Poll - What do you consider most before paying for an adventure game?
 

Hi guys,

this is some market research thinly veiled as a fun poll. Would really appreciate if people left comments too. We're going to take the results along to a pitch we're doing to try and get investment for a 2D point and click adventure we're making.

I can explain the reasons behind the questions once the poll is finished if anybody cares :P

If you have an answer that isn't part of the poll, please leave a comment. And also if you don't pay for adventures games at all, please tell us why.

Thanks very much!
Romano
The Colourless Game Team

Originality - probably more in terms of gameplay than theme.

Story and originality are the most important - given that by originality you meant either a really original gameworld/theme or innovative gameplay.

I picked 'story', though, because with a good story, you can be as traditional as you'd like and still deliver a great game, but with great originality, you still need to have a decent story to keep the players hooked...

As for the rest:
I consider graphics to be unimportant. If they were important, I wouldn't be able to (re)play late '80s / early '90s games and I would've missed Gemini Rue and many others.
Voice cast - if present - needs to be decent, but it will rarely deter me from playing a game, nor will it keep me hooked.
Hard puzzles, when implemented well, can be great fun, but they can also *break* a game. Besides, I don't mind an easy game. Story and originality prevail.
Sense of humour is only important when the game itself is lighthearted. It's also one of the more difficult aspects to nail. Lost Horizon, while a great game, could've used better humour - that would've helped get over the thin plot a bit more easily.
Characters are linked with originality somewhat. If you've got bland characters, then the game won't be that original nor will anything stand out. Great characters will have you talking about them for years after you've played a game... *cough* Murray *cough*

Story is pretty difficult, cos you don't know it's a good story until after you've played it....

Personally I rely on reviews and reading people's opinions and discussions on gaming forums. Ill also admit that I'm a bit of a graphics whore. A pretty game is easily sold to me. ;)

Exactly. You can't know in advance whether or not the story will be good, but reviews and other people's opinions matter. If several people (that coincidentally like more or less the same games that you do) all praise the story, then you rarely can go wrong.
But you'll never play the games on day 1 of their release, either, if you wait for the reviews...
Unless it's by a developer whom you fully trust, but I personally haven't had that since Lucasarts stopped making adventure games...

Story for me.

As said above you can't really judge any of the options before you've played it except for reviews/trailers etc. There is still no substitute for playing it though.

I answered "originality", but that doesn't necessary mean innovative gameplay. I just like fresh ideas and fresh look of the game with a touch of individuality. I can live with a basic storyline if it fits well, although originality in this field also adds points. What I can hardly stay today are clones and complete rip-offs of famous games and styles, especially LucasArts (Day of the Tentacle/Curse of Monkey Island) and The Longest Journey/Syberia. They were so overused in the last ten years that I'd rather stay away from them.

For most of these qualities, i just wont know if the game has them until after iv played the game. I picked originality because if a game really stands out in reviews and descriptions, il be more likely to buy it.

Graphics... and I mean the whole atmospheric scenery, not just the technical side.

Story is probably what grabs me first.
Characters play a part, too, though. Sherlock Holmes automatically gets my attention before I even know what the game is about.
Graphics - it depends. They don't usually put me off an old game, though I prefer 2D/2.5D any time. A newer game is more complicated. I prefer one that has well done, consistent graphics and not a mix of styles.
Originality, not so much.

The first thing that i look is the player perspective (i only play third person perspective adventures).

The second most important thing for me is Story.

As a non-english speaker im also interested if it has subtitles. I can understand almost everything but it's easy for me to read it.

Finally I hate games that include subtitles in-game but not on the cinematics...

What I consider first is whether the gameworld is one I want to spend time in -- and whether the story is one I want to follow. If it's 100% a puzzle game, then these things don't matter as much -- though even there I don't want to play a game where the graphics are so dark I can't see the puzzles.

So I'd say environment would come first, though that's not something on the list. Perhaps "graphics" would come closest, as long as graphics meant more than high or low resolution or fancy visual effects.

If a developer makes a game based on the factors which players consider when buying a game, they wont be getting my money. Not as a moral principle, but because I find developers always do better when their work comes from the heart, making the game how they want it rather than how their customers want it.

I agree with these completely

graphics can also be well-aged, which shows their real value. Graphics visualize the environment and largely make the atmosphere, so it's not all about resolution or pixels, but about a visual atmosphere as well.

^ This.

Although, again, I'd consider that the 'originality'-factor.


Atmospheric scenery is very much linked with what I consider 'originality'. Even moreso than 'graphics', imo.


A lot of these categories are ambiguous... :D

I put "story" cause I figured that'd be closest to "atmosphere". Atmosphere in a game is the most important for me. The story and graphics can be crappy and I'll still buy it if it has a good atmosphere.

Not included in your poll, colourless, is the necessity of having subtitles. Please don't forget the hearing impaired if you are designing a game.

Heart or lack thereof will always show through, but you shouldn't damn creators for a bit of target audience research. After all, your heart is not where you'll find the money to pay for an additional graphic artist. It's important to have some idea if you can re-coup your investments.

EDIT: I think the poll should have "music and dense atmosphere" as one of the choices (also suggested by Schneckchen). When I play something like Scratches or Outcry (and the majority of slower-paced 1st person games) those 2 are key elements of the overall experience.

Agree.

If developers don't learn from their mistakes or take into account target audience opinion on at least some things we may be stuck with (e.g.) confusing and cumbersome verb-coin interfaces which detract from the story etc. "The heart" will (or should) shine through in a game but it will not always give you everything you need to know to make the game as good as it can be in the practical sense.