作者：Frank Cifaldi

《疯狂大楼》具有无缝的完美。基于同样的方式，《马里奥》游戏也延续了一代又一代，让无数青少年沉浸于可怕的房子中拯救自己的好友。

我喜欢故事，清楚且吸引人的画面，这么多年以来我仍然能够感受到Michael主题的乐趣！

——Lateef Martin（Miscellaneum Studios）

LucasArts的冒险游戏之所以是永恒的是因为它们将整整一代人带到了游戏的真正潜能中！我清楚地记得自己每次获得来自LucasArts的全新冒险游戏时的激动感。我甚至会在回家的路上开始阅读游戏指南。我知道不管我购买的是哪款游戏，我将按压按键打开计算机，然后被要求到一些疯狂的地方。

也许你会发现一个需要帮助的新孩子？你可以给某些人一瓶沙士，阅读《National Inquisitor》或加足马力开着你的摩托车。你可以问绿色和紫色触手的区别，并为9号选择一个标签。你必须打开并使用自己的大脑，但是真正鼓舞人心且富有想象力的方式则是年复一年地投入时间。

——Chris Campbell（Big Fish Games工作室首席制作人）

Bobbin Threadbare（from gamasutra）

我们很容易对冒险游戏吹毛求疵。一般说来那些来自LucasArts的游戏都未存在什么可挑剔的毛病。它们是充满热情的游戏创造者的产物。除了出色的执行，游戏中自由的冒险更是玩家与角色共同享受的乐趣。不是通过代理，而是通过他们精心塑造的世界而传达直接体验。

我认为它们在我们心中的地位与作为强大的第一代玩家和游戏开发者的地位相当。LucasArts的冒险游戏是伴随着我们的形成性格时期发展起来，似乎从那时起就与我们相伴相随了。

——Gareth Jenkins（独立开发商36peas）

它们不是游戏，它们是任何玩家之前经历的不一样的故事和体验。开发者有自己需要创造的故事和体验，他们也拥有机会去做这些。

——Seth Sivak（独立开发商Proletariat）

我认为所有游戏开发者都欣赏机智的游戏，你可以于他们谈论他们在《触手也疯狂》中最喜欢的谜题。

LucasArts的冒险游戏是让你每隔几年便回到其中的游戏稀有品种，虽然不记得所有谜题，但却仍然再次去解决它们，并享受着傻傻的角色及其对话。

——grand Davies（Endgame Studios）

在冒险游戏中，动词是机制，文字是游戏玩法。它们可以和谐共存。LucasArts便在这方面做得很好—-即转变恐怖感，乐趣与奇怪的病态，我始终对此心存感谢。

——Ubisoft Montreal的编剧C.J.Kershner

甚至在今天看来游戏中的对话也还是很有趣。虽然游戏机制过时了，谜题很困难，有时候还很让人费解，但是今天我还会为了大段的对话去玩这些游戏。不管是基于同一个对象尝试每种行动，还是耗尽对话树从游戏中编写每一滴幽默。这绝对是经得起时间考验的文字作品。

——Andrew Goulding（墨尔本工作室Brawsome）

LucasArts的游戏在我心中具有一个特殊地位，不管是《Loom》，《Koronis Rift》，《Ballblazer》还是《猴子岛》系列。不只是因为它们是当时最具开创性的游戏，同时它们还具有一些特别的元素能够激发我的想象力，让我有“假使……会怎么样？”以及“如果我这么做是否会比较好”等想法，并通过整合一些玩家想要探索并创造自己的故事的机制到游戏中而增添了游戏乐趣。

这一基本理念是我仍会于Bioware的员工分享的内容。如果你能够创造一个足以调动玩家的想象力并机器他们的热情的世界，他们便会将其带到一个全新的高度。

——Alistair McNally（BioWare）

The Curse of Monkey Island（from gamasutra）

经典的LucasArts冒险游戏之所以是用户的是因为它们的影响力是永恒的。

我喜欢《Full Throttle》的黑色电影元素，这是在我知道什么是黑色电影元素之前就喜欢着的。我喜欢《触手也疯狂》的Bernard,Hoagie以及Laverne原型，这也是在我看过青少年电影素材之前的事。

