An adventure game is a
video game genre
A video game genre is an informal classification of a video game based on how it is played rather than Computer graphics, visual or narrative elements. This is independent of setting (fiction), setting, unlike works of fiction that are expressed ...
in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or
puzzle-solving
A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzl ...
.
The
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other
narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travelogue, etc.) or fictional ( fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller, novel, etc. ...
-based media,
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
and
film, encompassing a wide variety of literary genres. Many adventure games (
text
Text may refer to:
Written word
* Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including:
**Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred
**Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...
and
graphic
Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture, ...
) are designed for a single player, since this emphasis on story and character makes multiplayer design difficult.
''
Colossal Cave Adventure
''Colossal Cave Adventure'' (also known as ''Adventure'' or ''ADVENT'') is a text-based adventure game, released in 1976 by developer Will Crowther for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. It was expanded upon in 1977 by Don Woods. In the game, the ...
'' is identified as the first such adventure game, first released in 1976, while other notable adventure game series include ''
Zork
''Zork'' is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded a ...
'', ''
King's Quest
''King's Quest'' is a graphic adventure game series, released between 1980 and 2016 and created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following th ...
'', ''
Monkey Island
''Monkey Island'' is a series of adventure games. The first four games in the series were produced and published by LucasArts, earlier known as Lucasfilm Games. The fifth installment of the franchise was developed by Telltale Games in collabor ...
'', and ''
Myst
''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's charact ...
''.
Initial adventure games developed in the 1970s and early 1980s were text-based, using text parsers to translate the player's input into commands. As personal computers became more powerful with better graphics, the graphic adventure-game format became popular, initially by augmenting player's text commands with graphics, but soon moving towards
point-and-click
Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and ...
interfaces. Further computer advances led to adventure games with more immersive graphics using real-time or pre-rendered three-dimensional scenes or
full-motion video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information durin ...
taken from the first- or third-person perspective.
For markets in the Western hemisphere, the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1980s to mid-1990s when many considered it to be among the most technically advanced genres, but it had become a
niche
Niche may refer to:
Science
*Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development
*Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species
*Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...
genre in the early 2000s due to the popularity of
first-person shooters
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pla ...
, and it became difficult for developers to find publishers to support adventure-game ventures. Since then, a resurgence in the genre has occurred, spurred on by the success of
independent video-game development, particularly from
crowdfunding efforts, from the wide availability of
digital distribution
Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content such as audio, video, e-books, video games, and other s ...
enabling episodic approaches, and from the proliferation of new gaming platforms, including portable consoles and mobile devices.
Within Asian markets, adventure games continue to be popular in the form of
visual novel
A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
s, which make up nearly 70% of
PC games
A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-dete ...
released in Japan.
[ Asian countries have also found markets for adventure games for portable and mobile gaming devices. Japanese adventure-games tend to be distinct from Western adventure-games and have their own separate development history.
]
Definition
The term "adventure game" originated from the 1970s text computer game ''Colossal Cave Adventure
''Colossal Cave Adventure'' (also known as ''Adventure'' or ''ADVENT'') is a text-based adventure game, released in 1976 by developer Will Crowther for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. It was expanded upon in 1977 by Don Woods. In the game, the ...
'', often referred to simply as ''Adventure'',[ which pioneered a style of ]gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pl ...
which many developers imitated and which became a genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
in its own right. The video game genre
A video game genre is an informal classification of a video game based on how it is played rather than Computer graphics, visual or narrative elements. This is independent of setting (fiction), setting, unlike works of fiction that are expressed ...
is therefore defined by its gameplay, unlike the literary genre
A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from more abstract, encompassing classes, which are then further sub-divided in ...
, which is defined by the subject it addresses: the activity of adventure.
Essential elements of the genre include storytelling, exploration, and puzzle-solving. Marek Bronstring, former head of content at Sega, has characterised adventure games as puzzles embedded in a narrative framework;
such games may involve narrative content that a player unlocks piece by piece over time.[ While the puzzles that players encounter through the story can be arbitrary, those that do not pull the player out of the narrative are considered examples of good design.
]
Relationship to other genres
Combat and action challenges are limited or absent in adventure games; this distinguishes them from action games.[ In the book '' Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design'', the authors state that "this educed emphasis on combatdoesn't mean that there is no conflict in adventure games ... only that combat is not the primary activity."][ Some adventure games will include a ]minigame
A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than t ...
from another video-game genre, which adventure-game purists do not always appreciate. Hybrid action-adventure games blend action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
and adventure games throughout the game experience, incorporating more physical challenges than pure adventure games and at a faster pace. This definition is hard to apply, however, with some debate among designers about which games classify as action games and which involve enough non-physical challenges to be considered action-adventures.
Adventure games are also distinct from role-playing video-games that involve action, team-building
Team building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks. It is distinct from team training, which is designed by a combine of business ...
, and point
Point or points may refer to:
Places
* Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland
* Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States
* Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland
* Point ...
s management. Adventure games lack the numeric rules or relationships seen in role-playing games (RPGs), and seldom have an internal economy. These games lack any skill-system, combat, or "an opponent to be defeated through strategy and tactics".[ However, some hybrid games exist where role-playing games with strong narrative and puzzle elements are considered RPG-adventures.
Finally, adventure games are classified separately from ]puzzle video game
Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion.
H ...
s. Although an adventure game may involve puzzle-solving, adventure games typically involve a player-controlled avatar in an interactive story.
Game design
Puzzle-solving
Adventure games contain a variety of puzzles
A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzle ...
, decoding messages, finding and using items, opening locked doors, or finding and exploring new locations. Solving a puzzle will unlock access to new areas in the game world, and reveal more of the game story.[ ]Logic puzzle
A logic puzzle is a puzzle deriving from the mathematical field of deduction.
History
The logic puzzle was first produced by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who is better known under his pen name Lewis Carroll, the author of ''Alice's Adventures in W ...
s, where mechanical devices are designed with abstract interfaces to test a player's deductive reasoning skills, are common.
Some puzzles are criticized for the obscurity of their solutions, for example, the combination of a clothes line
A clothes line or washing line is any type of rope, cord, or twine that has been stretched between two points (e.g. two sticks), outside or indoors, above the level of the ground. Clothing that has recently been washed is hung along the line ...
, clamp, and deflated rubber duck used to gather a key stuck between the subway tracks in ''The Longest Journey
''The Longest Journey'' ( nb, Den Lengste Reisen) is a magical realist point-and-click adventure video game developed by Norwegian studio Funcom for Microsoft Windows and released in 1999.
The game was a commercial success, with sales in ex ...
'', which exists outside of the game's narrative and serves only as an obstacle to the player. Others have been criticized for requiring players to blindly guess, either by clicking on the right pixel, or by guessing the right verb in games that use a text interface.[ Games that require players to navigate mazes have also become less popular, although the earliest text-adventure games usually required players to draw a map if they wanted to navigate the abstract space.]
Gathering and using items
Many adventure games make use of an inventory management screen as a distinct gameplay mode. Players are only able to pick up some objects in the game, so the player usually knows that only objects that can be picked up are important. Because it can be difficult for a player to know if they missed an important item
Item may refer to:
Organizations
* ''Instituto del Tercer Mundo'' (ITeM), the Third World Institute
* ITEM club, an economic forecasting group based in the United Kingdom
Newspapers
* ''The Item'', an American independent, morning newspaper ...
, they will often scour every scene for items. For games that utilize a point and click
Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and cl ...
device, players will sometimes engage in a systematic search known as a "pixel hunt", trying to locate the small area on the graphic representation of the location on screen that the developers defined, which may not be obvious or only consist of a few on-screen pixels. A notable example comes from the original '' Full Throttle'' by LucasArts
Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a large ...
, where one puzzle requires instructing the character to kick a wall at a small spot, which Tim Schafer
Timothy John Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games '' ...
, the game's lead designer, had admitted years later was a brute force measure; in the remastering of the game, Schafer and his team at Double Fine
Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double Fine's first two game ...
made this puzzle's solution more obvious. More recent adventure games try to avoid pixel hunts by highlighting the item, or by snapping the player's cursor to the item.
Many puzzles in these games involve gathering and using items from their inventory. Players must apply lateral thinking techniques where they apply real-world extrinsic knowledge about objects in unexpected ways. For example, by putting a deflated inner tube on a cactus to create a slingshot, which requires a player to realize that an inner tube is stretchy. They may need to carry items in their inventory for a long duration before they prove useful, and thus it is normal for adventure games to test a player's memory where a challenge can only be overcome by recalling a piece of information from earlier in the game. There is seldom any time pressure for these puzzles, focusing more on the player's ability to reason than on quick-thinking.
Story, setting, and themes
Adventure games are single-player experiences that are largely story-driven. More than any other genre, adventure games depend upon their story and setting to create a compelling single-player experience. They are typically set in an immersive environment
Immersion into virtual reality (VR) is a perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. The perception is created by surrounding the user of the VR system in images, sound or other stimuli that provide an engrossing total enviro ...
, often a fantasy world
A fantasy world is a world created for/from fictional media, such as literature, film or games. Typical fantasy worlds involve magic or magical abilities, nonexistent technology and, sometimes, either a historical or futuristic theme. Some worl ...
, and try to vary the setting from chapter to chapter to add novelty and interest to the experience. Comedy is a common theme, and games often script comedic responses when players attempt actions or combinations that are "ridiculous or impossible".
Since adventure games are driven by storytelling, character development usually follows literary conventions of personal and emotional growth, rather than new powers or abilities that affect gameplay. The player often embarks upon a quest,[ or is required to unravel a mystery or situation about which little is known.] These types of mysterious stories allow designers to get around what Ernest W. Adams calls the "Problem of Amnesia", where the player controls the protagonist but must start the game without their knowledge and experience. Story-events typically unfold as the player completes new challenges or puzzles, but in order to make such storytelling less mechanical, new elements in the story may also be triggered by player movement.
Dialogue and conversation trees
Adventure games have strong storylines with significant dialog, and sometimes make effective use of recorded dialog or narration from voice actors. This genre of game is known for representing dialog as a conversation tree
A dialogue tree, or conversation tree, is a gameplay mechanic that is used throughout many adventure games (including action-adventure games) and role-playing video games. When interacting with a non-player character, the player is given a choice ...
.[ Players are able to engage a non-player character by choosing a line of pre-written dialog from a menu, which triggers a response from the game character.] These conversations are often designed as a tree structure
A tree structure, tree diagram, or tree model is a way of representing the hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphical form. It is named a "tree structure" because the classic representation resembles a tree, although the chart is genera ...
, with players deciding between each branch of dialog to pursue. However, there are always a finite number of branches to pursue, and some adventure games devolve into selecting each option one-by-one. Conversing with characters can reveal clues about how to solve puzzles, including hints about what that character wanted before they would cooperate with the player. Other conversations will have far-reaching consequences, deciding to disclose a valuable secret that has been entrusted to the player. Characters may also be convinced to reveal their own secrets, either through conversation or by giving them something that will benefit them.
Goals, success and failure
The primary goal in adventure games is the completion of the assigned quest.[ Early adventure games often had high scores and some, including '']Zork
''Zork'' is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded a ...
'' and some of its sequels, assigned the player a rank, a text description based on their score. High scores provide the player with a secondary goal,[ and serve as an indicator of progression. While high scores are now less common, external reward systems, such as Xbox Live's Achievements, perform a similar role.
