Once upon a time, adventure games were the proverbial kings of PC gaming, entertaining gamers everywhere with a heavy focus on well-written stories and trong, realistic characters. Adventure games had their best run during the late 80’s and early 90’s, before suddenly dying out. So what happened to the adventure games, and where are they now?

In this three part series we’ll be taking a look at the history of adventure games and possible try to predict a future for them as well.

In our third installment we take a look at the revival of adventure games, their current state and their various spin-off genres.

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Once upon a time, adventure games were the proverbial kings of PC gaming, entertaining gamers everywhere with a heavy focus on well-written stories and strong, realistic characters. Adventure games had their best run during the late 80’s and early 90’s, before suddenly dying out. So what happened to the adventure games, and where are they now?

In this three part series, we’ll be taking a look at the history of the adventure game and possibly try to predict a future for them as well.

In this second instalment we take a look at the decline and near eradication of adventure games

read this entry »

Long ago (’bout 10 to 20 years) there lived adventure games, above all else known for their strong narratives and thoughtful puzzles.

LucasArts and Sierra On-Line set the standard for quality adventure games, with the Monkey Island series, the Gabriel Knight trilogy, Police Quest and last, but not least, Grim Fandango. But whatever happened to them? LucasArts dropped Adventure games in favour of milking the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, while Sierra simply stopped producing them after Gabriel Knight 3.

In recent years the Nintendo DS has sparked a new interest in adventure game content, with games like Trace Memory, Ace Attorney and Hotel Dusk. The Wiimote is also well suited for the genre, which was proven by 2007’s Zack and Wiki, but it seems developers are unwilling to take a stab at completely reviving the genre.

- Why were adventure games suddenly given up on?
- Would it be possible to completely bring them back, or have they been supplanted by other genres, like MMOs and RPGs?