Is "Back to the Future" the return of adventure games to mainstream???

[FIGULS]

Ok almost everybody, and really...everybody has seen and loved Back to the future, i dont have to be a magician to know that this will probably be Telltale's best selling game, even more than TMI, because theres gonna be millions of gamers, and even people that don't play games usually, waiting for the game...

So if this game is good, do you guys feel, like this could be a "historic" return for AV after about 12-15 years out of the spotlight?

[RAnthonyMahan]

Hopefully. It's clear BttF is supposed to be Telltale's big break, the title that starts getting them real mainstream attention. And of course, more attention for Telltale means more attention for the adventure genre.

So cross your fingers and hope for the best.

[mathman77]

It would be cool to see Telltale more mainstream, as long as they keep doing their less-mainstream series. Telltale could be leading a revolution: the return of Adventure games!

[Origami]

I don't think it will help make adventure games mainstream again.
But I have always said that the game will definitely garner more publicity for TellTale.

[Tyrfing42]

Dunno about adventure games, but with the cool story ideas that have popped up so far I personally hope this game is the return of BttF to the mainstream (in terms of getting more additions to the story like this game)

[Sausy Gibbon]

In terms of recognition this game will either bring in new players or alienate them, I think there'll be at least one person who will buy the game thinking it something else.

[taumel]

If the future of adventure games is riding old licences, loosing innovation were it would be interesting and giggling about teenager humour then i don't want it. It sometimes seems that video gamers aren't allowed to evolve or the ones making them haven't or were exchanged by younger ones, targeting the same type of audience over and over again whilst loosing more and more those who once loved these type of games.

[LuigiHann]

It'll be interesting to see how this goes

[Vainamoinen]

Originally Posted by taumel

If the future of adventure games is riding old licences, loosing innovation were it would be interesting and giggling about teenager humour then i don't want it.

While BTTF is definitly "riding old licences", it is pretty definitly steering away from "teenager humour". If the spirit of the movies is preserved, this of course means the movies' kind of humour as well.

That said, this game has a rather interesting target group. Yes, there's the younger generation as well, and it's obvious that TTG's efforts are directed towards them. But these potential customers are those who have seen the movies way after the 80's and were probably fascinated by the "antique" flair . It's rather natural to present to the new generation of gamers (who seek the "aged" spirit of the movies) a game that uses mechanics of a popular game genre from the late 80s/early 90s.

It has become obvious, however (from the early survey at least), that this game also lures the older generation into gaming, one that actually saw the movies in the theatre when they first came out. I'm not sure whether this could really be considered an "accidental" target group - I'm rather sure that TTG reckoned with that.

In Germany, Adventure games pretty much still are "mainstream", so the initial question doesn't mean that much to me. They hardly get the sales of FPS/RTS/MMORPGs, but they do have a really solid foot in the door on the gaming market here.

[taumel]

Ich finde mich in dieser Zielgruppe jedenfalls nicht wieder. Zudem bezweifle ich, dass Menschen, denen die Spiele einfach zu eindimensional wurden, sich durch solcherlei plumpe Marketingstrategien mittel- bis langfristig wieder Adventures annähern; hierzu müßte TTG sich schon mal inhaltlich etwas weiterentwickeln.

Eine Vielzahl von Welten fasziniert mich, aus diversen Gründen, weitaus mehr als Zurück in die Zukunft. Es gefällt aber den Kindern und die können es, abhängig vom jeweiligen Alter, womöglich nicht mal spielen, da die Spiele eventuell nicht mal auf Textebene lokalisiert werden; ziemlich für den Arsch gedacht. Zumal mir das heutzutage auch irgendwie zu viel Zielgruppengeschiele ist.

Aufgrund unserer Spielkultur, die u.a. auf der Tradition von Brettspielen oder der im Vergleich zu den USA unterschiedlichen Hardwarebasis beruht, haben Adventures in Deutschland einen anderen Stellenwert als in vergleichbaren Industrienationen. Nichtsdestotrotz, fristen sie auch hier, wie die Verkaufszahlen belegen, eher ein Nischendasein.

Nach über fünf Jahren finde ich die zumeist einfach gestrickte Slapstick-Schiene ermüdend, zumal der Humor, die Komplexität oder die Thematiken mich einfach nicht mehr begeistern. Das mag ausreichend sein für Spieler, die nicht mit diesen Spielen aufgewachsen sind; mich macht's mittlerweile aber einfach nicht mehr satt. TTG ist meist gefällig, aber selten großartig.

Ich möchte neue Adventures, die mich intelligent, meinem Alter entsprechend, unterhalten - von fesseln wag ich gar nicht zu sprechen. Das darf gerne auch lustig, sollte aber bitte nicht flach und öde sein.

[SHODANFreeman]

Why would you post in German?

[doodo!]

Originally Posted by SHODANFreeman

Why would you post in German?

Originally Posted by taumel

If the future of adventure games is riding old licences, loosing innovation were it would be interesting and giggling about teenager humour then i don't want it. It sometimes seems that video gamers aren't allowed to evolve or the ones making them haven't or were exchanged by younger ones, targeting the same type of audience over and over again whilst loosing more and more those who once loved these type of games.

Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis and Indiana Jones Last Crusade both did it in the golden era of adventure games and are brilliant games.

Arguably people like second takes, third takes that hone ideas far more than the original. Monkey Island 2 over 1 or 3 over 2. Or a back to the future game when the Nintendo version was the worse thing ever.
You can't say it's not innovative and challenging to once take a movie Like Last Crusade and translate it into a video game successfully. Or BTTF.

Especially back in the golden age of video games with pix elated graphics, no voices, 8 bit music. Lucas Arts has been doing it since the arcade days, and now it's adapted. There's always been a audience for this and in the prime days of adventure games we had games like these.

Also games like Simon The Sorcerer , Broken Sword, were inspired by movie titles and outer influences. And most these old school CLASSICS have vintage humor to them and are teenage humor if not younger!
Alot of the games probably say Ages 6 and Up, lol. And if not then I must accept that as CLASSICS that almost every one loves ,that I'm probably mistaken and just humoring you.


Though if they do want to be Top Dog, I agree that they could start making new titles but that's increasingly hard today when games have evolved so far into story that they are far more complex to write and they take on a movie quality to them.

Video games have changed, I can't think of anyone out there really that reminds me of Lucas Arts, except maybe for a different type of Lucas Arts...

Even when I was playing these games as a kid and saw them in stores, I never romanticized about their EMPIRE. I just enjoyed the games. Rest assured they still make sales and they still have a successful company.

With all these web posts, nostalgia, youthful ideas, it's easy to look back and say golden age. Well, games were good back then, but that sort of mentality is like a blind fold for the several good games that have came out over the past decade or two.
FPS has been around since forever, and we've all watched those games evolve. Some of the games are BAD but are worthy noting for their technological evolution of video games/ genre.
I played FPS during the Golden Age of adventure games, and they were amazing games. Back then they looked real, felt organic. The graphics were good back then. The stories weren't that amazing.


What started FPS and kept it alive for so long is technology, controls, graphics. Early games that failed these died off. Now they are even further evolved and have story elements as did Adventure Games.Adventure games tried going 3D, changing controls, they failed miserably.

The industry has not changed as much as people fantasize. Adventure games are back already.

Also, with the Internet and modern age marketing games are different now. Back in the day more games would be on shelves than the web. Mostly FPS, RPG games are on the shelves now.

Smaller companies that sill produce adventure games do it mostly through on line.

Many titles like Simon The Sorcerer, Broken Sword were still producing, are still producing into the 2000s. Games like these fail due to Technology Simon 3D for example, where FPS has excelled. Telling a story with technology was harder back then, now it's easier. AMVs or whatever they were called, tried moving things in the right direction early on. They were successful for a long time but became dated, though if you look around they are still produced today.

HEAVY RAIN is really worth mentioning here, it's marketed BIG and is adventure game more or less at heart, atleast I think it's the same audience by whole. It's a modern game that uses the future technology of Blade Runner an old adventure game using Real Time 3D.

[taumel]

@SHODANFreeman
Because i just wanted to and Vainamoinen (whatever that means) seems to be located in germany and therefore i suspect he understands german as well. This might not be satisfying for everyone but missing translations for non english countries aren't either. ;O)

@doodo!
This post triggers many thoughts which i just don't have the time to write down. So just a few quick thoughts:

If LucasArts would have been always as innovative as TTG, we wouldn't have seen all those games we call classics by now.

Indiana Jones was a great licence but a) LucasArts adventures weren't only about licences, they once also made quite some innovative games as well and b) it was a up to date licence, although i wouldn't mind if they would have chosen Forbidden Planet or something with a similar potential. BTTF isn't a first class licence to me and no i won't find it ultra cool if there will be references to the film or DOTT.

FPS definitely is something completely different, only a few age well, like for instance Doom III or Bioshock. Adventure games related you could still make a perfect adventure with AGS. I would change all the good and bad innovations TTG brought to us within a second for better storyline, better riddles and more interesting dialogues. Simplified, if you can't offer both, i would rather fire the camera guys and hire better writers/designers instead or give them more time to come up with something more interesting.

Broken Sword was from 1996. And whilst it for sure was inspired by other media as well, which most probably is true for most stuff, it still was something new and just so very well done. Beside of Bone 2, which i would call TTG's best adventure so far, i haven't seen anything even coming close to the quality Broken Sword delivers. Why?

I sometimes had the feeling, when looking at the special material on the DVDs, that TTG's games are done by some nerds who don't reflect a lot or life in their very own bubble where these things seem to be a whole lot funnier than outside. I'm sorry if this isn't true and it sounds unfair but these were my first impressions watching the material.

Heavy Rain was a soso experience, some aspects where cool, others didn't work this well but at least they dared something!

Might sound a bit harsh but this was written under time pressure... :O)

[Vainamoinen]

Originally Posted by taumel

@SHODANFreeman
Because i just wanted to and Vainamoinen (whatever that means) seems to be located in germany and therefore i suspect he understands german as well. This might not be satisfying for everyone but missing translations for non english countries aren't either. ;O)

If a convincing mastery of the English language is displayed by a poster, I of course can not answer to posts written exclusively in German. Wenn isch bin ehrlish, underschtehe ish doch wirklisch gar keinen Deutsh.