但是撇开特定的参照与灵感，经典的LucasArts冒险游戏也是永恒的，因为其优秀，机智，认真，让人印象深刻且具有人道的文字内容就是永恒的，这是所有的这些游戏所创造起来的基础。

——Steve Gaynor（The Fullbright Company）

角色就让我无法离开游戏了，捕捉游戏间的玩笑和小品让我觉得自己也是游戏中的一部分，因为这也是我所开的玩笑。

游戏中也有一些严肃的时刻，但是幽默元素总是伴随着我。就像Monty Python的草图，这些时刻深深地留在了我的脑海中，伴随着愉快的欢笑，甚至在20年后也会出现在我的意识中。

从根本上说，LucasArts的游戏深深打动了我。

——Kyle Kulyk（Itzy Interactive）

对于我来说，这些游戏之所以是永恒的是因为结合了让人难忘的角色以及引人发笑的对话。人们会记得游戏中糟糕的文字内容——“你的所有基地都是属于我的”，也会记得出色的文字内容——“这是我看过的第二大的猴子头”。许多游戏尝试着通过模仿其它成功的游戏而创造出优秀的文字内容，但最终却变得非常单调。

——Jordi Fine（游戏设计师）

多亏了《Full Throttle》，我开始理解到优秀的故事对于一款游戏的强大作用。《The Dig》，《猴子岛》，《冥界狂想曲》等游戏世界都深深吸引了我。故事，世界以及角色的每个细节都被具体化了，即超越了我之前看过的任何游戏中的内容。

——Dan Silvers（Lantana Games）

为了让本文足够圆满，我们询问了LucasArts Games的元老级任务David Fox，听听他对于为何该工作室的图像冒险游戏仍备受尊重的看法。以下是他的回答。

当我于1982年开始在Lucasfilm工作以来，我们便承受了巨大的压力。我们一直思考着该如何创造出与电影《星球大战》那样引人注目的游戏，并且也不需要挖掘来自《星球大战》宇宙的理念？尽管20时机80年代的其它游戏公司不得不依赖于游戏的收入而谋生，但是我们却能够奢侈地花大量时间去创造心目中的理想游戏，即花好几年时间进行实验，尝试各种新内容，挑战极限，并且无需承受来自市场营销，焦点测试，甚至是George Lucas的压力。我们也有时间去创造公司文化，并从Lucasfilm文化中断的地方重新开始。

所以我们花了好几个月的时间在思考有关游戏的内容，与一些聪明的设计师进行头脑风暴，不断改善，修改，并删除那些无效的部分（或者整个理念），然后重新开始。我们曾经的一大布告是“不能发行一些垃圾内容”，我们也希望确保永远都不会这么做。

也许在这样的创造性支持环境下，我们将能够跳出固有思维模式进行思考，并花时间去添加许多背景故事和细节，然后反复地调整再调整。直到我们觉得是时候发行了。

的确，我们在与一些非常出色且富有创造性的人合作。这并不是一种巧合。多年来，每当需要雇佣新的设计师时，他们都会受到严厉的批评，并接受全部设计师的面试。他们是否能够适应？他们是否具有协作性？是否具有创造性？这就像是需要所有人做出投票才能迎来新人的俱乐部。我们不会改变文化或者质量标准，所以我们有责任重视这一过程。我们的游戏便是最好的证明。

我们从未想过自己的游戏能够在货架上持续超过1年或2年。要知道硬件的更新速度非常快。我们也从未想过人们会为了在更加强大的平台上继续玩我们的游戏而创造模拟器和SCUMMVM。我想知道，如果我们知道这点，我们对于自己的设计的自我意识是否会增强？

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders（from gamasutra）

我认为区别我们的图像冒险游戏于其它“竞争游戏”的主要元素在于，我们创造谜题的目标是让人们在解决谜题的时候能够愉快地笑出来。我们想要人们在想出答案时有“啊哈”的时刻。我认为其它图像冒险游戏有时候太过小气了，即添加种种游戏障碍有时候正是导致其用户流失的关键。

