[Jeysie]

Innovation isn't exactly my strong point, I admit... I'm not good at thinking outside the box. But if you'll settle for just general creativity...

I did have two ideas I've tossed about in my head for adventure games... whether I'd actually ever get around to making them or not, I dunno. (Probably not.)

The first idea was sort of a just-for-fun parody of sorts. The idea being that you find a weird magical book and get sucked into a realm that is basically a giant Training Park for Adventurers. Complete with your very own Rent-a-Sidekick and Neural Narrator. You'd progress through several chapters, each devoted to different adventure game cliches (the maze, the slider/mechanical puzzles, the convoluted fedex quest, the inventory fest, etc. etc.), but with some twisted possible solutions on each, that would reflect the reactions that a real normal person might have to these sorts of cheesy puzzles.

I'd actually thought up something pretty much exactly like Scoville's idea for the game, that I'd dub something suitably cheesy like Puzzle Personality, where your dialogue would dictate what kind of puzzle solutions you could use. Well, I guess it's guaranteed that for every good idea you can have, somebody already thought of it before you did.

My second, more serious idea, involved a game where you played as the AI of an experimental spaceship. You would need to help the crew on their mission (or choose to deter them, depending on how you wanted to react to story input and whatnot)... the idea being that you need to guide the crew indirectly to do what you need them to based on your computerly actions. I'm thinking sort of like PRISM in A Mind Forever Voyaging, only much more interactive.

Finally, while this sort of idea would be useless for a serious commercial adventure, it had occurred to me that most 3rd-person adventures tend to operate a little like glorified webpage image maps, yes? You click on a portion of the screen/page and get a message box or perform an action (or both). It'd require a boatload of JS and XML or somesuch, if it's even feasible, but it seems somehow logically possible on the surface to create a "web browser adventure" that doesn't use Java/Flash/etc. It wouldn't be fancy, but it'd be an interesting experiment.

Anyway, I'm lousy at explaining this sort of stuff... plus none of the ideas were fully fleshed out yet anyway (so I left out a lot of bits), but hopefully that all made some kind of sense.

Peace & Luv, Liz

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Somewhere in this museum resides a clue pointing to
a recent fatal terrorist attack. Your PDA is vital in managing
collected info. Be careful, though, as your agency may be
monitoring your moves.

" I just listened to an NPR audio story about a newly formed "....organization...designed to centralize intelligence from the CIA, FBI and Office of Homeland Security", and I thought, why not an adventure game where you play a new CIA inductee who adventitiously discovers a conspiratorial coverup in the agency that may have had something to do with a recent terrorist sabotage that killed hundreds of lives?

You first choose to be either a male or female agent, and because of your rookie status (you've only been there about a year) you have limited access to places and information within the agency. The game would begin with you making the usual rounds expected of you, but then soon after you stumble on something suspicious - perhaps an email that should have been deleted, a file not for your eyes, or some other clue that something funny is going on. You eventually find out what the beef is and decide to become a whistle blower, the public must be made aware.

The game and story will involve a lot of researching (NOT the boring, standard 'place-bubble-gum-wrapper-on-feather-with-castor-oil' puzzle), computer hacking, stealing key cards, finding locations, disguising yourself to avoid detection, looking for clues in locations beyond headquarters, and heavy interaction with NPCs. It's absolutely vital no one else in the agency (save for a couple of close confidantes) find out what you're up to. Needless to say, the more you investigate, the more suspicious certain officials will become, thus putting your professional status - and your life - in danger. Your curiosity will take you to other locales - an apartment complex where one of the terrorist suspects lived, a corporate office high up a downtown skyscraper, an exclusive cocktail party hosting the government elite, an art museum, a wooded area outside the city, a medical research center, and the site of the terrorist attack.

Gameplaywise, there are no violence and action sequences at all (except in cutscenes). The A.I. will approach the quality of that upcoming game Façade, in that NPCs will always have their own agenda and can scrutinize you as much as you them. Be very careful, they might get suspicious (especially within CIA headquarters), so your inquiries have to be veiled and indirect. There would be bona fide puzzles, like decrypting codes or using items in creative, unconventional ways. Your most valuable tool throughout is your PDA, which manages all the information you collect and can be hooked up to computers to access and gather classified data. It is possible to use a bit of strategy to throw suspicious people off your tracks, either through 'fuzzing up' your electronic activities or 'framing' colleagues by dropping incriminating clues on them.

Graphics-wise, I'd probably use a powerful engine, say, the Unreal or LithTech Jupiter Source engine. It would be in 3rd person with optional 1st person view. The visual style would approach relatively realistic levels - Silent Hill 3 Half-Life 2 or Splinter Cell. It's possible to play the game either in point-&-click or direct control.

