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Verb/ose: A Personal Analysis of the Graphic Adventure Genre
The adventure game genre goes back to the late 1970s, but what makes a good one? This book is a critical essay of the various conventions of the genre, examining their interfaces, puzzle designs, and narrative devices. Along with this is a particular focus on classic adventure games from the likes of Sierra (King's Quest), LucasArts (Monkey Island) and Cyan (Myst), as well as it how it applies to more modern games like Thimbleweed Park.
- GenresVideo Games
106 pages, Paperback
Published September 9, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 31, 2018
I can't help but wonder who this book is intended for, if you've played adventure games before you'll learn nothing from this book and if you're new... learning about how games can be in first person or third person view, or about point and click and parsers won't be that helpful.
The book is basically a glossary of adventure game terms with a few examples and most terms are self-explanatory. There are also hypothetical terms for things that don't exist and probably never will.
The book ends pretty quickly with a glossary of non-adventure game terms and pages and pages on not only which adventure games he's played, but which ones he played several times and which ones he merely dabbled a bit with.
The fact that he insists time travel related puzzles should be solved already since you will solve them later (or sooner?) that maybe he should read more about game and puzzle design and the fact that he mentions several texts about game design he would read if he could update this book is probably proof enough.
Speaking of which, the list of things he wanted to add in an update makes me feel like I got a lesser book, it's one thing to add a few sections, but it sounded like the book would double in size if he got to all the things he wanted in an update.
The fact that he doesn't really cover interactive fiction and considers them just "choose your own adventure" books is a bit upsetting.
The book is basically a glossary of adventure game terms with a few examples and most terms are self-explanatory. There are also hypothetical terms for things that don't exist and probably never will.
The book ends pretty quickly with a glossary of non-adventure game terms and pages and pages on not only which adventure games he's played, but which ones he played several times and which ones he merely dabbled a bit with.
The fact that he insists time travel related puzzles should be solved already since you will solve them later (or sooner?) that maybe he should read more about game and puzzle design and the fact that he mentions several texts about game design he would read if he could update this book is probably proof enough.
Speaking of which, the list of things he wanted to add in an update makes me feel like I got a lesser book, it's one thing to add a few sections, but it sounded like the book would double in size if he got to all the things he wanted in an update.
The fact that he doesn't really cover interactive fiction and considers them just "choose your own adventure" books is a bit upsetting.
August 21, 2018
The author does an excellent job at covering the different mechanics and gimmicks used in adventure games over the years. Some of the ideas discussed have inspired me to incorporate them into my game engine.
May 4, 2018
Interesting analysis of my favorite genre, but aimed mostly at developers
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews