Brainstorming the adventure game

Intrepid Homoludens · 02-23-2004, 06:08 PM

Versailles 1685

As I was participating in the Too much Sci-Fi? thread, I became aware that we spend so much time discussing the 'downfall' of the adventure genre, the lack of fresh new ideas in theme, story, puzzles, and just the general banality of modern adventures. We bashed Jack the Ripper and Journey to the Center of the Earth for being guilty of some of these lapses, if not for merely being mediocre, badly designed games. Instead, why not play around with ideas that haven't been explored yet? Whether it's dealing with controversial themes, unexplored puzzle designs, or reconceputalizing a classic game with new technology, the deal is to go beyond what we're used to - and what we've had shoved down our throats over and over again.

And please, don't even post cynical comments saying it would never happen. Remember what Einstein said. We can at least dream, can't we? This is a thread for ideas beyond commercial limitations and stupid publishers. So, what are some of your ideas? How would you like to experience an adventure game as you haven't experienced it before?

mag · 02-23-2004, 06:29 PM

I like it. Something positive. I know that I can criticize adventure games quite a bit for what they lack, but I do try to come up with ways that they can be improved as well.

My concern is first and foremost with writing stories that are actually interesting enough for people to want to play through, but what counts as a good story is kind of broad and has already been argued about for the past 5,000 years or so. So intead I'm going to focus on gameplay, where I actually have some more specific ideas (some of which I think I've mentioned before).

First of all, I'd like to see a multiplayer adventure game. A big part of video games is the sense of community that it forms. Multiplayer was a huge step in the right direction. Yet there really haven't been any multiplayer adventures. I can understand it's difficult, but I think it can be done. For instance, you could have cooperative gameplay where several players have to work together to solve a puzzle. That could be a lot more fun than trying to figure out a puzzle on your own. Uru kind of tried this but fell on its face.

And I'm still waiting for the LucasArts Hoedown.

I was going to post some more, but the words are starting to move. So I think I'll save the rest for another time.

mag

*Jake* · 02-23-2004, 06:46 PM

Though its a little more exclusive than a full on multiplayer adventure, it would be interesting if someone could make a co-op adventure game... though nobody would play it. By a co-op adventure game I mean a game where you chose one character and your friend, probably someone who is on another computer somewhere else on the Internet or LAN will play another character - the thing is, in this co-op game you wouldn't necesarilly have to ever be playing at the same time, on the same server, etc. If it was a detective story for instance, you could "sync up" your two games over the net (or via a savegame file on your computer if you and a friend or you and yourself were playing the two storylines locally at different times) and share your progress that way - suddenly new dialogue options or locations would be available to you if your partner uncovered some new clues. A bit like Animal Crossing's "offline multiplayer," I guess, except an adventure game.

For me a lot of the fun of adventure games is playing them with a friend -- working with them to solve puzzles, not competing against them to get to the end first or who gets to be the guy pressing the buttons -- and I think something like that would give you the online equivilent of playing with a friend (since you could both talk about what youd done in the game when you werent playing), but also has the multiplayer aspect, and because there is another real person in the world, albeit one you rarely or never meet within the game, maybe you could end up with a little bit of the scary Majestic/pervasive gaming feel (though that's not the point of it).

The one downside to this idea (I guses) is for it to be really interesting, you'd eventually have to have some parts that required both characters in the same location, online, at the same time (which sort of defeats the "at your own pace" factors of the syncing idea)... like one person on each side of a locked bank vault door, with a puzzle that required systematic manipulation from both sides... or something. Again that sort of partly defeats the point of my first idea.

I guess in theory you could have the game function either way, but that would be really complicated and design intensive and I'd get yelled at for making some sort of dream game

(which, of course, this isnt - its just an idea that showed up in my head at random while reading the previous post, but shh). Really I just thought the syncing co-op idea would be a good way to play through an adventure with a friend online, without the two of you just playing your own copies the same 1 player game at the same time and messaging each other about it. Sort of a poor mans multiplayer adventure, without any "true" multiplayer at all, maybe.

Yep. So, that pretty much came out of nowhere, but thats what this thread's for right?

Deshrill · 02-23-2004, 06:49 PM

I always thought it would be interesting to take the setting of an FPS and try to do it as an adventure game-- for instance, Doom as an adventure game would be very odd.

