Adventure games
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Kelso's Quest: potential magic, serious flaws
Kelso's Quest, which is free in the app store for iPhone and iPad users on iOS 5.0 or higher, is an adorable game about a Koala (Kelso), who is on the very disney-esque mission to recover his stolen cub, Nico. Kelso is assisted along the way by weird wombats, some of whom seem to be ninjas, some scientists, etc., who show up and do what they can to help out hero on his way. The game is played from above, in standard the "map game" aesthetic, with missions along as set, linear path, around a map/landscape. The maps, like everything in this game, is slick and gorgeous. There are occasional breaks in the action for word-bubble dialogue between Kelso and other characters. Once inside the missions, your view is still from above, but instead of linear paths, you can take Kelso anywhere you wish to go by drawing the path you want him to travel with your finger. When you do so, it shows a dotted line, similar to a treasure map, which is a really nice touch. Missions are typically passed by collecting various feathers. On the way through this down-under adventure, Kelso encounters many enemies, including totem poles that fire poison blow-darts (one hit will kill you), predatory vultures above head, weird lizards that sleep most of the time (but wake up and try to kill you), among other weird, slightly psychedelic, but lovable foes. In-between missions, the game even gives you fun facts about the real-life versions of the creatures in the game, largely focusing on Koalas and Wombats. The game starts you with five lives and you accumulate gold pieces for completed missions, side games, etc. Then the trouble comes in. It costs gold to immediately continue this game. If you inevitably run out of gold and lives, your options are pretty lame. You can either spend actual money on more imaginary gold, you can sign up for mailing lists and give personal information to advertisers in exchange for more imaginary gold, or (worst of all) you can take the free route: they make you wait long periods of time to continue with 1 new life. The first time you go this way, the game forces you to wait 10min to resume play, the next time 15min, and (if you're like me) your patience will be gone at that point. So, if you want to play a really well animated game with a well planned storyline and fun controls, Kelso's Quest is definitely the game for you, assuming you don't want to be thrown into the jaws of advertisers or forced to wait half an hour before continuing to enjoy it. A lot about this game could be excellent, but I cannot recommend it, unfortunately.
Tim Schafer revisits Day of the Tentacle
Development studio Double Fine made a lot of money back in 2012 when it ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund a traditional point-and-click adventure game which would go on to be called Broken Age - but then, you already knew that, right? What you may not have known is that, as part of that Kickstarter campaign, 2 Player Productions filmed a documentary focused on the company and legendary adventure game designer, Tim Schafer. On Friday, the company made part of that documentary free and public on YouTube. The footage in question follows Schafer as he revisits one of his classic games: Day of the Tentacle. If you've ever wanted to hear it straight from the creator's mouth as to why this game starred an anthropomorphic tentacle, buckle in for this 40-minute trip down Nostalgia Avenue. There's plenty of other information and interesting soundbites to enjoy as Schafer plays through the game. For instance, did you know that Schafer once acted as a tip line for the son of famed film director and producer, Steven Spielberg? "When most people need a hint they call the hint line, when Steven Spielberg needs a hint he calls Lucas directly and - 'I wanna talk to the guy who made this game!'" Schafer says in the video. As Schafer recalled, Spielberg's son Max needed help getting through a particular portion of the game, so Schafer instructed him how to beat the troublesome puzzles over the phone. "He said thanks and that was my brush with greatness from this game, was giving a hint to Max." [Image: Double Fine]
Dreamfall Chapters gameplay video shows social side of adventure game
Red Thread Games have released a gameplay demonstration video of Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey, their Kickstarter-funded entry in the Longest Journey series. The video showcases almost 30 minutes of pre-alpha gameplay, complete with developer commentary. The game's dialogue system works a bit differently than most adventure games; before making a choice, a player will hear the thoughts of the character they are playing. This could help inform decisions or reveal more about a character. Creative Director Ragnar Tornquist states in the video that the feature will be of particular benefit to players who haven't played the previous two games in the series, since they'll be able to understand situations that would otherwise be confusing. When given a choice between mercy killing a prisoner, the team also showed how it was possible to bring up statistics that showed how many people chose each option. "We're giving sort of a social element to the single-player, story-based experience by letting you see what the world has chosen and what your friends have chosen," Tornquist says in the video. Tornquist also points out that while every moment can be shared, they don't have to be; players will have the option to turn off the feature. It won't be a long journey before players can test it out for themselves - Dreamfall Chapters is slated to arrive on PC, Mac and Linux in November of this year, with a Wii U release sometime after.
