We had a pretty active thread about point-and-click adventure games the other day, so I thought this article might be of interest. It's by the developer of the game Unforeseen Incidents, and goes...
Call me crazy but I actually think game designers attempting to address the "complaints" with P&C adventure games in the ways this author is suggesting they should (catering to people who don't...
Call me crazy but I actually think game designers attempting to address the "complaints" with P&C adventure games in the ways this author is suggesting they should (catering to people who don't even like the genre) is actually what has largely made me completely lose interest in the new breed of them, and why I keep going back the old classics and new ones that still hold true to the original formula but simply attempt to refine it (e.g. Ron Gilbert's new Thimbleweed Park, ones from Daedelic Entertainment, etc).
The ridiculous hand-holding, linear design and massive oversimplification of the item collecting and puzzles (or even removing those aspects entirely) in most modern breed of P&C adventure games (e.g. Broken Age, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, etc) drives me absolutely nuts since it basically turns them into nothing more than a walking simulator or visual novel with very little agency afforded to players whatsoever. I might as well watch a Let's Play of those game rather than actually buy and play them myself, since there is no challenge to them, no puzzles to solve, and there isn't even enough actual game mechanics left in them for individual playthroughs to vary much at all anymore.
And don't get me wrong, I don't even mind the occasional walking simulator or visual novel style of adventure games if done well (e.g. Stanley Parable, Life Is Strange, some of the new Telltale games, etc) but I still much prefer the classic formula of P&C adventure games. Ba humbug! Now get off my lawn! :P
We had a pretty active thread about point-and-click adventure games the other day, so I thought this article might be of interest. It's by the developer of the game Unforeseen Incidents, and goes over a lot of the complaints that people have about the genre and ways they can be addressed.
Call me crazy but I actually think game designers attempting to address the "complaints" with P&C adventure games in the ways this author is suggesting they should (catering to people who don't even like the genre) is actually what has largely made me completely lose interest in the new breed of them, and why I keep going back the old classics and new ones that still hold true to the original formula but simply attempt to refine it (e.g. Ron Gilbert's new Thimbleweed Park, ones from Daedelic Entertainment, etc).
The ridiculous hand-holding, linear design and massive oversimplification of the item collecting and puzzles (or even removing those aspects entirely) in most modern breed of P&C adventure games (e.g. Broken Age, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, etc) drives me absolutely nuts since it basically turns them into nothing more than a walking simulator or visual novel with very little agency afforded to players whatsoever. I might as well watch a Let's Play of those game rather than actually buy and play them myself, since there is no challenge to them, no puzzles to solve, and there isn't even enough actual game mechanics left in them for individual playthroughs to vary much at all anymore.
And don't get me wrong, I don't even mind the occasional walking simulator or visual novel style of adventure games if done well (e.g. Stanley Parable, Life Is Strange, some of the new Telltale games, etc) but I still much prefer the classic formula of P&C adventure games. Ba humbug! Now get off my lawn! :P