What's in an adventure game?

Phemar · Sat 01/05/2004 13:57:39

Just the other day I found myself arguing with my best friend, as he claimed Final Fantasy was an adventure game. I tried to explain to him it wasn't, but found I lacked the ability to define an adventure game.
Then I asked my other friend how hw defined an adventure game, and I quote "Sucky graphics", which I don't neccasiraly think is true.

So now I ask you, fellow AGSers:

What's in an adventure game? How do you define an adventure game? What makes us so different from others?

I'd like to see your views on this topic.

.. · Sat 01/05/2004 14:13:06

A game with an inventory and puzzles to solve that use logic.

A game where you dont' fight charcters (control them fighting, i mean)

A game without too many guns or weapons that you use to solve puzzles by hurting somebody (part from maybe in broken sword or something...)

HingedShinobi · Sat 01/05/2004 14:13:45

RPGs use stats and weapons and are usually huge with many monsters to fight and items to collect/trade and they usually have loads of subquests

GarageGothic · Sat 01/05/2004 15:40:36

In my opinion, inventory is not essential, nor are puzzles. As I see it, what defines adventures is also some of their major flaws.

1) Heavily scripted. There's very rarely any kind of AI, randomness, physic engine or emergent gameplay. If the designer hasn't thought of it, it can't happen (unless it's a bug). This means that everything has a purpose: There are no random encounters, or characters that all look the same (excluding the store clerks in Sam & Max

). But it also allows for less freedom.

2) Non-linear navigation of an environment. Rather than running through a thinly disguised corridor, as in most shooters, you usually spend huge amounts of time walking back and forth between locations. There are a number of adventures with a very linear room flow, Fascination comes to mind. But they usually suffer from this.

TheDude · Sat 01/05/2004 15:58:13

A game where you go on an adventure.

Monkey Island is an adventure game, Tomb Raider is an adventure game. They're just 2 different TYPES of adventure.

It's like like music... which bands are pop and which bands are rock? Some bands are pop-rock and some bands are pop-punk, still pop but just different types.

GarageGothic · Sat 01/05/2004 16:14:16

A game where you go on adventure? Well, that about includes every action game and rpg on the planet. "Adventure" as a fiction-genre does indeed involve wild adventures - Indiana Jones, pirate movies, stuff like that. But the way we use it doesn't really refer to the fictional genre. Actually it just means "games that are like Wil Crowther's text-based dungeon-exploration game 'Adventure'", not that there are many games like THAT around anymore

, but it did define the genre, and give it its confusing name. Remember not that many years ago, when every 3D shooter was called a "Doom-clone"? Thank god we didn't end up calling THAT genre "Doom-games".

TheDude · Sat 01/05/2004 16:25:36

Labelling things is dumb anyway and just causes arguments. If Final Fantasy let us choose what we wanted to say from a list and got rid of the EXP, would we label it an "adventure" game?

QuoteA game where you go on adventure? Well, that about includes every action game and rpg

That's what i'm trying to say. "Adventure" is sort of a tree trunk, and there are loads of branches taking it in different directions like RPG, action, fps-rpg, third-person-action(tomb raider maybe), point & click etc. This is just how i see it anyway...

GarageGothic · Sat 01/05/2004 16:31:31

Exactly, TheDude - in my mind, the Quest for Glory games are among the best adventure games ever, as well as the best computer rpg's ever. I love games where I can explore and interact with a rich environment, and I don't really distinguish genre-wise between Gabriel Knight, the Hitman games, Deus Ex or GTA. I enjoy them all, for all the same reasons.

Evil · Sat 01/05/2004 17:02:38

I think the better wording would be "clasical" adventure games. The other day I was talking to some one and I mentioned that I made adventure games. "Oh like Tomb Raider and that stuff?", "No, clasical, point and clicks." "Oh, like quest for glory?" See, theres a thin line there.

Well in my opinion, games that you use your mouse to move the character are adventures. However, ISO games arent adventure. If you want to go into detail, inventory, basic actions, few weapons, little detailed involvment with the charaters actions, etc.

edmundito · Sat 01/05/2004 18:33:44

This is the basic nature of adventure games vs role playing games, no matter how point + clicky they are or how close they follow DND rules: Adventure games are based on problem solving. Role playing games are based on character development.

