Category:Adventure

This genre's definition is hard to tie down. The genre is named after Will Crowther and Don Woods' Adventure, released by Don in 1977, which set the prototype for the entire genre. Like Adventure, these are games principally concerned with narrative over action or left-brain thinking, but they go about it in a wide variety of ways. Some of them want to tell you a story, some want to make a story with you. Some of them want to create a world for you to explore. Some of them want to create a world and guide you through it. Some want to immerse you in lore. Some of them want to simulate the roleplaying aspect of D&D. Some just want to simulate the wargaming aspect of it. Some want to simulate the equipment aspect of it. Some want you to solve puzzles. Some want you to solve problems. Some want you to create and develop your own characters. Some want you to direct the actions of their characters.

There are a common set of recurring game elements in adventures, a set of family resemblances. They overlap and interconnect in interesting ways throughout the genre, but not all games have all of these features, and no feature is used by all games. There may be a game world with rich lore and unique features to distinguish it from worlds in other games, a world bigger than the character you play as, but may be affected in large ways by your actions. There may be a "main quest" which fits within the context of the game world, the process of completing the quest constitutes both the gameplay and the plot. Your character(s) may be characterized by conventional writing, or may be characterized by your own creation, customization, and development as you play. The game world may encourage exploration, and your character(s) development may encourage exploration.

Supercategory to RPGlike and survival horror.