AdventureX 2022 – Round-up

When I left another enjoyable AdventureX in 2019, I expected to be back again the following year. Unfortunately, for reasons that will be obvious to everyone, the convention has not been able to take place for the last two years. The event's camaraderie was kept alive with Game Jams and online video chats, but it wasn't the same as meeting in person. 

On Saturday, 5 November, the opportunity arose again. At its new venue, the Stockwell Street building of the University of Greenwich, AdventureX was back. It had not lost any of the charm of previous events; it had managed to come back bigger and better. With a new capacity of 600, it was a chance to meet friends and connect with fans of the adventure genre. 

There were also an eye-watering 22 games being exhibited across three rooms. With exhibiting now being so popular, games are vetted beforehand, and it was no surprise that every one was a quality production. It was still amazing to see the huge variety on offer. Art styles ranged from early console retro to detailed 3D. Stories covered horror, comedy, westerns and fantasy, among other genres. Controls made use of game controllers, keyboards and mouse. With some already released and some to look forward to in the future, these are the games that were on display. 

Rosewater

Harley Leger steps off the train in the remote western town of Rosewater in Western Vespuccia. She is there as a writer, looking to take on a job at the local paper. Her first impression of the town is not favourable, with a pair of pickpockets trying to trick her out of her wallet. But neither this, nor the man flying out of a window in front of her at the newspaper office, is enough to put her off. Her first assignment, to interview a local entertainer, seems dull. Little does she know what is around the corner. 

Francisco Gonzalez, also known as Grundislav, is a well-established indie game developer. This game is set in the same world as his last game, Lamplight City, with the lead character being the sister of a character from that game. The grand urban setting of that game is replaced by the dusty streets of a frontier town. The graphics have the same high-quality late LucasArts-style of his previous game. The rough buildings sell the setting of a classic Western town, and the characters are all smoothly animated.

The game is also fully voiced, with Francisco having managed to secure an all-star voice cast putting on top-notch performances. Using traditional point-and-click controls, he has yet to skimp on the gameplay either. Players can go directly to the newspaper office or explore the town first, with conversations and events playing out slightly differently depending on what route you choose. Player choice will have a long-term impact on the game, with your relationship with the companions you acquire set to change the third act significantly.

Rosewater can be found on Steam and is expected to be released in the near future. 

 

Loco Motive

Arthur Ackerman, an estate lawyer, was only expecting to deal with a change of will for Lady Unterwald. Even being invited on her train for the meeting and being asked to change into a bright blue jacket did not throw him off much. However, just before announcing her new inheritance plans, Lady Unterwald is killed when the train enters a dark tunnel. Having lost the paperwork showing the changes, Arthur has to investigate to find out what her plans were and possibly unmask a murderer.

Robust Games, co-founded by brothers Joseph and Adam Riches, offer a comedic retro adventure. The main art style is retro pixel art with a 2.5D presentation. Moving along the train that is the primary setting, the player can shift left and right, but broader mobility is available in various rooms. Animations are adroit, with character expressions still clearly visible despite the limited detail in the faces. Cutscenes have a more detailed cartoon style, giving more depth to both the characters and the setting. The game isn't voiced but includes a nice variety of sound effects, with the ongoing thunderstorm the train is racing through proving a particular highlight. Despite the central murder plot, the tone is light-hearted. Arthur, sporting a huge quiff, is clearly out of his depth. He only starts investigating because his carelessness with the new will resulted in it getting blown out into the storm. Herman Merman, a crime writer who thinks that makes him a detective, will also be a playable character. Left-click is used to move/interact, and right-click examines hotspots. Using these controls, I took cruel advantage of a guard's allergies and thwarted the plans of a casino cheat.

Loco Motive can be found on Steam and is expected to be released next year.

 

Backfirewall_

As a smartphone update assistant, you have one purpose: to update the OS for a phone. Not everybody is happy with this idea, most notably OS 9 who is not keen on being replaced. At first, it seems that this will not be an issue, with OS 9's attempts to thwart you proving easy to evade. However, when you find out what completing the update means, you find that allying with OS 9 might be your best choice after all. 

