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The Aggie Awards - The Best Adventure Games of 2017

Written by AG Staff
It will take you 45 minutes to read this feature.

Article updated Friday, February 23rd. Already read about Day One and Day Two? Skip straight ahead to the final day's presentation!
 


Is it Aggie time again? Wow, time sure flies when you’re buried under an avalanche of 138 new adventure games.

That’s not a typo: 138!! Nearly double what we were getting even just a few short years ago. The adventure genre may be a niche, but it sure is a flourishing one!

Coming in all different shapes, sizes, styles, and lengths, the diversity and sheer volume of releases was staggering in 2017. From the most humble indie endeavours to the revival of beloved franchises; from chunky old-school pixels to advancements in virtual reality; from promising newcomers to genre legends returning to the fold, there was more than a little for everyone to enjoy. Which, of course, made picking our yearly award winners harder than ever. But you know that too, as once again you turned out in numbers to vote for your winners in our annual reader poll.

But choose we must, and choose we did, so let’s get on with the show! As always, though only a (relative) few are taking home the coveted gold (and silver) statuettes, it’s a tremendous achievement to even make the finals, so a hearty “bravo!” to all the developers represented here.

Surely this is understood, but remember that this is all in good fun. There are no rights and wrongs, no good opinions and bad, only our decisions and yours. If your favourites didn’t win, or weren’t even eligible (for reasons we touched on here), don’t be too disappointed, just thankful that we have so many great and worthy games to choose from! The Aggies may be a competition, but more than anything they’re a celebration of riches. Enjoy.

The awards presentation will run daily from Wednesday through Friday, so stay tuned each day to see who will take home the hardware!
 


Table of Contents


Day One


Page 1: You are here
Page 2: Best Story
Page 3: Best Writing – Comedy
Page 4: Best Writing – Drama
Page 5: Best Character
Page 6: Best Gameplay
Page 7: Best Concept


Day Two


Page 8: Best Setting
Page 9: Best Graphic Design
Page 10: Best Animation
Page 11: Best Music
Page 12: Best Acting
Page 13: Best Sound Effects

 

Day Three


Page 14: The Silver Aggies
Page 15: Best Non-Traditional Adventure
Page 16: Best Traditional Adventure
Page 17: Best Adventure of 2017
Page 18: Final Notes

Best Story: Last Day of June


Like that proverbial tree falling in an empty forest, this year’s Best Story award winner sets up a curious paradox: can a wordless adventure game tell a compelling story? Ovosonico’s Last Day of June, a tender, heart-wrenching game about love and loss, proves that the answer is a resounding yes. Even with no spoken words and only a handful of written prompts, the game’s expressive character acting, rich music, clever structure, and nuanced imagery communicates a poignant and powerful message: even if fate can’t be changed and the dead can’t be spared, love lives on in the people left behind.

Loosely spun off from the music video for Steven Wilson’s Drive Home, Last Day of June follows a wheelchair-bound widower grieving the loss of his wife through his attempts to manipulate time and change the series of events leading up to her fatal car crash. Though sometimes tedious from a gameplay perspective, the repetitive time-loop premise perfectly complements the simultaneously hopeful and hopeless act of trying to cheat death, with each successful (but also failed) attempt to alter destiny raising the narrative stakes. An instrumental soundtrack adapted from Wilson’s progressive rock music and the oddball characters’ haunting gibberish vocalizations become critical to the emotional arc as the story runs its flexible yet ultimately unbreakable course. For a game about dying, Last Day of June has a lot to say about life. It does so wordlessly, emotionally, and beautifully, making it a surprising but eminently worthy choice for this year’s Best Story Aggie.

Runners-Up:


The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker

Thimbleweed Park

Detention

Blackwood Crossing
 


Readers’ Choice: Thimbleweed Park


Nothing is what it seems in Thimbleweed Park. A man lies murdered under a bridge. A pair of detectives arrive separately to investigate, but neither seems to have been assigned to the case. A once-thriving town is now littered with boarded-up storefronts. The mayor and coroner seem eerily alike, yet oblivious to their similarities. A former circus clown has been cursed by a voodoo woman, and the brother of the recently-deceased pillow factory owner is a ghost. Just what is going on in this quirky little place? The mystery of Thimbleweed Park would do The X-Files or maybe even Twin Peaks proud, slowly doling out tantalizing new pieces of a narrative puzzle that doesn’t fully come together until a dramatically shocking end. To say more would be a spoiler, but then, we don’t need to tell you, since you voted this story as the best in its class for 2017.

Runners-Up:


The Journey Down: Chapter Three

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm

A Normal Lost Phone

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
 


Next up: Best Writing – Comedy... the envelope, please!

Best Writing – Comedy: The Darkside Detective


You can’t tell from a screenshot, a synopsis or even a trailer why Spooky Doorway’s The Darkside Detective works as well as it does. On the surface its elements seem modest enough: a retro point-and-click anthology adventure with blocky pixels and text-only subtitles. Even thematically it comes across as fairly familiar, with an under-appreciated detective and his goofy sidekick, self-referential humour, and occult elements mixed with a whimsical tone. It’s only when actually playing the game that the experience can truly be appreciated. In peppering players with always amusing, often hilarious dialogue, the end result is delightfully charming and witty, and thereby deserving of our 2017 Aggie Award for best comedic writing.

Experiencing this game’s six distinct tales is a wonderful refresher on why comedy adventure games can be so much fun. Every hotspot in the environment, every line of conversation promises a fresh pun, quip or gag, and rarely do they fall flat or feel mean-spirited. Partners in paranormal crime-fighting, the two protagonists play off each other to great effect: Officer Dooley is one of the most endearingly offbeat sidekicks in years for us, but often leaves Detective Francis McQueen thoroughly exasperated, creating a wonderfully light-hearted dynamic between them. We dare anyone NOT to laugh when Dooley follows McQueen into a small closet and shuts the door behind them. There’s plenty of other ridiculous characters to meet along the way, too, who both help and hinder your investigations, providing plenty of laughs along the way. Give it a chance, and you’ll find The Darkside Detective is a game that knows exactly what it wants to be, and delivers on that ambition in joyous, charismatic, and superbly entertaining style.

Runners-Up:


Paradigm

Thimbleweed Park

Four Last Things

Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way
 


Readers’ Choice: Thimbleweed Park


For a guy who calls himself “Grumpy Gamer,” Ron Gilbert sure does write a lot of funny things. He gave the adventure genre some of its most memorable laughs with Guybrush and LeChuck in the first two Monkey Islands, and now he’s back delivering more yuks in Thimbleweed Park (along with his co-writers David Fox and Lauren Davidson, not to be overlooked). So okay, we all agree the game overdid the in-jokes – including the developers themselves, as they’ve since made them optional! – but there are loads o’ laughs to be found, from grin-inducing zingers to thigh-slapping guffaws. The script is laced with dry little quips that are continually amusing, but isn’t afraid to go full-bore-zany as well, with brazen sight gags and over-the-top antics (a certain foul-mouthed clown knows who we mean). This was a solid year for comic adventures, but Thimbleweed Park is the only one laughing all the way to the readers’ podium.

