Thinking about it more, I would add Benoit Sokal/White Birds. Sokal brought a unique artistic sensibility to the genre, and emphasized beauty and whimsy in a way that many players found very captivating. Syberia seemed to invigorate the adventure scene, and its popularity among adventure fans pointed out clearly that third person games are not dead. Unfortunately, Sokal's work also demonstrates that a beautiful game can still fail if it's not playable - that poor conceptualization, incoherent or lackluster story, and lack of quality control can sink even a great idea.
So I think Sokal was important both for his successes, and sadly for him, for his failures.
|