Naraven Games present a surreal adventure set in a device most of us carry daily. The comedic tone of the game is shown from the outset. OS 9 is only too happy to guide you through the audio setup for the game before he finds out what you are. The character is fully voiced, with a genial comedic tone that reminded me of Wheatley in the early parts of Portal 2. Once you complete this, OS 9 finds out what you are. This takes you out of the low-resolution menu of the opening and into the realistic, if bizarre, setting of the full game. Shelves and boxes look normal, but OS 9 is a floating eye above a suit and cloak combination. There are also numerous “log” files, their branch-like shape mirrored in USB sticks available on the day. Using a controller or keyboard and mouse, you will negotiate this world in the first person. Getting close to an item or button allows you to interact directly with it. Having got OS 9 temporarily out of the way, the update protocol leads you through a series of mini-games that teach you important controls for later. The final action starts a process to destroy you, which you can abort with OS 9's remote help. From there, you head down into the bowels of the phone, seeking to save everything and yourself.

The demo for Backfirewall_ is available on Steam, with the full game expected early next year. 

 

Cryptmaster

You find yourself in a dark and dingy dungeon. The Cryptmaster, the ruler of this realm, regretfully informs you that you are dead. If you are to escape these ruined depths, you will need to recover your companions and find a way to appear alive to the guardian of the exit. A maze filled with hostile monsters stands between you and your goal. Can you and your companions recover your powers and defeat your foes? 

Paul Hart and Lee Williams have taken the classic dungeon-crawler genre and given it a new twist. The graphics are purely black and white. Despite the lack of colour, the game is full of detail, from the rough walls of the setting to the horrific glowing-eyed Cryptmaster himself. You view the world in first-person with node-based movement on a square grid. Control is entirely through the keyboard, a necessity for the game's most important feature. You start by simply exploring the surrounding area, soon finding a strange blockage with names on it. Typing those names releases your companions, giving you a total party of four. This consists of you as a warrior, accompanied by a thief, priest, and mage. Each has many actions they can undertake, but you must discover these through typing. As you explore and find items, the letters of those items fill in the blanks next to each character portrait. By guessing and typing the full words, you unlock new skills for each character, with a new word to guess replacing them each time. These become available in combat, earning more letters from monster names. The creepy Cryptmaster comments on your progress in a suitably sepulchral voice, and combat has suitable sound effects. 

Cryptmaster can be wishlisted on Steam, with a hoped-for release next year.

 

PRIM

Prim does not find it easy being Death's teenage daughter. The Land of the Dead is a gloomy place to live, and Death is fiercely overprotective. In particular, he has warned her that she must not go to the Land of the Living, as she is not ready for what will become of her there. But Prim has been having dreams about a boy who is crying out for her help. Locked in her room after an argument, Prim must first find a way to break out. That mysterious box that has appeared next to the window may help.

Common Colours offer a cheerfully comedic tale with a dark premise. The graphics are entirely black and white, hand-drawn with a lot of detail. Prim herself is a small girl with curls of hair sticking out either side of her head and dark eyelids. She is smoothly animated, as are all the other characters in the game. The mysterious box contains a spider-eye, a demon whose body is one big eye. Using left-click to interact and right-click to look, your first task involves catching this elusive creature. This requires several steps as you must remove it from the ceiling and trap it.  The Mousewheel calls up your inventory, where you can find your Swiss army scythe and other items you collect. Once you have caught the creature, you can send it through a crack in the wall to access areas you cannot reach. This section has you controlling the demon instead, with access only to the inventory items it can carry. PRIM is fully voiced with the slightly gravelly voice of a teenage girl. There is also a suitably dramatic backing soundtrack of strings and violins.   

The demo for PRIM can be downloaded from Steam with the full game expected to be available next year. 

 

Midnight Girl

Paris in the 1960s is a land of opportunity for a girl with the right attitude. For tomboy Monique, cat burglary was the name of the game. Unfortunately, her last heist did not go as planned, resulting in her ending up in jail. However, it looks like her fortunes have taken an upward turn as she makes a new friend. Together they escape confinement and set off on an even bigger heist than before. Will their endeavour meet with success, or are they destined to return to prison?

