What kind of game would you like to see made?

[kivejos]

What kind of point and click adventure games would you like to play? Maybe there are some specific themes you would love to see explored?
Let's brainstorm for a little bit and maybe we can come up with interesting ideas.

1. Personally I'd love to see an adventure game set in Venice circa 16-17th century. Detective story about stolen religious relic or something along those lines.

I think Venice would serve as a perfect backdrop for point and click adventure.
Just think about it: gorgeous backgrounds (preferrably in pixel art) with famous venetian architecture and canals.

Game could have a lot of locations: taverns, brothels, Jewish ghetto, markets, shipyards, venetian guilds, etc. Not to mention beautiful map of city.

Obviously, ending should involve opulent venetian carnival.

2. I would love to see proper stylish noir set in Los Angeles in the 30s. Something to do with movie business.
Famous studio actor is missing and studio fixer or private detective tries to find him/her.

I really loved Discworld Noir but I don't think I've ever played anything like that since then.

[TheFrighter]

I don't get what are you aiming, Kivejos... 

Are you asking hints for your next games?
Or just talking about games in our dreams?

_

[Danvzare]

Personally I'd love to see a modern take on what The Hobbit (1982) for the ZX spectrum did.

It's funny how back then, people tried to simulate the world despite how weak computers were. Now that computers are strong enough to actually do that, we'd all rather just tell a story. (Me included.)

[Schedina]

I would like to see a 'true sequel' to Maniac Mansion be made.

Day of the Tentacle is a wonderful game, but it steers so far away from Maniac Mansion stylistically, visually, soundwise and atmospherically, it's a very different experience.

I would love to see a 'next mansion', that's not the same (as it IS in DOTT), but done in the unimitable Maniac Mansion style (Commodore 64-version, of course - Amiga version uses weird colors and looks very 'flat' by comparison, plus, it lacks the atmosphere. The other versions.. best not to even talk about them..)

So, a C64 Maniac Mansion,but with a 'new mansion' - as atmospheric as possible, as similar GUI as possible, as similar 'all happens inside one mansion' as possible and so on, but different mansion, different characters, different 'story' and so on. Still happening on a moonlight autumny night, though.

I guess I am trying to re-capture what I experienced in the 1980s with that game, that nothing else has ever been able to provide for me, but dang, I am SURE there is a missing game there... I am sure a game like that would find its audience and fill a sore, empty spot in many people - to, instead of 'returning to THE mansion', people would be able to 'go to a brand NEW mansion', but in VERY similar style and atmosphere.

Consequently, that is what I am trying to create with AGS, the sole reason why I even downloaded AGS and have been trying to create this vision, to manifest it into reality. I have had this vision for decades, only making it more detailed during the years, but alas, haven't been able to create it fully.

I did make a few-rooms 'demo preview' version just to show people what I am trying to create, but the full game would be about 20 to 50 rooms big, my 'preview' is only a few rooms.

I did make a post about it in the 'recruitment' section, in case anyone is interested.

It's not my fault that the game I would like to see is also the game I would like to create. It's a shame Maniac Mansion never got a true sequel. DOTT is great, but it's like taking Back to the Future, and giving us a wonderful 'Inspector Gadget' episode. It's just not the same.

In any case, it's not MORE of the same, at best, it's 'more of the DIFFERENT'.

Maniac Mansion seems more 'realistic and serious', whereas DOTT seems a bit over-the-top silly and cartoony with its wonky perspectives and heavy emphasis on comedy and 'animation' instead of building a solid mansion you can adventure in.

The time-travel aspect is great, but at the same time, it takes away from the 'solid mansion', splitting it into three different-yet-similar 'places' you adventure in. In movies, 'characters' are great, so as a cartoon or movie, it would be fantastic, but as a game, it's not quite 'Maniac Mansion', and all this 'attempt to be a cartoon/movie' takes away from actually PLAYING THE GAME.

Too many games have so many 'intros' and 'story elements', they actually stop being GAMES anymore. People just sit and watch with controller in their hands is not really playing, is it? Maniac Mansion had the perfect proportion of 'cut-scenes' and gameplay - those scenes only happened at important points, making your heartbeat fasten and your palms sweat.

When you have to wade through multiple cutscenes just to be able to play a little bit, then have to wade through some more, it's no longer interesting, exciting or even entertaining. I am not saying DOTT is boring (it really isn't), but the way games went overboard with 'story', means they forgot GAMEPLAY should be what games are for, not 'watching things' or 'advancing the plot/story'.

I have always said games are not a storytelling format, it's a playing format - but corporations don't care, and audiences don't seem to care, either, because they don't know any better. But your brain does.

I grew up with PLAYING games, so it's quite jarring to suddenly arrive at an era with unskippable, boring cutscenes. I can't understand that reason for that.

 In any case, DOTT is a great experience, even a good game - but it's not 'more Maniac Mansion' for someone that just completed Maniac Mansion and wants 'more mansions to complete'.

It even happens in the SAME mansion - how out of touch is that?

In any case, I want to see 'more Maniac Mansion', as I have wanted since 1988, when I completed Maniac Mansion all by myself, literally jumped up and down out of sheer joy... I want a game that brings people the same kind of joy and sense of accomplishment.

No one can probably quite create the feeling that a kid has when playing Maniac Mansion in the autumn with the sound of crickets in the background, on a full moon 1980s night, where the old disk drive is howling almost like a small wolf every time a room starts to load... nothing can probably quite re-create all THAT.

However, I think it's still possible to create a 'true sequel' to Maniac Mansion - a game that would feel as much as possible as something that continues where Maniac Mansion left off, or 'replicates' the mansion, without making it too 'samey' - a different mansion with the same atmosphere and style, the same GUI, similar, but different characters..

..the point is to make the player feel as if they are getting MORE Maniac Mansion - not the same thing over again, not a reboot/remix/rewhatever, not a completely different-style sequel that still happens in the same mansion, but a NEW mansion, new adventure, with 'more of the same style and atmosphere'.

I wonder why this is so hard to explain... in any case, THAT is the kind of game I would like to see made.

Oh, also, it does NOT matter whether I (with or without collaboration/team/etc.) am the one that manages to create it, or someone else - I just want to see it MADE.

[heltenjon]

Usually, the games I like the most are the games someone else made that I didn't know I wanted. The ones that surprise me. There have been made lots of games either set in the Maniac Mansion or using the same style and setup, but they are unlikely to make the same kind of impact as the first game one played in that style. That being said, I'd love to be proven wrong, and there are many sequels that surpass the prior game in a series. But usually, they add something to the mix, or change it around a bit.

But I'll bite. Personally, I'd like a Batman game with no action scenes, only investigation. A detective game. (Could be that the TellTale game did that - I haven't played it.)

[heltenjon]

 Suggesting some Maniac Mansion style games for the OP: Trapped on the Balcony, The Castle (very close to your described dream game) or simply Thimbleweed Park (which may be too tongue in cheek?).

[speksteen]

I absolutely loved Telltale's The Walking Dead. The setting and theme doesn't matter to me as much as a game that lets you make impactful choices that influence the storyline somewhat.

Looking at a flowchart of the game the choices didn't influence the main story that much but playing it you really had a feeling that the decisions that you made were impactful. It has been my dream to create something similar but I wonder how and where to start