A Hardy Developer's Journal – as written by indie adventure game developers

Making games. Sometimes a hard task. Sometimes it is made to look like it’s not. What about trying to make again what’s already been made? Yes, this is an article about remakes. And it’s based on my HHGTG experiences.

But what is HHGTG (aka H2G2)? These are acronyms for ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. A book (and radio play) written in the early 80′s that became and still is a cult phenomenon for Science Fiction fans, very much like its author Douglas Adams. Shortly after the book, Douglas alongside Steve Meretzky, a programmer from Infocom, created a text adventure based on the book’s universe. One of the most successful and clearly one of the most remarkable games ever. (more…)

Let’s get down to the definition business. (more…)

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Awards are nice. (more…)

Welcome back! Last time I bitched about old-school adventure game interfaces and tried to convince people to throw them out the window. Today I’m going to give an example of how I futzed around with the interface of my game, Resonance, adding a layer of potential complexity to the puzzles while keeping the interface simple, fast, and intuitive.

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The Falling Soldier by Robert Capa

Past, present, future. Of these three, the past is the one we have most affinity with. The present is just too volatile, it changes all the time. The future is endlessly interesting, a great source of speculation, but that speculation is inherently based on our current experiences. Experiences that come from – you’ve guessed it – the past. (more…)

Interfaces are important.  I love interfaces.  Forming an intuitive and fluid language that is used by the player to communicate with the game, and a way for the game to communicate back is fun.  But adventure games, even the commercial titles, rarely get much interface love.  Games in the genre tend to stick to one of the commonly used control schemes.  (more…)