I haven’t read your spoiler because I have forgotten the puzzles and might replay it 
As I wrote elsewhere in this thread, in my opinion any “treasure hunt” story could be easily adapted in an adventure game, assuming that the characters have to use hints and clues to deduct what to do next. I have already cited Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon book series as an example.
Stories about investigation also work well because they provide a good basis for puzzles and mysteries to uncover.
If you analyze some of the most popular adventure games, you’ll notice that several of them have a story based on treasure hunting (MI1, MI2, Broken Sword series, Indiana Jones) or investigations (S&M, Beneath a Steel Sky, Syberia, Gabriel Knight, Sherlock Holmes series).
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The treasure hunt model seems very fitting. Thanks for pointing this out.
But I am not so sure about the investigation model. The problem is that, in the investigation model, it often happens that you end up wandering around, without a clear objective or a clear idea what you need to do; you are left just walking everywhere, examining everything, and talking to everyone, hoping that something happens that makes the story advance. Basically you wait for something to happen, you don’t make things happen. This does not seem to work well in games (but it works in novels). A clear example of this problem is in Cruise for a Corpse. It also happens in Kathy Rain. It’s the pattern “what now? I have done everything I had to, but I still seem to be stuck”. It’s not a good sensation when you are playing and this happens. I am tempted to call it a design flaw. (And, tellingly, it never happens in Ron Gilbert’s games). Lately I have been studying what they did with “And then There Were None”, and how they coped with the problem that the characters in the original novel are not proactive, but are just people who “wait for something to happen”. Basically what they did is introduce a new character who was not in the original novel, and who is “proactive”. But still, the pattern above happens. I still haven’t finished, so I can’t yet say if they succeeded overall.
Good idea. Even better would be Focault´s Pendulum, given how popular adventure games seem to be in Italy that would be a guaranteed smash it. Or if you want to go with something more famililiar The Name Of The Rose. Lots of libary opportunites there.
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“Archeology is the search for fact, not truth. If it’s truth you’re interested in, Dr. Tyree’s Philosophy class is right down the hall. So forget any ideas you’ve got about lost cities, exotic travel, and digging up the world. We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and “X” never, ever marks the spot.”
Investigation and treasure hunting are pretty much the same thing, I think. You search for clues to find something. It’s usually the execution in game that might suck.
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True, wheater it´s a murderer to lock up or a treasure to find, the ways to get there usually don´t differ too much. Also I love exploring if you don´t, don´t play adventure games.
That’s bad game design, not a problem with investigations. Did you find yourself having no idea what to do while investigating the murder in Thimbleweed Park?
You’re completely right. It’s that by “investigation”, without realizing it, I meant something more narrow, i.e. the situation where you have only vague objectives, like “talk to everybody to see if someone knows something”, or “inspect everything to see if you find a clue”. When you only have these as objectives, for some reason I don’t like it. I am curious if this happens to others too.
This kind of player behavior is a consequence of game design, not a consequence of the investigation model. While it’s true that you have to search for clues and you have to gather information, it’s also true that you have to follow clues and make deductions. It’s up to the developers to decide what kind of investigative activities the game is mainly made of.
I keep citing “Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments” not because I like very much the series of Sherlock Holmes adventure games, but because this specific game in my opinion does a good job at balancing the kind of activities the player has to do.
I guess, it depends on how it is done in the game. I think, it is okay if there is only one room with people to talk and maybe another one or two with objects to investigate. You would do this in adventure game even if it doesn’t tell you to do so. I would consider it bad, if there are about 100 rooms and you haven’t a clue where to start. It would be also bad, if the available objects aren’t clearly visible. You know that you are supposed to find something, but you just can’t find the right pixel. The “Runaway”-series is certainly guilty of that. It is much easier to find specs of dust, since those are clearly visible.
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I’m not into movie games but this clip makes a basketball team adventure (also off the field) appealing to me. Somehow this reminds me of …
There is a remake of the C64 Goonies Adventure Game
Also one for the Goonies Jump N Run
And over here waits a Point N Click Version of Larry 2
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/356/
One of my favourites on C64 was Ghostbusters… Remake down there
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I would like to see a adventure sequel to
Desperately Seeking Susan 1985
After Hours 1985 (may inspired Leisure Suit Larry)
along TheNight before 1988
Better off Dead 1985
Shermer, Illinois - putting all characters out of movies by John Hughes together in one game
(Also Red Bank New Jersey and Characters out of movirs by Kevin Smith with Jay and Silent Bob)
Castle Rock - putting Stephen King Characters together
Caddyshack III - YEAR ONE: The Missadventures of Ty Webb (not featuting the likeness of Chevy Chase but the appereal of Bill Murray and Dan AyktoydGame Soundtrack composed by Kenny Loggins with the Saturday Live Philharmony Orchester)
After Hours is one of my favorite fills. I’ve never seen the deconstruction video before… interesting.
My Name Is Earl: The Game
On a quest to make up for the bad things you have done you have to cross people you wronged off your list. For any good things you do you get benefits (like stumbeling on useful items or people being more helpful to you) and your karma rating rises. If you do bad things new branches of things to fix appear on your list and you have to cross those of too.
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Then you can’t play the game anymore right in the middle of the story? 
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Without ever finding out who Earl Jr.´s real father was!
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I just stumbled upon it on YT:
It is from 1992 and was available for Amiga and Atari ST only. There were also platformers under the movie’s title, which were released for other platforms and differed very much from the point-and-click game. See here.
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Not a movie, but I think that MacGyver is perfect for adventure games
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Hi arvejeitor.
Your idea is a very evocative one. There was a brief talking about it in other threads, have a look there, if you want:
My two cents, something that it seems I’ve learned during the time spent following the adventure of Thimbleweed Park developing, is that it is always difficult to face an existing movie, story, fiction, with another product like a game. Probably it’s easier to make a new product that draws inspiration from that fiction, but with features that are created and developed specifically for that product. And I don’t mean for IP issues this time 
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