Runners-Up:


Paradigm

The Darkside Detective

The Journey Down: Chapter Three

Four Last Things
 


Next up: Best Writing – Drama... the envelope, please!

Best Writing – Drama: Blackwood Crossing


PaperSeven’s Blackwood Crossing starts out as a deceptively simple tale that becomes more and more surreal as it careens toward an eye-opening finish. Scarlett, the freckled, red-headed protagonist, wakes up on a train where she is both charmed and harried by her fidgety brother Finn. The siblings soon meet other passengers wearing cardboard masks that they begin to identify as family, friends and enemies. Why Finn and Scarlett are on this journey and what their ultimate destination will be are deeply-held mysteries. Just as you begin to get a handle on the character relationships, the train suddenly becomes carpeted with grass and flowers, a ladder leading up to even more dream-like locales. These new scenes provide glimpses into the past as Scarlett desperately seeks to resolve a tragedy that shadows them all – especially the engaging, impulsive Finn.

Rather than relying on lengthy exposition, dialogues here are succinct but relatable, concisely yet impressively touching on past conflicts and escalated events. As more is revealed, plot tidbits are fused into a narrative that continually teases, grips, and then confounds throughout the game’s tightly-focused four-hour play time. The bizarre situations and fanciful scenarios encountered begin to evoke emotions that become achingly real. Players must gradually come to terms with what the main characters can accomplish and are forced to accept – including when to hold on and when to let go. For keeping us guessing and then tugging at our heartstrings as the light of realization dawns, Blackwood Crossing poignantly snags our best dramatic writing Aggie for 2017.

Runners-Up:


The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker

The St. Christopher’s School Lockdown

Bear With Me

Detention
 


Readers’ Choice: Life Is Strange: Before the Storm


Videogames haven’t historically been the purview of Young Adult fiction, but that changed in a big way in 2016 with Life Is Strange, an emotionally-charged episodic adventure that beautifully depicted the unlikely friendship of two teen girls against a surreal backdrop of paranormal events and impending disaster. For a follow-up, publisher Square Enix turned to a new developer, Deck Nine Games, for a three-part prequel telling the origin story of Chloe Price and her best friend Rachel Amber, whose mysterious disappearance was one of the original story’s central mysteries. Easing up significantly on the supernatural slant, Before the Storm focuses almost exclusively on the girls’ burgeoning relationship. At times sweetly moving, at times age-appropriately dramatic, the coming-of-age story didn’t quite reach the heights of its acclaimed predecessor, but the very personal, often authentic-sounding script was more than enough to easily take home the readers’ choice award.

Runners-Up:


Detention

>observer_

Bear With Me

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
 


Next up: Best Character... the envelope, please!

Best Character: Paradigm (Paradigm)


According to the dictionary, a paradigm is a model, a template or a prototype. At first glance, it may seem strange that the titular hero of Jacob Janerka’s Paradigm, with his stubby body, misshapen bulbous head and lack of nose could be a model for anything. Look past his hideous appearance, however, and this unusual protagonist has a positive and thoroughly endearing personality. Like the deformity on his head, the lovable Paradigm is sure to grow on you, and you’ll soon find yourself rooting for him against his nemesis, Olaf the candy-dispensing sloth, and hoping that he fulfills his dream of finding those “phat beatsies” he cares about so much. 

Where does such a bizarre creature come from? Well, it probably has something to do with DUPA Genetics, the company that created the Prodigy Children program and decided to dump its mistakes in the dystopian country of Krusz, where Paradigm now runs the nuclear power plant. His true love is really composing and playing electronic music, however. As he travels around gathering the items he needs to complete various tasks, he uses humor – often at his own expense – while interacting with some very wacky characters. His Kruszian accent is easy on the ears, and while he often shows sympathy for the plights of others, he’s not above making pithy comments when appropriate. He’s not just another pretty face, either, as that sentient and sometimes helpful benign tumor on his head can be handy for vague hints and amusing remarks. Anything but the stereotypical hero, Paradigm is a true one-of-a-kind, and we love him all the more for it. For so uniquely and engagingly defying expectations and delighting us at every turn, Paradigm stands alone as our Best Character of 2017.

Runners-Up:


Bwana (The Journey Down: Chapter Three)

Officer Dooley (The Darkside Detective)

Chloe Price (Life Is Strange: Before the Storm)

Delores Edmund (Thimbleweed Park)
 


Readers’ Choice: Officer Dooley (The Darkside Detective)


Sidekicks often get the best roles. While a game’s lead protagonist is typically stuck playing it straight in order to do the heroic thing, their companions get to hang back and crack wise at every opportunity. According to you readers (and who are we to argue, having made him our second runner-up), Officer Patrick Dooley’s name now belongs on the list of award-winning sidekicks. The kicker is, Dooley doesn’t mean to be funny – he just can’t help himself. For a cop he’s not too eager to do anything dangerous, and his glib observations frequently drive Detective McQueen up the wall – and we wouldn’t have it any other way. (By the way, for not picking him first, Ransome says [beep] you!!)

Runners-Up:


Ransome the Clown (Thimbleweed Park)

Paradigm (Paradigm)

Delores Edmund (Thimbleweed Park)

Detective Francis McQueen (The Darkside Detective)
 


Next up: Best Gameplay... the envelope, please!

Best Gameplay: Thimbleweed Park


Ron Gilbert’s long-awaited return to point-and-click adventure is a bold affirmation of the design principles he first defined in his 1989 manifesto “Why Adventure Games Suck and What We Can Do About It.” That document – and the success of the games it influenced – defined the Golden Age of adventure game design. Since then, those rough edges have been gradually sanded down and modern adventures polished into a pristine sheen with none of the hair-pulling frustration of the genre’s early days, often at the expense of the challenge that made them so rewarding in the first place.

Like Maniac Mansion did in its day, Thimbleweed Park offers a course-correction, but instead of pushing away from traditionalism, it redresses the overreach the genre has made in confronting common headaches. The real problem was never the amount of freedom provided or the complexity of puzzles, but in how adventure games deliver feedback and communicate with the player. Recalling the most beloved classics of old, Thimbleweed Park gives us a huge world to explore with multiple protagonists, smartly layered objectives, assorted characters to converse with and countless items to acquire, successfully pulling it all off through well-written clues that actually respond to player choices. It’s a master-class in traditional gameplay design that serves as one of the best arguments for restoring some of what we’ve lost along the way, and for that this staunchly old-school classic adventure wins our Best Gameplay Aggie Award over some impressively innovative challengers.

