Adventure Game Ideas

[Skeggers]

So as you are almost definitely aware - due to your devilish intelligence and handsomeness - there has been quite the flux of new age adventure games coming out in recent years. Games like the completely linear but hypnotically deep Dear Esther or open-ended and wildly varied Stanley Parable are two pretty minimalistic but poignant examples of how diverse an art form gaming can be.

As it so happens, I am being given a chance to make whatever 3D game I like over the remaining year and a term of my College course. I've chosen to make a minimalist first person adventure game cut out of the same mould as the games mentioned above, except with the soft and not-too-challenging addition of some basic puzzles to put some level of 'game' into the project.

Given that story is going to be a really important element of the game, I've decided to get that nailed in this early stage. I know that I'd like the game to have either sinister or creepy undertones that might not be immediately apparent. I have a couple of surreal ideas pertaining to a man living on the moon, trying to find a way back home, loosely based on this short film that I saw when I was young;
http://vimeo.com/58445945

But really, I'd like to hear your ideas. What sort of stories do you think would fit this kind of game? Something that you might have to play through multiple times to fully understand, or maybe you'll get a completely different story if you look at it from a different perspective?

I'm sure that you guys will have better ideas than anything I could come up with.

 

[Luca72]

Ooh! I expected this to be about a point-and-click game, but minimalist FP sounds better! I've always liked the idea of an explorable hidden world parallel to the one you're "supposed" to be playing in. That's pretty vague, but here's an example:

We've all seen stories where a science team goes to a planet, and everything goes bad, right? Well how about someone shoing up years after that's happened? The main character could be stranded on this planet, and rather than having to fight enemies, he's trying to manage his suits power and air supply. The world could be fairly open this way, since you'd have to explore environments to scrounge for supplies, and the puzzles could be introduced as machines you have to get running to gain access to the next area or something. There are signs of struggle on the base, but no blood, no bodies, nothing.

As you're searching for supplies, you begin to get the feeling that there's something else present. Maybe you glimpse movement through a window, or think you see something on a security camera you've just powered up. It turns out there's an alien presence on the moon, on the outskirts of the base. It's up to the player whether they want to explore it at all. Remember that moment in Alien when Ripley is trying to get off the ship, but she stops to go into that Alien "lair" where she finds the eggs? That kind of thing.

That's pretty vague as far as specific story elements go, but it's an idea I've had for a game atmosphere that I think would be unique.

 

[Skeggers]

As you're searching for supplies, you begin to get the feeling that there's something else present. Maybe you glimpse movement through a window, or think you see something on a security camera you've just powered up. It turns out there's an alien presence on the moon, on the outskirts of the base. It's up to the player whether they want to explore it at all. Remember that moment in Alien when Ripley is trying to get off the ship, but she stops to go into that Alien "lair" where she finds the eggs? That kind of thing.

It's an interesting concept to let the player decide how deep they want the story to go, it's something I'm surprised that we don't see more of. It reminds me of 'The Path', which offered you a single linear walkway to your destination that you could veer off of at any point you chose; if you followed the path, the story was a simple walk to your grandmother's house, but it you left the path, you could end up in any manner of bizarre or disturbing situations.

I particularly liked the way that Dear Esther dealt with subtle-as-hell horror. You could play the game countless times without ever noticing that you are being watched throughout the entire adventure, but to once you notice, you see it everywhere and the game takes on a completely different tone. Made me shiver.

 

[Luca72]

As you're searching for supplies, you begin to get the feeling that there's something else present. Maybe you glimpse movement through a window, or think you see something on a security camera you've just powered up. It turns out there's an alien presence on the moon, on the outskirts of the base. It's up to the player whether they want to explore it at all. Remember that moment in Alien when Ripley is trying to get off the ship, but she stops to go into that Alien "lair" where she finds the eggs? That kind of thing.

It's an interesting concept to let the player decide how deep they want the story to go, it's something I'm surprised that we don't see more of. It reminds me of 'The Path', which offered you a single linear walkway to your destination that you could veer off of at any point you chose; if you followed the path, the story was a simple walk to your grandmother's house, but it you left the path, you could end up in any manner of bizarre or disturbing situations.

I particularly liked the way that Dear Esther dealt with subtle-as-hell horror. You could play the game countless times without ever noticing that you are being watched throughout the entire adventure, but to once you notice, you see it everywhere and the game takes on a completely different tone. Made me shiver.

The Path eh? I need to check that one out. Dear Esther too - I didn't realize it was going for that sort of experience. The idea for this kind of game struck me when I was playing Yoshi's Island with a friend - I noticed that the game functions as a fairly easy but creatively designed platform game, but that going for completion (getting the items) turned it into an entirely new type of game. This in turn reminded me of Braid - not only where the real experience is in getting the puzzle pieces, but in the sense that you really invest yourself in the story only as much as you choose to.

The real trick would be in hinting that there's more for the player to see if they choose to look without giving too much away. You'd have to give several hints in case they missed one, but you don't want to overdo it either. I've gotta say, the fact that you're thinking about how to construct atmosphere and how the player will receive it, instead of just being like "This game is about x mechanics in y situation" is pretty promising! Let me know how the project goes