THE ADVENTURES OF THE BLACK GENERAL
PUBLISHER: PRIVATE MOON STUDIOS
RELEASE: TBC 2013
A FIRST-PERSON ADVENTURE GAME WHICH SEES PLAYERS ON THE TRAIL OF A LEGEND, CONTROLLING ONE THOMAS-ALEXANDRE DUMAS. COMBINING HISTORICAL ELEMENTS (NAPOLEON) WITH MYSTICAL ONES (EGYPTIAN THEOLOGY).
THE CAVE
RELEASE: Early 2013
From the mind of Ron Gilbert - creator of Maniac Mansion - and his new found friends at Double Fine, comes this side-scrolling platform-adventure set inside a talking cave. A roster of barmy characters, each of whom harbours a murderous secret, plumb the labyrinthine depths in search of their darkest desires. Up to three players can play the game, taking on separate roles and skill-sets, as in Trine.
AMNESIA: A MACHINE FOR PIGS
RELEASE: January
This firstperson horror story sequel sees its production pass from series creator Frictional Games to TheChineseRoom, the masters of atmosphere behind the unsettling metaphysical fable Dear Esther. The game isn't a direct sequel, transporting events from the gloomy medievalism of Brennenburg Castle to London at the advent of industrialisation. But the birth of technology doesn't leave our new protagonist any better equipped to fight the unheimlich terror he finds there: as in the first game, expect to spend most of your time running and hiding, trying not to lose your mind as unspeakable evil closes in.
GONE HOME
PUBLISHER: The Fullbright Company
RELEASE: Mid-2013
From the veteran devs behind Bioshock 2's Minerva's Den comes this "story-exploration" game. In the exploratory, non-violent vein of Dear Esther, Gone Home is a domestic mystery firmly rooted in 1995. The player returns to the family house to find it deserted, and pieces together the clues of its recent past. Though it's set on a spooky, stormy night, this is assuredly a non-combat experience - but its tale of intertwining lives, written between the lines of Forestry Commission ledgers, postcards and other household ephemera, is rich and moving.
REPUBLIQUE
RELEASE: September
An adventure game set in an Orwellian surveillance society, Republique sees the player take on the role of guardian angel, remotely manipulating the environment through their hacking skills to guide the main character, Hope, to safety. The devs promise this isn't a point-and-click adventure, but contains a strong, gesture-based action element. That said, this is no run-and-gun escapade, and it's uncertain if or how the PC version of the game will escape the restrictions of the iPhone's touch-based design paradigm. With veteran talent on board, however, a distinctive theme and some natty looking hacking gameplay, this is certainly one of the most exciting Kickstarter projects to have hit its target.
BROTHERS: A TALE OF TWO SONS
RELEASE: Spring
Starbreeze, well known for their ultra-violent shooter fare, are holstering their guns for this moving tale set within a mountainous medieval world. There's not a gory QTE execution to be found anywhere within the 3-4 hours of the downloadable adventure, which instead focuses on the interlocking abilities of two brothers as they search the land for a cure for their dying father. The quest, designed to evoke emotions than test abilities, is framed by a collaboration with movie director Josef Fares - and its various puzzling encounters can be solved in distinct ways by each of the brothers. Saying much more would be to undermine its emotional heft, but this could easily shape up to be one of the indie darlings of 2013.
DOUBLE FINE ADVENTURE
RELEASE: Late 2013
Here it is: the monster that started it all. Without the astounding success of Double Fine Adventure's nostalgia-baiting Kickstarter project, we wouldn't be seeing this current deluge of resurrected point-and-click franchises. Double Fine Adventure itself comes from names indelibly associated with the LucasArts point-and-click classics of yore - and this heritage was alone was enough for people to throw nearly $3.5 million at the company before a concept was even outlined. Still, one has since taken shape: some sort of girl-meets-boy yarn, stretched across interweaving sci-fi and fantasy realities.
ROUTINE
RELEASE: TBC 2013
The occupants of a moonbase have disappeared - for reasons that can only be deeply horrific - so inevitably you are tasked with going in there alone and poking about. Needless to say, something stalks you through the lustrously rendered corridors and gantries of this survival horror game. But this isn't a simply ghost-train; permadeath, non-linear exploration, and dynamic scares make this a prospect as intriguing as it is unsettling. You can read our massive interview and preview .
EUROPA
RELEASE: TBC 2013
What started as a small-scale indie project for a seven day long FPS-building competition has sprawled into an open-world exploration-game set on one of Jupiter's moons. Though he garnered headlines with the throwaway claim of "Fallout 3 in space", don't expect it to match the length, or the level of violence, of that game. The developer may even remove weapons altogether.
EVERYBODY'S GONE TO THE RAPTURE
RELEASE: TBC 2013
While one-half of TheChineseRoom busy themselves with the sequel to Amnesia, others are at work on this equally unsettling project. Considered the natural follow-up to melancholic island story Dear Esther, this takes the devices of exploration and environmental narrative to an open world - an open world in the grip of a Revelations-style apocalypse.
