Genre Suggestions

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Gunness
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Re: Genre Suggestions

#31 Post by Gunness » Sat Oct 18, 2014 10:39 am

Well, "Indiana Jones homage/rip-off" was already taken, but I can already see EIDOS lining up their hot shot lawyers for a billion dollar copyright infringement lawsuit, so...

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#32 Post by Gunness » Sun Oct 19, 2014 11:31 am

Lo and behold, Archaelogy has mysteriously appeared!

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#33 Post by Richard Bos » Mon Oct 20, 2014 4:56 pm

Gunness wrote:Lo and behold, Archaelogy has mysteriously appeared!
And is already being used!
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Re: Genre Suggestions

#34 Post by Alastair » Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:39 pm

I'm resurrecting this thread to ask one question - is there any objection to me creating an "Escape" genre? Note that this is for games where the sole object (winning condition) is to escape and not for those games where one or more situations require you to escape before you can proceed further (so no Goblins' Dungeon).

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#35 Post by Gunness » Fri Aug 24, 2018 10:25 am

So.... right off the bat I'm not opposed to an Escape genre. It's a pretty neat idea. I'm just not entirely certain what it encompasses. A few examples to clarify what I mean:

Asylum: you're trying to escape from an insane asylum. Clear enough.
Any number of POW games: you're trying to flee from a POW camp. Also pretty obvious.

What about: You've crashlanded on a planet and need to repair your ship to get off the planet again. Is that an escape, too? I'd probably say yes, but it's not a clean-cut case.
Various Alice in Wonderland game: You've entered an alternate world and want to return to your own. Not sure about that one either.
So if you can flesh out the description a bit, it'll be easier to apply to the right games.

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#36 Post by Alastair » Fri Aug 24, 2018 11:12 pm

Jacob, I was thinking about games in which you have been imprisoned which would rule out the various Alice in Wonderland games (unless it is a game where the Queen of Hearts has had you imprisoned and you win by escaping that imprisonment) and crash-landed games (again unless you were imprisoned and you win by escaping that imprisonment).

So alongside your examples of escaping asylums (Asylum is not alone in this concept) and POW camps I would also include games such as Underbeings of Croth where you have been imprisoned and must escape both your immediate predicament and the surrounding area.

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#37 Post by Gunness » Sun Aug 26, 2018 12:20 am

Ok, makes sense. Go right ahead.

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#38 Post by Alastair » Sun Dec 02, 2018 12:48 am

If you are looking for the debate about competition entries it has been split off to form its own thread. Please continue that discussion there, if you wish to suggest genres for inclusion in the database then add those suggestions below in this thread.

Thank you.

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#39 Post by Alastair » Sat Dec 08, 2018 9:59 pm

Wordplay. I had thought that Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It was a one off but I am now aware of another game - Under, In Erebus - that utilises wordplay based puzzles.

Two examples are not enough to create a new genre but if anyone knows of any more please list them. With enough titles it may be worth considering the creation of a "Wordplay" genre.

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#40 Post by Garry » Sun Dec 09, 2018 1:03 am

The all-time classic for wordplay is Ad Verbum by Nick Montfort. I know there are others, but none come to mind at the moment.

For individual puzzles, the most memorable for me is the tea remover (or T-remover?) in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, where using it turned the rabbit into a rabbi. When I discovered that, I spent the next hour or so running around trying to find other objects that I could change.

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#41 Post by auraes » Sun Dec 09, 2018 7:16 am

I suggest the genre of buggy games. Of course, not the small bugs, but the ones that make the game impossible to finish, or in which you can be blocked indefinitely.
This seems to be the case for Unicorn Hunt. There’s a small Bug (see the solution) that doesn’t matter, but there’s another one that can block you in the game (walk round and round).
This game appears to have been designed seriously, but they have planned a possibility that leads nowhere. I could fix it, but I'm not sure what they really wanted to do.

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#42 Post by Mr Creosote » Sun Dec 09, 2018 8:27 am

Alastair wrote:
Sat Dec 08, 2018 9:59 pm
Wordplay. I had thought that Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It was a one off but I am now aware of another game - Under, In Erebus - that utilises wordplay based puzzles.

Two examples are not enough to create a new genre but if anyone knows of any more please list them. With enough titles it may be worth considering the creation of a "Wordplay" genre.
- Almost everything written by Andrew Schultz.

- Spellcasting 101 has a dedicated island fully based on wordplay puzzles, so I think that would also qualify.

- Earl Grey

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#43 Post by Strident » Sun Dec 09, 2018 3:17 pm

I'm not sure about 'word play' as a genre! So many games used object-based puns! For example, many of the Tartan 'Door' games.

I used to use as many (bad!) puns as possible in my object puzzles. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with them tagged with 'word play' as a genre. Unless the game is 100% driven by that mechanic it seems a bit of a stretch to use that as a genre.

I must check out the examples you've given.

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#44 Post by Strident » Sun Dec 09, 2018 3:22 pm

After a brief look... yeah, I could see the justification of using 'word play' as a tag for one or two of them, because that's the main mechanic... but is your intention really to use the genre system to tag games which have specific types of puzzles in them? You'd be in danger of turning into something like the site TV Tropes!!

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Re: Genre Suggestions

#45 Post by Alastair » Sun Dec 09, 2018 10:55 pm

Strident wrote:
Sun Dec 09, 2018 3:22 pm
After a brief look... yeah, I could see the justification of using 'word play' as a tag for one or two of them, because that's the main mechanic... but is your intention really to use the genre system to tag games which have specific types of puzzles in them? You'd be in danger of turning into something like the site TV Tropes!!
I have no desire to create a genre for every type of puzzle! My intention is for games where wordplay is the main mechanic and not for those games where some puzzles are solved via wordplay, because such games play very differently from traditional adventures (in that instead of trying to work out how to accomplish a task, you are attempting to work out how to manipulate the words on screen to solve the puzzle. Also note that "Multiple Choice" games, which also play differently from traditional games, already have their own genre).

As to whether we should create a wordplay genre, that is something that needs discussing, but before entering such a discussion I think it best to find out how many games would come under the genre - since I do not think it worthwhile to create a new genre if it turns out that only a couple or so games exist in that genre. Given the replies by others, it seems there are enough games to justify that discussion.

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