Well I know this was posted a LOOOONG time ago, but I think the question is still valid; I'm half-way assuming that you guys haven't undertaken anything HUGE quite yet, with QG2VGA still being worked away on & whatnot.
The question is a tricky one. You obviously want to appeal to the widest audience possible, which would be the fantasy genre --
but that also means it's the most saturated.
If your target market is still the traditional niche adventure gaming audience, then fantasy is definitely your 'safest' bet...but it would also be the hardest to come up with original material for. KQ6, KQ5, etc all borrowed very heavily from mythology and whatnot (of course you know this), which gave it a very "familiar" feeling, but a lot of the better known works have already been pretty heavily covered (from the river styx on up). But, those are timeless stories that I would think could still be retold freshly if approached correctly.
Maybe the best way to approach something would be to take a "soft" influence to existing subject matter. The best example I can think of is QG4. The Coles took the general Vampire mythology (including other myths such as the Rusalka), culture, etc, and really weaved a wonderful story arch & memorable, developing characters.
ALSO VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE, whether they meant to or not, most of the very successful adventure games followed Joesph Campbell's "Hero Formula" VERY, VERY closely. KQ5 and QG4 are again wonderful examples. This is true for almost ALL of the Sierra games, as well as some of the most vastly popular modern stories ever told, ranging from the Godfather, the first Matrix movie, to the original Star Wars movies. The latter is an especially good example, since Lucas was a close friend and pupil of Campbell and followed his works very closely, following "The Hero's Journey" to a T. It's also worth noting that he hardly did this with the prequel trilogy, nor did the last two Matrix movies...and while they all made a lot of money, I think most will agree that they are not of nearly the same story-quality as the earlier installments. Heck, the first Pirates movie is another good example, with the later two movies not following the formula as well -- and consequently not faring as well in the "story" department.
I'm sorry I'm rambling on about this, but Joseph Campbell's teachings are standard and required material at a lot of film schools, and should not be overlooked as a valuable resource. I know you didn't exactly ask for all of what I've written above...but since story is so crucial to an adventure game, I want to make sure you go into it with as much ammunition as you can!
SO AS FOR what I myself would like to play as a Himalaya release:
Probably fantasy...though if you could do it effectively, taking another genre could make you stand out from other games.
The interface is very debatable. The classic sierra interface works well, but later LucasArts games had a pretty nice, "hidden" interface as well (ie Full Throttle, Curse of Monkey Island, etc). I'd say the more 'hidden', the better; you get to enjoy the art more, and get to see "more" of it as far as screen real-estate is concerned. Though that doesn't mean dumb down the interface to the phantasmagoria/kq7 level!
I think the hand-painted backgrounds are still the way to go, especially with adventure games. 3D just doesn't age as well, and hand-painted just gives it an undeniable charm.
Something that might really be notable that I don't think I've seen hardly ever is higher-res character art. KQ7 tried this, but it didn't work well...and they had a load of artists to do it, so maybe this isn't really do-able with a smaller team. A good example of not ridiculously detailed but VERY pretty characters is Curse of Monkey Island. Very vibrant colors, but not a "ridiculously detailed jacket texture art" or anything of that sort.
I don't know about specific game resolution. I'd say if you go as high as Curse of Monkey island, it's going to be fine...I would think color depth is more important than resolution, though I wouldn't go below 800x600...1024x768 might be a good goal...but I know that's pretty high res to do an entire game in.
I really enjoy narrator speech, though I don't think "everything" needs a description. It's nice...but I don't want you guys to go crazy, either. There's definitely a point of 'overdoing it'. Really the most important narration you need are things that can't be grasped from the visual. Ie, if there's two huge pillars clearly visible up on the horizon, you don't need to put in there, just for the sake of putting it in: "Up on the horizon there's two huge pillars..." when you could instead have the narration giving insight into what you, the character in the game, is thinking of as he looks at the pillars. I only mention this because something similar to this was explained to me while I was in school, and it really made me think about how much more you could get across with the same amount of work/time.
