Genuine question: how should hidden object adventure games (HOPAs) improve?
Let's face it, it's not a secret that the HOPA genre has not been in a good state in a while. They're essentially non-existent in mainstream culture, the hundreds of HOPAs out there are almost always called "cookie-cutter" for having very identical art style and gameplay formula from almost the same companies for over a decade, and there's only quite a few HOPA developers left (e.g. Elephant Games, Five-BN Games, Friendly Fox Studios, Domini Games) compared to just a few years ago, all of whom have worked under Big Fish Games' direction and have openly resorted to generative AI to produce their graphics (look up any playthrough of their recent games to see that for yourself). There also seems to be a broad consensus about enjoying early-mid 2010s HOPAs more than later HOPAs, and I would not be surprised if later HOPAs have been much less profitable given how little HOPA developers there are now.
In contrast, from what I've seen, pure hidden object games themselves seem to be doing relatively fine and at least has been in a new era with more solo or indie developers creating them without Big Fish's direct influence, whether on PC or mobile (e.g. Hidden Folks, Little Things, Finding Hannah, Lost and Found Co., Fantastic Findings, etc.), although many of them do copy Hidden Folks' style.
With all that being said, how do you think HOPAs should change, improve, and/or evolve to meet 2026's standards? I think the challenge with HOPAs is that they essentially are full-on point-and-click adventures that happen to feature hidden object scenes and also full-on puzzles, so they inherently take more time to design and develop than a pure hidden object game on paper, but I'd still like to hear some suggestions. Here's mine:
- No AI-generated images and no greedy mobile game mechanics (e.g. energy systems, micro-transactions, etc.).
- More variety in art direction. This could include full-on 3D models for the locations to be more unique-looking (e.g. the Nancy Drew PC games). Some people don't like a cartoon-y art style because they think it makes the game for kids only, but depending on how it's executed, I think it's perfectly fine on its own, especially to deviate from the same 2D-realistic-aiming art direction that already exists across hundreds of games.
- If we're still sticking with the same 2D-realistic-aiming art direction, then at least make sure to give it the depth and texture detail it needs to be fully immersive.
- More variety in how the player observes the locations. I basically just mean more games from a 3rd-person perspective like the LucasArts adventure games, which only a few HOPAs have done (e.g. A Tale for Anna, My Brother Rabbit). I also mean games that let you freely look around the current location in 360 degrees from a 1st-person perspective more, like how Myst III did it. I can only think of the Travelogue 360 games that did this as a pure hidden object game. I'd also like to see an option for more HOPAs to have the location slightly pan depending on where the cursor is for a cool parallax effect, akin to Drawn 3 and briefly Mystery Case Files: The Harbinger, although there always should be an option for players with motion sickness to disable it.
- More logic to all of the player's actions in the game (e.g. don't be as absurd as this, or don't have random items fall out of nowhere as a reward for something). I don't need the protagonist to verbally hand-hold the player on what to do next as part of the story, but a little more common sense would be nice. This admittedly could apply to some traditional point and click adventure games too.
- More involved, more emotional, and frankly better story writing. That's not to say that there aren't HOPAs with good and unique stories (e.g. True Fear), and I don't need every HOPA to be a dramatic masterpiece or a full-on visual novel or interactive movie, but I'd like to see more HOPAs with a earnest and complete effort to flesh out their characters much more (besides only villains, and beyond just leaving many notes for the player to read about the characters and lore), and have more impactful themes beyond just "stop the bad guy". I understand some players just want to get to the gameplay without any dialogue, but to me, while a good game design is of course important and connected, the legacy of a released HOPA is determined by whether its characters and story were actually memorable and enjoyable, and I sincerely believe better writing alone can help elevate HOPAs to be more mainstream.
