Can't say I'll miss 2008. It started off badly with no good news to report and even worse with PC issues. Everything seems to be settling into place again...finally. Lots of big plans and releases for 2009 which have got me pretty excited...if for nothing more than to get some of these ideas off my plate and out of my head.
Strangely enough, while 2008 was not a very good year, in some ironic twist of fate I can't help but feel it was a critical period which really helped lay down the groundwork for what is to come. As such, I feel myself getting more excited now about things than I have been in quite some time.
Piece of Eight is progressing nicely and I have to constantly curb my enthusiasm about it. Mums the word, why jinx things?
If I had to pick something good that has come out of 2008 it would have to be improved skills. The nice thing about coding is that you never know everything there is to know. It's a constant learning experience. There is always something to learn because of the shear volume of the tools, new technologies emerge, techniques, and even getting to use old methods in ways you've never done before are all beneficial. You gotta love it. Getting to apply these things to upcoming projects is highly motivating.
So with that, I bid 2008 goodbye and look forward to what 2009 will bring. :)
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
The Rejections
So, I finally got around to submitting Rune Rescue to the portals - again. First a bit of background is needed...
I submitted Rune Rescue to the portals about a year ago and they were interested. They gave me some good feedback on ways of possibly making it better which I did and I'll tell you what they were as I found them to be pretty interesting:
Player Awards - The early version of the game had didn't have the exploding panel after you complete each level that reveals a part of the location image down in the lower right corner of the game screen. Players need some incentive to keep playing and supposedly that little change is going to do just that. Ok, no problem... tweak, tweak...it's in there.
A way to quit the game - Perhaps I am have played too many games. Pressing the ESC key always brings a menu allowing you to quit. Well, after one portal ran it through their beta testers, it became pretty apparent that a LOT of people don't know that. So the latest version now has a menu option button on the game screen.
A bit more theme - So I've got this Indiana Jones-esque character on the screen and lots of imagery. But it still looked a bit plain. So I added the leaves and vines to each screen to make it look a bit more interesting and busy.
The Fatal Error
Ok, so I've got the 2 biggest portals interested in the game, but I still have lots of coin in the bank so I'm not in a rush. Time seemed to be on my side and I started to wonder if I just wasn't giving the game enough time to circulate. After all, I hadn't really done any web banner advertising on various sites, nor had I contacted any newspapers or tried other thing to get the word out. So I held off on the portals.
I managed to get a massive listing of newspapers and email contacts at those newspapers. Thus began a flurry of emails all over the place. Out of dozens of emails, I got 3 responses. One said that they don't review games, another said they don't review games that are that small, and the last said they don't review games BUT they would be more than happy to put a blurb in their paper about me to try and help out. I was told by one of them that it's a difficult thing to get people to hear me out, as they put it - I'll find that most of the time I'm shouting into the wind. Truer words have never been spoken.
So out comes the newspaper with a circulation of 120,000 and there is the blurb about me on the front page of their business section. Woot! Surely I'll see some traffic and perhaps some sales? I anxiously kept looking at my webstats on Google Analytics to see how many visitors I got from that area. Would you believe 3 visitors and ZERO downloads for the day? Wow. That was a real eye-opener.
I also got a free banner posting on a website from someone trying to help me out with a circulation of over 1 million visitors/month that resulted in... drumroll please... 12 or 13 visitors, zero sales. Another site also did the same to help me out with pretty much the same results. Meanwhile another site is offering me a rotating web banner on their site for a month for $250...ummm, no thanks.
I won't get into the various others who promised help in getting the word out, but did nothing. I'm an adult, I can understand if you changed your mind. I fully understand that one hand washes the other. Why should you help me possibly make money when there is nothing in it for you? I get all that. Be an adult and say so though, don't patronize me and promise things you have no intention of delivering. I have TONS more respect for those that are honest than those who are full of crap.
The thing is, I have this rather radical sense of loyalty to those who did help. Maybe we'll grow by leaps and bounds, or maybe we'll remain in obscurity, only time will tell. But if we do grow by leaps and bounds, rest assured that those who helped when we were nothing will get lots of exclusives, while those that said they would but didn't will get a middle finger. Even those that didn't help but were honest about it will get more than the ones who flat out lied.
The most radical attempt at getting the word out is almost pretty embarrassing. It involved flyers. We made up these 400 flyers along with a code for getting a 10% or 15% discount on purchases. Let me tell you that 400 flyers might not sound like much, but you'll walk several miles delivering them. I went to 2 totally different areas delivering them door to door. Net result was another goose egg on the visitors and a goose egg on the sales.