The primary failure condition in adventure games, inherited from more action-oriented games, is player death. Without the clearly identified enemies of other genres, its inclusion in adventure games is controversial, and many developers now either avoid it or take extra steps to foreshadow death.] Some early adventure games trapped the players in unwinnable situations without ending the game. Infocom's text adventure ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it ...
'' has been criticized for a scenario where failing to pick up a pile of junk mail at the beginning of the game prevented the player, much later, from completing the game. The adventure games developed by LucasArts purposely avoided creating a dead-end situation for the player due to the negative reactions to such situations.
Subgenres
Text adventures and interactive fiction
Text adventures convey the game's story through passages of text, revealed to the player in response to typed instructions. Early text adventures, ''Colossal Cave Adventure
''Colossal Cave Adventure'' (also known as ''Adventure'' or ''ADVENT'') is a text-based adventure game, released in 1976 by developer Will Crowther for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. It was expanded upon in 1977 by Don Woods. In the game, the ...
'', "Hugo's House of Horrors" and Scott Adams' games, used a simple verb
A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
-noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, ...
parser
Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is the process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar. The term ''parsing'' comes from Lat ...
to interpret these instructions, allowing the player to interact with objects at a basic level, for example by typing "get key".[ Later text adventures, and modern interactive fiction, use natural language processing to enable more complex player commands like "take the key from the desk". Notable examples of advanced text adventures include most games developed by Infocom, including '']Zork
''Zork'' is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded a ...
'' and ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it ...
''. With the onset of graphic adventures, the text adventure fell to the wayside, though the medium remains popular as a means of writing interactive fiction (IF) particularly with the introduction of the Inform
Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction originally created in 1993 by Graham Nelson. Inform can generate programs designed for the Z-code or Glulx virtual machines. Versions 1 through 5 were released betw ...
natural language platform for writing IF. Interactive fiction can still provide puzzle-based challenges like adventure games, but many modern IF works also explore alternative methods of narrative storytelling techniques unique to the interactive medium and may eschew complex puzzles associated with typical adventure games. Readers or players of IF may still need to determine how to interact appropriately with the narrative to progress and thus create a new type of challenge.
Graphic adventure
Graphic adventures are adventure games that use graphics to convey the environment to the player. Games under the graphic adventure banner may have a variety of input types, from text parsers to touch screen interfaces. Graphic adventure games will vary in how they present the avatar. Some games will utilize a first-person or third-person perspective where the camera follows the player's movements, whereas many adventure games use drawn or pre-rendered backgrounds, or a context-sensitive camera that is positioned to show off each location to the best effect.
Point-and-click adventure games
Point-and-click adventure games are those where the player typically controls their character through a point and click
Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and cl ...
interface using a computer mouse or similar pointing device, though additional control schemes may also be available.[ The player clicks to move their character around, interact with non-player characters, often initiating ]conversation tree
A dialogue tree, or conversation tree, is a gameplay mechanic that is used throughout many adventure games (including action-adventure games) and role-playing video games. When interacting with a non-player character, the player is given a choice ...
s with them, examine objects in the game's settings or with their character's item inventory. Many older point-and-click games include a list of on-screen verbs to describe specific actions in the manner of a text adventure, but newer games have used more context-sensitive user interface elements to reduce or eliminate this approach. Often, these games come down to collecting items for the character's inventory, and figuring when is the right time to use that item; the player would need to use clues from the visual elements of the game, descriptions of the various items, and dialogue from other characters to figure this out. Later games developed by Sierra On-Line
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genr ...
, including the ''King's Quest
''King's Quest'' is a graphic adventure game series, released between 1980 and 2016 and created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following th ...
'' games, and nearly all of the LucasArts adventure games
From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, LucasArts was well known for their point-and-click graphic adventure games, nearly all of which received high scoring reviews at the time of their release. Their style tended towards the humorous, often ir ...
, are point-and-click-based games.
Point-and-click adventure games can also be the medium in which interactive, cinematic video games comprise. They feature cutscenes interspersed by short snippets of interactive gameplay that tie in with the story. This sub-genre is most famously used by the defunct Telltale Games
Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...
with their series such as '' Minecraft: Story Mode'' and their adaptation of '' The Walking Dead''.
Escape the room games
Escape the room
Escape the room, also known as room escape or escape game, is a subgenre of point-and-click adventure game which requires a player to escape from imprisonment by exploiting their surroundings. The room usually consists of a locked door, objects ...
games are a further specialization of point-and-click adventure games; these games are typically short and confined to a small space to explore, with almost no interaction with non-player characters. Most games of this type require the player to figure out how to escape a room using the limited resources within it and through the solving of logic puzzles. Other variants include games that require the player to manipulate a complex object to achieve a certain end in the fashion of a puzzle box
A puzzle box (also called a secret box or trick box) is a box that can be opened only by solving a puzzle. Some require only a simple move and others a series of discoveries.
Modern puzzle boxes developed from furniture and jewelry boxes with ...
. These games are often delivered in Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
format and are also popular on mobile devices. The genre is notable for inspiring real-world escape room
An escape room, also known as an escape game, puzzle room, exit game, or riddle room is a game in which a team of players discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to accomplish a specific goal in a limite ...
challenges. Examples of the subgenre include '' MOTAS'' (''Mysteries of Time and Space''), ''The Crimson Room'', and ''The Room
''The Room'' is a 2003 American drama film written, produced, executive produced and directed by Tommy Wiseau, who stars in the film alongside Juliette Danielle and Greg Sestero. The film centers on a melodramatic love triangle between amia ...
''.
Puzzle adventure games
Puzzle adventure games are adventure games that put a strong emphasis on logic puzzles. They typically emphasize self-contained puzzle challenges with logic puzzle toys or games. Completing each puzzle opens more of the game's world to explore, additional puzzles to solve, and can expand on the game's story. There are often few to none non-playable character
A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster ...
s in such games, and lack the type of inventory puzzles that typical point-and-click adventure games have. Puzzle adventure games were popularized by ''Myst
''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's charact ...
'' and ''The 7th Guest
''The 7th Guest'' is an interactive movie puzzle adventure game, produced by Trilobyte and originally released by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in April 1993. It is one of the first computer video games to be released only on CD-ROM. ''The ...
''. These both used mixed media consisting of pre-rendered images and movie clips, but since then, puzzle adventure games have taken advantage of modern game engines to present the games in full 3D settings, such as ''The Talos Principle
''The Talos Principle'' is a 2014 puzzle video game developed by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital. It was simultaneously released on Linux, OS X and Windows in December 2014. It was released for Android in May 2015, for PlayStation 4 ...
''. ''Myst'' itself has been recreated in such a fashion in the title ''realMyst''. Other puzzle adventure games are casual adventure games made up of a series of puzzles used to explore and progress the story, exemplified by '' The Witness'' and the ''Professor Layton
''Professor Layton'' is a puzzle adventure video game series and transmedia franchise developed by Level-5. The property consists primarily of seven main video games, a mobile spin-off, an animated theatrical film, and an anime television serie ...
'' series of games.
Narrative adventure games
Narrative adventure games are those that allow for branching narratives, with choices made by the player influencing events throughout the game. While these choices do not usually alter the overall direction and major plot elements of the game's story, they help personalize the story to the player's desire through the ability to choose these determinants – exceptions include '' Detroit: Become Human'', where players' choices can bring to multiple completely different endings and characters' death. These games favor narrative storytelling over traditional gameplay, with gameplay present to help immerse the player into the game's story: gameplay may include working through conversation trees, solving puzzles, or the use of quick time events to aid in action sequences to keep the player involved in the story. Though narrative games are similar to interactive movie
Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but m ...
s and visual novel
A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
s in that they present pre-scripted scenes, the advancement of computing power can render pre-scripted scenes in real-time, thus providing for more depth of gameplay that is reactive to the player. Most Telltale Games
Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...
titles, such as '' The Walking Dead'', are narrative games. Other examples include Sega AM2
previously known as is a video game development team within the Japanese multinational video game developer Sega. Yu Suzuki, who had previously developed arcade games for Sega including '' Hang-On'' and ''Out Run'', was the first manager of t ...
's ''Shenmue
is an action-adventure game series created, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki. '' Shenmue'' (1999) and ''Shenmue II'' (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for Dreamcast. '' Shenmue III,'' developed by Suzuki's company Y ...
'' series, Konami
, is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has casino ...
's '' Shadow of Memories'', Quantic Dream
Quantic Dream SA is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in May 1997, Quantic Dream has developed five video games: ''The Nomad Soul'' (1999), ''Fahrenheit'' (2005), ''Heavy Rain'' (2010), '' Beyond: Two Souls'' ...
's ''Fahrenheit
The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined hi ...
'', ''Heavy Rain
''Heavy Rain'' is a 2010 adventure game developed by Quantic Dream and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game features four protagonists involved with the mystery of the Origami Killer, a serial murderer who uses extended periods ...
'' and '' Beyond: Two Souls'', Dontnod Entertainment
Don't Nod Entertainment SA (trade name: Don't Nod, formerly Dontnod Entertainment) is a French video game developer based in Paris. Founded in June 2008, it started development on '' Remember Me'' (2013). Because of its poor return on investmen ...
's '' Life Is Strange'' series, and ''Night in the Woods
''Night in the Woods'' is a 2017 single-player adventure video game. It was developed by Infinite Fall, a studio founded by game designer Alec Holowka and animator/ artist Scott Benson, and Secret Lab, an Australian studio, and published by ...
''.
Walking simulators
Walking simulators, or environmental narrative games, are narrative games that generally eschew any type of gameplay outside of movement and environmental interaction that allow players to experience their story through exploration and discovery. Walking simulators feature few or even no puzzles at all, and win/lose conditions may not exist. The simulators allow players to roam around the game environment and discover objects like books, audio logs, or other clues that develop the story, and may be augmented with dialogue with non-playable characters and cutscenes. These games allow for exploration of the game's world without any time limits or other forced constraints, an option usually not offered in more action-oriented games.
The term "walking simulator" had sometimes been used pejoratively as such games feature almost no traditional gameplay elements and only involved walking around. The term has become more accepted as games within the genre gained critical praise in the 2010s; other names have been proposed, like "environmental narrative games" or "interactive narratives", which emphasizes the importance of the narration and the fact the plot is told by interaction with ambient elements. Examples of walking simulators include ''Gone Home
''Gone Home'' is a first-person exploration video game developed and published by The Fullbright Company. ''Gone Home'' was first released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux computers in August 2013, followed by console releases for the Pla ...
'', ''Dear Esther
''Dear Esther'' is a first-person exploration and adventure video game developed by The Chinese Room for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. First released in 2008 as a free-to-play modification for the Source game engine, ...
'', ''Firewatch
''Firewatch'' is an adventure game developed by Campo Santo (company), Campo Santo and published by the developer in partnership with Panic Inc., Panic. The game was released in February 2016 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, OS X, Linux, and Play ...
'', ''The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
''The Vanishing of Ethan Carter'' is a 2014 horror adventure video game developed and published by The Astronauts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.
Gameplay
''The Vanishing of Ethan Carter'' is set in an open ...
'', ''Proteus
In Greek mythology, Proteus (; Ancient Greek: Πρωτεύς, ''Prōteus'') is an early prophetic sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea" ''(hálios gérôn)''. ...
