It was posted by Francisco González, who laments that people rue the death of the adventure game genre, when, as he says, there are more great adventure games being made now than ever before. Perhaps what we’ve lost is the big publisher, the press that will call attention to them, or maybe just the narrow field of releases that allows single specific games to stand out above a handful of peers. Although I notice that many of these games have positive Eurogamer and Rock Paper Shotgun reviews!
So Francisco posted links to some games that he personally likes. A lot of these games have a pixel art style to them, in ways that purposely evoke the Sierra and Lucasarts games of the 80s and 90s. You can read Francisco’s post on Bluesky. I’ve called out a few below, but encourage you to check the post!
Death of the Reprobate: An adventure through real Renaissance portraits by John Richardson, creator of comedy adventure games Four Last Things and The Procession to Calvary.
Near-Mage: You play as a student who’s just discovered she’s a witch, and has been sent to study magic in Transylvania. Maybe a bit of a Harry Potter vibe, although with more vampires and less of Rowling’s transphobia. Its description states, “A game about about Transylvania made by Transylvanians!”
PRIM: A “cute and creepy” aesthetic suffused this game about a girl who finds out she’s Death’s daughter. Discworld vibes, perhaps?
Francisco’s own Rosewater: A quest for fame across an alternate world version of the old west.
Perfect Tides: Set in the year 2000, follow an internet obsessed teen through a year of her life on an island paradise.
Paradigm: A surreal game with bizarre character art, starring a mutant fighting against (adjusts glasses, reads) “a genetically engineered sloth that vomits candy.”
Beyond the Edge of Owlsgard: Another game set in a world of anthropomorphic animals, the art has a VGA vibe to it and a strong classic Lucasarts vibe.
(And let’s not forget, World of Goo 2 has a change-up last chapter that’s actually an adventure game!)
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