Independent Adventuring Leads To New Horizons

Thanks to DIY Games for its column discussing the state of freely downloadable independent PC adventure games for July. The author raves: "I don't think I'm exaggerating if I say that July was by far the best month for independent adventure gaming this year", and goes on to profile titles such as A Very Special Dog ("You play a German shepherd with the task to save a life and find the culprit... you'll sniff objects, bark at people or lick them, all in order to successfully complete the game") and Apprentice II: The Knight's Move ("top quality independent gaming... [with] a very deep story and great character development.") Talking of character development, I'm afraid this is my (simoniker's) last ever Slashdot story post. Read on for details... Firstly, thanks to everyone who's helped make Slashdot Games (as well as my work on the Slashdot main page) a pleasure to edit over the past 18 months (and 3000+ posts) or so. It's been a wonderful experience, and I'm really going to miss it. Unfortunately, this is the final story I'll be posting, since I'm off to videogame trade site Gamasutra.com, which I've written for fairly extensively in the past, to take up a managing editor position.

I believe there will be an announcement about a new Slashdot Games editor reasonably soon. However, I'm sure the other editors will pick up some of the slack in the interim, so hang in there, everyone. In the meantime, please inundate the submission bin with stories about obscure Japanese console re-issues, why the Infinium Phantom is going to trounce the Megaton, and why the Reggielution is absolutely, positively going to be televised. Later, all.

Comments

Thanks!

[keiferb]

You'll be missed, Simoniker!

You've always seemed to maintain one of the lowest dupe:post ratios of all of the editors. Well, either that or my memory's going... =)

Best of luck to you at Gamasutra!

Sure. Mod me off-topic if you must. I'll just go play that dog-licking game.

bye, sim!

[Emexies]

Well, I can honestly say that you were my favorite editor here on /.
Of course, I've never really paid much attention to the actual editors, but I liked the fact that /. games weren't just a summary of the latest (p)reviews and press releases: it actually felt like the editor (you, simoniker) wanted to convey something more.

And, I've just gotten myself yet another reason to read Gamasutra. ;)

Thanks a lot, simoniker, I hope that /. games will be as interesting as when you were the editor! Cheers, and good luck with the new job!

Free adventure gaming

[Nomihn0]

Any month in which a single game worth playing is released for free is a good month. That said, the good folks over at Hack'n'Slash are on their way to delivering. Check it out here. Admittedly, it is an action rpg, not really an adventure game - but I figure that it would appeal to a similar crowd.

Re:Free adventure gaming

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. "Hack And Slash".

Those Open Source Gamers sure know how to name and market their games! I can't wait for "Car Game" and "Punch and Kick" and "Yet Another Warcraft Clone."

Re:Free adventure gaming

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Can't believe that no one has mentioned Peasant Quest. Joke or not, one of the funnest games I've played in years.

hmmm

[syrinx]

maybe the new Games editor will change the color scheme to something other than retina-blasting ultraviolet?

seriously though, good luck at your new position, simoniker. :)

Re:hmmm

[NanoGator]

"maybe the new Games editor will change the color scheme to something other than retina-blasting ultraviolet?"

SURGEON GENERAL's WARNING: Use of this color range may result in skin cancer.

Re:hmmm

[TMLink]

It's better than the IT color scheme.

Has Slashdot gotten to the Daryl and Daryl stage of color schemes? There's gotta be better colors out there somewhere...

Heheh good luck pal

[NanoGator]

"I believe there will be an announcement about a new Slashdot Games editor reasonably soon."

And a new hot-pink color scheme!

interesting modpoint distruíbution.

[Emexies]

So, let me get this straight:

About half of the comments so far are about simoniker being missed, and they're all modded off topic. Why? Wasn't more than HALF the newspost about this very topic?
And come on, moderators, where's your sense of compassion, anyway? =)

Now THIS post, on the other hand, is clearly off topic, and SHOULD be modded likewise.

Re:interesting modpoint distruíbution.

[stefanlasiewski]

Perhaps they should have had two articles to cover the two different topics?

Thanks for a good run.

[mrseigen]

You've made Slashdot Games one of the most mature and interesting games-related pages I've ever read. The signal-to-noise ratio is great.

Good luck, you'll find a lot of other great writers to buddy with at Gamasutra.

Add this to the pile...

[Axem]

You'll be missed simoniker. Ever since the games section has introduced on Slashdot, it was my most regularly checked section of the site (aside from the main page of course ;-)).

I gave up on reading IGN, and gamespot a long time ago. Way too many ads, flash elements, and sponsored garbage. But here, it was much easier to digest. Thanks for making it so enjoyable, and good luck on your new job. =)

PS I think it needs to be said that this color scheme is my favourite (No joke).

That would be incorrect

[Midnight Ryder]

Now, how can it be used in "NON-FREE COMPUTER GAMES" if its under the terms of the GPL? Doesn't the GPL force any derived work to be freed whether it wants to be or not?

You missunderstand the GPL. I can, with no problems, create a game that utilizes a GPL based engine, but copyright the content that makes up the game. Sure, the engine can be reused at will, and I do have abide by the terms of the GPL (making all of my programming changes available to PURCHASERS. Note that word - purchasers can redistribute it to non-purchasers, but I can choose to only make the source available to anyone who I provide a binart yo.) But the content? That CAN (your option) be strictly copyrighted material. Check the GNU site for more information on the subject.

Peasant's Quest!

[mh101]

How could a discussion about adventure games have missed Peasant's Quest!

Re:Peasant's Quest!

[Alkaiser]

Seriously. Peasant's Quest was WAY cool and free...and somehow totally ignored by the article.

http://www.netjak.com/review.php/668

What's extra cool is how the guys at HSR kept updating the game. =) Try making friends with Kerrek now.

I'm glad to see

[ricotest]

I'm glad to see such a strong community that has centred around adventure games. It's hopeless commercially, it seems, with many small projects still looking for a publisher. But free games keep getting cranked out!

I think this is because there is so much fun to be had in actually making these games. There are dozens of engines that can handle virtually all of the programming work for you. What's left is the art, dialogue, story, puzzles and witty responses. For a creative group of people this kind of thing enables them to do what they do best without being boggled down in engine specifics. That's why recent games seem to reach almost LucasArts quality with much less work.

I feel that the only issue is the number of one-man projects there are. It's very hard to collaborate on these projects with no source control or commercial incentive. People have their own independent visions for how the game will come out, and most of these guys are artists or writers, not leaders. With the tools that are already there, a group of 20 or so people could apply the open source methodologies and develop a game that would even surpass LucasArts standards, and be just as long and fun to play. I think - well, I hope - that this is the way forward for adventure games, because the results would be really promising.

Re:Slashdot is a site for participants.

[Macgrrl]

Games are for people who want to be spectators of someone else's creation.

Umm... no. Movies and TV are for people who want to be spectators of someone else's creation. Games are for people who want to interact with someone else's creation.