Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Understanding
types
of
adventure
games
Adventure games are a mix of different elements including puzzles, arcade sections,
RPG Mechanics, and so on. The dominating ingredient of the gameplay mechanics
defines the individual type of the game. I have not mentioned the term graphic adven-
ture in the list, since now it is the default standard for most of the adventure games.
Text-based adventure
In a text-based adventure game, there are no graphics, only text elements (graphics
may play the role of minor ornamentation). This is a tribute to the legendary Colossal
CaveAdventureanditsanalogs.Itmayseemthatsuchtypesofgamesareanancient
atavism, but remember that there are some handheld devices that are not quite ad-
apted for quick graphics, such as e-book readers with the screen based on electronic
paper. Interactive adventures can be ideally adapted for such platforms, being direc-
tly compatible with the general functional paradigm of the e-book devices: displaying
text on a screen and support of basic hypertext interactivity. Also, recall audio games;
many of them are actually text-based adventures where the content is read out aloud.
And don't forget about creative experiments with gameplay, for instance, there is a
unique modern game called
Blackbar
(
http://mrgan.com/blackbar/
), created by
Neven
Mrgan
, where a player works with text that is censored. The main objective is to figure
out what content was painted black.
Puzzle-based adventure
A puzzle-based adventure is where solo parts are given to various puzzles; as usual,
they are pretty complex and look like mysterious devices, mini games, and so on. The
best illustration and a true role model for various followers is the famous
Myst
series
introduced in 1993 (the first game of the series and its sequel
Riven
would later be
ported to both iPhone and iPad).
Action-based adventure
Action-based adventure is a very popular subgenre that not only offers players with a
dynamic gameplay with some fights and other types of action, but also requires some