Runners-Up:


Gorogoa

Paradigm

The Sexy Brutale

XING: The Land Beyond
 


Readers’ Choice: Thimbleweed Park


So we’re agreed: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That could be the motto for Thimbleweed Park, the delightful SCUMM-styled throwback with just enough modern conveniences to make it accessible for today’s gamer. But this is no mere nostalgia vote, is it? While so many developers continue to shorten, streamline and simplify their games to disappointing degrees, the long-overdue reunion of Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick serves up a complex story to unravel, an oddball collection of locals to interact with (and occasionally, control), an entire town to roam, and thoughtful puzzles whose solutions you can’t lazily brute force. There were some impressive new approaches to adventure game design this year, but what other game served up a generous 15-plus hours of pure point-and-click adventurey goodness? None!

Runners-Up:


Gorogoa

XING: The Land Beyond

The Sexy Brutale

The Journey Down: Chapter Three
 


Next up: Best Concept... the envelope, please!

Best Concept: Gorogoa


Sometimes an idea comes along that is so brilliant and yet so mind-blowingly simple that in retrospect one wonders why no one ever thought of it before. The indie puzzler Gorogoa is just such an example, but don’t mistake its conceptual simplicity for ease, as its unique approach to gameplay is so deeply, elegantly layered that it will pose a serious challenge. It doesn’t sound like much on paper: To help a young boy on his quest to find a mythical creature, players must piece together and connect pictures contained within four square panels. That description may seem straightforward, but deciphering just how these images fit together becomes increasingly complex. Not all ingenious concepts actually work, but here it does, as Jason Roberts spent many years honing Gorogoa into a masterwork of innovative game design.

Achieving your goals requires paying attention to even the tiniest of details in the lovely hand-drawn illustrations. At first the images may seem entirely disconnected, but look closer, experiment, and eventually a pattern will emerge. Tiles can be zoomed in – sometimes to entirely different scenes! – as well as rotated, swapped out or overlaid on top of others, occasionally only when timed just so. The mechanics are incredibly basic, but the gameplay possibilities they create are anything but. It takes a while to get used to the notion, but it's a wonderful spin on traditional point-and-click adventures that you'll continue to crave even after the largely-impenetrable story wraps up, making Gorogoa the winner of our Best Concept Aggie in the face of some fierce competition.

Runners-Up:


The Sexy Brutale

Last Day of June

Stories Untold

Lone Echo
 


Readers’ Choice: Gorogoa


Any other year, either Gorogoa or The Sexy Brutale might have romped over the competition for Best Concept. Arriving at the same time meant something had to give, unfortunately, and in a tightly-contested write-in vote, you joined us in awarding the 2017 Aggie to Jason Roberts’s brilliant tile-based puzzler. How can zooming in and out and sliding around four square panels be so utterly addictive? It’s all about what’s in those panels, and the subtle connections between them, as Roberts has conceived a wonderfully integrated world, then broken it up into pieces and layers in an ingeniously devious way. It’s a true one-of-a-kind, and best of all is that its quality matches its cleverness.

Runners-Up:


The Sexy Brutale

Stories Untold

Thimbleweed Park

The Darkside Detective
 


Next up: Best Setting... the envelope, please!

Best Setting: XING: The Land Beyond


Great game worlds come in all different forms, each perfectly suited to their designers’ unique vision. Past Aggie winners for Best Setting have ranged from extraterrestrial landscapes made of clay to paper scenes from a pop-up book to vector art environs in a modishly muted palette. White Lotus Interactive’s XING: The Land Beyond claims this year’s award by going in another direction, establishing its own distinct ambience through spectacular 3D hyper-naturalism based mainly on regions from good old planet Earth. Better yet, its jaw-dropping beauty comes with brains to match, as scattered throughout these monumental locales are expertly melded puzzles that channel players through the life stories and philosophies of four vastly different individuals.

Beginning the game dead, a surreal extra stop in the afterlife greets you with massive floating boulders, spores adrift in the air, and arching blue stars in the skies above. From there a portal leads to an exotic Pacific island, a lush jungle, a mountain ridged with pagodas, and a desert girdled by stone parapets. Each is linked to a historic culture, accompanied by ethnically diverse music and adorned with artworks and relics. Though these scenic backdrops are (mostly) realistic, you have the otherworldly ability to control the time of day and weather, causing delectable transformations at will. Moonlight is an eerie contrast to bright sunshine, rain and mist soften the gorgeous vistas, and snow sharpens branches and leaves into interlocking crystals. The final purpose of this panorama of graphical riches is brought into perspective by an unusual plot twist, as singular voyages of self-discovery unify nature, art, strife and mysticism into a startlingly new perspective. You can’t help but want to visit these places, and thanks to XING you don’t actually have to die to get there.

Runners-Up:


The Sexy Brutale

Bear With Me

Paradigm

>observer_
 


Readers’ Choice: Thimbleweed Park


There’s a good reason why Thimbleweed Park is named after its setting; many good reasons, in fact. Though on the surface it may not seem like anything special – fading town set along a dusty stretch of highway, its business district now largely shuttered, its circus and once-flourishing pillow factory closed down – there’s a very distinct sense of place here, where everything seems to be just a little… off. The local populace is deliciously bizarre, and everyone seems to be hiding a secret or six. The many areas to explore, from cemeteries to sewers, convenience stores to creepy woods, are all gorgeously presented in pixel-perfect detail (not a requirement for an immersive setting… but it sure doesn’t hurt!), and each location has its own set of puzzles and mysteries to uncover. Perhaps the highest compliment one can pay a game’s setting is this: It simply couldn’t take place anywhere else. Well, that and awarding it an Aggie, as you’ve done here.

Runners-Up:


XING: The Land Beyond

>observer_

The Journey Down: Chapter Three

The Sexy Brutale
 


Next up: Best Graphic Design... the envelope, please!

Best Graphic Design: The Journey Down: Chapter Three


SkyGoblin’s The Journey Down series has always had superlative graphic design, but never has that been more evident than in its third and final chapter. There’s a timeless quality to the vivid hand-painted art, with inspiration taken from all sorts of eras and cultures, from ancient temples to Gothic architecture to a neon-glowing metropolis. More than ever before, the settings burst with variety: one moment you find yourself amongst giraffes and parrots on gorgeous African plains and islands, the next you’re plotting with subversive freedom fighters in secret underground resistance lairs or held prisoner aboard a floating airship that looks like something out of a sci-fi film. And yet with two playable characters in different parts of the world, never once does this incredible diversity feel forced; the fact that all these locations feel part of the same cohesive universe is one of the series’ noteworthy artistic strengths.

