Adventure Gamers - Forums

Galvanic_Spiral—Age of Enigma: The Secret of the Sixth Ghost is on my top ten casuals list. From what I can tell, it didn’t sell as well as the developers had hoped, possibly because of the stylized graphics or possibly because it was just enough ahead of its time to miss finding a fan base. I wonder, if it had an initial release now, instead of two years ago, would it be more successful?

Galvanic_Spiral - 25 August 2013 08:41 PM

I think one of the questions to ask in pursuit of that is “Why have hidden object games become so popular, and games like Age of Enigma not-so-much.”

I admit ignorance of the casual game scene, so are they more popular now than they were two years ago? If so, that would seem to indicate that point-and-clicks in general might have a larger market base than they’ve had for a long time.

And, I’d love your thoughts on why hidden object games have seemed to flood the market in recent years. I’ve always thought that it is born from both the popularity of “hidden-picture”-type puzzle games, and the relative ease of developing such a game.

I have theories based on what I’ve observed—of course I can’t say how close my theories are to reality. Hidden Object games have been selling well, especially on Big Fish, for quite some time. Developers have been adding adventure elements to the original HO mechanic (for instance, inventory item challenges, larger environments, somewhat more complex stories), and these elements seem to be welcomed by casual gamers and have extended the popularity of the genre.

Hidden Object games have maintained their accessibility (point-and-click interface), and they can be played in quick chunks for gamers who have only, say, a half-an-hour here and there to play. They ease frustration by allowing the gamer to skip puzzles that are taking too long to solve. They mostly shy away from arcade-like challenges that require quick reflexes. They have hint systems so gamers aren’t left up the creek wondering what on earth to do next.

If you are a gamer who loves puzzles, HO games provide them much more compactly than adventure games do—sometimes there are as many as two or even three puzzles/challenges per screen.

As for what happened with Age of Enigma: from what I can tell, many of the gamers who play these games are older than the typical gamer. Unlike younger generations, they didn’t grow up with relatively sophisticated stories being told via graphic novels and animated cartoons. Stylized “cartoon-like” graphics with a sophisticated, dark story, like the one in Age of Enigma, may seem odd to them.

Lately, gamers have become satiated by too many traditional “find” list HO games, IMHO. That’s why we’re now seeing more interactivity on HO screens, or the choice to play another type of challenge instead of HOs (jigsaw puzzles, Match 3, etc. as an alternative). Some of the premium HO games offer fewer and fewer HO screens per game. It’s almost as though “Hidden Object” is a brand for everything else about these games, though the HO challenges themselves are less prominent.

I still see casual gamers complain if the HO games become too adventure-like, though. I’ve seen complaints from casual gamers because the environments in a certain game don’t have enough puzzles (fancy that—a screen without a puzzle!). And if the hint system doesn’t eliminate the frustration of not knowing what to do next, casual gamers will ask for more specific hints. Adventure gamers, on the other hand, have been trained to expect that figuring out what to do next is part of the challenge, even when it means lots of wandering about.

Have I (sort of) answered your questions?

rtrooney - 27 August 2013 08:42 PM

I think the “older gamer”, and I am certainly one of those, grew up in a gaming era that would be far more accepting of a game such as Age of Enigma than would those of a younger generation.

Intriguing. Do you think “older gamers” would be more accepting of Age of Enigma’s graphics than would a younger generation? Or would they be more accepting of some other aspect of the game than would a younger generation? And why?

TimovieMan - 30 August 2013 12:15 PM

rtrooney - 29 August 2013 06:44 PM

classified as an “older gamer.”

I’ve a feeling you’re mostly referring to “experienced gamers”. I’m not sure, but I think Becky meant it more along the lines of “older people who are relatively new at gaming” instead.
Big difference, imo.

Yes, I should have drawn a distinction between older gamers and experienced or longtime gamers.

rtrooney - 29 August 2013 06:44 PM

Becky - 29 August 2013 10:35 AM

Intriguing. Do you think “older gamers” would be more accepting of Age of Enigma’s graphics than would a younger generation? Or would they be more accepting of some other aspect of the game than would a younger generation? And why?

I started playing games on an RBG monitor on an 8088 machine. The graphics in Age of Enigma are stunning by comparison. Ditto the gameplay. I was unaware of the concept of hint buttons and skip options until I started playing casual games. So the gameplay in Age of Enigma is quite familiar, as it would be for anyone who would be classified as an “older gamer.”

By “older gamers” I meant people in, say the Baby Boomer generation, with “younger gamers” being people in say, the Millennial generation. Longtime gamers (and this is a fairly arbitrary definition) are those who have been playing games for a decade or more. You could be a Millennial and still be a longtime gamer, or a Boomer and be relatively new to gaming (I would say that this is actually fairly common).

One reason that I suspect that the stylized graphics might have been an issue for Age of Enigma is that many gamers I know who are from the Boomer generation have mentioned to me that they much prefer “photorealistic” graphics and hesitate to buy games with “cartoon” graphics. Though some Millennials undoubtedly also have these same preferences, I have never heard a Millennial express this particular opinion. Admittedly, “gamers-I-know” is a small sample compared to the millions of gamers out there, but that is my experience. I’ve also seen casual gamers commenting on a stylized Hidden Object game, saying that they first assumed that the game was for children because of the “cartoon” graphics and were surprised to discover that the game contained dark themes.

rtrooney - 27 August 2013 08:42 PM

While I agree with 99% of what you say, I differ on two points. The first being the definition of a Hidden Object Game v. a Casual Game containing Hidden Object Scenes. The former is exemplified by publishers such as Spin Top Games. They are wonderful. The graphics are beyond compare. But the sole objective is to get the highest score.

Then there are the “Adventure Lite” games that combined a rudimentary plot around hidden object scenes. I don’t know who was the first, but let’s say it was ERS. Players who were hankering for something more than a high score ate them up.

And that’s where we are today. Except…some developers asked “What if we eliminate the HO scenes altogether?” But if the games still offer hints and skip buttons, they are still considered “Casual Games.” Except…some recent remakes have offered some of these features that were not available in the original games. So who is kidding who?

Yes, good point – when I say “Hidden Object games,” I mean what you’re defining as “‘Adventure Lite’ games that combined a rudimentary plot around hidden object scenes.”

As for distinguishing adventure lite/casual adventures from “traditional” adventure games—my current theory is that adventure games are storyworlds with puzzles integrated in such a way as to involve the player while aiding the story or the discovery of the gameworld.

Adventure-ish HO games are puzzle games with an added story layer, with graphics that are a stage setting for the (less complicated) story and (smaller) world. I don’t think that hints or skips are part of the definition.

So in an adventure game, the developer is usually:

A. Trying to tell a complex story with in-depth characterization and plenty of dialog (example: The Longest Journey)

or

B. Trying to immerse the gamer in an extensive, complex, imaginative world where the locations themselves tell a story (example: the Myst games).

On the other hand, the developer of an adventure-ish HO game is trying to feature lots of different puzzles plus some HO screens, often grouped closely together in an engaging setting, while telling a story that usually has very little to do with the puzzles. Dialog will be kept to a minimum and characterization will be quick. This combination works quite well – good example: Grim Tales: The Legacy.

I agree that, as Hidden Object games focus more and more on storytelling and expand their environments (even to having areas that are there to aid exploration and immersion without containing puzzles) they are becoming more and more like adventure games.

rtrooney - 29 August 2013 06:44 PM

I started playing games on an RBG monitor on an 8088 machine. The graphics in Age of Enigma are stunning by comparison. Ditto the gameplay. I was unaware of the concept of hint buttons and skip options until I started playing casual games. So the gameplay in Age of Enigma is quite familiar, as it would be for anyone who would be classified as an “older gamer.”

I’m trying to play more Adventures rather than Casuals at the mo but Age of Enigma rang a bell & I realised I’d played it a couple of times when it first came out. I’ve just started playing it again & agree that the graphics are very good - I love the art-style & the gameplay is familiar as a person that fits into the category of Boomer & Long-term Player!

Becky - 30 August 2013 12:38 PM

I’ve also seen casual gamers commenting on a stylized Hidden Object game, saying that they first assumed that the game was for children because of the “cartoon” graphics and were surprised to discover that the game contained dark themes.

I think it’s the art-style & theme that kept me going with this game - I would call the graphics stylized as apart from the portrayal of the protagonist I thought they were more sophisticated than what you’d expect from ‘cartoon’ graphics & therefore not aimed at children?

I see that the game didn’t sell well but to be quite honest I found most of the puzzles (if not all) either uninspiring or weak & along with the simplistic story not enough to give the game enough substance or interest overall.