Chaos Theory: An adventure game is you!
I grew up on adventure games before I even knew they were called "adventure games." One of my earliest memories of a friend's computer was playing Adventure. Following that, I was hooked. Maniac Mansion. King's Quest. Zork. Planetfall. Leisure Suit Larry. Space Quest. The Secret of Monkey Island. Sam and Max Hit the Road. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Myst. Gabriel Knight. Syberia. The Longest Journey. Back to the Future. The Walking Dead. I've never stopped loving the fun of exploring these worlds, "earning" the next page of the story, and finding out all of the bizarre ways I could die. However, at some point in the '90s, games journalists apparently decided that "adventure games were dead." It's something we started hearing a lot of, especially in comparison to all of the fancy new graphics, gameplay features, and fast-paced shooters. Adventure games were seen as a relic of a time when computers couldn't process heavy graphic loads and players were a lot more patient. I never bought into the "adventure games are dead" mindset. I see them coming back like crazy these days, especially on tablets and mobile devices. And lo and behold, Funcom did something that I would have never thought possible: The studio made an MMO out of an adventure game. That's The Secret World, if you weren't following along.
Editorial: Point out the definition of adventure games until it clicks
As the underground cult of indie development surges to the surface and crowdfunding allows vague ideas to transform into products, the scope of gaming bubbles and changes. Games now span spectrums of physical input and emotional amplitude, and our perspectives change with them.Amid this upheaval is an age-old genre that for some reason resists attempts of acceptance in the "hardcore" gaming audience: point-and-click adventures. They're just choose-your-own-adventure stories; they're interactive novels; the choices in them don't matter – all arguments against adventures as true games, while shoot-die-respawn titles play on, unchallenged.Joystiq's own Top 10 of 2012 list includes The Walking Dead, a high-profile and famously intense point-and-click, and my own Best of the Rest has Yesterday, a gritty adventure from Pendulo Studios. Obviously, we consider both of these games to be games. Other players, maybe not so much – so let the argument begin.In order to debate whether adventure games are, in fact, games, we first need a shared definition of the term. Without definition, you could argue that The Walking Dead isn't a game and I could just as passionately espouse why it is, and we could both be correct within the worlds of our own, secret definitions. While mutually assured correctness sounds like a wonderful conclusion, in reality it does nothing to examine the question at hand and leads to huffy frustration, leaving the debate unresolved forever.What we're really arguing is the definition of a "game," rather than any particular sub-genre, which are all just variations of that main theme. This is my definition.
Daily iPad App: Drawn: Trail of Shadows is a simple, beautiful puzzle game
The Drawn series is hard to describe, really -- I've mentioned one of them here before, but I don't know if I quite gave the series a good description. Fortunately, if reading this post doesn't work, I've included a video of me playing the game down below, so you can take a closer look at just what these games are like. The series started up on PC as the domain of Big Fish Games, a company that has released a lot (a lot!) of PC games over the years. But Big Fish is making its way onto iOS (most notably with the great Fairway Solitaire), and the Drawn series is slowly coming along, with Trail of Shadows being the latest release on iOS. At its core, this game is a hidden object title, where you need to poke around a series of still pictures, finding items to use in various adventure-game style puzzles. The title is quite atmospheric and beautifully, well, drawn, and provides a very casual story experience for you to simply relax in and enjoy. These games aren't for everyone -- a gamer used to a little more action might call them boring, and unfortunately, Big Fish hasn't very smoothly ported the game over, so there are some awkward loading screens and the occasional dropped cutscene. But there is definitely a strong mood here, a strong feeling evoked from playing a game like this, and having this around on your iPad can make for a very intriguing afternoon of gameplay. Drawn: Trail of Shadows is available as a free trial right now, and you can pay US$4.99 in the game if you want to play through the whole thing. It's definitely worth a look -- there are certainly games of this hidden object ilk that are indeed a waste of your time, but Drawn is one that's won me over a few times already.