Obviously, the puzzles wouldn't be "pick up gun", "use gun on demon", "use bullets with gun", but taking a more action-packed plot and having the player having to solve puzzles to get through the situation could make things interesting.

For instance, if we went with the Doom: The Graphic Adventure concept, you might have a room where the player has entered a room and he recognizes a friend of his on the far end of the room, trapped under some debris. You go to try and pull your friend from the debris, but before you can reach it, an ugly pink demon rips its way out of the floor and leaps up, blocking the way between you and your friend.

You have nothing in your inventory, but there are some chunks of the floor lying around from when the pink demon entered the room. If you sit around and do nothing, the pink demon starts advancing towards your trapped friend; if you don't solve the puzzle quickly enough, your friend dies. This doesn't mean you lose the game, but if you would have saved your friend, he could have given a hint to a trickier puzzle later in the game that would have made things a bit easier.

Is this just random rambling or am I making sense?

Intrepid Homoludens · 02-23-2004, 07:46 PM

Wow, I'd love to play Doom as an adventure game. I think we could dump the 'find-key-to-open-door' puzzle in the garbage this time around and come up with some really new puzzles. How about environmental challenges combined with the Havok physics engine? In the same scene where the pink demon stands b/t you and your colleague you notice that the ceiling (comprised of heavy metal plates) has become volatile from recent explosions and can easily collapse, with the sprinklers leaking drops of water. Meanwhile you're right next to a computer that can access the security functions of your immediate rooms, and at the moment it's displaying some data on currently known organic anomalies highly sensitive to liquids; you also have several mechanical tools on a table, including a grappling hook, some wrenches, and vials of acid; a medical console (containing smelling salts, hydrogen peroxide, and other things) is on a wall next to you; an experimental remote controlled laser turret stands on the other side of the room with the console just inches from your friend, who is unconscious. The demon is trying violently to free itself from the small hole it punched through the floor.

And for those of you who haven't yet got the idea of physics in an adventure game, watch this or play a bit with this (yeah, it's a bit macabre, but try imagining the skeleton as some other object that's part of a puzzle). BTW, I think Uru is the first adventure game to use physics (yep, you got to 'kick' stuff around), except that it was never integrated in any of the puzzles.

Cellardoor · 02-24-2004, 02:53 AM

Here's my take on the 'online adventuring' idea;

When creating an online multiplayer world, (such as Uru) it seems a bad idea to me to just dump every single player in that world.

Instead, it should be more like FPS games played on a network. A group of say four friends get together to play the game, they know each other, and they're only playing against themselves, outsiders can't join.

For this to work in an adventure game, I believe every player character should be different, much like a Quest for Glory game, where players can choose to play as a fighter, a magic user, and a thief. While most of the game is identical for every different character, each game has a couple of puzzles only one kind of character can solve, an area to visit, a character to meet, etc.

Now imagine most of the game would consist of these 'unique' puzzles. Basically, each character would be playing a game of their own, but they all play in the same world, can meat each other, etc.

Now, this is important; The PCs need to be able to influence the game world. To continue the comparison with QFG, let's say the fighter character competes with an NPC fighter in the Adventurers Guild, which results in the NPC fighter getting kicked out of the guild. This NPC then will seek contact with the Thieves' Guild to hire an assasin to get rid of the PC fighter. The PC thief would ofcourse learn of this, and might inform his friend of this. Or, alternatively, he could choose to take the job of assasinating the PC fighter himself...

Anyway; this is but a simple example, but I believe it has potential. Perhaps it could even be possible for one of the friends to act as a 'game master', (much like the online Neverwinter Nights modules) and thus controlling the story and NPCs himself.

Swordmaster · 02-24-2004, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake

Though its a little more exclusive than a full on multiplayer adventure, it would be interesting if someone could make a co-op adventure game... though nobody would play it.

If I remember correctly, Zork: Grand Inquisitor featured a co-op mode although I never tried it. Anyone have experiences on that?

Ariel Type · 02-24-2004, 01:34 PM

3D. The future of adventures lies in full 3D and in proper use of it. Which is still a dream, as a shame.

Erwin_Br · 02-24-2004, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ariel Type

3D. The future of adventures lies in full 3D and in proper use of it. Which is still a dream, as a shame.

Nah, I think 3D is a overrated buzzword.