我知道，当我们继续完善这些游戏的图像时，我们将能够学到更多，而上述的一些元素甚至是我们较早之前遇到的。我们想要与玩家一起游戏，并在他们创造性地想出解决方法的时候给予奖励。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Why are We Still Talking about LucasArts’ Old Adventure Games?

by Frank Cifaldi

Maniac Mansion was crafted with seamless perfection. In the same way Mario is timeless and can be enjoyed by any generation, so can the point and click adventure of a group of teens infiltrating a creepy house to rescue their friend.

I enjoyed the storytelling, the clean and appealing aesthetic and after all these years, I can still beatbox Michael’s theme!

Lateef Martin, Miscellaneum Studios

LucasArts adventures are timeless because they introduced an entire generation to the real potential of what a game could do! I remember vividly the excitement anytime I would GET a new adventure game from LucasArts. I’d get so excited I’d READ the manual front-to-back before getting home. I always knew that regardless of the game I purchased, I could PUSH the button toTURN ON the computer where then I’d be invited to GO TO some crazy place.

Perhaps you’d find a NEW KID that needed help? You could GIVE someone a bottle of root beer, READ the National Inquisitor, or PULL up on your motorcycle going full throttle. You could ask WHAT IS the difference between a green and purple tentacle and PICK UP a ticket for the Number Nine. Yes you had to OPEN your mind and USE your brain, but what a wonderfully inspiring and imaginative way to spend years and years and years.

Chris Campbell, senior producer, studios at Big Fish Games

It’s easy to pick holes in adventure games. Generally speaking, those that came out of LucasArts didn’t have any. They were clearly a product of passionate game makers. In addition to their brilliant execution though, their permissive adventures were something that the player could enjoy along with the characters. Not through agency, but through direct experience of their carefully crafted worlds.

Ultimately though, I think their place in our hearts is as much to do with them being brought into our collective consciousness as the first sizeable generation of gamers and game developers were finding their feet. LucasArts adventure games played out alongside us during our formative years and have, as such, stuck with us since.

Gareth Jenkins, of independent developer 36peas

These were not games, they were stories and experiences that were unlike anything players had experienced before. The developers had stories and experiences that they need to create, and they were given a chance to do just that.

Seth Sivak, of independent developer Proletariat

I think all game developers appreciate clever games, and you can always talk to them about their favorite puzzle in Day of the Tentacle (putting the sweater in the dryer for 400 years to shrink it to hamster size for example).

LucasArts adventure games are a rare breed of game you can return to every few years, not remember all the puzzles, and still have a blast trying to solve them again whilst enjoying the wonderfully goofy characters and their dialogue.

Grand Davies, Endgame Studios

In adventure games, verbs are mechanics and writing is gameplay. The two can live in harmony. LucasArts made some of the best — by turns thrilling, funny, strangely morbid — and I will always be grateful for that.

C.J. Kershner, scriptwriter, Ubisoft Montreal

The dialog is still funny, even today. The gameplay mechanics are dated, the puzzles are hard, and sometimes obscure, but I play them today mostly for the lines of dialog. From trying every action on an object, or every object with every other, to exhausting dialog trees to wring every last drop of humor from the game. It is definitely the writing that stands the test of time.

Andrew Goulding, of Melbourne-based Brawsome

LucasArts games have always had a special place in my heart; from Loom to Koronis Rift to Ballblazer and the Monkey Island series. Not (just) because they were ground breaking titles for their time but they had that extra special element which fired my own imagination and made me think “what if?” and “wouldn’t it be great if I could do this,” elevating a fun game with great mechanics into a world which you wanted to explore and make up your own stories in.

This basic idea is one that I still talk about to BioWare staff. If you can create a world which engages people’s imaginations and fuels and impassions them, they’ll take it to new heights.