1954 ALCATRAZ
RELEASE: TBA 2013
An adventure game crime-caper charting the interconnecting fates of several characters across 1950s San Francisco, as they flee mobsters, try to escape the notorious island prison and get their hands on a stash of loot. Sporting a non-linear narrative, there are more than a few possible outcomes for the crew's ploys.
EXTRASOLAR
RELEASE: TBC 2013
Blurring the line between adventure game and real-life crowdsourced science project, Extrasolar is an intriguing ARG, detailing the latest voyage to Mars by the eXoplanetary Research Institute, whereupon its many mini-rovers will map the planet with the aid of players. Images returned by the rovers are then analysed for clues, and the exotic lifeforms catalogued within - but to what end is this research being done? Who is behind the mysterious XRI? Who can you trust? Intriguing stuff with a sturdy science-nerd core.
JANE JENSEN'S MOEBIUS
PUBLISHER: Pinkerton Road Studio
RELEASE: March
Yet another Kickstarter appeal to point-and-click nostalgia, Moebius comes from "master storyteller" Jane Jensen, responsible for the Gabriel Knight games. Here, improbably-named antiques dealer Malachi Rector is hired by equally improbably-named billionaire Amble Dexter to investigate the death of a woman in Venice. Metaphysical thrills ensue.
HERO U: ROGUE TO REDEMPTION
RELEASE: October
Wouldn't you know it, it's another successful Kickstarter campaign from the creators of a classic adventure series - this time Quest For Glory. A 2D point and click adventure game, unsurprisingly, with a snappy sense of humour.
OUTLAST
RELEASE: TBC 2013
A deserted asylum on a stormy night is the setting for this gruesome first-person horror adventure. The early sightings leave no cliche unturned - drink two fingers of whiskey every time you see an upturned wheelchair with its spokes mysteriously still turning, glimpse a flash of movement while using night vision goggles or discover the bodies of soldiers sent in to contain the situation. But if all this seems a little well worn, then its "target footage" trailer does suggest some mechanical novelty in the way you get around the place: namely, Mirror's Edge-style parkour.
THE RAVEN
RELEASE: TBC 2013
The Raven tasks players with tracking down the titular art thief across a 1960s Europe in what is described as a 'fast-paced' point-and-click adventure game.
HEXIT
RELEASE: TBC 2013
This sci-fi point-and-click adventure - inspired by Blade Runner, Total Recall and police procedurals - failed to reach its funding goal on Kickstarter, but the team has promised it will still develop the title. However, the blog has remained fallow for several months.
XING
RELEASE: TBC 2013
A mixture of adventure game, puzzler and firstperson platformer, Xing is set across a number of lushly drawn tropical islands (with dynamic day-night cycles!) and promises the player strange powers: the physical manipulation of space and control of time.
HIDDEN DAWN
RELEASE: TBC 2013
A fantasy-adventure set in the aftermath of a world-razing conflict. You star as Heru, a young girl hunted by sinister forces because of her latent magical abilities: control of vegetation, gravity, and thought.
ADAM SYNDROME
RELEASE: TBC 2013
Not, in fact, a terrestrial sequel to Alien Syndrome, but instead a dark point-and-click mystery about a bloke called Adam Reed investigating the death of his wife. The game has completed pre-production at the time of writing and is looking for a publisher.
JACK HOUSTON AND THE NECRONAUTS
RELEASE: December
It's the sci-fi of the fifties - ray guns, bubble helmets and all - transposed into a traditional point-and-click adventure. As test pilot Jack Houston, you leave the Earth in 1999 for the first manned mission to Venus, only for a crash-landing to leave you in cryo-sleep for 1000 years. Awaking to find the world controlled by "savage beast men who worship a devil god with the power to control the dead", Jack must face point-and-click peril in a struggle for the planet's salvation!
THE LAST CROWN: HAUNTING OF HALLOWED ISLE
RELEASE: TBC 2013
The sequel to 2007's The Lost Crown, this latest instalment sees players travel to an English coastal island, unravelling its mystery with an arsenal of ghost-hunting techniques.
ASYLUM
RELEASE: TBC 2013
From Buenos Aires-based developer Senscape comes this psychiatric horror yarn. It promises that the rather unsanitary-looking Hanwell Mental Institute will be fully explorable - and based on blueprints of actual asylums.
THE DREAM MACHINE: CHAPTER 5
RELEASE: Late 2013
The final part of the beautiful Dream Machine episodic releases, Chapter 5 will see more of the award-winning point-and-click adventuring created with claymation and other real world items.
WYCHWOOD HOLLOW
RELEASE: TBC 2013
A supernatural first-person mystery/adventure game set in Cornwall - place of standing stones, ancient mystery and the vengeful spirit of murdered witches. The form the game will take is, however, uncertain: not much has been seen of Wychwood Hollow beyond the live-action teasers on the game's site.
SPACEVENTURE
PUBLISHER: Two Guys From Andromeda
RELEASE: February
A new sci-fi comedy adventure game from the creators of the Space Quest series. It was successfully funded to the tune of 'a lot of money' thanks to the combined powers of nostalgia and Kickstarter.
PSYCH
RELEASE: TBC 2013
A casual puzzle-adventure game based on the US TV show Psych in which a dude pretends to be psychic and somehow the police decide they should employ him.
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