Hello! . . from Adventure Point plus Darkstar - Interview with Jeff Williams

[Gelert]

Hi there!

I hope you won't mind this long first post but I'd like to tell you about my website and how I have used it to help publicise and promote Telltale's fantastic Adventure games.

Firstly, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Gelert and I'm the owner and creator of one of the largest (if not THE largest), Adventure games websites in the UK/Europe. If you're unfamiliar with it, the website is called Adventure Point (website address: http://www.adventurepoint.co.uk/ ).

What is this . . err . . Adventure Point? Well, Adventure Point documents and describes nearly 2000 point and click Adventure games, all illustrated in full colour, and with age recommendations, system requirements and a star rating system amongst other things. Also included are developer interviews, competitions to win games and the newly introduced Preview and Review sections. Other features (too many to mention), such as Adventure game sub-categorisation, sections dedicated to text Adventures and games specifically suited to children, are also included. Adventure Point is a non-commercial website and the work of one Adventure game devoted person (me).

I'm proud to say that Adventure Point, although merely a hobby website, has attracted the attention of all of the major Adventure games websites and forums, including Just Adventure, GameBoomers, Adventure Gamers, etc.. All of these sites, and others, link to Adventure Point. We have welcomed nearly 80,000 visitors through our doors since launch in January 2009, and the website and our newly created forum community are growing steadily.

Adventure Point has also recently been given a glowing review by none other than The Great Website Guide. You can read Steve Grove's excellent review here . . http://www.greatwebsiteguide.com/ent...nturepoint.asp

My motivation in creating Adventure Point was to create a website resource for everyone interested, or new to, point and click Adventure games . . . and especially parents and children. One of the major features of the website is the vast array of colourful and informative feature pages contained within. I hope especially that fans of Telltale's games will appreciate Adventure Point's fun design and presentation.

Here, for example is the show case page for 'Tales Of Monkey Island' . . http://www.adventurepoint.co.uk/#/ta...and/4536989239 . Also, featured are other Telltale games, such as Sam & Max: Season One http://www.adventurepoint.co.uk/#/sa...one/4526070035 , Wallace & Gromit http://www.adventurepoint.co.uk/#/wa...ven/4537067662 and Bone http://www.adventurepoint.co.uk/#/bo...lle/4526598750 .

For ease of introduction to what Adventure Point is all about, this is what my recently created Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Advent...2064315?v=wall says.

"For both newcomers to the wondrous world of Adventure games and well seasoned players alike, Adventure Point offers something more than just a quick-dip reference resource to both graphic and text-based Adventure games.
More than anything Adventure Point offers an alternative to the 'usua...l' perception of computer and video games. With an abundance of computer and video games on the market focusing on combat and killing, violence and aggression, Adventure Point shows that story driven Adventure games games can be a 'breath-of-fresh-air' alternative to the carnage and mayhem frequently encountered in other types of game.
Visitors to the website will see that the vast majority of Adventure games are non-violent and that they are, more than any other type of video game, most certainly family-friendly games (Age suitability information is provided for further reassurance).
Adventure games are excellent for developing mental agility and are very good motivational tools. Many are also educational. That moment when a puzzle is solved, or a clue is recognised, can give the player enormous reward in terms of satisfaction at having accomplished a well thought out goal. And, of course, finding a solution to a puzzle or challenge allows the all-important story to progress.
If you or your children think you have something of the detective about you, and would like to take a step beyond the sometimes hum-drum world of Hidden Object games, then Adventure games are for you. More than anything . . . Adventure Point is for you."

Finally, I'd like to mention my website's latest interview scoop if that's okay. Darkstar fans may be interested to know that I recently conducted an interview with Darkstar creator, Jeff Williams.

You can see the interview here .......... http://www.adventurepoint.co.uk/#/ap-home/4521113552

Just click on News on the left side of the page or on the yellow speech bubble above April Ryan's head on the Home page.

Then just click on the Darkstar interview box.

I hope you'll enjoy both the website as a whole and reading the interview. Jeff was very open and interesting about his new game.

If you like the look of Adventure Point and what it has to offer please let me know either my mail or through the website's visitor's book and contact form. As always, I'd love to hear from you.

One further thing I'd like to add. If Telltale Games' administrative team think that Adventure Point compliments the efforts of Telltale Games in any way, and would be interested in reciprocal linking between our websites, I'd be delighted to participate. Please just drop me a line and we can go from there.

Regards,

Gelert (of Adventure Point).

[RingmasterJ5]

Originally Posted by Gelert

One further thing I'd like to add. If Telltale Games' administrative team think that Adventure Point compliments the efforts of Telltale Games in any way, and would be interested in reciprocal linking between our websites, I'd be delighted to participate. Please just drop me a line and we can go from there.

I don't think TTG would want to add advertisements to their site.

[Gelert]

Hi Ringmaster,

Thanks for your comment. I hope you like the website though.

The linking idea isn't advertising in the profit making sense at all as there's nothing commercial about it as far as my end is concerned. I have no financial gain to make.

As I mentioned above, Adventure Point exists purely for the pleasure of others and the only large website that I think really compares with it is the excellent German website Adventure-archiv, which catalogues lots of games but not in the way that I do with feature pages for each game. Adventure Point is one person's thankyou (for want of a better word), to all the makers of all the wonderful, and often overlooked, Adventure games out there. My motive was purely to bring Adventure games to a wider audience that's all. And to show that not all games are 'bad'.

So Telltale may or may not benefit financially, but they wouldn't lose out in any way as far as I can see.

However, I take your point if, in other words, you are saying that Telltale don't like to link to other websites. Otherwise they'd already have a Links section I suppose. I completely understand if Telltale doesn't think it's worth it or doesn't think linking to Adventure Point is appropriate or that Adventure Point isn't of a high enough standard. As I say, it's all done by myself and I learnt everything from scratch when redundancy was looming. Something to lift the gloom.

Even though I wrote my linking suggestion 'in bold', the reciprocal linking suggestion was merely an afterthought. It's not important. I merely thought it would be nice.

Anyway, more than anything I'm very grateful to the Telltale forum Administrators for looking at my post prior to publishing it here, and allowing me to post about Adventure Point, about the Darkstar interview and about my desire to share my love of Adventure games in general. Thanks Admin folks!

As I say if anyone (anyone ?), thinks my website is any good, or more of a plus to the Adventure gaming community than a minus, please let me know. It's a lonely world out here. Building and running Adventure Point costs me lots of my time and most of my annual pocket money. So any nice comments are always welcomed by this ever-so-vain Adventure game fan.