The Evolution of the Adventure Game
While I wouldn't call it exactly mainstream, Strange Horizons is a weekly online magazine about speculative fiction - which apparently dabbles into video games.

Several weeks ago they published an article about Adventure Games - defining the genre, explaining its differences from virtually every other kind of video game, defining its constructs, verbs, and the evolution of adventure game interfaces. They hit many key games in passing (or in screenshots), including Colossal Cave, Myst, King's Quest, Maniac Mansion, and this year's Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis, but the focus is definitely upon breaking down mechanics and abstractions of gameplay rather than discussing individual titles.

So if you have an academic or designer leaning, I'd recommend giving this article a read if you missed it (like I did) the first time around:

Searching Under the Rug: Interfaces, Puzzles, and the Evolution of Adventure Games

Labels: Adventure Games, Game Design

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:08 AM (Permalink)