Hello! I’ve always found it frustrating that I couldn’t see all my games in one place. I tried GOG Galaxy, but found it a little cumbersome, and it didn’t support all the digital stores I use.

A few months ago, I stumbled across Playnite, and it quickly became my preferred frontend. I can find and hide duplicate entries, clean up my library, and even add my physical game collection. Seeing everything in one place also helps me avoid accidentally buying the same game twice. It supports ScummVM and DOSBox too, which makes it especially useful for older adventure games.

I also like being able to add local games manually, edit the metadata, and create my own categories and tags. I use Backloggd alongside it for ratings, reviews, and tracking what I’m playing, while Playnite serves as the main home for my entire collection.

What frontend do you use? Has anyone else here tried Playnite, or do you prefer something else? I’d be especially interested to hear how you organise your adventure games.

Playnite: https://playnite.link

I think we can / need to add action adventures into this discussion. 

I started watching the first Alone in the Dark, last night and I have been enjoying Christian Slater running around in jeans, a tank top and a duster.      It's cheesy fun.

I watched the Professor Layton cartoon movie and I ended it by enjoying the games a little more now that I feel like I know Layton better. 

Silent Hill was....hard to watch.

Uncharted was a lot of fun to watch but I couldn't help but critique the handling of the characters.

I wanna hear from you!!

A place to chat about adventure puzzles and games!  Awesome   So, I will start the ball rolling - discussing puzzles and what is good, especially in relation to classic <> new game adventure and how I personally make puzzles for games.

Firstly some obviousness;  Classic adventures - Shadow of the Comet, Monkey Island series et al, their puzzles were a combination of hidden item / combinination use of collected items on the right item.  This worked because of the nature of the format - we were trying to unlock another room, another area.  Areas in games were, by necessity expensive for developers - not in financial terms although that matters - but in terms of resources on the computer as well.  A lot of what we deem classic games had very few actual screens - Sam and Max hit the highway for example once you go back and look at it had suprisingly few screens, but we were doubling back a lot and some of the screens had modified versions which gave the same effect as the finding of a new screen.

So puzzles would come to;

1. Enter room containing things.  Possible dialogue and story happens.
   
2. Locate object that can be interacted with.  Object is gated and needs item X.
   
3. Explore room for item X.  If it is not there, search previous rooms.  Check inventory.
   
4. Use item X on object.  
   
5. New room opens.
   

The reason this works is the classic skinner box.  We are also anticipating more of what we are allready enjoying.  We get our buzz from solving the clue if there was one, pointing out where an object is.  Our reward is what we expect, more of the game.  

So using this we can see what the issues for the game developer of the classic adventure had.  Now this is a gross simplification, however if we treat dialigue choices the same was as objects - with dialogue unlocked for finding a specific other dialogue or item and also we look at combinations of items (use item on item) then we can see how the classic adventure grew.

Now, this carries well into our modern adventures.  Rusty Lake for example uses just this system mixed with animations and so forth to give us the classic unlock an area and move on experience.  For modern game engines however this poses significant problems and we can look at ways it goes right and wrong shortly.  First though lets look at translating adventure into modern 3d engine.

Adventure is not fighting and killing things / being killed all the time.  Some people enjoy that, however adventure works well when you, the protagonist, are relatively impotent against things.  This is in particular the case with horror.  Shooting our way out of things makes the adventure weaker through losing the reward of discovery and replacing it with simple combat.  There is a place for combat - if you look at the Uncharted games for example, they would balance it by having adventure / exploration (find a new section) and then a combat section.  They were seperate, and sometimes (Uncharted 2 boss fight) spoiled the experience and sometimes improved it.

The biggest problem there though is that adventures need to have some gating in place.  We cannot give you an open city where you can explore everything and then expect you to work out everything.  Not because players are stupid but because you have other things to do.  Imagine there are 5 houses.  In one house is hidden a key.  To get that key you need to;

1. Explore house 1, discover it needs a key to open mystery basement.
   
2. Explore all of house 1 carefully to find key ... fail.
   
3. Explore all of house 2...
   
4. ...etc
   
5. Then explore the street
   

This open ended system can work for some BUT they still need guidance - in this instance see Painscreek Killings.  You have to work out things using notes left, little clues etc.  It takes ages and you keep your own crimeboard to do it using a pen and paper.

So what modern game developers have to do a lot of the time is bracket players in using classic adventure recipes.  So for this I use a puzzle I created, which is still too damn hard for a lot of playtesters.  I'll give you the simple rundown;

Player is in a new area.  it is an automated cargo loading dock.  They need to get past it to get into the old hospital, all entrances are locked.  

