[MoriartyL]

All this bickering over whether or not Jelena might enjoy these games herself gives me an idea. It's sort of an extension of the concept of Loom, where musical notes are used for basic tasks which normally would be simple button presses. In this case, you've got separate melodies for "Take" and "Look at" and "Talk to" and then in each conversation it shows not dialogue trees but trees of scrolling musical notation where if you play one of them the conversation moves forward in the direction of the tone of the music. Still follow? Anyway, this whole game would be played with an electronic keyboard, so naturally not one of you would be able to play it, much less have fun with it. But I'd have a blast. Who says innovation has to be for everyone?

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

That's pefectly reasonable, but even if you wouldn't want to play those games yourself, you have to allow for possibility that some people would.

Of course. This thread isn't about any specific person, right. Still I'd like to give my view on it just like the rest of you. I'm not against innovative ideas at all. Realistic stories like described by Steve Ince is just one innovative idea which I commented on.

[samIamsad]

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

Except it's not an adventure.

No offense, Mory: I stopped reading right there.

[MoriartyL]

Originally Posted by samIamsad

No offense, Mory: I stopped reading right there.

Hey, it's not a value judgement! I just don't think a program in which nothing whatsoever is prescripted would feel anything like an adventure. More like a "daydream generator".

I've always wondered about a game that was about talking to somebody on the other end of a radio. You can hear whats going on and hear them talking and then you try and help somehow or something. No graphics, just a headset.

[After a brisk nap]

If you're sick of adventure games where you're always trying to save the world... I think you're playing the wrong adventures. For a game with an everyday objective, done in a humoristic style, how about No-Action Jackson? (Jackson, a geeky kid, tries to get his friends to come over to play an RPG with him.)

Something innovative: It would be interesting to do an adventure where your character is confined to his room (maybe in a hospital, maybe just suffering from agoraphobia), and his adventure mainly involves talking to people on the phone and doing research over the Internet.

I'm also curious about the potential of RTS/adventure game hybrids, where you would play as an officer in the military, and intersperse battles with interaction with your fellow officers, to gradually uncover the story and its secrets.

[MoriartyL]

RTS+Adventure... Strange combination. I wonder how well the two would fit together. But then, you never know until you play it. So, could be fun.

[Kurufinwe]

Dune sort of did that.

[Scoville]

Originally Posted by bitwise xor

I've always wondered about a game that was about talking to somebody on the other end of a radio. You can hear whats going on and hear them talking and then you try and help somehow or something. No graphics, just a headset.

That's a great idea, and it could be implemented very easily as a text adventure (although it would need a very good parser).

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Ridicule

Although I haven't played it myself ... I'd love a remake of Versailles 1685, or a new game based on it and Patrice Leconte's Ridicule (1996), that uses a top notch 3D graphics engine (Unreal, LithTech Jupiter, Source, etc.) as well as a robust A.I. to recreate a jawdroping 17th century French court in real time 3D - imagine walking amongst lavishly dressed courtiers and using their gossips, your status, and the king's favours to accomplish your mission. It would function far more organically that the original game precisely because of the A.I., which makes the gameplay less predictable, and the real time setup that allows you to explore the 17th centure palace and grounds as if you really were there.

...your main 'inventory' would consist of language, wit, and historically and socially correct gestures of etiquette and body language that you must remember to use in the right situations. For example, if you forget to bow to a countess you'll upset her and she'll remember that; later on in the game you may discover that she has vital information pertaining to a possible scandal, information you must have. But now that you're on her ignore list it'll be much harder to get her to talk and divulge to you. Every single thing you do is under scrutiny in the king's court - the game's Artificial Intelligence at work.

[Stroggy]

That sounds like a marvelous idea!

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

that uses a top notch 3D graphics engine ... LithTech Jupiter

Now that's irony .

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Not really, you sheltered git. I simply copied and pasted my original post made 3 years ago in this thread because I seriously doubt Mory or anyone else here will go back and read that thread.

[insane_cobra]

So that explains it! I was sure someone had already suggested a Versailles 1685 remake once, but I thought it was one of the ladies.

Close enough. *runs*

[Intrepid Homoludens]

[MoriartyL]

Another idea for artsy exploration (without puzzles): A world design made out of DOS-style directory trees. The different directories change the layout of the screen and color schemes, and some have simple illustrations, so the player can tell at a glance exactly where he is. And the more he explores in these directories (no avatar), the better his mental image of the area will be. The purpose of the creation is to make it feel like a home, but without any of the physical things we'd find in a literal home. Make it feel like the sort of place the player could be comfortable in, with little nooks to sit in (where the illustration is animated so that he feels more comfortable, as opposed to bored, sitting there), a forest outside the main directory (made up of a tremendous amount of trees, most looking fairly identical) to wander around in, etc. Some of this should only be navigable through extremely simple mini-games (drag the folder to another spot on the screen and then quickly double-click on something), to make some of it a bit more interesting (you wouldn't want climbing trees to be as easy as walking around). Inside the main folder, there are a few little mini-games, and files can be moved around inside their folders to make more room for those mini-games. Some of the folders can be painted different colors. And there are subdirectories representing practical things like access to (in-game) shopping, a trash bin, all sorts of technical computer mumbo-jumbo which supposedly is holding the "house" up (but can be played around with), etc.

[MoriartyL]

Obviously, that's just a starting point. Then there would need to be a hostile environment outside for contrast. Then the "home" section will feel like a peaceful refuge. That hostile area would take a while to reach (through the forest), and when I say "hostile" I mean that very little has a clear purpose and it is easy to get lost. There would be people (represented abstractly, of course) wandering around from folder to folder.

I guess the harder part is actually making it feel like a home. I figure there would need to be some small goal in playing (though I'm not sure what) just so that you can experience the practicality of the place for yourself. It would have to be a fairly abstract goal so as to fit the style; I'm not sure how that would work exactly. And I think it would be a bit more inviting if every so often people dropped by to play minigames. There would need to be a lot of hidden shortcuts and rooms in the house so that the player can claim ownership over it.

[MoriartyL]

You know, I think there would have to be some puzzles, serving as that "abstract goal" I was talking about. When you first start playing, very little should actually work. There are instruction manuals hidden under the mess of files and folders (which should be found) which explain how to use the various pieces of software in the System area. Then you play around with those settings, connecting "wires" to "machine" files and things like that, to get the various objects in the house to work. Then it's also a puzzle to figure out how to use them, so that you can claim ownership of the different things inside the house. By the time you get things working and figure out how to use them, you'd feel a strong attachment to the house and everything in it already.

[insane_cobra]

All this talk of directory trees reminded me of this.

I'd like to play a first contact game, but done in a serious, hard SF manner.

[kuze]

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

When you first start playing, very little should actually work. There are instruction manuals hidden under the mess of files and folders (which should be found) which explain how to use the various pieces of software in the System area. Then you play around with those settings, connecting "wires" to "machine" files and things like that, to get the various objects in the house to work. Then it's also a puzzle to figure out how to use them, so that you can claim ownership of the different things inside the house. By the time you get things working and figure out how to use them, you'd feel a strong attachment to the house and everything in it already.

You know, this game has been around for quite some time. It's called UNIX/POSIX.