I'm thinking of doing a video sometime in the future that combines my two favorite things: adventure games and vinyl records.

I know there's a sizeable market for "video game vinyls," but adventure games are a bit underrepresented in that regard.

If you have any cool ones, let me know which ones you have and which one's your favorite!

Here's a few from my collection you might recognize.

Welcome to the playthrough of Blackwell Unbound! New York City, 1973. Ghosts are not making it to the other side. Someone needs to help these poor souls find their way.

Our hero is Lauren, the  strong but weary aunt of the akward wallflower we came to embrace in the first game. We get the same sidekick, mentor and inexorable family curse: Joey the ghost.

Tonally, this part of the series leans most heavy to the side of neo-noir.
Even with the game's economic design, there are items to examine and details to explore with no direct bearing on gameplay or progress. This is optional, but I encourage you to look at things from the two different perspectives available in this game.

I'm not sure how many people will be participating, feel free to jump in at any time. I want to thank MenhirMike for the insightful observations and capturing what it was like playing the first game. I hope I can achieve the same for this one.

As a prelude, let's play until we meet our first ghost. If you get there early, meet the other one as well. From there, we'll pick a ghost to focus on first.

Since we are currently discussing the usage of AI generated assets in Adventure games, I would like to know which games you know that feature art/graphics created with traditional, analogue media.

Hybrids are fine, as long as the analogue medium is recognizable.

I start this thread in "Other Games", since I am convinced there might be games that are not really "adventures" but should be mentioned here because they are awesome.

So please share the games you know about!

I stumbled upon this interactive pencil illustration 5 minutes ago and needed to share it, to make a start:

https://alexanderperrin.com.au/paper/shorttrip/

You can try it in the browser and support the artist on steam if you like to. It took the artist 5 years to create this, and it was released in 2024. The playtime is about 5 minutes, according to the creator.

What do I personally love about Steel Sky? Warning: my answers will contain some spoilers. I could resolve this issue by using spoiler tags, but I don't want to get accused of censorship by those "saboteurs" from the Hobart Corporation, so here it is unadulterated. 

There are several small but nevertheless meaningful elements of branching actions peppered throughout the first third of the game that I admire. The example that stands out greatest to me is Robert Foster assuming a false job title in order to feign having legitimate clearance to locations. If the player does the expected action of just simply talking to Anita, he will have the choice of either being a safety inspector or a security guard.

How about a slightly hidden, unique and all-round fancier job title? It seems we're in luck, because if Foster races straight past Anita with the brisk pace and determination of Gilbert Lamb hearing it's lunch break, then a new dialogue sequence gets unlocked. You can fake being a safety inspector yet again   but immediately after putting your foot in your mouth, you now have the new option to ask her on a date for the correct terminology of your phoney profession. Behold, we are now an auditor!

Sometimes I even just love stuff that is obviously an oversight in the development process (I'll get to this in a bit), take for instance Robert stealing those sweet dark shades of a recently deceased security professional. Reich might have been on the wrong side of history, but the man clearly took protecting his ocular vision earnestly.

 

Robert, whom despite being an Australian and living in the desert has gleefully abandoned any notion of sun exposure safety, and takes umbrage at the mere suggestion that a full-sized leather outfit is inappropriate for this kind of weather, suddenly has decided that a pair of bloodstained sunglasses is just too hard to resist. Good to see the Aussie mantra of "Slip-Slop-Slap" is being kept alive in this dystopian future.

Normally foreman Potts would confiscate the sunglasses after you've finished exploring the storage room of the pipe factory. But did you know that there is a secret way to keep those glorious sunglasses FOREVER? I discovered this decades ago, and I just genuinely like this mistake for some peculiar reason. All that is required is for you to complete the puzzles necessary to get the lift working again on the upper walkway section, then do a tiny bit of backtracking to pick up the ID card and (more importantly) the sunglasses off Reich's body as the final step before continuing the rest of the game in style.

Worth also mentioning is the phenomenal soundtrack by Dave Cummins, which strives through regardless of your sound card setup. Selecting my favourites, I'm going to put a spotlight on the chillaxing composition of the 2nd jukebox song in the St. James Club, the pleasingly bombastic sounds of the upper walkway near the security headquarters, and of course the entrancing music of LINC-Space.

 I've been kindly informed by LINC that my terminal credits are expiring, so I will just finish up by saying that it was an exhilarating experience from the very beginning with the crashed helicopter on the walkway and then getting chased as a fugitive, what an absolutely cinematic-esque opening to a game from 1994. I played the 2003 freeware edition and enjoyed the adventure immensely.

I've changed my daily routine and have been feeling quite tired in the evenings ever since. I notice that I just don't feel like doing any more brain teasers.

On the other hand, games like FaceNoir, The Lost Crown, and Black Mirror only work in the dark.

This is a multiple choice survey poll regarding preferences. Sounds innocent enough, but hopefully it's a bit more provocative like my thread title suggests.

1. If you were forced to choose between playing only adventure games exclusively forever, or being able to play every other genre ever created such as RPG, platformer, etc. - which would you ultimately choose?

2. Which is the more entertaining protagonist, Guybrush Threepwood or the duo of Sam & Max? (Somewhat unfair to be pitting one protagonist against two, but hey, I designed this quiz to be intentionally unfair.)

3. In a parallel universe where every single adventure game must have the compulsory inclusion of a slider puzzle or a maze, you get the unenviable decision of picking which one gets included. Which filler puzzle will you include to make the populace inevitably riot in the streets? (Not on purpose, mind you).

4. Only one control scheme for every adventure game. The choice is keyboard controls only or just mouse clicking. Why? Just because.

I rarely see them mentioned in the same category.  But games like Zork and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are arguably Adventure Games with no graphics.  Do you consider the absence of graphical representation to be key?

How do you feel about developers using generative AI in their adventure games?

If you were to make an introductory package for someone new to the genre, what would it include?

Besides games, you can add other (physical) media about/related to adventure games.

Hey all.

Big scoop over at Adventure Game Hotspot's main site today about the new game from Wadjet Eye led by Ben Chandler. He's teased pics of it previously, but we've got an interview and a whole lot of details!

https://adventuregamehotspot.com/intervi...-feel-gilt

The artwork is stunning, of course, but sure sounds like an intriguing story with ambitious gameplay to boot. Gotta love it!