Today I’m doing something a little different
and looking at a newly released book celebrating
one of my favourite genres. It’s The Art
of Point & click Adventure Games, published
by Bitmap Books.
This is a beautiful, and heavy, 476-page,
full colour, hardcover book. The title is
embossed in silver
and there’s a ribbon to keep your place.
Everything seems very high quality. The regular
edition also came with 
a few postcards
and an insert for adventuregamers.com.
It starts with a 10-page, mostly text summary
of the history of the genre before turning
to visuals to take us through standout games
year by year. It begins in 1984 with Enchanted
Scepters for the Apple MacIntosh and the original
King’s Quest and takes us all the way up
to 2017 with entries like Thimbleweed Park
and The Darkside Detective.
The images selected are a wonderful variety
that really get into the character of each
game. There are double-page spreads showing
ethereal scenes from LOOM, over-the-top neon
environments of Leisure Suit Larry 5, and
the disturbing Giger art from Dark Seed.
There are collections of landscapes and background
art, from the fantasy land of Kyrandia, to
the Wild West of Freddy Pharkas, beautiful
alien vistas from The Dig and the dystopian
world of Blade Runner.
And there are closer looks at characters.
I’m very happy they included a sampling
of the up close portraits from The Secret
of Monkey Island, my favourite pixel art of
all time, and there’s also screens from
the comic-inspired intro to Beneath a Steel
Sky and some close-ups of Sam & Max
While a lot of space is dedicated to the big
2 - Sierra and LucasArts - there’s also
plenty of attention given to games that are
less well known or less talked about.
The spread of Gobliins brought back memories
I didn’t even know I had. I was also introduced
to some games I hadn’t heard of - like Dreamweb
and A Vampyre Story, which is one I need to
look into now.
And though pixel art is the favoured artstyle
of the genre, there’s also love given to
the art nouveau style of The Last Express,
the unique silhouettes of Kentucky Route Zero,
and even FMV and my old pal Tex Murphy in
the Pandora Directive.
While this book bills itself as a visual celebration
of the genre, it’s also just as much a look
at the art of creating adventure games and
features more than 40 interviews with developers,
artists, writers and other creators.
There are interviews with a lot of the big
names - Rob Gilbert, Al Lowe, Jane Jensen,
Tim Schafer, also also creators whose work
I know but whose names I wouldn’t recognize.
The one real glaring omissions is Roberta
Williams, who is considered the creator of
the graphic adventure genre, though I’m
going to assume her not being included was
not due to lack of trying on the part of the
team who put this book together.
The interviews also feature smaller screenshots
from the games being talked about and even
some pictures of things like design documents
and concept art which is especially interesting.
If you’re a fan of point & click adventures,
this book is a delight. It would be a great
showpiece on your shelf or coffee table as
well as a fascinating book to read from cover
to cover.
One thing I especially like is that while
the book celebrates the past, it doesn’t
dwell on it. There can be a tendency in classic
game -loving circles to write off anything
new. That doesn’t happen here.
There’s an appreciation for where the genre
is now, how it got here and what newer games
are doing within it. I was very happy to see
art from a few titles from Wadjet Eye games,
along with newer favorites like Fran Bow,
Kathy Rain and an interview with the developer
of the beautiful The Lion’s Song, one of
the most striking adventure games I’ve played.
The Art of Point & Click Adventure Games is
available now from bitmapbooks.co.uk. It’s
30 pounds, or 40 USD (which is probably over
50 Canadian) and ships for free to addresses
in the UK.
One last note - the packaging on this was
great. It arrived in mint condition - it had
a thin foam cover, fitted cardboard in a plastic
covering and had corner protectors which will
prevent smushed edges if your courier is overly
exuberant.
That’s it for now. If you’re interested
in adventure games check out my review of
The Secret of Monkey Island or Under a Killing
Moon, which incidentally is not included in
this book. I have a Patreon if you’re interested
in supporting my content. Thanks for watching
and I’ll see you next time.
