Co-Operative Adventure Games?!?!

Unknown

2 questions to start this posting off:

1) Have you ever played an adventure game? Probably, otherwise you wouldn't be here, and you know that they're (debatably) the most fun genre.

2) Have any of you folks ever played a Co-Operative (2 or more human players on the same team) game? Probably, then you know how much those can be too!

A Co-Operative Adventure game is something I've NEVER seen but (I think) would be more fun than any other type of game out there! If anyone's seen a game like this let me know, because I want to play it NOW :P

I've never seen any, but even if a few of these DO exist, I still think it'd be something EXCELLENT for Telltale to work on.

Maybe not in the game they're currently working on (with the caveman-looking guy up top?), since it's probably a good portion completed already and adding co-op would take a lot of extra work, but in one of their future titles for sure.

Unknown

Uru (the Massively Multiplay Online Myst game) was supposed to have co-op puzzles online, but the online component of that was cancelled.

On the other hand, I think every adventure game is co-op. When I was young my dad and myself would sit down and play them together. Recently I was visiting home on vacation so I brought some old Lucasarts adventures, since the computers there aren't up to today's gaming standard, and my sister saw me and sat down and started playing along with me. So I think they've always been co-op.

Unknown

I think that's a great idea!

ChooseStevo: I understand what you mean by that, but I think that a REAL co-op adventure game would be awesome. Even an action/adventure hybrid with the emphasis on adventure would be a lot of fun.

The dynamics for something like that would be awesome. You could even have the option of having the player control both guys if playing single player.

I'd love to play something like Sam and Max with one guy as sam and one as max

Unknown

I don't see how an adventure game can be co-op. I mean, the whole point is to engrose the player in the story (like a good book) and someone watching and giving suggestions kinda ruins the effect. An online multiplayer adventure game would be interesting, although I have know idea how it would be done if it is even possibly.

Unknown

From what I understand, that's what Telltale is here for - to be innovative and revitalize the Adventure game industry, and what I've heard so far indicates that they're exactly that.

A Co-Op Adventure game, if executed well, would be SURE to do that. Sam & Max is a perfect example (one player as sam, one as max). I mean you can't very well make it a 64 player game, but 2 or 3 wouldn't be impossible. Even if they aren't making another Sam & Max game, the idea is still useable.

Unknown

Yes, Tis true that the once humble Myst games had been turned into a MMO, but URU is not dead. "Until URU " has picked up where the makers left off.

URU was planned to be this massive online world where you could walk around as an avatar (human of cause) and solve puzzles in the world of the D'ni. The plan was that the story would split in two, and you had to decide which side of the "war" you were going to be on.

There were plans for great puzzles that required multiple people there to accomplish the puzzles and that these puzzles would be "found" as time went on.

Sadly there is no new content for URU anymore, but we can still play the online game, as it was before it shut down, meet others interested in the games and occasionally have the fun of helping a newbie solve the puzzles.

Unknown

I played Grim Fandango with my girlfriend - playing adventure games cooperative is better than watching movies, if you got a little patience.

A friend of mine always plays the hard puzzle games (Uru, Myst 4, ...) with another guy - he hardly ever needs walkthroughs.

It's sad that the MMOG version of Uru isn't online anymore.
I'd really like to try it...

Just finished Uru - To D'ni yesterday!

Unknown

I played Grim Fandango with my girlfriend - playing adventure games cooperative is better than watching movies, if you got a little patience.

A friend of mine always plays the hard puzzle games (Uru, Myst 4, ...) with another guy - he hardly ever needs walkthroughs.

It's sad that the MMOG version of Uru isn't online anymore.
I'd really like to try it...

Just finished Uru - To D'ni yesterday!

I would play with a friend.... If a friend would play the same games.

Also you can play URU online still.

Untìl Uru
Uru was built for people - a place for people to meet, grow and wonder.

The deep city came alive with the sounds of life - and then it was silent again.

But the life of Uru is in the people. It will not awaken again until Uru has people again

...Untìl Uru has people again.


This is not Uru, or Uru Live. It's only a breath, a spirit of what Uru was. It's a heartbeat until Uru can slowly grow again.

...Untìl Uru can slowly grow again.

For a once off payment of $5.95US you can play in the cavern to your hearts content

Unknown

I played Grim Fandango with my girlfriend - playing adventure games cooperative is better than watching movies, if you got a little patience.

You're right. When I was 10-15, I played the SCUMM games with my school friends. Sometimes we gathered around the same computer to play for a while, but not always. We also played alone, and when we met during school, we talk about what we were able to do on our own last evening. And together we were always able to finish the games.