Italic have taken inspiration from Belgian comics and heist films of the 1960s for their game. The art style is pure 2D, with each scene presented from the side. The graphics are a colourful semi-realistic cartoon style reminiscent of the pulp fiction of the past with smooth animation. While the graphics are 2D, doorways in the foreground and background give the map a full 3D shape. The demo covered a chapter in the middle of the game, where the two thieves find themselves in an abandoned metro station. All they need to progress is a bolt cutter, but that will take some doing. For example, a wire that electrifies a flooded corridor between it and the generator makes powering a door more difficult. Clicking with the mouse moves the character around, with action icons appearing when you walk next to hotspots. When you pick up an object, a close-up and description appear on-screen. From there items move to the bottom of the screen, where they can be selected to use on other hotspots or on each other. There are no voices, but a wealth of sound effects including creaking hinges and the protagonist's footsteps.

The demo for Midnight Girl can be downloaded from Steam with the full game expected to be available early next year. 

 

Albert Wilde: Quantum P.I. 

Albert Wilde is a Private Investigator down on his luck in the uncaring city. His landlord is on his back, he is in debt to some shady characters, and the police are tired of his antics. With his gambling habit not giving him the money he needs, Albert is in need of a lucky break. Then an article in a newspaper gives him hope. A strange body has been discovered in a warehouse, and a hefty award is available to whoever can solve the mystery. Albert is on the case in the way only a man with a cat's head can be. 

Beyondthosehills have created a classic film noir game with a surreal difference. From the opening titles, the tone is embraced, the titles mirroring those of 1940s black and white films. The black and white grainy film tone carries over into the main game. Despite that, the graphics are detailed 3D, looking entirely realistic apart from the animal motif. Every character is human in shape, apart from the head. As well as the feline Albert, you will meet a bird-like newspaper vendor and a moose-headed backstreet money lender. Albert's inner monologue is fully voiced in the gritty noir detective style. Appropriate animal sounds represent spoken dialogue sounds, with subtitles showing what is being said. Without giving away the surprise, Albert finds something very odd when he inspects the body, suggesting that the animal heads are just the start of this game's weirdness. 

The demo for Albert Wilde: Quantum P.I. is available on Steam. The full game is expected to be out next year. 

 

Arctic Awakening

You awaken to find yourself lost in a snowy landscape. Things do not look good for you with no shelter and a blizzard raging. At least you have your court-mandated therapy bot with you, though its lack of survival systems will limit its assistance. Things seem bleak with your crashed plane never able to fly again and your companion, Donovan, lost elsewhere in the wilderness. Will you find out what sliced your plane in half and escape back to civilisation?

GoldFire Studios present us with a first-person fight for survival. The game is rendered near realistically in 3D with you viewing the world from a first person perspective. The cold wilderness in which you find yourself trapped is covered in thick drifts, while your slow progress is backed by howling wind and crunching snow. The camera angle wobbles slightly to match your tough passage, with the character you play occasionally putting his hand up to shelter his face from the wind. Your robotic companion is a flying orb with arms and a cheery demeanour. Its helpfulness is limited both by its lack of practical systems and its unalterable instruction to stay close. You, the robot, and your colleague, who you contact via radio, are fully voiced to a tiptop standard. Exploring the landscape reveals the wreckage of the front half of your plane. You then have to find a way to get a fire started; a task made more difficult by all nearby wood being damp from snow. Once you have resolved this issue, you will need to find your lost companion and try to find a way home together. 

The demo for Arctic Awakening is available on Steam, with the full game due next year.

 

DEVOTIONALIA

You are the high priest of a lost cult. While you have a room full of young acolytes to train, you are the last to know the full rites. It is up to you to gather the needed sacred items and perform the required actions. Will you carve a votive, lead a prayer or make a sacrifice? Whatever you do, you must ensure you do it properly, for you feel the eyes of your ancient master on you. 

