Article: how to make a good adventure game

[seguso]

Hello, I wrote an article full of hints to create an adventure game:

http://onefinger.sf.net/What-makes-a-good-adventure-game---by-seguso---english-2.5.3.pdf

The topics are: how to make a good GUI, how to invent and validate puzzles, story; how to make good graphics. I'd appreciate any comment or even grammar suggestions. Thanks :)

[Robert_Cath]

I saved it to my computer. I will read it later and review it

[seguso]

I saved it to my computer. I will read it later and review it

Thank you. Version 2.5 is out by the way ;)

[Erkki]

The article starts off good and all along you make great points, but I think you got a little too specific when you got to the verbs, suggested a concrete interface, the resolution of graphics etc.

Even if you didn't mean 'all good adventure games should be like this', you spent a good part (maybe the most) of your article advocating a very specific type of adventure game.

I still think it's entirely worth reading though and I liked what you wrote about creating puzzles.

[seguso]

The article starts off good and all along you make great points, but I think you got a little too specific when you got to the verbs, suggested a concrete interface, the resolution of graphics etc.

Even if you didn't mean 'all good adventure games should be like this', you spent a good part (maybe the most) of your article advocating a very specific type of adventure game.

I still think it's entirely worth reading though and I liked what you wrote about creating puzzles.

Thanks :)

However, I warned the reader to skip the more personal part about the interface. :)

And warned to do that thing with many verbs only if your puzzles makes it absolutely necessary.

[Krazy]

Your 640, 480 320 200 rant really confuses me alot :crazy: :pan:

The GUI stuff was pretty silly too, BASS's interface was great and simple, it didn't need to be any more complex, not EVERY SINGLE game has to have the same GUI you know?

[lawrenceofarabia]

Thanks for that wonderful article I especially liked the part on adventure game graphics in lower resolutions. If only more people who made adventure games read stuff like this. ;)

[seguso]

For who is interested, I posted version 2.6 of the article, adding some more hints about puzzles, and fixing some logical mistake pointed out by readers.

http://onefinger.sf.net/What-makes-a-good-adventure-game---by-seguso---english-2.6.5.pdf

I would like to thank everyone for the useful feeback I received. Now it's tmie to actually do the game ;)

[chapter11studios]

Hi Seduso,

Thanks for taking the time to write this. I've printed the entire document out and will read it this evening. If I may ask, what's your background and what are your assumptions here based on... is this from experience in making games, or from your observations as a game player?

-Josh

[Jake]

This is an interesting read but I disagree with a large percentage of it. I think if you're not working on gameplay and story concurrently you will end up with a classic case of an annoying adventure game that feels like a weird abstracted web of puzzles and dialogue instead of as a compelling story-driven adventure.

You seem to be proposing writing the entire story out as if its not a game at all, and then creating puzzles for it, sometimes as if there isn't a story at all? I know you don't mean it to be that extreme in practice, but it's a weird approach to start out with in a theoretical instruction manual.


I'll also throw out there that I'm with the others in this thread who disagree with your remarks about interface design. If you have to make the interface more obscure or confusing because your puzzles are coming across as too easy, the solution to that is to go back to the drawing board and rewrite your puzzles, not to make the interface more complicated to the player.

Are you trying to bring your player into the gameworld, or keep them at arms length, telling them time and again that they're not supposed to be immersed or involved in your adventure game, but are instead supposed to be tooling their way through some illogical technological maze? Yes I definitely disagree with a lot of what's going on here.

[chapter11studios]

You seem to be proposing writing the entire story out as if its not a game at all, and then creating puzzles for it.

Now, I could be horribly mistaken, but I think I recall reading once that Ron Gilbert wrote the story for Monkey Island first, and then did the puzzles afterward. Which seems to be what is being proposed here. Unless I am mistaken. Which happens occasionally.

[Jake]

That's true, but I imagine Gilbert wasn't writing the story 100% like a book, "as if you were to going sell it." Gilbert was already an established adventure designer with two well received games under his belt when he wrote the story to Monkey Island. I'm sure he was operating more under the guidelines of "will this part of the story be fun as an adventure game" than "is this a compelling story for story's sake."

