Adventure Gamers - Forums

Some of my very favorite adventure games are indies. Some big adventure games have been disapointing. Indies - some people love them, some people don’t. They defiantly help the genre however.

nomadsoul - 05 December 2017 01:40 AM

Big companies helped alot to boost genre and put it on big map

agree and agree ttg actually was a main part and Tim Schafer Kickstarter 2012 all pushed AG’ing forward, but to everything a negativity besides its success and Adventure games were represented to as newly market (for the game of the years 2012 was) to the mass thru this ‘revival’. and there is unlikely a way (new gen) to tell them ‘hey its actually ain’t really like this exactly’

jordipg - 06 December 2017 11:22 PM

As someone who came back to AGs after a many-year hiatus,

i feel ye, i ve been many years into hiatus too but divided into three occasions, and everytime i come back i couldnt explain the joy i had after playing the first one for how much long back log awaits for me, but today if i had the same for the last 3-5 years i wouldnt think i would be very excited as before, many at first glance i will say damn it ‘yay’ all Sierra people are making new ags again, and when i get to the botoom of it I’d wish i had stayed hiatus much longer until miracle accures

Hey everyone, I hope that I understood well the purpose of this thread and that it won’t end in a trial against indie devs!
As one of them (and I must confess, certainly not one who renewed the genre), I can hardly take part to this discussion - and I didn’t read all the messages here - but I don’t want to remain totally silent either and I’d like it if other devs decided to intervene. Living as a small indie dev mainly focused on AG is really tough if you are not a little bit famous, and I know that there are plenty like me who wonder what their future will be. In these circumstances it’s hard to renew the genre.

What I just want to say is that the initial question should probably be more simple and also more wide:

How can we make the AG genre evolve?

For me it’s not a question of resurrecting, and even least of killing adventure, as for me it cannot happen: the question is more to know what it will look like in the future and what you want to play.

In my opinion, wether it’s indie or AAA, it doesn’t matter: we will continue to discuss of what we want to see (or not) in the games, and this is GREAT as it gives ideas to the devs. But we shouldn’t forget that the evolution can only be slow, it’s not a linear progression. You know the history of AG better than me, there are levels with new creative discoveries that people will remember for ages (gameplay, storytelling, puzzles…), that make an impression on all a generation of people, and then you see these ideas in all the next released games during years. That’s how it works, indie or not, because adventure games are part of a competitive market (video games in general), because there are fans who ask for more, and there’s nostalgia, and because we devs simply don’t always have the best ideas at the good moment, or the best photography of the current state of the market! (by “market” I don’t mean necessarily money, but what people want to play). So it cannot be an exponential evolution of the genre and it is true that there are periods of disapointment and lack of originality for the fans, I can understand it (as a fan myself).

If indie or AAA devs these days come with a great idea that all of us enjoy, you can be sure that plenty of games will use the same receipe, and we will get quickly bored. On the contrary if they try new or different things (take risks) but we don’t like it, we’re going to say that the game is terrible or that the puzzles were ridiculous (yeah I don’t like this one thread “most ridiculous puzzles ever”), see what I mean?

Well anyway this is an interesting discussion, and I will try to conclude by saying that the AG scene will never die as long as there are such good fans as you of the genre, and I certainly hope that it will continue. The genre certainly doesn’t need to be resurrected but more “improved”, or evolved. But how? That’s easy to say, so then fans have to come up with ideas too. With all my respect for you, why should you always blame devs? We’re people like you and sometimes we come with good ideas, sometimes we don’t, but we’re often doing our best to create interesting AGs. Creating a rare pearl is a dream for us too, and it happens to 1 dev among many, many others, and not every year. And there’s also a matter of tastes. 

I think we should just be happy that there are so many indie devs interested in making AG these days! It can only result in something good. Maybe not yesterday, not today, but it will happen from time to time. See games like Gorogoa: I don’t know if the final game will be loved but hey that’s something incredible! You like it or not, however isn’t it what participates in renewing the genre? Maybe not in the use of the inventory and items, but there are many other clever things in this game (at least in the demo).

Sorry it was long! I’m just trying to react and take part to the discussion. I personally have few or low chance to renew (or resurrect) the genre. My purpose until now has mainly been to tell stories in an interactive way, which is what I have always liked in adventure games (and games in general). The narrative for me is stronger than the gameplay. That can be discussed of course, but it is true that I didn’t take the challenge of doing “more” for the longtime fans, mainly because I don’t know where to start.