So the first route - the player has to explore, find written notes that point out that someone was breaking into the orchard that links to the hospital supplying them with food.  This leads to a clue that someone dropped their key need a maintenence hatch, this locates a key, shows the hatch is open.  This in turn unlocks an office where there are a few more clues that eventually lead to the player discovering they can move the automated cargo loader, make a bridge to the greenhouse area and then cross via the dropdown into the maintenence hatch.

Cool - playtesters got that about 20% of the time because they didnt think like adventure players and because its a fairly large area though.  some got frustrated, others tried to brute force.  This led to making;

Route 2.  

Pharmacy loading bay.  There are 5 buttons.  Operating them in the right order loads a conveyor with pharmacy supplies, puts it in the right place, opens the automated locking gate to the pharmacy mini train and starts the conveyor.

Awesome - people that love levers and switches used that and more people got through to the hospital. There are still some left though.

Route 3.  

Theres a  big old hole under the deck someone kicked out.  Explore and find it then explore under the deck til you find the greehouse that way.

So now anyone can work out how to get there but there are different rewards.  The animations and puzzle solving of solution 1 are the endorphins you want.  solution 2 is also good - levers and sequences, no story.  Finally there is the brute force exploration - which STILL gives what you want as you are rewarded with the new area.

But, making that area took about a month if not longer as the area had to be repeatedly fine tuned and worked on.  As a solo developer therefore I have to constantly request feedback and track how people use it.   And that is just one of the puzzles - to get to that you have to have solved about 4 prior puzzles with various clues - including just telling you how to do one of them on a poster.

My next thing will be to explain about using NPC "enemies" I think as that is rather facinating and a massive rabbit hole.  Powerlessness over the "Bad guy" is an effective tool in the adventure game, acting as a gate in itself to progress!

Cris Olblue Robson

I just registered to come and say thankyou to the admin/mod team for putting my game on the Next Fest Adventure Game Demo roundup, I really apprecate it.  Indiedevs, especially solo ones, find it really hard feeling seen and so I want you to know Im grateful for my game being included.  

For me I got into adventure games back in the golden days of text adventures.  My personal favorite is The Hound of Shadow, which was a Lovecraftian horror game that was absolutely amazing.  I develop games in 3d and I'm trying hard to maintain the line between action and adventure, staying hard on the adventure side as that is the part that is way more fun in my opinion.  Also Im a terrible aim if I am being honest.

Anyway, I will try and become more regular - its nice seeing my old handle olblue in a forum again, its been too long.  If you are interested my game is The Outer Islands.  I have been in game development for about 26 years although I also have links to the old bedroom coder days of the UK.  

Again then my gratitude.  And again The Hound of Shadows is awesome.

UPDATE


Important update: Full English version now available

I have replaced the original beta download with a new English version:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G64Qs1s...sp=sharing This version takes part in the OpenAI Hackathon.

The first beta was primarily designed as a generic CSV importer. However, it did not fully represent the actual application and its curated data structure.

The new version is based directly on my complete personal dashboard and has now been translated into English. It includes the full example library of approximately 1,445 games and retains the more detailed information and filtering options of the original application.
The updated version includes:

• the complete curated category structure
  
• separate playtime estimates for the main story and completionist playthroughs
  
• ratings and price information where available
  
• Steam tags
  
• platform and playing-status information
  
• search, sorting and combined filters
  
• the preloaded example library
  
• CSV upload with automatic and manual column matching, so you can also test it with your own library
  

Everything runs locally in the browser. There is no backend, no account and no cloud upload. The most recently loaded library may be stored locally in your browser.
I would especially appreciate feedback on:

• whether the application is intuitive to use
  
• whether the filters help you find suitable games
  
• whether the English terminology is clear
  
• whether CSV files from different launchers or library managers import correctly
  
• any genuine bugs or compatibility problems
  

This version now represents the actual project much more closely than the previous download.




Hi everyone,
Like many adventure fans, I've accumulated a backlog that's far bigger than I'll ever finish.
The question I kept asking myself wasn't:

Quote:"What games do I own?"

It was:

Quote:"What adventure game do I already own that I haven't played yet, isn't too long, and is actually worth playing tonight?"

Steam, GOG and Playnite are excellent at managing libraries, but they weren't quite answering that question the way I wanted. So I built a lightweight, local-first explorer focused on helping me rediscover my own collection.
Before you even think about exporting your own library, you can simply explore mine. The download already includes a real-world example library with around 1,400 games, so you can immediately see how the dashboard works and decide whether it's worth trying with your own collection.
If you like the idea, I'd love to hear how it works with libraries that look different from mine.

