The GWJ Adventure Game Club - Main Thread

Only a few hours left on the clock, folks. I have to say, if things keep going this way... I'm very excited about the August game.
In the meantime, you can still cast your vote!

Enough with the suspense! Our next game will be...

The Red Strings Club!!

With 16 participants casting a total of 48 votes, folks voted for 3 games on average (same as last month!).
The Red Strings Club placed first with 9 votes (56.25%). Flight of the Amazon Queen placed second with 8 votes (50.00%) and Life Is Strange took home the bronwe (6 votes, 37.50%). Blade Runner placed fourth with 5 votes (31.25%). And then Gone Home, Memoria, Full Throttle and Broken Age all got 4 votes each (25.00%). Finally, King's Quest 6 and Machinarium only got 2 votes (12.50%) so they're now on probation.

You'll find the thread for the game over this way. Enjoy! I'm super excited about this one!!

oh neat. i might actually play this one!

TW: it has a bit of trans dead-naming in it, but it's done in a way that's not exploitative or gratuitous, i have been led to believe.

Yay! I've been sitting on this one in hopes it would come up as a club game. Also worth noting it's currently available on Game Pass for PC.

pyxistyx wrote:

TW: it has a bit of trans dead-naming in it, but it's done in a way that's not exploitative or gratuitous, i have been led to believe.

Absolutely, thanks for pointing that out. It was brought to my attention when I read a Vice article by Danielle Riendeau which specifically spoke of it. She called it out and one of the devs who is trans herself responded. I don't know how satisfying that answer is, honestly. As a cis person, my only stance is "no dead-names". No and, if's or but's about it.

Offering up for your appraisal this very interesting documentary on text adventures. It's two hours long, so I wasn't able to watch the whole thing, but I still wanted to give it a nod:

I'm a bit early, but the summer is (hopefully) winding down soon and it's almost time for the 23rd GWJ adventure game of our little club. The poll is over this way, and will close at midnight on August 27th. As always, you'll find quick descriptions for this month's candidates with playtime estimates from HLTB (How Long To Beat).

  • The First Tree (2017, HLTB 2) - A 3rd-person exploration game centered around two parallel stories: a fox trying to find her missing family, and a son reconnecting with his estranged father in Alaska. Uncover artifacts from the son's life as he becomes intertwined in the fox’s journey towards The First Tree.
  • Night of the Rabbit (2013, HLTB 12) - A point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Daedalic Entertainment (excellent track record!), this game invites you to join young Jerry and follow a peculiar white rabbit to the wondrous realm of Mousewood, a land where critters can speak and where mystery abounds.
  • Blade Runner (1997, HLTB 13) - This isn't a direct adaptation of the 1982 Ridley Scott movie, but a "sidequel" which nonetheless features extracts of the film's soundtrack! Set in 2019 Los Angeles, the game tells the story of Ray McCoy, an elite detective charged with hunting down a group of dangerous replicants (sound familiar?), and is considered a "real-time 3D adventure".
  • Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (2015, HLTB 6) - Considered a spiritual successor to Dear Esther, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is set in 1984 and lets the player explore a small English town whose citizens have all mysteriously vanished. Little by little, you'll piece together the story of their lives and the wherefore and why of their disappearance.
  • Life Is Strange (2015, HLTB 14) - A young girl learns how to manipulate time and investigates bizarre disappearances.
  • Zork: Nemesis (1996, HLTB 6) - Travel through five mind-bending worlds to discover the ancient secret of Alchemy that will free the trapped souls from evil’s grip... Do you dare enter the Forbidden Lands? It is and always will be my favorite adventure game of all time. (and check out the amazing soundtrack by Mark Morgan if you can!)
  • Contradiction - Spot the Liar! (2015, HLTB 7) - This is one of the few FMV games on our list, and it follows the investigation of Detective Inspector Frederick Jenks into the apparent suicide of Kate Vine in the small village of Edenton.
  • The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 (2016, HLTB 20) - "The game's four protagonists, Wilbur a novice gnome mage, Nate a narcissistic human, Ivo an elf princess and a furry alien creature known as "Critter", partake in an adventure in the fantasy land of Aventasia. A magic force is turning beasts into puppies and castles into dollhouses."
  • Loom (1990, HLTB 3) - A classic. It does away with the verb interface and uses the beautiful music of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. With three difficulty levels, it's accessible even for those who aren't musically inclined.
  • Eleima's Pick : Blackwell Deception (2011, HLTB 5) - In this fourth installment of the Blackwell series, Rosa and Joey are still hunting spooks and stumble upon a psychic named Lisa Tenzin, tied to two distinct murder cases. Turns out it's all a lot bigger than they imagined. It's been a while since we played the first three games of the series, and I was thinking now might be a good time to pick up where we left off. Those games are just so good.

Survey is over here. Remember to vote, folks!

Vote emitted!

I always get Night of the Rabbit confused with My Brother Rabbit.

Had a great time with Family, a little detective game around a fictional ‘80s Brit-pop scene.

Zork: Nemesis! One of my favorite games from my high school days, and my first experience with anything in the Zork universe. I only found out it was a typically more humorous series years later.

Pink Stripes wrote:

I always get Night of the Rabbit confused with My Brother Rabbit.

steinkrug wrote:

Had a great time with Family, a little detective game around a fictional ‘80s Brit-pop scene.

I have to ask, because they look cool... Are those nominations?

d4m0 wrote:

Zork: Nemesis! One of my favorite games from my high school days, and my first experience with anything in the Zork universe. I only found out it was a typically more humorous series years later.

