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Are indies kinda resurrecting AG or killing it?

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I think the indies are doing everything they can to make the case for their titles. You can’t ask them to do more than create the types of experiences and stories that they’re interested in.

I can see some of your concerns when you have games like Edith Finch and Tacoma that really narrow interest in the genre by having little crossover appeal to non-adventure gamers. However, I think the ways that adventure games are apart of the conversation is a more important indicator of the genre’s survival than the games themselves. e.g. let’s say 1 adventure game comes out for the entire year but it just so happens to be the most talked about title and wins GOTY, etc…

At the moment it feels like the genre is an a bubble isolated from all the hype and attention but it doesn’t have to be that way. Life is Strange and other titles are proving that AG can live on.

     
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The adventure genre has literally NEVER seen so many new games released, and in such diversity, as there are right now. People really need to stop fussing over its future.

(I’m including in that spectrum all the non-combat horror games, the puzzle-free exploration games, choose-your-own-adventure storybooks, story-lite puzzlers, etc. Technically AG doesn’t consider many of those “adventure games” proper, but they’re certainly closely related.)

As for the original question of this thread, smaller indie successes would have no bearing either way on a company thinking about investing millions. Big budget games are a whole different animal than small-scale games. (Besides which, they’d be more interested in sales numbers than critical acclaim.) Instead, for comparables they’d be looking at the few other larger-budget adventures made—the Quantic Dream stuff, Broken Age, and to a much lesser extent, Telltale.

thejobloshow - 08 December 2017 08:27 PM

I can see some of your concerns when you have games like Edith Finch and Tacoma that really narrow interest in the genre by having little crossover appeal to non-adventure gamers.

Either I’m reading this wrong, or you’ve got entirely the wrong idea of what’s popular in mainstream circles. The likes of Edith Finch and Tacoma are among the very few games that DO get lots of mainstream attention. (Well, perhaps Gone Home more than Tacoma, but same style, same developer.)  With the odd high-profile exception (like Thimbleweed Park), it’s the puzzly adventures that most non-adventure gamers have no interest in whatsoever anymore.

     
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Jackal - 09 December 2017 12:10 PM

Either I’m reading this wrong, or you’ve got entirely the wrong idea of what’s popular in mainstream circles. The likes of Edith Finch and Tacoma are among the very few games that DO get lots of mainstream attention. (Well, perhaps Gone Home more than Tacoma, but same style, same developer.)  With the odd high-profile exception (like Thimbleweed Park), it’s the puzzly adventures that most non-adventure gamers have no interest in whatsoever anymore.


IMPLICIT BIAS AGAINST WALKING SIMULATORS DETECTED. PIVOT. PIVOT.

Okay, I can salvage this… If you are really worried about the future of adventure games, the best thing the industry and relevant communities can do right now is outreach to women as gamers and as developers. Life is Strange and Gone Home both killed it judging by the Steam stats on SteamSpy. Female protagonists and adventure games fit like a glove irregardless of the game’s style be it point-of-click or walking simulator.

Look for ways to broaden the base. Indies do that very well - better than what was achieved during the glory years of the so-called ‘90s.

     
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thejobloshow - 12 December 2017 02:45 AM
Jackal - 09 December 2017 12:10 PM

Either I’m reading this wrong, or you’ve got entirely the wrong idea of what’s popular in mainstream circles. The likes of Edith Finch and Tacoma are among the very few games that DO get lots of mainstream attention. (Well, perhaps Gone Home more than Tacoma, but same style, same developer.)  With the odd high-profile exception (like Thimbleweed Park), it’s the puzzly adventures that most non-adventure gamers have no interest in whatsoever anymore.


IMPLICIT BIAS AGAINST WALKING SIMULATORS DETECTED. PIVOT. PIVOT.

Okay, I can salvage this… If you are really worried about the future of adventure games, the best thing the industry and relevant communities can do right now is outreach to women as gamers and as developers. Life is Strange and Gone Home both killed it judging by the Steam stats on SteamSpy. Female protagonists and adventure games fit like a glove irregardless of the game’s style be it point-of-click or walking simulator.

Yes, but you have to ask why they did well. Other games like The St Christopher School Lockdown featuring a great female protagonist didn’t do well at all from what I understand.

     
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cyfoyjvx - 12 December 2017 03:54 AM

Yes, but you have to ask why they did well. Other games like The St Christopher School Lockdown featuring a great female protagonist didn’t do well at all from what I understand.


I spotted something worth noting with that game after investigating its Steam page. It has only been tagged as ‘Adventure’ and ‘Point-And-Click’. Someone should add the tag ‘Female Protagonist’.