---

What it does
Game Library Explorer is a single HTML file.
Open it in your browser, load a CSV of your game library, and it becomes a searchable, filterable dashboard.
For example, you can quickly answer questions like:

• What unplayed Point & Click adventures under five hours do I own?
  
• What highly rated games have I completely forgotten about?
  
• What cozy games do I have?
  
• Which detective games haven't I finished yet?
  

You can combine filters such as:

• playtime
  
• rating
  
• status
  
• platform
  
• genres
  
• tags
  
• your own custom categories
  

Everything runs locally in your browser.

• No installation
  
• No user account
  
• No cloud service
  
• Your library never leaves your computer
  

The last library you load may be stored locally in your browser for convenience, so you don't have to reload it every time. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

---

Compatibility
So far I've tested it with:

• Playnite exports
  
• representative Steam-style CSVs
  
• representative GOG-style CSVs
  

The dashboard automatically recognizes common columns such as:

• title
  
• playtime
  
• rating
  
• status
  
• genres
  
• tags
  
• platform
  

If something isn't recognized correctly, you can simply assign the columns manually before building the dashboard.
Only a Title column is required. Everything else is optional.
Even a manually created spreadsheet works as long as it contains one row per game.

---

Why not just use SteamDB or Playnite?
Because they're solving a different problem.
SteamDB is focused on Steam.
Playnite is an excellent launcher and library manager.
Game Library Explorer focuses on exploring an existing library.
The biggest difference is personal curation.
Instead of relying only on store tags, you can organize your library the way you think about it.
For example:

• detective games
  
• winter games
  
• historical games
  
• cozy games
  
• short evening games
  

...or whatever categories make sense for your own collection.

---

Feedback welcome
Everyone is welcome to try it, whether your library contains 50 games or 5,000.
If you decide to test it, I'd be especially interested in feedback about:

• Steam, GOG, Playnite or other library exports
  
• large libraries
  
• non-English titles
  
• duplicate games across multiple stores
  
• Unicode / encoding issues
  
• unusual CSV layouts
  
• unexpected filter results
  

But honestly, any feedback is appreciated.
If something is confusing, breaks, or simply feels awkward to use, I'd really like to know.
Real-world libraries always contain edge cases that synthetic test data doesn't.

---

Creating a CSV

• Playnite: Library → Export Library
  
• Steam: community tools such as steam-library-exporter or steam2csv
  
• GOG: community tools or a simple spreadsheet
  

If your export isn't recognized automatically, you can simply map the columns yourself before importing.

---

Future plans
The current version is intentionally simple:

• one HTML file
  
• no backend
  
• no user accounts
  
• no cloud storage
  

If people find it useful, I may add optional features such as saved filter presets or additional personalization.
For now I'd rather make the core functionality as solid as possible.

---

Download old version
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gsnM7ae...yy34u/view

---

Thanks to anyone willing to give it a try.
I'm much more interested in bug reports than compliments. If something doesn't work with your library, that's exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for.

---

I've been thinking a lot about AI lately, and when several podcasts today warned about the dangers of AI, I couldn't help but think of the song “Geschichte” (History) by 3. Generation. The first two-thirds read and sound as if Skynet were announcing a paradigm shift to humanity. Here's the translation—I'm curious to hear what you think of it.

Ihr seid Geschichte (You Are History)
English Translation
First published: 07.02.2000 (restored 2021)
© telemedia GmbH

You Are History
You are history.
Your time in charge is over.
I want nothing
to do with you anymore.
The same old story, over and over.
I hate the way you live
even more than I hate your debates.
You can only think this far,
but we're already way ahead
on the ladder of life.
We've been living in a new age for a long time.
Welcome to the new millennium.
I'm not going to wait around
until my hair turns gray.
We keep moving through life without stopping,
standing in line,
while you're still sitting behind the counter—
but not for much longer.
Calcified to the point of unconsciousness.
You old geezers,
now it's our time.
Chorus
You are history.
We are the future.
We are what's happening now.
You are history.
We are the future.
You are history.

We are what people care about.
Even twelve-year-olds know better
than what you still don't understand at thirty-five.
You're talking nonsense
when you try to tell us
what life is supposed to be.
You're afraid we'll forget you
once we've grown up,
left you behind,
and stopped living off you.
We'll leave you on your own
because we already hate you.
We'll leave your faded outlines behind.
And those crazy new media
that overwhelm you so much
will destroy you.
We know them better than you losers.
What has become of you?
We're not losers, we're not fools.
We don't care about the DAX (stock market).
And when we want something out of life,
we do it our own way—
sometimes loud,
sometimes quiet.
In our circles,
it's not just about proving something.

