Adventure game

Further computer advances led to adventure games with more immersive graphics using real-time or pre-rendered three-dimensional scenes or full-motion video taken from the first- or third-person perspective.

Since then, a resurgence in the genre has occurred, spurred on by the success of independent video-game development, particularly from crowdfunding efforts, from the wide availability of digital distribution enabling episodic approaches, and from the proliferation of new gaming platforms, including portable consoles and mobile devices.

[25] Conceptual Reasoning and Lateral Thinking Puzzles form the majority of the gameplay, where extrinsic knowledge gained in real life is expected to be known and used by the player to overcome the challenges.

[27] Some puzzles are criticized for the obscurity of their solutions, for example, the combination of a clothes line, clamp, and deflated rubber duck used to gather a key stuck between the subway tracks in The Longest Journey, which exists outside of the game's narrative and serves only as an obstacle to the player.

A notable example comes from the original Full Throttle by LucasArts, where one puzzle requires instructing the character to kick a wall at a small spot, which Tim Schafer, the game's lead designer, had admitted years later was a brute force measure; in the remastering of the game, Schafer and his team at Double Fine made this puzzle's solution more obvious.

[36] Since adventure games are driven by storytelling, character development usually follows literary conventions of personal and emotional growth, rather than new powers or abilities that affect gameplay.

[9] These types of mysterious stories allow designers to get around what Ernest W. Adams calls the "Problem of Amnesia", where the player controls the protagonist but must start the game without their knowledge and experience.

Without the clearly identified enemies of other genres, its inclusion in adventure games is controversial, and many developers now either avoid it or take extra steps to foreshadow death.

[48] Later text adventures, and modern interactive fiction, use natural language processing to enable more complex player commands like "take the key from the desk".

The simulators allow players to roam around the game environment and discover objects like books, audio logs, or other clues that develop the story, and may be augmented with dialogue with non-playable characters and cutscenes.

[73][69] Examples of walking simulators include Gone Home, Dear Esther, Firewatch, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Proteus, Jazzpunk, The Stanley Parable, Thirty Flights of Loving, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, and What Remains of Edith Finch.

[76] The format has its primary origins in Japanese and other Asian video game markets, typically for personal computers and more recently on handheld consoles or mobile devices.

[84] As an avid caver and role-playing game enthusiast, he wrote a text adventure based on his own knowledge of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky.

[92] Designed by the company's co-founder Roberta Williams and programmed with the help of her husband Ken, the game featured static vector graphics atop a simple command line interface, building on the text adventure model.

[96] In 1985, ICOM Simulations released Déjà Vu, the first of its MacVenture series, which utilized a more complete point-and-click interface, including the ability to drag objects around on the current scene, and was a commercial success.

[111] Myst was an atypical game for the time, with no clear goals, little personal or object interaction, and a greater emphasis on exploration, and on scientific and mechanical puzzles.

Myst held the record for computer game sales for seven years—it sold over six million copies on all platforms, a feat not surpassed until the release of The Sims in 2000.

[116][117][118] Israel had next to a non-existent video gaming industry, nevertheless Piposh (1999) became extremely popular, to the point where 20 years later a reboot was released due to a grassroots fan movement.

Gilbert wrote in 2005, "From first-hand experience, I can tell you that if you even utter the words 'adventure game' in a meeting with a publisher you can just pack up your spiffy concept art and leave.

[96] Games such as The Longest Journey by Funcom as well as Amerzone and Syberia, both conceived by Benoît Sokal and developed by Microïds, with rich classical elements of the genre still garnered high critical acclaims.

The introduction of larger and more powerful touch screen devices like the iPad allowed for more detailed graphics, more precise controls, and a better sense of immersion and interactivity compared to personal computer or console versions.

[145] The game featured exploring an open world, an interrogative dialogue menu system, and making choices that determined the order of events.

[149] In 1982, the eroge, Danchi Tsuma no Yuwaku (Seduction of the Condominium Wife), was released, becoming a big enough success to turn Koei into a major software company.

[149] Other now-famous companies such as Enix, Square and Nihon Falcom also produced similar eroge in the early 1980s before they became famous for their mainstream role-playing games.

[161] It featured character interaction as the major gameplay element and has been compared to more recent titles such as Shenmue and Shadow of Memories as well as the role-playing game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Policenauts also introduced summary screens, which act to refresh the player's memory of the plot upon reloading a save, an element Kojima later used in Metal Gear Solid.

The visual novel YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World, directed by Hiroyuki Kanno and released by ELF in 1996, raised standards in Japan with its elaborate storyline and music; heightened player expectations led to creative revitalisation in the genre.

Examples include The Life Stage: Virtual House (1993), Human Entertainment's Mizzurna Falls (1998), Sega's Shenmue series (1999–2002), and Konami's Shadow of Memories (2001).

[177] Online distribution has also helped lower the costs of bringing niche Japanese titles to the global market, which has enabled another outlet for visual novels and dating sims to be localized and released for Western regions.

[178] The Nintendo DS in particular helped spark a resurgence in the genre's popularity through the introduction of otherwise unknown Japanese adventure games, typically visual novels localized for Western audiences.