Monday, September 21, 2009
A Passel Of Adventure Game Design Articles
With Friday's discussion about adventure game elements in RPGs, I have gone back to look over some articles on adventure game design. As far as adventure game design is concerned, I'm strictly a novice (I've just been at it for a pretty long time). So I frequently dig up some articles by much more experienced folk on the art and science of adventure game design to broaden my education.
I think I've shared some of these links before, but here they are again (and a few more) for your edification if you feel inclined to pursue that particular brand of insanity:
Ron Gilbert: Why Adventure Games Suck (and What We Can Do About It)
An old article just as relevant (or more relevant) today as when it was written.
21 Adventure Game Design Tips at AdventureDevelopers
Lotta the same thoughts as Ron Gilbert, plus a few more.
Use Key On Door by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw
Yahtzee (of Zero Punctuation fame) addresses one Depressingly Common Adventure Game Design Flaw, and considers possible solutions.
The Craft of Adventure (PDF document)
A series of articles on the art and craft of creating IF / Adventure games.
ThenGamer: The Making of Loom
Reflections on the making of a lesser-known LucasArts graphic adventure game classic.
Old Man Murray: Who Killed Adventure Games?
A harsh but not untrue look at one of the real reasons graphic adventure games lost mainstream popularity.
Adventure Game Puzzles: Unlocking the Secrets of Puzzle Design
Boiling down (most) adventure game puzzles into distinct patterns / categories.
Making Better Puzzles
Yet more advice on making adventure-game style puzzles more fair and more fun.
GamaSutra's Interview with Emily Short
She's one of the biggest movers and shakers in modern Interactive Fiction, with a large number of titles (all freeware) to her credit.
Puzzle Design of Myst
Exploring the good and bad of Myst's puzzle design.
Conversation, by Emily Short
A rather lengthy article discussing possibilities for designing conversation in Interactive Fiction (also useful for RPG design, although she does assume a text-based parser).
Interview With Al Lowe at Rock Paper Shotgun
WARNING - NSFW! The creator of the classic Leisure Suit Larry games talks about designing the series and the modern game audience.
Implementing an IF Interface in 3D, by Mike Rubin
Mike talks about the challenges of taking a text-based adventure into the 3D Graphics world (incidentally - Al Lowe did something similar, as the first Leisure Suit Larry was a conversion of a text adventure into a graphic adventure game).
I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg. Do you have some better articles or suggestions for someone who might be aspiring to writing adventure games or Interactive Fiction?'
To maintain the longevity of the resource, I'm maintaining a thread over on the forums devoted to this subject.
Forum Thread: A Passel of Adventure Game Design Articles
Labels: Adventure Games, Game Design
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:30 AM (Permalink)
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Fascinating (to me) discovery: the Old Man Murray article you link to, published in 2000, uses the term "casual gamer", which seems like a very early use of the term. But that's not the interesting part. The interesting part is that the term is used to describe the sorts of people who play "simplistic" action games like Quake rather than "complex" puzzle games.
I wonder when the understanding of this term got inverted into its present form?
I wonder when the understanding of this term got inverted into its present form?
# posted by 
: September 21, 2009 11:27 AM
: September 21, 2009 11:27 AM
I'm not sure, but I think somewhere between 2002 - 2004 might be the right range. It seemed to me that in 2004 the term "casual games" was starting to pick up.
"Who Killed Adventure Games?" Heh, heh. That's hilarious! And it reminds me of why I don't like adventure games.
Well,... most of them. :)
Well,... most of them. :)
I don't think these articles should be read by adventure game developers only. Most tips can be applied to other genres as well, e.g. "Arbitrary puzzles" in Ron Gilbert's article can be restated this way: never require the player to do something that doesn't make sense in the game world.
Noah Falstein and Ernest Adams (recommended: Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie!; 9 parts) offer general advice on game design.
There really should be something along the lines of 10 commandments for game developers. And they should be required to recite them every day before they start work.
Back to Friday's discussion.
While being a completely different beast, adventure games were in the vanguard of exploring means to convey humor in computer games. I recommend them as a source for inspiration.
FYI, Full Throttle is up on YouTube.
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Noah Falstein and Ernest Adams (recommended: Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie!; 9 parts) offer general advice on game design.
There really should be something along the lines of 10 commandments for game developers. And they should be required to recite them every day before they start work.
Back to Friday's discussion.
While being a completely different beast, adventure games were in the vanguard of exploring means to convey humor in computer games. I recommend them as a source for inspiration.
FYI, Full Throttle is up on YouTube.
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