Alistair McNally, BioWare

Classic LucasArts adventures are timeless because their influences are timeless. Frankenstein and film noir and buddy comedies and teen movies, classic pulpy sci-fi and swashbuckling movie serials crossed with irreverent, real, believable characters living in outrageous worlds.

I loved Full Throttle’s neo-noir before I knew what film noir was. I loved Day of the Tentacle’s Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne archetypes before I’d ever seen the teen movie source material.

But regardless of the specific references and inspirations, classic LucasArts adventures are timeless because great, clever, earnest, memorable, human writing is timeless, and that is the foundation on which all those great games were built.

Steve Gaynor, of The Fullbright Company

The characters just stuck with me, and catching the in-jokes and cameos between games just made me feel like I was somehow connected, because they were in-jokes that I got.

There were serious moments in the titles, but it’s the humor that will always be with me. Like Monty Python sketches, these moments have just wormed their way into my mind and stuck, curled up with an amused smirk, waiting to spring to the forefront of my consciousness even 20 years later.

Basically, LucasArts titles infected my brain.

Kyle Kulyk, Itzy Interactive

What makes these games timeless for me is the combination of memorable characters and their hilariously witty dialogue. People remember bad writing in games – “All your base are belong to us” and they remember great writing – “That’s the second biggest monkey head I’ve ever seen!” Many games try to achieve great writing by imitating the successes of others, but end up falling flat somewhere in the middle.

Game designer Jordi Fine

It was thanks to Full Throttle that I began to understand the true power that a great story could have on a game. The Dig, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango… these worlds pulled me in and kept me there. Every detail of the story, worlds, and characters was fully fleshed out beyond anything else I had ever seen in games.

Dan Silvers, Lantana Games

To wrap this article up, we asked David Fox — a Lucasfilm Games alum who was there from the very beginning — to contribute his thoughts on why the studio’s graphical adventures are still held in such high esteem. Here’s what he had to say.

When I first started working at Lucasfilm in 1982, we had a heavy burden to bear. How could we create games that were as compelling as the Star Wars films but without mining ideas from the Star Wars universe? While other game companies of the 1980s had to rely on the income from their games to survive, we had the unheard-of luxury of taking our time to get our games right, with years to experiment, try new things, push the envelope, and with no pressure from marketing, focus testing, or even George Lucas. We also had time to develop our company culture, starting where the Lucasfilm culture left off.

So we’d spend months thinking about our games… brainstorming with the other brilliant designers, refining, reworking, revamping, tossing out the parts that didn’t work (or the entire concept) and starting again. One of our edicts was “don’t ship shit” and we wanted to make sure we never did.

Maybe working in a creatively supportive environment like that, one that wasn’t just focused on the bottom line, enabled us to think outside the box, take time to add tons of backstory and detail… tune, tune, and tune again. Until WE felt it was time to ship. Unheard of then and I’m sure even more unusual now (other than with indie games done by people in their spare time).

And yes, we had wonderfully creative people to work with. And that wasn’t an accident. For years, whenever a new designer was about to be hired, they had to run the gauntlet… interviewing with all the other designers. Would they fit in? How collaborative were they? How creative? It was a club where all the members had to vote to let the next one in. We weren’t about to change our culture or quality level, so we all took this responsibly very seriously. And our games showed it.

We never thought about our games lasting for more than a year or two on the shelves. Hardware was changing so fast then. We didn’t consider that people would build emulators and SCUMMVM so they could continue playing them on successively more powerful platforms. I wonder if we had known that if we wouldn’t have been much more self-conscious about our designs?

I think one thing that differentiated our graphic adventure games from “the competition” was our goal of creating puzzles that made people laugh with joy when they solved them. We wanted people to have that a-ha! moment when they figured it all out. I think “the competition’s” graphic adventures were sometimes mean-spirited, adding barriers to play that sometimes seemed like they were messing with the player.

I know that we learned a lot as we continued to refine the art of creating these games, but you can see elements of the above even with our first ones. We wanted to play with the player, and reward him/her for being outrageously creative in their solutions.(source:gamasutra)