I’m still not back to doing indie game roundups just yet but I did want to give a shout out to all the adventure games coming out lately since there’s been so many lately but you wouldn’t know it from being in the adventure game community, which seems more content to complain about how it’s not the 90s anymore and ignores all the new stuff and experimentation happening in the space. Just this last month we’ve had:

The Incident at Galley House, a remake of last year’s Type Help, where you are investigating a mysterious death. I’ve only played a little so far but it’s been fantastic.

Endacopia, a horror point-and-click adventure made in Adventure Game Studio that’s only been out for a few days but already looks like it’s been a massive success. Again, wouldn’t know it existed since there’s been no real coverage of it from any adventure game outlets but it’s getting great reviews on Steam and looks like it’s doing some really interesting stuff with the engine. It sounds like the developer had a YouTube channel for a while so I’m guessing that’s where this massive audience came from. I do really like the 90s edutainment horror aesthetic although part of me is nostalgia poisoned enough that I think I would get more excited if it just looked like 90s edutainment but wasn’t horror.

Desktop Explorer is another 90s-inspired horror adventure game, but obviously through a desktop computer.

The Mermaid Mask is the third game in the Detective Grimoire series. I really should play these. They all have some great artwork.

I think a nice thing about all these releases is that they all seem to be massively successful too. Obviously commercial success isn’t an indicator of quality or what deserves attention but it’s still nice that there’s folks that can make a living doing this considering all the talk about it being a dead genre.

I also want to mention some other recent games. What Awaits, Aleksey? looks like a very challenging investigation game set in a Communist state and I’m curious how that is executed. Go North looks like a very interesting maze puzzle game that I first saw at a Game Devs of Color related event. I also need to finish playing A Lost Man and doing a writeup on it since I was given a key for it, but I do like that one a bit too. I previously wrote about really liking the demo, which is still available for you to try.

I still haven’t played Broken Reality but the sequel Broken Reality 2000 looks great. I really want to walk around in that space.

And finally, I also really want to make the time for the semi-autobiographical walking simulator Plum Road Tea Dream.

I just always find it fascinating to see what the adventure game sites and youtubers cover. It often feels like it’s just about how the genre isn’t what it used to be, casually ignoring the innovations that are happening so they keep complaining. Also plenty of complaints about how the games are too easy now and not playing any of the ones with more challenging puzzles. You’d think that Cyan showing off a whole prototype that couldn’t get funded would be worthy of a mention in adventure games news but I guess not! Anyway, the adventure game genre is doing fine.