Hands-on with The Secret World's mission system
So The Secret World's mission system treads well off the beaten MMO path. It's pretty cool, actually, though portions of it may irritate quest-grinders who just want to blow through zones on their way to the game's equivalent of a max-level toon. For the rest of us, there's a nifty interface, some challenging puzzles, and plenty of well-written quest text and dialogue to keep us entertained for weeks at a time.
Gabriel Knight writer Jane Jensen opens new studio Pinkerton Road
It's a good time to be a classic adventure game fan, in case you hadn't noticed. Between Double Fine's recent success story and this week's announcement of a brand new adventure studio from Gabriel Knight writer Jane Jensen, the next few years are gonna be rife with pun-laden puzzles.Jensen's new studio, Pinkerton Road, is being co-opened with composer Robert Holmes (also of Gabriel Knight fame) and will focus on "third-person adventure games for PC and tablet with rich stories, gorgeous art, and seamlessly fun play." Rather than following the traditional developer model of seeking funding via publishers, Pinkerton Road will be using a model based on community supported agriculture. Yes, really.Jensen's calling it "Community Supported Gaming," and says fans will essentially pay for year-long seasons of access to the studio's games (a la CSAs). A smattering of ideas are already in the works for the studio's first year, and Kickstarter is facilitating the funding. If you'd like to support the project, there are still 42 days to go on the funding goal.
Adventure game portal Sarien back with Activision's approval
In a lengthy post on the personal blog of Martin Kool, proprietor of the recently cease-and-desisted Sierra adventure game portal Sarien.net, the lengthy history of the site's development was recounted. We assumed said history would end with the site's closure earlier this week -- but luckily, it looks like a new chapter is set to unfold, as Activision has given Sarien approval to continue running, albeit in a limited fashion. Kool explained, "Activision proposed to officially authorize Sarien.net to publish the first game of any series in its multiplayer HTML5 form." The portal will include a link from each of these free-to-play first chapters to the series' full collections on Steam. The publisher also demanded that the iPad versions of the titles be removed, on the off chance that they ever decide to drop their own adventure game Apps. Seems like a pretty reasonable response from Activision -- especially when compared to most publishers' policy of "Hey, that's ours, cut that out right away, young man."
Unauthorized Sierra adventure games portal Sarien.net ceases upon Activision order
Sarien.net, "the portal that once stood for reliving classic Sierra On-Line adventure games" (for free), has been shut down following a cease-and-desist order issued by IP owner Activision. The site's creator, Mr. Kool (real name!), has posted the letter from Activision's legal counsel on the Sarien homepage. "While we appreciate your dedication to the Sierra classic library and understand that you are a fan of these games, Activision has not authorized the development or distribution of these games via your Website," the order reads. "Accordingly, we must demand that you immediately cease any further distribution or exploitation of the Sierra Games on your Website." Kool launched Sarien way back in April 2009, but it seemingly took this month's implementation of iPhone and iPad browser support (for all of the site's AGI-powered games) for Activision to take notice. "Wait till you see my new World of Warcraft in javascript," Kool quipped in a tweet. "Oh wait, that's Activision too..." [Thanks, Ryan; image source: MobyGames]
Hideo Kojima linked to adventure game project
In a recent interview with Japanese gaming news site 4Gamer (as translated by Andriasang), Chiyomaru Shikura, the CEO of music publisher 5pb, revealed his upcoming foray into the world of interactive electronic games. When asked about his upcoming projects, Shikura explained that one title will carry quite a bit of clout -- specifically, the one on which he's collaborating with "Konami's Hideo Kojima." "Kojima said that he wanted to make an adventure game," Shikura explained, adding, "we're still at the level of 'let's lock ourselves away in the mountains somewhere and work on the plot,' so the specifics haven't been finalized." If this project comes together, we're really hoping to see some classic-style, point-and-click adventure game puzzles -- just imagine what positively insane item combinations Kojima could think up.