- More lively, less stiff, and not weirdly compressed character animation. From the HOPAs I've played, characters always stay in the same pose and never gesture with their arms and hands at all. Their faces at times (e.g. 9 Clues 2) are animated almost like it was motion captured on someone's face rather than hand-animated, which for a 2D character looks more uncanny than anything. I think I was most impressed by how Phantasmat 2 and Dark Parables 14 animated its characters (not perfect by any means, but the characters are actually moving their arms and showing more expression on their face).
- I'd also be open to more games with live-action actors as long as the acting and integration of the actors in the games look good.
- More variety in HUD styles. Most HOPAs have the HUD be at the bottom; I'd like to see different ways of positioning and shaping it and what features it had, since earlier hidden object games were more experimental in how it looked and what it had (e.g. Mortimer Beckett, Nancy Drew Dossier, Shadow Shelter, etc.). I'd love the feature to be able to make the HUD disappear when the cursor isn't hovering over it for complete immersion, like how Mountains of Madness did.
- More experimentation with the game's runtime, which can include making them longer than the usual few hours it takes to beat them (as much as I like needing only one session to finish a HOPA) and just having more episodic content, like how Adam Wolfe and I believe Charlaine Harris: Dying for Daylight did it.
- Have an actual safe file system, where players can manually save and load their saved files or the game's own auto-saved files to return to these files' save points in the game, again like the Nancy Drew PC games. I cannot emphasize how this alone would prevent so much anxiety from running into a game breaking crash and having to restart the game from the start. I also cannot believe that no hidden object game besides Arcana: Sands of Destiny has ever implemented this.
- Don't fully reuse puzzles completely from other games, at least switch them up to be noticeably different or follow slightly different rules.
- Don't just limit the player to explore 2-3 location areas at a time like a guided escape room, create a more immersive world where players can reasonably go back and forth between more distant locations to progress the game. For example, the Mystery Case Files games by GrandMA Studios follows the former format (which I felt was too constrained and got too predictable), while the Mystery Case Files games by Big Fish Studios (e.g. 13th Skull) felt more open with a completely explorable world map while still being intentional in where the player goes between the locations.
- Add more side content, secret content, and more extra details to HOPAs. Most HOPAs I've played always are stripped down such that you can only do actions that progress the game further. I'm always surprised to encounter any actual optional tasks to do to flesh out the game's world more, like how Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove did with its easter eggs. I understand the need to respect the player's time, but I also think giving the player a little more freedom to do actions that don't necessarily progress the game would be a breath of fresh air.
- This might be a hot take: get rid of collectibles entirely, or at least have an option to not show them until after the main game is completed and then the collectibles can be collected in a post-game campaign. This is just how my brain works, I get less immersed in whatever is happening because I get too distracted over finding the current location's collectible on the off chance that finding all the collectibles unlocks something story-related.
- Another possible hot take: don't be afraid to include entirely new gameplay mechanics or combine with other genres in HOPAs. I know certain mobile hidden object games have ruined the reputation of combining per say hidden object, match-3, and home decoration gameplay due to their greedy mobile game mechanics, but I still think how PC hidden object games like Playrix's original PC games (e.g. Gardenscapes, 4 Elements), Gourmania, and Elementals: The Magic Key at the time uniquely combined hidden object gameplay with other genres entirely (like cooking and turn-based combat) in a smooth and enjoyable way. I'd like to see the same with HOPAs beyond just the option to replace hidden object scenes with match-3 games (like how Domini Games does it), especially with combat.
Feel free to also suggest unique HOPAs I haven't heard that fit my suggestions. This all isn't to say I hate HOPAs, there's plenty that even the most formulaic HOPAs do that I like over what some other games of other genres do: they generally are actually optimized to work on and not take up much space at all on low-end computers, their difficulty settings are usually pretty customizable, any tutorials can be quickly skipped entirely without padding the game out, they almost always start on the main menu before the actual game, and their hint buttons are still a simple but effective and entirely optional pointer to the player on what to do next. I just think HOPAs have a lot of catching up to do in other areas.