The Rise and Fall of Graphic Adventure Games

The Opposable Thumbs blog has a detailed retrospective on almost three decades of history in the graphic adventure genre. While this type of game has fallen from favor in recent times, many classic titles made indelible marks on the memories and preferences of an entire generation of gamers. If you played video games in the '80s and '90s, you'll probably see something you recognize. Quoting: "In its sometimes-turbulent thirty-year history, the graphic-adventure genre has driven technology adoption, ridden at both the crest and trough of the graphics and audio waves, touched the lives of millions of people, and shaped the rise (and, in some cases, fall) of several big-name people and companies in the gaming industry. It's a genre that has often been held back by its own insularity, suffering from an unwillingness to adapt to changing market conditions or to further push the boundaries of interactivity. Adventure games certainly did these things, but the efforts to truly innovate seemed to peak in the mid-'90s, before rapidly falling off—with only a few exceptions. The improving fortunes of adventure game developers in recent years may at least in part be attributable to their efforts to innovate—Telltale with the episodic structure, Quantic Dream with a new control system (for better or worse), and Japanese developers such as Cing with Nintendo DS titles that introduce elements from visual novels.

Re:Phoenix Wright doesn't count?

[rainmouse]

Just because the adventure games being currently produced are not the focus of the AAA developers does not mean a decline. My partner and her friends sit and play a seemingly endless stream of very creative looking new adventure games produced by indie developers and sold on steam. I'd recommend anyone to check them out and they are usually very cheap to buy.

Also worth noting about the article is that on each of the 6 pages there are up to 4 separate web tracking networks sending my blocking software haywire.

Ideal for Mobile Gaming

[bhunachchicken]

You know, I'd have thought that graphical adventure games would've found a new lease of life on touch-screen mobile phones.

The interface is ideal, almost on-par with a mouse: tap to click... er... and that's about it (no right click, though).

Games like Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky, etc., would be very easy to play on them, far easier than most arcade-style games. The ability to save at virtually any time would also make them perfect for the nature of the phones. How many people do you see tinkering with them on their daily commute? Play for 20 or 30 minutes. Save, continue tomorrow or after work.

I know that ScummVM is available for Android, but it's rather strange that there aren't more commercial point-and-click adventure games available.

(note: I neither own an iPhone or an Android phone)

Genre very much alive

[multimediavt]

Is it me or did the author of that blog, and most commentors so far here, miss the mark entirely? So, games like Grand Theft Auto, Uncharted, Infamous, etc., etc. don't count? Bunk! The graphic adventure game is quite alive and well, it has just evolved. I remember playing Myst and a bunch of others over the years and if the technology and expertise had been affordable/existed then, those games would have looked like GTA or Uncharted.