What makes The Journey Down even more distinctive are the unique character designs that draw inspiration from ancient African masks and carvings. This rarely-explored ethnic backdrop is no mere gimmick or nod to political correctness, either. After three full episodes with Bwana, Kito, Lina and the gang, you won’t be able to imagine the game with any other character models, as they’re an integral part of the experience. But really, everywhere our protagonists go, impressive eye candy awaits. The use of light and shadow are cleverly contrasted, and where appropriate the colour really pops. Upper-class skyscrapers tower over oppressive, rain-soaked urban streets and a bustling, earth-toned market. Elsewhere in the fabled Underland, the sun beams down from impossibly blue skies onto stunning waterfalls amidst a jungle of lush vegetation and wildlife. There were plenty of other great looking games of all different styles in 2017, but none so consistently beautiful as The Journey Down finale, making it our choice for the year’s Best Graphic Design Aggie.

Runners-Up:


Last Day of June

Thimbleweed Park

Gorogoa

The Wardrobe
 


Readers’ Choice:XING: The Land Beyond


The fabulously immersive XING: The Land Beyond draws players in with more than enough beauty and realism to create a sense of wonder, plus a touch of surrealism that challenges, startles, and engages. From a magnificent portal hub through four uniquely different earthly realms linked to particular eras and cultures, there’s always another picturesque new landscape to behold. Hanging over meandering paths are intricate branches and colorful blossoms; a sunset paints the sky, sand and palm trees in glorious golds; snow drifts down into the mist framed by breathtaking cliffs; and ancient ruins are emblazoned with vivid, enigmatic designs. And scattered throughout are stained glass dials, mysterious jeweled pedestals, glowing orbs and colourful, box-like totems crying out to be manipulated and mastered. We can certainly see how this game managed to edge out its more stylized competitors for this year’s reader award for eye candy.

Runners-Up:


Thimbleweed Park

Gorogoa

The Journey Down: Chapter Three

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm
 


Next up: Best Animation... the envelope, please!

Best Animation: AER: Memories of Old


With AER: Memories of Old, developer Forgotten Key achieved something few games have managed in the past: making players feel as though they can actually fly. While other games have allowed their heroes to take to the skies, few have ever made soaring through the clouds feel as effortless and genuinely pleasurable as the experience on offer here. With just a few quick button presses, the young protagonist can transform into a bird and loft herself airborne, gliding between gorgeous low-poly floating islands with remarkable ease. You can practically feel the wind in your face, your stomach rising and falling with every swoop, climb, bank and landing. Perfectly complemented by user-friendly controls that help bring this breathtaking sensation to life, AER's fluid flight mechanics went a long way toward securing this game our Best Animation award.

Unlike many flight sims, navigating the open space here is surprisingly simple, making you wish the entire game took place high above the ground. Plan to spend far longer than is actually necessary traversing between islands, opting for the long way around just to stretch each trip out a little bit longer. Thankfully, the animation is just as appealing on terra firma, as you stumble upon the various wildlife populating this fantastical world. Getting one of these adorable little animals to fall in love with you is just one of the memorable highlights. And within the puzzle-laden temples, ever in motion is the heroine herself, as she runs, jumps, and climbs her way from one platforming obstacle to the next. While the controls here may not be nearly as forgiving, the action is never less than a joy to behold. And then, back to the skies!

Runners-Up:


Life Is Strange: Before the Storm

The Dream Machine: Chapter 6

Lone Echo

Thimbleweed Park
 


Readers’ Choice: Life Is Strange: Before the Storm


If there’s one area where adventures games routinely fall short, it’s animation. Usually we’re lucky to get an intro cinematic, a few ambient effects, and some rough-around-the-edges character interactions playing out on-screen. What a treat, then, to get so many worthwhile competitors this year. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the top two are among the biggest-budgeted games of the year, but the artists still needed to deliver, and in Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, developer Deck Nine did just that, offering fluid and realistic character animation with a rich abundance of environmental detail in motion. From the most hectic moments, such as Chloe jamming on air guitar in the rafters far above a driving rock concert, to the most serene, like a peaceful afternoon at the railway tracks overseen by twittering birds and skittish squirrels, for adventure fans this is the next-closest thing to a cinematic CG movie – and it had to be, to beat out some impressive runners-up.

Runners-Up:


Thimbleweed Park

The Dream Machine: Chapter 6

The Journey Down: Chapter Three

>observer_
 


Next up: Best Music... the envelope, please!

Best Music: The Sexy Brutale


The Sexy Brutale is a game where an unbelievably crazy number of things happen over the course of just a single day. Multiple melodramatic murders take place, a ghost dripping blood is the closest thing you have to an ally, and the whole experience is enveloped by a feeling of despair and melancholy. And yet this bizarre, time-looping stealth adventure manages to combine its menace with wild carousing at a masquerade party and the occasional bout of lighthearted silliness. Such a wide array of moods and moments puts an unusually heavy burden on the soundtrack to set the appropriate atmosphere. And boy, does this music deliver!

Right off the bat there’s an old-timey title theme that's so catchy it's hard not to delay starting the game for at least a few extra bars just to listen a little longer. Playing in the titular casino mansion's bar is a gentle, relaxing piano score that practically invites you to sit down for a drink. A ticking clock keeps the beat for eerie ambience at times, and every murder scene features gripping background accompaniment that builds in tension as the dastardly scene unfolds. From full instrumental jazz pieces to stirring operatic vocal performances, the soundtrack composed by Matt Bonham and Tim Cotterell never lets up on quality. With well over an hour of original music, the OST is one of the very few collections of video game tunes that is worth listening to even on its own (and not surprisingly, is available for purchase as a DLC extra), nudging The Sexy Brutale to the top of an excellent group of competitors for this year's Best Music Aggie Award.

Runners-Up:


Thimbleweed Park

The Journey Down: Chapter Three

Bear With Me

Rakuen
 


Readers’ Choice: The Journey Down: Chapter Three


SkyGoblin’s The Journey Down is no stranger to the Best Music podium, having earned AG staff honours for its second installment back in 2014. Sadly, the series’ original composer Simon D’souza is no longer with us, but the quality of the music under Jamie Salisbury is every bit as good. The score is remarkably diverse, including whimsical strings and a muted trumpet straight from a backwater speakeasy; creepy horns with slinking, reptilian percussion; luscious flutes backed by marimba-like rhythms; a jazzy tune with a snappy beat that’s almost impossible not to dance to; and monumental orchestrations that would fit right into an Indiana Jones movie. For sending this lovely point-and-click trilogy out on a high note (pun fully intended), the finale earns our readers’ highest musical acclaim this year.

Runners-Up:


Thimbleweed Park

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm

The Sexy Brutale

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
 


Next up: Best Acting (Voice or Live Action)... the envelope, please!

Best Acting (Voice or Live Action): The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker


With most games, acting is only a minor part of the whole, and it has to really stand out (for good or ill) to be memorable amid all the head-scratching, McGuffin-hunting and fetch-questing that makes up the life of a modern adventurer. And often it’s only heard, the visual element left to animated sprites to convey on-screen. D’Avekki Studios’ The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, by contrast, focuses solely on its characters throughout, without so much as a change of scene to distract you from the real human patients sitting on your couch, baring their souls in live-action, full-screen video. The experience stands or falls by the quality of its acting, and it's a testament to all those involved that the end result is so compellingly unsettling. Many of them have budding careers in TV and film, and it shows. 