Obviously there is a secret to all this and I was doing all the things that didn't work.
One thing that did seem to be working was Google Adwords. I set myself up with a budget of like $30/week and would see a sale once a week. The problem was that I make half that amount on the sale. After I few weeks of spending $30 to make $15, I pulled the plug on the adwords.
So I figured if I set up a blog and posted my thoughts, maybe I'll get enough visitors who will click on the adwords on my blog and it will make enough money to pay for my own adwords for my games. Essentially the blog could pay for them and I wouldn't be losing money. After several weeks, it was again becoming apparent that the only people reading my blog was me since I can see how many times ads were displayed and how many times they were clicked.
For the ultimate in irony, I wrote an article for Just Adventure that had nothing to do with me or my games, yet resulted in our highest daily total of visitors and sale. There is a lesson to be learned there. I used to wonder why people would do things to get their name out there that had absolutely nothing to do with the product they were selling. Now I know.
The Second Round
So I tried all sorts of things to get sales on my own and none of them worked. I wanted to get more games on my site before putting Rune Rescue on the portals in the event that people would actually look up Hidden Sanctum after playing the game or demo via the portals. Block Stomp was now up, as was Cryptomadness. By default, these games can't go on portals because they link back to my site - a big NO-NO with portals. For Block stomp it was the high scores, for Crypto it was the skins.
This time instead of submitting it to 2 portals, I went ahead and submitted the new improved version to all of the big ones. There is a bit of tweaking that needs to happen when you submit a game to the portals. For one you have to remove all links or web addresses you have in there. You also have to put the portals logo in there on the main screen as well as a splash screen for that portal. No problem, I did this for all of them and resubmit.
What follows next is just how quickly the industry changes. To give it to you in a nutshell, all of them rejected the game, but it was the reasoning that it was rejected that causes me to pause.
"80% of our customers are female and over 35."
"The shotgun sound effects are too violent and arcade-like."
"Look at our top 10 list to see what sells."
"Why are we traveling around the world?"
"Where are these thieves that are supposedly stealing the Rune stones?"
"There are no chain reactions."
The top 10 thing kind of floored me. People complain about the shear number of clones out there and nothing new being made, yet here was a portal saying to clone like crazy.
The whole female thing also floored me. For years women rightly vented about the lack of games geared towards them, yet here was a portal demanding games that were ONLY geared towards women. I can understand them doing that as that is what their customer base in mostly made of, but it makes you wonder (and maybe realize) why there are so few action shooters on the portals. They are still being made, but apparently the portals don't what them - they want cute and "simple". That in itself should be a bit insulting to women.
As far as the question about the thieves, it comes down to the realization that people just do NOT read things. At the very start of the game it says that the thieves are stealing rune stones and are backing their truck up to load them. The lesson here is that I should have displayed cartoon images step-by-step explaining the back story. Even though the text was very brief, apparently it was still too much for people to bother with reading.
To it's credit, I have to give major kudos to one of the portals for saying that if I address some of the issues, they would like for me to resubmit it and try again. Ironically this is the same portals who a year ago was going to distribute it without any of the changes I had now added. So it was better than the original accepted version, but no longer good enough now. Yes, the casual games industry is changing fast.
The other portal who was previously interested? I hadn't sent it to them yet. After getting those previous rejections and reasons for the rejections, I figure I have more tweaking to do. In all honesty, that is a bit difficult to do. I almost feel like I am beating a dead horse and my time should be spent on new projects, not constantly revisiting an old one that repeatedly gets met with failure. The thing is, it's a good game that just starts too slow. Speeding it up at the beginning turns off Group A players, while slowing it down turns off Group B. Even worse, I have several games on the drawing board that are looking pretty spiffy and I can't shake Pieces of Eight and Raven's Hollow from my mind as I keep getting more elaborate with those two - let's just say that XNA and real-time 3D are wonderful thing. When I say "running around the island", I literally mean running around the island.
I submitted Rune Rescue to the portals about a year ago and they were interested. They gave me some good feedback on ways of possibly making it better which I did and I'll tell you what they were as I found them to be pretty interesting:
Player Awards - The early version of the game had didn't have the exploding panel after you complete each level that reveals a part of the location image down in the lower right corner of the game screen. Players need some incentive to keep playing and supposedly that little change is going to do just that. Ok, no problem... tweak, tweak...it's in there.