L.A. Noire isn't your 'average adventure game'
We don't yet know precisely what to make of Rockstar's upcoming L.A. Noire (not that that's necessarily a bad thing), but after poring over a new Edge piece on the game, we think we may be getting a clearer picture. "With traditional adventure games, everything is based on what the designer wants you to figure out," Jeronimo Barrera, VP of product development at Rockstar, told the publication. "We've kind of gone for a different approach, which is more like real-world detective work." Developer Team Bondi isn't coming right out and putting it this way, but L.A. Noire sounds like a new genre, caught halfway between the open-world action of a Grand Theft Auto and the brainteaser pacing of a classic adventure game. Could we be witnessing the birth of the true "detective" game? Figure that one out.
Real Myst added to GoG.com lineup
Cyan Worlds' late-2000 remastered version of the classic adventure game, Myst, is now available for DRM-free purchase on Good Old Games. Real Myst takes the classic graphic adventure title and refines it with free-roaming and real-time 3D graphics, replacing the original's pre-rendered stills. According to GoG, this is the Myst designers Robyn and Rand Miller originally wanted to make. So, like George Lucas before it, Cyan Worlds reworks the original to take advantage of modern technology -- but with the added benefit of not ruining our childhoods in the process. The title is a steal at $5.99 and recommended for any adventure game junkie.
Gentlemen, please note that Time Gentlemen, Please is now half-off
The adventure game genre has begun to rally back into the hearts and minds of all gamerkind, largely on the backs of re-released LucasArts classics and high-minded, hand-drawn indie darlings. But let us not forget about the role played by Zombie Cow's Ben There, Dan That and its successor, Time Gentlemen, Please -- both of which reminded us that adventure games, above all else, should be irreverent and, when that fails, should be just plain incoherent. If you skipped out on the latter game due to that completely prohibitive £2.99 (about $5) price tag, you've got a chance to redeem yourself. Speaking to Eurogamer, a Zombie Cow representative confirmed that the price of Time Gentlemen, Please has been cut down to £1.49 (call it $2.50) in an effort to make the wait for Modern Warfare 2 a bit more bearable. "So it's a humanitarian thing, really," the spokesperson explained. Just visit Zombie Cow's site, enter in the code: MW2AAAAGES, and watch the price tumble.
Telltale's next franchise announcements 'around October,' not necessarily comedies
Known for perfecting the episodic release, Telltale Games says it's stepping into "new genres." CEO Dan Connors told VG247 as much in a recent phone interview, and the idea for this move is coming from a somewhat expected place -- television shows like The Sopranos, Lost and True Blood. "We've already evolved the genre in a lot of ways ... but we believe there's a lot of head-room to make more dramatic advances in storytelling and drama inside of this genre [adventure games]." Considering the company's past work with franchises like CSI though, you could say this tale has already been told. (YEEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!)Though Telltale will be at PAX alongside us and everyone we know, don't expect any announcements just yet. Connors says the soonest we'll be hearing about anything is "around October," so, ya know, get comfy.