Obviously you want a good story in your adventure game (!!!), but I'm not one for laying down the law quite the way this guide does.

[Jake]

I just re-read the part about the interface and I disagree less, on the condition that maybe I misread it, or maybe it was explained badly.

This guide seems to imply that if your puzzles are too easy you need to make your interface more complicated. I think that's wrong.

That said, I think the examples of when a verb or icon interface might be better than a one-click interface are nice things to read for people who haven't really thought about that.

Instead of advising that designers ramp up or down the complexity of their interface after they've realized their puzzles are too easy or too hard, I think this guide would be better to tell them to think long and hard about what sort of interface they want before they start writing their puzzles, and then have the guide outline the limitations and strengths of each kind (verb/icon based, one-click, and (yes!) direct character control).

It's true that which sort of interface to use is an important choice and that new designers might not think about it, so it's good to see it here, but I the way it's presented is a little off.

[Jake]

Hm. Nevermind. I have read the rest of this and realized that it's not "how to make a good adventure game," but "how to make one very specific type of point and click game for a very specific type of audience." Some interesting ideas, but not my cup of tea. Sorry for wasting your time with my posts.

:\

[Steve Ince]

Now, I could be horribly mistaken, but I think I recall reading once that Ron Gilbert wrote the story for Monkey Island first, and then did the puzzles afterward. Which seems to be what is being proposed here. Unless I am mistaken. Which happens occasionally.That's likely to be the case, but you never do it in isolation. You may not develop the finer details while writing the story, but you should always keep in mind the broad sweep of the gameplay, the events that will lead to obstacles, character interactions and the like. Besides, not many of us have the skill and flair of Ron Gilbert. :)

[SoccerDude28]

That's likely to be the case, but you never do it in isolation. You may not develop the finer details while writing the story, but you should always keep in mind the broad sweep of the gameplay, the events that will lead to obstacles, character interactions and the like. Besides, not many of us have the skill and flair of Ron Gilbert. :)
If BS is any yard stick to measure buy, believe me you have lots of skill and flair yourself :)

[Steve Ince]

Thanks SoccerDude, but we are talking Ron Gilbert, here.

[seguso]

Hi Seduso,

Thanks for taking the time to write this. I've printed the entire document out and will read it this evening. If I may ask, what's your background and what are your assumptions here based on... is this from experience in making games, or from your observations as a game player?

-Josh

Josh, may I ask you why you are asking? ;) I prefer to judge someone from what he says than for who he is. (Provided he says something!)

To answer your question, I have been a game programmer (but not adventures), I have written stories (not only for adventures), and I am currently creating an adventure in my spare time. No, it isn't finished, but the story and puzzles are already written. :)

[seguso]

I just re-read the part about the interface and I disagree less, on the condition that maybe I misread it, or maybe it was explained badly.

This guide seems to imply that if your puzzles are too easy you need to make your interface more complicated. I think that's wrong.


No, what I said does not imply this.

I said: If the puzzles are good but your interface makes them become too easy, it's better to make the interface less friendly and automatic than the puzzles less logical.

[chapter11studios]

Josh, may I ask you why you are asking? ;) I prefer to judge someone from what he says than for who he is.

Oh, I was just curious about your perspective is all. I like to know someone's level of experience and expertise on a subject when I am listening to his or her opinions on it. Much like I wouldn't make a whole lot of sense talking about how to construct the first manned mission to Mars, I probably would take Ron Gilbert's (or Steve Ince's!) advice on adventure games over, say, someone who has never actually designed a game. :)

Anyway, interesting read you've put together, and some useful bits. I enjoyed your perspective and am glad you shared it. It will be interesting to see if your advice changes once you get through the entire process of making your game. Mine certainly has, and I'm not even done with mine yet!

[TM3]

Great article suguso! I’ve got no current ambitions make an adventure game soon but possibly in the future for fun. I’m playing In Cold Blood and The Longest Journey and need to know what makes this genre good. I’ve mentioned one time on a post that I’m new to this particular genre. I’ve got your article saved when the time comes but occasionally I check it out. I like some of the points you mentioned on making immersive environments (wind, leaves blowing, etc).