Our very own kickaha aka Peter Rootham-Smith is at Gamescom this week to bring us the news on all the latest and greatest adventure games.
He will be passing along some info for us to post or he'll be adding it himself to this thread/forum so stay tuned to this thread to find out what the latest news is.
****************
August13, 2014 News:
Peter met with Kresimir Spes of Cateia Games. Kresimir expressed that he really appreciates and needs our support with the Kaptain Brawe kickstarter. Note that w in Serbo-Croat is a v noise - so Brawe is pronounced "Brave".
Michael Huber of IF Software is developing promising Ipad/Iphone adventure game - "Perils of Man". It is a true inventory puzzle based game; has logic mini puzzles, lots of objects to touch or click and get a response. Bill Tiller and Gene Mocsy are involved in the game. The story involves a protagonist 16th year old girl Ana discovering her unusual heritage. Moral choices as Ana gains the ability to choose futures. Seamless game world, nice interface design, implemented in Unity. Michael Huber is an Adventure game fan and regularly visits GameBoomers!
Peter met Agustin Cordes of Asylum game. Peter notes that Asylum has more than made the ground by switching to Unity; nice fog effects and 3D characters. The diegetic interface makes sense and is not off-putting.
Peter demoed "The Vanishing of Ethan Carter". He notes that it is a very expansive realistic game world with lots of exploring to uncover what happened. The gameplay is said to be like Heavy Rain (not sure about that from we saw) and BOUT 2 (great looking sequel to BOUT the same but bigger and better).
******************
August 14 News
Peter met and interviewed Charles Cecil and also had Jan Kavan show him "JULIA" which he think will appeal to a lot of people who ike classic Adventures.
Ragnar Tornquist demo-ed "Dreamfall Chapters" which Peter said feels like being in a living world. The game also offers you choices which alter your game in unexpected long-term ways.
He also met Jan Theysen of King Art and Laney Berry of Classroom Graffiti Productions.
*****On August 15th I saw demoes of the latest Sherlock Holmes games, four Daedalic games, interviewed Kevin Mentz of Daedalic and the respected indie developer Jonas Kyratzes. I also had a demo of “History in Letters – The Eternal Alchemist” which was a work-in-progress Adventure-lite game. And I got well and truly soaked in a thunderstorm.
To summarise my impressions of the Adventure games I saw:
Perils of Man (IF Studios)
Very promising 3rd person drawn game about a 16-year old girl Ana discovering her past and future.
Bill Tiller and Gene Mocsy have been involved with this game, Ana’s world is full of things to
click on and get responses. Seamless game world, you as Ana have to make choices about what
the future will be as Ana gains the ability to see what the future could be. Originally
developed for Swiss Re, an insurance giant, but what was ‘adware’ has become a game in its
own right.
Asylum (Agustin Cordes and Senscape)
1st person photorealistic game about a sinister asylum and the terrible secrets it holds.
A must for playing with the lights off!
Move to Unity has paid off - the Hanwell Asylum will be spookier than ever before with nice
fog and sky effects. More natural (diegetic) interface. Agustin will launch a Kickstarter
for a new 3rd person game in October.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter 1st person photorealistic supernatural game set in a real valley which has been
mapped as textures into an Unreal 3 game.
Very large game world, X-files like investigation of the disappearance of a young boy who
saw things that should not exist. Your character has the ability to sometimes see
scenes as they were in the past. Not sure exactly what the gameplay is like.
Book of Unwritten Tales 2 Comic 3rd person adventure, multiple characters to control at different times.
Unusually for an Adventure has optional side quests, and players may even be able
to choose what to wear. Loads of jokes and Easter Eggs, loads of gameplay, like
the first BOUT game but bigger and better.
JULIA From a spaceship you’re exploring planets using a robot probe, discovering what happened
to a survey party 60 years ago. You’re analysing what you find, upgrading the robot so
it can go to more places, fixing machinery, using various devices, solving a mystery.
A lot of variety of interfaces in the game, bravely running counter to modern
minimalism. Will appeal to many players.
Dreamfall Chapters 3rd person photo-realistic sequel to “Dreamfall”. A stunning living world to move around
in, unlike the dead worlds in so many games. The choices you make in the game affect
how characters behave the lines of play. To be released in 5 episodes. Will be a
very important game.
Sherlock Holmes Crimes and Punishments A solid entry in an established series by Frogwares judging on what I saw of this
3rd person photorealistic game.
For me I found it difficult to control using the gamepad, and disorientating
moving around. If you like the previous games you’ll like this I believe.
Silence (Daedalic)
Sequel to “Whispered World” but using Unity which Daedalic have switched over to
from Visionaire. Two characters to play (the boy from the 2st game plus his younger
sister). Little or no use of an inventory. Looks beautiful and engaging.
Fire (Daedalic)
No words in this 3rd person drawn game as you play a caveman who has to find new
fire for his tribe. No inventory the caveman can use one object at a time.
The caveman can manipulate his environment (for instance change day to night).
This could be a sweet diversion from more wordy games!
The Devil’s Men (Daedalic)
Like “Silence” this uses the Broken Age trick of differential scrolling of layers to
give a 3D look. 3rd person drawn adventure in which you play two girls from
different sides of the track who together have to solve a series of murders in
an C19th British seaside resort. You have to make choices which affect how
characters behave, sometimes what’s good for one girl is bad for the other.
I’m really looking forward to this game because of how much I liked “Memoria”
by the same game designer Kevin Mentz.
The Talos Principle A first person photo-realistic Adventure game judging by what I saw. This is a
game worth noting because of the involvement of Jonas Kyratzes who has done a
number of significant and thoughtful indie games. He describe this as a
philosophical point and click Adventure game.
************
Check out the new screens from Daedalic's The Devil's Men
Here. View the new Screens for Daedalic's
Randals Monday here. See The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Gamescom trailer here. Happy Gaming!
Ana