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The way in which I like to approach the adventure game is as an interactive story; as such, the very first thing I focus on when creating a game is the story it will tell. But I feel that it isn't enough to make up a story solely for the sake of justifying the gameplay that emerges from it. While doing so in and of itself is certainly a lofty goal to strive for, it does tend to make for a shallow and formulaic end product. For a story to truly stand out as a meaningful work of art, it must convey a purpose and make some sort of statement about the world. Hence, this next article in the series will focus on the process of coming up with such a story.

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The PS3 is $500 to $600. The 360 is $300 to $400. A good gaming PC can cost in the thousands. What we are we paying for? The more games I play these days, the more I see that many of the "next-gen" games are simply prettier versions of games we've already played. We're paying for more lines of resolution and audio that comes at us through more speakers. When we're able to put a human-looking character on the screen and make him or her look and act like an actual person, that presents a problem. What do we want that person to do? What do we want them to say?









Back when games featured a few colors and some simple sprites, we didn't need these characters to do much. Swing on that vine. Eat that mushroom. Asking how or why someone did something in a game is silly and rarely asked. Now we have the tools to make something that has special effects comparable to what we see at the movies, and we give control of this world over to a player who is going to wonder very quickly why he or she should care about what's going on when a button is pressed. The technology may be getting better, but the quality of the stories generally isn't.

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So why do trends exist? Because they are familiar, they enable standards, and they just make life easier. In the case of video games, trends help companies maximize sales while reducing costs because gamers will purchase what they are accustomed to. But easier isn't always better. Here are eleven reasons why...

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I’ve always enjoyed holding forth about how many limitations there are for stories in video games. Often to an audience of non-gamer friends, I’ll start by pointing out what you can’t do in a game with regards to the story. Most of it has to do with the protagonist. Because the hero is the player character, you can’t make that hero anything the player might balk at playing. For this reason, many of the most awesome main characters from film, fiction, and television don’t really work so well as a main game character.









For example, take Oedipus or Clytemnestra: the emotions that might make you gouge your own eyes out or stab your husband to death are one thing to witness, and another to do, even fictionally, even by proxy. Even Achilles doesn’t really fit the bill. There’s nothing wrong with being the world’s greatest warrior, but sitting and sulking in your tent – over some slave girl? Let’s say you begin the plot immediately after all the pouting – it’s still going to sit wrong. “Wait, why was I mad? Why was I being such an idiot? And now I’m suddenly supposed to be all mad about this friend who went and got himself killed?”








There’s no need to resort to antiquity, either. Add to the list Thelma and Louise, Travis Bickle, Holden Caulfield, Amelie, even good old Hamlet. What makes every one of these characters memorable depends on a key moment or characteristic that the player would resist and resent as an imposition on his free will.

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Just Adventure staff writer Bob Washburne recently had the pleasure to conduct a telephone interview with Myst creator Rand Miller to discuss the past, present and future of Myst Online: Uru Live which is featured exclusively on GameTap.







We thought that our readers would like to listen to the actual interview and hear Rand Miller for themselves, so we are offering the opportunity to either read a written transcript of the interview or, to download and listen to an MP3 file of the interview.







Whichever you choose, we hope you enjoy this unique opportunity to spend some time with one of the gaming industry’s most influential developers and an icon in the adventure community.

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Façade is a prototype of interactive drama, a new genre of character and story-intensive interactive entertainment. Façade is freely downloadable at interactivestory.net. In Façade, you, the player, using your own name and gender, play the character of a longtime friend of Grace and Trip, an attractive and materially successful couple in their early thirties. During an evening get-together at their apartment that quickly turns ugly, you become entangled in the high-conflict dissolution of Grace and Trip’s marriage. No one is safe as the accusations fly, sides are taken and irreversible decisions are forced to be made. By the end of this intense one-act play you will have changed the course of Grace and Trip’s lives – motivating you to re-play the drama to find out how your interaction could make things turn out differently the next time.

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The movies were originally black and white, and the method of lighting these films relied heavily on shadow to create mood. The subject matter is also dark, as are the heroes. Noir as an English adjective means all of this and more; a small word with many meanings. We call films that reflect the noir hallmarks "noir" to identify them. We call heroes with a checkered past "noir." We call movies, even if brightly lit, and in color, "noir," if they strike us a certain way.