As a psychiatrist, your subjects are some very disturbed people, with stories to tell that are by turns harrowing and bizarre. It would have been so easy to ham it up, turning this into a schlocky interactive B-movie at best. Instead, everyone here gives beautifully nuanced, almost hypnotic performances, discussing the impossible with such calm rationality that before long you're starting to doubt your own sanity instead, slipping into a parallel universe where anything's possible. They're a varied bunch, too, ranging from frigidly hostile Claire to excitable academic Professor Warwick to friendly Elin and even flirty Marianna. Doctor Dekker plays with big ideas, and its power lies in persuading you to accept these patients on their own terms, not as crazy or weird; to stop seeing them as puzzles to be solved and just relate to them as human beings. These riveting therapy sessions will suck you in and keep you coming back for more, making this game a deserving recipient of this year's Aggie for Best Acting.

Runners-Up:


The Journey Down: Chapter Three

Thimbleweed Park

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm

Blackwood Crossing
 


Readers’ Choice: Thimbleweed Park


Well, yahoo-a-reno for Thimbleweed Park! Who needs live-action, after all? Apparently not you readers, who were mightily impressed by the collection of voice talent on display here. No matter how well a character is written, it takes the right direction, the best actor to get the most out of the role – and the odder the personality, the truer that is. Considering Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick’s first collaboration didn’t even have voices, it was no sure thing they’d be able to seal the deal this time around. But the cast is uniformly excellent, from the grizzled, cynical Special Agent Angela Ray to the cantankerous Ransome, the cursing-censored, Krusty-like costumed clown. Each actor’s voice suits their online persona to a “T”, with their own distinctive quirks and mannerisms and sayings that truly make them unique. In fact, the cast was SO good, the developers sent them back into the studio after launch to record extra conversations amongst the playable protagonists. Now that’s going above and beyond the call of duty, and is well worth an Aggie for their efforts.

Runners-Up:


Life Is Strange: Before the Storm

The Journey Down: Chapter Three

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Paradigm
 


Next up: Best Sound Effects... the envelope, please!

Best Sound Effects: >observer_


Quick: what does “science fiction” sound like? Bleeps, bloops, and whirs most likely come to mind, right? But just as important as the gee-whiz effects of advanced technology are the sounds of everyday life that continue to feel familiar, even in the most dystopian cyberpunk future. The patter of rain on the window, the low hum of air conditioning, the creaks of an unloved old door opening and closing. Great sci-fi sound design grounds us in a world we know even as it elicits the wildest flights of fancy. Too little of one aspect limits imagination for boundless new possibilities; too little of the other disconnects us from our own shared reality.

Bloober Team’s >observer_ nails this delicate balance between old and new. The apartment complex where most of the action takes place is alive with the kinds of noises we’d expect from a dense urban slum: loud tenants shout from inside their rooms, electrical wiring buzzes as it hangs precariously from the ceiling (surely that can’t be up to code), floors that haven’t been reinforced in decades croak achingly underfoot. But amidst that mundane backdrop are the chunky, analog chittering of your scanner, the loud distortion of barely-functioning intercoms, and the distant ambient whine of passing air-cars. And then you hack into people’s minds, where the real nightmare begins with a horrifying soundscape that mixes industrial screeching, electronic glitches, and raw human despair. 2084 Poland is not a pleasant place to live, but it sure sounds great. For crafting a memorable, terrifying, and above all, aurally believable future world, >observer_ wins our 2017 Aggie for Best Sound Effects. [Cue applause.]

Runners-Up:


The Sexy Brutale

RiME

Stories Untold

Detention
 


Readers’ Choice: Thimbleweed Park


As always, the big winner here is really “no answer.” It’s an annual reminder of how much we take for granted the audio backdrops to our gaming experiences, just as we do in real life. (When was the last time you consciously listened to the ambient noises around you every day?) Lots of games give short-shrift to sound effects as a result, but when done right they are a subtle but vital component of world-building, like the plentiful archaic tech devices in 1987 Thimbleweed Park: the staticky howls of a dial-up modem connection; tootles and dings from the Tron-3000 machines; hums when gadgets work, zaps when they’re disabled, and beeps as they crash. Other realism-inducing sounds include the click of a microwave door, the chime as an elevator passes a floor, a crackling flame on the diner’s grill, the loud spittle-twangs of death-dealing lasers, and even the hurling blech of vomit (hey, we didn’t say they were all pleasant sounds!). For making us so willing to suspend disbelief in the offbeat world of Thimbleweed Park, dingdingding our readers have a winner!

Runners-Up:


Detention

>observer_

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm

The Journey Down: Chapter Three
 


Next up: The Silver Aggies... the envelope, please!

The Silver Aggies


Every year there are some excellent games that fall just a little short of reaching the podium for various awards, either finishing as a runner-up or barely missing the finals entirely. And there are others that aren’t even eligible for one reason or another, despite rating very highly among AG staff. With so many awesome games to choose from, it’s easy for these close-but-not-quites to fall through the cracks, and that would be a shame. So while our Silver Aggies may not have precisely the same lustre of our golden statuettes, these bonus categories are another chance to acknowledge the best of the rest – impressive new releases, all, that are no less worthy of any adventure gamer’s attention.
 


Best VR Adventure: Lone Echo


While 2016 marked VR’s coming-out party, 2017 brought us the first truly mature virtual reality originals. Games of all genres have been scrambling to find what does and doesn’t work in this new medium, and many have succeeded to varying degrees, but Lone Echo is one of the few so far to feel like it has all pieces. The way it handles interaction and locomotion is nothing short of a revelation. In allowing players to reach out and grab anything, and to use that to move through the world, developer Ready at Dawn have not only solved the problems of continuity and motion sickness in VR, but they’ve created the most tangible world in all of gaming. Add to this a surprisingly intimate story about two crew members, some truly lavish production values, and a vast open world to explore, and you have perhaps VR’s first truly essential title. Virtual reality adventures may be a niche-within-a-niche, but no conversation about the year’s best titles would be complete without Lone Echo mentioned prominently.

 

Best Japanese Adventure: Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony


While it may seem odd to single out a particular culture for recognition, there’s no question that Japanese adventure games are something of an acquired taste. Though typically featuring familiar genre traits like mysteries to solve in unusual settings filled with casts of wonderfully colourful characters, when these elements are steeped in the over-the-top world of anime and manga from an Eastern mindset, some delightful, unforgettable, and occasionally bewildering experiences result. Take Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, the superlative third entry in a series renowned for its bizarre killing-game courtroom battles. While by no means breaking new ground, its roster of competing student protagonists (and villains) marks the high point of the franchise so far, complemented by a beautiful art style and musical score, enough twists and turns to keep players guessing until the very end, and gameplay packed so full of activities that you’ll still be going strong 30 hours in. It’s weird, it’s wild, it’s like nothing you’ll see from Western developers, and for that we are pleased to acknowledge it as the best in its class for 2017.

