Are Point and clicks really dead?

My question is this..

If say a REALLY good 2d point and click adventure game came out today, would it have a good chance of selling in any numbers?

Ive gone back to alot of point and click games and played them again using scummvm etc and i still enjoy them, am i one of a few that feel this way.

I mean whould you buy one if it had a good demo.

..well..i do believe if something is REALLY good as you mentioned, i cant see reason why same thing will not be successfully sold..

im just wondering if anyone’s willing to spend any time playing games theses days unless its an rpg online or otherwise.

Most Indies are making very good games that people can just dip in and out of. It’s very tempting to join them, but one of my all time ambitions has to be to make a point and click adventure. I have two friends that work for DC comics that are keen to work with me on it, but I don’t want to give them the wrong impression about how well it could do. One of them is a writer the other a really good artist.

if im not mistaken, Point 'n click adventure should be Sam & Max?? If so..its more than welcome if you ask me..

think along the lines of beneath a steel sky. I don't really get the Sam and max thing, I think i must be the only person who likes the other lucas Point 'n click games better. Fate of atlantis was one of my faves

I guess im not zainy or wacky enough ;OP

Some of us dont like mmorpgs. I like a game you can actually complete instead of wasting entire swathes of life on a game you can never really win at.

I would say there is certaily a market for it.

I second this

I got to say i like to finish games also, i hate the feeling of "now what?" when you get to a point in the game when nothings really challenging anymore because your character is so upgraded and you have a silly sword that kill in 2 hit or something.

Point 'n click is my second favorite genre after turn-based strategy and I am pretty sure there is a market for those games, not as big as Fps or something, but enough to make it worth the while.

I don't think it matters what genre it is, as long as there is enthusiasm for a game it can be a success.

Dead sure thing: Relase a new and good Monkey Island Adventure.

If you wonder if you can make money with adventures then it might help taking a look at TTG, they are rapidly growing.

I'm looking forward to this: http://www.vampyrestory-game.com/

Me too, sadly the went through quite some troubles but from the videos i've seen the humour seems to be really funy.

It launches in october according to the website, play are selling it for £14.99.

Depends if you call this a point and click adventure (it's not a hidden object game):

http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/3795/azada-ancient-magic/index.html?afcode=afd3eeedd5e4

It's doing very well indeed (no.1 on BFG). Also there's lots of point and click adventure games downloadable from BFG. They are very popular, the genre has been having a resurgence for a while in the casual space.

The problem with point and click adventures is you usually get to a point in the game where you're stuck and you just stand on every single screen clicking all over it to find another object, or using every object you have on everything on screen 'just in case' something might happen... gets really annoying.

I think that point and click adventures are particularly tricky to make. Not only do they need fantastic art, animation, and sound, they also need logical but challenging puzzles, decent pacing, and high quality plotting, characterisations and dialogue. Not many independent developers possess all of the skills to achieve this. Not many professional developers do either, for that matter, which is why 99% of all adventure games that are released today are awful.

So, yeah, as others have said, point and click adventure games are viable, but only as long as they are really good. I'd say that if you can't produce something as polished as Runaway, Sam and Max, or A Vampyre Story then your game probably won't be very successful.

@Rob
Not really, the better ones of the newer adventures come with mechanisms to prevent this, for example the characters try to point you into the proper direction and give you hints once the program notices that you got stuck. Secondly it never has been an issue finding walkthroughs on the net or asking on the game forums for some help. Last but not least you also have to say that a certin dosis of getting stuck simply is part of the fun, you know going woohooo after you found the solution.

I think there's always a market for any type of game, so long as it is a quality final product.

Personally, I think there are a lot of people (me included) that are waiting for a game that you can really get into. I'm working on a point and click RPG, and my goal is to produce a game that combines visual art, music, and story to create an atmosphere that you can get lost in, because I think that any game that can encaptivate an audience will be successful.

Good luck.

JustLuke: But you don't need to be a great programer to make a good point and click game, you might even manage without much coding at all. :)

ive got most of the code working. Im still working on the dialog management part, but its coming together.

Im very happy with my interface, in a post a few weeks back, i ask all of you about what you like in a interface, which was most helpful and i think you will like what ive done.