To find out what Vainamoinen means, you might want to ask Master Google.

[doodo!]

I honestly think a game like Heavy Rain bridges the modern gaming era of graphics/ story, technology back to adventure games.

But, FPS has been on the cutting edge of graphics as much as sport games have for about a decade now. Look at what's on the shelf and how amazing they look technologically, mostly FPS, RPGS (thank God), Sport games. FPS becomes a piece of history in the modern evolution of video games, what's mostly current.

Not until recently with games like Heavy Rain, Still Life, have we seen adventure games like these. Throughout the years, they've tried with games like The Last Express.

Adventure games literally fell out of time because they tried to become modern and just failed to be able to bridge the gap. You can't go back and use ancient video gaming engines. People are intellectually aroused and fascinated by the evolution of video games, they have been since the 70s. The successes of RPG and FPS show this very clearly, as well as the failures of Adventure games.

It wouldn't be very mainstream either.

By the way...
Anyone remember a old game, it's off world, you begin near teleporters and your some sort of marine or something...and it's set up like Rebel Assault, forget the name of it. It's one of those AMVs or whatever you call it.

[Origami]

I understood the post for most part. Helps that dutch and german look somewhat similair. =P

I sometimes had the feeling, when looking at the special material on the DVDs, that TTG's games are done by some nerds who don't reflect a lot or life in their very own bubble where these things seem to be a whole lot funnier than outside. I'm sorry if this isn't true and it sounds unfair but these were my first impressions watching the material.

Are you sure? My impression was that the humour in said licenced game matches the humour of the franchise the licence comes from.

If the future of adventure games is riding old licences, loosing innovation were it would be interesting and giggling about teenager humour then i don't want it

This is definitely not the case. There are still enough adventure games released that are original and aren't part of any licence. This may not seem the case with TellTale but to me it looks like that was a deliberate choice. And I like it so far. I like revisiting 'forgotten' franchises and seeing new life breath into them. It's huge fanservice to a lot of people. Fans of Sam and Max got new games. Fans of Wallace and Gromit got a new game. Fans of Monkey Island got a new game.
And now fans of BttF(like myself) get a game. =)

Visit www.Adventuregamers.com and you'll see that enough adventure games are still released that aren't built upon an exisiting licence. Whether the games are of good quality is a different matter. In a world where there are countless of Adventure Game companies one is bound to handle the licenced material. And I am glad TellTale is that company.

[doodo!]

Originally Posted by Origami

I understood the post for most part. Helps that dutch and german look somewhat similair. =P



Are you sure? My impression was that the humour in said licenced game matches the humour of the franchise the licence comes from.



This is definitely not the case. There are still enough adventure games released that are original and aren't part of any licence. This may not seem the case with TellTale but to me it looks like that was a deliberate choice. And I like it so far. I like revisiting 'forgotten' franchises and seeing new life breath into them. It's huge fanservice to a lot of people. Fans of Sam and Max got new games. Fans of Wallace and Gromit got a new game. Fans of Monkey Island got a new game.
And now fans of BttF(like myself) get a game. =)

Visit www.Adventuregamers.com and you'll see that enough adventure games are still released that aren't built upon an exisiting licence. Whether the games are of good quality is a different matter. In a world where there are countless of Adventure Game companies one is bound to handle the licenced material. And I am glad TellTale is that company.

For the first time I completely agree with you, might be the second time. Things are just on the net more now a days than they used to be. There's many good games out there that we all ignore, pretend don't exist.

AVS was almost a new classic if it weren't for it's non-finished feeling. Star Wars has been milked for like almost 40 years, so why can't other franchises that are arguably just as deserving, have a little fun?

[WinterSnowblind]

Originally Posted by Sausy Gibbon

In terms of recognition this game will either bring in new players or alienate them, I think there'll be at least one person who will buy the game thinking it something else.

I fully expect to this. If you've seen any of the comments over at places like Gametrailers (which are typically 12 year old console owners) a lot of them seem to expect this to be some kind of GTA style sandbox game.. Which really wouldn't have been a good use of the liscence, after the novelty of driving around the DeLorean wore off.

[doodo!]

Originally Posted by WinterSnowblind

I fully expect to this. If you've seen any of the comments over at places like Gametrailers (which are typically 12 year old console owners) a lot of them seem to expect this to be some kind of GTA style sandbox game.. Which really wouldn't have been a good use of the liscence, after the novelty of driving around the DeLorean wore off.

It's up to TTG to market the game more clearly. That's not really so much 12 years fault. 12 year olds are a average level of stupid, and a chunk of the target audience. The rest of the mature, thinking type will probably look into the project, find this web site and post a reply in this thread, instead of a youtube video made from a GTA mod, youtube where all their friends from Myspace and Facebook post!

[guitarsareboring]

I think the game will get good reviews and will please adventure game fans but I don't expect it to please many people who aren't already into the genre. I hope I'm surprised though.