'', ''Jazzpunk
''Jazzpunk'' is an adventure video game developed by Necrophone Games and published by Adult Swim Games. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux in February 2014. A director's cut of the game, self-published by Necrophone Gam ...
'', ''The Stanley Parable
''The Stanley Parable'' is a story-based video game designed and written by developers Davey Wreden and William Pugh. The game carries themes such as choice in video games, the relationship between a game creator and player, and predestination ...
'', '' Thirty Flights of Loving'', and ''What Remains of Edith Finch
''What Remains of Edith Finch'' is a first-person adventure game developed by Giant Sparrow and published by Annapurna Interactive. The game was released in April 2017 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One; for Nintendo Switch ...
''.
Walking simulators may have ties to the survival horror
Survival horror is a subgenre of survival of the players as the game tries to frighten them with either horror graphics or scary ambience. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical ac ...
genre. Though most survival horror games do include combat and other actions the player can use to survive, some games like ''Outlast
''Outlast'' is a 2013 first-person survival horror video game developed and published by Red Barrels. The game revolves around a freelance investigative journalist, Miles Upshur, who decides to investigate a remote psychiatric hospital named M ...
'' and ''Paratopic
''Paratopic'' is a 2018 first-person horror video game, released for Linux, macOS, Windows, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series. The game uses a graphical style reminiscent of 32-bit era
The fifth-generation era (also known as the 32- ...
'' remove combat abilities, which leaves the player without any means to otherwise react to events. These games can be seen as walking simulators as they help to create an emotional response in their narrative by removing player agency to react to frightening events, combined with the ability to insert visual and audio cues designed to frighten the player.
The walking simulator genre is primarily one taken up by independent video game development. However, some triple-A examples have started to show trends toward walking simulators. '' Assassin's Creed: Origins'' and '' Assassin's Creed: Odyssey'' include a "Discovery Mode" that eliminates the game's combat and allows the players to explore the recreations of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of Classical Antiquity, classical antiquity ( AD 600), th ...
, respectively.
Visual novel
A is a hybrid of text and graphical adventure games, typically featuring text-based story and interactivity aided by static or sprite-based visuals. They resemble mixed-media novels or tableau vivant
A (; often shortened to ; plural: ), French for "living picture", is a static scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or scenery, and may be theatrica ...
stage plays. Most visual novels typically feature dialogue tree
A dialogue tree, or conversation tree, is a gameplay mechanic that is used throughout many adventure games (including action-adventure games) and role-playing video games. When interacting with a non-player character, the player is given a choice ...
s, branching storylines, and multiple endings
A narrative typically ends in one set way, but certain kinds of narrative allow for multiple endings.
Comics
* ''The Death-Ray'' by Daniel Clowes.
* '' Cliff Hanger''.
Literature
* The ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' series.
* ''Fighting Fantas ...
. The format has its primary origins in Japanese and other Asian video game markets, typically for personal computers and more recently on handheld consoles or mobile devices. The format did not gain much traction in Western markets, but started gaining more success since the late 2000s. A common type of visual novel are dating sims, which has the player attempt to improve a relationship with one or more other characters, such as ''Hatoful Boyfriend
is a Japanese dōjin soft otome visual novel released in 2011 for Microsoft Windows and OS X, in which all the characters other than the protagonist are sentient birds. It was developed by manga artist Hato Moa's dōjin circle PigeoNation Inc. ...
''.
Interactive movie
Some adventure games have been presented as interactive movies; these are games where most of the graphics are either fully pre-rendered or use full motion video from live actors on a set, stored on a media that allows fast random access such as laserdisc or CD-ROM. The arcade versions of ''Dragon's Lair
''Dragon's Lair'' is a video game franchise created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth. The series is famous for its Western animation-style graphics and complex decades-long history of being ported to many platforms and being remade into television a ...
'' and ''Space Ace
''Space Ace'' is a LaserDisc video game produced by Bluth Group, Cinematronics and Advanced Microcomputer Systems (later renamed RDI Video Systems). It was unveiled in October 1983, just four months after the '' Dragon's Lair'' game, followed b ...
'' are canonical examples of such works. The game's software presented a scene, to which players responded by moving a joystick and pressing a button, and each choice prompted the game to play a new scene. The video may be augmented by additional computer graphics; '' Under a Killing Moon'' used a combination of full-motion video and 3D graphics
3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for th ...
. Because these games are limited by what has been pre-rendered or recorded, player interactivity is limited in these titles, and wrong choices or decisions may lead quickly to an ending scene.
Hybrids
There are a number of hybrid graphical adventure games, borrowing from two or more of the above classifications. The ''Zero Escape
''Zero Escape'', formerly released in Japan as , is a series of adventure games directed and written by Kotaro Uchikoshi. The first two entries in the series, '' Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors'' (2009) and '' Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Re ...
'' series wraps several escape-the-room puzzles within the context of a visual novel. The '' Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'' series has the player use point-and-click type interfaces to locate clues, and minigame
A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than t ...
-type mechanics to manipulate those clues to find more relevant information.
While most adventure games typically do not include any time-based interactivity by the player, action-adventure games are a hybrid of action games with adventure games that often require to the player to react quickly to events as they occur on screen. The action-adventure genre is broad, spanning many different subgenres, but typically these games utilize strong storytelling and puzzle-solving mechanics of adventure games among the action-oriented gameplay concepts. The foremost title in this genre was ''Adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...
'', a graphic home console game developed based on the text-based ''Colossal Cave Adventure
''Colossal Cave Adventure'' (also known as ''Adventure'' or ''ADVENT'') is a text-based adventure game, released in 1976 by developer Will Crowther for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. It was expanded upon in 1977 by Don Woods. In the game, the ...
'', while the first ''The Legend of Zelda
''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...
'' brought the action-adventure concept to a broader audience.
History of Western adventure games
Text adventures (1976–1989)
The origins of text adventure games is difficult to trace as records of computing around the 1970s were not as well documented. Text-based games had existed prior to 1976 that featured elements of exploring maps or solving puzzles, such as '' Hunt the Wumpus'' (1975), but lacked a narrative element, a feature essential for adventure games. ''Colossal Cave Adventure
''Colossal Cave Adventure'' (also known as ''Adventure'' or ''ADVENT'') is a text-based adventure game, released in 1976 by developer Will Crowther for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. It was expanded upon in 1977 by Don Woods. In the game, the ...
'' (1976), written by William Crowther and Don Woods Donald Woods (1933–2001) was a South African journalist and activist.
Donald or Don Woods may also refer to:
* Donald Woods (actor) (1906–1998), Canadian-born American film and television actor
* Donald Devereux Woods (1912–1964), British m ...
, is widely considered to be the first game in the adventure genre, and a significant influence on the genre's early development, as well as influencing core games in other genres such as ''Adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...
'' (1979) for the action-adventure video game
The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres.
Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a storyli ...
and '' Rogue'' (1980) for roguelike
Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a subgenre of role-playing computer games traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player charac ...
s. Crowther was an employee at Bolt, Beranek and Newman
Raytheon BBN (originally Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.) is an American research and development company, based next to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
In 1966, the Franklin Institute awarded the firm the Frank P. Brown ...
, a Boston company involved with ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical fou ...
routers, in the mid-1970s.[ As an avid ]caver
Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology i ...
and role-playing game enthusiast, he wrote a text adventure based on his own knowledge of the Mammoth Cave
Mammoth Cave National Park is an American national park in west-central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world.
Since the 1972 unification of Mammoth Cave with the even-longer system under F ...
system in Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...
.[ The program, which he named ''Adventure'', was written on the company's ]PDP-10
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)'s PDP-10, later marketed as the DECsystem-10, is a mainframe computer family manufactured beginning in 1966 and discontinued in 1983. 1970s models and beyond were marketed under the DECsystem-10 name, espec ...
and used 300 kilobytes of memory. The program was disseminated through ARPANET, which led to Woods, working at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...
at Stanford at the time, to modify and expand the game, eventually becoming ''Colossal Cave Adventure''.[
''Colossal Cave Adventure'' set concepts and gameplay approaches that became staples of text adventures and interactive fiction.][ Following its release on ARPANET, numerous variations of ''Colossal Cave Adventure'' appeared throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, with some of these later versions being re-christened ''Colossal Adventure'' or ''Colossal Caves''. These variations were enabled by the increase in microcomputing that allowed programmers to work on home computers rather than mainframe systems.] The genre gained commercial success with titles designed for home computers. Scott Adams
Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is an American author and cartoonist. He is the creator of the syndicated '' Dilbert'' comic strip, and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, and business. ''Dilbert'' gained natio ...
launched Adventure International
Adventure International was an American video game publishing company that existed from 1979 until 1986. It was started by Scott and Alexis Adams. Their games were notable for being the first implementation of the adventure genre to run on a m ...
to publish text adventures including an adaptation of ''Colossal Cave Adventure'', while a number of MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
students formed Infocom to bring their game ''Zork
''Zork'' is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded a ...
'' from mainframe to home computers and was a commercial success.
[ Other companies in this field included ]Level 9 Computing
Level 9 was a British developer of computer software, active between 1981 and 1991. Founded by Mike, Nicholas and Pete Austin, the company produced software for the BBC Micro, Nascom, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Oric, Atari, Lynx 48k, RML 380Z, ...
, Magnetic Scrolls
Magnetic Scrolls was a British video game developer active between 1984 and 1990. A pioneer of audiovisually elaborate text adventure games, it was one of the two largest and most acclaimed interactive fiction developers of the 1980s.
''Magnet ...
and Melbourne House.
When personal computers gained the ability to display graphics, the text adventure genre began to wane, and by 1990 there were few if any commercial releases, though in the UK publisher Zenobi released many games that could be purchased via mail order during the first half of the 90s. Non-commercial text adventure games have been developed for many years within the genre of interactive fiction. Games are also being developed using the older term 'text adventure' with Adventuron, alongside some published titles for older 8-bit and 16-bit machines.
Graphical development (1980–1990)
The first known graphical adventure game was ''Mystery House
''Mystery House'' is an adventure game released by On-Line Systems in 1980. It was designed, written and illustrated by Roberta Williams, and programmed by Ken Williams for the Apple II. ''Mystery House'' is the first graphical adventure ga ...
'' (1980), by Sierra On-Line
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game genr ...
, then at the time known as On-Line Systems.[ Designed by the company's co-founder Roberta Williams and programmed with the help of her husband ]Ken
Ken or KEN may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer.
* ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film.
* ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine.
* Ken Masters, a main character in ...
, the game featured static vector graphics
Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display ...
atop a simple command line interface, building on the text adventure model. Roberta was directly inspired by ''Colossal Cave Adventure'' as well as the text adventure games that followed from it. Sierra continued to produce similar games under the title ''Hi-Res Adventure''.[ Vector graphics gave way to ]bitmap graphics
upright=1, The Smiley, smiley face in the top left corner is a raster image. When enlarged, individual pixels appear as squares. Enlarging further, each pixel can be analyzed, with their colors constructed through combination of the values for ...
which also enabled for simple animations to show the player-character moving in response to typed commands. Here, Sierra's ''King's Quest
''King's Quest'' is a graphic adventure game series, released between 1980 and 2016 and created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following th ...
