Given the recent surge in popularity of the indie game Stray and how well done the game is in general, we thought it would be appropriate to cover the adventure genre at large. Stray is a unique adventure game where players play as, you guessed it, a stray cat in a post-apocalyptic underground city with hopes of being reunited with your pack. Featuring an entirely silent protagonist, beautiful graphics and unique cat gameplay mechanics — such as scratching at furniture and knocking things off ledges — Stray is a shining example of what the adventure genre is all about.
Adventure games are focused on problem solving within a narrative framework, where the player (or players) assume the role of the protagonist. Adventure games can be told from a variety of viewpoints including first-person, third-person and entirely text-based (such as the original Oregon Trail). Storylines in adventure games can vary in length from just a few hours to multiple days (or even weeks!), depending on how many side quests players can branch off into without having to complete the main storyline. Some games are more proactive than others in suggesting players move on. Popular titles in this genre include Red Dead Redemption, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Assassin’s Creed. If you are familiar with these titles, you will understand that many adventure games fall under the fantasy category as well.
So, what makes a good, modern adventure game? One big item, as was mentioned earlier, is graphics. Good graphics are a common occurrence in adventure games for a variety of reasons. For one, adventure games tend to be a little slower paced than, say, first-person shooters and therefore the FPS (frames per second) is not quite as important — allowing developers to focus more on graphical fidelity. Secondarily, better graphics often translates to better immersion, with 4K screens and above already at a resolution beyond what the human eye can process. Another element is, of course, the plot. Without a compelling plot driving the game forwards and capturing attention, players may be tempted to abandon the game. Indeed, with text-based games, the lack of the graphical element means that plot is the only thing that will keep a player entertained and retained. Finally, another major element of adventure games is the quality of the puzzles that players are required to solve. Players need to be challenged, sometimes to the point of frustration, but adventure games gain very little if puzzles are fiendishly difficult.
We hope that a variety of play and earn games will be developed in the adventure genre, as it is very much a natural fit for the metaverse. Many players spend countless hours inside a virtual world with adventure games, oftentimes interacting regularly with the in-game economy. Sound familiar? Indeed, before play and earn, farming Runescape gold was one of the earliest iterations of a “play and earn” model — bolstering the legitimacy of the idea of play and earn in general. The challenge for our space is to combine all elements of native web3 play and earn games with the prestige, recognition and quality gameplay associated with AAA-rated adventure games. This, of course, takes time. Game development, particularly with games reliant on a compelling plot, is often an arduous process that can take years.
In that development time, the cryptocurrency space could experience multiple boom and bust cycles. This is why building is always more valuable in the long run than introducing exotic tokenomics structures and this is why we are optimistic about the future of blockchain gaming at large. Over time, quality always rises to the top.
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