A brief overview of point and click games

Point and click games have been around since the 1980’s. One of the well-known games company for this type of game is LucasArts Entertainment Company, they have been producing point and click games for over 20 years. Some of their most famous games include; Grim Fandango, Tales of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion. A typical point and click games involves the user to click on a button to interact with the game and move forward with the story. More or less the game is based around on visuals to help the game appeal to more gamers. Although point and click is a type of game the more common known genre is Adventure point and click games, these types of point and clicks involves the user becoming involved with the protagonist and following the narrative based story-line, they are an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge [1] . A few known games for these are; Sam and Max hit the road and  The Whispered World.  After surfing around the internet for a little bit longer I decided to look for the best point and clicks games and come across a website sharing their top 10 point and click games.  The website belong to a freelance journalist who shares his top 10 most memorable and best p and c games [2]. At number one he has chosen Simon the sorcerer. Simon the sorcerer is an adventure game involving the protagonist; Simon with his dog Chippy. After Simon discovers a spell book in his loft inside a chest called ‘Ye Olde Spellbooke’ he reluctantly threw it on the floor, once on the floor a portal opens up in which his dog Chippy jumps through and then Simon jumps through as well, the main objective of the game is to save a wizard called Calypso from as sorcerer called Sordid. This game uses the very definition of point and click games.

Throughout his list he doesn’t mention the famously known p and c game; Monkey Island, this is just a person top 10 ten list.


Research


The target audience that I am aiming at is a group age range of 12 onwards although any people that are younger than this can play it. when looking into the market for app games i looked into the genre of point and click and came to find that there wasn't many point and click games set in a western theme. i want to try and create a game where the player has a choice of 3 difficulty settings so that they can decide whether they want a hard time getting through the game or an easy way through the story. i really like the idea of having achievements in my  game so I feel through having the 3 difficulties will really help for the player to achieve something and enjoy the game. the main important feature to have for the game is a protagonist, so to do this i decided to create a character that has seen his fair share of treasure hunting quests and dangers, i want him to have a personality that will hopefully engage with the players.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_game

[2] http://www.jameswoodcock.co.uk/2006/12/27/my-top-10-classic-point-and-click-adventures/