Indie Adventures

START
The Indie
Reboot of
the Point
and Click
Adventure
James O’Connor witnesses the
reawakening of a sleeping giant
16
B
y the late 1990s, if you listen to
the popular rhetoric, the point
and click adventure was dead. It
wasn’t clear who was to blame:
the enormous success of Myst,
some argued, had diluted the
genre with copycat efforts, while
others put it down to improving
PC technologies that drew
players towards more intensive,
action-packed games. Still others
believed that the puzzles in the
games being released were simply
too silly, too abstract, to win
over audiences. In March 1999,
Al Lowe announced at GDC that
Sierra was no longer interested
in his Leisure Suit Larry games:
“Is adventure dead? It is in my
house… at least for now”. Over
the next few years, we all watched
as LucasArts cancelled
revivals of Sam & Max
and Full Throttle, and the
genre shifted into niche
territory throughout most
of the world. While there
were still a few big titles
released over the decade
that followed, many of the
most prolific (Dreamfall,
Broken Sword: The Sleeping
Dragon, Still Life) embraced
console-friendly control
schemes and incorporated
out-of-place action sequences,
arguably diluting the essence
of the genre’s appeal. Every
review of an adventure game
opened with a caveat explaining
that the genre was dead, and
we should be happy with
whatever we could get.
Cut to 2012. Tim Schafer is
given $3.3 million on Kickstarter
to make a traditional point
‘n click adventure game. The
Walking Dead, an incredibly
simple but wonderfully well
plotted episodic adventure game,
is awarded numerous Game of
the Year accolades and enjoys
immense mainstream success.
In September, the crowd-funded
Dreamfall Chapters was on the
cover of PC Powerplay. Clearly,
somewhere along the line,
something changed; while
adventure games haven’t
exactly become a dominant
genre, no one is
writing them
off as dead
anymore.
The rise of
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independent development and
digital distribution have given
developers better tools and easier
means of getting their games
out there, and allowed for the
production of games that cater
to a niche market that was, for
the longest time, starving for
content. Chatting with the folks
behind some of the best (although
not necessarily the biggest)
adventure games of the last few
years reveals that the passion for
the genre never really went away
– in fact the rise of independent
point and click adventure games
predates the current indie boom,
but it’s only recently that these
games have come roaring back
into focus.
NEVER REALLY DEAD >> Dave
Gilbert has been working on
adventure games since 2001,
when he first started making
freeware games for competitions
run by forums and fansites. His
first commercial release, The
Shivah (which started as freeware
but developed into something
more when Gilbert realised that
he was enjoying working on it so
much that he “couldn’t envision
doing anything else”), went online
in 2006. He and his wife Janet
(interviewed in HYPER #237 about
the process of porting Gemini
his spare time non-stop (aside
from a single two-week break) for
five years. It was one of the first
games to go up on Kickstarter,
according to Twelve: Back then,
KS campaigns were much smaller,
so I thought the $2000 I got was
pretty impressive.”
Even if the genre wasn’t truly
dead, it was certainly out of the
public eye… at least in English
speaking parts of the world.
According to Claas Wolter, PR
director for German-based
Daedalic Entertainment (The
Whispered World, Deponia, The
Night of the Rabbit), “Germany,
Austria and Switzerland have
remained very strong when it
comes to adventure games. We
also still have a very heavy and
busy retail business for PC games
over here, huge shelves dedicated
to many, many PC games. France
is also a pretty popular adventure
gaming market, and so are the
Nordics, the Netherlands, Belgium,
Luxemburg, Italy, Poland and
Russia.” More and more games
are getting translated into English
now though, and released through
digital services at sensible prices.
Resonance 2
Vince Twelve is currently
planning a sequel to
Resonance, set thirty
years after the events
of the first. “It's a
standalone story in
the same universe
that deals with some
of the ramifications of
the game's events, but
doesn't require you to
have played Resonance
to follow along. There
will definitely be some
nods in there for fans of
the original, though!”
STUDIO SESSIONS >> Many of
the best adventure games of the
last decade have been made in
Adventure Game Studio, a free
I don’t think people ever stopped
wanting to play adventure games
Rue to iOS) now operate Wadjet
Eye Games, which is probably
best known for its Blackwell game
series. Gilbert questions whether
it’s right to say that the genre
ever died. “I’ve always found
it odd that the point-and-click
style was singled out as being
dead. Nobody ever said schmups
were dead, or 2D platformers, or
roguelikes, even though they
undoubtedly were ‘dead’ when
you apply the same standards to
them. They just became niche, and
as games became more expensive
to produce it became harder to
justify making them. I don’t think
the audience ever really went
away. It’s just the industry moved
on to bigger fish.” In 2010 Wadjet
Eye moved into publishing other
developer’s games in order to
expand their business and profit
margins. “It enabled us to take
a few more risks than we would
have otherwise, because we didn’t
have to rely on every game being
a smash hit in order to survive”,
says Gilbert. It led to their
involvement in some exciting new
games, including the unexpectedly
popular Gemini Rue and Vince
Twelve’s Resonance, a game that
Twelve had been working on in
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development tool initially released
in 1997. 1997 was a banner year for
adventure games – Broken Sword
2 went on to sell over a million
copies, Myst sequel Riven outsold
every other game released that
year, and The Last Express gave
us something truly special – but
the release of Adventure Game
Studio was, in hindsight, perhaps
the most important development
for the genre that year. The
software – which recently went
open source, allowing developers
to port their games onto tablets
– has been essential for several
of the developers we spoke with.
Most of the Wadjet Eye games
– including the Blackwell series,
Resonance and Primordia – were
developed in AGS, and Australian
developers Dane Krams (Anna’s
Quest Volume 1) and Walk Thru
Walls Studios (Metal Dead and
upcoming sequel Metal Dead:
Encore) wouldn’t have been able
to make their games without
it. “The software is specifically
designed to make exactly what
we wanted to with Metal Dead”,
explains Walk Thru Walls’ Liam
O’Sullivan. “Not a single day of
development went by where we
didn’t discover something new
Viva le
Revolution
Far more exciting than
Double Fine’s troubled
Broken Age is the
approaching release
of Broken Sword: The
Serpent’s Curse, another
Kickstarter success story.
Developers Revolution
Software have also
promised Beneath A
Steel Sky 2, based on the
level of interest they’ve
received from fans for
new adventure games.
that the engine could do to help
us make our vision a reality.”
The tools available have taken
away some of the potential risks
involved, but the success stories
weren’t developed for free. Before
getting into publishing, Dave
Gilbert explains, the financial side
of developing his games was
stressing him out. “The sad fact
about adventure games is that
they are very asset heavy, and
take a lot of time to produce. We
had to rely on every game selling
well in order to pay our bills and
fund the next game. If we had
one flop, we were done for.” Dane
Krams, whose expenses were
comparatively slim (he
had to buy Adobe Suite,
pay his voice actors
a modest sum, and
acquire music rights), is
glad that more developers are
taking the risks now. “It seemed
like for a long time there just
weren’t enough people brave
enough to try making them,
and the ones that did didn’t put
enough money behind them to
make them work. Maybe it goes
hand in hand with the rise of
popularity with independent
gaming, and money becoming
less of an issue. I don’t think
people ever stopped wanting
to play adventure games, and
obviously people didn’t really
want to stop making them either,
it just didn’t seem viable to do so
for a while.”
BACK IN ACTION >> Jane Jensen
and Chris Jones are two of the
biggest names in adventure
gaming. Jensen is best known
as the lead writer and designer
on the critically acclaimed and
much beloved Gabriel Knight
series, while Jones both designed
and starred in the Tex Murphy
games. But by the end of the
90s, things looked grim for their
careers in pointing and clicking.
“After Gabriel Knight 3 in 1999,
the way things were in the
industry, I thought that was it”,
says Jensen. “I wrote novels for a
few years after that.” Jensen has
made a comeback to the genre
recently though – after a decade
of working on cheaper casual
titles based on existing licenses,
Jensen returned in 2010 with Gray
Matter. The game faced numerous
issues in development, and
was released to mildly positive
reviews (we gave it a 7). By 2012,
developer WizarBox had declared
bankruptcy, but by then Jensen
had moved onto more interesting
projects: she has served as story
consultant on the episodic series
‘Cognition’ (which just wrapped
up), and has been working on
‘Moebius’, a title she received
19
funding for through Kickstarter,
and which she plans to release in
December or January. Jones, too,
has funded a new Tex Murphy
game through Kickstarter, a
dream he wasn’t sure would
ever be realised. “(Writer) Aaron
Conners and I had always hoped
to bring Tex Murphy back.
However, when Access Software
was purchased by Microsoft,
we weren’t sure if we would
ever get the chance. During
that time, we spoke with several
publishers about the possibility
of a new Tex game, but we never
managed to get anywhere past
the pitch. Publishers were much
more interested in creating
console games, and they didn’t
think Tex would be a good fit.
Then, in early 2012 we heard
about Double Fine’s success
through Kickstarter. We were
astounded by the support old
adventure game genre titles and
their makers were having with
crowdfunding. It showed that
there was still interest and strong
support for adventure games.”
