The Random Adventure Game News Thread

[V_K]

The trailer looks like Sam's shit.

 

[WallaceChambers]

My headcanon is that sam takes nicer shits than this.

 

[Tramboi]

Depressing, isn't it ?

 

[V_K]

My headcanon is that sam takes nicer shits than this.

I'd rate that post with a "monocled shit" button but as a non-paid member I don't have it.

 

[Boleskine]

 

[Boleskine]

 

[Hellion]

Noir Adventure CHICKEN POLICE has a demo out on Steam.



You can complete the demo in an about an hour. Game's fun enough.

 

[MRY]

I've mentioned previously that I did an extremely long interview with Jeffrey Klaehn on a variety of adventure game topics. He's been chopping off parts of the interview and selling them (or publishing them, in any event) piecemeal. Not sure that this is of that much interest, but here's my defense of the mountain path in KQ3, which was originally part of a longer discussion of how no one today cares enough about puzzles.

You can read it with 73 pop-up ads at BoingBoing, or by opening the spoiler below:

Spoiler

Mark Yohalem has worked both on his own projects and as an offsite senior or lead writer for BioWare, inXile Entertainment, TimeGate Studios, S2 Games, Nikitova Games, and Affinix Software. As co-founder of Wormwood Studios with two friends (artist Victor Pflug and programmer James Spanos) in 2010, he developed Primordia, a classical point-and-click adventure game that has sold about a quarter-million copies and was, for years, the highest-rated adventure game on Steam. The same trio is currently working on Strangeland, which is expected to release soon.

Jeffery Klaehn: Can you think of an example of a puzzle within a point-and-click adventure game that's been widely reviled by critics and relatively ignored in terms of serious analysis?

Mark Yohalem: The truth is that almost no adventure game puzzles, good or bad, get widespread, serious analysis. (The XYZZY Awards, for interactive fiction, have a Best Puzzle category; the Aggie Awards, for adventure games, do not—but they do have Best Story, Best Writing, Best Character, Best Setting, etc., etc.) Bad puzzles get glibly ridiculed, good puzzles generally go unmentioned.

I'll give you an example. One of the most reviled parts of King's Quest III is the mountain path running between Manannan's house and Llewdor countryside. Using the cursor keys, you have to navigate a narrow path, and if you go off the path, you fall to your death. (This is what Stair Quest is spoofing.) Candidly, I found the path really annoying as a kid; I was terrible with it, and died so often I think I quit the game and didn't come back for several months. So I don't necessarily disagree that it's a bad puzzle / segment in the game.

But the tendency to ascribe it to designer stupidity or malice—without thinking about why Roberta Wiliams and the team might have included it—is wrong. The path actually plays a very important thematic and mimetic role.

In King's Quest III, the protagonist is Gwydion, a young man who is a servant (slave, really) to an evil wizard named Manannan. (As it turns out, Gwydion is actually a prince under a spell.) Manannan forces Gwydion to do endless degrading chores around his house (e.g., emptying his chamber pot), while Manannan goes off on his evil escapades, takes naps, or berates Gwydion.

The early gameplay loop of the game consists of having to do these chores. Of course, the player (unlike Gwydion) isn't a cowed and ensorcelled servant. The player wants to go on a quest. Thus, there is immediately a gap between player and character —t he player (who can always save and reload) is much less scared than the character.

How, then, to capture the sense of dread that Gwydion would feel at straying from his chores/prison?

The mountain path, of course!

The player soon realizes that to win the game, she needs to sneak out of the house, gather tools in the land below, and then get back before Manannan notices Gwydion's absence. But every jaunt out of the house, and every hurry back home, has the cruel mountain path en route. The player's fear in facing that path serves as an emotional approximation of Gwydion's fear. "God, I really have to try to sneak out again?"

