Top 5 Developers

[Pinkie Pie]

Valve

Bioware

RockSteady

Naughty Dog

Insomniac Games

 

Honorable mention: Gearbox

[Alyxx Thorne]

1. Naughty Dog

2. Valve

3. Team Ico

4. Double Fine

5. Rockstar

 

I'd put Cyan on the list, as Riven is one of my all time favorites, but I thought I'd limit the list to devs that are still putting out great games.

 

DoubleFine is Tim Schafer's company as far as I know. I hope we'll see more adventure titles from him. He did a great job on Grim Fandango, considered one of the last great adventure games.

 

I wouldn't say that. There a lot of games even nowadays that can easily be categorized as Adventure. Games like Amnesia the Dark Descent and LA Noire. And of course some of the classic series like Myst continued past 1998. Myst 3 and 4 were both great games, released in 2002 and 2005.

Amnesia the Dark Descent was a horrible game, and definitely not what I consider an adventure game. There was no dialogue for one, there was no real puzzle to it. All I remember of it was being pissed off all the time by how whimpy the protagonist was and being pissed off that I couldn't find enough tinder for the bloody light source which was so essential to keeping my protagonist from going insane. One of the worst games I've ever played.

 

And speaking of LA Noire, I guess that can be classified as an adventure game since it relies heavily on detective work and story.

 

The Longest Journey was a great adventure title, and TellTale's Monkey Island titles as well as Back To The Future were also good adventure games.

[Eedo Baba]

1. Naughty Dog

2. Valve

3. Team Ico

4. Double Fine

5. Rockstar

 

I'd put Cyan on the list, as Riven is one of my all time favorites, but I thought I'd limit the list to devs that are still putting out great games.

 

DoubleFine is Tim Schafer's company as far as I know. I hope we'll see more adventure titles from him. He did a great job on Grim Fandango, considered one of the last great adventure games.

 

I wouldn't say that. There a lot of games even nowadays that can easily be categorized as Adventure. Games like Amnesia the Dark Descent and LA Noire. And of course some of the classic series like Myst continued past 1998. Myst 3 and 4 were both great games, released in 2002 and 2005.

Amnesia the Dark Descent was a horrible game, and definitely not what I consider an adventure game. There was no dialogue for one, there was no real puzzle to it. All I remember of it was being pissed off all the time by how whimpy the protagonist was and being pissed off that I couldn't find enough tinder for the bloody light source which was so essential to keeping my protagonist from going insane. One of the worst games I've ever played.

 

And speaking of LA Noire, I guess that can be classified as an adventure game since it relies heavily on detective work and story.

 

The Longest Journey was a great adventure title, and TellTale's Monkey Island titles as well as Back To The Future were also good adventure games.

 

By any reasonable definition, A:TDD is certainly an adventure game. It relies on story and puzzle solving ahead of action. As for the lack of dialog, I can think of many many adventures games like that. Myst or Scratches come to mind.

Oh, and the Telltale Monkey Island games and the Back to the Future games were both pretty crappy adventure games... Telltale really can't stand on it's own unless there's good writing, like with the Sam and Max games.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I disagree, BTTF stayed fairly close to the source material and even had Christopher Lloyd reprising his role and AJ LoCascio doing an admirable job as Marty. As a BTTF fan I think it's the only BTTF game that got it right.

 

Otherwise, A:TDD just isn't my kind of game, I didn't get it at all. The story was boring, the puzzles were confusing and for the most part I just felt annoyed and like I was trying to control a crazy pussy rather than feeling like I had any freedom in the game. It didn't feel atmospheric or scary, just frustratingly restrictive. Like, after playing the game for an hour I wanted to toss the keyboard into the screen, I was that frustrated and angry with the game and I was literally cursing at the protagonist to get his shit together. I really really didn't like it. I guess I'm not easily scared at all, regardless if I play in a dark room with headphones or not, and playing a character like that just made the game worse, it didn't enhance it for me.

[Eedo Baba]

I disagree, BTTF stayed fairly close to the source material and even had Christopher Lloyd reprising his role and AJ LoCascio doing an admirable job as Marty. As a BTTF fan I think it's the only BTTF game that got it right.

 

The problems I had with Back to the Future... Wayyyy too easy. Shockingly easy. Almost no challenge at all. On top of that it was just badly written. The entire story feels very contrived and embarrassingly stupid. Dialog has none of the charm of well written adventure games.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Oh well, let's not get too sidetracked.

[Axeldeath]

There was no dialogue for one, there was no real puzzle to it. All I remember of it was being pissed off all the time by how whimpy the protagonist was and being pissed off that I couldn't find enough tinder for the bloody light source which was so essential to keeping my protagonist from going insane. One of the worst games I've ever played.