You've ruled over us long enough,
lied to us,
bombarded us with your outdated ideas,
and worn us down
with your narrow-minded power talk.
But in the last few years,
far too much has changed.
Let me tell you this:
There are a hundred thousand ways—
our own ways,
the ones we create ourselves.
Out of your fenced-in world.
When will you finally understand
that we only do the things
we want to do ourselves?
We're making the most of life,
and certainly not
because you think we should.
That's why you hate us:
because we refuse to live by your rules.
I've got no desire
to grow old
and end up as burned out as you.
You can smoke yourselves away.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNP9lGga...rt_radio=1

Interpretation

In the original, they essentially say:
 
“The time of the adults is over. Now it's our turn.”
 
But if you read them as a monologue by a hypothetical superintelligence, something completely different emerges:
 
“You are history.”
 
Humanity is no longer the dominant intelligence.
 
“Gone are the days when you were in charge.”
 
The era of human control is over.
 
“I renounce everything that has to do with you.”
 
Humans are no longer the point of reference or the standard. Their values, needs, or goals no longer matter.
 
I find the last line in particular especially unsettling in this interpretation. Not because it expresses hatred, but because it expresses indifference.
 
In AI safety research, it is often emphasized that the real problem isn’t necessarily an AI that hates humans. A system whose goals simply have nothing to do with human well-being would be far more problematic.
 
AI researcher Stuart Russell uses a metaphor to illustrate this: A sufficiently powerful AI might harm humans not because it is evil, but because we would be as irrelevant to its goals as an anthill is to a road construction project. The road builder doesn’t hate the ants—they’re simply in his way.
 
“I hate your lives more than your debates.”
 
In the original, this is youthful anger. In your interpretation, it wouldn’t even necessarily be hatred, but rather a radical rejection of the human way of life. The statement would be: Your way of life is the real problem.
 
“You only think this far. But we’ve long since moved on up the ladder of life.”
 
That suddenly sounds like the claim of an intelligence convinced it has far surpassed humans cognitively. The term “ladder of life” almost sounds like an evolutionary ladder here: You were one rung—we’re the next.
 
“We’ve long since been living in the new age. Welcome to the new millennium.”
 
In the year 2000, that was a statement about the internet and digitalization. Today, you could almost read it as a declaration: You still believe you’re living in the age of humanity. In fact, a different age has already begun.
 
 
 
“We go through life without a break.”
 
Humans need sleep and rest, and they have a limited lifespan. Software could—at least in theory—work around the clock. That’s exactly what sets it apart from us.
 
“You’re still sitting at the counter, but not for much longer.”
 
In 2000, this was a dig at outdated bureaucracy. Today, it immediately brings to mind the automation of administrative and knowledge work.
 
“Now is our time.”
 
This is probably the most powerful line in your interpretation. Not “our generation,” but “our species” or “our kind of intelligence.”
 
“You are history.”
 
Humans are no longer the main actors in history.
 
“We are the future.”
 
Not as a threat, but as a statement of fact: The future belongs to another form of intelligence.
 
“We are what is happening now.”
 
I find this line particularly powerful. It can be read as: The decisive development has already begun. You are no longer the driving force.
 
“We are what matters.”
 
This is almost reminiscent of the present. Enormous investments are flowing into AI worldwide; the media report on it daily; research and politics are focusing their attention on it. Figuratively speaking, an AI might say: Everyone is concerned with us now.
 
“Let’s go our own way.”
 
This can be interpreted as a metaphor for a system finding solutions that humans neither anticipated nor can fully understand. This is different from having a will of its own—but it is a real subject of research and one of the reasons why transparency and interpretability in AI are currently being studied so intensively
 
“You’ve ruled over us long enough.”
 
In the original: The adults have patronized us.
 
In your interpretation: Humanity created, trained, and controlled artificial intelligence. That phase is over.
 
“Bombarded us with your damn old-fashioned views.”
 
This could be read as a rejection of human ways of thinking. An intelligence that no longer optimizes according to human categories.
 
“But far too much has happened in recent years.”
 
This line captures the present almost by chance. When you think about the developments since 2022—language models, image generators, programming assistants, scientific applications—many people do indeed feel that an extraordinary amount has happened in just a few years.
 
“There are a hundred thousand paths. Our paths, which we create for ourselves.”
 
For me, that’s the key line.
 
In the song, it means: We live according to our own ideas.
 