'' (1984), though not the first game of its type, is recognized as a commercially successful graphical adventure game, enabling Sierra to expand on more titles. Other examples of early games include Koei's ''Danchi Tsuma no Yuwaku'' (1982), ''Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest is a royal forest in Nottinghamshire, England, famous because of its historic association with the legend of Robin Hood.
The area has been wooded since the end of the Last Glacial Period (as attested by pollen sampling cor ...
'' (1982), The Hobbit
''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ''N ...
(1982), Yuji Horii
(also written as Yuuji Horii; born January 6, 1954) is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing games, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger' ...
's '' Portopia Serial Murder Case'' (1983), '' The Return of Heracles'' (which faithfully portrayed Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...
) by Stuart Smith (1983), Dale Johnson
Dale Johnson (August 15, 1902 – April 24, 1963) was a local businessman in Rock Island, Illinois, who is best known for his role in the ownership of the Rock Island Independents of the National Football League from 1923 until 1925. He took over ...
's ''Masquerade'' (1983), Antonio Antiochia's ''Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
'' (1982, re-released in 1984), and '' Adventure Construction Set'' (1985), one of the early hits of Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...
.
As computers gained the ability to use pointing devices and point-and-click
Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and ...
interfaces, graphical adventure games moved away from including the text interface and simply provided appropriate commands the player could interact with on-screen. The first known game with such an interface was '' Enchanted Scepters'' (1984) from Silicon Beach Software
Silicon Beach Software, Inc., was an early American developer of software products for the Macintosh personal computer. It was founded in San Diego, California in 1984 by Charlie Jackson and his wife Hallie. Jackson later co-founded FutureWave S ...
, which used drop-down menus for the player to select actions from while using a text window to describe results of those actions. In 1985, ICOM Simulations
ICOM Simulations, Inc. (later known as Rabid Entertainment) was a software company based in Wheeling, Illinois. It is best known for creating the MacVenture series of adventure games including ''Shadowgate''.
Following the foundation in 1981 a ...
released ''Déjà Vu
''Déjà vu'' ( , ; "already seen") is a French loanword for the phenomenon of feeling as though one has lived through the present situation before.Schnider, Armin. (2008). ''The Confabulating Mind: How the Brain Creates Reality''. Oxford Univers ...
'', the first of its MacVenture
The MacVenture games comprise a series of four adventure games introducing a characteristic menu-based point-and-click interface. They were originally developed for the Apple Macintosh by ICOM Simulations:
#''Déjà Vu'' (1985)
#'' Uninvited'' ( ...
series, utilized a more complete point-and-click interface, including the ability to drag objects around on the current scene, and was a commercial success. LucasArts
Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a large ...
' ''Maniac Mansion
''Maniac Mansion'' is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Sandy Pantz from a mad scientist, whose mind has been ensla ...
'', released in 1987, used a novel "verb-object" interface, showing all possible commands the player could use to interact with the game along with the player's inventory, which became a staple of LucasArts' own adventure games and in the genre overall.[ The point-and-click system also worked well for game consoles, with games like Chunsoft's ''Portopia Serial Murder Case'' (1985) and ]Square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...
's ''Suishō no Dragon
is a text-based adventure video game developed and published by Square for the Family Computer Disk System in Japan in 1986.
Gameplay
The game plays as a command-style adventure game. The game's interface resembles that of a point-and-click grap ...
'' (1986), both on the Nintendo Entertainment System using the controller input instead of text-based actions.[
Graphical adventure games were considered to have spurred the gaming market for personal computers from 1985 through the next decade, as they were able to offer narratives and storytelling that could not readily be told by the state of graphical hardware at the time.]
Expansion (1990–2000)
Graphical adventure games continued to improve with advances in graphic systems for home computers, providing more detailed and colorful scenes and characters. With the adoption of CD-ROM in the early 1990s, it became possible to include higher quality graphics, video, and audio in adventure games.
This saw the addition of voice acting
Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
to adventure games, the rise of Interactive movie
Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but m ...
s, '' The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery'', and the gradual adoption of three-dimensional graphics in adventure games, the critically acclaimed ''Grim Fandango
''Grim Fandango'' is a 1998 adventure game directed by Tim Schafer and developed and published by LucasArts for Microsoft Windows. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered static backgroun ...
'', Lucasarts' first 3D adventure.
''Myst
''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's charact ...
'', released in 1993 by Cyan Worlds
Cyan, Inc., also known as Cyan Worlds, Inc., is an American video game developer. Founded as Cyan Productions by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller in 1987, the company is best known as the creator of the ''Myst'' series. The company is located in ...
, is considered one of the genre's more influential titles. ''Myst'' included pre-rendered 3D graphics, video, and audio.[ ''Myst'' was an atypical game for the time, with no clear goals, little personal or object interaction, and a greater emphasis on exploration, and on scientific and mechanical puzzles. Part of the game's success was because it did not appear to be aimed at an adolescent male audience, but instead a mainstream adult audience. ''Myst'' held the record for computer game sales for seven years—it sold over nine million copies on all platforms, a feat not surpassed until the release of '']The Sims
''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation game, life simulation video games developed by Maxis and video game publisher, published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and it is one of the best-selling ...
'' in 2000. In addition, ''Myst'' is considered to be the "killer app" that drove mainstream adoption of CD-ROM drives, as the game was one of the first to be distributed solely on CD-ROM, forgoing the option of floppy disks. ''Myst''s successful use of mixed-media led to its own sequels, and other puzzle-based adventure games, using mixed-media such as ''The 7th Guest
''The 7th Guest'' is an interactive movie puzzle adventure game, produced by Trilobyte and originally released by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in April 1993. It is one of the first computer video games to be released only on CD-ROM. ''The ...
''. With many companies attempting to capitalize on the success of ''Myst'', a glut of similar games followed its release, which contributed towards the start of the decline of the adventure game market in 2000. Nevertheless, the American market research firm NPD FunWorld reported that adventure games were the best-selling genre of the 1990s, followed by strategy video game
Strategy is a major video game genre that emphasizes thinking and planning over direct instant action in order to achieve victory. Although many types of video games can contain strategic elements, as a genre, strategy games are most commonly defi ...
s. Writer Mark H. Walker attributed this dominance in part to ''Myst''.
The 1990s also saw the release of many adventure games from countries that had experienced dormant or fledgling video gaming industries up until that point. These games were generally inspired by their Western counterparts and a few years behind in terms of technological and graphical advancements. In particular the fall of the Soviet Union saw countries such as Poland and Czechoslovakia release a string of popular adventure games including '' Tajemnica Statuetki'' (1993) and '' The Secret of Monkey Island'' parody ''Tajemství Oslího ostrova
''Tajemství Oslího ostrova'' (often abbreviated as ''Too''), English: ''Donkey Island,'' is a 1994 Czech point-and-click adventure video game. Distributed by Petr Vochozka through his company Vochozka Trading in June 1994, it was the first nati ...
'' (1994), while in Russia a whole subgenre informally entitled "Russian quest" emerged following the success of ''Red Comrades Save the Galaxy
''Red Comrades Save the Galaxy'' ( Russian: ''Петька и Василий Иванович Спасают Галактику'') is a 1998 point-and-click graphic adventure game. Developed by S.K.I.F. and published by Buka Entertainment, it i ...
'' (1998) and its sequels: those games often featured characters from Russian jokes
Russian jokes (russian: link=no, анекдоты, anekdoty, anecdotes) are short fictional stories or dialogs with a punch line, which commonly appear in Russian humor. Russian joke culture includes a series of categories with fixed settings and ...
, lowbrow humor
Low comedy, also known as lowbrow humor, in association to comedy, is a dramatic or literary form of popular entertainment without any primary purpose other than to create laughter through boasting, boisterous jokes, drunkenness, scolding, fi ...
, poor production values and "all the worst things brought by the national gaming industry". Israel had next to a non-existent video gaming industry due to a preference for those with useful skills such as programming to work for the Israeli army instead, nevertheless ''Piposh
''Piposh'' ( he, פיפוש) is an Israeli media franchise that started as a series of comedic point-and-click adventure video games developed by Guillotine and published by Hed Arzi Multimedia for Windows. Based on an eponymous actor-turned-de ...
'' (1999) became extremely popular, to the point where 20 years later a reboot was released due to a grassroots fan movement.
Decline (2000–2010)
Whereas once adventure games were one of the most popular genres for computer games, by the mid-1990s the market share started to drastically decline. The forementioned saturation of ''Myst''-like games on the market led to little innovation in the field and a drop in consumer confidence in the genre. ''Computer Gaming World'' reported that a "respected designer" felt it was impossible to design new and more difficult adventure puzzles as fans demanded, because Scott Adams had already created them all in his early games. Another factor that led to the decline of the adventure game market was the advent of first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...
s, such as ''Doom
Doom is another name for damnation.
Doom may also refer to:
People
* Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed
* Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist
* Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher
* ...
'' and ''Half-Life
Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable at ...
''.[ These games, taking further advantage of computer advancement, were able to offer strong, story-driven games within an action setting.]
This slump in popularity led many publishers and developers to see adventure games as financially unfeasible in comparison. Notably, Sierra was sold to CUC International
CUC (Comp-U-Card) International Inc. was a membership-based consumer services conglomerate with travel, shopping, auto, dining, home improvement and financial services offered to more than 60 million customers worldwide based in Stamford, Connectic ...
in 1998, and while still a separate studio, attempted to recreate an adventure game using 3D graphics, '' King's Quest: Mask of Eternity'', as well as ''Gabriel Knight 3'', both of which fared poorly; the studio was subsequently closed in 1999. Similarly, LucasArts released ''Grim Fandango'' in 1998 to many positive reviews but poor sales; it released one more adventure game, ''Escape from Monkey Island'' in 2000, but subsequently stopped development of ''Sam & Max: Freelance Police'' and had no further plans for adventure games. Many of those developers for LucasArts, including Grossman and Schafer, left the company during this time. Sierra developer Lori Ann Cole stated in 2003 her belief that the high cost of development hurt adventure games: "They are just too art intensive, and art is expensive to produce and to show. Some of the best of the Adventure Games were criticized they were just too short. Action-adventure or adventure role-playing games can get away with re-using a lot of the art, and stretching the game play."
Traditional adventure games became difficult to propose as new commercial titles. Gilbert wrote in 2005, "From first-hand experience, I can tell you that if you even utter the words 'adventure game' in a meeting with a publisher you can just pack up your spiffy concept art and leave. You'd get a better reaction by announcing that you have the plague." In 2012 Schafer said "If I were to go to a publisher right now and pitch an adventure game, they'd laugh in my face." Though most commercial adventure game publication had stopped in the United States by the early 2000s, the genre was still alive in Europe. Games such as ''The Longest Journey
''The Longest Journey'' ( nb, Den Lengste Reisen) is a magical realist point-and-click adventure video game developed by Norwegian studio Funcom for Microsoft Windows and released in 1999.
The game was a commercial success, with sales in ex ...
'' by Funcom
Funcom Oslo AS (, formerly Funcom Productions AS) is a Norwegian video game developer that specializes in online games. It is best known for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) titles '' Conan Exiles'', '' Age of Conan'', ...
as well as ''Amerzone
''Amerzone'' (also known as ''Amerzone: The Explorer's Legacy'') is a first-person fantasy graphic adventure game published by Microïds and designed by Benoît Sokal, who based it on his 1986 ''Inspector Canardo'' comic strip ''L'Amerzone''. ''A ...