G. C. “Grim” Baccaris offers a grim tale in a narrow environment. The game is almost entirely presented in text. This is supplemented by blurred pictures in the background of the text depicting a bleak world and occasionally detailed close-ups of items involving certain choices. The lack of high resolution images does not take away from the setting, with the descriptions being more than enough to evoke the scene. This is helped by the ominous choral music that plays throughout. You progress through the game by clicking hyperlinks in the text. Some simply propel you forward through the story whereas others allow you to change the text. These latter choices alter your immediate actions and can affect the later game. The tone is downbeat, with the main character feeling like an older man who remembers better days. There are also snatches of description that hint at a larger world beyond the small location you occupy. The developer has used an ancient history degree and interest in archaeology to good effect. Fans of FailBetter Games will also feel their influence here.

DEVOTIONALIA can be played online on the developer's itch.io page

 

Ghost on the Shore

For Riley, a simple boating trip turns into a fight for survival when a wild storm sweeps in. All looks lost until an island appears through the gloom. Even steering into that could have been a disaster, were it not for an odd occurrence. As the boat approaches the shore, a disembodied voice guides Riley into a relatively safe mooring. Now Riley finds herself stuck on a remote island, fearing that she is losing her sanity as the voice continues to come out of nowhere. 

Like Charlie presents an unusually gentle tale of the supernatural. The presentation is first-person 3D, with a fully detailed and realistic environment. You start on a small boat with a cabin and a deck area. Soon you will find yourself exploring a large island, though the ruined houses indicate it has been long abandoned. The mouse is used to look around and interact, with WASD employed for moving. Exploration is the main order of the day, with a long path leading away from the broken-down quay where you moor up. Objects can be picked up and rotated using the mouse to examine them thoroughly. Some items you will take with you, such as the tapes you can play in your portable player and other items you will leave behind. Riley automatically takes notes in a journal as you go along, allowing you to recap what you have discovered. Riley and the mysterious voice, which calls itself Josh, are fully and competently voiced. Later exploration will reveal ghost memories of the island, and how you choose to interact with Josh will change your relationship. 

The demo of Ghost on the Shore, as well as the full game, is available on Steam

 

Sonority

Esther has spent many weeks searching for an ancient school on a mission to find a way to help a friend. Coming across some decaying ruins, she finds the stones react to music in unusual ways. As she explores the vast broken buildings, she realizes she is not the only one there. Strange stone heads that hum melodically and a raccoon that seems less than pleased to see her there inhabit this place. Can she master the ancient magic? 

Hanging Gardens Interactive has built a game with a simple central premise and varied applications. The game is primarily presented in a realistic 3D isometric style, with slight simplifications of the character models. The ruins have clearly seen better days, the yellow stones riven with cracks and strewn with tangled vines. You navigate the stairs and passageways using a controller or mouse and keyboard. The main way of progressing is by using magical obelisks to manipulate the environment. You attach musical notes to each one, then tap an activation stone to send a signal through the obelisks to play them. You will need to think about the order in which the notes are played, as this will change the effect they have on the landscape. As you discover more notes, more complex puzzles become available to you. Some later challenges even require you to move a sequence of scales to reach remote areas. As well as the music of the puzzles, Esther and the talking raccoon are well-voiced. There is an optional request to gather a glowing rune that will allow you to unlock messages scattered throughout the game. 

Sonority is available on Steam

 

Mothmen 1966

Lee had the perfect idea for how he would make his girlfriend happy. The Leonid meteor shower is about to happen, and he knows the perfect place out in the woods to watch it. Unfortunately for Lee, there are other things out in the woods tonight. If he's not careful, his planned night of romance could turn into a horrifying fight for their lives instead. 

As part of their Pixel Pulps series, LCB Game Studio have adopted an extremely retro style. The look is early pixel art with a limited colour palette. Despite the lack of detail, the pictures clearly show the scenes and characters, supplemented by the text descriptions. Control is mainly executed by selecting from a list of text options on-screen with mini-game tasks, such as focussing some binoculars to examine a distant figure using other keyboard controls. The background music is similarly retro, with an 8-bit tune backed by a low unsettling hum. Lee's romantic plan soon goes astray, with the local wildlife putting much more than his romantic prospects at risk.The woods are home to more than just typical wildlife, with the characters meeting a writer pursuing rumours of the titular Mothmen. 

