Under development adventure games that are worth a mention

It´s close to 20 years that I last played it, but I remember it being good fun. A casual experience (I believe it was between 30 minutes and 1 hour per session) you can relive again and again for as long as you feel like(i.e. until you finally get bored with it, take a break and pick it up again later on).
I´m sure I would still enjoy it to kill some time.

cite: “Game is 16-bit so can’t run natively on 64-bit versions of Windows.”

The easiest way would be to use a VM. If you are using Linux, you can try this:

More infos about the game internals: http://www.zachtronics.com/yoda-stories/

Yeah the error message doesn´t even include the possibility of a 16-bit version.

For those of you who like to follow the development of games, I think that a mention of the upcoming and extremely peculiar game of Lucas Pope (the developer of “Papers Please”) is well deserved.

Return of the Obra Dinn

Description

In 1802, the merchant ship “Obra Dinn” set out from London for the Orient with over 200 tons of trade goods. Six months later it hadn’t met its rendezvous point at the Cape of Good Hope and was declared lost at sea.

Early this morning of October 14th, 1807, the Obra Dinn drifted into port with sails damaged and no visible crew. As insurance adjustor for the East India Company’s London Office, find means to board the ship and recover the Crew Muster Roll book for assessment.

Notes

The 1-bit graphics used in the game are for sure an uncommon artistic choice and it has been a pleasure to follow the development posts written by Pope. He had to find a good dithering algorithm, he had to design a realistic 3D ambient sound system to create the right atmosphere, and of course he had to design also the whole gameplay, which involves investigation and a way to witness past events (maybe a bit similar to “The Vanishing of Ethan Carter on Steam”).

He had also to face serious issues related to the “marketing” of the game; for example using YouTube to publish a video of the game implies that the video service by default will compress the graphics in a very bad way, resulting in a very blurry mess. 1-bit dithered graphics is a b**ch!

If you enjoyed reading the more technical posts of the Thimbleweed Park development blog, I’m sure that you’ll enjoy reading Pope comments as well. You can also download a demo of the game.

Links

Official website and demos
Development logs

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By the way, both Lucas Pope, the developer of “Return of the Obra Dinn” and Ben Wander, the developer of “A Case of Distrust” will be in Seattle at PAX West 2017, just a few meters from the developers of “Thimbleweed Park”. :slight_smile:

http://indiemegabooth.com/indie-megabooth-pax-west-2017-lineup-announced/

There is an under development adventure game that I would like to mention, because I was pretty much intrigued by its atmosphere and because some of the users of this forum like games inspired by Lovecraft.

Saint Kotar

Description

Saint Kotar is a 2.5D point and click adventure game in development for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The game merges psychological horror narrative and classically inspired point 'n click adventure mechanics with switchable characters.

Digitally hand-painted with a distinctive art style that fits the game’s mood, fully voiced and featuring an original eerie soundtrack, Saint Kotar draws inspiration from p&c classics like Broken Sword and Monkey Island, along with the works from horror fiction writers such as H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe.

The plot

Invited to attend an exhibition of rare medieval art, the protagonists travel to Saint Kotar at the end of October 2006. The welcoming is cold, as they find themselves dragged abruptly into a macabre series of murders, allegedly related to Satanic worship and witchcraft. These dreadful acts compel the protagonists to follow the shadow of something deeply hidden behind the town’s dark past.

Notes

I have discovered the game thanks to this thread on AdventureGamers and since then I have been followed its development.

For example, here you have a video that compares their old 2D mode with the new 2.5D mode, explaining why the developers finally have chosen the 2.5D solution (a la Grim Fandango):

Links

Official website, concept art and first images
Development blog

@LowLevel thank you! I saw some Obra Dinn screenshots a few years ago and couldn’t remember the title. I’m so looking forward to PAX! :slight_smile:

The Indiemegabooth seems very interesting this year. I’m sure that you’ll have a great time attending the event. :slight_smile:

Am I the only one who can’t see any more horror (adventure) games? It seems they are very popular at the moment?

