Last edited by Vracar on August 11, 2008 • 1:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
An Ode to Adventure Games
For a while the genre flared with haste,
With large budgets it commanded
Now the cheap, the free give taste
Of a genre left behind, left stranded
Sure not all of them were that good,
But that goes for just about all
Every genre has it's crappy games,
Every game will have a flaw
Adventure games were about plot
As opposed to shooting a bigger gun
It was a thinking man's genre
Where puzzles were the fun
At least that's what it's suppose to be
The concept, at least, in theory
Some puzzles can be rather obtuse
Some puzzles leave me rather weary
Expecting me to collect the pieces
Know where the pieces scattered to
And figure out which goes with what
F**K it, I'll just use a walkthrough
For a while the genre flared with haste,
With large budgets it commanded
Now the cheap, the free give taste
Of a genre left behind, left stranded
Sure not all of them were that good,
But that goes for just about all
Every genre has it's crappy games,
Every game will have a flaw
Adventure games were about plot
As opposed to shooting a bigger gun
It was a thinking man's genre
Where puzzles were the fun
At least that's what it's suppose to be
The concept, at least, in theory
Some puzzles can be rather obtuse
Some puzzles leave me rather weary
Expecting me to collect the pieces
Know where the pieces scattered to
And figure out which goes with what
F**K it, I'll just use a walkthrough
My blog:
http://nvracar.wordpress.com/
http://nvracar.wordpress.com/
Not bad, I like it...
The Paved Straight Road, Won't Always Get You Farther Than The Winding Dirt Road...
Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
And for those that think adventures are dead, have a look at the upcoming releases list from our website:http://www.adventurecorner.de/release.php 
These are the releases for the german market, so not every one of these games might make it to the U.S. or it might take a little longer in the most cases.
This list features games by people like Jane Jensen (Gabriel Knight), Noah Falstein & Hal Barwood( Indiana Jones) and Bill Tiller (Monkey Island3), plus plenty of games were already released this year. It´s getting more and more and more, if i think about how things looked like some years ago, I can only say, that the tide has turned. Let´s see what games like a vampyre story, Gray Matter etc. can do financially, but anyway the adventure genre is back, and there is no point of denying that, even though they still don´t do money in a big way, but the most important thing is, that there´s enough companys and publishers willing to produce them!!!
( If there is any interest, i can make a thread somewhen soon, featuring links to screenshot-gallerys (From adventurecorner.de) of all the potential top-adventures that will be released in 08 and 09. Plus I can add some general infos on all these games, so you all have an overview on which upcoming adventures are on the way and how they look like.
These are the releases for the german market, so not every one of these games might make it to the U.S. or it might take a little longer in the most cases.
This list features games by people like Jane Jensen (Gabriel Knight), Noah Falstein & Hal Barwood( Indiana Jones) and Bill Tiller (Monkey Island3), plus plenty of games were already released this year. It´s getting more and more and more, if i think about how things looked like some years ago, I can only say, that the tide has turned. Let´s see what games like a vampyre story, Gray Matter etc. can do financially, but anyway the adventure genre is back, and there is no point of denying that, even though they still don´t do money in a big way, but the most important thing is, that there´s enough companys and publishers willing to produce them!!!
( If there is any interest, i can make a thread somewhen soon, featuring links to screenshot-gallerys (From adventurecorner.de) of all the potential top-adventures that will be released in 08 and 09. Plus I can add some general infos on all these games, so you all have an overview on which upcoming adventures are on the way and how they look like.
Gray Matter has a larger budget than just about any recent adventure game in memory. Some of the screen shots Anaconda showed me awhile back were STUNNING... I'm talking stills that would make Pixar jealous.VonGlower wrote:And for those that think adventures are dead, have a look at the upcoming releases list from our website:http://www.adventurecorner.de/release.php
These are the releases for the german market, so not every one of these games might make it to the U.S. or it might take a little longer in the most cases.
This list features games by people like Jane Jensen (Gabriel Knight), Noah Falstein & Hal Barwood( Indiana Jones) and Bill Tiller (Monkey Island3), plus plenty of games were already released this year. It´s getting more and more and more, if i think about how things looked like some years ago, I can only say, that the tide has turned. Let´s see what games like a vampyre story, Gray Matter etc. can do financially, but anyway the adventure genre is back, and there is no point of denying that, even though they still don´t do money in a big way, but the most important thing is, that there´s enough companys and publishers willing to produce them!!!