It would play just like a suspense thriller movie, similar in tone to, say, director Roger Donaldson's No Way Out or Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain. "

- Trep, quoted from, yep, you guessed it: Brainstorming the adventure game

[fajerkaos]

this is just probably an bad idea: (no i dont mean yours inipid homoluder) .

your playing as a blind guy, IN 1-PERSON... yes you heard right.
this will obviusly mean that the screen will be empty the hole game, think of it you dont need to make any form of art or animations at all to the game.

now you probably wondering what the point is, the story can be about anything... "save the world" or whatever, its not important, just its made good.
you cant see so you will have use your ears and your beloved walkingstick to get on with the adventure... just poke at everything (ohh if you are wondering how to control the poking-stick i belive that the wii-reamote would do the job) hehe.

just think of it for a second...
it would be a diffrent game indeed.

offcouse you have to figure out many more things before even know how to make it (and get it realesed on wii)... but still...

[Mordalles]

Originally Posted by fajerkaos

this is just probably an bad idea: (no i dont mean yours inipid homoluder) .

your playing as a blind guy, IN 1-PERSON... yes you heard right.
this will obviusly mean that the screen will be empty the hole game, think of it you dont need to make any form of art or animations at all to the game.

now you probably wondering what the point is, the story can be about anything... "save the world" or whatever, its not important, just its made good.
you cant see so you will have use your ears and your beloved walkingstick to get on with the adventure... just poke at everything (ohh if you are wondering how to control the poking-stick i belive that the wii-reamote would do the job) hehe.

just think of it for a second...
it would be a diffrent game indeed.

offcouse you have to figure out many more things before even know how to make it (and get it realesed on wii)... but still...

http://www.bigbluecup.com/games.php?...bmit=Search%21

[Runnerjm87]

I just read through all of the posts on this thread and its very interesting that there are so many people who have this many great and new ideas for ways to liven up the adventure gaming community. I'm writing this because I am currently trying to put together a team of people (mappers, animators, programmers, etc.) to build a game from the ground up. I don't want to waste peoples time by explaining the tiny bits and pieces but I will give an explanation of the innovations that I am planning on. First of all, it will not be a straight-up adventure game, what I am proposing is an adventure/rpg with the focus on adventuring. An example of what I am talking about is something like Dreamfall, except with a real combat system (probably turn-based because it is actually easier to program). The story will be in the same vein as an older adventure/rpg called Anachronox except that the "hero" of the story isn't saving the world, he's only trying to. The game will show him growing up and teaching himself all sorts of ways to fight in hopes of being the one to save the world. Then, a week before he was going to go out and fight an invading alien army another hero wins the fight before him. The story will focus around his misadventures while trying to find a worthy fight in almost a "Don Quixote" sort of windmills/giants story. Anyone who is interested in working on this project with me, or anyone with any kind of idea for a puzzle or a situation that the hero could find himself in, my email is [email protected] and i check that a whole lot more than i check this forum.

-James

[Hammerite]

what about an adventure game where instead of a character, you play as the world and you have to change everything around you to help the character and instead of GUI's you have a dog that you shout at.

[MoriartyL]

Wow, that's so original!

[Lee in Limbo]

Runnerjm87: It's an intriguing idea. It reminds me of Fable, but your plot twist does give it more of a misadventure feel. I'd be willing to discuss it with you, but sadly, I'm already engaged in a project that won't permit time for other projects of this nature. Still, I wish you the very best of luck with it, and hope that, if you ever need someone to discuss it with, that you feel free to drop me a line. I'm more than willing to offer you a fresh set of eyes and ears that won't give away your secrets.

Hammerite: That idea has merit. Somewhere between Experiment 112 and The Sims. There are people who would play that.

[insane_cobra]

Originally Posted by Lee in Limbo

Hammerite: That idea has merit. Somewhere between Experiment 112 and The Sims. There are people who would play that.

I believe that was a dig at Nintendogs.

Runnerjm87, good luck with your project, sounds like it could turn out a fun game. Reminds me of Moon a little, in the way that you don't really play the hero.

[Lee in Limbo]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

I believe that was a dig at Nintendogs.

I missed that reference. I have no idea what 'Nintendogs' is. Sometimes I can be so ignorant.

[QuestVR]

Originally Posted by Lee in Limbo

I missed that reference. I have no idea what 'Nintendogs' is. Sometimes I can be so ignorant.

virtual pet type game on Nintendo's DS handheld system

[After a brisk nap]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

I believe that was a dig at Nintendogs.

