Adventure Shop launches
 

In case you haven't looked at the main page today, we just announced our support for Adventure Shop, a new adventure games download portal. (While Adventure Shop is not owned by us, but a company called Lezard Electronic, we have an affiliate agreement with them). If you are curious what Adventure Shop is all about, read the announcement.

The games in the shop can be downloaded from any country at any time. And the other great thing is, you won't have to pay for any shipping costs. Some recent releases like Sherlock Holmes vs. Arsène Lupin, Cleopatra: A Queen's Destiny and Darkness Within are already on it, and there'll be more titles added on a regular basis.

Adventure Shop is actually the ONLY place where you can get Sherlock Holmes vs. Arsène Lupin (the fourth game in the series). This game won't be released until next year in the US and other English speaking territories, but it can already be downloaded from Adventure Shop today!

If you have any questions about the shop or Adventure Gamers' role in promoting it, I'd be happy to answer them.

I have just one question..
Old games like Gabriel Knight and Monkey Island etc.. will they be available for download or are there restrictions and copy rights on games like that?

Good question. :) Adventure Shop has to make a deal with each developer/publisher to put their games on the shop. So in your example, that would depend entirely on whether Vivendi or LucasArts would be interested.

Older classic adventure games are being seriously considered, though they're generally harder to secure than newer titles.

I had a feeling those games wouldn't be available, since we know how Vivendi and Lucas Arts feels about that :)

Just one more thing - although I guess it's probably more a question for Lezard Electronic - but since we have to create an account on the site, why isn't there a Login link?
I know we can get to it by going to "My downloads" - but still :)

I was thinking, a great feature would be a "download-while-you-wait" system. I know its just me being used to boxed retail copies and I'll eventually get over it, but it would be really cool if you could order yourself a boxed copy and download the game while its in transit. A know a few online stores do this. Just a thought. :)

Awesome service though. Adventure games are impossible to find around here. It'll be nice to actually have a consistent place to feed the need.

Hey, this shop looks like a great place!
Now my wife knows where to buy me new games :)
About the boxed version suggested above, it would be nice at least the download to come
with printable cd covers and manual.

And a question of my own, or perhaps a suggestion for the future...

Could this shop act like a portal for adventures games?
I mean it would be nice if it will accept indie adventure games submissions and pay them sales percent, like casual games portals do ( hopefully, higher percents :) )
I suggest this because I see that some adventures games are now featuring on casual games portals ("And then there were none", "Journey to the center of the earth", etc).
(I see there's an indies tab on the site, but I couldn't access it right now, so I don't know what's there, yet).

Thanks!

I am looking at how the Adventure Shop works. I have two questions:

1. Is the serial number used to download or install the game? If I were burn the downloaded game, would I have to worry about exceeding a number of times I could install the game from the CD?

2. Would it be possible for games to come with a LightScribe or CD label image? That way if I were to burn a CD, the game looks like it belongs in my collection (A minor aesthetic issue).

- Edit -

Maybe I should have read xelanoimis post first. He is asking the same question that I am. :-/

It'd be nice, yes, but dealing with physical retail products (warehouses, manufacturing, shipping, etc.) would change the whole nature of the shop, so that's not going to happen.

There are (or should be) PDF manuals available for each game. A printer-friendly version is a good idea, however, as is offering printable covers (I also do that for my games). We'll make sure those ideas get passed along, thanks.

A portal for adventure games is exactly what the shop is. :) Indie adventures won't be overlooked, though the store almost certainly won't carry any and every new indie project.

This is pretty awesome. I'm a big fan of digital distribution, and I can't wait to see the selection increase. It'll be nice to have a reasonably-priced legal way of getting some of these games I've heard a lot about...

I'm curious about this too. I've also never downloaded a full game off the internet, so I'm wondering what are (if any) the legal implications of creating a burnt copy (for yourself) from the downloaded game?
Are you [legally] allowed to do this? That way you get to keep the product you payed for, but don't need to keep it installed and occupying hard drive space until you want to replay it and re-install it.
Would there also be copy protection programs to prevent this?

Well Steam (the biggest digital distribution method there is) allows you to create backups of all your owned games. So I'd assume the same thing would be acceptable with Adventure Shop.

Oh, and the site actually says "Of course, you can always burn a version of your game onto a CD". So you're okay!

A portal for indie developers too, that's great!
I've read about it in the indies tab on the website, now.
(accessed it from home, it works fine - must've been the office firewall)
Now I can start working on my adventure game :)

Just to be clear, yes you can burn your own legal backup copy. It's allowed.

In fact you don't have to worry about burning a copy of the game on a CD or a DVD. The adventure shop will always allow you to download again and again your favorite game if you need to reinstall it on your computer.

One idea about the adventure shop is to provide to any independant adventure game developer the chance to propose their games to the adventure gamers if they can not find a way to make it available in retail. So the message is clear... make games !!!

On the "How It Works" section, is states that I am only allowed 3 downloads before having to contact Customer Support. I would prefer doing that as little as possible.

I am a fan of the security of physically owning a product. That way, if the site should somehow become compromised, I still have my purchased games. Returning to my previous question as to whether the serial number is used in order to download the game or upon installation of the game, how does that feature work?

On that note of paranoia, I am honestly excited that there is a marketplace specifically for adventure games. I cannot wait to start using it as a customer and developer.

You are right, you can download it 3 times, but in fact, if you need more downloads, feel free to ask as the support team will grant you additionnal downloads.

The serial number is used in order to install the game. So you can understand why granting acess to download section is not an issue at all.

You are more than welcome to submit your games, I am sure that the team will support you ;-)

Is there a search function? Are any versions of the games for Mac?

Search function will be implemented shortly.
About versions of the game for mac, we will think about this idea as more and more people are using this platform.

I've been checking the shop several times a day, since you opened.
And I'm pleased to see you even add new games on a saturday :D

A Question:
We all know a great deal of exciting new games are coming soon - late 2007 and start 2008.
To mention a few: Gray Matter, A Vampyre Story... :P
Are you negotiating with the publishers already about adding those games to the site?

Oh and will it be possible to maybe add, if a game is 1st person or 3rd person?
It's not always obvious...

I also noticed you state the game version - it's all cool, but wondering if maybe a link to a patch site would be a good idea.
Many of us already have those games, but not sure if we have the latest patch for them.

We will do our best to bring you the best of new games, and the classics of the genre.

We are working closely with Marek to identify which classics or old titles should be available from the adventure shop.

Feel free to post your ideas.

About patches we will think about it. However all games from the adventure shop will feature the latest updates.