Thanks for your input everyone, I do agree with the point about quality, I know the quality of the writing because, Ive read his comics (2000AD/batman) and my art guy is fantastic but he is quite slow. Im plan on thumbnailing ever background and using those while the backgrounds are finished.

We have to all sit down and deside exactly what the whole things about first as we all have some ideas.

Pete

Any screenshot? :O)

ragtag wrote:


I never mentioned programming. :p

Pete Carter wrote:


You're coding it yourself? There are many freely available, fully-featured, engines already available. For example, the Wintermute Engine is feature-packed, stable, and has been used to develop commercial games. It is also free and easy to use.


So you only have one writer and one background artist? Do you have any animators? Audio technicians? Music is a hugely important element of adventure games, you know. Hm. I think that you're going to struggle to create a game with a suitable length and production values in a reasonable time-frame.


Recipe for disaster, this. You need a lead designer with a strong vision and talented people who can take instruction. The "design by committee" approach to point and click adventure games never works - *it never works*

It seems to me that you are going about things somewhat inefficiently, but I wish you luck. I love a good adventure game, particularly if it is funny, quirky, and features both an interesting setting and likeable characters.

Yes i have a artist that has animation experience and i can help out with this. i will do all the non/hand draw graphics.

About the plot I should have said, it will be based on a original graphic noval series thats already finished. we just need to deside how we will handle it. so the characters and plot are already quite full.

As for music that will not be a problem. Ive been recording original music for years and have a film style score i will adapt for this project.

Sounds like you're still in early days then. I would get a good design doc written up and then stick to it to avoid feature creep and to keep things moving along.

thats the plan.

i hope one of your team (im assuming the writer and perhaps artist) own the rights to the graphic novel in question (if its been released) as he works for DC it might be a vertigo imprint which is creator owner unlike DC/Marvel owning the rights

i tend to only read comics when they release the 'graphic novel' version which i liken to getting a DVD box set of a tv show that i never found time for when it was on the box
and alot of them would never find their way to the small let alone silver screen atleast not without alot of story bastardisation wanted im looking at you

Its original and hasnt been released yet my writer owns the rights to it all. He has worked on it in his spare time as a tonic to working on brand name comics for along time.

oh and to answer an earlier question. I had a look at wintermute and it is very good. but I like how ive got things working and i dont like the scripting much being in "C" ish style. Plus i know how everything works with my engine.

ive found alot of mainstream brand writers write their best stuff when doing their own material
not having to follow cannon
not having to pull punches
no self or higher up censorship

infact aside from the ultimate range i dont think ive read anything other than vertigo releasese this last decade

but if he does get it published make sure he doesnt sign away the video game rights or all your hard work could be for nowt

Ginger Tea, no offense but your posts are very hard to read.

I don't play online, I don't care about it and if a game does not have a good single player mode, I don't buy it. Even the entire Unreal Tournament family is great and long lasting fun in single player mode.

Point & Click adventures. The last good one that I played and really liked was... Monkey Island III? Oh, and Syberia I & II.

The last one that I bought was Black Mirror, and it bored the crap out of me. I gave it to my sister, I think she liked it.

Do I think that there still is a market for these games? When they are in the league of Syberia, Monkey Island or Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis, yes, certainly. But that means that they must be very, VERY entertaining, must have amicable characters, a good and well-told story and puzzles that are logical, intelligent and fun to solve. But much more important than the puzzles are the characters and the story.

Winni, well said. I share your opinions on this - particularly in regards to character and story being of greater importance than the puzzles.

markcw> perhaps cos i write in english not american ;)

ok i had been drinking when i typed those but i cant see anything 'odd' about them
unless words like nowt confuzzle you?

or did you glaze over cos i was typing about comic books

Maybe it's something to do with the strange line breaks and complete lack of punctuation. Personally, I can understand your posts fine, providing I take the time to read them carefully.

well one post was meant to have bullet points but i couldnt be bothered hitting the * key at the time

true i dont bother much with , . and others i just bother with slapping words down and rarely backtrack even to correct blatant typeos

Ok, thanks for the explanation. I thought maybe you had chronic arthritis of the hands, or unusually fat fingers or missing some fingertips. So I'm glad you're just lazy as otherwise I would have felt guilty about bringing it up.