What do you think?
Rate this book
The Art of Point-and-Click Adventure Games
A visual celebration of one of the most loved genres in gaming history, The Art of Point-and-Click Adventure Games is a sumptuous 460 page, hardback coffee table book packed with the very best pixel art and classic scenes from the most defining games of this genre. It will also contain extensive and exclusive interviews with the key developers, designers and artists behind some of the most beloved games and characters in the history of the medium. The book starts with a foreword by Gary Whitta (PC Gamer magazine/Rogue One: A Star Wars Story).
Interviewees for the book include (in no particular order) Tim Schafer, Robyn Miller, Ron Gilbert, David Fox, Aric Wilmunder, Richard Hare, Hal Barwood, Gary Winnick, Noah Falstein, Mark Ferrari, Dave Gibbons, Jane Jensen, Simon Woodroffe, Steve Stamatiadis, Louis Castle, Gregg Barnett, Al Lowe, Brian Moriarty, Charles Cecil and Paul Cuisset - plus plenty more…
As you can see from the list, the book covers titles such as King’s Quest, Myst, Toonstruck, Discworld, Blade Runner, Gabriel Knight, The Flight of the Amazon Queen, Simon the Sorcerer and of course other classics, such as The Secret of Monkey Island, The Dig, Maniac Mansion and Full Throttle. All of the most famous and iconic point-and-click adventures are going to be covered, as well as some lesser-known games and home-brew efforts.
Interviewees for the book include (in no particular order) Tim Schafer, Robyn Miller, Ron Gilbert, David Fox, Aric Wilmunder, Richard Hare, Hal Barwood, Gary Winnick, Noah Falstein, Mark Ferrari, Dave Gibbons, Jane Jensen, Simon Woodroffe, Steve Stamatiadis, Louis Castle, Gregg Barnett, Al Lowe, Brian Moriarty, Charles Cecil and Paul Cuisset - plus plenty more…
As you can see from the list, the book covers titles such as King’s Quest, Myst, Toonstruck, Discworld, Blade Runner, Gabriel Knight, The Flight of the Amazon Queen, Simon the Sorcerer and of course other classics, such as The Secret of Monkey Island, The Dig, Maniac Mansion and Full Throttle. All of the most famous and iconic point-and-click adventures are going to be covered, as well as some lesser-known games and home-brew efforts.
500 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2018
38 people are currently reading
300 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
January 2, 2019
This is a worthwhile add to any retro-gaming book collection. It was a slow burn to read through all the developer/artist interviews, given that it's an oversized hardcover filled with tiny font (in fact, I had to order a stronger pair of reading glasses specifically to tackle this one).
Like many books of this ilk, it had me regularly running off to YouTube to watch gameplay from point 'n clicks I had always meant to play, as well as quite a few I hadn't heard of.
Loved the bits from Douglas Crockford about the challenges of getting Maniac Mansion humor past the NES censors. Al Lowe's recollections of Dragon's Keep were amusing, in that they in no way match reality (he said "I wrote a [text] interpreter... it was crazy advanced for its time", but watch a YouTube video, and you'll see it's merely an options "1), 2), and 3)" menu-choice game). There are a few interviews with folks that have recently created remakes of these classics, and the retro-game archeology challenges they encountered. Anyway, fun book.
Like many books of this ilk, it had me regularly running off to YouTube to watch gameplay from point 'n clicks I had always meant to play, as well as quite a few I hadn't heard of.
Loved the bits from Douglas Crockford about the challenges of getting Maniac Mansion humor past the NES censors. Al Lowe's recollections of Dragon's Keep were amusing, in that they in no way match reality (he said "I wrote a [text] interpreter... it was crazy advanced for its time", but watch a YouTube video, and you'll see it's merely an options "1), 2), and 3)" menu-choice game). There are a few interviews with folks that have recently created remakes of these classics, and the retro-game archeology challenges they encountered. Anyway, fun book.
May 5, 2023
A love letter to point-and-click adventure games, beautifully printed and covering everything, from 1984 to today. Full of interviews with all the main creators of games throughout these decades.
Absolutely recommended, especially so for fans of the genre.
Absolutely recommended, especially so for fans of the genre.
October 26, 2020
An absolute must-have for anyone interested in game development, pixel art or those who have a fondness for 90's point and click adventure games. The book is enormous and packed to the brim with hundreds of pictures showcasing the artworks as well as interviews from industry legends who worked at Lucasarts and Sierra to even the more obscure developers. The interview format actually works incredibly well and makes the book far more fascinating.