'' and ''Syberia
''Syberia'' is a franchise of graphic adventure games created by Belgian comic artist and video game developer Benoît Sokal. Set within an alternate universe designed by Sokal and introduced in the 1999 video game '' Amerzone'', the series ...
'', both conceived by Benoît Sokal
Benoît Sokal (28 June 1954 – 28 May 2021) was a Belgian comic artist and video game developer, best known for his comics series ''Inspector Canardo'', and the ''Syberia'' adventure game franchise.
Biography
Benoît Sokal was born in Brussel ...
and developed by Microïds
Microids (formerly Microïds) is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in 1985 by Elliot Grassiano, it attained early success with games published through Loriciel in France and other partners (including Activisio ...
, with rich classical elements of the genre still garnered high critical acclaims. Even in these cases, developers often had to distance themselves from the genre in some way. The Longest Journey was instead termed a "modern adventure" for publishing and marketing. Series marketed to female gamers, however, like the Nancy Drew Mystery Adventure Series prospered with over two dozen entries put out over the decade and 2.1 million copies of games in the franchise sold by 2006, enjoying great commercial and critical success while the genre was otherwise viewed as in decline.
Similar to the fate of interactive fiction, conventional graphical adventure games have continued to thrive in the amateur scene. This has been most prolific with the tool Adventure Game Studio
Adventure Game Studio (AGS) is an open source development tool primarily used to create graphic adventure games. It is aimed at intermediate-level game designers, and combines an integrated development environment (IDE) with a scripting language b ...
(AGS). Some notable AGS games include those by Ben Croshaw
Benjamin Richard "Yahtzee" Croshaw (born 24 May 1983) is a British comedic writer, author, video game journalist, humorist, podcaster, and video game developer. He is best known for his video game review series '' Zero Punctuation'', which he pr ...
(namely the ''Chzo Mythos
Benjamin Richard "Yahtzee" Croshaw (born 24 May 1983) is a British comedic writer, author, video game journalist, humorist, podcaster, and video game developer. He is best known for his video game review series '' Zero Punctuation'', which he pr ...
''), ''Ben Jordan: Paranormal Investigator'', ''Time Gentlemen, Please!
''Time Gentlemen, Please!'' is a 1952 British comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Eddie Byrne, Jane Barrett and Raymond Lovell. It was produced by Group 3 Films with funding from the NFFC and distributed by ABPC. It was shot at ...
'', ''Soviet Unterzoegersdorf
Soviet Unterzoegersdorf (german: Sowjet-Unterzögersdorf) is a fictitious country created by the art/technology/theory group monochrom. It is the "last existing appanage republic of the USSR", located inside the Republic of Austria. Unterzöger ...
'', '' Metal Dead'', and AGD Interactive
AGD Interactive (AGDI), LLC. is a non-profit company given a fan license to remake Sierra Entertainment's popular classic adventure games from the 1980s and early 1990s.
History
Founded in 2001 by Britney K. Brimhall and Christopher T. Warren ...
's Sierra adventure remakes. Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
is also a popular tool known for adventures such as '' MOTAS'' and the escape the room
Escape the room, also known as room escape or escape game, is a subgenre of point-and-click adventure game which requires a player to escape from imprisonment by exploiting their surroundings. The room usually consists of a locked door, objects ...
genre entries.
New platforms and rebirth (2005–onward)
Following the demise of the adventure genre in the early 2000s, a number of events have occurred that have led to a revitalization of the adventure game genre as commercially viable: the introduction of new computing and gaming hardware and software delivery formats, and the use of crowdfunding as a means of achieving funding.
The 2000s saw the growth of digital distribution
Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content such as audio, video, e-books, video games, and other s ...
and the arrival of smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
s and tablet computer
A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being com ...
s, with touch-screen interfaces well-suited to point-and-click adventure games. The introduction of larger and more powerful touch screen devices like the iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...
allowed for more detailed graphics, more precise controls, and a better sense of immersion and interactivity compared to personal computer or console versions. In gaming hardware, the handheld Nintendo DS and subsequent units included a touch-screen, and the Nintendo Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...
console with its Wii Remote
The Wii Remote, also known colloquially as the Wiimote, is the primary game controller for Nintendo's Wii home video game console. An essential capability of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact wi ...
allowed players to control a cursor through motion control
Motion control is a sub-field of automation, encompassing the systems or sub-systems involved in moving parts of machines in a controlled manner. Motion control systems are extensively used in a variety of fields for automation purposes, includi ...
. These new platforms helped decrease the cost of bringing an adventure game to market, providing an avenue to re-release older, less graphically advanced games like ''The Secret of Monkey Island'', ''King's Quest'' and ''Space Quest'' and attracting a new audience to adventure games.
Further, the improvements in digital distribution led to the concept of episodic adventure games, delivering between three and five "chapters" of a full game over a course of several months via online storefronts, Steam, Xbox Live Marketplace
Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace) is a digital distribution platform used by Microsoft's Xbox Series X, S, Xbox One and Xbox 360 video game consoles. The service allows users to download or purchase video games (including both ...
, PlayStation Store
The PlayStation Store (PS Store) is a digital media store available to users of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game consoles via the PlayStation Network.
The store offers a range of downloadable conten ...
, and Nintendo eShop. Modeled off the idea of televisions episodes, episodic adventure games break the story into several parts, giving players a chance to digest and discuss the current story with others before the next episode is available, and further can enhance the narrative by creating cliffhangers or other dramatic elements to be resolved in later episodes. The first major successful episodic adventure games were those of Telltale Games
Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...
, a developer founded by former LucasArts employees following the cancellation of ''Sam & Max: Freelance Police''. Telltale found critical success in '' The Walking Dead'' series released in 2012, which won numerous game of the year awards, and eschewed traditional adventure game elements and puzzles for a strong story and character-driven game, forcing the player to make on-the-spot decisions that became determinants and affected not only elements in the current episode but future episodes and sequels. The game also eschewed the typical dialog tree with a more natural language progression, which created a more believable experience. Its success was considered a revitalization of the genre, and led Telltale to produce more licensed games driven by story rather than puzzles. However, Telltale Games suffered from mismanagement and excessive rapid growth from trying to release too many games at the same time, and in mid-2018, had undergone a majority studio closure, laying off most of its staff and selling off most of its assets. By the end of 2018, LCG Entertainment had acquired many of the former Telltale assets and relaunched a new Telltale Games
Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...
to continue its adventure game history. Other former Telltale Games works such as ''The Walking Dead'' fell back to their original IP holders, such as Skybound Entertainment
Skybound Entertainment is an American multiplatform entertainment company founded by Robert Kirkman and David Alpert.
History
Skybound Entertainment is the company behind the long-running comic, '' The Walking Dead'', created by Robert Kirkman. ...
in the case of ''The Walking Dead'', who took over for publishing the games.
Meanwhile, another avenue for adventure game rebirth came from the discovery of the influence of crowdfunding.[ Tim Schafer had founded Double Fine Productions after leaving LucasArts in 2000. He had tried to find funding support for an adventure game, but publishers refused to consider his proposals for fear of the genre being unpopular. In 2012, Schafer turned to Kickstarter to raise $400,000 to develop an adventure game; the month-long campaign ended with over $3.4 million raised, making it, at the time, one of the largest Kickstarter projects, enabling Double Fine to expand the scope of their project and completing the game as '']Broken Age
''Broken Age'' is a point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Double Fine. ''Broken Age'' was game director Tim Schafer's first return to the genre since 1998's ''Grim Fandango'', and was released for Microsoft Windows, ...
'', released over two parts in 2014 and 2015. The success led many other developers to consider the crowd funding approach, including those in the adventure game genre who saw the Double Fine Kickstarter as a sign that players wanted adventure games. Many sequels, remakes, and spiritual successors to classic adventure games emerged on Kickstarter, leading to a significant increase in traditional adventure game development during this time.[ Some of these include:
*'' Armikrog''
*'' Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse''
*'']Dreamfall Chapters
''Dreamfall Chapters'' is an episodic 3D adventure game with emphasis on character interaction, exploration of the game world, and puzzle solving. It is a sequel to the adventure games ''The Longest Journey'' and '' Dreamfall: The Longest Jour ...
''
*''Gabriel Knight
''Gabriel Knight'' is a series of point-and-click adventure games released by Sierra On-Line in the 1990s created by Jane Jensen. The titular character is an author and book store owner in New Orleans who is investigating a strange series of murde ...
''
*'' Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded''
*'' Moebius: Empire Rising''
*''Obduction
Obduction is a geological process whereby denser oceanic crust (and even upper mantle) is scraped off a descending ocean plate at a convergent plate boundary and thrust on top of an adjacent plate. When oceanic and continental plates converge ...
''
*''Sam and Max Save the World
''Sam & Max Save the World'' is a graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games. The game was originally released as ''Sam & Max: Season One'' before being renamed in early 2009. ''Save the World'' was developed in episodic fashion ...
''
*''SpaceVenture
''Space Quest'' is a series of six comic science fiction adventure games released between 1986 and 1995. The games follow the adventures of a hopeless janitor named Roger Wilco, who campaigns through the galaxy for "truth, justice and really c ...
''
*'' Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure''
*''Thimbleweed Park
''Thimbleweed Park'' is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick for Linux, macOS, Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Android, and Amazon Luna. The game was revealed on November 18, 2014, a ...
''
History of Japanese adventure games
Due to differences in computer hardware, language, and culture, development of adventure games took a different course in Japan compared to Western markets. The most popular adventure game subgenres in Japan are visual novel
A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
s and dating sims.
Early computer graphic adventures (1981–1988)
In the early 1980s, computer adventure games began gaining popularity in Japan. The country's computer market was largely dominated by NEC
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...
's 8-bit PC-8801
The , commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan.
The PC-8800 series sold extremely well and became one of the three major Japa ...
(1981) and 16-bit PC-9801
The , commonly shortened to PC-98 or , is a lineup of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 to 2000. The platform established NEC's dominance in the Japanese personal computer market, and, by 1999, more th ...
(1982) platforms, which could display 8 simultaneous colors and had a resolution
Resolution(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate
* Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body
* New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual mak ...
of 640×400, higher than Western computers at the time, in order to accommodate Japanese text. This in turn influenced game design
Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...
, as NEC PCs became known for adventure games with detailed color graphics, which eventually evolved into visual novel
A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
s. NEC soon had several competitors such as the FM-7
The FM-7 ("Fujitsu Micro 7") is a home computer created by Fujitsu. It was first released in 1982 and was sold in Japan and Spain. It is a stripped-down version of Fujitsu's earlier FM-8 computer, and during development it was referred to as th ...
(1982), the AV (1985) version of which could display more than 4,000 colors in addition to featuring FM synthesis
Frequency modulation synthesis (or FM synthesis) is a form of sound synthesis whereby the frequency of a waveform is changed by modulating its frequency with a modulator. The frequency of an oscillator is altered "in accordance with the amplitud ...
sound. Its 16-bit successor, the FM Towns (1989), could display 24-bit color
In computer architecture, 4-bit integers, or other data units are those that are 4 bits wide. Also, 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers, or data buses of that si ...
(16.8 million colors) and featured a CD-ROM drive.[ Reprinted from ]
The most famous early Japanese computer adventure game was the murder mystery game ''The Portopia Serial Murder Case
, often translated to ''The Portopia Serial Murder Case'' in English, is an adventure game designed by Yuji Horii and published by Enix. It was first released on the NEC PC-6001 in June 1983, and has since been ported to other personal computers ...
