dotplay
4 posts
@dotplaygames
Putting game devs back in the driver's seat of distribution.
There's a sad state of affairs in regards to point and click adventure games. The genre needs to survive and do well. It's core strength is one of storytelling mixed with exploration and some puzzles, all without being reflex based, so it has the potential to be a much larger and wider genre of gaming. Most people enjoy story, puzzles and exploration. Not everything has to be a roguelike, soulslike or hardcore shooter. Virtually every review, Steam review, or even online retweet mention says "fans of LucasArts and Sierra style games will like this". It'd be like every FPS today being referenced as "fans of id and Epic games will like this". The genre can't seem to escape the shadows of it's grandparents. Now then I realize that Sierra and LucasArts were astounding and nostalgia is strong. But even PnC developers are complicit in keeping this going with most games doing tongue in cheek references to those old games way past it being cool to do so. You can't blame the fans for doing this as everyone compares games to the big games of their childhood (or recent hits) but it illustrates how basically nothing in the last 20 years has really eclipsed the adventure games of the 80s and 90s to become new reference points vs "looks like Monkey Island". People don't mean anything bad by it. It's just how humans reference things. Same with genre reviewers, most of whom are hobbyists or volunteers themselves in the genre. Even genre podcasts can't escape the past and nearly all of them continually just talk about 30 year old games. Add to that, that few customers seem to show up for Steam releases and a lot of the games go unnoticed. Even the community doesn't show up for a lot of the batter releases. Very few do very well comparatively speaking. I realize it's a really small sub-genre and niche and has limited appeal but most games sell very few copies especially considering the apparent love for the old days of the genre. I can count on one hand with fingers missing the point and click games that have close to 2000 reviews on Steam. That's the current genre sales ceiling unless you're Ron Gilbert or Tim Schafer and had a real budget and a team of more than 1-3 people. The shame of it is that it's the small solo, indie, hobbyist turned wanting professional who are even keeping the genre alive to begin with. They are the ones who most need the support as they are largely making games out of passion with little to no resources. It's a shame if an entire sub-genre of gaming cannot escape the gravity of the games that birthed it and do financially well enough to be more than a hobby or passionate side hustle. It's hard to bootstrap yourself up when you build it and no one comes. I'd encourage developers in the genre to think about wider appealing settings and themes. Drop all of the in-genre winks and nods to games of 30 years ago. It's tired and played out. Create and be your own thing. It could well be that it's a genre lost to time and only fans who are 40 years old or older even care. But I reject that as plenty of people like non action games with good stories. I feel the audience is there. I don't have any answers but end of the day if you like the genre seek out some point and click adventure games and buy them and tell your friends about the games you like. Hopefully without referencing Monkey Island, who nobody under 30 will have ever even played! #gamedev #IndieGameDev #adventuregame #pointandclick