A way to quit the game - Perhaps I am have played too many games. Pressing the ESC key always brings a menu allowing you to quit. Well, after one portal ran it through their beta testers, it became pretty apparent that a LOT of people don't know that. So the latest version now has a menu option button on the game screen.
A bit more theme - So I've got this Indiana Jones-esque character on the screen and lots of imagery. But it still looked a bit plain. So I added the leaves and vines to each screen to make it look a bit more interesting and busy.
The Fatal Error
Ok, so I've got the 2 biggest portals interested in the game, but I still have lots of coin in the bank so I'm not in a rush. Time seemed to be on my side and I started to wonder if I just wasn't giving the game enough time to circulate. After all, I hadn't really done any web banner advertising on various sites, nor had I contacted any newspapers or tried other thing to get the word out. So I held off on the portals.
I managed to get a massive listing of newspapers and email contacts at those newspapers. Thus began a flurry of emails all over the place. Out of dozens of emails, I got 3 responses. One said that they don't review games, another said they don't review games that are that small, and the last said they don't review games BUT they would be more than happy to put a blurb in their paper about me to try and help out. I was told by one of them that it's a difficult thing to get people to hear me out, as they put it - I'll find that most of the time I'm shouting into the wind. Truer words have never been spoken.
So out comes the newspaper with a circulation of 120,000 and there is the blurb about me on the front page of their business section. Woot! Surely I'll see some traffic and perhaps some sales? I anxiously kept looking at my webstats on Google Analytics to see how many visitors I got from that area. Would you believe 3 visitors and ZERO downloads for the day? Wow. That was a real eye-opener.
I also got a free banner posting on a website from someone trying to help me out with a circulation of over 1 million visitors/month that resulted in... drumroll please... 12 or 13 visitors, zero sales. Another site also did the same to help me out with pretty much the same results. Meanwhile another site is offering me a rotating web banner on their site for a month for $250...ummm, no thanks.
I won't get into the various others who promised help in getting the word out, but did nothing. I'm an adult, I can understand if you changed your mind. I fully understand that one hand washes the other. Why should you help me possibly make money when there is nothing in it for you? I get all that. Be an adult and say so though, don't patronize me and promise things you have no intention of delivering. I have TONS more respect for those that are honest than those who are full of crap.
The thing is, I have this rather radical sense of loyalty to those who did help. Maybe we'll grow by leaps and bounds, or maybe we'll remain in obscurity, only time will tell. But if we do grow by leaps and bounds, rest assured that those who helped when we were nothing will get lots of exclusives, while those that said they would but didn't will get a middle finger. Even those that didn't help but were honest about it will get more than the ones who flat out lied.
The most radical attempt at getting the word out is almost pretty embarrassing. It involved flyers. We made up these 400 flyers along with a code for getting a 10% or 15% discount on purchases. Let me tell you that 400 flyers might not sound like much, but you'll walk several miles delivering them. I went to 2 totally different areas delivering them door to door. Net result was another goose egg on the visitors and a goose egg on the sales.
Obviously there is a secret to all this and I was doing all the things that didn't work.
One thing that did seem to be working was Google Adwords. I set myself up with a budget of like $30/week and would see a sale once a week. The problem was that I make half that amount on the sale. After I few weeks of spending $30 to make $15, I pulled the plug on the adwords.
So I figured if I set up a blog and posted my thoughts, maybe I'll get enough visitors who will click on the adwords on my blog and it will make enough money to pay for my own adwords for my games. Essentially the blog could pay for them and I wouldn't be losing money. After several weeks, it was again becoming apparent that the only people reading my blog was me since I can see how many times ads were displayed and how many times they were clicked.
For the ultimate in irony, I wrote an article for Just Adventure that had nothing to do with me or my games, yet resulted in our highest daily total of visitors and sale. There is a lesson to be learned there. I used to wonder why people would do things to get their name out there that had absolutely nothing to do with the product they were selling. Now I know.
The Second Round
So I tried all sorts of things to get sales on my own and none of them worked. I wanted to get more games on my site before putting Rune Rescue on the portals in the event that people would actually look up Hidden Sanctum after playing the game or demo via the portals. Block Stomp was now up, as was Cryptomadness. By default, these games can't go on portals because they link back to my site - a big NO-NO with portals. For Block stomp it was the high scores, for Crypto it was the skins.
This time instead of submitting it to 2 portals, I went ahead and submitted the new improved version to all of the big ones. There is a bit of tweaking that needs to happen when you submit a game to the portals. For one you have to remove all links or web addresses you have in there. You also have to put the portals logo in there on the main screen as well as a splash screen for that portal. No problem, I did this for all of them and resubmit.
