This is a good first approximation, but we can quickly see boundary problems. First Person Shooters require problem solving, although the problems there are often solved by blowing someone to smithereens.
Similarly, there are many run and dodge games where the problems are solved by nimble jumping or ducking at the right time and place. These types of games can also include varying amount of story. Clearly, a meaningful definition of adventure must exclude Doom and Mario.
We must therefore restrict our problem solving to the intellectual realm. The solutions to problems in an adventure game should be difficult to conceive but not difficult to execute. This gives us a reasonably narrow border between adventure and the various action genres.
Deterministic or stochastic This still leaves us needing a line between adventure and role-playing. Games in these two genres share many characteristics, although they usually lean in different directions on the emphasis thereof. Adventures usually stress on story and puzzle content. In contrast, Role-Playing Games emphasize interaction with a larger and more randomly behaving virtual world.
These differences in emphasis are not definitional, however, since a game clearly in either genre can be designed with either or both of these elements. Character development is a tempting characteristic to use to divide these two genres.
Unfortunately, it falls a bit short. It is not unreasonable for an adventure protagonist to acquire new abilities, such as lock picking or increased dexterity, during the quest. The difference is not in whether character development is used, but in the reasons behind using it.
In adventure, the development is needed to solve a particular problem. In role-playing, the development is needed to improve the character's chances to solve nonspecific problems that may arise randomly from the virtual world.
In essence, the fundamental distinction between role-playing and adventure games is the stochastic nature of the former s as opposed to the deterministic nature of the latter.
It is the random presentation of obstacles that makes Role-Playing Games character statistics so important. Adventure games seldom play with a significant rolling of the die. In other words, an adventure game plays out the same every time you run through it if you take the same actions. Role-Playing Games rely heavily on rolling the die for determining combat and other event outcomes, whereby the player must court Lady Luck and develop stronger character statistics to improve the odds of survival.
Definition With these insights, we now have a workable definition of an adventure—an adventure is the "deterministic, intellectual problem solving in the context of a story". The back story, or background story, is the history of the game world prior to the player gaining control.
This includes the history of the player's character, the protagonist. It may be revealed early by accompanying documentation or introductory segments of the game, or it may be fleshed out during the course of play by interacting with non-player characters, reading notes, and so on. In contrast, the other aspect of story is one created by the protagonist during play.
This journal of play is referred as the plot. Gameplay People often talk of gameplay, but what they mean by it varies. Here it means the semantic actions performed by the protagonist. This is distinct from the syntax used to express those actions. Whether you type "pour pitcher into bowl" or click the pitcher icon on the bowl, the effect is the same.
The difference is one of result versus one of method. Challenge The player must overcome many obstacles to complete a game. Examples of these obstacles include inventory based problems, dialog trees, machine twiddling, sliders, timed sequences, and others. More appropriately, these obstacles should be called challenges, and the collective aggregate of these obstacles is known the challenge. The term puzzles should, instead, be reserved for self-contained obstacles like sliders and Rubik's cubes.
Linearity People frequently talk about linearity, but confusion exists regarding its definition. In one sense, linearity refers to the geographic path the player takes through the game. In this case, a game is said to be nonlinear if the player is free to roam widely about the game world. This may not be a very interesting quality. Exploring might be fun, but wandering back and forth gets old, fast. The other sense of linearity refers to the sequence of gameplay, that is, the order in which the challenges can be solved.
If there is only one order in which the challenges can be overcome, then the game is completely linear. If all of the game's challenges can be overcome at any time, then the game is said to be nonlinear.
Linearity is caused by a relationship between challenges. The solution of a challenge typically gives you a reward, such as access to new parts of the game world, objects, abilities, and information.
These connections create a gameplay graph where the challenges are the nodes. Technically, in graph theory, this gameplay construct is a directed acyclic graph, and it functions similar to a Petrie network. Few if any games are completely linear or completely nonlinear. Many have a linear introductory series of challenges, and most have a linear finale.
In between, there are some common shapes in the constructs. Adventures are frequently split into chapters, each to be completed in a linear sequence. This segmentation gives the author control over the plot, but at the same time allows the player to have nonlinear freedom within each segment. It is also common to see the game split into independent branches, whereby the player can complete the branches in any order.
A branch is, in effect, a mini-adventure within the larger one. Relevancy Relevancy describes the relationship between the challenges and the game. Specifically, it describes the believability of the challenges as part of the game world and as part of the story. As an example of irrelevance, how many real world doors have you seen that are opened by a slider puzzle?
However, relevancy is not always clear cut. Very odd things may just make sense when done by Wile E. Constraint Constraint can either be in time or geography. Many adventures include time constraints in theirs challenges. These constraints may vary in duration. In the broadest form, the player may have several minutes or hours to complete a set of challenges, such as fiddling about in the laboratory with the mad scientist is off for lunch.
Instead, the adventure game genre was evolving. The genre grew to encompass choice-based narratives and walking simulators. The main proponent of this was Telltale Games' The Walking Dead, a five-part episodic series based in the universe of the comic book of the same name. Players are forced to make difficult choices in dialogue and action, which has a ripple effect on the rest of the story. This led to a boom in choice-based games that sold very well, like Life is Strange and Detroit: Become Human.
Walking simulators, as they are sometimes derogatively called, are also born from the traditional adventure. These are games like Gone Home and Firewatch, often presented from a first-person perspective, that favor a strong narrative experience with essentially no puzzles or challenge. There's also the visual novel, which are very popular in Japan, though whether these sit within the adventure genre is debatable.
Successful localized examples include the Phoenix Wright and Zero Escape series. As for those more traditional point-and-click adventures? Many of them have found new audiences through remasters and rereleases often on mobile platforms , like Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, and Grim Fandango.
Plus, you can still play the oldies on your modern system thanks to the ScummVM virtual machine. Adventure games have been around since the dawn of gaming. Though the genre has evolved, moving from text to fully-fledged 3D experiences, it's unlikely to go away permanently.
People crave a good narrative; you can't beat a well-told story. And if there's one thing that adventure games do best, it's suck you into their fictional worlds and let your imagination soar. Here are some common gaming terms, phrases, and jargon, along with clear definitions to help you understand them. Joe was born with a keyboard in his hands and immediately started writing about technology.
He has a BA Hons in Business and is now a full-time freelance writer who enjoys making tech simple for everyone. The Definition of Adventure Games In a way, it's hard to pin down a definition of an adventure game. As such, it's helpful to first understand what an adventure game isn't. Share Share Tweet Email. Related Topics Gaming Adventure Game. And check out some highlights from the discussion below.
You could try everything, and eventually you would find it. Al Lowe was also there, so that was really cool. They were on an adventure game panel together, so I got to see them, and chat a little bit with Lori and Corey Cole. It was just really inspiring. They were given some reference material, some photos of similar houses, but they were pretty much left to their own devices.
Someone who works with [these companies] has to be a fan of these games. Somebody has to care.
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