The Art of Point-and-Click Adventure Games by Bitmap Books

I don't know about you, but I have wonderful memories playing adventure games on my family's old 486 pc with DOS and Windows 3.11. Even a terribly callibrated joystick, I was enchanted by the fun scenes, characters, and stories in the games of Lucas Arts. I was one of the lucky ones to experience the end of this golden age of adventure gaming, highlighted in this book.

This hefty volume dives deep into the careers and methods of the guys who made not just the ones I've experienced, but hundreds of other adventures. A good half of present pages are comprised of screen shots, show-casing scenery and perspective as a powerful tool in story telling. There are a few editorials, but the bulk of the text is in interview form.

And I like that. The designers of the games themselves are likely to have the most astute things to say about their work. However, a lot of these interviews go over the same kind of stuff, starting with the same types of questions. While I'm interested in what it might have been like to work at Lucas Arts' Skywalker Ranch and make the transition from working with EGA graphics to VGA, I didn't find much value in the recounting of similar experiences. But that's a small peeve.

That's a small peeve, and I would whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone who loves game design. While most games have an element of story telling and adventure, there's a lot to be learned from the releases that, for decades, did it best. The Art of Point-And-Click Adventure Games leaves it readers with something more meaningful than its nostalgia trip, and I'm looking forward to reading everything Bitmap Books has to offer.