What follows next is just how quickly the industry changes. To give it to you in a nutshell, all of them rejected the game, but it was the reasoning that it was rejected that causes me to pause.
"80% of our customers are female and over 35."
"The shotgun sound effects are too violent and arcade-like."
"Look at our top 10 list to see what sells."
"Why are we traveling around the world?"
"Where are these thieves that are supposedly stealing the Rune stones?"
"There are no chain reactions."
The top 10 thing kind of floored me. People complain about the shear number of clones out there and nothing new being made, yet here was a portal saying to clone like crazy.
The whole female thing also floored me. For years women rightly vented about the lack of games geared towards them, yet here was a portal demanding games that were ONLY geared towards women. I can understand them doing that as that is what their customer base in mostly made of, but it makes you wonder (and maybe realize) why there are so few action shooters on the portals. They are still being made, but apparently the portals don't what them - they want cute and "simple". That in itself should be a bit insulting to women.
As far as the question about the thieves, it comes down to the realization that people just do NOT read things. At the very start of the game it says that the thieves are stealing rune stones and are backing their truck up to load them. The lesson here is that I should have displayed cartoon images step-by-step explaining the back story. Even though the text was very brief, apparently it was still too much for people to bother with reading.
To it's credit, I have to give major kudos to one of the portals for saying that if I address some of the issues, they would like for me to resubmit it and try again. Ironically this is the same portals who a year ago was going to distribute it without any of the changes I had now added. So it was better than the original accepted version, but no longer good enough now. Yes, the casual games industry is changing fast.
The other portal who was previously interested? I hadn't sent it to them yet. After getting those previous rejections and reasons for the rejections, I figure I have more tweaking to do. In all honesty, that is a bit difficult to do. I almost feel like I am beating a dead horse and my time should be spent on new projects, not constantly revisiting an old one that repeatedly gets met with failure. The thing is, it's a good game that just starts too slow. Speeding it up at the beginning turns off Group A players, while slowing it down turns off Group B. Even worse, I have several games on the drawing board that are looking pretty spiffy and I can't shake Pieces of Eight and Raven's Hollow from my mind as I keep getting more elaborate with those two - let's just say that XNA and real-time 3D are wonderful thing. When I say "running around the island", I literally mean running around the island.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Jane Jensen + Casual Games = ?
With all the interest in Jane Jensen doing another adventure game along with looking at the history of the genre, I really have to wonder about what direction all of this is leading to. No doubt about it, she's a powerful figure in the genre indeed and deserves all of the attention she gets. Gabriel Knight is one of my all-time favorites, so you won't see me complaining about her coming back!
However, I do view all of this with cautious excitement as I am reading things that make me wonder where the genre is going.
A few things to note here about adventure games. The genre was falling apart back in the mid 90's, but then Head Games released an adventure game called Inherent Evil as one of it's budget ($20) titles. Shortly thereafter, DreamCatcher (The Adventure Company) started picking up adventure games and selling them at the $20 price range. While this move saved the genre from what seemed like extinction, it didn't leave much on the table for developers to justify creating large epic games, nor did it help to keep them in business. So in the short term, it might have saved the genre, but in the long term, I think it really hurt things.
In the last year or so, we've finally seen the prices and quality of adventure games start to rise. For the genre as a whole, this seems like a good thing. The better the profit margins, the better the games and the more interest it will gain with large development houses which have the capabilities to greatly improve things. Things seem to be looking up.
In reading some interviews that Jane Jensen has given, there were a few comments that caused me to take pause.
In an interview on la-aventura.net she mentions that the audience is just right in the casual gaming space - over 30 and mostly female which she says is perfect for adventure games. Her Agatha Christie casual games are a move in that direction and she'd love to get Gray Matter up there as well.
Then there was another interview on The Escapist where she mentions not overestimating the stupidity of the mass market and if it's going to be popular, it has to be really simple and entertaining which is something she'll strive for. There were two key points though that really jumped out at me. She kept bringing up story, story, story... but watering down player challenges and making things simple. She also puts a lot of faith into the casual games arena as being able to rejuvenate the adventure game genre.
As an adventure gamer I can't help but find some of this to be something to worry about. For one, we are starting to see the genre slowly pull out of being low margins/budget titles categories, yet her emphasis on the casual games portals seems to drag it all back to where is was 10 years ago with exceedingly low margins for the developers. It's like repeating the past. Even worse, those portals have their game clubs where players can purchase games for under $10! You would have to sell an assload of games just to break even. Forget risking money on a big budget/epic title. Forget having adventure games you play for 20+ hours. We are talking about 2-6 hours of entertainment at best.