 

Best Episodic Debut: Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth


Daedalic's decision to adapt The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett's much-loved epic historical novel, into a three-part point-and-click adventure seemed to be an overly ambitious quest, but a remarkable first “Book” went a long way in allaying our fears. Filled with a visual sense of breathtaking wonder at the hand-painted medieval architecture of 12th century England, accompanied by an inspiringly beautiful original soundtrack from the FILMHarmonic Orchestra of Prague, and populated with an impressive number of superbly voiced characters, the debut installment offers an interactive experience of exceptional quality that lives up to the towering legacy of one of the truly great modern works of fiction. Although light on puzzling, it remains true to its source material and yet still manages to introduce elements of player choice that allow for genuine moments of uncertainty, always a difficult feat for adapted material. There is more of the story left to come, but there's no question that the first part of The Pillars of the Earth came as one of the most welcome surprises in 2017. 

 

Best Episodic Finale: The Dream Machine: Chapter 6


Though it may have taken longer than first expected, what started way back in 2010 finally reached its rewarding conclusion in 2017 when Anders Gustafsson and Erik Zaring released their sixth and final chapter of The Dream Machine, closing the book on a momentous undertaking. There’s good reason it took so long, of course. What makes this series stand out from the rest is immediately apparent thanks to the indie Swedish studio’s unwavering commitment to hand-crafting each episode using clay, cardboard, and other raw materials, then meticulously filming it all with stop-motion animation. With a story delving themes of the subconscious mind, each chapter has taken on a wholly unique atmosphere, as protagonist Victor Neff visits the surreal dream worlds of his family and neighbours in an effort to save his wife and the other denizens of his apartment complex via traditional point-and-click adventurey goodness. With The Journey Down already receiving one of our main awards, offering a well-deserved Silver Aggie to The Dream Machine was a no-brainer as Best Episodic Farewell. If you’ve missed this impressive series so far, there’s no further excuse now that it’s complete!

 

Best Rerelease, Port or Remake: Full Throttle Remastered


C’mon, like there was really any doubt? Tim Schafer’s Full Throttle first rode onto the scene back in 1995, telling a unique story about a gang of bikers who find themselves mixed up in a desolate world of grit, corruption and murder. Over two decades later, this cherished LucasArts classic returned, complete with an impressive audio-visual overhaul. Every single scene has been repainted, smoothing out previously jagged pixel edges and pushing away the image borders to offer glorious 4K support of those shadowy canyon roads and seedy bars. The already superb vocals by Roy Conrad, Mark Hamill and co. are now even crisper, and the background music was rerecorded by the legendary Peter McConnell. Add in concept art, developer’s commentary and the ability to switch between the original and new versions, and you’ve got the complete package. This is the kind of care and respect we expect from remakes of our beloved favourites of yesteryear, as Full Throttle Remastered easily outraced the year’s competition.

 

Best Text Revivals: Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way, Stories Untold


It's easy to think of text adventures as things of the past, relics of gaming’s earliest days with mazes of twisty little passages (all alike), terse responses, and parsers that struggled to understand anything more complicated than "TAKE KEY". But for those who experienced them back in their heyday, they've never been forgotten and are still remembered fondly. That includes Bob Bates, of Infocom and Legend Entertainment fame, who returned to his roots this year with his latest tale of magic and mayhem and showed that he hasn’t lost his touch. Like a postcard from an alternate universe where Interactive Fiction continued to thrive commercially, Thaumistry: In Charm’s Way neatly showcases what can still be achieved, and does so with wit, eloquence, and even a social conscience. There's a detailed, vivid world to explore and tricky but fair puzzles built around a parser that's far more flexible than a graphical interface. Not to mention set pieces that would have taken millions to animate and more one-liners than you might have thought possible. It may not be an epic blockbuster to herald in a second Golden Age of text, but it most definitely is an endearing, challenging reminder of why it sometimes pays to take the road less travelled.

Unlike Thaumistry, No Code’s Stories Untold is anything but old-school, despite its hazy retro aesthetic. In fact, the game’s biggest trick is making you believe the blatant 1980s backdrop is purely superficial. Opening with a familiar-feeling text adventure displayed on a CRT screen, it’s easy to enter the experience anticipating just another cozy nostalgia trip. When this facade peels away, however, what lies beneath is a thrilling and compelling mystery that stands on its own ideas and merits. Billed as a “compilation tape” of four short chapters, each tale feels unique and brings something new to discover, before ultimately combining to form a cohesive, wonderfully surprising whole. The actual text experience may be fairly rudimentary, but Stories Untold manages to flicker and beep in all the right ways to evoke fond memories of yesteryear, while at the same time feeling modern, thought provoking and very, very clever.

 

Best Kept Secrets: Detention, Four Last Things


Perhaps because of its innocuous-sounding title, or maybe because gamers just don’t know what to make of side-scrolling adventures, Red Candle’s Detention was one of the best hidden gems of 2017. With its unique political backdrop of 1960s Taiwan (during the turbulent period known as the “White Terror”), this psychological thriller presents an atmospheric horror story that feels like a dark fever dream with heavy elements of Eastern mysticism. Skillfully blending haunting visuals and sounds with a deeply layered narrative and some clever puzzles, the result is an immensely compelling adventure in the vein of another cult favourite, The Cat Lady. Though it may not have generated the hype of other games upon release, don’t let it escape your attention for good, as it’s an incredible slice of deep horror that belongs near the top of every genre fan’s must-play list.

While death, eternal judgment, heaven and hell might seem like sombre topics for an adventure, Joe Richardson’s Four Last Things succeeds marvelously at bringing the laughs throughout his Monty Python-esque indie masterpiece. The witty, well-written script pokes fun at religious bureaucracy and moralism while sending players on a madcap sinning spree around a medieval European town in hopes of finding forgiveness at the end of their journey. The acerbic humor and collection of memorable Seven Deadly Sins-themed puzzles combine for gameplay that’s both logical and absurd in equal measure. Holding it all together is a distinctive collage-based art style, in which elements of Renaissance era paintings are mixed, matched, and animated to create a visual cornucopia of unusual scenes and characters. It may have been largely overlooked among the year’s higher-profile releases, but Four Last Things stands out as one of the year’s best point-and-click surprises.

