Messages

The artwork is simply charming. 

bad ones.
-Shadow of the Comet.

I've actually heard some good things about this one, why list it under bad?

[Myst]

While this has already been posted before, I wouldn't be surprised if it was news to some of the members here. And that would be great. Played the sequel?

Whoops!  :o I did a search on it but didn't bring anything up, so I thought it'd be safe! Haven't actually played the sequel yet as I'm still working my way through the original one.

Anym, for me at least, the design of the puzzles and its carefee pacing is what attracts me. For lack of a better word, the game is just plain casual. There is no hurry to solve the mystery, or save the girl. And normally the whimsical and almost nonexistant story allows the creator the use the most inventive and absurd puzzle they can think of.

Not many story-based games have the leisure to take it slow in the mid and end-game, as these are the places where buildup and climax are crucial. The overly lauded Myst-series was able to do it, as was Syberia, just to name a few but those were circumstancial to their unique presentation and stories.

And to be truthful, these sort of games don't appeal to me all the time but they're a nice break when I'm not in a rush to figure out how to save the world.

EDIT: Finished the first, onto the second! 

Right now I have enough, but if somebody backs out, I'll keep you in mind. Anyhow, isn't it much more fun to play the finished, bug-free result?

I enjoy being part of the creation process.

[EVERYONE GET USED TO IT.]

So in other news, I changed the title. Now,

EVERYONE GET USED TO IT.[/i]

This will be hard, but I'm sure you'll work out a solution. Do it for me, guys, for me.

I've received more voices from Earl, and it's still in sync! The music is soon finished, and it sounds awesome, believe me! I still draw like crap, but it's almost all the crap I need for a full game!

I love how this project is not going down the toilet. It's a great feeling.

Woo! Is it too late to try to jump on the beta tester bandwagon?   

http://www.samorost2.net/samorost1/

A neat and quirky flash adventure! The artwork is rather unique

[The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery]

Voice recorder puzzle in The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery

[Story Originality [or lack thereof]]

After skimming through the topic, I've noticed several points that came back repeatedly:

Story Originality [or lack thereof]
  The White Room
  I enjoyed the posts on the overabundance of the white room conundrum that strikes so many adventure games. Simply put, the white room is used to create an instant hook for the player to wonder who exactly are they playing and what happened? It leaves for all sorts of plot twists and a "safety" area for the writers to delve in to explain away why the player doesn't naturally know how to use certain items/machinery that be encountered during the adventure. And I have to admit that initially, I found this to be a rather enticing hook. Pulled off correctly, it was a great incentive and kept me going to figure out just who the hell "I" was.

But then again, when was the last time we've seen it pulled off correctly? As it became more used, the "truth" never seemed to justify the suspense and soon stories all seemed to be written by Michael Crichton: great buildup and disappointing end.

And thats where the originality seems to be gone. I, personally, have no objections to playing yet another amnesia struck individual but if thats the way things are going to go... There better be a greaaaaaaat explanation for it.

  The Cliche
  Another post that I had to agree wholeheartedly is the overuse of certain settings, characters, and goals to the point of being cliche. Islands, Asylums, Haunted Mansions/Hotels, Islands Again, Private Investigator, Police Detective, Bumbling Idiot, MYST, etc.. etc..

These cliches aren't just the source of the "oh boy another [cliche] story.." thoughts but seem almost like a bandwagon that everyone is in a hurry to climb onto. It is a crutch that storywriters and puzzle-designers lean upon too heavily. Its easy to make a detective story because y'know what comes with it: crime scene puzzles [and I have to admit that I draw pleasure from solving any crime scene]. Its easy to write about a haunted mansion because there are, of course, ghosts about [or for a Scooby-Doo twist, people pretending to be ghosts].

I think that Cliches should be used as templates and hopefully evolve into something else. If not, well.. just don't half-ass it: if you're going to follow a cliche to the end, better make it gold all the way through.