Sounded like a twisted description of Black & White to me.

[Lee in Limbo]

Originally Posted by QuestVR

virtual pet type game on Nintendo's DS handheld system

Ah. Gotcha. I'm not interested in Nintendo DS, even if it does have certain AG possibilities. It doesn't look like it will do any of the things I want to do, so I'm going to take a pass.

That said, thank you very much for clarifying that for me.

[MoriartyL]

I thought he was talking about Samorost. [hides sheepishly]

[SnorkleCat]

I would love to play an aimless, endless game. I know that sounds odd, but I don't necessarily need a conclusion or an ABC story. What if the game had absolutely no introduction or plot explanation? The entire thing unfolds as you adventure through the stars and clouds and get sucked into new dimensions. I am envisioning some sort of vast, surreal, deep space world, with worm holes, nebulae, cosmic beauty, and alternate realities, like navigating through a dream...something that is constantly being refreshed and enlarged, so you do not know what to expect, and the world seems infinite...there would be plenty of resolution through puzzles, conversations, and perhaps scene specific scenarios, but you could just freely roam about the universe as you liked....a place in which to escape, without the perils and competition of online role playing...Do you know what I mean?

[MoriartyL]

Not exactly- "endless" is not an easy concept to wrap one's head around. Would new areas/puzzles be generated by the program as you progress, or streamed over the internet from a team paid to constantly and consistently add to the game, or would the game ship twenty years past deadline?

[MoriartyL]

Come to think of it, there's another possibility: tricking the most talented players into creating content for you. Okay, so it's not really so evil- many people would welcome the opportunity. There would have to be some in-game bureaucry set up, like a "council" of some sort, made up mostly of players with a few outside moderators. There would be contests (in-game) to create world design or puzzles, and whoever won would get to join the council and create new content.

[SnorkleCat]

...I was thinking of an online thing... perhaps with paid staff who would continually update the universe, so things would always be changing.... the new player content and council thing could work... a big creative cooperative, for the sole purpose of creating new dimensions, galaxies, planets. blackholes, and whatever else is out there.... things could just be all abstract and texty too... I want people to be able to get lost- no maps, no easy navigating.....solve problems, solve puzzles...pontificate...play the AI at some game somewhere....riddles....new places....alien puzzles...meaning of life and all that....The fact that it would be a universe means that any number of styles could exist and with a trip through a wormhole, you'd find yourself in a completely different sort of place with a completely different kind of puzzle and game play...the possibilities being as limited as the universe...which is to say, darn near infinite...

[MoriartyL]

You know how some adventures have that useful option of switching off reflex-based challenges? Well, I think there should be another option: being able to shut off inventory puzzles. If you uncheck one of these, that portion of the game will be shown as a "cutscene". What do I mean by that? Well, in cases of twitchy-stuff, the developers could take a video of one of them playing through it, so that you see how it goes, but you don't actually have to do it yourself. And in cases of inventory puzzles... Let's say the character walks into a room where three inventory items are hidden. If you're playing without inventory puzzles, then the very first thing the character will do as you enter is (without your direct control) walk over to those objects and pick them up, so that detail-missers like myself shouldn't have to go pixel hunting. Then, when the character comes across a situation which needs one of the inventory buttons, he does it automatically (without waiting for the player to tell him to). This should be an option in most adventure games, I think.

[Steve Ince]

Originally Posted by MoriartyL

You know how some adventures have that useful option of switching off reflex-based challenges? Well, I think there should be another option: being able to shut off inventory puzzles. If you uncheck one of these, that portion of the game will be shown as a "cutscene". What do I mean by that? Well, in cases of twitchy-stuff, the developers could take a video of one of them playing through it, so that you see how it goes, but you don't actually have to do it yourself. And in cases of inventory puzzles... Let's say the character walks into a room where three inventory items are hidden. If you're playing without inventory puzzles, then the very first thing the character will do as you enter is (without your direct control) walk over to those objects and pick them up, so that detail-missers like myself shouldn't have to go pixel hunting. Then, when the character comes across a situation which needs one of the inventory buttons, he does it automatically (without waiting for the player to tell him to). This should be an option in most adventure games, I think.

In my adventure games, the inventory is an important part of the gameplay and to give the player this option would be like removing half the gameplay. If someone else wanted an option to switch off conversational gameplay, say, then if you combined the two you'd effectively be just watching a film.

Why on earth would I put all that work into creating gameplay and then allow the player to switch it off? I'm not against additional clues and "easy" settings, but I refuse to give the player the option to switch off gameplay. Whatever next? Non-gameplay games?