( If there is any interest, i can make a thread somewhen soon, featuring links to screenshot-gallerys (From adventurecorner.de) of all the potential top-adventures that will be released in 08 and 09. Plus I can add some general infos on all these games, so you all have an overview on which upcoming adventures are on the way and how they look like.
However Gray Matter was announced in 2006 for a late 2007 release then pushed back to 2008 then to 2009. It's great that Jane Jensen is back doing what she does best, but it sure is taking a long time. The good news is the graphics seem to be some of the best we've seen in AGES for the genre. If it is a better story than the last Gabriel Knight game (which imho was mediocre) then we've got a good game waiting in the wings.
Without a doubt the genre hasn't "died," but it also doesn't get the budgets or the hype of their past great titles. Gray Matter hasn't received nearly enough attention from the American gaming press. In fact a certain huge media outlet dropped a development story they had started on it because someone decided "there was no interest."
How Anaconda goes about marketing Gray Matter in the states will be a key to its needed success. I'm hoping the game will be amazing and the press will jump all over it and over hype it.
Adventure games are not a "dead," market. In fact "MYST," was the top selling game of all time for YEARS. That was during the prime of the FPS market too. MYST out did Quake, Doom, etc. In fact MYST held the top spot for NINE years, before The Sims beat it out. Last I checked "The Sims," had sold over 25M copies without expansion packs.
What many people don't realize is that PC games while a lucrative market for the most part don't sell in the millions of units. MYST had sold over 6M copies in 2002 (now it stands at 6.5M) when The Sims passed it as the top selling PC game of all time. Half-Life also passed MYST at one point and had sold around 8M copies at one point (while Half-Life 2 is at 4M). StarCraft with the expansion pack is at 9.5M copies.
Compare that to games like Monkey Island 2 which sold 500,000 copies. Riven and the 7th Guest both sold 2M copies. Return to Zork, Phantasmagoria, and Blade Runner all did around 1M units. UAKM supposedly did real well but finding numbers on it was difficult.
Adventure games do well in sales, but PC games in general all pale in comparison to console numbers by average. The whole reason Lucas Arts scrapped adventure games was Escape From Monkey Island doing poorly on the PS2.
The average adventure game is still profitable if not hyped by the media.
Of course the budgets can´t match with those that the Gabriel Knight games, the Tex Murphy Games, Toonstruck etc. had back in the 90s, but I think the most important thing is, that there are so many new adventures being produced these days, which many people wouldn´t have expected some years back. 
And unfortunately adventures still don´t get that much media coverage, eventhough it´s getting more. If this genre keeps on rising there might be more media coverage, and I obviously hope that´s gonna happen.
Concerning Gray Matter: There is a reason why there was no P.R.
The development turned out pretty chaotic and the development team was replaced. So due to all the problems there was no P.R. at all, but that is gonna change soon. In fact Gray Matter will be presented at the Games Convention 08 from the 21. -24.th august in Leipzig. This will be the first time you´ll see something of GM in a LOOOONG time ( And by the way , I´ll be there and share my views on what I´ll see right here). So i guess the P.R. machine is gonna start rolling somewhen soon.
And unfortunately adventures still don´t get that much media coverage, eventhough it´s getting more. If this genre keeps on rising there might be more media coverage, and I obviously hope that´s gonna happen.
Concerning Gray Matter: There is a reason why there was no P.R.
The development turned out pretty chaotic and the development team was replaced. So due to all the problems there was no P.R. at all, but that is gonna change soon. In fact Gray Matter will be presented at the Games Convention 08 from the 21. -24.th august in Leipzig. This will be the first time you´ll see something of GM in a LOOOONG time ( And by the way , I´ll be there and share my views on what I´ll see right here). So i guess the P.R. machine is gonna start rolling somewhen soon.
And we have a 3rd and I shall 4th it... The 90s shall go down in History as the All Time Adventure Era... Meeting Adjourned...Cubase wrote:Thirded.Jen wrote:I second that.Frank wrote:An elegant genre for a more civilized age
-Cub. =o)
Now we must hope that History Repeats itself.........and soon......
The Paved Straight Road, Won't Always Get You Farther Than The Winding Dirt Road...
Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...