In my previous article I talked about adventure games being the fractured genre. Instead of splitting themselves off in different directions and defining themselves, they all stayed firmly entrenched under the adventure game umbrella. Jane mentioned that she felt Myst had a hand in ruining adventure games as the puzzles where so difficult that most people who played it never finished it - and probably never went back to the genre. I have to agree with her here.
Maybe Myst should never have been considered as an adventure game. Maybe it should have split itself off and called itself something else - Puzzle Game? Heck, I don't know, I'm terrible at coming up with names. Especially considering Bejeweled is classified as a puzzle game, which makes no sense to me. From a marketing standpoint, when Myst came out adventure games were HUGE, so I can see why it called itself that in the first place - to tap into that huge market.
But now we come to Jane and her vision of adventure games. Makes me wonder if maybe she is reaching as well. With the emphasis on story and lack of game that she seems to be talking about, I keep hearing Interactive Fiction even though she keeps saying adventure game. Maybe that's it though. Back in the day, the word Adventure Game was often synonomus with Interactive Fiction. Now you rarely see interactive fiction being used, but adventure games seem to continue to encompass a rather wide variety of point-n-click games with some radically different puzzle elements.
Perhaps there is something to the whole "Myst isn't an adventure game" debate... from a purist standpoint, I can see how some would come to that conclusion. From another standpoint - and just to confuse the issue further - if you go to the adventure section of a DVD store, you'll be greeted with movies like Indiana Jones and other movies which all contain action elements. Try putting action into a adventure game though... yeah, that muddies the adventure gaming waters even further.
It'll be interesting to see what all comes of this. I'm not quite sure that we'll see any new classics emerge in the genre. I also don't see the watering down of games via the casual games portals as being very helpful in the long term. Who knows though, it might just work.
I'm glad Jane is coming back, although I'm not feeling the same excitement as some others are feeling in regards to this possibly bringing adventure games back into the lime light. It's kind of like Guns-n-Roses coming back to save Rock-n-Roll. The old vanguards never restore former glory. At best they only bring some nostalgia.
It's always someone new that no one has ever heard about and who approaches things from an entirely new perspective that does. The only thing that will bring the genre back to the forefront is someone who radically shakes things up and redefines it...not only that, but they are usually young and do it because they don't know any better and they aren't tied down by 'experience'.
However, I do view all of this with cautious excitement as I am reading things that make me wonder where the genre is going.
A few things to note here about adventure games. The genre was falling apart back in the mid 90's, but then Head Games released an adventure game called Inherent Evil as one of it's budget ($20) titles. Shortly thereafter, DreamCatcher (The Adventure Company) started picking up adventure games and selling them at the $20 price range. While this move saved the genre from what seemed like extinction, it didn't leave much on the table for developers to justify creating large epic games, nor did it help to keep them in business. So in the short term, it might have saved the genre, but in the long term, I think it really hurt things.
In the last year or so, we've finally seen the prices and quality of adventure games start to rise. For the genre as a whole, this seems like a good thing. The better the profit margins, the better the games and the more interest it will gain with large development houses which have the capabilities to greatly improve things. Things seem to be looking up.
In reading some interviews that Jane Jensen has given, there were a few comments that caused me to take pause.
In an interview on la-aventura.net she mentions that the audience is just right in the casual gaming space - over 30 and mostly female which she says is perfect for adventure games. Her Agatha Christie casual games are a move in that direction and she'd love to get Gray Matter up there as well.
Then there was another interview on The Escapist where she mentions not overestimating the stupidity of the mass market and if it's going to be popular, it has to be really simple and entertaining which is something she'll strive for. There were two key points though that really jumped out at me. She kept bringing up story, story, story... but watering down player challenges and making things simple. She also puts a lot of faith into the casual games arena as being able to rejuvenate the adventure game genre.
As an adventure gamer I can't help but find some of this to be something to worry about. For one, we are starting to see the genre slowly pull out of being low margins/budget titles categories, yet her emphasis on the casual games portals seems to drag it all back to where is was 10 years ago with exceedingly low margins for the developers. It's like repeating the past. Even worse, those portals have their game clubs where players can purchase games for under $10! You would have to sell an assload of games just to break even. Forget risking money on a big budget/epic title. Forget having adventure games you play for 20+ hours. We are talking about 2-6 hours of entertainment at best.
