quote: Original post by shinzo
Before I start, a question:
ARE ADVENTURE GAMES A DEAD OR DYING BREED?

Nah, nobody''s just come up with the right formula for a successful title, and the genre was heavily played for a long time. Like in the film business, genres have cyclicality. It is not dead, imho, it''s actually poised for a comeback that is going to surprise everybody. Just the extant facts that every genre possible other than adventure games have been produced to death and themselves ready for death is a global indication; secondly, the reason the adventure genre got so popular to begin with in the earlier days of gaming (including text adventures) is because the quality and type of gameplay player reward you got from adventure was so satisfying. IMO, we descended into FPS, and lowered the standards of quality for the entire business while cloaking the whole thing in huge claims about how great the graphics looked et al. This was part bait and switch, and part finding the sweet spot in the market to make the most money.

This is why crappy films can still kill at the box office.

The take away value of experience a player has from an adventure game vs. a FPS is of a different and more evolved player experience loop; so comparisons are shaky at best, they are two different critters.

quote:
The reason for this post, is that I have what seems to me at least, a good adventure game idea.

Is it worth me carrying on with my idea?
If so, has anyone got any pointers or ideas that can help me?

I am definitely a beginner when it comes to game development (C++ programmer, currently learning directx programming in c++), but I feel that if I can create a strong enough story line and a basic interface it could be a goer.

I would suggest that you make the game that you would want to play, and that is the best kind of game you personally can make. I am making my own adventure game, and am thrilled both as a designer and as a player everytime I come up with something new that makes me use my wits and courage and intelligence to advance in the game world rather than through violence. It''s just so much more evolved, for one, and two, you''r goiung to have to hit that watermark if you want to make a big mass market game.

I''m not saying FPS games are a bad thing; I''ve played my fair share of them and enjoy the experience the game offered me. What I am saying is that is not the only application of fun, and humans tend to evolve towards their self actualization (if you believe Maslowe) and violence is not up but down.

I will also say that it is a more complicated and sophisticated design process in terms of what you have to put together creatively, because you are attempting to create fun without relying on twitch in most cases, and that may have something to do with why nobody has been too successful designing at that level lately, some exceptions granted.

Addy

There is no such thing as a genre that is dead. Dormant, possibly, but never dead. As the poster above said, most things in entertainment move in cycles. And when the next big budget project that reinvents the wheel with a new twist or well thought out project, that genre will wake up again. Program what you would want to play and there are bound to be others of like mind.

GRELLIN

"Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity."

Genres dont die, they simply wait for the one guy who will figure it out and reinvent the genre.
In the case of adventure games, my prediction is :
"Look netwards, for they shall come from the Net, carried by high bandwidth and designer oriented languages"

In fact, just look at all those little games something like Macromedia Flash or Director allows you to do. I have seen quite a lot of them recently.
Most are no more than movies with the user having to click here or there once in a while, but the whole hentai games industry is based on this concept, and I dont see it going down...

If you have got a nice story driven (as opposed to puzzle driven) idea, and not a lot of programming skils, but you know how to do graphics, you might really want to give Flash (possibly Director) a try. And look on the Net for Flash adventure games to get an idea of what''s doable.

Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

quote: Original post by ThoughtBubble
Adventuredesign, how''d I know you were going to respond to this?

...How could I have resisted? :D It was like Ulysses and the Sirens, which was my first failed design you should know.

Addy