Additionally, the path plays two thematic roles. Such perilous roads are a routine part of fairy tales and folklore — the one we all know is from Red Riding Hood, but they're all over the place, actually — and so its inclusion in the fairy-tale-based King's Quest franchise is appropriate for that reason alone. But the road also serves the emphasize the power differential between Manannan (who can teleport to and from the house at his pleasure) and Gwydion (for whom such foot travel poses deadly peril), as well as providing a sharp geographic boundary between the fairly idyllic land of Llewdor (notwithstanding its own monsters and dangers) and the miserable home of Manannan.

Perhaps there would be a cleverer way to achieve all of this than the rage-inducing quasi-mini-game of navigating the path (at a minimum, removing the boulders where you can't see where you're walking). But that doesn't mean the path is a pure negative that's there for no good reason.

As Chesterton says, don't tear down the fence before you know why it was put there in the first place.

 

[Sceptic]

The player soon realizes that to win the game, she needs to sneak out of the house, gather tools in the land below, and then get back before Manannan notices Gwydion's absence. But every jaunt out of the house, and every hurry back home, has the cruel mountain path en route. The player's fear in facing that path serves as an emotional approximation of Gwydion's fear. "God, I really have to try to sneak out again?"

Additionally, the path plays two thematic roles. Such perilous roads are a routine part of fairy tales and folklore — the one we all know is from Red Riding Hood, but they're all over the place, actually — and so its inclusion in the fairy-tale-based King's Quest franchise is appropriate for that reason alone. But the road also serves the emphasize the power differential between Manannan (who can teleport to and from the house at his pleasure) and Gwydion (for whom such foot travel poses deadly peril), as well as providing a sharp geographic boundary between the fairly idyllic land of Llewdor (notwithstanding its own monsters and dangers) and the miserable home of Manannan.

One thing you forgot to mention (but it kinda reinforces your main points): the Magic Map. Once you have it, and go down the mountain path once, you never have take it down again, only back up (you can use the map to teleport from the house to anywhere else you've been, including the base of the path, except for the house itself). Having the map work like this accomplishes two things. First, it makes going back out the second (or third) time less arduous, which is a very subtle way of showing that Gwydion is gaining a sense of confidence (you still have to go back up, but that ties with what you said about having to hurry back while the clock is ticking, which adds tension. And you don't have to hurry, and can take your time on the path up, if you plan ahead and leave ample time to go back, which is good design). Second, and related to this, it shrinks that gap you mentioned between Gwydion and Manannan, which is the entire point of the first part of the game and why Gwydion starts learning to use magic. True, Manannan can still teleport back and forth at will, and you can't, but now you also have quick means of transport out of the house to other places. And the next step is eliminating the power gap entirely - and that's exactly the goal of this part of the game.

None of this means I think it's a good puzzle or a fun activity, nor that I think it's the opposite. Just, like you said, that there's more to it than just random padding. In fact this criticism is funny to throw at KQ3 specifically, since it actually tried to move away (and mostly succeeded) from the random puzzle design of KQ2, where the criticisms would fit far better.

 

[MRY]

I confess I'd forgotten about the magic map!

 

[CryptRat]

The english version of Urban Witch Story was just released.

Full description :

Spoiler

The jury of Los Angeles County District has ruled in favor of four police officers accused of abusing their power against coloured citizen Rodney King, and thousands of people take the streets to protest, causing an unprecedented riot.

Tonight, amongst riots and builidings ablaze, officers John Barker and Al Jackson respond to a call in the South Central district. The children of an old friend have gone missing. The only lead they have is a dangerous criminal who’s got all prostitutes fearing for their lives.

In a battle against time, they will face violent street gangs, their very own colleague officers, and even the supernatural.

FEATURES:

- 30 playable rooms in full AGI graphic style.

-Over 40 interactive characters.

-Only inventory based puzzles.

- No deaths or dead-ends.

- Interfaz Point & Click.

- Languages: English and Spanish.

Cover illustration: Paco García.