By the way, before Internet and those too-easy-to-access walkthrough, adventure games were interesting multiplayer games, even though the "multiplayer" functionality was not directly integrated to the game. Unfortunately with the walkthroughs, people tend to get lazy so this doesn't quite work anymore. But I'll tell you (though, if you are true fans of adventure games, you probably know it...) Walkthroughs are EVIL... [>:)]

Unknown

I don't see how an adventure game can be co-op. I mean, the whole point is to engrose the player in the story (like a good book) and someone watching and giving suggestions kinda ruins the effect. An online multiplayer adventure game would be interesting, although I have know idea how it would be done if it is even possibly.

if you added puzzles to day of the tentacle, multiple ways of solving some, more locations per "time", and didn t start with laverne doing nothing, you could easily have 3 players playing at the same time.

same goes for maniac mansion, and same with the Goblins series (Gobliiins, gobliins 2 and goblins 3) you could have multiple players.

Unknown

same goes for maniac mansion, and same with the Goblins series (Gobliiins, gobliins 2 and goblins 3) you could have multiple players.

Goblins 3 had only a single player character, so that wouldn't work. The previous ones were "cooperative" in much the same sense as DOTT and Maniac Mansion.

You're right. When I was 10-15, I played the SCUMM games with my school friends. Sometimes we gathered around the same computer to play for a while, but not always. We also played alone, and when we met during school, we talk about what we were able to do on our own last evening. And together we were always able to finish the games.

Same here. It's a great experience playing adventure games together even if the game itself only has one player character. The way you sort of collectively brainstorm your way through the game is great fun, and it's also great to play the same game separately, then meeting the group and sharing thoughts and solutions.

So I'd say adventure games are already co-op games but not in the "traditional" sense.

Unknown

Also you can play URU online still.

For a once off payment of $5.95US you can play in the cavern to your hearts content

You're right - it was a bit of a disinformation that it's not online anymore... suh-weeeet!

But there's already an online petition to keep it going even longer: http://www.petitiononline.com/savelive/petition.html

Unknown

The whole Co-Op adventure game idea is just FAN-TASTIC! It really is! I've considered it many many times and designing computer games has always been a childhood fantasy of mine, and one that i doubt ill ever achieve as i 1:dont have any programming skills other than really basic basic :-) and 2: i have no contacts in the field. 3: no time to learn programming.

I do have the want to learn and design though incase anyones interested in giving me a go on writing the storyline and letting me help with the puzzles and things..

The way i thought of a Co-OP game was to have the good guy and the bad guy working against each other. For EXAMPLE. When i played the most recent monkey island game i was quite excited to take part in Monkey Combat with the Giant Chucky in the end. Imagine though if the chuckster was choosing his own counter moves instead of the AI doing it for him?? Well.. wouldnt that be interesting... And what WAS Lechuck up to in between those wonderfully acted cut scenes that you witness when you finally solve a major part of a puzzle?? The guy playing as Lechuck could answer that one couldnt he??

SO.... i propose a totally orginal game, not a sequel to anything but something orginal with a two player system so that they have to play on two different computers... requireing an inhouse LAN, or WAN connection or simply an internet game between 2 people connected on a server similar to battle.net. When one person has had enough for the night however the other person is also forced to save and they then revert back to the chat part of the room where they can plan their next meeting....to log on at the same time and play together against each other again. The cut scenes could still be lovely movies though because every adventure gamer lives for those dosnt she?

Anyway...any thoughts?

Unknown

Hmm if memory serves me (which doesn't happen to often) Al Lowe was once charged with creating a co-op adventure game/engine..I think then even wanted it to be based on the Space Quest series. I also remember him noting that he could not discover a way to make multiplayer adventures possible because of timing issues and problems advancing the plot.
The myst-type games seem to be the best candidate as they are more "story-excavation" then "story-driven" in their design and can suffer a crowd of people moving throgh them at a different pace and still cooperating to solve puzzles.

apignarb

Oh the memories that brought up. Me and my friends always used to play adventure games "cooperatively" in the sense that either we sat four or five friends around the computer and played the game after it's release, or sat home playing it and if one got stuck, we'd call one of the others and ask how far they had gotten. We'd sit up all night and call eachother until we all finished it. Especially Gobliiins, I think we finished that in one or two night with the most excessive phonecalls in my gaming history.

I don't know if you could successfully incorporate "real" co-op play in an adventure game, but online communities like this are co-op allready. When a telltale game comes out, we can go here and ask for help when we're stuck. That's what makes these kind of games unique.

jp-30

Bad-Brain (they who are publishing A Vampyre Story and amy or may not be trying to aquire the Sam & Max game from LucasArts) have an interesting sounding adventure game in development with co-op elements.

From adventure gamers

> You posted some teasers about another game called I-Jet on The Inventory. You were certainly not shying away from hyperbole when you said it would be the largest and finest in adventure game history. Okay, you have our attention... now what can you say about I-Jet that underscores those claims?


Okay, here's the deal! It's the next big thing in point & click adventures. The idea is: stick with the same style and the humor, but extend to the new technology.


The story of I-Jet is about seven people who lost their children. They disappeared one day and now they want their children back. We hope that we can create a game that appeals both to male and female players. Think of it as a large, playable X-Files episode with seven main characters.


