

A history of adventure games, and how interfaces affect puzzles - MarkN
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2008/20080804/newheiser-a.shtml

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mblakele
Interesting, but why did the author restrict the discussion to PC games? I
would expect to see some mention of Portal's interface, and of adventure games
for the Wii.

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MarkN
Author here! I enjoyed Zack and Wiki on the Wii, and some of the adventure
game titles on the DS like Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton, and I've
referenced some of those in my other writings about adventure games. My main
reason for focusing on PC games and older titles was that that seemed to be
where the majority of interface evolution and changes took place. Zack and
Wiki is an entertaining concept, but the interface is primarily point and
click with some supplementary controls using the motion sensing of the
controller and all the buttons the wiimote allows for... similarly with the DS
adventure titles, it treats the touch screen as a point and tap world.

As for portal, drawing the lines between adventure games and other genres can
be fuzzy. Bringing games into real-time 3D is a much more significant shift
than bringing a game from a text adventure to a graphic adventure. While there
are definitely many types of games which involve puzzles, I prefer to define
Adventure Games as being based around solving abstract puzzles that aren't
dependent upon a real-time engine.