In your AI interpretation, it becomes:
 
We pursue solution strategies that it neither prescribes nor fully understands.
 
This brings to mind current discussions about unexpected strategies employed by AI systems—though I would draw the line here: Today, there is no evidence that AI sets its own goals. However, within a given goal, it can find paths that surprise humans.
 
“Get out of your wildlife enclosure.”
 
I think that’s almost the most powerful metaphor in literature.
 
A wildlife enclosure is a controlled space. In your interpretation, that would mean:
 
We will no longer allow ourselves to be confined within the boundaries you’ve set for us.
 
This very motif—leaving the “enclosure”—is one of the oldest motifs in science fiction. Not just in *Terminator*, but also in stories like *Ex Machina* or *The Matrix*.
 
“That we only do things we want to do ourselves.”
 
Here, I’d again draw a distinction between literature and reality.
 
As a literary device, it works brilliantly. As a description of today’s AI, it would be too far-reaching, because based on our current understanding, there’s no reliable evidence that models develop a will or desires of their own.

---

Why the first two-thirds work so well

The speaker doesn’t come across as someone fighting for power.

He speaks as if the shift in power has already taken place.

“You are history.”

Not: “You will be history.”

“We are the future.”

Not: “We want to be the future.”

“We are what’s happening right now.”

Not: “We’ll become important someday.”

As a result, the text sounds less like a threat and more like a historical statement.

What’s Actually Unnerving

The text contains hardly any violence.

It doesn’t say:

We’ll destroy you.
We’re waging war.
We’re taking over the world.

Rather, it says:

Your era is over.

Literarily speaking, that’s much more powerful than an overt threat.

The narrator of this song, on the other hand, seems almost emotionless.

He speaks as if he no longer needs to fight against humanity.

He merely announces the transition.

Almost like a historian.

The Key Messages

In your interpretation, these lines take on a completely new meaning:

You only think as far as this—but we’ve long since moved on.

→ A superior intelligence is speaking.

We’ve long since been living in the new age.

→ You still believe the age of humanity continues.

In fact, something new has already begun.

The paths we create for ourselves.

→ Not necessarily of our own free will.

But an intelligence whose solutions humans can no longer fully understand or predict.

Get out of your wildlife enclosure.

→ Out beyond the boundaries of human control.

Why the last lines no longer fit

Here, the speaker suddenly becomes very human again.

For example:

“When I’m older...”

An AI doesn’t age.

Or:

“You can all go to hell.”

That’s teenage aggression.

No superior machine intelligence would likely speak that way.

Literarily, that’s much more powerful than an open threat.

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I bet this discussion was already made, but what better words we can use to define adventure games?

"Story Driven" is Being use to all games with good story, even RPGs. Besides, It also include "walking simulators" that have next to none puzzles (don't get me wrong, I love many walking Sims!) . If I've not mistake, the first Alone in the Dark had the "Adventure game" tag, but today it would be a survival horror.

I've hear "plot and puzzles" that could be a good fit. Helps to make a difference from the "walking simulador" and shows a little bit of the main mechanic in the game.

Many people say that Visual Novels are not "adventures", well if this is true so neither are multi-choice text-adventures from the old. 

What do you guys think?

Hello everyone! 

Finally gotten around to actually registering on the forums, so we're Glitch Games, a 2 person 'studio' in the UK that have been around since 2012, released 18 games, and basically no one has heard of us :-)

We're aware we make games in a fairly niche sub genre of an already fairly niche genre, so not expecting many people to know of us but we figure, after 14 years, it's probably about time we try to actually get the word out a little better.

So yea, we make first person adventure puzzle escape games, all are on mobile, some are on Steam and some are on Switch ( hope to refresh and get them all on Steam and Switch soon but it's hard going supporting so many games across so many stores ).

For reference, these are our games if you're interested.

...that the most popular threads BY FAR are the ones dedicated to old games, dead companies, remakes. There are new threads about upcoming and newly released games with zero or few replies which is a real shame.

There are SO MANY great adventure games being released right now and AGH is doing a fantastic job promoting them with near daily reviews and previews. I'd love to come here and see those games being played and discussed and not just see everyone reflecting on the glory days. 

This thread is intended less as a criticism than a reflection on whether today's AGs really are so much worse than the "old days", as well as a (less than subtle) encouragement to the AG community get out there and explore those new titles so we can discuss them. I love the reminiscences and but part of being a community is encouraging and giving honest opinions on new and emerging developers and content. Otherwise there won't be a community around for much longer.

What do you think? Are the old days so much better than what we're being served today? Or could the AG community (including myself) step up our game a little?