The Random Adventure Game News Thread

[Bubbles]

Finally, the news we have all been waiting for:

At an event in San Francisco today, Marvel discussed the company's future plans in the video game space and announced a partnership with Telltale Games to develop games based on Marvel's properties.

The first of those games will come to unspecified platforms in 2017, Marvel executives said. Marvel did not disclose the name of the game or which properties Telltale might be developing games with.

Marvel's Peter Phillips, executive vice president and general manager for interactive and digital distribution, and Jay Ong, vice president of games, were joined by Marvel Games creative director Bill Roseman and executive producer Mike Jones to discuss the entertainment giant's future video games.

According to Roseman, the company's future Marvel games will strive for authenticity, will feel "exquisite" and "sexy," and will be celebrated by Marvel fans. Roseman said the games will look "eye-popping," and feel well-built and hand-crafted.

"Marvel is about storytelling," Phillips said, saying that the Marvel brand promises heroic, complex and relatable characters.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/4/23/8486213/marvel-telltale-games-partnership

 

[CyberWhale]

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Spiderman will most likely be the first title out the door.

Watch how the Fantastic Four and the X-Men will be left out in the cold.

 

[tuluse]

Spiderman will most likely be the first title out the door.

Watch how the Fantastic Four and the X-Men will be left out in the cold.

Fox owns movies rights to Spiderman. First one will be one of the people in the Avengers movie(s), Ironman, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, or Captain America.

 

[Aenra]

Run into this by accident, they do seem to have gotten the mood right, so it's on my watchlist.
Named 'The Cursed Forest', it apparently started out as a testbed for the creator's familiarisation with the SDK Cry engine, developed into a full scale project along the way. Horror/adventure formula. It is currently being "enhanced" and "expanded" as the original was among other things a lot shorter. If you are old enough to have played Magic Candle (hopefully the first one?), there is an extra reason for you to check this out, but won't spoil it further.
Deh peershon makink deh transhlation iz a beet thickk akzentted, az all Roooshkiez musht be. But shtill, da?
Already greenlit too: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=318260700

Teaser (for the upcoming version):


If you're interested, you can download the old and free version here:
http://www.indiedb.com/games/the-cursed-forest

Judging by their Youtube account, they also seem to have a newer one in the works:

 

[MRY]

What appears to be the first known (text) adventure game -- Wander -- has been recovered and compiled, for those curious about such things. As with all this ancient stuff, what impresses me most is the unity of virtues (coding, writing, grit) that the creator had.

 

[Tramboi]

This changes gaming history, doesn't it ?

 

[MRY]

Alum, a Kickstarted point-and-click adventure, has been released on Steam.

Guide Alum on his journey through the dangerous, icy, "Land of Tide". Help him discover the truth about his city, Kosmos, and the mysterious epidemic known as "The Vague". As the tale unfolds, it will keep you enthralled all the way up to its epic conclusion.

Alum is an original point-and-click adventure game. It has the nostalgic feel of classics (90's Lucasarts, Sierra games) mixed with modern game-play elements and pacing that caters more towards this generation. The world, story, and characters lean towards a RPG-esque style, while the game-play mechanics and puzzles stay true to the classic point-and-click genre.

- Features -
Full length game (roughly 7-10 hours of gameplay)
Over 70 hand-drawn backgrounds - Including a map screen to travel across the "Land of Tide"
All original soundtrack (live recorded instruments mixed with electronic elements)
Intuitive puzzles that are logical, balanced, and rewarding (no pixel hunting)
Full voice acting
Gratifying frame by frame animations
Retro classic resolution

I backed it on Kickstarter and have a key for someone with time to play it.

The one Steam review up:

i have one thing to say... This game.. Changed my Life for the greater good!

Sounds cultishly delightful.

 

[MRY]

At a minimum, it changed your forum avatar.

 

[MRY]

Whoa: Congrats to Blackthorne -- GOG.com has bundled QFI with the entirety of King's Quest and the entirety of QFG. Talk about validation!

 

[Jaesun]

Charlottesville, Virginia – June 4, 2015 – Zojoi, creators of both the classic and re-imagined adventure Shadowgate, announced today that its original mystery-adventure series, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, will be releasing on PC via Steam on June 6, 2015. Based on the award-winning board game, the Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective series includes The Case of the Mummy’s Curse, The Case of the Mystified Murderess, and The Case of the Tin Soldier, and gives gaming sleuths the opportunity to play all three of the original games individually at $2.99, or as a three-pack bundle for $4.99.

“When we brought one of the most popular literary characters in history into a video game in 1991, the techniques used to display video were quite innovative,” said Dave Marsh, co-founder of Zojoi. “Using FMV technology (full-motion video) to help illustrate the narrative of each mystery enabled gamers to truly feel as if they were solving truly directing the Great Detective and his stalwart companion.”

This re-mastered version of Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is enhanced with recaptured full-screen video to take advantage of today’s high resolution displays. With more than 30 minutes of original FMV footage for each case, players will investigate more than 20 other characters for suspicious behavior, examine the London Times virtual newspaper for clues, and even receive hints from Dr. Watson himself. When enough evidence is attained, players take their finding to the magistrate that will determine if the case is solved.​

http://www.zojoi.com/sherlock/

I could have sworn, there was a Kickstarter for this, but it failed? (Or maybe I am confusing it with another game). Anyways, nice to see an updated version of an old FMV adventure game come our way. Never played them before, have no idea if they are any good though.

 

[Bubbles]

With FMV you're guaranteed to get your money's worth.

