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No idea what this means for Schafer & Co., but I hope it's not permanent. Will be interesting to see what Schafer says about it on his news page.

Well, I haven't heard this mentioned, so I thought I'd go ahead and mention it.  I'm sure some of you already know about:

FACADE!

Experimental gamez0rz!

Instead of summarizing all the information I know about it, I'm just going to link you to the places where I learned about it.


Gamespot's coverage of the IGF

The official webpage of the project

a couple blog responses here and here.

a picture of it being played somewhere (riveting!)

Sounds like a mix between The Last Express, Emily Short's Galatea, and modern white suburbanite theater.

I think it's interesting as all get-out personally, and maybe where interactive narrative ought to be heading. I don't know if this will spark conversation, but if not: YOU HAVE BEEN INFORMED.

I've tried finishing this game several times during my AGS years, and I believe I have always gotten stuck at the same place. I have:

The men's room mirror, clean.
The polish.
The lens.
The key.
The water bottle, full.
The stick/pants/bird.

The mechanical eye blocks my advance. The official walkthrough says I should hit the heater button with something, but alas, have been unsuccessful thus far.

I feel much shame for never finishing this game, but have finally stiffened my upper lip as they say, and bit the bullet, and etc.

interesting stuff over at adventuregamers.com. i am now tired of people talking about it, but maybe it'll help somebody.

You might find this interesting. I hope the instigator gets in contact with CJ. If not for a port, then at least for a little advice.

I'm the proud owner of a GP32, and Lazoravich owns a Zodiac. We both have quite a bit of interest in a portable adventure engine.

There's an adventure game here: http://mj.schoolis2die4.com that's interesting if only because they use a mock 80's SCUMM engine. I can't say I'm too interested in Michael Jackson, but I thought some of you guys might be intrigued.

Game Theory Discussion

Well, Mittens is over, so I'm taking it upon myself to get this discussion thing going. Some of you may vaguely recall a post about this a few weeks ago, and today it begins.

This weeks spine-tingling question: What is wrong with adventure games?

I think this a good healthy question to ask, especially among adventure game designers. So, go ahead, let it out. What grates on your conscience daily, gets underneath your fingernails, and scratches on the proverbial blackboard of your mind?

Ground rules:
Post one thing that you think is flawed about the adventure game genre as a whole, or at least how the adventure game is usually designed. Don't worry if it's a basic component of adventure games, be as critical as you like.
If someone has posted something you disagree with or think MUST have clarification in order to make sense, then make one cogent post addressing that poster. To this the original poster can of course respond, but try not to draw out a conversation, because it could result in multiple confusing conversations occurring at the same time in the thread.

Example:

Puzzles

Puzzles, as they are implemented in most adventure games, can, I think, detract from the experience of a game.

I think the most painful flaw in design is, whether or not it is the designer's intention, the narrative of the game seems to be used as the means by which the player reaches the puzzles. In other words, the puzzles don't lend relevance to the narrative, but the narrative lends relevance to the puzzles. The adventure game can sometimes be tetris, but with context. This is fine sometimes, tetris with context can be fun. But when a game is attempting to have fleshed-out characters and a developed storyline(something the adventure game genre in particular allows for), the puzzles can take away from that.

1. The inclusion of "boot-strapping" scenes, or mundane activity can, I think, increase immersion. The character you are playing actually has to walk over there and talk to that guy, and then walk way over there. There are puzzles which amount to boot-strapping, especially near the beginning of games. You have to find Jake McUrks keys in Pleurghburg, or fix the elevator in The Uncertainty Machine. I recall distinctly, and it might just be me here, saying, "Why am I doing this?" Why don't we get up and find Jake's shoes and socks, and why don't we help Susan fix her electric toothbrush? The point I'm nearly making is that puzzle-making is a selective process, and not everything can be a puzzle, despite the bit of boot-strapping that must make it into adventure games. What we choose to be a puzzle is important, and we should have a good reason for choosing what we do. When a puzzle is completed that neither reveals character nor furthers the plot, the narrative remains disconnected from the puzzle aspects of the game.

2. The other way puzzles take away from games can be warped logic where it doesn't fit. This is expounded quite well in this old man murray article. The Longest Journey comes to my mind, where you need a key to get in a fuse box, so you put bread down on a metal grate so a bird flies off, and pull up this chain which releases a rubber ducky, and eventually you put three or four unrelated items together to gain something that somehow makes a contraption that will retrieve the key that is inexplicably laying on a subway track. It is all very disconcerting and takes you out of the narrative into The Incredible Machine(the video game from years back). Even working this out without a walkthrough, I was left thinking "WHAT!?" but my adventure gamer instincts helped me to try everything, despite it making sense. I went to a walkthrough after that puzzle.

Okay, the example is my contribution to discussion. Someone would reply saying,

Bionic Bill: You are full of poopy, and nobody likes you.

If you want to add to someone's point, that's allowed too.
And I'll probably change general rules if things go terribly this time. PM me with better ways to run discussion. I'm not a mod, so I can't do anything about people breaking the rules, except calling their mother.

Next week: Prescription! What do we need to do to improve the adventure game?

http://www.lucasarts.com/press/releases/81.html

concise, blunt, and no word of explanation. interesting to see right after reading the history of warcraft adventures on gamespot, thanks to eric's thread.

I've been catching up on the recent controversies(which come and quickly go for those who've never seen one here), and I realized I would love to have a board with Las and Helm0r and Scid and Goldmund(despite never actually communicating with him in any way) and Phil and Mostly and many others. As someone who has sort of been around for a while, I know I would like to have a place where I can have tantalizing discussion. This is certainly not because I dislike any newer guys, but only because I really don't know them at all. I'm sure I'd like a bunch of new guys, but I'm very lazy.

Anyways, I'm not really a part of this community at all, so my feelings may be disregarded with extreme prejudice.

One of the main reasons for wanting to get with these guys, besides them being just plain cool, is because I want an outlet for discussion concerning video games as a serious art form. Does anyone know of such a magical place full of intelligent people delving into the potential of interactive narrative and the like? If not, I must make such a place. I am lazy though. Well, okay then. I'll share with you a few places I have been:

joystick101.org is an okay place for some decent articles/discussion. I haven't gotten involved really because discussion is sparse and slow.

insertcredit.com has some amazing articles, especially by Eric-Jon that treat video games as serious art, and tie in things like Japanese literature.

gamecritics.com is okay sometimes, but mostly an average gamezine thing.

Anyone found better? Anyone care? Thanks for listening. Or reading. Whatever.

I was reading a rejection e-mail for a short short story I wrote last year, and realized that all but one place had sent me a rejection e-mail. So, just to check and see what place had never got around to e-mailing me, I went to the link(I keep all the sites I submit to organized with notes as to what I've sent and what's been accepted/rejected) and lo and behold my short story's sitting there in the prose section. Now, sure it would have been nice to get an e-mail informing me, but after much repeated disappointment, I really don't give a crap.

I don't even remember how I found the link to this particular e-zine thingy, but I think it's pretty funny that two other AGSers have stories there too. Have a look see. Mine's "The Luck of Charles Scott."

The only reason I can think of for the large amount of AGS stories is the involvement of Phil Reed, an extreme lack of submissions, or a combination of both. Though I must approve of Scid's story. Well....anyways.

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and if you want to see what Phil really does, go here. oh, and here.