But I have to admit that “Saint Kotar” looks very interesting. :slight_smile:

I have the same impression. I usually skip horror adventure games when I see them announced in the news and I remember a lot of skipped news in the last two years.

For some reason “Saint Kotar” caught my attention, probably due to its graphics.

There are other under-development horror adventure games that I really really would like to play but I don’t want to share them here because I don’t want to create false expectations. Their developer is Jonathan Boakes and that probably means that we will see them not sooner that thirty years from now. Boakes is a master of creepy and suspenseful adventure games (their audio design is especially good) but he’s also extremely s l o w.

Despite Amanita Design (Machinarium, Botanicula, etc.) being one of my favorite adventure game developers, their new under-development game completely slipped under my radar.

If you have already played some of their games, you’ll immediately recognize the quirkiness of their style. The game is called…

Chuchel

Currently there are just a couple of video teasers (here is one)…

… and also an official website and a Twitter profile, that I will follow from now on. :slight_smile:

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Same here - thanks for the links! Here is a “trailer” with gameplay:

Seems to be a very funny game. :slight_smile:

1 Like

I didn’t notice that video, thanks!

Very charming graphics and animations, as usual. Should be a selling point for kids as well.

The kind of gameplay seems to be very similar to the one of Botanicula. If it will turn out that all the activity is restricted to the current room/scene, it might also feel conceptually similar to Gobliiins and Windosill.

I have started to follow the development of a new promising adventure game. It is developed creating physical miniatures of scenes and objects, that are eventually captured with a 3D scanner.

I really like its photography and the references to “Twin Peaks” and “The X-Files” (does that remind you of anything?).

Trüberbrook

Description

Gameplaywise, »Trüberbrook« is a somewhat classic point-and-click adventure game with a modern approach.

Mood and atmosphere of the game are inspired by TV series like »Twin Peaks«, »The X-Files« and »True Detective«. The game mixes German folklore with a gripping sci-fi storyline, covering universal themes like love, friendship, loyalty, rootlessness, self-discovery and dinosaurs.

One of the most distinctive features of the game is it’s unique visual style: The whole scenery and all backdrops will be build as real miniature scale models, captured with a 3D scanner, digitally polished and then blended with animated characters, visual effects and set extensions.

Story

»Trüberbrook« is a thrilling mystery adventure game set in rural Germany in the late 1960s. The player takes the role of young american physicist Tannhauser, who happens to end up in the eponymous village of Trüberbrook, an ageing but beautiful health resort somewhere in the densely forested countryside of West Germany. Tannhauser, while working on his PhD thesis, comes to Trüberbrook seeking to crack a tiresome mental block. But something in this town seems strangely spaced out.

The superficial german homeland setting gradually evolves into a puzzling sci-fi mystery. Tannhauser teams up with Gretchen, a paleoanthropologist seeking to unravel the folkloristic mysteries surrounding the village. He also bumps into the enigmatic inventor Lazarus Taft, a stranded traveler yearning for home.

Links

Official website
Development blog
FAQ

2 Likes

That one looks really nice.

Yes, very interesting find. I’m curious how the animations are when you actually play it.

I hope that they will be similar to the Unity 3D in-game footage shown in the video. Characters have smooth movements and the camera pans to keep the playable character visible.

One problem could be the shadows and how smooth the animations are. But the video looks very promising.

Why could shadows be a problem? In the Unity footage the main character seems to cast shadows with no issues.

But he stays/rest at the same position. If he walks around, the game has to render his shadow dynamic depending on his position. In the scenes are very small and complex objects (for example the model of the solar system or the suitcase) and complex lights. If you aren’t very careful, the computer generated shadows aren’t looking very realistic or are wrong. For example have a look at the second picture where the hero looks into the window. In this position his face and the upper(!) parts of his body have to be brighter. If he walks over to the cupboard this face has to be darker. If you forget to model this in the game, the face will have the same brightness. This will recognize the brain of the players.