November 9, 2020
Full of great art from famous and obscure point-and-click adventure games (as the title would suggest), this book is also full of interviews with point-and-click luminaries like Ken Williams, Ron Gilbert, Robyn Miller, Tim Schafer, Éric Chahi, Gary Winnick, and many, many more. Just a treasure trove of point-and-click goodness.
January 21, 2025
The book about adventures which is a grand adventure itself.
One could be picky and point fingers at the formulaic pattern behind most of the interviews. Barely few of them look like actual people talking, while many display a bit of a repetitive survey form.
That, however, all in all helped depict consistently what all those great minds gathering can present with their art. This anthology is a journey around countless beautiful worlds and visions.
It's a time machine that blends traditional systemic approach benchmarks with progressive art and narrative experiment pinnacles. A remarkable token of passion inspired by lots of pop culture bits, all flavors of life stories and historical influences powering my favorite game genre for decades.
The author has my ever lasting gratitude for inviting me inside all the creative minds gathered on hefty 500+ masterfully crafted pages. When I was reading the last interview, I had this spark of longing feeling that appears when a meeting with people you care for, brimming with talk and wonder about your passions, comes to an end.
But it will all stay with you to remember and reminisce about, ready to pick up again from the bookshelf.
One could be picky and point fingers at the formulaic pattern behind most of the interviews. Barely few of them look like actual people talking, while many display a bit of a repetitive survey form.
That, however, all in all helped depict consistently what all those great minds gathering can present with their art. This anthology is a journey around countless beautiful worlds and visions.
It's a time machine that blends traditional systemic approach benchmarks with progressive art and narrative experiment pinnacles. A remarkable token of passion inspired by lots of pop culture bits, all flavors of life stories and historical influences powering my favorite game genre for decades.
The author has my ever lasting gratitude for inviting me inside all the creative minds gathered on hefty 500+ masterfully crafted pages. When I was reading the last interview, I had this spark of longing feeling that appears when a meeting with people you care for, brimming with talk and wonder about your passions, comes to an end.
But it will all stay with you to remember and reminisce about, ready to pick up again from the bookshelf.
November 25, 2023
Genijalno štivo za ljude koji su odrasli uz avanture. Žao mi je da nema intervjua s Ragnarom Tornquistom i što nedostaje nekoliko igara tipa Sanitarium, Neverhood, Indigo Prophecy, Post Mortem i Still Life serijal (iako mislim da zadnjih nekoliko ni nisu point and click). U svakom slučaju sjajno i bio je gušt pročitati iskustva pionira video igara mog omiljenog žanra.
June 13, 2022
A beautiful table top homage to the best genre in video games.
April 5, 2019
More like 4.5/5, since it's an awesome book but has some minor flaws.
Point and click adventures are probably my favourite game genre, so as soon as I learned about this book I ordered it, and it hasn't disappointed me at all. In every page one can notice the authors' love for the genre and the attention to detail that has been put into this work. The book covers the history of point and click adventure games from 1984 to 2017, with stress on the 90s - on a rough estimate I'd say about 65% of the book focuses on what is often regarded as the golden age of the genre. This history is presented chronologically by alternating high quality pictures (full page or even spreads) of the games and interviews of variable length with the people who worked on them, most of them well-known names for any adventure gamer. Sometimes these interviews contain anecdotes or fun facts that are already known by the fans, but also a lot of lesser-known details that provide the reader with a quite accurate idea of how it was making those games. It is interesting how this double concept pictures/interviews reflects the two ways in which the title can be read: while the pictures show the actual art featured in the games, the interviews describe the art of crafting them.
However, the book has two main flaws too.
The first one has to do with the format of the interviews. After reading a few of them, one can start noticing that many questions are the same ones, and since some of these people worked on the same games or in the same company, many replies are quite similar. In the same vein, often one can get the impression that the interviewers didn't want to deviate much from the initial set of questions, so even if an answer hints to an interesting story this is ignored and they continue asking as originally intended. Also, a couple of times it is possible to find a question that had already been answered, when the interviewer didn't expect it, in the reply to another previous question.