The really small teams need to step up their digital marketing game.

     
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cyfoyjvx - 12 December 2017 03:54 AM

Yes, but you have to ask why they did well. Other games like The St Christopher School Lockdown featuring a great female protagonist didn’t do well at all from what I understand.

It’s a point-and-click adventure with lots of puzzles, some of them quite hard. That’s part of the answer.

thejobloshow - 13 December 2017 12:13 AM


I spotted something worth noting with that game after investigating its Steam page. It has only been tagged as ‘Adventure’ and ‘Point-And-Click’. Someone should add the tag ‘Female Protagonist’.

Yeah, and the tag Indie.

The really small teams need to step up their digital marketing game.

Nobody has heard of St Christopher’s, except the Kickstarter backers and a few people at AG and one or two other small forums. If there is even one review out there, I missed it. Sad.

     

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i had to go and see whats St Christopher School, and since i dont know anything about but i only noticed the absence of voices!, indies without voice over are really hard to sell, when books and reading itself are being pushed (by newGen) away with audiobooks!, so you see the point.

     
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Advie - 13 December 2017 04:34 AM

i had to go and see whats St Christopher School, and since i dont know anything about but i only noticed the absence of voices!, indies without voice over are really hard to sell, when books and reading itself are being pushed (by newGen) away with audiobooks!, so you see the point.

There is some voice acting. It’s weird, the characters only speak about half of their lines.

But then, a lot of big selling games do the same thing. Pillars of Eternity, for example.

     

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Advie - 13 December 2017 04:34 AM

i had to go and see whats St Christopher School, and since i dont know anything about but i only noticed the absence of voices!, indies without voice over are really hard to sell, when books and reading itself are being pushed (by newGen) away with audiobooks!, so you see the point.

Voice acting is such a massive waste of money.  It slows games down to a crawl and I much, much rather read and have creative voices.  It is sad that people need to be read to in order to enjoy something.

     
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Pretty common take is, that games are an audio-visual medium like movies, so in this day and age, the reason for not having voices needs to be a good one. Though I do agree that low budget voice acting can be pretty terrible and there are cases where it’s preferable to just turn off the voices.

     

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tomimt - 13 December 2017 12:40 PM

Pretty common take is, that games are an audio-visual medium like movies, so in this day and age, the reason for not having voices needs to be a good one. Though I do agree that low budget voice acting can be pretty terrible and there are cases where it’s preferable to just turn off the voices.

Common generally means mainstream to me… and adventure games are not mainstream.  Outside of maybe the Witness.  I don’t count walking simulators or telltale type games as adventures.

Low budget, huge budget, doesn’t matter to me.  Voice is always awful and adds nothing(for me).  Insane expenses to improve nothing.  I’m not watching a movie.  I am playing a game. 

I read and the voice is still plodding halfway behind, so either I have to sit there waiting while someone reads to me like a child, or I continue on.  So much more personality when something isn’t voiced.

What a colossal waste.

     
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Agree.  Voice acting is an extra.  A special effect.  A line item on the budget.  A game can have fabulous voice acting and still be terrible.

For the purposes of this thread, if we are focusing on voice acting (or art, music, graphics, or animation) we are missing the forest for the trees.

The things that are special or potentially innovative about indie adventure games are story, puzzles, and gameplay.

     
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I give you Syberia. In games one and two, most people will agree that the voice acting was superb Yet the game has its critics. Too many"empty” screens between active locations being the big one. Yet the graphics were spectacular. The story was intriguing…inasmuch as there was considerable discussion as to whether Kate should, or should not have acted in a certain way in a certain situation.

So the question is whether superb voice acting saved what otherwise might be considered an average game if it had been produced with subtitles only.

     

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rtrooney - 13 December 2017 08:47 PM

I give you Syberia. In games one and two, most people will agree that the voice acting was superb Yet the game has its critics. Too many"empty” screens between active locations being the big one. Yet the graphics were spectacular. The story was intriguing…inasmuch as there was considerable discussion as to whether Kate should, or should not have acted in a certain way in a certain situation.

So the question is whether superb voice acting saved what otherwise might be considered an average game if it had been produced with subtitles only.

I thought the first game WAS an average game, and it was so plodding and sparse that I couldn’t bring myself to play the second.  That is just me though.

     
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My favorite adventure game I played this year was an indie - Kathy Rain. Just loved that game. My second favorite was also an indie game - Fran Bow.

But then again, I also like indie movies too - and I believe there are just people out there that just like them.

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

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