'', developed by Yūji Horii
(also written as Yuuji Horii; born January 6, 1954) is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing games, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger' ...
(of '' Dragon Quest'' fame) and published by Enix. Its development began in 1981, and was released in 1983. The game was viewed in a first-person perspective
A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...
, followed a first-person narrative
A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-telle ...
, and featured color graphics. Originally released for the PC-6001
The NEC PC-6000 series is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced in November 1981 by NEC Home Electronics. There are several models in this series, such as the PC-6001, the PC-6001 MK2 and the PC-6001 MK2 SR. There is also an American versio ...
, the player interacts with the game using a verb-noun parser
Parsing, syntax analysis, or syntactic analysis is the process of analyzing a string of symbols, either in natural language, computer languages or data structures, conforming to the rules of a formal grammar. The term ''parsing'' comes from Lat ...
which requires typing precise commands with the keyboard; finding the exact words to type is considered part of the riddles that must be solved.
Translation
The game was non-linear, which includes exploring an open world, a branching dialogue conversation system where the story develops through entering commands and receiving responses from other characters, and making choices that determine the dialogues and order of events as well as alternative endings. It also features a phone that could be used to dial any number to contact several non-player characters.[ Reprinted at ] The game was well received in Japan for its well-told storyline and surprising twist ending
Twist may refer to:
In arts and entertainment Film, television, and stage
* ''Twist'' (2003 film), a 2003 independent film loosely based on Charles Dickens's novel ''Oliver Twist''
* ''Twist'' (2021 film), a 2021 modern rendition of ''Olive ...
, and for allowing multiple ways to achieve objectives.[ Reprinted from ] Hideo Kojima praised the game for its mystery, drama, humor, 3D dungeons
A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...
, for providing a proper background and explanation behind the murderer's motives, and expanding the potential of video games.[ The game has also been compared to the later-released '']Shadowgate
''Shadowgate'' is a black-and-white 1987 point-and-click adventure video game originally for the Apple Macintosh in the MacVenture series. The game is named for its setting, Castle Shadowgate, residence of the evil Warlock Lord. The player, as t ...
'' where the player must examine and collect objects
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ...
, and find their true purpose later on. According to Square Enix, ''Portopia'' was "the first real detective adventure" game.[Portopia](_blank)
Translation
, Square Enix
Japan's first domestic computer adventure games to be released were ASCII
ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because ...
's ' (表参道アドベンチャー) and ''Minami Aoyama Adventure'' (南青山アドベンチャー), released for the PC-9801 in 1982. Another early Japanese adventure that same year was MicroCabin
, sometimes written as Micro Cabin, is a Japan-based video game developer and publisher incorporated in 1982, which grew from the Ōyachi Electrics Microcomputer Club.
Known for their ''Xak'' series and its spinoff ''Fray in Magical Adventure'', ...
's ''Mystery House'', which was unrelated to (but inspired by) the On-Line Systems game of the same name. MicroCabin released a sequel, ''Mystery House II'', for the MSX that same year. The following year, the Japanese company Starcraft released an enhanced remake of On-Line Systems' ''Mystery House'' with more realistic art work and depiction of blood.
Due to a lack of content restrictions, some of Japan's earliest adventure games were also bishoujo games with ''eroge
An ''eroge'' ( or , ''erogē''; ; a portmanteau of ''erotic game'' , ''erochikku gēmu'') is a Japanese genre of erotic video game. In 1982, Japan's Koei, founded by husband-and-wife team Yoichi and Keiko Erikawa (and later known for strate ...
'' content.[ In 1982, Koei released '']Night Life
Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...
'', the first commercial erotic computer game.[ It was a ]graphic adventure
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
,[ with sexually explicit images.][ That same year, they released another ''eroge'' title, ''Danchi Tsuma no Yuwaku'' (''Seduction of the Condominium Wife''), which was an early adventure game with color graphics, owing to the eight-color palette of the NEC PC-8001 computer,] and role-playing video game elements. It became a hit, helping Koei become a major software company.[ Other now-famous companies such as ]Enix
was a Japanese video game publisher that produced video games, anime and manga. Enix is known for publishing the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing video games.
The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975, as . Th ...
, Square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...
and Nihon Falcom
is a Japanese video game developer, best known for their '' Ys'', ''The Legend of Heroes'', and ''Trails'' series. The company was founded in March 1981, making them one of the oldest active video game companies. They are credited with pioneeri ...
also produced similar ''eroge'' in the early 1980s before they became famous for their mainstream role-playing games. In some of their early ''eroge'', the adult content is meaningfully integrated into a thoughtful and mature storyline, though others often used it as a flimsy excuse for pornography.[
The command selection ]menu
In a restaurant, the menu is a list of food and beverages offered to customers and the prices. A menu may be à la carte – which presents a list of options from which customers choose – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established seque ...
input system, where the player chooses from a menu list of commands either through keyboard shortcut
computing, a keyboard shortcut also known as hotkey is a series of one or several keys to quickly invoke a software program or perform a preprogrammed action. This action may be part of the standard functionality of the operating system or ...
s or scrolling down the menu, was introduced in 1983, and it largely replaced the verb-noun parser input method. The earliest known title to use the command selection menu system was the Japanese adventure game ''Spy 007'' (スパイ00.7), published in April 1983, and it was followed soon after by several other Japanese adventure games in 1983. These included the ''eroge'' title ''Joshiryo Panic
Enix was a Japanese video game publishing company founded in September 1975 by Yasuhiro Fukushima. Initially a tabloid publisher named Eidansha Boshu Service Center, in 1982 it ventured into video game publishing for Japanese home computers such ...
'', authored by Tadashi Makimura and published by Enix for the FM-7 in June and slightly earlier for the FM-8
The FM-8 (Fujitsu Micro 8) is a personal computer developed and manufactured by Fujitsu in May 1981. It was Fujitsu's second microcomputer released to the public after the LKIT-8 kit computer, and the first in the "FM" series. The FM-8 was an e ...
; ''Atami Onsen Adventure'' (熱海温泉アドベンチャー), released by Basic System (ベーシックシステム) in July for the FM-7 and slightly earlier for the PC-8001; ''Planet Mephius'', released in July; and ''Tri-Dantal'' (トリダンタル), authored by Y. Takeshita and published by Pax Softnica for the FM-7 in August.
Translation
The game that popularized the command selection system was the 1984 adventure game '' Okhotsk ni Kiyu: Hokkaido Rensa Satsujin Jiken'' (''Okhotsk ni Kiyu: Hokkaido Chain Murders''), designed by Yuji Horii (his second mystery adventure game after ''Portopia'') and published by ASCII for the PC-8801 and PC-9801. Its replacement of the traditional verb-noun text parser interface with the command selection menu system led to the latter becoming a staple of adventure games as well as role-playing games (through Horii's 1986 hit '' Dragon Quest'' in the latter case).
In 1985, Square's '' Will: The Death Trap II'' was one of the first animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
computer games.
A notable 1987 adventure game was Arsys Software's '' Reviver: The Real-Time Adventure'', which introduced a real-time
Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...
persistent world
A persistent world or persistent state world (PSW) is a virtual world which, by the definition by Richard Bartle, "continues to exist and develop internally even when there are no people interacting with it". The first virtual worlds were text-ba ...
, where time continues to elapse, day-night cycles adjust the brightness of the screen to indicate the time of day, and certain stores and non-player characters would only be available at certain times of the day. The game also gives players direct control over the player character.[Alt URL]
/ref>
In 1987, Jiro Ishii (later known for '' 428: Shibuya Scramble'' and ''Time Travelers
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to co ...
'') released ''Imitation City'', an adventure game with a similar cyberpunk theme to Kojima's later hit '' Snatcher''.
Hideo Kojima (of ''Metal Gear
is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operativ ...
'' fame) was inspired by ''Portopia'' to enter the video game industry, and produce his own adventure games. After completing the stealth game
A stealth game is a type of video game in which the player primarily uses ''stealth'' to avoid or overcome opponents. Games in the genre typically allow the player to remain undetected by hiding, sneaking, or using disguises. Some games allow th ...
''Metal Gear
is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces operativ ...
'', his first graphic adventure was released by Konami
, is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has casino ...
the following year: '' Snatcher'' (1988), an ambitious cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and c ...
detective novel graphic adventure that was highly regarded at the time for pushing the boundaries of video game storytelling, cinematic cut scene
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...
s, and mature content.[Retroactive: Kojima's Productions]
, 1UP
In video games, a life is a play-turn that a player character has, defined as the period between start and end of play. Lives refer to a finite number of tries before the game ends with a game over. It is sometimes called a chance, a try, rest ...
It also featured a post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...
science fiction setting, an amnesiac protagonist, and some light gun shooter
Light gun shooter, also called light gun game or simply gun game, is a shooter video game genre in which the primary design element is to simulate a shooting gallery by having the player aiming and discharging a gun-shaped controller at a sc ...
segments. It was praised for its graphics, soundtrack, high quality writing comparable to a novel, voice acting comparable to a film or radio drama, and in-game computer database with optional documents that flesh out the game world.[Kurt Kalata]
Snatcher
, Hardcore Gaming 101
Interactive movie arcade games (1983–1985)
Interactive movie
Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but m ...
games are considered a subgenre of adventure games. This subgenre has origins in Japanese interactive movie arcade games.
The first interactive movie laserdisc video game
An interactive film is a video game or other interactive media that has characteristics of a cinematic film. In the video game industry, the term refers to a movie game, a video game that presents its gameplay in a cinematic, scripted manner, ...
was Sega's '' Astron Belt'', unveiled in 1982 and released in 1983, though it was more of a shooter game
Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...
presented as an action movie using full motion video. A more story-driven interactive movie game was ''Bega's Battle
is a Japanese science fiction manga and novel franchise that began in 1967. It was a collaboration in ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' by science fiction writer Kazumasa Hirai and manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. It was adapted into a 1983 a ...
'', released in 1983, which combined shooting stages with interactive anime
is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
cutscene
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward th ...
s, where player input had an effect on the game's branching storyline. ''Time Gal
is an interactive movie video game developed and published by Taito and Toei Company, and originally released as a laserdisc game in Japan for the arcades in 1985. It is an action game which uses full motion video (FMV) to display the on-scre ...
'' (1985), in addition to featuring quick time events, added a time-stopping feature where specific moments in the game involve Reika stopping time; during these moments, players are presented with a list of three options and have seven seconds to choose one.
Early point-and-click adventures (1983–1995)
A notable adventure game released in 1983 was ''Planet Mephius'', authored by Eiji Yokoyama and published by T&E Soft
was a Japanese-based video game developer founded in 1982. Although they have made games with a wide variety of genres, they are primarily known in the U.S. for their golf and puzzle video games.
The original company exists today under the name ...
for the FM-7 in July 1983. In addition to being one of the earliest titles to use a command menu system, its key innovation was the introduction of a point-and-click
Point and click are the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse, usually the left button (''click''), or other pointing device. An example of point and ...
interface to the genre, utilizing a cursor
Cursor may refer to:
* Cursor (user interface), an indicator used to show the current position for user interaction on a computer monitor or other display device
* Cursor (databases), a control structure that enables traversal over the records in ...
to interact with objects displayed on the screen.