Today's adventure games lack certain ingredients that made those other ones so great. I think designers need to forget things like marketing, targetting and even technology for a while and focus on those important ingredients.

Stop wasting hours on building engine X that can display an X amount of poly's with dynamic lights and zillionaire filtering. Build an adventure, not an engine.

Take a step back, before taking a huge leap is what I say.

--Erwin

Erkki · 02-24-2004, 02:31 PM

Let's stop here and not turn this to an argument about 3D pretty please...
Besides, 'brainstorming' insists that ideas must not be critisised.

Sorry, don't have any ideas to post at the moment. There are thousands of possibilities...

Erkki · 02-24-2004, 02:58 PM

Well, I just thought of a weird idea a few weeks ago that could work as an adventure game (it's sci-fi though

).

It's the Earth, a few hundred years in the future, or a completely different planet inhabited by a different race. There are two continents inhabited by people. On one continent live the "rulers" who are all humongous (really fat) -- they can't even get out of bed. This has been the case for many generations and they have based their architecture on that fact.
Every person has a room where (s)he lives all his/her life, never stepping outside. But he can go anywhere while being in the room. Every building is a silinder, rooms can move up and down along a central pillar like an elevator and rotate around it. Underground tunnels form a complicated network to connect the buildings, allowing the standard-shaped rooms to travel to any building on the continent.
All the buildings offer certain services to the people, that's why the need to travel at all. The fat population is being served by robots and some thin slaves from the other continent. All the food / fuel / other resources are produced on the other continent, where most of the slaves work under the rule of robots.

(etc. I think I won't go into more detail about that or it would make this post too long)

Now the game. You are one of those fat people, trapped in bed, not able to move your body. But you are able to use a computer, move your room around and interact with whatever sector-floor-building you are in. I haven't thought of a plot yet, but the goal might be to break free of your confinement and maybe to overthrow the system.

Erwin_Br · 02-24-2004, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erkki

Let's stop here and not turn this to an argument about 3D pretty please...
Besides, 'brainstorming' insists that ideas must not be critisised.

Sorry, don't have any ideas to post at the moment. There are thousands of possibilities...

Don't worry, I don't intend to do so.

I'm merely voicing my view on the matter. Namely that maybe we shouldn't look for new controversial themes, unexplored puzzle designs and such until we can produce the games we liked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trep

the deal is to go beyond what we're used to - and what we've had shoved down our throats over and over again.

Hmmm... I don't know. I, for one, would love to see more games like DOTT and GF shoved down my throat because the games that are currently shoved down don't even taste half as good. Seriously, how many games are there that can compete with, say, Grim Fandango? Only a few, in my opinion.

However, I think you might be referring to more recent titles. In that case I agree completely

--Erwin

Intrepid Homoludens · 02-24-2004, 08:46 PM

This thread should be free of any kind of debate, really. It's all about dreams and ideas and 'what-ifs', and even building on another person's ideas to see what happens. On this note, I might as well post and elaborate a bit on what I stated in the 'Too much Sci-Fi?' thread:

Ridicule

Although I haven't played it myself ... I'd love a remake of Versailles 1685, or a new game based on it and Patrice Leconte's Ridicule (1996), that uses a top notch 3D graphics engine (Unreal, LithTech Jupiter, etc.) as well as a robust A.I. to recreate a jawdroping 17th century French court in real time 3D - imagine walking amongst lavishly dressed courtiers and using their gossips, your status, and the king's favours to accomplish your mission. It would function far more organically that the original game precisely because of the A.I., which makes the gameplay less predictable, and the real time setup that allows you to explore the 17th centure palace and grounds as if you really were there.

...your main 'inventory' would consist of language, wit, and historically and socially correct gestures of etiquette and body language that you must remember to use in the right situations. For example, if you forget to bow to a countess you'll upset her and she'll remember that; later on in the game you may discover that she has vital information pertaining to a possible scandal, information you must have. But now that you're on her ignore list it'll be much harder to get her to talk and divulge to you. Every single thing you do is under scrutiny in the king's court - the game's Artificial Intelligence at work.

Zygomaticus · 02-24-2004, 08:54 PM

Uh-oh! The French have gotten Intrepid! They've turned him into a propaganda machine!

Intrepid Homoludens · 02-24-2004, 08:57 PM

Ceci n'est pas une bib.

Skinny Minnie · 02-24-2004, 10:32 PM

Trep,

I just wanted to say that this is the best thread on adventure games that I've seen in some time.