The second one has to do with the selection of interviewees and games. For instance, many interviewees mention Sierra's founders Ken and Roberta Williams, but none of both is interviewed. A bit the same with the Two Guys From Andromeda. I guess that it's not that they were forgotten but rather that they couldn't / didn't want to be interviewed. One cannot blame the authors for this then, but still it's a pity, especially considering that towards the end some of the interviewees, or their interviews, are very weak. However, some omissions in the selection of games are harder to justify. I guess that nobody will expect to find all the games they played decades ago, but several classics from the 90s are missing: Infogrames' Shadow of the Comet (interestingly enough, the fantastic Alone in the Dark, which is an adventure but far from the point and click concept, does appear), at least a MicroProse's adventure, any Sierra's FMV such as Phantasmagoria or The Beast Within... And while in the 00s adventure games were "dead" compared with the previous decade, it was mostly the games from Microids, Frogwares, or Pendulo, that kind of sustained the adventure market, but only the first Runaway by the latter is mentioned. I honestly can't understand how Daria's Inferno or The Adventures of Fatman got chosen over Syberia. Or that no Blackwell game is named either.
Anyway, a must read for any adventure gamer.
Point and click adventures are probably my favourite game genre, so as soon as I learned about this book I ordered it, and it hasn't disappointed me at all. In every page one can notice the authors' love for the genre and the attention to detail that has been put into this work. The book covers the history of point and click adventure games from 1984 to 2017, with stress on the 90s - on a rough estimate I'd say about 65% of the book focuses on what is often regarded as the golden age of the genre. This history is presented chronologically by alternating high quality pictures (full page or even spreads) of the games and interviews of variable length with the people who worked on them, most of them well-known names for any adventure gamer. Sometimes these interviews contain anecdotes or fun facts that are already known by the fans, but also a lot of lesser-known details that provide the reader with a quite accurate idea of how it was making those games. It is interesting how this double concept pictures/interviews reflects the two ways in which the title can be read: while the pictures show the actual art featured in the games, the interviews describe the art of crafting them.
However, the book has two main flaws too.
The first one has to do with the format of the interviews. After reading a few of them, one can start noticing that many questions are the same ones, and since some of these people worked on the same games or in the same company, many replies are quite similar. In the same vein, often one can get the impression that the interviewers didn't want to deviate much from the initial set of questions, so even if an answer hints to an interesting story this is ignored and they continue asking as originally intended. Also, a couple of times it is possible to find a question that had already been answered, when the interviewer didn't expect it, in the reply to another previous question.
The second one has to do with the selection of interviewees and games. For instance, many interviewees mention Sierra's founders Ken and Roberta Williams, but none of both is interviewed. A bit the same with the Two Guys From Andromeda. I guess that it's not that they were forgotten but rather that they couldn't / didn't want to be interviewed. One cannot blame the authors for this then, but still it's a pity, especially considering that towards the end some of the interviewees, or their interviews, are very weak. However, some omissions in the selection of games are harder to justify. I guess that nobody will expect to find all the games they played decades ago, but several classics from the 90s are missing: Infogrames' Shadow of the Comet (interestingly enough, the fantastic Alone in the Dark, which is an adventure but far from the point and click concept, does appear), at least a MicroProse's adventure, any Sierra's FMV such as Phantasmagoria or The Beast Within... And while in the 00s adventure games were "dead" compared with the previous decade, it was mostly the games from Microids, Frogwares, or Pendulo, that kind of sustained the adventure market, but only the first Runaway by the latter is mentioned. I honestly can't understand how Daria's Inferno or The Adventures of Fatman got chosen over Syberia. Or that no Blackwell game is named either.
Anyway, a must read for any adventure gamer.
July 8, 2021
I read this cover to cover and I absolutely loved it. Some of my fondest memories growing up, were spending countless hours playing some of the old classic adventure games, and Lucasarts titles in particular. This book was a wonderful trip down memory lane, as well as an excellent insight into the creation of so many great titles. The artstyle of point and click adventures are so unique and reading about the creation, work and inspirations that go into making them, was truly delightful. This has reignited my passion for this style of game, and has been a fantastic source of new (and old), titles to try, that I never would have heard of otherwise. This book is a must-buy for any fans of the genre.
July 12, 2021
A great nostalgic trip through my teens and twenties playing graphic adventure games. Interesting interviews with developers, writers and artists, amazing screen shots of old favorites but also unfamiliar games I immediately added to my to-play list. I tried to make this book last, but I went through it so quickly, just a couple of months. This is the second edition, which has added games from the last few years, but it was obvious these last 50 pages were tacked on without the amount of detailed attention you see in the first 450 pages. And even though lots of games pass the revue, some favorites are still missing. But it's great fun to spark the need for adventure by simply flipping through these pages. I appreciate these games even more now.
