[online portion closed] Questionnaire about adventure game interfaces (and more)
 

Hi all,

We are a small soon-to-be game studio in the pre-production of our first adventure game.

We believe, and hope :), we have a pretty good understanding of which elements that can make an adventure game interesting to play, but we feel a bit more unsure about how adventure gamers today feel about what makes for a good interface in an adventure game. Especially we would like to know which type of verb system modern adventure gamers prefere.

The impatient readers can take our short questionnaire (it's only five questions) by clicking this link.

For at bit more explanation keep on reading :)

Back in the day, most interfaces in adventure games where quite comprehensive, some would call them troublesome. Today it seems that most adventure games come with more simple and easy to use interfaces, some would call them dumbed down.

When I read forums like Adventure Gamers it seems to me, that adventure gamers have very different opinions about adventure game interfaces, so please help us creating a good adventure game system by taking our short questionnaire.

We know that some people prefere different types of interfaces depending on how the game is designed, and what it's about, so the questionnaire is deliberately made quite general, and should comply to both first person and third person adventure games - And it doesn't cover everything, just the bits we feel uncertain or curious about.

I should probably mention, though it might be obvious, that the game is aimed at everybody who likes adventure games: If we wished to appeal especially to casual gamers, we would of course chose a quite simple interface.

Thanks for your time, and feel free to use this thread to discuss adventure game interfaces, the questionnaire and everything in between :)

Nice survey!

Generally speaking, I prefer the single cursor the most, because it makes for a far more immersive feel when there are fewer UI elements on the screen. The only exception, in my view, would be if you're deliberately trying to create a nostalgic throwback feel in your game, in which case, you should feel free to use the kind of interface used in the classic games you're trying to create a homage to.

When it comes to the number of verbs, I think having only one is perfectly fine, particularly when most of the objects you can click on only do, in fact, have a "look at" option. Having more is usually argued to "make the game harder", but I think it only makes it more redundant, and would personally prefer if more of the gameplay revolved around doing things with the objects themselves (or better yet, characters) than around guessing the right verb.

Finally, choosing between a third-person narrator, a protagonist who thinks to him/herself, and one who actually talks to him/herself is completely up to you. Just pick an option that actually fits with the mood of your game.

Thanks for your comments, Squinky.

And thanks to everybody who has taken the time to do the survey so far.

I'll post the results in this thread when the survey expires (in a week or so).

I agree that less is often more when it comes to interfaces in adventure games. Though, I personally prefere two verbs, because a separate 'look' option often provide me with a sense of investigating the game world, like "I wonder what this weird thing is and what it can do".

I'm a big fan of the two-button look/interact system. Anything more seems a bit overkill, and anything less can be a bit irritating. It bugs me that I can't "look" things in the Sam & Max episodes, for instance, particularly in a couple of the "boss fights" where clicking on almost anything results in being told not to move.

While I don't like the idea of an interface being dumbed down, I hate the interface getting in the way of gameplay. I was never a fan of the old LucasArts interface -- two or three clicks, with moving the cursor all over the screen to do one simple thing. I also disliked having to choose from too many actions, like "Push", "Pull", "Grab", "Pick up", "Open", "Use", etc. All of this gets in the way of gameplay. At the same time, I hate interfaces that too simple, where one click does it all, ala KQ7. Having one "action" verb ("Take"+"Use"+"Open") separate from "Look" and possibly a third one for "Walk" gives you more control, but doesn't start to be too cumbersome. Being able to cycle through the three with a right click makes it quick and easy, without getting too much in the way of the game.

I wanted to comment on the 4th question...
I think in most adventures is best when the protagonist comments via his thoughts... as if he is not aware he is being watched. For example when you look a window he'd say "This window looks rusty" instead of "It's a rusrty window"....I don't know if I'm explaining it correctly...
I'm playing belief & betrayal right now and it's really annoying when it's trying to be funny with comments like "i'm not going to the bathroom with you watching me". This kind of thing could work only in humorous adventures and only if done properly (simon the sorcerer, monkey island etc).

I like the two-option cursor style. One being look at and the other being "do something with".

Good luck! Hope the game goes well.

Took the survey. I too like having the two button system of interaction. One of the first things I do when I enter a new location in an adventure game is look at everything possible. It makes the experience much more fun.:)

Thanks, JKR.

Most of us are a bit noobish in terms of game development, but because we'll probably use an existing game engine, we don't have to start from scratch, and that helps a lot.

But man, there sure is a lot of graphics in adventure games, when you start seeing it from a developers perspective. I predict a lot of drawing will soon be going on :D

Might it be helpful to have examples of these interfaces? I'm not sure what a verb coin is, but am I right about these...?