Even if it had been signed "Anonymous Poster," I would have known it was by you from a mile away.

I've stayed out of the thread mainly because I am only a few weeks from my due date with Liam now, he has dropped down low onto my pelvic bone in preparation for birth, and my brain is just totally fried. Sorry.

Intrepid Homoludens · 02-25-2004, 04:15 PM

Well, I figured in the aftermath of Stinger's white hot scandalous thread I'd throw in something more inspirational. Personally I'm all for an interrelatedl balance between story and puzzle, with the story as incentive for solving the puzzles. But this thread isn't about that, so....

Take it easy, you and Liam both, eh? LOL, how about an adventure game with a pregnant woman as the main character :eek: Hell, they already made at least a couple of movies that way (Rosemary's Baby and Fargo).

Skinny Minnie · 02-25-2004, 04:58 PM

Well, if GK4 ever came to be, we'd find out if Gracie fit that bill, huh?

Jeez, no wonder I chose her pic for my avatar last year-- I was drawn to it by fate!

Note to self: Right after delivering Liam, I must permanently change that stinking avatar.

djsouza · 02-25-2004, 06:29 PM

I would like to see an interface that allows more interaction in the game world. In old IF games, you were allowed to try lots of different and unusual commands. Remember what you could type on Larry1? Lots of different and funny answers were available at every failed attempt by the player.

After the point and click, the interface got quite simple in both a good way (more confortable and intuitive to use) and a bad way (less commands and actions to choose).

I believe that using some interface like the Scumm from, say, Monkey Island 3, it is possible to allow the player to have more actions to perform. But instead of limited actions to just 3 or 4, with general commands like "LOOK", "USE", "PICK UP", I would like to see different commands for each object on the screen.

Like, when clicking on a door, the verb "KNOCK" should appear. Or if the door was locked, there should be an action that allowed the player to break the door down.

Also, by using this interface, I think the new adventures should allow the gamer to have more ways of trying to solve a problem, more alternative solutions to puzzles. And it could also have more alternative WRONG solutions to puzzles, making some fun of the gamer when he tries the simpler approach, a la Larry1.

That way, we dont get just the general response "That doesnt work". I want to hear the game making fun at the gamer when attempting foolish solutions, like: "What were you thinking, are you crazy or something?

".

I want more interaction in the game enviroment, which means more ways to try to solve a puzzle AND more ways to screw everything up

(but no dead-ends).

Bastich · 02-25-2004, 08:25 PM

[lurk mode off]

I had to break my temporary, self-imposed ban on posting here to comment on this topic...

I always thought it would be very educational and interesting to make an AG in which the characters you play are all disabled. I think it would very good for people to see how things are from the perspective of such people and the daily difficulties they face. I mean, what is an ordinary action for most people, is a daily puzzle for someone with a disability. I think it would very healthy for people to have to think through the same types of situations they encounter, not to mention that the puzzles would be much more interesting and creative than those we normally see because of the physical limitations. It might also engender some compassion for their plight. I have actually thought about making my own game along these lines, but I just don't have the time to do anything like that right now. I have other obsessions dominating my life...

Anyway, probably a stupid idea. I'll just shut up now.

[lurk mode on]

02-23-2004, 06:08 PM	#1
Intrepid Homoludens merely human Last Online: 05-17-2012 02:26 AM Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 22,309	Brainstorming the adventure game Versailles 1685 As I was participating in the Too much Sci-Fi? thread, I became aware that we spend so much time discussing the 'downfall' of the adventure genre, the lack of fresh new ideas in theme, story, puzzles, and just the general banality of modern adventures. We bashed Jack the Ripper and Journey to the Center of the Earth for being guilty of some of these lapses, if not for merely being mediocre, badly designed games. Instead, why not play around with ideas that haven't been explored yet? Whether it's dealing with controversial themes, unexplored puzzle designs, or reconceputalizing a classic game with new technology, the deal is to go beyond what we're used to - and what we've had shoved down our throats over and over again. And please, don't even post cynical comments saying it would never happen. Remember what Einstein said. We can at least dream, can't we? This is a thread for ideas beyond commercial limitations and stupid publishers. So, what are some of your ideas? How would you like to experience an adventure game as you haven't experienced it before? __________________ platform: laptop, iPhone 3Gs \| gaming: x360, PS3, psp, iPhone, wii \| blog: a space alien \| book: the moral landscape: how science can determine human values by sam harris \| games: l.a.noire, portal 2, brink, dragon age 2, heavy rain \| sites: NPR, skeptoid, gaygamer \| music: ray lamontagne, adele, washed out, james blake \| twitter: a_space_alien

