rise of the german adventure devellopers

[axelkothe]

I can't help noticing that there are more and more german adventure game devellopers.

With House of Tales, Deck 13 and of course you guys there are 3 very promising teams producing high quality adventure games (I won't count Bad Brain Entertainment, they still have to proove they can pull it off). This is especially remarkable since Germany hasn't that many game devellopers to begin with... What do you think is the reason for this?

[Tunguska Team]

Germany has a strong tradition in making computer games. I think everyone is knowing Turrican or Giana Sisters for the C64 and Amiga. But often games produced in Germany were titles which were not so suited for the international market. But nowadays this is slowly changing. For example Gothic 3, Spellforce 2, Anno 1503, The Patrician, Desperados 2, X3 and Far-Cry are all German games.

[Tunguska Team]

For adventures in particular. Many Germans kids liked to play adventures in the early 90ies. I think Germany was always a good market for adventures. And nowadays since the genre is slowly reviving some people are taking their chance to make their own adventure games since they were missing such games in the past years.

[axelkothe]

Germany has a strong tradition in making computer games. I think everyone is knowing Turrican or Giana Sisters for the C64 and Amiga. But often games produced in Germany were titles which were not so suited for the international market. But nowadays this is slowly changing. For example Gothic 3, Spellforce 2, Anno 1503, The Patrician, Desperados 2, X3 and Far-Cry are all German games.

Sure, on the Amiga and C64 there were many great games from german devellopers. But with the rise of PCs and Console systems, there has been a steep decline in that regard. Especially if it is compared to the importance of the german market and in comparison with countries like France and the UK.

[MaryScots]

I'd like to add that it is also nice to see that more and more publishers take a chance on adventure games and realise the potential. Not to mention, that for now the wave comes from Europe and Germany in particular after the American icons of the genre either don't exist anymore or have given up on it.

[monkeyboobs]

Europe, and, especially Germany, have always been a big market for adventure games. As I remember many LucasArts adventure titles were more successfull in this area than they were in North America. Maybe that's the point. And maybe it is easier to develope than a multimillion dollar project for the mass market (for what you need a big staff, much money and a supermegahyper engine).