LucasArts wants to re-release classic adventure games (if you want to buy them)
If the words Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango and Full Throttle bring pangs of joy to your heart of hearts, you'll want to hear this -- several LucasArts higher-ups have stated the desire to bring more of their catalog of classic adventure titles back to life, provided that people show interest in purchasing them. For starters, you could drop a few bucks on the upcoming XBLA and PC remake of The Secret of Monkey Island as a good faith offering. This sentiment was mentioned to Australian news outlet WAToday by LucasArts community manager Brooks Brown, who said, "if this sells, there's no one at this company who doesn't want to do these games." One fan of the company's beloved point-and-clickers is LucasArts CEO Darrell Rodriguez, who spoke with Joystiq on the possibility of more classic revamps just before E3, and explained that he "couldn't do anything but release more of these titles" if sales for Monkey Island and desire from the gaming populous were strong. Long story short, if you don't buy Monkey Island, and they don't re-release Grim Fandango because of your non-purchase, we're going to find you and punch you repeatedly in your most delicate places. %Gallery-64659%
See screens, video from canceled 3D Space Quest *platformer*
He's defeated Sariens, foiled Sludge Vohaul and even uncovered a sinister plot by ScumSoft. Still, after all of that, little has been heard from mop-wielding hero Roger Wilco, star of Sierra's venerable Space Quest series, in well over a decade. And judging by images and a video posted by game designer Brett Johnson of a canceled seventh game in the franchise, it's a good thing.The long-rumored sequel looked to sweep its PC roots under the rug, trading pointing and clicking for running and jumping as a 3D platformer for the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox. In fact, the game, which was being helmed by developer Escape Factory, bore little resemblance at all to the Space Quest that series fans had grown to love. Still, it's somewhat interesting to look at the Space Quest game that might have been, but like the Labion Terror Beast, it's best appreciated from a distance.[Via superannuation]
Classic LucasArts artwork turned into movie posters
All too often when mixing genres, the results – like that Mountain Dew left over from last night – fall flat. However, one enterprising forum-goer has has defied convention (and warmed our hearts), successfully marrying classic LucasArts adventure games with our wall's longstanding desire to be covered in nostalgia. The results consist of several beautiful posters, most based on original artwork lifted from an era when LucasArts wasn't afraid to point and click, including Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman masterpieces, The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle. Designed to be printed and hung, we can't think of a better way to hide that unsightly crack above your bed.
Ankh and Luminator coming to British DS
Xider Interactive, who we previously reported as not actually bringing Sam & Max to the DS, have announced their real DS releases for the UK. The titles, which are probably familiar to German PC gamers but definitely not familiar to us, are: Luminator DS (May) Ankh 1 (August) Ankh appears to be the first in a series of Egyptian-themed adventure games-- and there's no part of that description we don't like. Luminator (PC version shown above), from what we can tell, is ... let's say a faithful tribute to Lumines.We don't know if either of these games will be headed to the US. Have any of our European friends played either of these? We need to know about the quality of Ankh before we get too excited about OMG ADVENTURE GAME.[Via Cubed3]
Jane Jensen to unveil next adventure game in Leipzig
It's certainly taken her long enough. Indeed, one can only assume that after writing and completing the excellent Gabriel Knight trilogy of adventure games for Sierra, Jane Jensen was somehow imprisoned in a small room with naught but a couple of random objects at her disposal. After combining every single item with every other one in her possession, she must have finally attained to freedom by combining the giraffe-shaped balloon with the priceless fabergé egg.Since her dramatic escape, Jensen has been hard at work on Gray Matter, a new adventure set to debut at the Leipzig Games Convention later this month. Published by dtp entertainment (they're staunchly opposed to capital-ism, it seems), not much is known about the game aside from a fourth quarter 2007 release. Carsten Fichtelmann, marketing director of dtp, seems pretty confident that Jensen, "a real star of the adventure gaming scene," will be a great asset to the team. "We are very happy to be working with her on her new project, Gray Matter, bringing the adventure gaming genre forward once again."Many would argue that bringing the adventure genre forward would result in it bumping its head against a sealed coffin lid. A great article on Old Man Murray once suggested that the genre had committed suicide, largely motivated by the kind of puzzles found in Jenson's own Gabriel Knight 3. In one infamous puzzle, the protagonist had to create a disguise using a ridiculous combination of masking tape, maple syrup and a cat. In other words, a contrived act of following "daredevil of logic Jane Jensen as she pilots Gabriel Knight 3 right over common sense, like Evel Knievel jumping Snake River Canyon." She's undoubtedly a superb storyteller, but let's hope that she utilizes her own gray matter more effectively when it comes to puzzles this time around.