Mothmen 1966 is available on Steam with more games from the series to come.

 

The Wreck

Junon is about to have the worst day of her life. Her artist mother, for whom she works as an assistant, has been taken to hospital with a brain aneurysm. Junon finds she has unknowingly been named as “trusted advocate”. This means that she has the power to make medical decisions on her mother's behalf, a task she is ill-prepared for. This is just the start of her troubles, with more disasters coming her way. 

The Pixel Hunt developers are no strangers to AdventureX, having exhibited Bury Me, My Love in 2017. For their new outing, they have adopted slightly stylised full-3D art. The characters look like rotoscoped actors, though I am assured they have been designed from scratch. As well as the hospital setting, we bear witness to a car crash, where loose objects fly around Junon in slow motion. Using a mouse, the essential mechanic is that of a visual novel, with choices often floating around Junon's head instead of being presented as a list at the bottom of the screen. There is also an extended memory sequence. The camera swoops through a series of scenes from a day in Junon's youth. By moving the camera backwards and forwards through the sequence, you have to seek clues to what happened that day. The game is also fully and professionally voiced. 

The demo for The Wreck can be downloaded from Steam. The full game is expected to be released early next year.

 

The Foretold: Westmark Legacy

Herbert Westmark has just received a letter out of the blue. He is heir to the Westmark family fortune and needs to return to Burrmouth to collect his inheritance. The remote village is hard to reach and has a dark reputation. But Herbert is no stranger to the weird and supernatural. A botched exorcism has resulted in him having a constant companion on his travels, the demon Ambrose.

Nodbrim Interactive weave a tale that is dark in more ways than one. The graphics have a gloomy watercolour look, with a rainstorm in twisted woods and hideous creatures awaiting you. The purely narrative portions of the game have a visual novel style. Herbert will converse with his coach driver and demonic companion or examine the great tome of Westmark lore he carries. Soon other challenges will await you. The first involves opening a lock, which is a tutorial for the main mechanic. A series of runes with numbers attached move down the screen. Before each move, you can play a single card to manipulate its position. You can simply move them between columns, combine them or alter their values. The objective is to achieve specific numbers in the bottom row, allowing you to succeed in your task. After the initial challenge, you will find yourself facing creatures that will hurt you if you take too long to achieve your goal. This spooky action is backed up by suitably eerie piano music. The game is also voiced to a good standard, with gruff Howard a stark contrast to the nasally Ambrose.

The demo for The Foretold: Westmark Legacy can be downloaded from Steam. The full game is expected to be out next year.

 

Arcadia Fallen

You enjoy your job as an apprentice in an alchemy shop. Learning how to mix herbs on the rune table to satisfy customers' needs is satisfying. However, you must be careful as history has made people distrustful of those who wield magic in any form. A simple errand to get more supplies turns your world upside down when you encounter a distinctly non-human girl being harassed in an alley. Your intervention results in you being attacked, apparently fatally. But if that is the case, how can you still walk around and what powers does this girl wield that makes that possible?

Galdra Studios present us with a visual novel set in a fantasy realm. The graphics are bright and colourful, with a slightly cartoonish style that is not animated. The characters are well-drawn, with a variety of expressions and postures to match their moods. The backgrounds are detailed, with the alchemy shop full of shelves and the alley being shadowed by the neighbouring buildings. Players can choose to play a male, female or androgynous character. There are also limited options to change the head and clothes of the character, and with two voices also available, the game is fully voiced. Most action is by choosing from a list of options on-screen. Where this is a dialogue line, each sentence will evoke a different mood, affecting how you relate to other characters. The rune table is a mini-game involving turning wheels to move ingredients around, seeking to match a recipe. As well as the fateful encounter, I found hints of more going on, including local woods dying out for no apparent reason. 

Both the demo and full game of Arcadia Fallen are available on Steam

 

Casebook 1899: The Leipzig Murders

As an inspector in the Leipzig police, you are responsible for keeping the local populace safe. You take on varied cases each day, requiring all your skills to resolve them. Today, a simple case of a car crash may actually be something more sinister. You must keep your wits about you as a mixture of evidence comes your way. Will you find the real culprit behind the crime, or will you end up convicting an innocent?

