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Adventure games have seen a bit of a renaissance with the rise in indie publishers. Take a look at Telltale Games' and Double Fine Productions' offerings. Of co

Adventure games have seen a bit of a renaissance with the rise in indie publishers. Take a look at Telltale Games' and Double Fine Productions' offerings. Of course, these two publishers have former LucasArts developers....

prawks 12y ago
Indeed, they've received very positive critical reception. Having played a handful of them, they're very well produced and pretty decently written as well. The genre is definitely not gone, just not in the mainstream.
Osmium 12y ago
Double Fine Productions is definitely worth checking out. They've recently released Broken Age, a successfully-kickstarted effort. Act I is out now and is absolutely wonderful (in my personal opinion), with Act II still in development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Age For those not in the know, Double Fine Productions was founded by Tim Schafer, who is ex-LucasArts and was lead on Grim Fandango and heavily involved in the Monkey Island series too.
- bentcorner 12y ago
  I just finished Act I last night. Amazing game, and regrettably (although understandably) too short. It's been years since I've played a good adventure game, and Broken Age definitely scratched that itch. I played the latter half of Shay's storyline with my daughter (she was amused by the teleporter's side effects), we're going to replay Vella's storyline since she missed that part.
  - valvar 12y ago
    I found Broken Age to be terrible. Visually it was not too bad, but the great puzzles and whacky humour were almost entirely gone. A small fraction remained, but definitely not enough to motivate the price - especially when considering the length. A game that did manage to get it almost entirely right, though (not extremely visually appealing when compared to 2d art, but still decent), is The Book of Unwritten Tales (and also its prequel, though I did not like it quite as much). Oh, and there is actually a ton of fantastic, and free, adventure games made by amateurs over here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/ http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/ People don't talk about the games made by the AGS community too much, and they keep a lot to themselves, which is a pity, because there are some true gems there.
    - Chattered 12y ago
      http://www.sizefivegames.com/games/ben-there-dan-that/ http://www.sizefivegames.com/games/ben-there-dan-that/ It's an extremely self-referential parody of adventure games, made by guys who clearly love the genre. I found it a lot of fun.
- ekianjo 12y ago
  > For those not in the know, Double Fine Productions was founded by Tim Schafer, who is ex-LucasArts and was lead on Grim Fandango and heavily involved in the Monkey Island series too. Ron Gilbert was also involved in Broken Age, as far as I know.
  - jlees 12y ago
    I don't think Ron was involved much on Broken Age. He's been working on his own games more recently, including The Cave (at DF) and Scurvy Scallywags (indie).
NateG 12y ago
Another great recent adventure game is Gemini Rue. It provided me a good deal of fun and the story was very clever. http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/games/gemini-rue/ http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/games/gemini-rue/
- reidrac 12y ago
  I like the Blackwell series. The writing is excellent and the puzzles are mostly good (I recall only a couple of :facepalm: moments). The first game was released in 2006 and the last April 2014, so you can see the evolution of Wadjet Eye Games. Surprisingly the idea doesn't get old after five games. I had a lot of fun playing the series (I discovered them last year), and they play just fine in Linux with Wine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwell_(series) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwell_(series)
ijk 12y ago
Looking beyond Double Fine and Telltale, there are dozens of indie titles[1] and a thriving amateur scene. Of particular note are the Blackwell series, To The Moon, and Kentucky Route Zero. [1] http://www.gog.com/games/adventure##release=a05 http://www.gog.com/games/adventure##release=a05
- Zikes 12y ago
  To the Moon is one of my favorites, and it's got a pretty good soundtrack.
michaelmike 12y ago
I played a bit of the Walking Dead. It was well done, but seemed more of a limited-action RPG than a puzzle/adventure game that LucasArts and Sierra were known for.
CodeMage 12y ago
There's also Red Thread Games. They're doing "Dreamfall Chapters", a next installment in "The Longest Journey" saga. http://redthreadgames.com/ http://redthreadgames.com/

prawks 12y ago

Indeed, they've received very positive critical reception. Having played a handful of them, they're very well produced and pretty decently written as well. The genre is definitely not gone, just not in the mainstream.

Osmium 12y ago

Double Fine Productions is definitely worth checking out. They've recently released Broken Age, a successfully-kickstarted effort. Act I is out now and is absolutely wonderful (in my personal opinion), with Act II still in development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Age For those not in the know, Double Fine Productions was founded by Tim Schafer, who is ex-LucasArts and was lead on Grim Fandango and heavily involved in the Monkey Island series too.

bentcorner 12y ago
I just finished Act I last night. Amazing game, and regrettably (although understandably) too short. It's been years since I've played a good adventure game, and Broken Age definitely scratched that itch. I played the latter half of Shay's storyline with my daughter (she was amused by the teleporter's side effects), we're going to replay Vella's storyline since she missed that part.
- valvar 12y ago
  I found Broken Age to be terrible. Visually it was not too bad, but the great puzzles and whacky humour were almost entirely gone. A small fraction remained, but definitely not enough to motivate the price - especially when considering the length. A game that did manage to get it almost entirely right, though (not extremely visually appealing when compared to 2d art, but still decent), is The Book of Unwritten Tales (and also its prequel, though I did not like it quite as much). Oh, and there is actually a ton of fantastic, and free, adventure games made by amateurs over here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/ http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/ People don't talk about the games made by the AGS community too much, and they keep a lot to themselves, which is a pity, because there are some true gems there.
  - Chattered 12y ago
    http://www.sizefivegames.com/games/ben-there-dan-that/ http://www.sizefivegames.com/games/ben-there-dan-that/ It's an extremely self-referential parody of adventure games, made by guys who clearly love the genre. I found it a lot of fun.
ekianjo 12y ago
> For those not in the know, Double Fine Productions was founded by Tim Schafer, who is ex-LucasArts and was lead on Grim Fandango and heavily involved in the Monkey Island series too. Ron Gilbert was also involved in Broken Age, as far as I know.
- jlees 12y ago
  I don't think Ron was involved much on Broken Age. He's been working on his own games more recently, including The Cave (at DF) and Scurvy Scallywags (indie).

NateG 12y ago

Another great recent adventure game is Gemini Rue. It provided me a good deal of fun and the story was very clever. http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/games/gemini-rue/ http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/games/gemini-rue/

reidrac 12y ago
I like the Blackwell series. The writing is excellent and the puzzles are mostly good (I recall only a couple of :facepalm: moments). The first game was released in 2006 and the last April 2014, so you can see the evolution of Wadjet Eye Games. Surprisingly the idea doesn't get old after five games. I had a lot of fun playing the series (I discovered them last year), and they play just fine in Linux with Wine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwell_(series) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwell_(series)

ijk 12y ago

Looking beyond Double Fine and Telltale, there are dozens of indie titles[1] and a thriving amateur scene. Of particular note are the Blackwell series, To The Moon, and Kentucky Route Zero. [1] http://www.gog.com/games/adventure##release=a05 http://www.gog.com/games/adventure##release=a05

Zikes 12y ago
To the Moon is one of my favorites, and it's got a pretty good soundtrack.

michaelmike 12y ago

I played a bit of the Walking Dead. It was well done, but seemed more of a limited-action RPG than a puzzle/adventure game that LucasArts and Sierra were known for.

CodeMage 12y ago

There's also Red Thread Games. They're doing "Dreamfall Chapters", a next installment in "The Longest Journey" saga. http://redthreadgames.com/ http://redthreadgames.com/