Survey for new engine

[blalasaadri]

Hello everyone!

I've loved Point & Click Adventures since I was a child and now that the time for my bachelors thesis has come, it's my turn to contribute to this great tradition. To do so however, I need your help. Don't worry, it's not difficult. :-)
Modern smartphones and tablets are becoming evermore powerful and I believe they would be great for Point & Click Adventures (or Point & Tap Adventures, as some call it). But these devices have capabilities that go beyond those of traditional PCs - a wide array of sensors, GPS, mobility...

So, if you were to create an Adventure for mobile devices, which functionalities would you want to use?
1. Using the devices inclination (e.g. moving virtual leavers by moving the real device)
2. Turning the device (e.g. opening the number lock on a virtual safe by turning the real device)
3. Shaking the device (e.g. for mixing cocktails, rattleing gaming machines that have swallowed a coin, etc.)
4. Using Multitouch (e.g. for pressing several buttons at the same time)
5. Posting achievements to social media outlets (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, ...)
6. Using relative GPS and / or the built in compass (e.g. walking for a certain distance in a certain direction)
7. Using absolute GPS positions (for localized games only; e.g. walking to a certain point in real life and finding a clue there)
8. Using the Camera / NFC sensor (for localized games or games connected to certain websites/books/magazines/...; e.g. finding and collecting an item somewhere in real life)
9. Using the Internet in general (e.g. for real time based puzzles or ingame purchases)
10. Others (please elaborate)

To answer, just post a reply with the numbers you'd want to use and I am also open to further suggestions. The information I get here will be used for the development of a new Point & Click game engine and for my bachelor dissertation.

Thank you for your help!
Blalasaadri

[oraxon]

Hi, Blalasaadri!

They all sound great but I would especially like:

3. Shaking. Shaking dirt & roaches off an artifact.
4. Multitouch. Machinery repair where you use both hands.
8. Camera. Put your face on the character, add friends, personal items.
9, Internet. Research answers on wikipedia, amazon, fake websites.
10. Microphone. Singing, blowing air into someone's lungs. Instruct a sidekick with simple commands. Say magic words to open temple.

Thanks for asking.

[blalasaadri]

Hi oraxon!

8. Camera. Put your face on the character, add friends, personal items.

Interesting suggestions - not what I initially planned but certainly possible.

10. Microphone. Singing, blowing air into someone's lungs. Instruct a sidekick with simple commands. Say magic words to open temple.

Hm, similar to the Nintendo DS... Could work, though it would probably be complicated as the data has to be processed in some way, wich would be a totally different type of subject. Maybe it could be added later. We'll see, we'll see.

[nigec]

I don't have anything useful to add except good luck!
how long have you got to do this?

[blalasaadri]

I don't have anything useful to add except good luck!

Thanks But of course, you could add your own answer, every vote counts. ^^

I'm planning to hand the project in by the end of feburary 2013 by the very latest, so it should be runnable by then. Might be earlier, as I also have theoretical work to do, plus I must develop a game to show that it works and how all the new features can be included into a game. However the chances are high, that I won't come round to developing all of the features in that time and so development will continue afterwards.

[nigec]

I guess it depends on what you want to do, point n click game just touch would do, which is the easiest to achieve, drag and drop inventory an so forth
Racing game turning the device

GPS lots of possibilities but I dunno how you could do a game

I guess a first person view turning by real direction would be cool, I doubt walking forward would work, you'd need a bloody big room lol

[blalasaadri]

I guess it depends on what you want to do, point n click game just touch would do, which is the easiest to achieve, drag and drop inventory an so forth

Ehm... It WILL be a point & click adventure engine. The question is, what would be worth adding? For puzzles I mean, because that's part of what makes adventures worth playing. Of course, you could use them for jokes too, if you liked. Don't know about enhancing the story with them, haven't had any good idea for that so far...

GPS lots of possibilities but I dunno how you could do a game

Well, for example you could have a local game (e.g. for a school, a museum, ...) where you walk around while playing the adventure and get hints at certain places, must find specific doors, QR codes could be hidden at specific places, etc. This would only work outdoors mind you, as the GPS signal within buildings is normally pretty awful.
The other option would be to have a treasure map, where you have to walk, say, 20m to the north, then 10m to the west and then turn around 3 times. That could be acomplished with the compass and relative GPS.

I guess a first person view turning by real direction would be cool, I doubt walking forward would work, you'd need a bloody big room lol

Well, if you wanted to control your character like that, then yes. But I was thinking about interacting with the enviroment via the above options, not controlling the character - what would be pretty annoying.

[nigec]

Look at the market your aiming for, casual gamers are fairly lazy, most can't even comprehend a verb disc ffs

Best advice would be to start simple and get the basics working and add the BS when you get to the point you have something decent, even if the clever stuff crashes and burns  you'll have something

[blalasaadri]

Look at the market your aiming for, casual gamers are fairly lazy, most can't even comprehend a verb disc ffs

Actually, the market I'm aiming for is mainly adventure game players. If I get other people to play as well, great.
Btw, I know quite a few casual gamers that are anything but stupid. So, if they don't understand the interface, it's the fault of the designer.

Best advice would be to start simple and get the basics working and add the BS when you get to the point you have something decent, ...

Thanks, that's generally true for developing. However it is also true that if you plan properly, considering the things you'll want to add later, the result will generally be much better.

Also, for my dissertation I need Information on what people want from such an engine. You know, science and stuff.

... even if the clever stuff crashes and burns  you'll have something

Actually, not really - well, it would be a nice project of course, but the goal of my dissertation is to implement fancy stuff and make it work. So, I'd have a working engine but no presentable results. Not good, careerwise.

[ad7venture]

My own personal feeling is 1,2,4  would be all right.  The rest would feel a little gimmicky.  Anything with global positioning would scare me away.  Using the internet might be interesting if it was done to solve puzzles, but I think it would be safer to not use it and have a facade or something.  It's easy to overwhelm people in an adventure game with too many choices or too much information.  You can have too many red herrings and totally lose people.  The idea is to have enough where they feel comfortable exploring yet not so many that they get overwhelmed solving puzzles and stop progressing.  I'm sure some people would get into global positioning and the internet, I'm just not one.  I like to be able to play a game anywhere and lose myself in it.  The story is much more important than some kind of gimmick.  It's what makes an adventure different than all the other genres.

[blalasaadri]

It's easy to overwhelm people in an adventure game with too many choices or too much information.  You can have too many red herrings and totally lose people.  The idea is to have enough where they feel comfortable exploring yet not so many that they get overwhelmed solving puzzles and stop progressing.

Oh, I absolutely agree. And I'm not suggesting, that all of these things should be used in a single game (though they could and I'll have to write at least one which does use everything I implement as a proof of concept). I just want to offer these options to developers.

The story is much more important than some kind of gimmick.  It's what makes an adventure different than all the other genres.

Again, I agree. But the story doesn't change much, wheather you use a PC, a smartphone or a gaming console - either it's a good story on any medium or it's not a good story. The input options however vary and that influences the types of puzzles one may want to create as a developer or expect as a player. That's why I'm doing this survey in the first place.