So. I've written a lot. Sorry. Hope it is at least somewhat helpful though.
John
The question is a tricky one. You obviously want to appeal to the widest audience possible, which would be the fantasy genre --
but that also means it's the most saturated.
If your target market is still the traditional niche adventure gaming audience, then fantasy is definitely your 'safest' bet...but it would also be the hardest to come up with original material for. KQ6, KQ5, etc all borrowed very heavily from mythology and whatnot (of course you know this), which gave it a very "familiar" feeling, but a lot of the better known works have already been pretty heavily covered (from the river styx on up). But, those are timeless stories that I would think could still be retold freshly if approached correctly.
Maybe the best way to approach something would be to take a "soft" influence to existing subject matter. The best example I can think of is QG4. The Coles took the general Vampire mythology (including other myths such as the Rusalka), culture, etc, and really weaved a wonderful story arch & memorable, developing characters.
ALSO VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE, whether they meant to or not, most of the very successful adventure games followed Joesph Campbell's "Hero Formula" VERY, VERY closely. KQ5 and QG4 are again wonderful examples. This is true for almost ALL of the Sierra games, as well as some of the most vastly popular modern stories ever told, ranging from the Godfather, the first Matrix movie, to the original Star Wars movies. The latter is an especially good example, since Lucas was a close friend and pupil of Campbell and followed his works very closely, following "The Hero's Journey" to a T. It's also worth noting that he hardly did this with the prequel trilogy, nor did the last two Matrix movies...and while they all made a lot of money, I think most will agree that they are not of nearly the same story-quality as the earlier installments. Heck, the first Pirates movie is another good example, with the later two movies not following the formula as well -- and consequently not faring as well in the "story" department.
I'm sorry I'm rambling on about this, but Joseph Campbell's teachings are standard and required material at a lot of film schools, and should not be overlooked as a valuable resource. I know you didn't exactly ask for all of what I've written above...but since story is so crucial to an adventure game, I want to make sure you go into it with as much ammunition as you can!
SO AS FOR what I myself would like to play as a Himalaya release:
Probably fantasy...though if you could do it effectively, taking another genre could make you stand out from other games.
The interface is very debatable. The classic sierra interface works well, but later LucasArts games had a pretty nice, "hidden" interface as well (ie Full Throttle, Curse of Monkey Island, etc). I'd say the more 'hidden', the better; you get to enjoy the art more, and get to see "more" of it as far as screen real-estate is concerned. Though that doesn't mean dumb down the interface to the phantasmagoria/kq7 level!
I think the hand-painted backgrounds are still the way to go, especially with adventure games. 3D just doesn't age as well, and hand-painted just gives it an undeniable charm.
Something that might really be notable that I don't think I've seen hardly ever is higher-res character art. KQ7 tried this, but it didn't work well...and they had a load of artists to do it, so maybe this isn't really do-able with a smaller team. A good example of not ridiculously detailed but VERY pretty characters is Curse of Monkey Island. Very vibrant colors, but not a "ridiculously detailed jacket texture art" or anything of that sort.
I don't know about specific game resolution. I'd say if you go as high as Curse of Monkey island, it's going to be fine...I would think color depth is more important than resolution, though I wouldn't go below 800x600...1024x768 might be a good goal...but I know that's pretty high res to do an entire game in.
I really enjoy narrator speech, though I don't think "everything" needs a description. It's nice...but I don't want you guys to go crazy, either. There's definitely a point of 'overdoing it'. Really the most important narration you need are things that can't be grasped from the visual. Ie, if there's two huge pillars clearly visible up on the horizon, you don't need to put in there, just for the sake of putting it in: "Up on the horizon there's two huge pillars..." when you could instead have the narration giving insight into what you, the character in the game, is thinking of as he looks at the pillars. I only mention this because something similar to this was explained to me while I was in school, and it really made me think about how much more you could get across with the same amount of work/time.
So. I've written a lot. Sorry. Hope it is at least somewhat helpful though.
John
