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Allow me to elaborate on the "short-but-sweet" comment - this is our first adventure game endeavour so we'd begin working on a few smaller pilot products (half an hour shorts and so forth and build up over time) to ensure our understanding of the market and of the engine in itself. If people like a centre genre of ours more than the other, then we'd look to see what people like best. Coming here was all about discussing what genres people feel have not be touched so that we might be able to touch upon them with our own unique twist. However, it is rather interesting what was said about the audience we'd aim for; although it is true that recent adventure games are both for old fans and new, the more retro games tend to bring in an older and more nostalgic generation (as well as a good proportion of new fans because who doesn't love a bit of the new-but-oldies).

At least that's what the research I've conducted tells me, and I am no qualified sociologist or market researcher so who knows how valid and reliable that data is?

As for what writing I take pleasure in - it's a good mix of different genres. I have been known to write comedic satire in the past (I used to write for a short animated cartoon a while back that poked fun at DND/RPG games) and I've been published writing crime/horror blends in the past. However, upon another morning of brainstorming with the team, we discovered a quite interesting idea that came from a rather peculiar source. We might look into setting something like that up and see people respond to it. It's a comedic adventure game with respectful parodies towards the old horror movies with an interesting protagonist who has quite a... unusual problem, might I add.

However, what I do have to ask is this? The nine-verb SCUMM GUI - is it a bad choice to use? We want to establish a single GUI across our adventure game career (although we'll experiment here and there for obvious reasons) but I do wonder whether that might cause legal issues. Perhaps it would need to be similar but unique?

So I just spent a night reflecting and a morning of adventure games, and I've come up with almost naught if not a few more puzzling ideas and discussions here and there. Whilst N Coot made me chuckle here and there, it doesn't make me feel all that confident about another pirate-themed adventure game. As for space pirates, I've never been one for such a crossover. I have, however, been looking around at literature, video games, televisions shows and so forth for the much-needed inspiration. I watched Mad Dogs (a dark humoured tale about four lad's on a weekend abroad that goes, to be blunt, tits up) and that made me think how dark humour could have the potential to contrast with the retro and cartoon-ish graphics that a 16-bit adventure game would provide. Would this be a positive or negative contrast, however?

However, this show wouldn't convert at all regardless of whether the tone would. A new setting with unique characters would be required, that's for certain. Pirates? Four swashbuckling pirates who have to work together to face forever-growing dire straits with the odds forever-growing against them? You know... Being shipwrecked on an island leading to constant arguments and compromises and problems to solve... that leads them to realise there's a curse on the island... then one of the crew ends up gaining unwanted attempt from the local cannibals... who then managed to escape and flee... just to find themselves oodles of treasure... just to end up being caught at the mercies of continental-feared pirates... and it gets worse and worse and worse from there. Whilst that might be unique, there are no doubt other alternatives.

Another idea we had was the idea of a unwilling monster hunter who, to save someone or something (we have some good ideas for this, too good to share for now), has to take down various Universal Monsters (Dracula, the Wolf Man and so forth) and perhaps that can take the element of dark-humour and the element of "it gets worse and worse and worse"? What do other people think of dark/black comedies as adventure games? After all, most people who remember the Lucas Arts games are "all grown up" now, but it isn't something that requires a Lucas Arts fan to get into. It's standalone, I hope.

What do others think?

Interesting responses thus far, and I'm downloading a few of the aforementioned games right now (Nelly Cootalot has just downloaded now, in fact!) to understand the market better. Knowing full well that Lucas Arts (RIP and all that) will not be producing another adventure game like it used to, if at all, then there's a definite void in the market that we wish to fill. As someone who fell in love with the retro design format, and someone who intends to make that the art pattern in all future releases, then there is a potential issue with it being an adventure-game using a nine-verb, low-resolution format based around pirates, humour and anachronisms. Hence the worries, and hence the considerations for other settings that epitomise adventure, exploration and exoticness.

Medieval settings is a perhaps for me, but I'm not convinced. There's something about pirates that worked in Monkey Island, but I can't place a darn finger on it, I'm afraid. Perhaps someone might stumble upon it? That's the spirit I want to imbue our releases with. Not emulate, but imbue. Accepting how the classics did it, using it ourselves and making it unique. But I will forever be worried about using pirates as a setting.

Hello!

I'm Fatal, and I'm new to these forums but this isn't an introduction thread. What I am here for is, as the title might suggest, to discuss inspiration and emotion for point-and-click graphic adventure games, and to garner how other other people tend to think up their ideas. As the Executive Producer and Lead Writer of an indie game studio who is now interested in the avenue of point-and-click adventure games, I've been brainstorming ideas, alone and with the team, about what sort of starting project we could work with. However we are struggling to come up with a solid concept as we have thus far managed to pick apart each concept we have thought up. We have all trawled these forums in search for information of all sorts; the most popular games (and the successful commercial ones) tend to be serious dramas, horrors or crime thrillers. The light-hearted and comical nature of the old Lucas Arts games seems to have all but evaporated from the major market. Is this true? Is it perhaps wiser to go with a more serious edge than a non-serious one for the sake of being accepted, or are people awaiting the revival of the old comic toned adventure games?

As for the specific genres and settings, we've thrown this ball around and around. For a comic adventure game, we don't want to work with pirates (since it's perhaps best to veer clear of the classics) but we want an element of adventure, exploration and exoticness to the game. We're had a look at the idea of a medieval peasant-to-knight tale but that's been done, but we've also looked at the possibilities of doing a medieval detective tale filled with anachronisms. Then again, speaking of detectives, we've looked at other potential genres. The two main serious genres that we've considered in great depth is horror and crime. I'm a self-published crime author so the latter is far more natural but I am worried about making too cinematic. Besides, a crime thriller adventure game would require a few hours of content before I could consider it well-paced and intriguing and going from knowing nothing to attempting to wrestle a feature-length video game isn't just difficult for me, but for the poor developers who would be working on this. Sure, this could be a chance to introduce our characters in a similar manner to how television shows sometimes structure their pilot (begin at the end of an investigation, a chase ensues, the detective catches him, introduction credits and theme music before the actual case of the episode begins) but the problem is how to make it fast-paced and tense during a chase when the person is thinking "alright, how do I break open this door using a pack of gum, a cigarette and a Glock 22".

How have people entered the Adventure Game Studio scene? Each of us has experience in developing video games so we aren't amateurs in that sense, but we won't pull off an immediate hit with the most custom experience ever. We want to create a short-but-sweet experience that introduces emotion, whether that be a laughter-inducing comic adventure game, or a fear-inducing horror adventure game, or even a shocking crime thriller adventure game, or something different. However, instead of the constant in-team discussions, we've decided to consult the experts here: You, the one reading this.


What are the "in" genres, and what are people hoping for?

What games have managed to induce emotion from their consumers best?

What settings are well-received, and where do people gain their inspiration?

What genres are best to work with at the beginning, and what is best for a short-and-sweet trial approach?


On behalf of the team, I appreciate the time invested in reading this, and hopefully the time invested in responding.