In my previous article I talked about adventure games being the fractured genre. Instead of splitting themselves off in different directions and defining themselves, they all stayed firmly entrenched under the adventure game umbrella. Jane mentioned that she felt Myst had a hand in ruining adventure games as the puzzles where so difficult that most people who played it never finished it - and probably never went back to the genre. I have to agree with her here.
Maybe Myst should never have been considered as an adventure game. Maybe it should have split itself off and called itself something else - Puzzle Game? Heck, I don't know, I'm terrible at coming up with names. Especially considering Bejeweled is classified as a puzzle game, which makes no sense to me. From a marketing standpoint, when Myst came out adventure games were HUGE, so I can see why it called itself that in the first place - to tap into that huge market.
But now we come to Jane and her vision of adventure games. Makes me wonder if maybe she is reaching as well. With the emphasis on story and lack of game that she seems to be talking about, I keep hearing Interactive Fiction even though she keeps saying adventure game. Maybe that's it though. Back in the day, the word Adventure Game was often synonomus with Interactive Fiction. Now you rarely see interactive fiction being used, but adventure games seem to continue to encompass a rather wide variety of point-n-click games with some radically different puzzle elements.
Perhaps there is something to the whole "Myst isn't an adventure game" debate... from a purist standpoint, I can see how some would come to that conclusion. From another standpoint - and just to confuse the issue further - if you go to the adventure section of a DVD store, you'll be greeted with movies like Indiana Jones and other movies which all contain action elements. Try putting action into a adventure game though... yeah, that muddies the adventure gaming waters even further.
It'll be interesting to see what all comes of this. I'm not quite sure that we'll see any new classics emerge in the genre. I also don't see the watering down of games via the casual games portals as being very helpful in the long term. Who knows though, it might just work.
I'm glad Jane is coming back, although I'm not feeling the same excitement as some others are feeling in regards to this possibly bringing adventure games back into the lime light. It's kind of like Guns-n-Roses coming back to save Rock-n-Roll. The old vanguards never restore former glory. At best they only bring some nostalgia.
It's always someone new that no one has ever heard about and who approaches things from an entirely new perspective that does. The only thing that will bring the genre back to the forefront is someone who radically shakes things up and redefines it...not only that, but they are usually young and do it because they don't know any better and they aren't tied down by 'experience'.
Friday, December 28, 2007
The Fractured Genre
Been thinking a lot over here about adventure games. Once the King (or Queen) of computer games, it has fallen into steady decline since the mid 90's. Surely it isn't 'dead' by any means like the mainstream press might like to constantly proclaim, but it sure has been shoved into the closet for the most part.
When you look at RPGs, FPS, and RTS games, it's pretty clear what makes them what they are. While you might have fans of those genres who disagree on the quality of those games, you don't really have any major influxes of people who have radically differing opinions on whether or not it's their type of game or not. It's pretty obvious that those games all share a common template that everyone agrees on.
Now take adventure games. There really isn't a set formula here which can adequately define the genre. Ask 10 people what makes an adventure game and you might just get 10 different answers. I might even go so far as to say that adventure gamers don't even know what an adventure game is. By no means am I indicating that I know either.
If you ask me, I might tell you that it's a game with an intriguing story, engaging game play and mental challenges. Well, by that definition Jedi Knight II might qualify as well as a host of other FPS games. Heck, even RPG's have that.
Somewhere along the way Adventure Games seem to have lost their way. It was a genre that was defined by its rich stories, graphics, and intellectual stimulation. There was nothing in the interface that determined the genre. After all, that was something that was constantly changing. From purely text-based to text based with graphics, from 3rd person to 1st person, from cartoon graphics, to rendered 3D to full motion video, etc. The list goes on and on...
...and maybe that's its curse. Maybe adventure games were really nothing more than an experiment in various technologies, techniques and player interfaces. Some ideas proved to be hits and they went further into those directions and created their own genres like survival horror games, action adventures, etc. At some point adventure games got stuck with certain interfaces and certain game play elements. Radically change the interface or style of mental challenges at this point and you'll have people questioning whether or not its even an adventure game.
Adventure Games surely aren't dead, but they risk being nothing more than a retro genre. The only thing that has changed seems to be that the quality of the graphics have improved. Beyond that what has changed? We're still seeing some of the same puzzles in current games as we've seen in games from 10+ years ago.
