Title Screen.
I’m an unashamed fan of point and click adventure games. Although their heydey took place well before I learned to read (at age 11. Thanks public schools), I came upon them early in my game career. They’ve shaped the way I appreciate writing in games. Nobody did humor in games better than LucasArts. Personalities like Ron Gilbert, Steve Purcell, and Dave Grossman helped define games as a writing-driven medium.
The personality from this bygone era who remains the most prolific today is Tim Schafer. During his tenure at LucasArts, he helmed classics like Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango. He continued being a critical darling with 2005’s Psychonauts. His games have always undersold, relative to their merits, but he’s an example of how you can’t keep a good man down.
Nice rug.
Shafer will be hosting the Game Developer’s Choice Awards at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference, and to commemorate this event, his studio Double Fine has released a flash game. And not just any flash game, it’s a throwback to the point and click adventure games Schafer cut his teeth on.
It’s got the blocky VGA graphics, the verb panel, and inventory screen of the old SCUMM titles, and it makes full use of them. The goal is to help an underprepared Tim Schafer find jokes to use at the ceremony. Throughout the course of the 20 or so minutes it will take you to beat the game, you’ll discover the hidden depths of Schafer’s dressing room, unusual uses for tablecloths, and just how much the game’s old formula still shines.
"Thus, in one jokeless evening, the entire games industry was wiped from the planet." GAME OVER
Playing the game made me kind of sad that the genre had to die off. There were a few laugh-out-loud moments, and the rest of it was a loving homage to the excesses and warped logic of the adventure games that preceded it.
If you have an appreciation for old adventure games, I can’t recommend this enough. The only thing you have to lose is a few minutes of your time. If you’re not hip to the adventure game scene, you may find this obtuse and get stuck immediately.