Context sensitive cursor only: e.g. Myst
Above + look/investigate: e.g. Beneath a Steel Sky
SCUMM style: e.g. Maniac Mansion, DOTT
Menu: e.g. The Longest Journey (but it only opens a menu if there's more than one action available)


When I played Beneath a Steel Sky I was impressed by the simplicity: left-click to examine, right-click to use/pick up. Right-clicking effectively meant, "do the obvious action with this thing". I realised how much it makes sense to do this. Doors open if they're closed, and are enterable if they're open. Inventory items are picked up if they're not already in your inventory. Windows are looked-through and/or opened if that's relevant. A lever is toggled. A book is read. Etcetera. In other words, there are obvious actions that apply to the vast majority of game world items.

When there's a finite number of specific verbs, I find that firstly, for some items, the particular action you want isn't adequately covered by any of the verbs (e.g. looking inside a box, or kicking a fragile glass case); and that for most items, standard responses have to result when you try illogical combinations. Also, some actions are duplicated - pushing/pulling a door is the same as opening/closing it; giving an item to a character might just as well be using the item on that character; turning on a lamp is the same as using it, and the same as pushing the on button (or even 'closing' the switch). I wish I had more specific examples, but I can't think of any now.

I think Broken Sword (I and II) have had my favourite interfaces.

(What about the GrimE interface? Where does that fit in?)

Sorry to write a mini-essay. Good luck with the project!

In The Curse of Monkey Island, you'd click on something and hold down the mouse. A "coin" would appear with use, look, and talk/eat options. It sounds more complicated than it is. Full Throttle used virtually the same interface, but the word "coin" refers to the literal coin design used in CMI.

I think it's a smooth interface, but since there are so few times when "use" and "talk/eat" were both usable on the same object, it's not really more useful than the two-verb system.

Thanks, yes. I was imagining the pie menu in The Sims - which is effectively the same, isn't it? Of course, if there are as many actions as The Sims has for an object, then a pie menu probably makes sense as an interface.

There are two things I like in an adventure game interface.

1.) visually, it doesn't get in the way of the visuals . I'd prefer a system where items are displayed at the bottom i.e. Broken Sword, rather than in the middle of the screen i.e. Discworld

I dislike the old SCUMMVM style (boxes at the bottem asking you to push, kick, talk, etc. It got in the way of the immersion.

2.) Ultra simple. Take Murder on the Orient Express. You had to cut to different tables to combine items. Again, the old SCUMMVM had too many things you could do. Yeah, call me shallow, but it just clogs things up and destroys the flow for me.

I'd also like to say a game where you need nothing more than the mouse would be great. I don't like having to reach over and pressing the 'esc' button to pause. Yeah, call me shallow AND lazy...

I'm very excited you're preparing for your first game. Good luck!

a) UI: I don't really care which UI system you use(code wheel or whatever) but it has to be well-integrated into the game like if there's going to more right-clicking than left-clicking, then you might as well implement a drop-down menu instead.

Still, you might as well use a system where the cursor changes into "a hand icon" when you hover an object you can pick up, a "use icon" when you hover over an object you can manipulate, etc.

b) And yes... have the character/narrator say something about a puzzle but I hope there'll be subtitles. Otherwise, you can't always understand what said person is saying.

P.S. And this is subjective but... I miss well-written third-person narration. *sighs* I completely miss it. Even PS:T couldn't even replace the narration from QFG, no matter how much I wanted it to. And I hope you use this 'cos it adds a certain novelty to the game.

Generally speaking having a double context sensitive mouse isthe easiest way to go, you get to hear a description of what you are looking at and also interact with it if necessary, though games like MI etc use two or three different contexts for example you might want to include a "Speak to" option as well as an "interraction" option as then it allows for different interactions between characters and doesnt limit it to speech.
I quite like the old SCUMM system, but the older games with every single command interaction possible, they do get annoying, having to click on "open" every time you want to go out of a door.

In Day of the Tentacle, and possibly other SCUMM games that had that interface, you could right-click an object to perform the default option, which corresponded to the most obvious one. So they obviously recognised to a certain extent that having such a multiplicity of verbs was a bit clunky on its own. The system was almost certainly a direct adaptation of the old text adventure interfaces, but without the need to type the command directly in.

I'm not that picky about what kind of interface a game should have. But if I have to choose I'd go with a cursor that changes shape into whatever you can do with a hot spot. When a thing is ready to be picked up the cursor turns into a hand for instance.
I do like to have the protagonist thinking to himself/herself and preferably thinking ahead, giving out subtle hints about what to do.

Just a quick bit of important info since it seems I can't access and edit the initial post; The survey is only storing 50 responses, and since there're 58 responses right now there's no point in more people taking the survey - sorry, I didn't notice that limit when I created the survey account.

I'm in a hurry right now, but I'll return later when I have checked my survey account some more - it seems that the only option is to let the survey run out if I want to read the results. At the moment I can't read the results without upgrading the account. Hopefully the first 50 responses are stored when the survey runs out, but if not I think I can remember the key points of the results.

Your survey presupposes the use of a point-n-click interface. My thought is that Adventure Games need to ditch the point-n-click interface and move into the new millennium.

I think that people are afraid that adventure games will begin to merge into action games if they adopt a direct-control interface.