[ozzie]

Since most questions are focused on the graphics side, I guess that's where your main task is. I'm not sure if you should only look at adventures for inspiration then, or even just games. But anyway, I'll answer your questions!

What is your favourite point and click adventure game? Why?

Tough call. I can't go with just one, it will take three.

1) Death Gate
A fantasy adventure by Legend Entertainment. Every puzzles is logical, of reasonable difficulty and plain fun to solve. It's in first perspective, which eliminates the waiting for your character to walk to a specific destination. On the other hand, you still control a character that has its own personality, or at least voice. The graphics are in pretty, colourful, if static SVGA, the story can be predictable at times, but there are still some surprises. The characters are fun too. Overall, it's just a simple, heart warming fantasy tale.

2) Edna bricht aus

Sadly so far only released in German and Russian, Edna bricht aus is about the titled protagonist Edna who lives inside a mental asylum, but wants to break out. While everyone calls her crazy, she thinks she's perfectly fine in the head, and her talking stuffed bunny Harvey agrees. The speciality of this game is that nearly every interaction evokes a unique reply. You'll never hear "I can't do that" or "That doesn't work", instead Edna and Harvey will say something relevant or at least funny.
While the game begins light-hearted, the ending is unexpectedly serious, but I think this turn fits well.

3) Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

My favorite LucasArts adventure. What I like the most are its many alternative solutions for problems. The three paths feature makes the game even more replayable: the whole middle section of the game can be entirely different depending on your choice, though the Fists path isn't as good as the other ones. It's the first Indy game that's true to the movies in terms of the character and tone. It offers logical puzzles and a great story on the same level as the original movies. If there's one other aspect that I disliked about it then it's the car chase in Monte Carlo, but really, otherwise it's nigh perfect.

Which game do you think has the most appealing artwork? Why?

Hm, I never think about adventures in terms of graphics, but let's see...I think I really like the graphics of Day of the Tentacle. While they look dated today with pixels the size of your finger nails, they still look incredibly good, just because the style held up. It evokes the sense that you're playing a Saturday Morning Cartoon and I'm sure that's what they were going for.
There's lots of beauty to be found in these old adventures. The graphics of King's Quest V are just gorgeous, they're so detailed and atmospheric. The character sprites don't hold up so well compared to the backgrounds, though. The already mentioned Death Gate has also very beautiful graphics. Oh and I love the painted landscapes of Höhlenwelt Saga, a German adventure. The atmosphere they evoke....the graphics tell a story by themselves, actually a much better one than the game does. Too bad the writing is so terrible and the humor falls so flat. Again, the sprites don't mesh so well with the backgrounds, which seems to happen a lot with detailed graphics. A few examples: 1, 2, 3, 4

I think it's interesting and maybe helpful to look at games that managed to look so beautiful within technical limitations. Nowadays you don't have any limitations, so any graphical inspiration is good I guess.
Anyway, Nikopol is a more recent adventure I'd like to mention.

Which game do you dislike the artwork of the most? Why?

Hm...I played a lot of crap, so I saw a lot of ugly games, too. Some ugly games were ugly because they were limited by technology, especially those bound to the EGA palette, which only offers garish colours. But games that were stylistically ugly...I need to think about it...
...the worst I can remember were boring looking, very boring, very uninspired. Like Midnight Nowhere, Druuna, Legacy: Dark Shadows,...

There are some graphical sins I just can't stand, like the inconsistent use of black outlines (see Hook) or the use of filmed actors on painted backgrounds where it isn't used as a clever effect (like in Toonstruck) and is instead a stylistic mess (like in Synnergist and Noctroplis).

Oh, and Simon 3D.

Are there any point and click adventure games where you get very lost into the world created? Why do you think this happened?

You mean games that immersed me in their world? The best definitely manage to, so I guess I name Indiana Jones 4 and Death Gate again. I should also add Gabriel Knight. What do they have in common? Well, worlds rich of details, interesting characters, encounters and moments, worlds that you want to explore and see what's more to them. Something intangible like the atmosphere is important too, the mood that's created. And the controls shouldn't get in the way of the fun, of course. Nothing breaks more the immersion then the confusion of how to tell your character what he should do. Sadly this happens more often with so-called smart cursors than you might think! I stopped playing Sam & Max: Reality 2.0 because I couldn't try out actions that I thought would be solutions to problems. Parsers that let you guess the word have the same problem. Funny.

Which game do you think had the most impressive scenery/environments?
Why?

Hm...I already mentioned Höhlenwelt Saga, I really like the landscape portraits of it, though it's only a part of the game. Otherwise...Dreamfall can be a beautiful game to look at. I loved the beginning where you could stroll around Casablanca, too bad the game gave you so little to do. Oh, and The Whispered World, of course.

Who is your favourite point and click adventure game character? Why?

Harvey came first to mind. It's the talking stuffed bunny from Edna bricht aus. What makes him so special is that he's basically the mad side of Edna and causing her to do all the destructive, crazy stuff. He's also very protective of Edna, while he doesn't think much of anyone else. And he's just so fun.

Which character do you dislike the most? Why?

Some characters in The Longest Journey were incredibly boring, like the captain Crow belonged to. He talked in such a slow and droning voice, and so much, too. Otherwise, I dunno. I guess I tend to forget the characters I dislike. Joshua from Runaway seems to be disliked a lot, though, but I don't remember him much.

Which character do you think is most "stylish"? Why?

I have no idea.

What are you dying to see in a point and click game? Why?

I prefer to explore three dimensional spaces, so I'd like to see more adventures in 3D, since it immerses me more into the world. The games of Telltale are in 3D, but they still feel 2D to me. I think that's because the games consist of many small scenes, sets that are strung together, but broken up by loading times and the map screen. They could probably be recreated in 2D without a big loss. I don't feel that I'm exploring a continuous world this way. I like the expanse of many RPGs.
I also would like to see the return of an interface that allows more specific interactions with the environment than the dumb "smart cursor" does. That would be most important to me.