 

Best Not-Adventurey-Enough Adventure: What Remains of Edith Finch


Is there such a thing as a family curse? One destined to visit tragedy upon one generation after another until none finally remain? This question is at the crux of Giant Sparrow’s poignant but always utterly engaging What Remains of Edith Finch. It’s a memorable journey through the eponymous protagonist’s secluded childhood home, in which each room serves as the backdrop for a separate tale of Edith’s many relatives. You’re not just looking through journals and possessions left behind to piece together their histories. Instead, such items transport you directly into their (former) owners’ fateful experiences, drawing you into each person’s story as seen from their personal points of view. These diverse vignettes range from assuming the form of different animals to a spine-tingling thriller told through the panels of a retro-styled comic book. You’ll be stunned that simply playing on a swing set, flying a kite, or even taking a playful bath with rubber toys can tempt the will of the fates in this grievously unfortunate family. The best episodes meld gorgeous and surreal imagery with moving stories of love and loss. A lack of puzzles puts it squarely in the realm of pure interactive storytelling, but this accursed family history is told in such an imaginative and beautiful way that any genre fan will want to explore it, and it’s guaranteed to stick with you long after the game has ended. It may not be an “adventure game” by strict definition, but it’s absolutely Aggie-worthy and not to be missed.
 


Next up: Best Non-Traditional Adventure... the envelope, please!

Best Non-Traditional Adventure: The Sexy Brutale


While the meaning of “non-traditional” can be debatable, there’s no question that Tequila Works’ and Cavalier Game Studios’ The Sexy Brutale perfectly fits the bill. In fact, this odd isometric thriller is so different from the norm that it managed to fly largely under the radar of too many adventure gamers. Those who took the chance, however, were immediately drawn in and captivated by its unique premise, stylish execution, and haunting staying power. Assuming the role of Lafcadio Boone, players attend a masquerade ball at the titular casino mansion. It proves to be a killer party in a very literal sense, and Boone is forced to continually relive the same twelve hour timespan – playing out over the course of twelve real-time minutes – after receiving a mysterious time-controlling mask by the sanguine lady known as the Bloody Girl. The protagonist’s task is to rescue the other costumed guests, who, one by one, are all lured to their deaths via devious means, over and over again each time the clock resets.

While it may sound repetitive, The Sexy Brutale is fast-paced and can be completed in just a few sittings. The challenge is minimal, but this is to the game’s advantage, as there’s little standing in the way of constantly discovering a new room or laying bare a new devilish murder plot to foil. Each guest presents a unique narrative puzzle that must be unraveled, first figuring out where, when, and how they meet their end, then working out a way to stop it from happening… and here’s the catch: it all has to be accomplished unseen behind the scenes, without directly interacting with anyone. By the end, all threads weave together into a satisfying overarching tale, but the journey itself is the real joy here, accompanied by some truly lovely sprite-based visuals and an amazing jazzpunk soundtrack that’s equal parts relaxing and emotionally stirring. No, it’s not like any other adventure game you’ve ever played, but don’t let that deter you! In terms of captivating anthology-style storytelling artistry, combined with an engaging gameplay hook, The Sexy Brutale is easily one of the most refreshing, must-play adventures of 2017. And for that, it’s the Aggie Award winner for Best Non-Traditional Adventure.

Runners-Up:


Gorogoa

Last Day of June

Lone Echo

Stories Untold
 


Readers’ Choice: The Sexy Brutale


No argument here! The Sexy Brutale may have lost the battles for Best Concept to Gorogoa, but it won the both AG staff and reader wars for Best Non-Traditional Adventure. This unique and undeniably charming murder mystery won us all over with its Clue-like 1920s vibe, slick isometric presentation, jazzy soundtrack, stylish characters, time-looping paranormal plot and user-friendly stealth mechanics. Solving murders is fun, but preventing murders is even more so, and each new rescue unlocks additional abilities and areas to explore, ensuring players keep coming back for “just one more.” It’s a little alarming just how many readers didn’t nominate a single non-traditional adventure this year, so we encourage those who hesitate to take the plunge to give this Aggie winner a try. (And when you love it to death, there are four more recommendations after that!)

Runners-Up:


Gorogoa

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

A Normal Lost Phone
 


Next up: Best Traditional Adventure... the envelope, please!

Best Traditional Adventure: Thimbleweed Park


In case you’ve been stuck in a mansion of maniacs for the past 30 years, you probably already know that Thimbleweed Park (the game) is the creation of genre legends Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, a hilarious riff on classic adventures that takes quirkiness to an all-new level. Set in Thimbleweed Park (the village), a decidedly offbeat outpost in the American heartland that has seen better days, this is about as “traditional” as an adventure game gets. Not only does it resurrect the point-and-click SCUMM interface the two developers co-created decades ago, it presents a host of character-swapping, head-scratching puzzles to solve and wraps it in a foot-tapping, gloriously retro-styled aesthetic – although one modernized for today’s hi-definition displays.

Like its forebear, Thimbleweed Park doesn’t have just one or two playable protagonists but a whopping FIVE, each with their own distinct personality, including a pair of investigators with hidden agendas, a bespectacled geek determined to be a game developer, an out-of-his-element ghost, and Ransome the rough-edged, fluently-[beeping] clown. And that’s just the ones you play. The town itself is home to a rapidly decreasing population of oddballs, many of them amusingly disguised: Groucho Marx glasses mask many a stealthy face, a young man poses as a slice of pizza, and the plumbers are dressed like pigeons. At ThimbleCon ’87 (a “Nerd and Geek Convention”) we’re introduced to a baby Batman and wannabe Star Trek groupies, and even Ron Gilbert showing off his victory dance moves. One particularly mysterious character tries to conceal his identity through local yokel verbal tics. The humorous writing ensures an ongoing source of chuckle-inducing banter, and the voice-overs are superbly suited to this eclectic cast of misfits.

Full of deep perspective and intricate detail, the landscapes feature a sumptuous color palette, from vivid neon to gorgeous pastel sunset tones, and simple animations keep the world lively. Whimsical elements add personality: the smiley-face stain on the bathroom mirror, the Albert Einstein poster in Delores’s room, the hotel’s bizarre cowgirl-with-a-headless-swamp-creature fountain, and many more. The background score, meanwhile, ranges from southern-noir guitar to jaunty carnival tunes, often seamlessly transitioning between styles.

Interactions take place via vintage LucasArts-style verbs at the bottom of the screen. Corporeal characters can Open, Look at, Talk to, and Push, but Franklin the ghost is able to Moan, Chill, Blow on, and Zap. Many of the puzzles have multiple steps, and clever challenges include filling up the various Tron machines with highly processed inventory goodies, insulting a circus audience, making sure certain people contract food poisoning, getting into a mad inventor’s crypt, and picking up pixel dust. Okay, the latter isn’t exactly a puzzle, but it is strangely satisfying. The unapologetically old-school approach does make some concessions to the modern gamer, mind you, like the character journals and a telephone hint system. The game even generously allows you to select from two difficulty levels at the start.

