Author Topic: The Long History Of The Adventure Game Revival  (Read 9613 times)

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Blackthorne

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The Long History Of The Adventure Game Revival
« on: February 12, 2013, 11:04:59 PM »
So, I'm sitting here, and the hour is growing later here on the East Coast of the United States.  This is when my mind starts to get away from me - as if it almost floats two feet to the left of my head, and takes a look back at the man sitting at the keyboard.

I spent a good amount of time this evening recovering information from my old hard-drive from a dead-desktop computer.  I found a lot of old IA/IQ materials -  almost 10 years worth.  I'd been transfering it from computer to computer for almost 10 years.... ideas, concepts... so much work that the public hasn't seen.  Anyone who's been a member of Infamous Adventures or Infamous Quests can testify to the vast amount of stuff that haunts our forums and servers.  It's a bit of living history, for me - tracking that time.

People have been talking about the re-birth of adventure games this year.  Which is true, in a way - but for people like us - people like me - this happened a long, long time ago... 10 years ago - when Tierra/AGDI, Hero 6, Phoenix Online and eventually IA were carrying the torch of the adventure game genre.  This was before "social media" took off, and our social media was our forums.  We lived in them - we communicated in almost real time in them.  We'd have threads with ungodly amounts of posts - and there was the usual cast of characters that haunted the forums.  Names I haven't seen in a long time used to be regulars - many of them very young at the time.  For instance, Broomie was merely 14 in the early days!  But we were tight knit, despite the occasional flamewar for no reason.... we loved these games.  And we loved that other people did too.  It was kind of like finding an oasis in the desert.  And we worked hard to foster that - the community was strong.  But, times change - people grow up, and away, and the world moved on in a way - yet new people came in to take up the mantles in fan forums, and we kept making games.  I definitely miss some of the regulars from the early days at the Tierra/AGDI forums, the AGS forums, The KQIX forums, the Hero6 forums.  It was a special time.... so when people talk about this resurgence like it subtly happened, there's part of me that cries "We were here the WHOLE time!!!"

I'm glad there's more new attention on the scene, and somehow it's managed to coax our old heros and mascots out of their comfort zones to return to making adventure games.  But I do miss some of the people who were there early on, and didn't hang on like some of us did.  Some came back for the Kickstarters - and I reconnected with a lot of people from the old days - which was awesome.

I guess this is just a sign of how much this community, and the people, have had an impact on me - no matter how small you think you are, or maybe you think no one's read your posts - I'm pretty sure I have.  Heh.

Anway... it's 2013, and I'm still here.  So are a lot of my mates - and we may be relative "newbies" compared to some designers, but I promise you - we're working our asses off to make a great new-old game for ya!

This is for the fans.  This is for the scene.  This is for all those crazy posts we used to pile on when we dared to dream.

This is Infamous Quests.


Bt
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Lambonius

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Re: The Long History Of The Adventure Game Revival
« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2013, 11:44:37 PM »
Oh God.  Not another Bt nostalgia post.  ;)

Seriously, though.  I'm right there with you.  I think I stumbled across the AGDI remakes around 2003, 2004 maybe?  I dunno.  It was well before IA's KQ3 came out.  I followed KQIX for a bit, curious, made a few obnoxious posts here and there (my first IA post ever was to complain about the simplified spell system in KQ3!)  To put that into perspective, I started dating my wife in 2004.  We got married in 2009.  Had our daughter in 2011.  Fuckballs, I'll be 30 this year.

I joined IA in 2008 to work on Project X (KOS), and ended up busting ass to finish SQ2 (almost 4 years later, HA!)  I'd never painted a 320x200 background before.  I had posted some artwork from a Photoshop class I was taking as an elective in grad school and Bt PMed me and asked me to join.  The only thing Sierra related I had done before that was to de-make a bunch of VGA screens in 16 color AGI glory (which, actually, I think was the first time Bt inquired about me doing background art, but I turned him down citing lack of experience with Photoshop & GIMP.  Hell, I don't even think GIMP existed yet!)  I painted a bunch of BGs, most of which were for KOS and haven't been publicly seen, and ended up dipping my feet into animations, something I never thought I'd do.  Then lo and behold, a few years go buy and I'm animating a giant fucking asteroid explosion for the grand finale of this little sci-fi game we'd been working for 8 years.  That one animation was over 60 frames!  That's a hell of a lot for a single sprite animation, in case you were wondering.

Bt and I had chatted about the QFI project on and off for quite some time before he finally approached me one day and said, "Hey, by the way, we made the demo for QFI in the last 5 months since you had your daughter.  Check it out!"  Needless to say, I was both floored and instantly pumped to get working on it.  I think almost as a favor to me, since he knew how excited I was, he started slipping me little bits and pieces to work on, even before the Kickstarter had officially launched.

Anyway, I don't want to wax nostalgic anymore.  This is a great time for adventure games, and I'm incredibly happy and thankful to have contributed and to be continuing to contribute to this scene in any small way that I can.
Lambonius...Rarely has our moderating team encountered a forumite as consistently unpleasant as you, and you've burned through far more chances than you deserved. A person really has to try hard to be so obnoxious that they're banned from AG, but you've managed it and then some.