Homo Narrans Studio has taken a series of books written by one of the team and turned them into a game. The final adventure will include four different cases. While each case will be independent of the others, your overall performance as a detective will be judged in the final case. The graphics are a retro style reminiscent of earlier LucasArts games. The game opens with a framing scene, in which the main character is blind. As a result, the scene appears entirely black, with characters and objects flicking in and out of view, emitting noises that make it possible to locate them. Soon the detective arrives, and the day begins with a simple puzzle involving the lost key to an office door which demonstrates the point-and-click controls. Included is an introduction to the notebook mechanic, where you link information to draw new conclusions. This will be a key part of the game, with dialogue and interview notes forming the main focus. The game is currently only voiced in German, but the hope is that other languages may be added. It also has a suitably dramatic orchestral soundtrack.

The demo for Casebook 1899: The Leipzig Murders can be downloaded from Steam. The game is expected to come out next year. 

 

Card Shark

A young man works as a server in a French roadside hostelry. Being entirely mute he is largely ignored by the clientele as he brings them their food and drinks. One patron, the unscrupulous Comte de Saint-Germain, sees the advantage of an accomplice that no one notices, co-opting him into helping Saint-Germain cheat at cards. Unfortunately, their target spots the trick, and the pair have to flee when a stray shot kills the landlady. Now they must roam the countryside, learning new tricks and trying to avoid more trouble. 

Nerial presents the journey across 18th-century Europe of two individuals with somewhat shaky morals. The wider scene is presented in a 2D side-scrolling stylised artistic manner, with most objects and characters composed of rough outlines and broad strokes of colour. The backgrounds have a bit more detail, laying out the  18th-century setting. Close-ups change the camera angle depending on what you are doing, looking over the character's shoulders or seeing cards shuffled. A controller is used to move around and interact with the environment. You will need to push on a stick to carefully judge pouring a glass of wine and signal your conspirator by moving a cloth in specific patterns. Throughout the game you have the opportunity to learn 28 confidence tricks. Starting with spying and signalling you move on to Three-card Monte and trick shuffles. Each trick requires specific actions to succeed, and timing your actions properly is often vital. The game has three difficulty levels, which determine how quickly those you are conning become suspicious of you. 

Card Shark is available on Steam with optional artbook and soundtrack DLC.

 

We'll Always Have Paris

Simon Smith, a retired chef, has been happily married to Claire for fifty years. Sadly, Claire has begun to suffer from memory loss, disrupting their lives. Simon does his best for the woman he still loves. He attempts to maintain a routine for her and seeks out things that will prompt her failing memory. How normal a life will he be able to maintain?

Cowleyfornia Studios offer us a bittersweet tale of a problematic situation. The graphics are highly stylised, with solid blocks of colour laying out the scene and people. Some close-ups of characters include more detail, including the eyes and moustache of the player character looking in a mirror. Control is point-and-click, often selecting from a list of options for your next action. When interacting with the scenery, you will also sometimes drag items as well. Puzzles include piecing together a torn photograph and searching a newspaper archive for articles relevant to you and your wife. As befits the premise, most of the action is relatively mundane with the focus on the story and characters rather than grand set pieces. There is a melancholy overtone to proceedings as Simon tries to remain positive. This is augmented by a slow, sad piano piece that plays in the background. 

We'll Always Have Paris can be found on Steam.

 

Horror Stories: PLEASE COMPLY

With no idea how you got there, you find yourself in a small room. One wall is dominated by a giant monitor, with its opposite covered by a large headshot of a man labelled #7. The only exit is a door with a spyhole, though it appears to be securely locked. Then instructions start appearing on the screen. If you want to get out of this room, following the instructions seems to be your only option. Should you comply?

