vga256 on Nostr: it took me 10 separate failed attempts over a 25 year period, but i finally finished ...

it took me 10 separate failed attempts over a 25 year period, but i finally finished Gabriel Knight 1 tonight. 9 of those attempts were getting stuck/bored in the first hour of the game. this week i forced myself past day 2, and the story opened up quickly and became more interesting.

i won't comment on the game itself as that's purely a taste thing. but i am kind of fascinated that many AGS developers implicitly/explicitly chose this game as their model and prototype for adventure design, as opposed to many, many other games in the sierra catalogue.

i can totally understand the appeal of GK-style adventures - the formula is easy to follow along with, and provides bite-sized plots over a longer arc.

yet, i think we could have been led towards such much more interactive/reactive designs if adventure designers had stopped lusting after pop movies and television. i guess i was always more excited about the literary genres that early text adventures experimented with. maybe some day we'll see (commercial) adventure game developers build games from a different foundation.

#adventureGames #gamedesign