 

[Boleskine]

 

[jfrisby]

Quarter of the way through the pdf version of Ken's book.
It's amusing how much of a how-to-succeed businessman parody he is, there's a whole chapter on ranking employees AAA to F:

My personal goal has always been to be a Triple-A player. I can’t honestly say that I have ever achieved that goal. If I’m awake I’m usually either working or thinking about working. If I’m reading it is usually some sort of self-help book.

When most people think about Sierra’s past they remember us as an “Adventure Game Company.”
I’m not opposed to that, but it’s not at all how I remember the company.
To me, Sierra was a marketing company. Lots of people can design products, code products, advertise products, and sell products. But, what really lifted Sierra above the pack, and the reason you are reading this book twenty-five or more years past when the Sierra I knew died, was our marketing.

I knew that I was young and uneducated, and in over my head. It really was
“on-the-job training.” To compensate, I read entire shelves of books at
bookstores that were filled with self-help books, much to the frustration of
those who reported to me. There are a lot of books that talk about how to
run a business. I especially liked the ones written by corporate CEOs who
had run rapidly growing businesses. The thing that my team didn’t like was
that I tended to manage according to the book I read most recently. I was
often accused of giving them whiplash as I’d argue one way this week and
another the following week.

There's some interesting, but brief, technical stuff on Mystery House and the early days - I guess the memories are pretty distant at this point.

Of all the games Sierra ever produced, Leisure Suit Larry was always my favorite.

I took a special interest in the Leisure Suit Larry series, and even did some programming on the series over the years.

Unlike movies, there was no rating system for games. I’ve always thought children should be protected from adult content. One day I came up with the idea of putting a quiz at the start of the games. The idea was that the game could ask questions drawn from the headlines and if the player couldn’t answer the questions the game would refuse to load. The trivia game itself became something fun to do, but we goofed and forgot that these games would have a long life. I remember that one of the questions asked the name of Senator Gary Hart’s boat (a major headline at the time, as he overnighted on his boat, Monkey Business, with his alleged girlfriend). At the time, everyone over 18 years of age knew the answer. Today, you’d need to be over 65 and have good memory.

Even before the phrase #metoo became a household word, there was sensitivity around Leisure Suit Larry. My guess is that if you agonize over every line of dialog in a Leisure Suit Larry game you can find some line, probably several, that can be interpreted as sexist. The same is probably true with every risqué comedy movie or TV series ever made. My thinking was always that Larry was funny, and that both Al Lowe and I had incredibly strong wives. Sierra certainly had no lack of women in powerful positions, and the whole joke in the games was that Larry was a lovable loser who could only dream of catching a sexy member of the opposite sex. The joke was on Larry, not the women. I’d also point out that I watched and spoke with many women who played the game and none seemed offended. And, ultimately, Larry could easily be compared to movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. If I were making films would I have made that film? Would you? Of course! Audiences loved it, and no one crammed it down their throats.

My philosophy of game design was that customers will forgive about
anything if they believe the person who created the game took it seriously.
You can have misspellings. The game can crash. But, when it comes to
nailing the subject matter, you can’t screw it up. I used to describe playing
a game as being like “having lunch with the designer.”

It may sound funny that I am talking about game design philosophy in
a chapter about marketing strategy, but … the #1 marketing strategy at
Sierra was to find the right designers, and empower them to produce their
games, without muddying their vision.

That last bit of that last paragraph is more important than the three words
imply, “… muddying their vision ….” This was a battle I fought every day
and was the piece of the puzzle over which I was the most protective. My
goal was to empower people who were passionate about a product to bring
it to market with as little interference as possible.

If we were producing a cribbage game, I didn’t want some artist figuring
out what the cribbage board looked like. I wanted my designer, who had
to live and breathe cribbage, putting their personal mark on the product.
Every detail, every piece of art, every game challenge, every piece of music,
had to flow from the designer. If the music they picked was dumb and off
key, it was their right and their design. This was a key reason that I pushed
our having a tools group. I wanted non-technical people to be able to build
a product. It was important to remove the technological wall between
content creators and content consumers.

