Game Ideas 02: Old School 2.5 D Point & Click Adventures

I am a huge fan of old school point and click adventures like Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max etc.

So my dream is it to design my own someday but the modern adventures are mostly action games or filled with quick time events. Both aspects detract from the fun of the adventure by introducing hectic events and the chance to die because of bad reaction time. An adventure game for me provides the player enough time to think about his decisions and does not hinder him with unintuitive controls apart from telling a good story and maybe having some laughs. Nowadays, most adventure games use controllers or the keyboard to navigate the characters through the game world. Why? Well. maybe because the world is in 3D and the character should move in 3D as well but how about proving the characters and the world in 3D and leave the presentation mostly 2D? In gaming terms this is called 2.5D and it is used in different kinds of games and genres.

It sounds fine but it is nothing new and not even innovative so why the hell do I want to do that? Well, mostly for the love of those classics I played as a kid and because point and click adventures are ideal for new platforms like the iPad or other mobile devises. They don't need complicated control schemes and can be as long as the developer wants them to be. Some good modern examples are the Telltale Games episodes of Sam & Max or the most of the games by Pendulo Studios.

There are some new 2D adventures by indie developers out there but I have not played any of them yet (apart from Machinarium) but having worked with some young artists at my game design school most want to do 3D work and not work in 2D any more. The 2.5 D game is the best compromise that I can think of in that case, so hopefully I can find some people interested in the small story I am writing as background for the game idea and my own old school adventure game can become a reality some day...