re: Make or Break: Five Things That Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Game Director Amy Hennig Looks for in an Action/Adventure Game

Zukalous — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:06:25 GMT

All of her “games that got it right” are so recent and her five features are so dependent on high tech hardware it makes me think that the adventure genre really does depend on technology to make it better. Technology isn’t just window dressing, it really does help advance genres do something that old games (such as Adventure!) just can’t do. I can only assume the genre will get better as the current and next-gen hardware evolve.

zukalous

re: Make or Break: Five Things That Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Game Director Amy Hennig Looks for in an Action/Adventure Game

Cordless — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:50:07 GMT

As the action/adventure game is for the most part at the core of every AAA title these "musts" can pretty much be applied to every AAA title out there and of course high-end graphics are a must for every major release. Still to say that they are necessary would be a serious mistake. No where does she specifically mention graphics, the closest she comes is when she talks about "Attention to Detail" but even here she never specifically says anything about graphics. To see her point in an older game look to Square's Chrono Cross, it achieves pretty much everything she mentions to create a very vivid and memorable world. I think she used these examples because they are her contemporaries with Uncharted and probably were what she was looking at while making the game.

Another reason why she maybe was a little heavy using graphical elements is that its easier to make your point with pictures than words. Going outside of the genre again Final Fantasy Tactics is a game that offers a great opportunity to explore the world however most of this is done abstractly through text descriptions or through side quests to unlock characters. While ICO which she mentions is my favorite game out there, Metal Gear Solid on the original PlayStation is second on my list and is far superior to the sequels which had better graphics.

I do think graphics aid the storyteller, but I also think that we're becoming too dependent upon them. Graphical restrictions forced developers to think creatively and made them tell the stories in more abstract and occasionally subtler way. Also the graphical improvements are pushing the price of games higher and higher and as a consumer the cost is outweighing the benefits.

Anyway as a student currently studying game design I loved this article and look forward to more in the future. Should be very interesting once you get into some of the sub-genres (hoping for a topic on horror.)