I hope you don’t get mad at reading my message, I didn’t want to sound offensive at all, just questionning. Thanks Advie for starting this interesting thread.

I’m also a dev. My take on this is simple : if indies weren’t making adventure games, nobody would. Look at what happened during the early 2000’s, there were very scarce. The situation would only have gotten worse.

It’s a fact - no point & click adventure has sold thousands of units recently (unless sold for a bargain) This is a niche market - I wish it wasn’t though! But nowadays, most people are only interested in killing and killing stuff over again.

My first game (Demetrios) was very classical in the way it played. However, for my next game, I’m taking a very different approach, by mixing several genres together (including P&C) in a way that has never been done IMO. It’s very ambitious and will take several years to make, and it’s a risk - but from the first feedbacks I got from people playing my prototype, I believe it’ll be worth it!

Hopefully that might be considered as an attempt to “push the genre forward”

I have to admit, several of the very best adventure games I’ve played this year have been indies. I buy them and really enjoy them.

Simon_ASA - 07 December 2017 05:54 AM

wonder what their future will be. In these circumstances it’s hard to renew the genre.

you belong to us Simon, at this beautiful niche, which couldn’t be explained to an outsider unless he has the passion and try it, then he goes like ‘i know now i have been missing something in my life’.

i know that after ASA you weren’t exactly having ANY plans to make a new, and then Catyph just happened.
you have no idea how we / i look up to devs and designers since i was young, the Williams were like gods to me, real GODS!
but now with all the social media presting every thing about people the awe for the devs has been lowered to some extent sometimes could be of throw rocks…..

out of the subject a bit; but i.e. Maradona never had the Ballon d’Or thru his 11 years of totale shining, artists should not be judged about things they leave behind at home they only must get judged for their performance!!.

what i to say fuck the mainstream, people know whats good, people know the best actor or director before the Oscars, even if the Oscars says differently.

again to the point . you have been beautifully cursed/blessed by the adventure gaming developing, it became (i guess) like something you wouldnt want to control, so you do and give and give more Indies, and the recognition will come big when you re least expect it.

it an honor to talk to you already, and above that, you being a member as any one of us, here , ............that is what I call evolution! .. of the consumer/customer and producer/artist being close showing that Gods are reachable, because every adventure player must have dreamt once of being a develops/designer of his own adventure game (FACT), but only a little number made it, went alllll the way.

Thanks Advie for this beautiful message! For me it’s an honor to be able to talk to many adventure fans from all around the world, and one of the reasons that motivate me to continue to make games. Adventure Gamers and the forums sure are great, it’s a luck for all indie adventure devs to have this site and I try to visit here every day even if I can’t get involved very often. It is becoming more and more difficult for me to remain active on the forums and to reply to all emails and private messages, but I am doing my best to stay approachable (if that is the good word).

Well I hope you don’t see me as a god, Advie, because you would be disapointed lol. It is true that I have some magical powers, as you will discover soon but they are very limited! On my own I certainly can’t do miracles.

I realize I did a big mistake when I replied to this thread above. In the title I understood ‘AG’ as ‘adventure games’ in general, and now I understand that you were in fact talking of this site, ‘Adventure Gamers’!
It changes everything in your question - are indies resurrecting or killing AG? - and in my previous message too because I talked of indies and adventure games in general! Sorry then I was off topic.

I don’t know if indies will kill Adventure Gamers, I certainly hope not, but it is true that it must bring quite a lot of work to the reviewers and redactors! And fans too, when they have to try all these games ^_^

no don’t be confused Simon, its about the scene of adventure gaming which could include AG(dot)com as well, anyhow its all about how indie creators are loyal to the adventure gaming core, with their low budget, and they increase in number day by day year by year to an extent that seems like time had stopped somewhere between 1993-1997, which confirms sorta that we would not see at least the renew Sierra had at their time and prime.. from ‘83 to 99 from ext-graphics, AGI(2) ,SCI, DTP .. happening today with a kinda way thats suitable for today tech*.

ok, lets simply imagine what if LucasArts and Sierra were still working today, where would they have pushed the adventure gaming, which-roof or what-limit .

and on the other side, merely adventures are being recognized which absolutely will make all developers follow those formulas… and say goodbye to adventure gaming.

this is what the title meant to me when I started the thread