02-23-2004, 06:46 PM	#3
Jake The Dartmaster Last Online: 11-14-2016 08:15 PM Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: San Rafael, California Posts: 3,084	Though its a little more exclusive than a full on multiplayer adventure, it would be interesting if someone could make a co-op adventure game... though nobody would play it. By a co-op adventure game I mean a game where you chose one character and your friend, probably someone who is on another computer somewhere else on the Internet or LAN will play another character - the thing is, in this co-op game you wouldn't necesarilly have to ever be playing at the same time, on the same server, etc. If it was a detective story for instance, you could "sync up" your two games over the net (or via a savegame file on your computer if you and a friend or you and yourself were playing the two storylines locally at different times) and share your progress that way - suddenly new dialogue options or locations would be available to you if your partner uncovered some new clues. A bit like Animal Crossing's "offline multiplayer," I guess, except an adventure game. For me a lot of the fun of adventure games is playing them with a friend -- working with them to solve puzzles, not competing against them to get to the end first or who gets to be the guy pressing the buttons -- and I think something like that would give you the online equivilent of playing with a friend (since you could both talk about what youd done in the game when you werent playing), but also has the multiplayer aspect, and because there is another real person in the world, albeit one you rarely or never meet within the game, maybe you could end up with a little bit of the scary Majestic/pervasive gaming feel (though that's not the point of it). The one downside to this idea (I guses) is for it to be really interesting, you'd eventually have to have some parts that required both characters in the same location, online, at the same time (which sort of defeats the "at your own pace" factors of the syncing idea)... like one person on each side of a locked bank vault door, with a puzzle that required systematic manipulation from both sides... or something. Again that sort of partly defeats the point of my first idea. I guess in theory you could have the game function either way, but that would be really complicated and design intensive and I'd get yelled at for making some sort of dream game (which, of course, this isnt - its just an idea that showed up in my head at random while reading the previous post, but shh). Really I just thought the syncing co-op idea would be a good way to play through an adventure with a friend online, without the two of you just playing your own copies the same 1 player game at the same time and messaging each other about it. Sort of a poor mans multiplayer adventure, without any "true" multiplayer at all, maybe. Yep. So, that pretty much came out of nowhere, but thats what this thread's for right? __________________ When on the Internet, visit Idle Thumbs \| Mixnmojo \| Sam & Max.net \| Telltale Games "I was one of the original lovers." - Evan Dickens Last edited by Jake; 02-23-2004 at 06:54 PM..

02-23-2004, 06:49 PM	#4
Deshrill Senior Member Last Online: 11-15-2005 07:45 PM Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Savannah, GA Posts: 260	I always thought it would be interesting to take the setting of an FPS and try to do it as an adventure game-- for instance, Doom as an adventure game would be very odd. Obviously, the puzzles wouldn't be "pick up gun", "use gun on demon", "use bullets with gun", but taking a more action-packed plot and having the player having to solve puzzles to get through the situation could make things interesting. For instance, if we went with the Doom: The Graphic Adventure concept, you might have a room where the player has entered a room and he recognizes a friend of his on the far end of the room, trapped under some debris. You go to try and pull your friend from the debris, but before you can reach it, an ugly pink demon rips its way out of the floor and leaps up, blocking the way between you and your friend. You have nothing in your inventory, but there are some chunks of the floor lying around from when the pink demon entered the room. If you sit around and do nothing, the pink demon starts advancing towards your trapped friend; if you don't solve the puzzle quickly enough, your friend dies. This doesn't mean you lose the game, but if you would have saved your friend, he could have given a hint to a trickier puzzle later in the game that would have made things a bit easier. Is this just random rambling or am I making sense? __________________ "How many good books suffer neglect through the inefficiency of their beginnings!" --Edgar Alan Poe