 

[trustno1code]

http://www.zojoi.com/sherlock/

I could have sworn, there was a Kickstarter for this, but it failed? (Or maybe I am confusing it with another game).

Yep (had a fun pitch). They released those three games a while later anyway though; been available on their site and Desura ( ) for almost three years now.
I suppose this is where they'll start actually seeing any cash from them though (apart from my naturally ).

Being a board game adaptation, you won't find any inventory puzzles and such, but they're fun, well made whodunnits. And the footage is appropriately glorious :fmvsuckertalking:

 

[Sceptic]

That was a fun series, though at the time it was totally not worth the price (they were $60 each). The FMV is glorious indeed - gloriously cheesy, so cheesy it makes the Tex Murphy games look like a Terence Malick movie. The biggest problem I had at the time was with the cases themselves - I remember some being good, but others were not on par with what you'd expect from a Sherlock Holmes mystery, and they had a tendency to try and reproduce some of Doyle's short stories, only not as well, and you'd end up with what feels like an amateur fan-fiction version of the original. There was also no way for the game to keep track of what you found or learned - the videos played when you visited a location, so it was entirely possible to just brute-force through each case by visiting all the locations in order. There's no need to though because the cases are pretty easy - you can garner all the clues you need to figure out where to go next by visiting the locations you have been told about, and if you miss something, you have a bunch of "hint systems" (the Baker Street Irregulars, the newspaper, and so on) that can provide additional clues, though none are needed and it's entirely possible to go by the FMV alone. Still I had fun with them at the time, and for such a low price they're worth it if you like FMV.

EDIT: Oh this is just volume 1. I'm curious how the FMV looks like now if they're in higher res. I hope they didn't reshoot everything and lose all the glorious cheese though!

 

[VioletShadow]

Night of the Rabbit $3.99 on Steam! I think it's a pretty good deal, lovely game.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Daedalic's CEO seemingly teasing a new Deponia game?

https://twitter.com/CFichtelmann/status/608963561163993088

???? #daedalic #deponia

Fuck yeah if so. It's my favorite Daedalic series.

 

[CryptRat]

Daedalic's CEO seemingly teasing a new Deponia game?

https://twitter.com/CFichtelmann/status/608963561163993088

Fuck yeah if so. It's my favorite Daedalic series.

I don't know what to think about this. The end of the trilogy was good. But the end of Chains of Satinav was awesome, and Memoria was definitely worth it. I have got a similar feeling about the two Edna games. Fuck yeah is probably the good answer, then.

 

[MRY]

Rock Paper Shotgun lists best 25 adventure games ever, gives second spot to The Longest Journey and ninth to Ben There, Dan That, but includes no King's Quest games, LOOM, Myst, QFG, Last Express, etc. Can it be forgiven because Dragonsphere makes the list and they mention Primordia in a footnote ("A mention there is no snub.")? Nope. Here's the list:

25. Dragonsphere
24. Police Quest III
23. Under a Killing Moon
22. Spycraft
21. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People
20. Discworld Noir
19. Walking Dead
18. Blackwell
17. Gabriel Knight I
16. Fahrenheit
15. Broken Sword I
14. To the Moon
13. Machinarium
12. Full Throttle
11. Kentucky Route Zero
10. The Dig
9. Ben There, Dan That
8. Space Quest IV
7. Monkey Island 2
6. Toonstuck
5. Grim Fandango
4. Indiana Jones: The Fate of Atlantis
3. Sam & Max Hit the Road
2. The Longest Journey
1. Day of the Tentacle

 

[tuluse]

I don't get why people like the Dig so much. I mean it's ok, but man, I don't think it make top 10 Lucas Arts games for me.

 

[Sceptic]

I mean, whoever made this list and I might be the only people who like Dragonsphere so much, but I still don't like the list. Did they seriously pick UKM as the token Tex Murphy game, leaving both Mean Streets and Pandora Directive off? And what's up with rating TLJ so high? And Walking Dead? Really? Also PQ3? I like the game, but the series in general is far down Sierra's greats, and the game is far from being the best in the series (I'd rate PQ1 highest).

 

[Jaesun]

We need a codex Top 25 Adventure Games list...

At least it can't possibly be as shitty as this. Well, it's OK..... ish...

 

[Redlands]

Rock Paper Shotgun lists best 25 adventure games ever

Stop right there, criminal scum! You've violated the law! The law of paying any attention to RPS, particularly when it comes to anything regarding adventure games.

Hmm, let's see...

Well, RPS needs to support its SJW bros, so reminders of any game Mr. Shitface has been involved with probably good (12, 7, 1, and especially 5 as that's had a recent remake released he can cash in on); similarly 2 has a sequel out that's SJW-friendly (and probably needs the cash). Other things have sequels/spiritual sequels/remasters/remakes that need shilling (17, 16, 15 via Cecil's BASS2, 11, 8) and popular adventure game companies need general shilling done for them too (21, 19, 18).

And that's only those that I've heard about, which hasn't been all that much, but that covers about half the list.

 

[CryptRat]

Sam & Max : Hit the Road has almost 0 text for failures, while the first Edna game has an awesome amount of failure jokes. Sounds like nobody cares about this.

 

[Athelas]

I don't get why people like the Dig so much. I mean it's ok, but man, I don't think it make top 10 Lucas Arts games for me.

It was a cinematic game (i.e. Hollywood aspirations) before cinematic games were a thing.

 

[Explorerbc]

You guys should be happy they didn't put Gone Home in the top 3