 

It's a game mechanic to further the horror theme. What makes humans scared? It's the feeling of helplessness, that's why horror games with weapons have to rely on shock horror, because you don't feel scared when you can just kill everything with a gun. I guess you just don't like that feeling.

[Alyxx Thorne]

It's not that I don't like it, it's that I felt the game was forcing it on me. Everything felt forced and contrived, and most of the time, I didn't feel scared, just annoyed. It wasn't the fact I didn't have any weapon or the fact that I would have to run away from enemies, that was fine with me. What annoyed me was that the protagonist acted like that and felt like a complete coward to me. I lost all respect for him. Also, the game's reliance on light was also a huge mistake to me because there wasn't nearly enough tinder or light sources to remedy this and I felt forced to more or less hold back on them but that would just make my character go fucking batshit insane so I HAD to use up all my light just to keep him from grinding his teeth and cowering in fear of the dark. Goddamnit...

 

While I'll admit that the game is different and a less action'y take on horror, it's annoying as hell.

[Kirkreng]

What? there were tinder thingies all over the place.

 

And the character wasn't a coward, he was realistic. Lets face it, no realistic character actually walks away from an explosion without looking back.

[Eedo Baba]

I'd agree. The main character in A:TDD is pretty average. And even if he wasn't a "coward", what exactly would he be doing? Fist fighting the monsters? There aren't exactly any shotguns lying around...

And keep in mind that if he was a coward, he could have simply left the castle.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Well, either way, it's not my kind of game.

[The Scoutman]

I'd agree. The main character in A:TDD is pretty average. And even if he wasn't a "coward", what exactly would he be doing? Fist fighting the monsters? There aren't exactly any shotguns lying around...

And keep in mind that if he was a coward, he could have simply left the castle.

 

Fist fighting the monsters?

 

 

 

SAXTON HALE!!!

 

 

Entering an accursed castle filled with monsters all by yourself with no real weapon doesnt make you a coward, neither proves you to be average, just shows how much of an idiot you are

[Chuckthe2nd]

I'd personally like to play A:TDD with a crowbar and HEV suit...

[Kyon]

1:Valve (All in one package)

2:Rockstar (Great storytellers, good with car games, and fun sandboxes)

3:Obsidian (AKA Black Isle Studios)

4:Nintendo (Cares about their customers, not afraid to experiment

5:Eidos (Numerous fun games)

 

Edit for correction.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Guest (see edit history)

[Alyxx Thorne]

3:Obsidian (AKA Interplay, Black Isle Studios)

I have to correct you there. Interplay has never been a developer in of itself, and it was purely a publisher for Black Isle's games, and Obsidian has nothing to do with Interplay. They are however ex-Black Isle employees, so you got that part right.

 

There's a distinction between being a publisher and being a developer and I think it's important to keep it. A publisher might have some say in how a game is made to make it as marketable as possible, as they are the ones who do the marketing and promotion of the game.

[Kyon]

3:Obsidian (AKA Interplay, Black Isle Studios)

I have to correct you there. Interplay has never been a developer in of itself, and it was purely a publisher for Black Isle's games, and Obsidian has nothing to do with Interplay. They are however ex-Black Isle employees, so you got that part right.

 

There's a distinction between being a publisher and being a developer and I think it's important to keep it. A publisher might have some say in how a game is made to make it as marketable as possible, as they are the ones who do the marketing and promotion of the game.

 

I see Interplay as the publisher and developer of the original Fallout and I am using the original Fallout as an implied example. Most of the employees from Black Isle now are in Obsidian and worked on F:NV.

[Psychotic Ninja]

1.) Valve

2.) Squaresoft (note I said Squaresoft, and not Square-Enix)

3.) Double Fine Productions

4.) Bethesda

5.) Rocksteady Studios

[Alyxx Thorne]

3:Obsidian (AKA Interplay, Black Isle Studios)

I have to correct you there. Interplay has never been a developer in of itself, and it was purely a publisher for Black Isle's games, and Obsidian has nothing to do with Interplay. They are however ex-Black Isle employees, so you got that part right.

 

There's a distinction between being a publisher and being a developer and I think it's important to keep it. A publisher might have some say in how a game is made to make it as marketable as possible, as they are the ones who do the marketing and promotion of the game.

 

I see Interplay as the publisher and developer of the original Fallout and I am using the original Fallout as an implied example. Most of the employees from Black Isle now are in Obsidian and worked on F:NV.

Well, according to WIkipedia you are right, so I guess I was wrong.

[Brad]

1. Sony Cambridge (For creating MediEvil)

2. Valve (Half Life)

3. Naughty Dog (Crash Bandicoot and Uncharted.)

4. Konami (Metal Gear Solid)

5. Rockstar North (Red Dead and GTA)