This week, The Escapist tackles the subject of noir games. What are they, and why? It's Issue 107, "Dark and Stormy Night." Now get out of here kid, you bother me.

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In my previous Adventure Architect installment, I mentioned interactive storytelling as my primary approach in the creation of an adventure game. I also emphasized how important a role the story plays in such a game, and how all other things must be subservient to it. This time around, however, I am going to be placing my emphasis on the word "interactive" in interactive storytelling, which is of equally paramount importance. After all, without interactivity, I wouldn't be creating a game so much as I would be creating a machinima movie.

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Sadly, in many adventures, character interaction has presented itself as extra window dressing rather than as a primary gameplay element. At most, it is useful in the way that talking to a character sometimes provides clues as to how to solve a puzzle; other times, it is simply a fun little diversion and nothing more. Save for a relatively minute handful of exceptions, what you say or do to characters has no significant effect on the game itself — if you make someone angry by choosing one dialogue option, it is virtually forgotten by the time you go back and choose a different one. Although a mixture of clever writing and careful limiting of possible choices can effectively maintain the player's suspension of disbelief in this regard, it still begs the question as to what an adventure game would be like if non-player characters did remember how the player treated them. This is a question I plan to explore at length throughout the making of Chivalry is Not Dead.

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Whether your chosen medium is pictures or language, food or formulas, everyone has the capacity to be creative in their work. But we can often lose our motivation to create, making it difficult to stay focused and excited on a project. So how does one keep their creative well from drying up?

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In our weekly game design column, Activision's James Portnow discusses the many different kinds of arcs in games, and how they can serve as a means of keeping a player invested in a game.

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At the 'Once Upon a Time… Storytelling in Games Today' panel at this year's Penny Arcade Expo,
Sam & Max developer Dave Grossman, former LucasArts creator Ron Gilbert and Nate Fox from Sucker Punch (Sly Cooper) talked at length about linearity, choice, death, and tragedy in modern games.

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Videogames shouldn’t try and develop more complex stories, because designers haven’t found a way to make it work well enough, according to two of the industry’s longest-serving storytellers.

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Activision’s James Portnow analyzes the various methods of penning stories for games…

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This article is about creating a window into player activities by using passive tracking systems to measure and improve the player experience.

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My introduction to adventure games may be unique or it may not, but it's my story. There are probably as many stories of how this genre entered into someone's life as there are adventure gamers. So what draws someone to this genre and why do they stay?

For me, there are a few things, and they continue to affect the games I choose to play. The primary reason is the idea of escape. That is the original reason I got so hooked. Being on Myst island meant leaving behind the tough cases, temperamental clients and annoying co-workers, if only for a few hours. One of the best ways for me to escape, and to honor my investigative tendencies, is lots of exploration. Even when playing adventure games today, be it first or third-person perspective, full of other characters or not, I love being able to travel around the environment and have a look around, even if there aren't many things to click on. That is one of the reasons why I love Syberia so much (and have replayed it at least three or four times).

The other main reason why I love adventure games is the story.......

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Balancing one’s day job and game production is not an easy task. There’s a great thread about How to balance game production and your day job at the new game producer forums. The thread contains some excellent pieces of advice, and I simply had to share these with you blog readers.








I’m sure all of us would like to know how to get more hours… but sometimes it can be about how to spend the few hours we have.








Here’s some tips from the members about how to balance game production and your day job.

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There are three important principles I’ve practiced to get traffic to my website. This article covers how these principled helped me to get 206,670 visitors to see what I have to offer. The article headline actually contains all these principles - in an erroneous manner.

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Game business question regarding profits was posed at the Indiegamer thread. I made a brief post at the forums, and decided to describe bit deeper these factors on the blog too. Here are 11 factors that can kill your game business.

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Activision's James Portnow examines the methods games use to create a sense of reward that keeps gamers coming back for more.

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Why do so many of our characters fall flat? In his weekly game design column, Activision's James Portnow explores why so many videogame characters turn out to be "anemic marionettes."

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Anyone who thinks they have come up with an idea that is completely new, and not influenced by any existing work, is either:








* An absolute genius (or possibly a messiah of some sort)
* Delusional
* Lying








With all the folks I've met over the years, I never had the pleasure of meeting the first type, but plenty of the second two.

