After deciding upon the output format for the realisation of our concept, me and the other group member decided it was appropriate to undertake some research on old school text adventure games and how this could be used to inform our own choices on the project. Games we looked to were old PC games, text adventure games came in to being solely because it was a form of narrative and enteratainment which weren’t particularly intensive for computer and home entertainment systems back in the day. Me and the other group member decided that we have a love for a lot of the components within text adventure games whether it’s the influence from: Puzzle Games, Literature, or even board games like Dungeons and Dragons, they’re all influences we look to in order to create our game.
Text based adventure games have existed for years some of our favourites are: Zork, Planetfall and Amnesia.
Zork
Zork was one of the defining games of the text adventure genre, it placed players into a fantasy world and gave them a taste of something that didn’t exist prior, this is my personal favourite out of all the text adventure games I’ve played in the past, and plays a huge role in the influences we have looked to in order to create our own game. Another point to mention is how simplistic the graphics are, and how easy this is to replicate for a mobile application, little to none design elements are present, meaning it’s easy to make nowadays with our current technology. To also transfer this and to make it applicable for a mobile or tablet output is relatively easy.
Amnesia
Amnesia is another text adventure game created by Thomas M Disch, this game focused less on a fantasy world and more around an Cyberpunk/Dystopian future. Amnesia was also groundbreaking for the theme’s it played with very early on in gaming. Amnesia toys with the idea of death and suffering with no escape from it, people also call the game a dig at capitalism similar to the film Brazil. Overall I liked amnesia when I played it for the themes it dealt with and how it wasn’t afraid to branch from the norms of gaming back in the day. Also another point to note is how although the world and setting is different, the design elements all remain the same
Planetfall
Planetfall was yet another influential text based adventure game, in the case of this game it was primarily just a generic sci-fi adventure, with some humour which separates it from other text adventure games. Overall planetfall stands out to me because of it’s humour and slap-stick kind of approach to adventure gaming. the design elements for this game were slightly better than the others, it featured a blue screen and also a pointing mouse, most other text adventure games require solely a keyboard, this is a feature which showed further potential for the genre back in the day, making it stand above the rest.
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