You play one of those characters. Every time you play the game you can decide who to play. The chapter structure is that there are single-player chapters (the first three for every character, which totals it to 21) and multiplayer chapters (ten). There will be one more character you can play once you've solved some of the puzzles. This character will have two chapters. So there will be 33 chapters, which is a lot.


Every character has its own personality and every character starts in a different country and with a different job. Why is that interesting? It's easy. Firstly: locations.


The first three chapters of everyone will be set in their home country. Secondly: people with different professions see things in different ways. An architect will see other things when he enters a room than someone who is a cop. So everytime you play with a different character the same room will change in terms of information and items to collect.


So what does that mean for multiplayer? There will be three types of puzzles: single player puzzles, multiplayer-synchronized and multiplayer-asynchronous. The first group consist of standard puzzles which can be found in every adventure. You can solve them in a single player session, no help needed. The second type can only be solved with two or more people at once (meaning playing at the same time, in the same or another room). An example is: one character tries to steal something from an office and needs to distract someone behind the table. So a second character has to call him on the phone to distract him and the first one can take the item.


The third kind of puzzle is even better. Characters can leave messages and clues for other players. They don't have to be online at the same time. Every character has a way to communicate. One will have his own website where he leaves info for the others. This information works like an item. Once you have read/heard/received them, you will be able to use them and maybe continue at a location that needs something more.


We're currently discussing if it is a good idea to have puzzles that can only be solved by more than one person simultaneously. Maybe there will be more than one way to do it.


The graphics are going to be 2D backgrounds with 3D characters and movies with real actors as cutscenes.


It's scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2006.


> Many have attempted to do a multi-player adventure game before, but probably all attempts failed. What makes you sure a modern attempt will work?


I guess we have the right mood to do it. We don't look at the multiplayer option from a technical, but from a gameplay standpoint. That makes the difference.

Hopefully more will be revealed when their websiite goes live tomorrow. http://www.bad-brain.com

Alucard

I'm sorry to say this but I think a co op adventure game is a bad idea. multiplayer games are filled with frustration when trying to get people to act as a "team" that is if you don't know them. Lets face it people are stupid. Other then a two person co op with someone you know who also has the game is when it would work. Why give up some of the conrtol you have to let someone else take over. It would be a bitch to program with not much gain.

Unknown

I'm sorry to say this but I think a co op adventure game is a bad idea. multiplayer games are filled with frustration when trying to get people to act as a "team" that is if you don't know them. Lets face it people are stupid. Other then a two person co op with someone you know who also has the game is when it would work. Why give up some of the conrtol you have to let someone else take over. It would be a bitch to program with not much gain.

it could work,online

solving puzzles with people on the other side of the world
could be nice

Unknown

I just played a cooperative 2-player Adventure game.

It's the first Point'n'Click-Adventure for two players, and a TCP/IP-connection, I've seen. (-- Not like multiplayer-games, like Uru, but really cooperative...)

http://www.cleverundsmart-game.de/ (german)
http://www.alcachofasoft.com/web/us/ultimojuego.html (english/spanish)

It can work...

Unknown

same goes for maniac mansion, and same with the Goblins series (Gobliiins, gobliins 2 and goblins 3) you could have multiple players.

Goblins 3 had only a single player character, so that wouldn't work. The previous ones were "cooperative" in much the same sense as DOTT and Maniac Mansion.

Sorry for answering so late

You are wrong, goblins3 had 1 goblin(or were-wolf-in) character per stage, but you had either a pet or a magician on every one :P the game was still heavily based on cooperative puzzles

anyway i d love to see that kind of puzzle-solving in a cooperative multiplayer game (a bit like zelda 4 swords in a different genre)

Unknown

same goes for maniac mansion, and same with the Goblins series (Gobliiins, gobliins 2 and goblins 3) you could have multiple players.

Goblins 3 had only a single player character, so that wouldn't work. The previous ones were "cooperative" in much the same sense as DOTT and Maniac Mansion.

Sorry for answering so late

You are wrong, goblins3 had 1 goblin(or were-wolf-in) character per stage, but you had either a pet or a magician on every one :P the game was still heavily based on cooperative puzzles

anyway i d love to see that kind of puzzle-solving in a cooperative multiplayer game (a bit like zelda 4 swords in a different genre)

You're right, of course. Having played only the first two games I knew (or rather, thought I knew) that the number of "i"s in the title indicated the number of player characters.
Anyway, maybe I should try to find whoever made those games (Gobliiins series, that is) and check if an open source release would be forthcoming. Perhaps, with the source available, it could even be integrated into ScummVM... (though I'd have to check that with Ender before suggesting it).

Unknown

A great online multiplayer game would be Maniac Mansion. It would be a good way to test adventure games in multiplayer mode. If someone can make the original MM as an online multiplayer game then it would be awesome! Each character will have its own screen. I would play it everday with other people online, with 3 people online assigned to a character of their choice. An implemented chat system would work very well with it too. But instead of switching characters in the game - we would be able to have other people online to be those characters!!!! It would be awesome.

Unknown

So can we get a posting from some of you guys at TellTale? What do you think?