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How many people have you killed? How many animals have you slaughtered? How many planes have you shot down? Aliens have you murdered? Anthropomorphic-turtles have you bopped?







Are you ... evil?







Videogames are violent affairs. No gamer can deny he's committed hundreds of awful acts that in normal society would have him captured, maimed or killed in retaliation. Not that all violent acts are evil, but it's safe to assume at least someone would be upset that his loved one was not coming home from the battlefield. Players never really think about the consequences of their virtual violence, and that is by design.

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Defining the precise role of a scriptwriter in the videogame industry is not as straightforward as pointing out the rather obvious "dialogue" tip of the game development iceberg. Although scriptwriters are a moderately recent addition to the dev team, their function can be surprisingly widespread, and when properly involved, a professional writer can turn an ordinary game into an extraordinary entertainment experience.

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In his latest column, Activision's James Portnow has a "eureka" moment about one of the biggest issues in game design: choice. You may be surprised with his conclusion...

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It's time once again for another edition of that annual favorite, Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie! Since last year I've collected up another batch of Twinkie Denial Conditions from my readers, which I present for your edification and entertainment.

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Follow along as Activision's James Portnow delves deeper into one of the most dizzying game design elements: choice.

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Our design expert discusses clear goals with John Romero

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Game Designer is one of those mythical positions everyone wants to fill. What isn't cool about getting to actually make the games you love so much? What isn't cool about being able to brag to all of your old-school gaming buddies that you are a real live game designer? What isn't cool about getting to come up with awesome ideas and having the programmers and artists implement them? Well, there isn't anything uncool about any of that. Unfortunately, reality is a bit different.

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This essay looks at the foundations of interactive storytelling, with a focus on their relevance to computer games. Tabletop RPGs (and the related medium of adventure gamebooks) are an important part of the background and history of this new medium, but will forever by a minority pursuit. Computer games, on the other hand, look set to take the reigns of interactive storytelling and bring them to a broad, diverse and expectant audience.

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Death on the Nile, the downloadable game, sells 10 million copies in six months as casual gamers hop on board

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"You can't overestimate the stupidity of the mass market." - Jane Jensen

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And going back to Benoît Sokal's Syberia , we see evidence of the philosophy described by White Birds' Michel Bams, who says the goal was to avoid two longstanding adventure staples: "Firstly, the kind of wacky puzzles that were the hallmark of many LucasArts games. Secondly, esoteric Myst-style puzzles involving astral conjunctions and runes. Our idea at the time was that, if your car is out of gas, you get a can, find somewhere to fill it with gas, get back to your car and start driving."

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Plot, Background Design, Character Design

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First, let me state what this is not. This is not an end all be all discussion on character design. This is not a drawing tutorial. My only intention is to present an approach to the visual side of character design that I find effective. The methods and techniques discussed may not work for everybody, but I believe they will help most to develop stronger, more visually appealing characters.

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The rise of the independent gaming movement is a vital one, and in this in-depth article, game development veteran Marsh showcases nine methods that indies are using to develop games with fewer resources.

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Games and films both require writers for their scripts, of course, but there are obviously major differences between writing for games and writing for film. Now, how about when a writer must work on a game adaptation of a film?

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We got a chance to sit down with one of the sparkling celebrities of the IT industry during the the Game Developers Conference 2008: Tim Sweeney is founder and CEO of Epic Games, creator of the famous Unreal game engines.








TG Daily editor Theo Valich spoke with Sweeney about the future of the PC as a game platform, the role of the next-generation of game consoles, the next Unreal engine as well as the future of Epic.








We have known Sweeney for several years and are always looking forward to his view on the state of the gaming industry, which he is not afraid to discuss openly. In this first part of our three-part interview, Sweeney takes on the PC, which he believes is in trouble and can’t keep up with game consoles, mistakes in Windows Vista and the integrated graphics dilemma.

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Ted Castronova, a social scientist and professor at Indiana University, made a name for himself studying the economies of online games, going so far as to calculate the exchange rate between US dollars and EverQuest platinum. But he wanted to do more than study virtual worlds — he wanted to create one.

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