02-23-2004, 07:46 PM	#5
Intrepid Homoludens merely human Last Online: 05-17-2012 02:26 AM Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 22,309	Wow, I'd love to play Doom as an adventure game. I think we could dump the 'find-key-to-open-door' puzzle in the garbage this time around and come up with some really new puzzles. How about environmental challenges combined with the Havok physics engine? In the same scene where the pink demon stands b/t you and your colleague you notice that the ceiling (comprised of heavy metal plates) has become volatile from recent explosions and can easily collapse, with the sprinklers leaking drops of water. Meanwhile you're right next to a computer that can access the security functions of your immediate rooms, and at the moment it's displaying some data on currently known organic anomalies highly sensitive to liquids; you also have several mechanical tools on a table, including a grappling hook, some wrenches, and vials of acid; a medical console (containing smelling salts, hydrogen peroxide, and other things) is on a wall next to you; an experimental remote controlled laser turret stands on the other side of the room with the console just inches from your friend, who is unconscious. The demon is trying violently to free itself from the small hole it punched through the floor. And for those of you who haven't yet got the idea of physics in an adventure game, watch this or play a bit with this (yeah, it's a bit macabre, but try imagining the skeleton as some other object that's part of a puzzle). BTW, I think Uru is the first adventure game to use physics (yep, you got to 'kick' stuff around), except that it was never integrated in any of the puzzles. __________________ platform: laptop, iPhone 3Gs \| gaming: x360, PS3, psp, iPhone, wii \| blog: a space alien \| book: the moral landscape: how science can determine human values by sam harris \| games: l.a.noire, portal 2, brink, dragon age 2, heavy rain \| sites: NPR, skeptoid, gaygamer \| music: ray lamontagne, adele, washed out, james blake \| twitter: a_space_alien Last edited by Intrepid Homoludens; 02-23-2004 at 08:03 PM..

02-24-2004, 02:53 AM	#6
Cellardoor Senior Member Last Online: 11-26-2012 01:43 AM Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 413	Here's my take on the 'online adventuring' idea; When creating an online multiplayer world, (such as Uru) it seems a bad idea to me to just dump every single player in that world. Instead, it should be more like FPS games played on a network. A group of say four friends get together to play the game, they know each other, and they're only playing against themselves, outsiders can't join. For this to work in an adventure game, I believe every player character should be different, much like a Quest for Glory game, where players can choose to play as a fighter, a magic user, and a thief. While most of the game is identical for every different character, each game has a couple of puzzles only one kind of character can solve, an area to visit, a character to meet, etc. Now imagine most of the game would consist of these 'unique' puzzles. Basically, each character would be playing a game of their own, but they all play in the same world, can meat each other, etc. Now, this is important; The PCs need to be able to influence the game world. To continue the comparison with QFG, let's say the fighter character competes with an NPC fighter in the Adventurers Guild, which results in the NPC fighter getting kicked out of the guild. This NPC then will seek contact with the Thieves' Guild to hire an assasin to get rid of the PC fighter. The PC thief would ofcourse learn of this, and might inform his friend of this. Or, alternatively, he could choose to take the job of assasinating the PC fighter himself... Anyway; this is but a simple example, but I believe it has potential. Perhaps it could even be possible for one of the friends to act as a 'game master', (much like the online Neverwinter Nights modules) and thus controlling the story and NPCs himself. __________________ ...life under Calico Skies...

02-23-2004, 06:29 PM	#2
mag Senior Member Last Online: 03-29-2010 06:22 PM Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 1,913	I like it. Something positive. I know that I can criticize adventure games quite a bit for what they lack, but I do try to come up with ways that they can be improved as well. My concern is first and foremost with writing stories that are actually interesting enough for people to want to play through, but what counts as a good story is kind of broad and has already been argued about for the past 5,000 years or so. So intead I'm going to focus on gameplay, where I actually have some more specific ideas (some of which I think I've mentioned before). First of all, I'd like to see a multiplayer adventure game. A big part of video games is the sense of community that it forms. Multiplayer was a huge step in the right direction. Yet there really haven't been any multiplayer adventures. I can understand it's difficult, but I think it can be done. For instance, you could have cooperative gameplay where several players have to work together to solve a puzzle. That could be a lot more fun than trying to figure out a puzzle on your own. Uru kind of tried this but fell on its face. And I'm still waiting for the LucasArts Hoedown. I was going to post some more, but the words are starting to move. So I think I'll save the rest for another time. mag

02-24-2004, 01:34 PM	#8
Ariel Type LA-S-LE Last Online: 02-19-2010 04:55 PM Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Snow Country Posts: 549	3D. The future of adventures lies in full 3D and in proper use of it. Which is still a dream, as a shame.