Final Fantasy is not an adventure because most of the time takes place developping characters. Even the story elemets (at least in the later games) relate closely to the history and the feelings of the character more than what is happening to the world. Another way you develop the characters is by increasing their levels and skills, and adding different weapons and armor. You don't even have to fight... you can be a farmer and work on a farm, and develop your skills and whatnot. you still play the role of a farmer.

For adventure games, let's take zelda as an example.. zelda used to be a top down scroller, but now it's an "action adventure" or whatever. However, most of the stuff that you have to do in zelda is solve problems... in zelda's case, through action (probably why they call it action-adventure). Zelda's original sytle was indeed based on the original Atari game called Adventure, which was based on the classic text adventure Colossal Cave (the first adventure game ever made). I guess what I'm trying to say this, that although Zelda may look totally different from like Day of the Tentacle, down to the core gameplay both games about using your wits to solve the problems presented to you.

Story used to be an adventure game thing, but it seems that now days every genre has caught up and started using stories in their games, too. Game categories, though, are based on gameplay, not on bells and whistles like story, life meters, or killing monsters. Final Fantasy does borrow a lot of stuff from adventure games, but you take all of that stuff out and it's just a kind of RPG.

.. · Sat 01/05/2004 18:45:12

When i think about it there are loadsa types

Point And click adventures (Thats Us)
Action Adventures
RPGs

Etc...

modgeulator · Sun 02/05/2004 03:38:37

This is a question I've been thinking about myself. Here's my definition of an "Adventure Game:" any game where the story is the single most important element, where all the gameplay is used to enhance the story and to make it more immersive. As a test, if you remove the story from a game is it still playable?
Tomb Raider, without any story, would still function as a level to level style action game. Monkey Island, without any story, if you can even imagine how that would work, would be a meaningless mess of random puzzles. Final Fantasy would be a dull but still playable game consisting entirely of levelling up your characters and fights.
There have been plenty of games that have used stories to enrich the experience, and there are games that have some adventure game-like aspects (eg. Final Fantasy), but a pure adventure game is built entirely around the story, remove the storyline and there's nothing left at all.

Phemar · Sun 02/05/2004 06:08:12

Well I think of it this way:

Tomb Raider is NOT an adventure game. Adventure games don't use any AI, and nothing can happen unless the programmer tells it to happen.
Games like Final Fantasy are 3D, even if they have 2D graphics. IN other words in Final Fantasy if you move left, the camera swivels left, and then if you press your up button you will now walk in what is previously your left. Same goes for Tomb-Raider. Even though Grim Fandango had 3D graphics, it was still an adventure game because because the viewpoint was glued down and could only move Left or Right (except for scrolling rooms).

So ther you have it, my definition.

trylle · Sun 02/05/2004 20:02:43

The wikipedia definiton is pretty good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_game

Lazy Z · Sun 02/05/2004 20:48:51

Adventure collective also provides a very good and eloquent definition: http://www.adventurecollective.com/features/feature-idealadventure-1.htm

ZorÂ©: So it's all a matter of perspective, then? I'm not sure I quite get your definition, but does your definition mean that the Adventures of JP & Cosmo isn't an adventure game? Or Gabriel Knight 3? Moreover,

QuoteAdventure games don't use any AI, and nothing can happen unless the programmer tells it to happen.

That's not true. While adventure games have a more deterministic nature than other genres, that doesn't mean that there can't be advanced AI routines that help change the game world in any way. Just because the old adventure games didn't use advanced AI doesn't mean that newer ones can't do that. Heck, wasn't Revolution's Virtua Theater gimmick supposed to provide a game world where NPC's behaved in their own way, so that even the game designers could expect it?

As for my definition of what an adventure game is... it's way to convoluted for it to make sense to anyone. I'll get back to you on this.

Andail · Mon 03/05/2004 00:39:29

Allow me to pimp the ags-dictionary:

"Collective name for games that are focused on solving problems via inventory items, conversations and logical thinking. Adventure-games rarely feature action elements, nor is it common that the characters are developing through the course of the game. The term can be rather misguiding, as a considerable percentage of the adventure-games are comedies, devoid of adventurous features whatsoever. AGS is almost entirerly designed to create adventure games, although it is possible to make pure action-games. "

Short but precise, aye?