inventory.
Another cliche is people leaving hints so you can figure out their passwords or combinations to locks.
Quote from: mkennedy on Sun 02/10/2011 02:21:29
Another cliche is people leaving hints so you can figure out their passwords or combinations to locks.
The passwords also tend to be something meaningful to the person. If it was me, I would just use gibberish with a pattern that I can see.