While some might say that the art of story-telling is what defined the genre and that no one seems to be carrying that torch, I have to ask if that is even relevant in today's fast paced world. Right now it seems like the market prefers fluff with very little substance. Try to go a bit deeper with a story and it might go over a lot of people's heads. Being subtle doesn't pay - spelling it all out so there is no confusion does.
So how is the genre fractured?
The mental challenges in adventure games come in 2 flavors - inventory based and logic based. You have players who enjoy both and have no real preference for either, but then you have other who are either in strong favor of one over the other. Likewise, the same can be said of 3rd person vs. 1st person perspectives. Cartoon graphics vs. realistic pre-rendered 3d. Comedy vs. horror. The list goes on and on. Taking an already minor genre and having it battling itself can't be a good thing.
Is it wrong?
Of course not. Everyone has their own opinions for what they like. This article isn't about players, it's about challenges that the genre faces that keeps it in the closet. At one point it was all encompassing which worked in it's favor, but now that same mentality has forced it to have limited mass appeal.
I can't help but compare this to the movie or music industry with all of the different styles and flavors out there. The thing is, those industries have clearly defined and categorized themselves. Likewise, many of the other gaming genres have clearly defined themselves. Adventure games really haven't - in trying to be master of all, they've become master of none. You see this clearly in many of the games trying to incorporate many different styles of challenges.
Instead of sticking with what one group likes, they try to do a little of each to make the masses of adventure gamers happy. The trouble is that when they do that, they are guaranteeing that their game will make everyone disappointed at one point or another. I'm sure it is possible to do it in such a way that it fits logically with the story, but most of the time the puzzles seem out of place and stuck in there for the sake of having a puzzle.
I think this is just a symptom of not being clearly defined and trying to be an 'Adventure Game' - which means a whole lot of different things to different people.
When you look at RPGs, FPS, and RTS games, it's pretty clear what makes them what they are. While you might have fans of those genres who disagree on the quality of those games, you don't really have any major influxes of people who have radically differing opinions on whether or not it's their type of game or not. It's pretty obvious that those games all share a common template that everyone agrees on.
Now take adventure games. There really isn't a set formula here which can adequately define the genre. Ask 10 people what makes an adventure game and you might just get 10 different answers. I might even go so far as to say that adventure gamers don't even know what an adventure game is. By no means am I indicating that I know either.
If you ask me, I might tell you that it's a game with an intriguing story, engaging game play and mental challenges. Well, by that definition Jedi Knight II might qualify as well as a host of other FPS games. Heck, even RPG's have that.
Somewhere along the way Adventure Games seem to have lost their way. It was a genre that was defined by its rich stories, graphics, and intellectual stimulation. There was nothing in the interface that determined the genre. After all, that was something that was constantly changing. From purely text-based to text based with graphics, from 3rd person to 1st person, from cartoon graphics, to rendered 3D to full motion video, etc. The list goes on and on...
...and maybe that's its curse. Maybe adventure games were really nothing more than an experiment in various technologies, techniques and player interfaces. Some ideas proved to be hits and they went further into those directions and created their own genres like survival horror games, action adventures, etc. At some point adventure games got stuck with certain interfaces and certain game play elements. Radically change the interface or style of mental challenges at this point and you'll have people questioning whether or not its even an adventure game.
Adventure Games surely aren't dead, but they risk being nothing more than a retro genre. The only thing that has changed seems to be that the quality of the graphics have improved. Beyond that what has changed? We're still seeing some of the same puzzles in current games as we've seen in games from 10+ years ago.
While some might say that the art of story-telling is what defined the genre and that no one seems to be carrying that torch, I have to ask if that is even relevant in today's fast paced world. Right now it seems like the market prefers fluff with very little substance. Try to go a bit deeper with a story and it might go over a lot of people's heads. Being subtle doesn't pay - spelling it all out so there is no confusion does.
So how is the genre fractured?
The mental challenges in adventure games come in 2 flavors - inventory based and logic based. You have players who enjoy both and have no real preference for either, but then you have other who are either in strong favor of one over the other. Likewise, the same can be said of 3rd person vs. 1st person perspectives. Cartoon graphics vs. realistic pre-rendered 3d. Comedy vs. horror. The list goes on and on. Taking an already minor genre and having it battling itself can't be a good thing.
Is it wrong?
Of course not. Everyone has their own opinions for what they like. This article isn't about players, it's about challenges that the genre faces that keeps it in the closet. At one point it was all encompassing which worked in it's favor, but now that same mentality has forced it to have limited mass appeal.
