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If you were to make an adventure game, what would it be about?

Total Posts: 7

Joined 2020-04-14

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A lot of us have dreams of making an adventure game but not the time or money to do it, but I was wondering, if those things weren’t a factor, what sort of adventure game would you want to make?

What would the story be? What would the setting be? What would the genre be? Would it be a traditional adventure, or would you bring other mechanics into it? What graphics style would you go for? Would it be first person or third person?

Would love to hear about people’s dream games!

     
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Joined 2012-01-02

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its funny that brought this up, i was just talking with a friend a week ago and when i told her i wanted to be a game designer when i was young she could grasp the idea, so i had to drag the conversation some kinda diversity from how young kids never tell what they really want to be, but they just say what their parents want to hear.. until i found out she is/was never into gaming so i had stop and understand there was no use of dragging the conversation much longer. and all this was on the phone so you won’t get the idea i am out meeting friends or anything Laughing 

back to your question i always thought of a protagonist who would end up like BM1 being caught or dead, someone like Walter White, where you control the evil while you are being dropped into the middle of the story and don’t know anything about it or him, to discover little by little the things you oughta do to get the puzzles solved until the very end when you really discover who you/the protagonist really are/is.

     
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Joined 2013-02-12

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Dream game ideas?

A steampunk hacking game featuring Ada Lovelace. Probably heavier on engineering/hacking than adventure, but definitely story driven.

Based on something I ran at summer camp a couple of years ago: The Greatest Murder Mystery Ever Told - a sort of passion play in the form of a detective game set on Easter Saturday, investigating the murder of Jesus. I might actually make it in Twine one day, but the dream version could have graphics and voice acting as you track down and interview the suspects. And one of those walls with pictures and documents and pins with string between them.

     
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Total Posts: 291

Joined 2018-01-11

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My dream adventures ^_^

Let’s see I have two.

1. First is a Cyberpunk AG, it basically rips off the entire plot of Anarchy Online, kind of like dune mixed with star trek.
You can play as Omni-tek Corporation Employees or you can play as Native-Rubi-ka-Clan rebels.  It would feature character powers that provide variation for puzzle solutions.

Adventurers could shape shift to a few different animals
Bureaucrats could like mind control and use a Bureaucratic Assistant Droid
Fixers and agents could hack, steal, sneak, and use “The grid” a pseudo-network fabric underlying the entire planet to warp space time (it makes sense in the context of the game)

Maybe even just racial powers like Opifex are naturally thin and nimble, Atrox exceptionally strong, and NanoMages are… magic IDK.

These character powers can also provide some difficulty variation, as an Enforcer Atrox could smash through a lot of problems, but a Opifex fixer, or a Nanomage Bureaucrat might need more abstract solutions to their problems

And while Anarchy Online doesn’t need a spin off or derivative work, I would like to explore the culture more. Clans rebel against the corporation that owns and mines the planet’s resources, but being born on the planet means they have the right to opt out of joining OT, and create their own sense of culture and identity.

Genetically engineered races like Atrox and Nanomage rebel because they feel a sense of purpose outside of toiling away their lives for the corporation as intended.

I understand Funcom made The Longest Journey, so there will be some similarities to the scifi world in that game, stark (i think it’s called)


****
2.

My other idea was a family-friendly, play-by-mail edutainment game and curriculum modeled after adventure games.

There is a growing movement in children’s entertainment to provide experiences, and low-tech alternatives, and early childhood specialists have always known that play is the best way for children to learn.

So kind of like getting a letter from Hogwarts, the family receives a package in the mail that is the like Adventurer’s guild application quest.

The letter establishes a quest or overall goal which both sets up a context for the adventure, as well as explains what things the kids learn.  A big part of it is the production by which I mean, like you receive a scroll with aged paper, burned edges, or a wax seal and so on.

Examples of activities for the amphibian lesson include:
Going to a nearby body of water and finding an amphibian (this has to be personalized to the region, here I most often find gulf coast toads,)
Folding a paper frog, and playing jumping contests, races etc.
Perform simple kitchen-science experiments to illustrate concepts like algae growth, oil spills and other relevant lessons
Solving a logic puzzles to reveal a clues
Solving riddles to learn what the key to revealing hidden ink pictures, maybe water, heat, light, dye etc.

And so along the way while you are doing these different activities you learn about different things like how the life cycle of an amphibian is unique, the importance of clean water or air, common amphibian foods, poisonous or venomous animals to avoid.  It’s like a combination of Choose Your Own Adventure stories, curriculum, logic puzzles, art projects and science experiments.  To incorporate the logic puzzles, I typically have the idea of take output from puzzle X, use as input for puzzle Y, producing solution Z.

And throughout the curriculum there are places and ways to adapt the activities to involve older or younger children, or even to help hold the attention of adults.  I have a few friends that I think would be my ‘target audience’ in that they are low-tech types with children of varying ages.  The youngest of the kids can do simple parts like mixing ingredients, coloring or decorating etc.  Slightly older kids can understand rules for games and puzzles, and then I even thought about putting in some real head-scratchers or some additional research sources for the parents.

And then at the end of each successful quest, you write a letter back to the guild reporting the results of the quest “Color and water had been restored to the amphibious kingdom” or whatever, and the quest ends with some sort of keepsake or trophy.

I’m doing a shit job of explaining this, but I remember having rainy-day activity books as a kid, and I really enjoyed those as well as CYOA books.

And then obviously if the parents are more hands-off or laissez-faire, then it won’t work anyway.

One of the first activities is to make and decorate adventurer’s clothes.
If the parents can sew, then a simple cape pattern or hat pattern can be included.
If the parents are more hands-off, then directions for a newspaper hat can be included, which is just folding paper, and then decorating it.  A simple newspaper hat could look very king graham with just the addition of a feather ;]

 

     
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Joined 2017-09-18

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I had an idea for an edutainment game based on learning languages. The protagonist would be in a foreign country not knowing the local language, and the basic gameplay mechanism would be to gradually learn new words, and use them to piece together sentences so that NPCs will understand you.

In practice how it would work is, say the player needs to buy an item from a shop to give an NPC, they will pick up words listening to other conversations and interacting, or perhaps reading a poster on a wall with a picture of that item. Then the player would have to construct a sentence to the shopkeeper using correct grammar and a selection of the words they have learnt.

Of course there would be a greater story, and high stakes for the protagonist. Something like Broken Sword in the way a regular nobody gets roped into the action, without really having the resources. At least, in the beginning.

I thought the Odyssey science game was excellent, and having a story to progress through gives a huge motivation to the player to want to learn. It’s so much better than sitting in a boring classroom with a teacher talking at you.

     
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Luhr28 - 12 June 2020 07:54 AM

I had an idea for an edutainment game based on learning languages. The protagonist would be in a foreign country not knowing the local language, and the basic gameplay mechanism would be to gradually learn new words, and use them to piece together sentences so that NPCs will understand you.

That actually has been done, for instance:
https://disposablegamesstudio.itch.io/lost-in-japan


Actually, with thousands of games out there, it’s almost impossible to come up with an idea that has never been done before. I once came up with one that I put in a review that I wrote, but I can’t right now remember the idea or even which review was the context there…  Tongue

What might be interesting is to create an adventure from a viewpoint of an animal, and I don’t mean anthropomorphised animals like Snoopy, Garfield, Sam or Max, but “real” animals. There have been some games like that, but not too many.

     
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GateKeeper - 12 June 2020 08:12 AM
Luhr28 - 12 June 2020 07:54 AM

I had an idea for an edutainment game based on learning languages. The protagonist would be in a foreign country not knowing the local language, and the basic gameplay mechanism would be to gradually learn new words, and use them to piece together sentences so that NPCs will understand you.

That actually has been done, for instance:
https://disposablegamesstudio.itch.io/lost-in-japan

It looks interesting, but not exactly what I described.

     
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Total Posts: 291

Joined 2018-01-11

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Luhr28 - 12 June 2020 07:54 AM

I had an idea for an edutainment game based on learning languages. The protagonist would be in a foreign country not knowing the local language, and the basic gameplay mechanism would be to gradually learn new words, and use them to piece together sentences so that NPCs will understand you.

In practice how it would work is, say the player needs to buy an item from a shop to give an NPC, they will pick up words listening to other conversations and interacting, or perhaps reading a poster on a wall with a picture of that item. Then the player would have to construct a sentence to the shopkeeper using correct grammar and a selection of the words they have learnt.

Of course there would be a greater story, and high stakes for the protagonist. Something like Broken Sword in the way a regular nobody gets roped into the action, without really having the resources. At least, in the beginning.

I thought the Odyssey science game was excellent, and having a story to progress through gives a huge motivation to the player to want to learn. It’s so much better than sitting in a boring classroom with a teacher talking at you.

As a professional sign language interpreter, I actually love this idea because I feel that the best way to learn a language is to be thrown into the deep end, what’s called “total immersion.”  Yes you start out with the language of a toddler, but you have no choice ‘cept to make progress quickly.

My teachers were Deaf for example.  I had no choice in whether to speak or use sign.

I never heard of Odyssey Science.  I love Biology and the environmental sciences especially, so if it touches on those, I’d love to check it out.

***

What with my well-established love of animals, I’d love to play as animal too ^_^

Games like Ecco the Dolphin, and even untitled goose game I think do a good job of simplifying the player’s thoughts in that, you aren’t thinking more complex as most adventure games, but more simply, the way an animal might.

     
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Celebreon - 12 June 2020 01:18 PM

I never heard of Odyssey Science.  I love Biology and the environmental sciences especially, so if it touches on those, I’d love to check it out.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/558110/Odyssey__The_Story_of_Science/

It’s mostly astronomy, but still worth checking out for any science enthusiast.

     
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Joined 2003-11-15

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mouseketeer - 10 June 2020 06:13 AM

A lot of us have dreams of making an adventure game but not the time or money to do it, but I was wondering, if those things weren’t a factor, what sort of adventure game would you want to make?

Money doesn’t have to be a factor. There are many good free tools, so if you want to do it, and can find the time, I say go for it! (Of course it helps to have a drawing tablet if you’re making graphics for a 2d game, and so on, but it is not needed.)

I have made one. Looking back on it, years later, the thing I’m a bit embarrassed about is the plot. Particularly the ending. I don’t think I have what it takes to write a really good plot, so while I like the idea of making another, it’d have to be as a collaboration. So I’m practising my music skills to get to a point where someone would want to work with me.

     

You can play my game Frasse and the Peas of Kejick for free! (AG review here.)

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Joined 2020-06-03

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Trumgottist - 16 June 2020 07:42 AM
mouseketeer - 10 June 2020 06:13 AM

A lot of us have dreams of making an adventure game but not the time or money to do it, but I was wondering, if those things weren’t a factor, what sort of adventure game would you want to make?

Money doesn’t have to be a factor. There are many good free tools, so if you want to do it, and can find the time, I say go for it! (Of course it helps to have a drawing tablet if you’re making graphics for a 2d game, and so on, but it is not needed.)

I have made one. Looking back on it, years later, the thing I’m a bit embarrassed about is the plot. Particularly the ending. I don’t think I have what it takes to write a really good plot, so while I like the idea of making another, it’d have to be as a collaboration. So I’m practising my music skills to get to a point where someone would want to work with me.

Yeah writing is really hard. I recently finished making a little game that I did the writing for and I thought it was going to be a breeze but then as soon as I started I realised how hard it is to write things. Being an adventure game just makes that even worse where you have to juggle and track loads of lines of dialogue. It was great practice though. I’ve decided I’m going to practice writing before I try and make another adventure game.


As for the original question - I’ve always enjoyed the idea of small game spaces that change over time. For example on a spaceship or a house or just in a single room even and as the game goes on the same smallish area changes really significantly due to things the player is doing (e.g. solve puzzle that blows up a bit or fixes something or opens up extra bits that reveal new puzzles, that kind of thing). So by the end of the game the same area has really changed and you get a sense that you’ve made those changes.

Not so much a story idea as a gameplay kind of idea Smile.

     
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I would do a horror game like Kathy Rain. I’d love another game like that one. Next is a Cyberpunk game like Whispers of a Machine.

Heart

     

I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.

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Joined 2017-03-09

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Although I don’t have a solid, fully thought out concept, there is something I would like to focus on if I ever were to develop a game: historical realism. I’m tired of vague, generic stereotypical fantasy and Lovecraftian worlds. Rather, I crave historically detailed, real-world experiences rooted in realism and fact.

The game would be set in a specific town or location, at a specific town. The research that goes into every screen, every conversation and item would be unequaled to what has been done before. The kind of detail I’m talking about brings to mind such games as 1893: A World’s Fair Mystery, Riddle of the Sphinx, The Last Express, Riddle of Master Lu. These kind of games simply aren’t made anymore.

I don’t want to see a description of a hammer, when I pick it up while exploring a Celtic iron age town in 800B.C., reading: “It’s a hammer”. I want to know what’s unique about it, how is it used in the context of the culture I’m exploring in the game, what is it made of, what are some interesting facts about it.

When I walk around an ancient Navajo mesa and look at some of the ruins, I want detailed and accurate descriptions. I don’t want to hear the protagonist tell me “it looks like a pile of rocks”.

This kind of game, as far as I can tell, is extinct. Developers have become so lazy thinking they can insert whatever comes to their minds into in-game descriptions and conversations, rather than solid research and accurate factual information. There’s a place for Day of the Tentacle-like quips, but by now 99% of games are using it and it’s tiresome.

     
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Joined 2017-09-18

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That sounds mega boring

     

Total Posts: 38

Joined 2020-06-17

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cyfoyjvx - 20 June 2020 12:21 AM

Although I don’t have a solid, fully thought out concept, there is something I would like to focus on if I ever were to develop a game: historical realism. I’m tired of vague, generic stereotypical fantasy and Lovecraftian worlds. Rather, I crave historically detailed, real-world experiences rooted in realism and fact.

The game would be set in a specific town or location, at a specific town. The research that goes into every screen, every conversation and item would be unequaled to what has been done before. The kind of detail I’m talking about brings to mind such games as 1893: A World’s Fair Mystery, Riddle of the Sphinx, The Last Express, Riddle of Master Lu. These kind of games simply aren’t made anymore.

I don’t want to see a description of a hammer, when I pick it up while exploring a Celtic iron age town in 800B.C., reading: “It’s a hammer”. I want to know what’s unique about it, how is it used in the context of the culture I’m exploring in the game, what is it made of, what are some interesting facts about it.

When I walk around an ancient Navajo mesa and look at some of the ruins, I want detailed and accurate descriptions. I don’t want to hear the protagonist tell me “it looks like a pile of rocks”.

This kind of game, as far as I can tell, is extinct. Developers have become so lazy thinking they can insert whatever comes to their minds into in-game descriptions and conversations, rather than solid research and accurate factual information. There’s a place for Day of the Tentacle-like quips, but by now 99% of games are using it and it’s tiresome.

I couldn’t agree more!

I’m also tired of unrealistic worlds imagined in some drug-stimulated minds, I’m sick of fantasy, science fiction, horror or some psycho-symbolism mumbo-jumbo.

I would like more games set in real world without any supernatural elements, especially set in second half of the 20th century (e.g. 60s-80s).
L.A. Noire showed it could be very commercially successful, although I would put a little bit more emphasis on adventure elements.

     
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After reading Bob Woodward’s book on Bush’s response in the first 100 days following 9/11, I fantasised about a dialogue-driven game where you played a world leader negotiating a response to an ongoing crisis. The entire game would be set in one location and you’d have to debate with a number of clever and aggressive adversaries with their own egos, their own agendas and interests trying to steer the team to push forward their plan.

Players could gauge their progress with a series of Telltale-like character prompts that informs what a character thinks of the player at any given moment. The goal isn’t to be liked but to persuade team members to become advocates for your plan - if you have one.

The decisions made in those short series of conversations will have lasting ramifications for many years to come.

     

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