While short, CMD:Studio's first game in their horror anthology series proves profoundly disturbing. Viewed in first-person perspective, the single room you find yourself in is grim but realistic, with harsh fluorescent lighting. The mouse allows you to look around, while WASD enables you to move around. When you are close enough to an item, clicking the left-mouse button allows you to interact with it. There is a disturbing low-level hum in the background, with the tick of a giant clock and the buzz of the lights adding to the depressing atmosphere. The other main sound you will hear is knocking at the door. Looking through the spyhole when this happens reveals a dark corridor that changes slightly each time. On your return to the room, there will be new items and instructions on the screen. It is difficult to say more about the game from there without spoiling it. I would say that self-harm is a major feature, so this game should be avoided if that triggers you. 

Horror Stories: PLEASE COMPLY can be found on Steam.

 

Chronique des Silencieux

The year is 1965, and 16-year-old Eugene has just arrived in Bordeaux to meet his uncle. But when he gets to his uncle's accommodation, he finds an old lady going through his things instead. This lady is the owner of the building, which is also not a reputable boarding house, and Eugene's uncle is in jail. With nowhere else to go, Eugene hurries to the jail to see if he can get his uncle freed. 

Thus starts Pierre Feuille Studio's adventure, though it expands into a wider detective story. The game is presented in isometric view, with detailed line-drawn scenery coloured in solid blocks. Character animation is smooth, with gestures and animations beyond just walking around. There are also more detailed cutscenes for certain events. Movement and interaction is through a simple point-and-click interface. Classical background music backs up the proceedings. Arriving at the jail, Eugene meets a young detective who asks for help getting his stubborn uncle to open up about some dodgy dealings. Conversations are recorded in a notebook, with little stamps showing the characters you have spoken to. This will prove invaluable later, as piecing together information from various interviews will help you unravel the mysteries you face.

Chronique des Silencieux has a Steam page and its own website. The game is expected to be released early next year. 

 

Phoenix Springs

Iris' brother, Leo, has gone missing. She does not hold out much hope of finding him alive and well, but she still feels it is her duty to look. Tracing his last address, she finds an abandoned building that has been boarded up. An investigation of the neighbourhood seems in order, but is she going to like what she finds?

Calligram Studio offers a near future tale of a sister's search for her siblings. The graphics are highly stylised. While the line drawings of the settings and characters are pretty detailed, the colour is applied in patches. These either highlight part of a scene or cut across large sections, such as a single green patch of vegetation. The lead character is smoothly animated, with some background animations, like vehicles passing on a nearby road. Control is through left-clicking of the mouse. On most areas this simply moves the character around, whereas on hotspots it calls up a menu of possible interactions. The game does not have a traditional inventory, because you gather ideas rather than items. These ideas can be used on other hotspots to query characters or prompt further thoughts. You can even use them on yourself to get hints about what you might do next. Only the lead character is voiced and narrates the story, reporting the dialogue of others rather than having it voiced out loud. While the setting seems mainly contemporary, some technology -- such as a combined mirror/terminal -- implies a futuristic setting. 

Phoenix Springs has a page on Steam and hopes to be released soon.

 

Homunculus Hotel

Homunculus Hotel is no ordinary hotel. Guests in its many rooms get more than just a place to stay. The rooms also allow them to view their dreams. With guidance, individuals can work through their inner thoughts and become stronger. Isabelle, a young woman unable to experience her dreams, works in the hotel to help others navigate theirs. By doing this, she will find her way forward. 

Team SolEtude bring us a gentle visual novel. Using snapshot views, the look is of a soft watercolour with broad strokes of colour only, sometimes matching the outlines of characters and objects. There is a hub that you return to at the end of each day, which is Isabelle's desk. Using basic point-and-click controls, you can look over the things on the desk or choose to visit a guest. In guests' rooms you have conversations with them about their dreams. The rooms themselves embody these dreams, such as a field of corn. There are also simple animations, such as plants blowing in the breeze. Soft music matches the relaxed setting, including a slow Japanese song and an easy-listening piano piece. Throughout the game, you will work through the stories of six different guests.

Homunculus Hotel is available now on Steam. You can also access the demo on the same page if you want to try it out first. 

 

Conclusion

Far from being killed off by the pandemic, AdventureX has come back stronger than ever. It was good to see people again that I had not seen in the three years since the last convention. Viewing the wide variety of games exhibited was even better, showing that my favourite genre is stronger than ever. Here's to next year!