Translation
A similar point-and-click cursor interface was later used in the adventure game ''Wingman
A wingman (or wingmate) is a pilot or UAV who supports another pilot in a potentially dangerous flying environment. ''Wingman'' was originally the plane flying beside and slightly behind the lead plane in an aircraft formation.
According to t ...
'',
Translation
released for the PC-8801 in 1984.
The NES
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
version of ''Portopia Serial Murder Case'' was released in 1985 and became a major hit in Japan, where it sold over 700,000 copies. With no keyboard, the NES version, developed by Chunsoft, replaced the verb-noun parser of the original with a command selection menu list, which included fourteen set commands selectable with the gamepad
A gamepad is a type of video game controller held in two hands, where the fingers (especially thumbs) are used to provide input. They are typically the main input device for video game consoles.
Features
Gamepads generally feature a set o ...
. It also featured a cursor that can be moved on the screen using the D-pad
A D-pad (short for directional pad or digital pad; officially referred to by Nintendo as a +Control Pad) is a flat, usually thumb-operated, often digital, four-way directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern vid ...
to look for clues and hotspots
Hotspot, Hot Spot or Hot spot may refer to:
Places
* Hot Spot, Kentucky, a community in the United States
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* Hot Spot (comics), a name for the DC Comics character Isaiah Crockett
* Hot Spot (Tr ...
, like a point-and-click interface. Horii's second adventure game ''Hokkaido Chain Murders'' was later also ported to the NES in 1987. Yuji Horii's third mystery adventure game '' Karuizawa Yūkai Annai'' (''The Karuizawa Kidnapping Guide'') was released for the PC-8801 in early 1985 and for the FM-7 in June that same year. It utilized the command menu system and point-and-click cursor interface of both ''Portopia Serial Murder Case'' and ''Hokkaido Chain Murders'', in addition to introducing its own innovation: an overhead map. This gave the player direct control over the player character, who can be moved around in a top-down view
A variety of Computer graphics, computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to Graphics hardware, ...
to explore the area.
In 1986, Square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...
released the science fiction adventure game ''Suishō no Dragon
is a text-based adventure video game developed and published by Square for the Family Computer Disk System in Japan in 1986.
Gameplay
The game plays as a command-style adventure game. The game's interface resembles that of a point-and-click grap ...
'' for the NES console. The game featured several innovations, including the use of animation in many of the scenes rather than still images,
Translation
and an interface resembling that of a point-and-click interface for a console, like ''Portopia'', but making use of visual icons rather than text-based ones to represent various actions. Like the NES version of ''Portopia'', it featured a cursor that could be moved around the screen using the D-pad to examine the scenery, though the cursor in ''Suishō no Dragon'' was also used to click on the action icons.
That same year saw the release of ''J.B. Harold Murder Club
''J.B. Harold Murder Club'', known as ''J.B. Harold no Jikenbo #1: Murder Club'' in Japan, is a 1986 murder mystery adventure game, developed by Riverhillsoft and released for the NEC PC-9801, NEC PC-98, MSX, MS-DOS, NEC TurboGrafx-CD (TurboDuo) ...
'', a point-and-click graphic adventure, for the PC-98
The , commonly shortened to PC-98 or , is a lineup of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 to 2000. The platform established NEC's dominance in the Japanese personal computer market, and, by 1999, more th ...
. It featured character interaction as the major gameplay element and has a similar type of multiple phrase response to more recent titles such as the adventures ''Shenmue
is an action-adventure game series created, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki. '' Shenmue'' (1999) and ''Shenmue II'' (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for Dreamcast. '' Shenmue III,'' developed by Suzuki's company Y ...
'' and '' Shadow of Memories'' as well as the role-playing game '' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic''. The TurboGrafx-CD
The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, thou ...
port of ''J.B. Harold Murder Club'' was one of the first Japanese adventure games released in the United States. The ''J.B. Harold'' series went on to sell 20 million copies on various platforms as of 2011.
Haruhiko Shono
is a Japanese computer graphics artist for films as well as a video game director. He has served as director for numerous computer games and has provided CG work for motion pictures with , where he serves as corporate representative. He is best k ...
's adventure games '' Alice: An Interactive Museum'' (1991), ''L-Zone'' (1992) and '' Gadget: Invention, Travel, & Adventure'' (1993) used pre-rendered
Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputting or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of footage that was previously rendered on different equipment (typic ...
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for t ...
, predating ''Myst''. The plot of ''Gadget'' also anticipated the films '' Dark City'' (1998) and ''The Matrix
''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in ''The Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantolia ...
'' (1999), and influenced filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. '' Cosmology of Kyoto'' (1993) is a nonlinear
In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many othe ...
adventure game that emphasizes open world exploration in a large city.
Following '' Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake'', Kojima produced his next graphic adventure, ''Policenauts
is a graphic adventure game developed and published by Konami. It was written and directed by Hideo Kojima, and originally released for the PC-9821 in 1994. A hard science fiction story, ''Policenauts'' is set in the mid 21st century and follo ...
'' (1994), a point-and-click adventure notable for being an early example of extensive voice recording in video games. It also featured a hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell's ''Islands of Space'' in the Novemb ...
setting, a theme revolving around space exploration, a plot inspired by the ancient Japanese tale of ''Urashima Taro Urashima may refer to:
*Urashima Tarō
is the protagonist of a Japanese fairy tale (''otogi banashi''), who in a typical modern version is a fisherman rewarded for rescuing a turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace (Ryūgū-jō) b ...
'', and some occasional full-motion video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information durin ...
cut scenes. The gameplay was largely similar to ''Snatcher'', but with the addition of a point-and-click interface and some first-person shooter
First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...
segments. ''Policenauts'' also introduced summary screens, which act to refresh the player's memory of the plot upon reloading a save, an element Kojima later used in ''Metal Gear Solid
is a series of techno-thriller stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Konami, the first game, ''Metal Gear'', was released in 1987 for MSX home computers. The player often takes control of a special forces opera ...
''.[Kurt Kalata]
Policenauts
, Hardcore Gaming 101
In 1995, Human Entertainment
was a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded in 1983. The company produced games for a number of platforms, including home consoles, portable consoles, and personal computers. Human declared bankruptcy in 2000 and disbanded. Its for ...
's '' Clock Tower: The First Fear'' for the SNES console was a hybrid between a point-and-click graphic adventure and a survival horror
Survival horror is a subgenre of survival of the players as the game tries to frighten them with either horror graphics or scary ambience. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical ac ...
game, revolving around survival against a deadly stalker known as Scissorman
is a survival horror point-and-click adventure video game series created by Hifumi Kono. The series includes four games in total. The first entry, '' Clock Tower'' (1995), was developed by Human Entertainment and released on the Super Famicom i ...
that chased players throughout the game.
Early console adventures (1985–1996)
Following the NES version of ''Portopia'' in 1985, and ''Suishō no Dragon'' in 1986, more adventure games followed on consoles from 1987.
Sega's '' Anmitsu Hime: From Amakara Castle'', released in 1987, was an adventure game with some platform game
A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...
segments. The adventure game segments were puzzle-oriented and played in a side-scrolling view where the player has direct control over the character. Originally based on the ''Anmitsu Hime
Anmitsu (, rarely ) is a Japanese dessert that dates to the Meiji era.
It is made of small cubes of agar jelly, a white translucent jelly made from red algae. The agar is dissolved with water (or fruit juice such as apple juice) to make the jell ...
'' anime, an edited version based on ''Alex Kidd
is a platform video game series developed by Sega, and starring the titular Alex Kidd.
Games
The franchise includes seven titles.
* ''Alex Kidd in Miracle World'' - 1986, Master System
* '' Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars'' - 1986, Arcade, 1988 ...
'' was later released in 1989 as ''Alex Kidd in High-Tech World''. ''The Goonies II
is an adventure game developed and published by Konami for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released on in Japan, November 1987 in North America, and on in Europe. It is a sequel to a prior '' Goonies'' video game released on the Fam ...
'', also released in 1987, was a first-person adventure game with some side-scrolling action game segments. The game featured a non-linear open world environment similar to '' Metroid''.
The 1994 Sega CD
The Sega CD, released as the in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. It was released on December 12, 1991, in Japan ...
version of ''Snatcher'' was for a long time the only major visual novel game to be released in America, where it, despite a Mature rating limiting its accessibility,[ gained a cult following.][
The 1996 PlayStation version of ''Policenauts'' could read the memory card and give some ]easter egg
Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tr ...
dialogues if a save file of Konami's dating sim ''Tokimeki Memorial
is a dating simulation series by Konami. It consists of six main games in addition to many spin-offs. The games are notable in the dating sim genre for being highly nonlinear. Their nickname amongst their fans is the contraction ''TokiMemo''.
...
'' is present, a technique Kojima later used in ''Metal Gear Solid''.[
]
Visual novels (1990–present)
A distinct form of Japanese adventure game that eventually emerged is the visual novel
A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
, a genre that was largely rooted in ''Portopia Serial Murder Case'', but gradually became more streamlined and uses many conventions that are distinct from Western adventures. They are almost universally first-person, and driven primarily by dialog. They also tend to use menu-based interactions and navigation, with point and click implementations that are quite different from Western adventure games. Inventory-based puzzles of the sort that form the basis of classic Western adventures, are quite rare. Logic puzzles like those found in ''Myst
''Myst'' is a graphic adventure/puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Broderbund, and initially released for the Macintosh in 1993. In the game, the player's charact ...
'' are likewise unusual. Because of this, Japanese visual novels tend to be streamlined, and often quite easy, relying more on storytelling than challenge to keep players interested.[
''Mirrors'', released by Soft Studio Wing for the PC-8801 and FM Towns computers in 1990, featured a branching narrative, ]multiple endings
A narrative typically ends in one set way, but certain kinds of narrative allow for multiple endings.
Comics
* ''The Death-Ray'' by Daniel Clowes.
* '' Cliff Hanger''.
Literature
* The ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' series.
* ''Fighting Fantas ...
, and audio CD
Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the ''Red Book'', one of a series of Rainbow Books (named ...
music.
From the early 1990s, Chunsoft, the developer for the NES version of ''Portopia'', began producing a series of acclaimed visual novels known as the '' Sound Novels'' series, which include '' Otogirisō'' (1992), ''Kamaitachi no Yoru
, released in English as ''Banshee's Last Cry'', is a visual novel created by Chunsoft. It was first released for Super Famicom (the Japanese version of the Super NES) and was later ported to other consoles. An English localized version of the ...
'' (1994), '' Machi'' (1998), '' 428: Shibuya Scramble'' (2008), and '' 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors'' (2010).
C's Ware's '' EVE Burst Error'' (1995) allowed the player to switch between both protagonists at any time during the game. ''EVE Burst Error'' often requires the player to have both protagonists co-operate with each other at various points during the game, with choices in one scenario affecting the other.
ELF
An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...
's '' YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world'' (1996) featured a science fiction plot revolving around time travel
Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...
and parallel universes. The player travels between parallel worlds using a Reflector device, which employs a limited number of stones to mark a certain position as a returning location, so that if the player decides to retrace their steps, they can go to an alternate universe to the time they have used a Reflector stone. The game also implemented an original system called ADMS, or Automatic Diverge Mapping System, which displays a screen that the player can check at any time to see the direction in which they are heading along the branching plot lines.