02-24-2004, 02:31 PM	#10
Erkki Umbilicus Mundi Last Online: 09-11-2010 08:53 AM Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Stonia Posts: 1,266	Let's stop here and not turn this to an argument about 3D pretty please... Besides, 'brainstorming' insists that ideas must not be critisised. Sorry, don't have any ideas to post at the moment. There are thousands of possibilities... __________________

02-24-2004, 02:58 PM	#11
Erkki Umbilicus Mundi Last Online: 09-11-2010 08:53 AM Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Stonia Posts: 1,266	Well, I just thought of a weird idea a few weeks ago that could work as an adventure game (it's sci-fi though ). It's the Earth, a few hundred years in the future, or a completely different planet inhabited by a different race. There are two continents inhabited by people. On one continent live the "rulers" who are all humongous (really fat) -- they can't even get out of bed. This has been the case for many generations and they have based their architecture on that fact. Every person has a room where (s)he lives all his/her life, never stepping outside. But he can go anywhere while being in the room. Every building is a silinder, rooms can move up and down along a central pillar like an elevator and rotate around it. Underground tunnels form a complicated network to connect the buildings, allowing the standard-shaped rooms to travel to any building on the continent. All the buildings offer certain services to the people, that's why the need to travel at all. The fat population is being served by robots and some thin slaves from the other continent. All the food / fuel / other resources are produced on the other continent, where most of the slaves work under the rule of robots. (etc. I think I won't go into more detail about that or it would make this post too long) Now the game. You are one of those fat people, trapped in bed, not able to move your body. But you are able to use a computer, move your room around and interact with whatever sector-floor-building you are in. I haven't thought of a plot yet, but the goal might be to break free of your confinement and maybe to overthrow the system. __________________

02-24-2004, 08:46 PM	#13
Intrepid Homoludens merely human Last Online: 05-17-2012 02:26 AM Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 22,309	This thread should be free of any kind of debate, really. It's all about dreams and ideas and 'what-ifs', and even building on another person's ideas to see what happens. On this note, I might as well post and elaborate a bit on what I stated in the 'Too much Sci-Fi?' thread: Ridicule Although I haven't played it myself ... I'd love a remake of Versailles 1685, or a new game based on it and Patrice Leconte's Ridicule (1996), that uses a top notch 3D graphics engine (Unreal, LithTech Jupiter, etc.) as well as a robust A.I. to recreate a jawdroping 17th century French court in real time 3D - imagine walking amongst lavishly dressed courtiers and using their gossips, your status, and the king's favours to accomplish your mission. It would function far more organically that the original game precisely because of the A.I., which makes the gameplay less predictable, and the real time setup that allows you to explore the 17th centure palace and grounds as if you really were there. ...your main 'inventory' would consist of language, wit, and historically and socially correct gestures of etiquette and body language that you must remember to use in the right situations. For example, if you forget to bow to a countess you'll upset her and she'll remember that; later on in the game you may discover that she has vital information pertaining to a possible scandal, information you must have. But now that you're on her ignore list it'll be much harder to get her to talk and divulge to you. Every single thing you do is under scrutiny in the king's court - the game's Artificial Intelligence at work. __________________ platform: laptop, iPhone 3Gs \| gaming: x360, PS3, psp, iPhone, wii \| blog: a space alien \| book: the moral landscape: how science can determine human values by sam harris \| games: l.a.noire, portal 2, brink, dragon age 2, heavy rain \| sites: NPR, skeptoid, gaygamer \| music: ray lamontagne, adele, washed out, james blake \| twitter: a_space_alien

02-24-2004, 08:54 PM	#14
Zygomaticus Liver of Life Last Online: 02-28-2011 10:31 PM Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 1,317	Uh-oh! The French have gotten Intrepid! They've turned him into a propaganda machine!

