The adventure game renaissance

It seems we're on the verge of a revival of the venerable adventure game genre. Of course, companies like Telltale have already been successul with the new Sam & Max and Monkey Island games, as well as Back to the Future, but now we're really seeing a return of the once adventure game giants.

Of course, you probably already know about Tim Schafer's hugely successful kickstarter, but did you know that the Two Guys from Andromeda (writers of the Space Quest series) have reunited and are making a new space adventure (and they got Gary Owens as the narrator again )? And that Jane Jensen and Robert Holmes (of Gabriel Knight fame) are starting a new game studio? Or that Al Lowe is planning to remake Leisure Suit Larry for the modern age?

I'm looking forward to it, that's for sure.

@Sven Groot: LSL allready had it's port and it sucked.

I've been playing some assassins creed lately, it's not strictly an adventure, but I don't know how an 100% adventure game is supposed to compete with that. If you look at deadspace and mass effect, these guys have a lot of competition.

But, if you aim lower and provide an adventure as an arcade title, I might be game!

11 minutes ago, Maddus Mattus wrote

@Sven Groot: LSL allready had it's port and it sucked.

What do you mean? The 1991 remake is the only one that I'm familiar with, and that's not exactly modern anymore.

I've never been a huge fan of LSL, to be honest. It was fun, but not top of my list. The news about the Two Guys and Jane Jensen however, that's what's really got me excited. Gabriel Knight are some of the best games I've ever played.

I do love Mass Effect, but it would've been better if it had been an adventure game. Shooters just aren't my thing, and never will be.

@Sven Groot:

I got confused by the term re-make. A re-make to me is; using the old format, but in a new game. What they are talking about is a complete re-write of some of the adventure games.

So that's why I said the re-make of LSL sucked. If you look at the Al Lowe video, he kinda agrees with me (when he opens the SIERRA door).

In the film they talk about shareware and pirated copies, yadda yadda. But I wonder if they will release the re-writes for free. Seems like a cool idea.

Oh, I hate mass-effect for not being a good shooter and as a reason I didnt buy 2 and 3. Assasins creed is one of the very best games I've ever played, technically, gameplay and content wise. The story is ok-ish, puzzles are a joke.

21 minutes ago, Maddus Mattus wrote

@Sven Groot:

I got confused by the term re-make. A re-make to me is; using the old format, but in a new game. What they are talking about is a complete re-write of some of the adventure games.

No, a remake is when you make the same game again using newer technology. And if you were talking about the last two Larry games, yeah, they sucked.

In the film they talk about shareware and pirated copies, yadda yadda. But I wonder if they will release the re-writes for free. Seems like a cool idea.

Yeah, because as we all know game developers don't need to eat.

Oh, I hate mass-effect for not being a good shooter and as a reason I didnt buy 2 and 3.

The shooter part actually got a lot better in 2 and 3, but as I said, I only play it for the story, which is absolutely brilliant, among the best I've ever seen in a game. To me the words "good shooter" are an oxymoron. There's no such thing.

But this thread isn't supposed to be about shooters. It's supposed to be about the revival of the best genre of games ever: adventure games.

@Sven Groot:

No, a remake is when you make the same game again using newer technology.

Duley noted, I'll adjust my definitions.

Yeah, because as we all know game developers don't need to eat.

Good, saves on the costs! All I'm saying is that if Al Lowe is raving about it, they should stick their guns to it. Looks to me like they are looking for investors from the public and not returning anything but the game and some prizes.

I would not mind paying a few bucks, but not full game price.

And why not create a new story? I've allready played all of em and won. It's not going to capture the same magic, they should create new magic and break with the old. It's like Knight Rider 2000 all over again.

While part of me feels like it stings to see these legends of the industry more or less forced to beg fans for money to make more games, a larger part of me feels happy that these people are finally making games again. What's more, adventure games.

After Team 17 (I still can't forgive them for it) butchered the Larry franchise, I find it especially satisfying to see Al Lowe retake control of it. I never enjoyed anything Jane Jensen put out apart from Gabriel Knight (and I only really enjoyed the first one), but that Moebius thing looks good. What I find weird though is that she presents three options for games she could make: what if I pledge money and she makes the one I dislike? Why not three separate Kickstarter pages for each game?

I eagerly await to see if Lori & Corey Cole return to the Quest for Glory franchise, although with Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer making a multimillion dollar adventure game, another wish like that seems like tempting the gods.

1 minute ago, Maddus Mattus wrote

And why not create a new story? I've allready played all of em and won. It's not going to capture the same magic, they should create new magic and break with the old. It's like Knight Rider 2000 all over again.

That's covered in the FAQ on the page: the owner of the rights wants them to do a remake first as a proof of concept, and if it sells well they'll be allowed to do new games.

And both Jane Jensen and the Two Guys are not remaking games but creating all-new adventure games, and personally I'm much more interested in those, that's why I listed Al Lowe last. Although it's sort of fitting that Al Lowe also returns to gaming along with the Two Guys; after all, making fun of Al was 50% of the humour in Space Quest (in Space Quest 4, Leisure Suit Larry 4 was the super-computer virus that allowed Vohaul to overthrow Xenon).

@Bas: At least the two spaceballs are making a new game!

*think you hear footsteps*

@Maddus Mattus: You hear an electronic hum approaching from behind you.

@Sven Groot:Awesome, going to play the originals,. See if they still have the magic

I had Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon, but don't think I ever finished it.

On the conversation of "old games" coming back, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_(2013_computer_game)

Unfortunately it uses Origin and you need to be online to play...and modding is a "maybe", which I don't understand. The reason SimCity 4 still has a large userbase is because of modding.

@Maddus Mattus: I've got Let's Plays of all of them on my YouTube channel, with Roland MT-32 and SC-88 music where applicable!

@Sven Groot: thanks!

That's awesome!

Edit;

Space has no temperature, as it has no matter,.. So no residual heat possible

Nice videos! Looks like I am youtubing all evening

1 hour ago, Maddus Mattus wrote

Space has no temperature, as it has no matter,.. So no residual heat possible

Apart from that's not true.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8309875.stm

@evildictaitor: heat is vibration of atoms, right?

No atoms, no heat, no temperature.

link you posted just some info on the LHC and experiments on cold (non moving) atoms, nothing about the temperature of space. The BBC mentioned space and temperature, but they don't have a clue.

4 minutes ago, Maddus Mattus wrote

@evildictaitor: heat is vibration of atoms, right?

No atoms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space

...However, even the deep vacuum of intergalactic space is not devoid of matter, as it contains a few hydrogen atoms per cubic meter.^[26] 

no atoms , no heat, no temperature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy

Vacuum energy is an underlying background energy that exists in space even when the space is devoid of matter (free space). The concept of vacuum energy has been deduced from the concept of virtual particles, which is itself derived from the energy-time uncertainty principle. The effects of vacuum energy can be experimentally observed in various phenomena such as spontaneous emission, the Casimir effect, the van der Waals bonds^{[citation needed]} and the Lamb shift, and are thought to influence the behavior of the Universe on cosmological scales. Using the upper limit of thecosmological constant, the vacuum energy in a cubic meter of free space has been estimated to be 10⁻⁹ Joules.^[1] However, in both Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) and Stochastic Electrodynamics (SED), consistency with the principle of Lorentz covariance and with the magnitude of thePlanck Constant requires it to have a much larger value of 10¹¹³ Joules per cubic meter.^[2][3]