Nintedno Wii Could Revive Adventure Genre

I LOVE adventure games, so I would prefer plenty of Wii adventures in the near future. 

Adventure games like King’s Quest and Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle might be almost extinct in the commercial gaming business, but they are still loved by many. Ballooning development costs, demand for high action games, and sluggish sales have lead to the demise of one of gaming’s most creative genres. Adventure games just aren’t made very often anymore.And yet they have so much to offer. Adventure games tend to be story focused, a huge advantage to anyone that appreciates good storytelling in their games. And because of the lack of expansive 3D worlds, adventure games lend themselves well to creating extremely detailed and beautiful individual artwork and backdrops. Yet, lucky for us gamers, the next generation might bring the adventure game back from the grave. Systems like the Wii’s Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade, which allow smaller games to be released and downloaded over the Internet, might have what is needed to make adventure games both common, and once again profitable to make.

Ease of Development:

Back when Sierra Online Entertainment was producing games like The Dagger of Amon Ra and Space Quest, adventure games were hard to make. Now days, adventure games are comparatively simple to put together. In fact, thanks to a wonderful, free program called The Adventure Game Studio, genre fans have been making their own homebrew titles since 1997. With little or no programing skills, a talented artist can sit down make games that look like everything from high-resolution modern games to classic VGA. Here’s a brief example of the games that are being made by the independent developers for non-commercial release, just to give you an idea:

• The Apprentice:The Apprentice is an extraordinarily cute game that carries all the classic flavor that made King’s Quest so famous. Interesting story, creative characters, and an excellent sense of humor, The Apprentice is a free download, and highlights all of the qualities of a good adventure game. In it you play an aspiring young magician struggling to deal with the reality that being an apprentice involves a lot more dirty dish washing than he had hoped.
• The Apprentice 2:The original Apprentice actually launches the first of what will eventually be a trilogy. Apprentice III: Checkmate is still being completed, but The Apprentice II: The Knight’s Move, has been out and playable for some time. While most of these games are designed to look like older style adventure games, they ooze with what can only be called charm. They have good humor, and are often far more willing to poke fun at themselves than modern commercial developers, something carried over from the early days of adventure games.
• Byzantine:Byzantine isn’t really done yet. What you are able to download from their website is actually a demo of the final product, which is still under development. I include its screenshots because it’s an excellent example of a different style of storyline. In this Blade-runner inspired world, you’re a private investigator hunting for the truth. What exactly that truth is, I couldn’t say, since I’ve never played the full game, the demo gives you a good idea what Byzantine is intended to be like.
• The Digital Spell:The Digital Spell is set in an entirely different world than any of the previous three games. It emphasizes a more complex art style, realistic characters, and a darker storyline. For example, unlike either of the others, The Digital Spell has you kill a guard in the first room, casting a spell that melts his brain. The more mature emphasis means that you won’t find the same level of charm that you’ll find in the games like Apprentice, but you’ll still find an entertaining and interesting world, if short.
• King’s Quest 3: VGA Remake:Not all the games made by the fan community are original titles; some are graphical updates of old classics, such as King’s Quest 3. This excellent VGA remake of King’s Quest 3: To Heir is Human is not only accurate, it’s designed to run on modern computers. The King’s Quest series was one of the first adventure games to hit the market, and made the Sierra name famous. Its success made Roberta Williams one of the most successful female designers of all time.

A cheaper, less demanding distribution system:

Adventure games are not particularly expensive to develop. As you can see, a fairly limited team of artists and programers could produce a full quality, high resolution game, at least if you’re not trying to compete with Halo 3 for the Xbox 360. The reason that adventure games are disappearing is because they don’t compete well with other genres. Trying to create an adventure game that meets the graphical standards of an audience taught to expect Elder Scrolls IV makes the whole endeavor far less appealing. However, building a product to compete with Geometry Wars might be more doable. Adventure games are not disappearing because no one is buying them; they’re disappearing because people are buying other types of games far more often.

What the Adventure Genre needs is a new market, one that expects high quality games that don’t look like Halo 3 and can be downloaded for a few dollars each. It’s found that market in the Virtual Console, and possibly Xbox Live Arcade.
More at: http://nintendo.about.com/library/adventure/bladventure1.htm

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