02-24-2004, 08:57 PM	#15
Intrepid Homoludens merely human Last Online: 05-17-2012 02:26 AM Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 22,309	Ceci n'est pas une bib. __________________ platform: laptop, iPhone 3Gs \| gaming: x360, PS3, psp, iPhone, wii \| blog: a space alien \| book: the moral landscape: how science can determine human values by sam harris \| games: l.a.noire, portal 2, brink, dragon age 2, heavy rain \| sites: NPR, skeptoid, gaygamer \| music: ray lamontagne, adele, washed out, james blake \| twitter: a_space_alien

02-24-2004, 10:32 PM	#16
Skinny Minnie I'm really Cookin' Last Online: 03-14-2006 04:43 PM Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: New England, USA Posts: 269	Trep, I just wanted to say that this is the best thread on adventure games that I've seen in some time. Even if it had been signed "Anonymous Poster," I would have known it was by you from a mile away. I've stayed out of the thread mainly because I am only a few weeks from my due date with Liam now, he has dropped down low onto my pelvic bone in preparation for birth, and my brain is just totally fried. Sorry.

02-25-2004, 04:15 PM	#17
Intrepid Homoludens merely human Last Online: 05-17-2012 02:26 AM Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 22,309	Well, I figured in the aftermath of Stinger's white hot scandalous thread I'd throw in something more inspirational. Personally I'm all for an interrelatedl balance between story and puzzle, with the story as incentive for solving the puzzles. But this thread isn't about that, so.... Take it easy, you and Liam both, eh? LOL, how about an adventure game with a pregnant woman as the main character :eek: Hell, they already made at least a couple of movies that way (Rosemary's Baby and Fargo). __________________ platform: laptop, iPhone 3Gs \| gaming: x360, PS3, psp, iPhone, wii \| blog: a space alien \| book: the moral landscape: how science can determine human values by sam harris \| games: l.a.noire, portal 2, brink, dragon age 2, heavy rain \| sites: NPR, skeptoid, gaygamer \| music: ray lamontagne, adele, washed out, james blake \| twitter: a_space_alien

02-25-2004, 04:58 PM	#18
Skinny Minnie I'm really Cookin' Last Online: 03-14-2006 04:43 PM Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: New England, USA Posts: 269	Well, if GK4 ever came to be, we'd find out if Gracie fit that bill, huh? Jeez, no wonder I chose her pic for my avatar last year-- I was drawn to it by fate! Note to self: Right after delivering Liam, I must permanently change that stinking avatar.

02-25-2004, 06:29 PM	#19
djsouza Consulting Detective Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Brazil Posts: 30	I would like to see an interface that allows more interaction in the game world. In old IF games, you were allowed to try lots of different and unusual commands. Remember what you could type on Larry1? Lots of different and funny answers were available at every failed attempt by the player. After the point and click, the interface got quite simple in both a good way (more confortable and intuitive to use) and a bad way (less commands and actions to choose). I believe that using some interface like the Scumm from, say, Monkey Island 3, it is possible to allow the player to have more actions to perform. But instead of limited actions to just 3 or 4, with general commands like "LOOK", "USE", "PICK UP", I would like to see different commands for each object on the screen. Like, when clicking on a door, the verb "KNOCK" should appear. Or if the door was locked, there should be an action that allowed the player to break the door down. Also, by using this interface, I think the new adventures should allow the gamer to have more ways of trying to solve a problem, more alternative solutions to puzzles. And it could also have more alternative WRONG solutions to puzzles, making some fun of the gamer when he tries the simpler approach, a la Larry1. That way, we dont get just the general response "That doesnt work". I want to hear the game making fun at the gamer when attempting foolish solutions, like: "What were you thinking, are you crazy or something?". I want more interaction in the game enviroment, which means more ways to try to solve a puzzle AND more ways to screw everything up (but no dead-ends). __________________ ELEMENTARY!!!

02-25-2004, 08:25 PM	#20
Bastich Iconoclast Last Online: 04-20-2014 08:51 PM Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: USA Posts: 1,169	[lurk mode off] I had to break my temporary, self-imposed ban on posting here to comment on this topic... I always thought it would be very educational and interesting to make an AG in which the characters you play are all disabled. I think it would very good for people to see how things are from the perspective of such people and the daily difficulties they face. I mean, what is an ordinary action for most people, is a daily puzzle for someone with a disability. I think it would very healthy for people to have to think through the same types of situations they encounter, not to mention that the puzzles would be much more interesting and creative than those we normally see because of the physical limitations. It might also engender some compassion for their plight. I have actually thought about making my own game along these lines, but I just don't have the time to do anything like that right now. I have other obsessions dominating my life... Anyway, probably a stupid idea. I'll just shut up now. [lurk mode on]