Both designers are also
aware, however, that things have
changed a bit since their biggest
successes. The successful modern
indie point ‘n click isn’t necessarily
easy, but it is simplified compared
to what it used to be – it’s rare
for these games to have more
than a few basic command
options, whereas the original
Gabriel Knight, for instance,
had nine separate interaction
options for everything you could
interact with. “I worked in casual
games for a number of years so
I am more aware of keeping the
gameplay smooth and not filled
with what many people would
find roadblocks”, says Jensen. “I
don’t think that has to mean ‘easy’
either. But I am aware of, and
am trying to help
define, a more
modern take on
the genre.” Jones,
who is set to don the
fedora of a “much older, but not
necessarily wiser Tex” next year,
wants the new game to stick close
to what the series’ fans remember,
with a branching narrative
and multiple endings. “We are
committed to the branching
narratives and the logic puzzles
since we’ve had a lot of Tex fans
who want Tex to come back the
way they remember it. We’re
even using FMV because we
feel that live actors can bring an
emotional punch that can still be
lost with CG characters. We have
always provided two different
experiences for the game players
with regard to puzzle complexity. We offer “Gamer” and “Casual”
mode. The Casual mode allows
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F#ck off,
Leisure
Suit
Larry
Just as Pulp Fiction
precipitated the John
Travolta comeback that
ultimately spawned
Battlefield Earth,
the indie adventure
revolution led to a
successful Kickstarter
for Leisure Suit Larry
Reloaded, a truly vile
remake of a game that
aged worse than just
about anything else from
the 80s. Steer clear.
players to easily bypass puzzles
so they can focus on the overall
story while the gamer mode let’s
people who love logic puzzles to
indulge in those.”
THE WRITE STUFF >> With
more people than ever with
access to devices capable of
playing games, there’s a wider
audience of players who want
something different from the
games that have been attracting
most of the attention for the
last decade. Ben Britten is the
technical director at Tin Man
Games, a Melbourne-based studio
that has released several popular
gamebook titles. Gamebooks,
while different from traditional
point and clicks, share much of
the same geneology. “Ultimately
the goal of both game styles
is to take the players on an
adventure and let them build
a story along the way”, says
Britten. “We definitely see
people who were big fans of the
Kings Quest series and Monkey
Island games that are also big
fans of gamebooks. These
also tend to be people who
love tabletop roleplaying and
story based gaming in general.”
The gamebooks released by
Tin Man Games span several
different genres and licenses,
right move for the genre. Story,
characters, atmosphere, quality,
compelling experiences – that’s
what we’re focusing on.” This
is a sentiment shared by all of
the developers we spoke with.
“A good adventure game isn’t
about the puzzles, but about
immersing you in a story”, Dave
Gilbert explains. “You are THERE,
it’s happening to you, and you
are making the events happen.
It’s not always easy to pull off,
but when done well there’s no
experience like it.” Vince Twelve
became involved in the scene
because he remembered the joy
these games brought him in his
childhood: “I loved games of all
genres, but felt especially drawn
towards games that tested your
brain rather than your reflexes.
I also found some of the best
stories in some adventure games
and could really immerse myself
into those worlds. I wanted to
create experiences like that. And
that’s why I made Resonance.”
FINAL PIECE OF THE PUZZLE
>> As a freelance critic, securing
coverage for point and click
adventure games is an uphill
struggle. Aside from Telltale’s
releases most local online outlets
don’t cover them, and while
magazines are more open to
Story, characters, atmosphere –
that’s what we’re focusing on
GG, GoG
Thanks to Good Old
Games and Steam,
many lost classics are
now easily accessible,
although Jane Jensen and
Chris Murphy admitted
that they rarely hear from
new fans. “I don’t often
receive fan mail from
people who say they’ve
just discovered Gabriel
Knight”, says Jensen. “Usually it’s fans that
played it way back when,
or new Gray Matter fans.”
and offer experiences that,
while potentially quite deep,
can be played through at a
casual pace. “I think that there
has always been a big audience
for heavily narrative games
especially in the RPG space”,
Britten expounds. “There is
a big chunk of the gaming
audience that is a bit tired of
rehashed FPS games that are
just a slightly prettier version
of last year’s big FPS titles
and so there is a bit of a desire
for more stories in games. I
think that we are seeing this a
great deal in the indie space
but we are also seeing more
emphasis put on storytelling in
the AAA space as well, which
I think is really great to see.”
While many genres have
expanded outwards, providing
bigger experiences and more
action, Claas Wolter believes that
adventure games have made a
comeback because developers
have stopped to examine what
made them popular in the first
place. “Bringing the genre back
to its roots, featuring 2D and
2.5D and especially focusing
on stories, characters and
atmosphere was obviously the
reviewing them (and running
articles like this one), it’s only the
huge ones that really get noticed
in a big way. “Whether we like it
or not, point ‘n click games only
appeal to a niche audience”, says
Liam O’Sullivan. “That said, fans
of the genre are very passionate
and word of mouth amongst the
community has worked wonders
for us. Before we released Metal
Dead, I think our naiveté about
the industry and the indie scene
was a blessing. If we knew back
then just how much work it would
be to build an audience, there’s a
chance we would have given up
very early on”. Daedalic has faced
similar problems, Wolter says:
“We know that there are many,
many adventure gaming fans in
the UK and North America. Still,
sales are comparably low in these
territories, as it’s hard to actually
reach everyone who’s interested in
these games. There are still many
magazines who feel that reviewing
or featuring adventure games isn’t
something their audience wants
to read.” Even so, for a genre that
supposedly died over a decade
ago, the point and click adventure
scene is looking a lot healthier
than it could be.
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