I can't help but compare this to the movie or music industry with all of the different styles and flavors out there. The thing is, those industries have clearly defined and categorized themselves. Likewise, many of the other gaming genres have clearly defined themselves. Adventure games really haven't - in trying to be master of all, they've become master of none. You see this clearly in many of the games trying to incorporate many different styles of challenges.
Instead of sticking with what one group likes, they try to do a little of each to make the masses of adventure gamers happy. The trouble is that when they do that, they are guaranteeing that their game will make everyone disappointed at one point or another. I'm sure it is possible to do it in such a way that it fits logically with the story, but most of the time the puzzles seem out of place and stuck in there for the sake of having a puzzle.
I think this is just a symptom of not being clearly defined and trying to be an 'Adventure Game' - which means a whole lot of different things to different people.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
A Special Thanks
Whilst surfing the web and getting ready to release my first game, I started to switch focus from coding and design to marketing and sales. Being an indie game developer, you really have to wear a lot of different hats - developer, salesman, PR, marketing, accounting, etc. It can all be a bit overwhelming - especially when you've never done it.
One of the first things you do is look around and see what others are doing. What are the standards and minimal expectations?
It's interesting how many indie developers have blogs. I think its the result of being truly independent, meaning that this is what they are solely doing to make a living. Without going to a 9-5 job and having that interaction with others, you begin to become socially isolated. There's no one to share your thoughts with. Having a blog makes sense. It provides an outlet for your thoughts, a place to vent, and a means to make contact to let people know what you are up to.
With that in mind I decided to start my own blog.
Problem. Someone else already has HiddenSanctum...and here I thought I had such an original name!
In reading the latest post, the blogger stated that he was no longer going to post and that he was moving on to a new chapter in his life. This was months old. I looked through the blogger FAQ and read the questions and responses for those seeking to start a blog, but the name was already taken. In a nutshell, the main theme was do not ask IPower Blogger about it because they will do nothing and you can try to wait 3 years for them to automatically delete it due to inactivity.
It was then that a totally radical concept came to mind. Why not just ask the blogger himself if he would give it up? Since he had one of those generic free email addresses, I wondered if even that was still active. If so, is he even still checking it? I figured I might as well try. The worst that could happen would be that I'd have to start a blog wth a different name.
Well, off went the email and a few hours later I got a response. "since you would have better use of it, sure you can have it." Wow. I wasn't expecting such a quick and positive response. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised.
You sometimes get a bit jaded in dealing with people. The majority of people always seem to want something from you or to use you to better their position. It's refreshing to run into decent people who just want to give you a hand or do you a favor for no other reason than just to be nice and wish you luck.
Ash, my sincerest thanks. I wish you the best as you travel down the road of life, and if you ever need anything, let me know. All of my games will be for PC and Mac, so expect a little something soon as a sign of my gratitude.
One of the first things you do is look around and see what others are doing. What are the standards and minimal expectations?
It's interesting how many indie developers have blogs. I think its the result of being truly independent, meaning that this is what they are solely doing to make a living. Without going to a 9-5 job and having that interaction with others, you begin to become socially isolated. There's no one to share your thoughts with. Having a blog makes sense. It provides an outlet for your thoughts, a place to vent, and a means to make contact to let people know what you are up to.
With that in mind I decided to start my own blog.
Problem. Someone else already has HiddenSanctum...and here I thought I had such an original name!
In reading the latest post, the blogger stated that he was no longer going to post and that he was moving on to a new chapter in his life. This was months old. I looked through the blogger FAQ and read the questions and responses for those seeking to start a blog, but the name was already taken. In a nutshell, the main theme was do not ask IPower Blogger about it because they will do nothing and you can try to wait 3 years for them to automatically delete it due to inactivity.
It was then that a totally radical concept came to mind. Why not just ask the blogger himself if he would give it up? Since he had one of those generic free email addresses, I wondered if even that was still active. If so, is he even still checking it? I figured I might as well try. The worst that could happen would be that I'd have to start a blog wth a different name.
Well, off went the email and a few hours later I got a response. "since you would have better use of it, sure you can have it." Wow. I wasn't expecting such a quick and positive response. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised.
You sometimes get a bit jaded in dealing with people. The majority of people always seem to want something from you or to use you to better their position. It's refreshing to run into decent people who just want to give you a hand or do you a favor for no other reason than just to be nice and wish you luck.
Ash, my sincerest thanks. I wish you the best as you travel down the road of life, and if you ever need anything, let me know. All of my games will be for PC and Mac, so expect a little something soon as a sign of my gratitude.
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