I wanted a designer who was passionate about something to be able to
make their vision a reality with the least interference possible. I was into
empowering an individual designer, not into producing a product that was
a team effort. I constantly argued that if you were to take the two greatest
book authors in the world and have them collaborate on a book, the result
would not be as strong as their producing two independent books. Teams
muddle products.

 

[WallaceChambers]

 

[LESS T_T]

Cascadia Quest, a new adventure game from the developer of Snail Trek games.

Cascadia Quest is a reboot of the classic adventure games from the mid eighties. You'll take on the role of an eager but incompetent junior ranger in the lush forests surrounding Foreboding Spire. You'll be sent on a wild adventure into deep forest, up snowy mountains, into mysterious caverns, all the while trying to uncover a mysterious plot to sabotage the wilderness. The game is infused with lore from the Pacific Northwest region of the USA.

Before point-and-click games came along, adventure game characters were controlled by typing. Frustrating? By today's standards, yes it was! Cascadia Quest brings this back this freedom, but with a modern contextual parser including futuristic features like autosuggest.

If you ever miss your time spent as a space-faring janitor, a teenager imprisoned by a terrifying wizard, or a young journalist investigating a murder in a mansion, then Cascadia Quest is ready to welcome you back.

Key Features

• Location-aware text parser with both auto-suggest and auto-correct - fat finger your way to puzzle glory. Using a parser was never more effortless.
  
• Autosaves - no need to save every few minutes before you try something risky.
  
• Deaths (but hey, autosaves)!
  
• No dead ends! Puzzle your way around with impunity!
  
• Bright EGA-ish graphics that evoke that classic feel while looking modern.
  
• CRT emulation mode that gives those pixels an ever-so-slightly fuzzy look.
  
• A way to turn off modern conveniences if you want that true retro challenge! Control your dither level!

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Why do developers insist upon stuffing modern lightning effects (left screenshot if you don't know what I mean) into their retro video games? Do people actually like seeing that shit stuffed on imitation VGA 2D backgrounds?

 

[jfrisby]

In Snail Quest you could turn off the crappy CRT filters, hopefully the same with this stuff..

 

[jfrisby]

Demo this week:

 

[Dexter]

Some other Demos in the Point&Click section that can still be played till tomorrow:

 

[V_K]

Some other Demos in the Point&Click section that can still be played till tomorrow:

Wow, they were not kidding when they said short demo - the whole thing is like 5 minutes including the intro sequence.

 

[Darkozric]

Another Myst Clone but it seems there is no environmental storytelling similar to Myst.

 

[El Presidente]

Another Myst Clone but it seems there is no environmental storytelling similar to Myst.

Wow this looks really good. Anyone played it?

By the way, thoughts on the Ankh series? I just noticed they have the trilogy on GOG but I'm not sure if they're any good.

https://af.gog.com/game/ankh_anniversary_edition?as=1649904300

https://af.gog.com/game/ankh_2_heart_of_osiris?as=1649904300

https://af.gog.com/game/ankh_3_battle_of_the_gods?as=1649904300

They're extremely cheap right now.

 

[Zombra]

Another Myst Clone but it seems there is no environmental storytelling similar to Myst.

Zof is a different kind of puzzle game. The solutions are always simple, just more and more carefully hidden.

Ugh. Sounds like "a more and more tiresome pixel hunt".

 

[Darkozric]

Ugh. Sounds like "a more and more tiresome pixel hunt".

I didn't see any pixel hunting during the gameplay YT video that I watched for a bit. If anyone tries this a clarification on the subject will be much appreciated.
Pixel hunting to some extend can be tolerated, even Riven had some.

 

[Hellion]

Noir Adventure CHICKEN POLICE has a demo out on Steam.



You can complete the demo in an about an hour. Game's fun enough.

Release date: November 5th.