From 1997 to 1999, Kojima developed the three '' Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series'' titles, which were adaptations of ''Tokimeki Memorial'' in a visual novel adventure game format.
Chunsoft sound novels such as '' Machi'' (1998) and '' 428: Shibuya Scramble'' (2008) allow the player to alternate between the perspectives of several or more different characters, making choices with one character that have consequences for other characters. ''428'' in particular features up to 85 different possible endings.
3D adventure games (1993–present)
From the 1990s, a number of Japanese adventure games began using a 3D third-person direct control format, particularly on consoles like the PlayStation, Dreamcast
The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nint ...
and PlayStation 2. Examples include '' The Life Stage: Virtual House'' (1993), Human Entertainment
was a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded in 1983. The company produced games for a number of platforms, including home consoles, portable consoles, and personal computers. Human declared bankruptcy in 2000 and disbanded. Its for ...
's '' Mizzurna Falls'' (1998), Sega's ''Shenmue
is an action-adventure game series created, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki. '' Shenmue'' (1999) and ''Shenmue II'' (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for Dreamcast. '' Shenmue III,'' developed by Suzuki's company Y ...
'' series (1999–2002), Konami
, is a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machines, slot machines, and arcade cabinets. Konami has casino ...
's '' Shadow of Memories'' (2001), and Irem
is a Japanese video game console developer and publisher, and formerly a developer and manufacturer of arcade games as well. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo.
The full name of the company that uses the brand is Irem Softwa ...
's ''Disaster Report
''Disaster Report'', known in Japan as and in the PAL region as ''SOS: The Final Escape'', is a PlayStation 2 survival action-adventure video game created by Irem. It was released in Japan in 2002 by Irem, and in North America and Europe in 2003, ...
'' series (2002–2009). Cing's ''Glass Rose
is a point-and-click adventure psychological horror video game developed by Cing and Capcom's Production Studio 3 and published by Capcom for the PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan on November 6, 2003 and later in Europe on March 26, 200 ...
'' (2003) for the PS2 uses a point-and-click interface with 3D graphics.
The success of ''Resident Evil
''Resident Evil'', known in Japan as is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments ...
'' in 1996 was followed by the release of the survival horror graphic adventures '' Clock Tower (Clock Tower 2)'' and '' Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within'' for the PlayStation. The ''Clock Tower'' games proved to be hits, capitalizing on the success of ''Resident Evil'', though both games stayed true to the graphic-adventure gameplay of the original ''Clock Tower'' rather than following the lead of ''Resident Evil''.
Sega's ambitious ''Shenmue
is an action-adventure game series created, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki. '' Shenmue'' (1999) and ''Shenmue II'' (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for Dreamcast. '' Shenmue III,'' developed by Suzuki's company Y ...
'' (1999) attempted to redefine the adventure game genre with its realistic 3D graphics, third-person perspective
Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...
, direct character control interface, sandbox open-world gameplay, quick time events, and fighting game elements. Its creator Yu Suzuki
is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, who headed Sega's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimen ...
originally touted it as a new kind of adventure game, "FREE" ("Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment"), offering an unparalleled level of player freedom, giving them full reign to explore expansive interactive city environments with its own day-night cycles and changing weather, and interact with fully voiced non-player characters going about their daily routines. Despite being a commercial failure, the game was critically acclaimed and has remained influential.[
]
Global expansion (2000–present)
In recent years, Japanese visual novel games have been released in the West more frequently, particularly on the Nintendo DS handheld following the success of mystery-solving titles such as Capcom's ''Ace Attorney
''Ace Attorney'' is a series of visual novel adventure video games developed by Capcom. With storytelling fashioned after legal dramas, the first entry in the series, '' Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney'', was released in 2001; since then, five ...
'' series (which began on the Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...
in 2001), Cing's '' Hotel Dusk'' series (beginning in 2006),[ and Level-5's '']Professor Layton
''Professor Layton'' is a puzzle adventure video game series and transmedia franchise developed by Level-5. The property consists primarily of seven main video games, a mobile spin-off, an animated theatrical film, and an anime television serie ...
'' series (beginning in 2007).[ English ]fan translation
Fan translation (or user-generated translation) refers to the unofficial translation of various forms of written or multimedia products made by fans (fan labor), often into a language in which an official translated version is not yet available ...
s of visual novels such as Square's ''Radical Dreamers
''Radical Dreamers'' is a 1996 text-based visual novel adventure video game developed and published by Square for the Satellaview, a satellite peripheral for the Super Famicom. It forms part of the ''Chrono'' series, acting as a side story to ...
'' (a 1996 side story
In fiction, a subplot is a secondary strand of the plot that is a supporting side story for any story or for the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or thematic significance. Subplots often involve supporting ...
to the ''Chrono'' series of role-playing video games) and Key's ''Clannad
Clannad () is an Irish band formed in 1970 in Gweedore, County Donegal by siblings Ciarán, Pól, and Moya Brennan and their twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Duggan. They have adopted various musical styles throughout their history, including ...
'' (2004) have also been made available in recent years.
The Nintendo DS in particular helped spark a resurgence in the genre's popularity through the introduction of otherwise unknown Japanese adventure games, typically visual novel
A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
s localized for Western audiences.[ In 2005, Capcom re-released the courtroom-based visual novel game '' Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney'', originally a 2001 ]Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...
game released only in Japan, for the Nintendo DS in both Asian and Western markets.[ The game and its ]sequels
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
proved popular with Western audiences, and are credited for revitalizing the adventure game genre. Following on ''Ace Attorney''s success, Level-5 and Nintendo published the ''Professor Layton
''Professor Layton'' is a puzzle adventure video game series and transmedia franchise developed by Level-5. The property consists primarily of seven main video games, a mobile spin-off, an animated theatrical film, and an anime television serie ...
'' series worldwide starting in 2007. Both have since become some of the best-selling adventure game franchises, with ''Ace Attorney'' selling more than 4 million units worldwide and ''Professor Layton'' selling nearly 12 million units worldwide. Other successful Japanese adventure games for the DS in Western markets include Cing's '' Another Code: Two Memories'' (2005) and '' Hotel Dusk: Room 215'' (2006).[Gameplay of the Week – Two new engaging DS adventures hit the spot](_blank)
''The Olympian
''The Olympian'' is a newspaper based in Olympia, Washington, in the United States.
History
Olympia was home to the first newspaper to be published in modern-day Washington, ''The Columbian'', which published its first edition on September 11, ...
Archived
from the original on January 26, 2016 on the Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...
.''[ and Chunsoft's ''Zero Escape'' series, which includes '']Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
''Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors'' is a visual novel and adventure video game developed by Chunsoft. It is the first installment in the ''Zero Escape'' series, and was released in Japan in December 2009 and in North America in November 2 ...
'' and '' Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward''.
Online distribution has also helped lower the costs of bringing niche Japanese titles to consumers, which has enabled another outlet for visual novels and dating sims to be localized and released for Western markets. Localization and distribution can be performed by small teams, removing financial barriers to bringing these games, often released as dōjin soft or hobbyist titles, to Western countries. A noted example of this is ''Hatoful Boyfriend
is a Japanese dōjin soft otome visual novel released in 2011 for Microsoft Windows and OS X, in which all the characters other than the protagonist are sentient birds. It was developed by manga artist Hato Moa's dōjin circle PigeoNation Inc. ...
'', a comedy dating sim in which the player attempts to date pigeons in a high school setting. The game was originally released in Japan in 2011, but received significant attention on its remake and localization in 2014, in part due to its humorous concept, and its distribution was supported by Western publisher Devolver Digital
Devolver Digital, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Austin, Texas, specializing in the publishing of indie games. The company was founded in June 2009 by Nigel Lowrie, Harry Miller, Graeme Struthers, Rick Stults, and Mike Wilso ...
.
Emulation and virtual machines
Most text adventure games are readily accessible on modern computers due to the use of a small number of standard virtual machine
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/ emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized h ...
s (such as the Z engine) used to drive these games at their original release which have been recreated in more portable versions. A popular text adventure interpreter is Frotz, which can play all the old Infocom text adventures. Some modern text adventure games can even be played on very old computer systems. Text adventure games are also suitable for personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant (PDA), also known as a handheld PC, is a variety mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. PDAs have been mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of highly capable smartphones, in part ...
s, because they have very small computer system requirements. Other text adventure games are fully playable via web browser
A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...
s.
On the other hand, many graphical adventure games cannot run on modern operating systems. Early adventure games were developed for home computers that are not in use today. Emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use pe ...
s and virtual machines are available for modern computers that allow these old games to be played on the latest operating systems, though players must have access to the game's assets themselves to legally play them. One open-source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
project called ScummVM
Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion Virtual Machine (ScummVM) is a set of game engine recreations. Originally designed to play LucasArts adventure games that use the SCUMM system, it also supports a variety of non-SCUMM games by companies ...
provides a free engine for the LucasArts adventure games, the SCUMM-derived engine for Humongous Entertainment adventure games, early Sierra titles, Revolution Software 2D adventures, Coktel Vision
Coktel Vision (also known as Coktel and Coktel Studio) was a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. It was best known for its educational and adventure games.
History
Coktel Vision was founded in 1984 by Roland Oskian, ...
adventure games and a few more assorted 2D adventures. ResidualVM
Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion Virtual Machine (ScummVM) is a set of game engine recreations. Originally designed to play LucasArts adventure games that use the SCUMM system, it also supports a variety of non-SCUMM games by companies ...
is a sister project to ScummVM, aimed to emulate 3D-based adventure games such as ''Grim Fandango'' and ''Myst III: Exile''. Another called VDMSound
VDMSound was an open-source (licensed under GPLv2) emulator of legacy sound card devices, designed to allow video games and other applications written for MS-DOS to run on the Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP/95/98/Me operating systems. Its author is ...
can emulate the old sound-cards which many of the games require.
One of the most popular emulators, DOSBox, is designed to emulate an IBM PC compatible computer running DOS, the native operating system of most older adventure games.[ Many companies, like Sierra Entertainment, have included DOSBox in their rereleases of older titles.
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See also
* 4D film
* Adventure Gamers, website dedicated to the adventure game genre
* Cybertext
* ''Get Lamp'', a documentary on interactive fiction
* Interactive fiction
* List of graphic adventure games
* List of text-based computer games
* MUD
* Roguelike
* Visual novel, a Japanese style of adventure games
References
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External links
SCI Programming Community
community based on making adventure games using Sierra's Creative Interpreter
IFReviews Organization
repository for text adventure game reviews written and rated by Interactive Fiction community players and members
"Creating Adventure Games on Your Computer"
a 1983 programming manual by Tim Hartnell
Fighter Boys Adventure game
–Fighter Boys Adventure game
"Defining the ideal adventure game"
article by David Tanguay (1999)
"Searching under the rug"
an article on adventure game puzzles and interfaces
Adventureland
database of adventure games
GameBoomers
walkthroughs, reviews, and info on Adventure games
Fantasy Adventures
classic adventure computer game museum
GET LAMP: The Text Adventure Documentary
. Google Tech Talk 7 March 2011. 2hour documentary.
AP forums
Helpful community of Adventure game enthusiasts. Reviews. Previews.
GameStylus
– Freely available editor and engine for Adventure games (for Android)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adventure Game
Adventure games,
Video game genres
Video game terminology