Of course, there’s also a complex murder mystery going on. And though Senior Agent Ray claims that even the best adventure games “often contain overly contrived stories that make no sense,” that is not the case here. While understanding may feel teasingly out of reach for much of the game, all the narrative strands eventually come together and click in an impressive, surprising way.

Drawing heavily on adventure game classicism, Thimbleweed Park fabulously embellishes it while at the same time playfully blowing a raspberry in that direction. For its brilliance in redefining the boundaries of retro-inspired art by making every single pixel count, for keeping us in stitches while leaving us guessing, and for making us puzzle our way past every new obstacle over the course of a meaty 15-plus hours of play time, we can do nothing else but tap Thimbleweed Park as our Best Traditional Adventure of 2017. Welcome back, Ron and Gary!

Runners-Up:


Paradigm

XING: The Land Beyond

The Journey Down: Chapter Three

Detention
 


Readers’ Choice: Thimbleweed Park


Those of us who’ve been around since the beginning of graphic adventures (and plenty more who came along later) agree that Thimbleweed Park aces all that’s familiar about the genre, while brilliantly updating it for today’s discriminating audience. Vintage pixel art graphics are awash in colourful, gorgeously-lit HD splendour. The interface hearkens back to the Golden Era but with smoother ease-of-use and charmingly whimsical options. The story may seem ordinary at first, but the mystery immediately morphs into something odd, deeply sinister, yet still hilarious. And that’s just scratching the surface. For taking us back to our roots and reminding us just how relevant the best point-and-click conventions can be in the right hands, Thimbleweed Park stands alone as Best Traditional Adventure for readers as well as staff.

Runners-Up:


The Journey Down: Chapter Three

XING: The Land Beyond

The Darkside Detective

Paradigm
 


Next up: The moment of truth… Best Adventure of 2017... the envelope, please! (Rest assured, we read only the correct envelopes here.)

Best Adventure of 2017: Thimbleweed Park


They just don’t make ‘em like they used to… sometimes when they try, they make ‘em even better.

More than three decades ago, a couple of unknown dudes named Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick teamed up at Lucasfilm Games to make a multi-character, puzzle-filled, non-linear adventure, and created a whole new verb-based, point-and-click control scheme named for the game (the SCUMM acronym stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion). Like many innovators, the result wasn’t nearly as refined as others would go on to be, but the game seriously reshaped what adventure games could be and helped usher the genre into its Golden Age of popularity.

But that was then and this this is now, and never the twain shall meet, right? Well, hold on. Thanks to the (rapidly fading) miracle of Kickstarter, in 2014 Gilbert and Winnick reunited at long last for another adventure called Thimbleweed Park. Slyly promising “the best adventure game you never played in 1987,” it was to be a pure throwback in most respects, yet updated with current features. The ultimate goal was to not only give players the same experience they had back then, but the experience they remember having.

Bold claims… and yet that’s exactly what they delivered! Thimbleweed Park truly feels like a return to the genre’s halcyon days. At a time when most adventure are getting shorter and simpler and increasingly streamlined, Gilbert and Winnick unapologetically created a substantial, highly amusing player experience with rich interaction, expansive open-world environments to explore, overlapping objectives, a multi-layered murder mystery to uncover, unique characters both to play as and converse with, and a serious lack of hand-holding in solving the many puzzles encountered. A few rough edges aside, this is point-and-click adventure gaming, baby!

Fortunately, the designers didn’t go back 30 years technologically. Sure, the game is still presented in a deliberately retro style, but these ain’t your parents’ pixels. The artwork is beautiful here in all its high-resolution glory, the many environs generously animated along the way. The various voices are wonderfully performed and the score is diverse, seamlessly transitioning to enhance the different atmospheres in this unsettling town and its ever-dwindling population of 80.

Thimbleweed Park isn’t a perfect game – what game is? – but there’s really nothing it doesn’t do well. (It may not have won many of the previous individual staff awards, but it seriously contended for most!) We’re very conscious here at Adventure Gamers of NOT over-glorifying a rose-coloured past, but this game would have stood proudly among its SCUMM-era peers – not all the way back to the hardware-challenged 1987, but rather the beloved classics from the early to mid-‘90s. Here in 2017, it’s a welcome nostalgic experience that nevertheless manages to put most of its modern contemporaries to shame. There were definitely some great competitors, but for successfully making everything old (school) new again, Thimbleweed Park earns this year’s top Aggie Award for Best Adventure.

Runners-Up:


The Sexy Brutale

Paradigm

XING: The Land Beyond

Gorogoa
 


Readers’ Choice: Thimbleweed Park


Whaaaaat? Thimbleweed Park, you say? Never saw that coming! Well, okay, as experienced adventure gamers well-versed in piecing together cryptic clues, perhaps we had an inkling that the winner of a whopping seven previous awards would walk home with the grand reader prize as well. That and the fact that we fully agree! Cynics might argue we’re all stuck in the past, but where other genre legends returned to the fold and couldn’t fully recapture the old magic, Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick managed to meet our expectations and then exceed them. Thimbleweed Park would be on a short list of top games any year, and this year it’s number one with a bullet (quite literally). Ladies and gentlemen, your Best Adventure Game of 2017.

Runners-Up:


The Journey Down: Chapter Three

XING: The Land Beyond

The Darkside Detective

Life Is Strange: Before the Storm
 


At last the curtain closes on another Aggie Awards presentation. Before we go, we would like to express our gratitude to ALL the hard-working developers who made the year so much fun, and to our community for participating in our reader poll (and of course, for continuing to follow and support the genre here at Adventure Gamers).

After an unprecedented number of new releases in 2017, we’d like to take a break, but already 2018 beckons with no signs of slowing down. And so we must end the frivolity and bid you all adieu so we can get back to work!

Glad you tuned in, and we hope you enjoyed the event. Same time next year?

Final Notes


To be eligible, a game must have been launched through digital distribution, self-published online, or commercially released for the first time in either North America or the United Kingdom in the calendar year 2017.

Any series designed to be episodic in nature that was completed in 2017 is eligible, even if the series was begun earlier. Conversely, any series that was begun in 2017 but not yet completed is ineligible. Exceptions include The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle, The Dream Machine and The Journey Down, whose previous individual episodes were deemed eligible when each series debuted and have been grandfathered in under the original system.

Ports and remakes of commercial games are disqualified from contention, though updated re-releases of former freeware games are eligible.

To ensure total impartiality, no one involved in voting was permitted to nominate any game with which they were involved outside of official Adventure Gamers press coverage.

 

Complete list of eligible games


Contributors to the writing of this article include: Jack Allin, Nathaniel Berens, Ben Chandler, Evan Dickens, Drummond Doroski, Travis Fahs, Cynthia Gary, Joe Keeley, Peter Mattsson, Merlina McGovern, Emily Morganti, K R Parkinson, Todd Rigney, Pascal Tekaia, Elliott Thomas and Becky Waxman.

The Aggie Award was designed by Bill Tiller.