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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.
Best of the Rest: Jess' picks of 2012
Joystiq is revealing its 10 favorite games of 2012 throughout the week. Keep reading for more top selections and every writer's personal, impassioned picks in Best of the Rest roundups. FTL: Faster Than LightI find tremendous pleasure in games that allow me to name my characters, humanize them and create their unique, intricate backstories, for the sole purpose of making me watch those beloved little guys burn to death on a cramped space ship. No game does this better, or more often, than FTL: Faster Than Light.Another alluring aspect of FTL is that it's an indie game that looks indie. The game's strength lies in the incredible interstellar journey the player takes with her crew, and the graphics do everything they can to stay out of the way of these space battles and indiscriminate deaths. It's a mental game, high-energy in synapse rather than the screen – much as I've heard the original X-COM described. And like X-COM, playing FTL isn't just a wonderful experience today, but it promises greater, better things to come from Subset Games.
'Brunchstorming' is Spanish for 'work,' if you're Pendulo Studios
Every Friday, the team at Pendulo Studios gathers in "Sala 2," a conference room covered floor-to-ceiling in posters, cut-outs and screenshots from the games it's created over the past 18 years as one of Spain's first independent game studios. For two hours or so, everyone in Sala 2 discusses ideas for new games, ways to fund ongoing development, fixes for current titles and what games they're playing on their own; they call this process "brunchstorming," and it's a vital part of Pendulo's operations.Last Friday, March 16, Pendulo's brunchstorming meeting also served as a celebration: Yesterday, its seventh graphic-adventure title, had just gone gold, and after working on it for a year, the team took that time to celebrate and reminisce about its development with a handful of questions from Joystiq, all in true Spanish style."Pendulo is not your usual game developer," Josué, Pendulo's writer, said. "Maybe because we're Spanish and we put some fiesta in everything we do, or maybe because we're more than workmates and we've become friends along the years. Or maybe it's because everyone has a say."Around a table piled high with "jamón, chorizo, a Madrid specialty called 'callos,' cheese, chips, empanada gallega (a sort of tuna-and-pepper pie), and something to drink," as Josué described it, the following Pendulo team members sat down to relax and candidly answer our questions about indie living in Spain.%Gallery-151879%
Yesterday review: Hit me baby one more time
Pendulo Studios promised Yesterday would be dark, gritty and just on this side of disturbing, and it most decidedly is. Yesterday introduces friendly characters simply to kill them off and it doesn't shy away from jamming bullets through almost everyone's head. It examines -- in detail -- torture, Satanic rituals and axes to the face, all within a complexly layered storyline about a young(ish) man's quest to find himself.Yesterday tackles heavy subjects such as love, immortality, the Spanish Inquisition, BDSM, poverty and sociopathic homicidal maniacs, all accessible with a point and a click. The art style is lighthearted enough to support Pendulo's trademark comic relief while keeping the story moving forward in a serious way -- seriously fast.
Yesterday's gritty, gutsy style makes us excited for tomorrow
Welcome to the Renaissance.The point-and-click adventure is back and it has nothing to do with Tim Schafer, Double Fine or Kickstarter. This particular revolution is being led by Pendulo Studios' gritty, stylized PC thriller, Yesterday, which marks a departure from the developer's previous title, The Next Big Thing, in a few crucial and exciting ways: Yesterday is not a comedy, though the dialogue retains a brilliant wit. It has nothing to do with the film industry. It involves the psychological analysis of a homeless man who believes his son, who was definitely killed in a tragic subway-tunnel collapse, is still alive.Maybe you have to be just as disturbed as Pendulo's fictional homeless man to really appreciate that last one, but if you are -- boy is it a treat.Pendulo has a solid track record in the point-and-click adventure genre -- they liked it before it was cool, even -- with the Runaway series and The Next Big Thing, but the studio had something to prove when it boldly announced that it was giving up comedy to offer an original, dark thriller with Yesterday. The game retains Pendulo's trademark art style, exaggerated features and colors that appear hand-painted over 3D models, and it is just as appealing as it was in 2003. This time around, however, not just the story is darker, but the palate is as well, with much of what I played taking place in a derelict, abandoned subway channel (I bet you can guess which one).
Latest Yesterday screens offer a peek into the game of tomorrow
Yesterday is living in the past in name alone -- it's actually ahead of us. A recent volley of screens give us a look into what to expect from Pendulo Studios' latest when it launches this March.
New screens for 'Yesterday,' Pendulo's new, darker adventure
Pendulo Studios, known for adventure games like the Runaway series and The Next BIG Thing, has shown a few screens from Yesterday, which reveal that troubles aren't so far away. The latest batch highlights the dark atmosphere, as a trio of playable characters unearth mystical and mysterious murders.
The Next Big Thing dev announces an 'original and dark thriller,' Yesterday
Pendulo Studios, developer of The Next Big Thing, has announced a new comic-book-style adventure game titled Yesterday. Apparently the art is where the similarities to Pendulo's previous titles end: "Pendulo has now given up comedy for once and is offering an original and dark thriller," the game's announcement reads. "This is the starting point of the brand new adventure from Pendulo Studios." Yesterday begins in New York City, where "beggars are disappearing one after another, only to be found burnt alive. Meanwhile, a Y-shaped scar forms in the palm of the hands of seemingly unrelated people." A young heir, Henry White, and his pal Cooper investigate these incidences, while a third man, John Yesterday, is pulled into the story after his memory is erased. We're betting that last guy is pretty important -- call it a hunch. All three characters will be playable, Pendulo promises. Yesterday is slated for release in Q2 2012. %Gallery-138581%