That's such a wonderful and yet odd way to be introduced to the Zork game because it's just so different from the others, and yet, I love it for it. It's so duckin' special.

Well, it's happened again. There have bene ten votes and there's a three way tie for first place.
If you haven't already, be sure to VOTE!

Eleima wrote:

I have to ask, because they look cool... Are those nominations?

I don't want to nominate a game that I've played somewhat recently, but I'd recommend it! It's more of a hidden object game, so there is no dialogue or combining things in your inventory, but it is a fun laid back game and a pretty one too.

Pile tracking is it's own game.

Sometimes it's the only game you want to play.

Jonman wrote:

Pile tracking is it's own game.
Sometimes it's the only game you want to play.

Sure, okay, then I recommend m0nk3yboy's yearly Pile thread or Hemidal's monthly thread.

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (2015, HLTB 6) - Considered a spiritual successor to Dear Esther, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is set in 1984 and lets the player explore a small English town whose citizens have all mysteriously vanished. Little by little, you'll piece together the story of their lives and the wherefore and why of their disappearance.

I don't want to bias anyone's voting here (yes, I do) but this is one of my favorite games ever. It's beautiful, evocative, well-written, and haunting. It's one of the few games with storytelling that I wouldn't grade on the "for a video game" curve. It's really remarkable, and I hope you all play it.

I have 12 people who have cast a vote...

... and a four way tie for first. I love you all.

Eleima wrote:

I have 12 people who have cast a vote...

... and a four way tie for first. I love you all.

Just trying to help

And I appreciate you for it!

Eleima wrote:
Pink Stripes wrote:

I always get Night of the Rabbit confused with My Brother Rabbit.

steinkrug wrote:

Had a great time with Family, a little detective game around a fictional ‘80s Brit-pop scene.

I have to ask, because they look cool... Are those nominations?

Well, it's a recommendation.

Family is pretty short, maybe too short for a monthly selection, at around 90-120 minutes depending on your sleuthing skills. If you have any love for that era of music, though, it's a fun way to spend some time. The original music created for it does a good job of evoking various styles of that era.

Looks like it's been a while since I've updated the nominations list! This has now been remedied:
Nominated (still needs two confirmations):
Fred Pohl's Gateway (1992) - Tanglebones
The Inner World (2013) - brokenclavicle
Riven (1997) - Minarchist
The Neverhood (1996) - Minarchist
Detention - Neutrino
Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock - Neutrino
Family (2020) - steinkrug (this one skirts the selection rules, since it's a recent release, but I feel it's fairly cheap and thus still attainable by a lot of folks should it get nominated)

Seconded (still needs one confirmation):
Goetia (2016) - karmajay, Eleima
Myst 3: Exile (2001) - Eleima, Higgledy
Little Briar Rose (2016) - brokenclavicle, Pink Stripes
Anna's Quest - Neutrino, Pink Stripes

Thirded (going on the list):
None at this time.

So it's the 27th, time to tally the votes. The next game shall be...

Blackwell Deception!!

With 17 participants casting a total of 44 votes, folks voted for 2.6 games on average (versus 3 last month!).
Blackwell Deception placed first with 7 votes (41.18%). Night of the Rabbit and Zork: Nemesis shared second place (6 votes, 35.29%) and no fewer than three games shared the bronze (5 votes, 29.41%): Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Life Is Strange and Loom. Contradiction - Spot the Liar! placed fourth with 4 votes (23.53%), The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 got 3 votes (17.65%). The First Tree got 2 votes (11.76%) and Blade Runner got 1 vote (5.88%), so they're both on probation now.
I'm almost sad for Loom, a game which has appeared in no fewer than 10 polls and still hasn't been picked as one of our games!!

You'll find the thread for the game over this way. Hooray for more Blackwell! I'm super thrilled!

There is a game called Spiritfarer that has just come out on most platforms. It seems very adventure gamey. It also sounds like a great, surprisingly long game. I’d like to nominate it if it qualifies.

Higgledy wrote:

There is a game called Spiritfarer that has just come out on most platforms. It seems very adventure gamey. It also sounds like a great, surprisingly long game. I’d like to nominate it if it qualifies.

It does look amazing! However, I don't believe it passes muster on the first "rule" of Adventure Club as currently stated:

What types of games do we play?
1. Adventure Games that are at least a year old.

Oh, I'll second Family, especially since John Walker covered it on Buried Treasure. (Disclaimer in case it is needed, I am a Patreon subscriber to BT, and so is the dev of this game since after it was covered, I think.)

And since it now qualifies and we are updating nominations, I'll nominate Irony Curtain.

benign1 wrote:
What types of games do we play?
1. Adventure Games that are at least a year old.

Oh yes. You're right. I always forget that rule.

Pink Stripes wrote:

Oh, I'll second Family, especially since John Walker covered it on Buried Treasure...

Thanks for bringing this game to my attention. I'll third that one

Well I'm not too fussed about the one year rule as long as it's not too expensive. Spiritfarer looks quite cool and it's definitely going on my list, but not the potentials for the club. At least not until August 2021.
Looks like it also has strong simulation/management elements, so I'm not sure how "adventurey" it is. Definitely looks quite cool, though. I'm not too fussed about setting rigid lines for adventure games though, because, as we've seen the past, adventure games come in different shapes and forms, and have just changed so much over the past 30+ years.

Eleima wrote:

I'm not too fussed about setting rigid lines for adventure games though, because, as we've seen the past, adventure games come in different shapes and forms, and have just changed so much over the past 30+ years.

This right here? This is Eleima laying the groundwork for Mass Effect as an adventure game. Just you wait.

I second Mass Effect.