  The Cures
     The White Room
     I've come to the conclusion that the white room conundrum has a surprisingly easy solution: The Intro Cutscene/Movie and accompanying manual. My favorite examples are Beneath a Steel Sky, Full Throttle, Five Days a Stranger, LOOM, and The Dig. The short introductionary cutscene for Five Days a Stranger turned the haunted house-theme on its ear and had me hooked before I even started! It can give a backdrop and suggest a richness of the story that is awaiting to unfold.

LOOM is a particularly great example because the story wasn't that great [nor lengthy] but the manual, the audio play, the small narrative voice over and cutscene at the beginning; all that put a tapestry of story behind the story [so to speak] which left you wanting more. [Which may have been the most disappointing part of LOOM: not fully exploring such a world].

     The Cliche
     Unfortunately, the cliche cure isn't that simple, mainly because as fans and adventure gamers we wish to emulate the games that we enjoyed the most and that is a crucial hurdle to pass.

One of my favorite quotes is taken from William Gibson's blog:

Influences are things to have, and then to get over. The latter being a lot harder than the former. (I, for example, couldn't even begin to write until I got over J.G. Ballard.)

Even if you cannot completely ignore your influences, it is possible to at least evolve and alter the idea:
Instead of a private/police investigator, how about an insurance investigator? Instead of a patient in an hospital, how about a doctor helping patients? [just imagine surgerical puzzles!]
A murder mystery in modern day? Why not changing it to a murder mystery in the 11th Century. [I'd love to see an adaptation of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.
A good protaganist stopping an evil religious order from destroying society can become an evil man infiltrating a good religious order in an attempt to subvert society. 
Stranded on a desert island could be come lost in the Underground of London [ala Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere].

Throw insignificant subplots in there to add flavor! [Syberia's phone conversations anyone?] Its absolutely incredible how a small play on words can change something entirely.

Presentation
I suppose this part is Story Originality: Cures Part 2, because nothing can enhance an already entrancing game [or save an overused plot device] than absolutely terrific presentation. This can be broken down into parts: Graphics, Audio, and Ambience.

  Graphical presentation
  This really broken down to backgrounds, characters and character animation. And these are rather self explanatory; how great a game will look depends on the art designers, good descriptions by the writers/director, and how far of an extra mile everyone is willing to go. Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth and the Legend of the Lost Lagoon are obvious showcases of going that extra mile to present trully gorgeous games. Character animation during dialogue or cutscenes would add so much more life to characters as well.

However! I find that graphics aren't nearly as important as as Audio, which in turn has a great deal in creating Ambience. [Example: Pleurghburg. Terrific audio]

  Audio
  Nice segue, eh? Audio is one of the two things I consider the most important in a story [the other being story]. In my opinion, there should almost always[/b] be some sort of audio being played in the duration of the game. It adds that finishing touch to immersion that nothing else can really do.

A silent house where you only hear the character's footsteps can be creepy, but add creeking wood, howling wind, squealing doors, spooky almost-voices whispering; and you've got something that raises the bar quite abit.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge fixed what I had thought was the biggest problem of Secret of Monkey Island: the great music score was rarely heard! Suddenly LeChuck's Revenge, everywhere you heard a great light-toned music and the great yacky game became that much better.

It might be an rather long and industrious extra mile to go for [specially in AGS games] but for those looking to make something with real quality, I think its a mile well worth tredding.

Debates: Dialouge and Voice Acting
droneforever brought up a good point about dialouge [ironic, considering his name ]. I'd have to agree to some of this, specially when another character is telling a story or explaining about something that may go on for while. What came to mind immediately was Marcus Brody in Raiders of the Lost Ark when he's telling Indy that he should be careful about pursuing the Ark: while Marcus was talking, an epic and mysterious sounding orchestral piece was played in the background which added that extra emphasis to what he was saying. Perfect for some dialogue in games, although that doesn't entirely fix the problem.

Voice acting seems to be a rather controversial subject matter for AGS gamers and I side with those who vote that games should have voice acting but only if its high quality. If I hear a whiney sounding kid, well it better be playing a whiney kid. Or have an AUDIO OFF option

  Ambience
  This is just a combination of absolutely everything: witty one-liners, epic music, sound effects, beautifully drawn backgrounds. But most importantly is how they all mesh together. Its not the parts that are important as much as the sum of the parts.

Interface
I actually found the debates on what a good interface is to be great! Some complained of the interaction button doing everything for you, which brings up the underlying question:

How much control should the player have?

To this I have no real answer and have almost come to decide that it depends entirely on the game.

The Dig had a incredibly simplistic interface: Left click did all interactions [talking, looking, pushing] with an object/people. Right click brought up the inventory. That was it. So breathtakingly simple that I came away not filled with frustration about how to interact with objects but instead I was able to fully immerse myself into the game and experience the wonder of being on an alien world and the desperation of going home.

Now thats just talking The Dig, had the same control scheme been applied to say.. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, it wouldn't have worked.

It all depends on the context of game, but in my opinion: the more innovative the better. I'd love to see something like LOOM's distaff drafts again.

Puzzle design
Having once been part of an ARG Development Team, I thoroughly understand how difficult this really is. Your audience is coming to you for a story that pulls them in and hooks them til the very end, keeping them on the edge of their seat and up late at nights trying to figure out what is going to happen next. But at the same time, they're looking to be challenged and thats the key word: challenged.

The most difficult part of puzzle design is not only finding a puzzle that will fit in the context of the story but also making it challenging to the players. And those are the important parts to puzzle design: Do not sacrifice story for the sake of puzzles and puzzles should be challenging as well as intuitive. And for extra credit: multiple solutions to puzzles.

This a rule I think should be followed for most adventure games. However sometimes there comes along an idea of how to go about puzzles so innovative that the game is built entirely for it instead. And in those cases... I suppose it depends. But hell, I'll say it. Innovation rocks my socks off.

Bringing up a game up again: LOOM had amazingly simplistic puzzles. Did it matter? Not to me, I just loved playing with the distaff. Another game that looks like it'll an incredibly innovative puzzle system is the up and coming PS2 action-adventure Okami. Those playing will be able to switch from a regular viewpoint to using a celestial brush to draw in bridges or defeat enemies.

I'd love to see an AGS game in which the character's inventory was made up of different brushes and paints with which combinations caused different things to happen! [An almost impossible dream I know as the parser for images would be incredibly difficult to create].

Linear gameplay [or lack of replayability]
This is a much harped upon subject as well and one in which I agree with the harpers.I don't particularly care for multiple endings but being able to solve a puzzle multiple ways would just be terrific. And if solving a puzzle differently causes the story to change, ah hell, I won't complain. Promise.

EDIT: Upon rereading the topic, I'd say that some sidequests and just meaningless things to do would be interesting but the problem would be where to draw the line. [But if you had to go that route.. Oblivion, Morrowind, and Shemue all make great examples to follow].


Whew. This turned to be much longer than I anticipated but I hope I've brought up some good ideas! Enjoy!

It's about time someone decided to make a Doctor Who adventure game I always thought this was perfect for the genre, same thing goes for stargate, which I'm glad someone made a good game from that.

Next is MacGuyver! We'll rip clips from the show for voice!

Best of luck, Duckbutcher, you seem to be doing a great job so far.

POINTLESS POST WARNING:  Do you realize if someone with a lisp read your title, your main character could be "Johnny Quest"?  (Cwest?

Now how awesome would that be? Get 'im Bandit!

My avatar is Ben from Full Throttle. He was the leader of the Polecats.  8)

5 Days a Stranger. Good game. 

Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana

Looking for abandonware of old adventure games and started running into AGS games. Now to create my dream project. Muahahahahahaha. 

Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Chrono Trigger
Fallout 2
Baldur's Gate 2
Super Mario World
Thief
System Shock 2

The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery.