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Jengo - What do you love about Point & Clicks?

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Joined 2018-03-20

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Hello dear adventure games lovers,

AdventureGamers webmasters have been kind with us and have relayed the Fig backstage pass for Jengo, right here on their website a few days ago, and we’re totally and utterly grateful for that.

We are currently still in the middle of the Backstage Campaign, so if you’re interested in giving it a look and give us your feedbacks, we would of course be immensely grateful.

We’re here for a different reason though, and it’s mainly to have a little chat with you guys about what you think makes a good Adventure Game (especially a point & click). We also played the good old ones, have a fondness for the LucasArts oldies - of course - and also King’s Quest.

We have our own take on what makes a good point & click (most devs are quite passionate about their games, of course, so we have our own ideas on how to make them) but we also figured it would greatly benefit Jengo to have some chats with the adventure gaming communit - people who are so fond of adventure game that they go discussing them at lenght on an internet forum, for instance.

So? What do you guys consider as “good practices” in an adventure game?

What’s a good puzzle for you? Do you have an example? What do you seek? What do you expect from an adventure game?

We’re looking forward to your answers!

(Also, for transparency’s sake, keep in mind that this account will sometimes be used by our CM. But he’s an ok kinda of guy, he knows and loves the same kindof things that we do.”

     
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Total Posts: 416

Joined 2018-03-07

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I love experiencing intimate details inside a characters head. Getting their perspective through little tidbits of how they perceive the world around them.

In a TV show or a movie it would be extremely tedious to know what the main character thinks of every piece of furniture or nick-nack they come across. But for some reason when it’s part & parcel with exploring a game environment I love it. And when a dev can manage to make those observational lines consistently compelling, it really endears you to the protagonist(s). In a way I feel is special for the genre.

I love getting lost in a unique world and testing the possibilities of my interaction. Seeing what I can push, pull or pick up. How things respond. How much the devs crafted. I love how so much deep interaction can be accomplished with such a simple control scheme.

I love strong characters. I think that strong, likable—or even not so likable but interesting—characters can elevate a game. Even if the plot itself isn’t that strong.

I love the “eureka moment” of putting together a clever solution. When the clues are just subtle enough and the logic is finely tuned, it’s some of the most satisfying game-play around.

A good practice for adventure games (I believe) is hinting that the player is “on the right track” when they’re close a correct solution. If you’re supposed to use a crowbar to pry open a window. When the player uses a screwdriver instead, the main character should say something like “not quite, I’ll need something that can give me more leverage.” Rather than some generic line like “that wont work.” or “I can’t use that.”

Also in moments like that I HATE it when the VA comes off as angry at the player. It’s definitely a preference thing. But it breaks immersion. The character should be upset at the situation they’re in, not the player imo.

I like it when hotspot descriptions float under the cursor. This is another minor grievance but I just don’t like having to take my eyes off the environment constantly to look at the bottom of the screen and read the description.

I could keep going but this post is already a lot longer than I intended. I actually just looked into Jengo a few days ago. The game seems like it has personality to spare. Definitely something I’m interested in. So keep up the promising work, dudes.

     
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Total Posts: 1167

Joined 2013-02-12

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PlanetX - 23 March 2018 06:34 AM

A good practice for adventure games (I believe) is hinting that the player is “on the right track” when they’re close a correct solution. If you’re supposed to use a crowbar to pry open a window. When the player uses a screwdriver instead, the main character should say something like “not quite, I’ll need something that can give me more leverage.” Rather than some generic line like “that wont work.” or “I can’t use that.”

YES.

This is the biggest thing. It makes the puzzles work better and feel fairer. But even more, it makes the difference between the player mindset of ‘I’m in this situation, I have these things with me, what shall I do with them?’ and ‘I’m trying to guess what the designer wants me to do here’. It makes the game world so much more real.

(I once backed a game on Kickstarter largely because the video showed the main character trying a key in a door and being told that it was the wrong key)

     
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Total Posts: 7109

Joined 2005-09-29

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Robot Wizard - 23 March 2018 05:32 AM

What’s a good puzzle for you? Do you have an example? What do you seek? What do you expect from an adventure game?

Plaster of paris puzzles from BrokenSword
BS is best model for anything
Balance of comic relief and serious both in story and puzzles

     
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Total Posts: 2704

Joined 2004-08-02

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For me, I like being challenged. I like Monkey Island 2’s two paths, one for casual players who want to experience the story, and one for hardcore adventure gamers who want to be seriously challenged. 
Action games are not afraid to challenge you judging by the popularity of games like Dark Souls, so I don’t know why AG devs these days are so hesitant to test our intelligence. Another interesting part to puzzle solving is giving multiple solutions to a puzzle. King’s Quest did it back in the 80’s and Technobabylon more recently. Both these points give the player a reason to replay the game, and thus they get more value from their purchase.

As far as the puzzle structure, I like the Lucasarts style of giving you a big objective, with several little subobjectives (usually three) to fulfill it. The subobjectives themselves can be either simple or multi-layered. The Secret of Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle come to mind.

     

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