Intendant S

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Re: The Long History Of The Adventure Game Revival
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2013, 02:05:06 AM »
That...was...beautiful!  I'm speechless.   :'(
"Too much spirit can be a dangerous thing. Tends to... infect others."

rugged

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Re: The Long History Of The Adventure Game Revival
« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2013, 05:53:24 AM »

Yeah I miss the good ole days, but heck we are now living in the promised land. Even though I have never been seriously involved in any game development, I am pleased to have been part of a community that kept the embers burning just enough to see them one day spark to flame. This song makes me think of the community and particularly the indie dev teams
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Blackthorne

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Re: The Long History Of The Adventure Game Revival
« Reply #4 on: February 13, 2013, 07:44:02 AM »
Haha, yeah - another nostalgia post.  Like I said, it came from finding all kinds of old files - original KQIII stuff.... Tierra's KQ1 (Before the edits and the AGDI logo)... just a ton of fun stuff.


Bt
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Intendant S

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Re: The Long History Of The Adventure Game Revival
« Reply #5 on: February 13, 2013, 12:42:31 PM »
I'm one of those people who always refused to believe that adventure gaming was dead.  There had to be more people like me who longed for more.  While I never was part of a community until recently, I did go out of my way to find fan-made and other indie games and gobbled them up whenever I found them.  Space Quest 0 and the Lost Chapter.  The Tierra/AGDI KQ remakes.  IA's KQ3 remake.  Seeing such a huge resurgence in the genre thanks in large part to Tim Schafer and Kickstarter brings a nostalgic tear to my eye and a warmth in my heart.  To know that I'm a part of the renaissance just leaves me speechless.
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sickfiction

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Re: The Long History Of The Adventure Game Revival
« Reply #6 on: February 13, 2013, 01:38:38 PM »
For years I didn't even think that remakes were possible, then in around 2006 I stumbled, like many into Tierra and their remake of KQ2, I immediately started looking for others and eventually found KQ3 by IA which I thought was much more true to the original and the reworking of the art and music were sublime.

I saw that SQ2 was their next big project, which was going to be released 'any day now'

I kept checking back for the next couple of years and it seemed that it had stalled, until one day I noticed a little ad for a sound-editor, and the rest is l'histoire. I'm especially proud to be a part of SQ2 and most recently all the hard work at Infamous Quests. Most proud I've ever been, at anything. The revival makes complete sense after everyone realized that the fans of adventure games never really went away, we grew up but never left. We are making games for a niche market, but hopefully the word will spread, and brand new fans might give up their 3D shooters and Zombie games for something with a little bit of humour, story, HAND DRAWN artwork and a real challenge.

We need to keep this inertia.

Good work everyone!
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dactylopus

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Re: The Long History Of The Adventure Game Revival
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2013, 10:57:17 PM »
Great post!

I like hearing about the history of this community (especially this game) as I wasn't around to be a part of everything.

Personally, I've been in and out of the community for a while now, never becoming a serious fixture.  I never had too much interest in the remakes, but I remember when I first heard about the Hero6 Project.

At that time, the game still didn't have a name (or plot, or characters...).  I would have joined the team, but I didn't really have any developed skills.  Most of what I could have offered were concepts and story ideas, but there were already far too many of those when I came upon the website.  Still, it was a lot of fun to read all about it and watch it evolve.

Every once in a while, I would check back in with the community and lurk around the various forums, hoping to find more information about new games with that old Quest for Glory feel.  Over the years, my life drifted away from the computer games of my youth, and a bit of time passed before I checked again.

When I returned to the scene, I saw the awesome QfG2 remake by AGDI, and the hilariously fun Space Quest for Glory demo.  I remember being very excited about them and trying to explain to a friend who, of course, didn't understand the joy that these games were bringing me.

I let a few more months lapse, but returned to see this team make the funding goal on Kickstarter to produce Quest for Infamy, a game I had heard of ages ago.  How incredibly exciting it is to see those who once were fans grow to become the producers themselves.  In your Demo, I can feel how much you guys care about the art and fun of these games.  You guys are very inspiring, and I thank you for your hard work and dedication.

rogerxy

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Re: The Long History Of The Adventure Game Revival
« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2013, 02:20:40 PM »
Great post BT, almost shed a tear :)

I've always been there and played adventure games since the beginning/middle of the 90s.

I was there when the abominable 3D Adventure games came and replaced the 2D ones. When legendary series like "Monkey Island" and "King's Quest" made us utterly dissapointed when transcended into 3D.

I was there when Lucasarts promised us "Sam n Max 2" and I was there when the same company cancelled it and at the same time declared they wouldn't do anymore adventure games.

I was also there when Sierra as we knew it ceased to exist.

Having adventure games as one of your biggest interest, everything that happened there was pretty hard. I also agree that the "revival" for me was when I found Tierra a few years later. I didn't know, however, that the adventure game community was still so big, but that  was what this "Tim Schafer revival" really showed us.

And here we are.

Even though many have doubted, the future for adventure games looks very bright. We have retired adventure game designers coming back, as well as newer ones (Like you and Himalaya Studios). And here we are. We who never lost faith. And I'm glad to be here.
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Blackthorne

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Re: The Long History Of The Adventure Game Revival
« Reply #9 on: April 03, 2013, 02:50:39 PM »
Thanks Roger.  You know, working on a game like QFI really triggers the old nostalgia mechanism for me - I really do have a love affair with these games from the past - and I hope that passion colors the future of our games positively.  It really means a lot to me not to only be able to make these games, but share them with people who have the same passion for them as I do.


Bt
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