The Death of Adventure Games • Hacker News Board

Re: The Death of Adventure Games

#41

Post by anthonyb » Wed, Mar 02, 2011, 10:52 PM UTC

modeless wrote: post #28

pmcginn wrote: post #8

Oh, wow. OMM, talk about memories (the linked article is from 2000.) Among other things Chet and Erik were famous for the Time To Crate system of reviewing games by how long it took from starting the game until you saw a crate. Since this was the late 90s/early 2ks, it was generally zero seconds. This was in comparison to real life, where I frequently go years at a time without seeing a single crate, but then again,…

The Crate Review System is a true classic that's worth reading even though a few of the jokes are outdated: http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/39.html

This one's timeless though:

Kevin: This shot reminds me: You'll see games with forklifts and crates, but you won't see one goddamn pallet. You know what a pallet is right? Yeah, you worked at the warehouse, you know. But all these whiny bitches who go to college on their parents' money and then design games have never been inside a real fucking warehouse and have no fucking clue that in order to move a fucking crate, you need to have a goddamn pallet.

Re: The Death of Adventure Games

#42

Post by Dylanlacey » Wed, Mar 02, 2011, 11:00 PM UTC

Dilpil wrote: post #33

Decent graphics are murder for adventure games. With some of the oldest adventure games, there were only a few places you could plausibly click on and see a result. Hunting for the interactable object in a 3D textured and shadered world is less intuitive.

Cel shading gets around this problem somewhat, and also, IMO make the game "Feel" more like an adventure game.

What shits ME about modern adventure games is when they decide that interactive objects need to be shiny.

Re: The Death of Adventure Games

#43

Post by pragmatic » Wed, Mar 02, 2011, 11:03 PM UTC

sid0 wrote: post #13

The article's over ten years old, and since then there's been a sorta revival of the genre. There are all the Telltale games, the Monkey Island remakes, and more recently the brilliant Machinarium. Digital distribution services like Steam have helped, of course.

Problem is that games like Machinarium are still just "hunt the live pixel". You have to hope you get close enough to the active object in order to notice it/grab it/operate it. On a larger resolution, this can be quite maddening.

Game Designers: How about making the useable objects more noticeable (like a glimmer or something). Also having the puzzles make sense goes a long way.

Re: The Death of Adventure Games

#44

Post by hnal943 » Wed, Mar 02, 2011, 11:06 PM UTC

coderdude wrote: post #39

I used to be a humongous fan of 2D adventure games. Most notably the Space Quest series. If you've never played them start out with Space Quest 4 and then play SQ6. The audio dialog in the game is unrivaled humor. Full Throttle was also one of the mega-classics of 2D adventure games. I think the downfall of these games came when the studios tried to go the 3D route.

In general, I agree. However, Grim Fandango (1998) was both 3D and brilliant.

Re: The Death of Adventure Games

#45

Post by Qz » Wed, Mar 02, 2011, 11:35 PM UTC

Dylanlacey wrote: post #42

Dilpil wrote: post #33

Decent graphics are murder for adventure games. With some of the oldest adventure games, there were only a few places you could plausibly click on and see a result. Hunting for the interactable object in a 3D textured and shadered world is less intuitive.

Cel shading gets around this problem somewhat, and also, IMO make the game "Feel" more like an adventure game. What shits ME about modern adventure games is when they decide that interactive objects need to be shiny.

An adventure game in the Borderlands art-style (and perhaps the world) would be pretty fantastic.

Re: The Death of Adventure Games

#46

Post by squidsoup » Wed, Mar 02, 2011, 11:50 PM UTC

peng wrote: post #18

Syberia I & II, The Longest Journey/Dreamfall are a couple of amazing adventure game series. Neither are exactly recent (2004 and 2007 respectively), but they're still full of atmosphere and enjoyable to play.

I continue to hope that Ragnar Tornquist will make another game as brilliant as The Longest Journey. If he can manage to inject some of the creativity of that game into his upcoming Lovecraftian MMO The Secret World, it could be superb.

Re: The Death of Adventure Games

#47

Post by _b8r0 » Wed, Mar 02, 2011, 11:54 PM UTC

technomancy wrote: post #21

_b8r0 wrote: post #14

I think the relaunch of Monkey Island on the iPhone proved that adventures are far from dead. Are they still mainstream? Maybe not, but I definitely see elements of adventures in modern games. Games like Fallout 3 and Bioshock rely heavily on storytelling. You could argue that some sandbox games like GTA San Andreas (haven't played IV, sorry) are technically adventure games or have adventure components. While I think…

> Games like Fallout 3 and Bioshock rely heavily on storytelling. Compare Bioshock to System Shock 2 though; Bioshock is extremely simplified in order to still be playable on point-n-grunt console platforms.

The more I think about it I think you're right, but if you look at the way that games are made now, the costs and the audiences they have to reach, making a highly cerebral adventure game is quite risky. I don't see EA ever doing it for example.

I can see adventures working well in the casual gaming space, but I think that the mass appeal side probably needs to be there too.

Re: The Death of Adventure Games

#48

Post by cawlin » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 12:00 AM UTC

Superbrothers are trying a fresh approach to adventure games with Sword & Sworcery EP: http://www.swordandsworcery.com/

Re: The Death of Adventure Games

#49

Post by ido » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 12:00 AM UTC

code_duck wrote: post #34

jhamburger wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, as popular as ever? I dunno. King's Quest, Myst, 7th Guest, these were the 'Call of Duty's of 80s/90s PC gaming.

They might not be as popular percentage-wise, but what are the sales totals and revenue like compared directly to those titles, I wonder? The total market must be a lot larger than it was back then.

Myst is still one of the biggest sellers (in units total) even today, IIRC it sold 6 million units.

Re: The Death of Adventure Games

#50

Post by zavulon » Thu, Mar 03, 2011, 12:02 AM UTC

I think the iOS platform is helping the revival of adventure games. Just the ones I've personally played on the iPhone over the last couple of years:

- Monkey Island 1 & 2 Special Edition (remastered graphics)

- Broken Sword special edition

- Hector: Badge of Carnage: EXCELLENT original game (if somewhat short)

- Flight of the Amazon Queen

- Beneath the Steel Sky

- Gobliins

I'm sure I'm missing something... There's also some games that are available on the iPad only, and I think the trend is there: adventure games are coming back.