June 5, 2022
I will never get tired of collections like these. It's such a nostalgia trip going back and looking at the artwork from the games I grew up playing. It's shocking how well they've aged in some regards, and hearing all the stories from the creators was heartwarming. They seemed to love the games just as much as the players did! Hearing about the technological limitations, stories about working on George Lucas' ranch, Steven Spielberg calling the developers wanting tips and how modern point and click games still have a wide appeal was all fascinating to me. As the zeitgeist of games and history evolve, I'm happy to add another book like this to my collection to help me remember the roots and think about the future.
September 6, 2020
I grew up with point and click adventure games. Being a huge fan of the LucasArts library of games. I must have played Secret of Monkey Island and its successor over a dozen times.
Taking a trip back to the heyday of these games and reading several people's point of view of the genre and how they had to work around the technical limitations in their time.
The only thing, as mentioned before, is that the interviewer does not always react to what the interviewee is saying and just sticks to the initial script.
I did get to know a couple of new games, and some which I have overlooked over the years that I'm definitely trying.
Taking a trip back to the heyday of these games and reading several people's point of view of the genre and how they had to work around the technical limitations in their time.
The only thing, as mentioned before, is that the interviewer does not always react to what the interviewee is saying and just sticks to the initial script.
I did get to know a couple of new games, and some which I have overlooked over the years that I'm definitely trying.
July 28, 2021
Amazing, stunning presented coffee table stlyle book. But there are a few things that are missing that came down to space time and money.
I was particularly disappointed to only see a reference to Discworld Noir in a photo in one of the interviews for example.
Really I think this would have been a multipart series covering different periods. To fill in those blanks and to just show more of more games.
Also not so much about the content and I don't know if I got unlucky but the binding wasn't great and there were some pages that came lose during . Which is important when it's a huge coffee table book full of images
I was particularly disappointed to only see a reference to Discworld Noir in a photo in one of the interviews for example.
Really I think this would have been a multipart series covering different periods. To fill in those blanks and to just show more of more games.
Also not so much about the content and I don't know if I got unlucky but the binding wasn't great and there were some pages that came lose during . Which is important when it's a huge coffee table book full of images
May 5, 2019
Disappointing in comparison with other positions from Bitmap Books. Interviews follow the same scheme and the interviewer doesn't react to what the interviewee says, the choice of people is a bit random and the first part reads like an ad for Thimbleweed Park. Some games are missing, some have very little coverage (Gobliins only has art from the first game for example) - I would love it to have less interviews, more screenshots, more games and more anecdotes and trivia (like previous Bitmap Books books).
October 2, 2022
Beautiful full-page art spreads (oftentimes encompassing both full pages), nice interviews (I’m assuming they were email-based and not actual conversations - best to read these intermittently), great overall quality. I would like to see an index of the games discussed in future editions, as the only way to find any game is to a) know the year it was published, and then b) flip through the pages representing that year, hoping your game is included in the book. Great job overall and glad to see point and click games celebrated in lavish coffee-table book format!
June 6, 2019
I bought this mainly for the pictures, thinking it was going to be a nice book to have around and skim through now and then. But it was the interviews where I found the most value: interleaved with the games, progressing in chronological order, they make up a nice history of the genre (and, in a way, of video games and computers in general).
Having played so many of these games, part of the joy of reading the book was challenging the decisions of the authors, thinking what games or interviews I would add or which ones I thought deserved a less prominent place in the collection. Every reader will likely have their own personal list but I would still say this book is nothing short of perfect.
Having played so many of these games, part of the joy of reading the book was challenging the decisions of the authors, thinking what games or interviews I would add or which ones I thought deserved a less prominent place in the collection. Every reader will likely have their own personal list but I would still say this book is nothing short of perfect.
February 19, 2020
Whether it's for the quirky and insightful interviews or just for the amazing artwork (or both!), this book is an invaluable resource for fans of the genre. Although there are always those few games that we miss and wonder about why they're not featured, the editors did a fantastic job of compiling it all together.
Read
October 2, 2021If you're a fan of the genre, do yourself a favour and get a copy. Beautiful book with some great insight into the classic games but also a good introduction to new games in the genre. The genre is alive and well!
October 25, 2022
Just truly awesome. Heavy, glorious full-page illustrations, interesting interviews and more pixel art than my pixelart-loving eyes can manage.
I was reading the newly reprinted edition though (2022), but could not add or find that on this site. ISBN: 978-1-8384585-3-9.
I was reading the newly reprinted edition though (2022), but could not add or find that on this site. ISBN: 978-1-8384585-3-9.
January 11, 2023
As a child growing up predominantly in the 80s and 90s, point-and-click adventures games were my jam!
It's been great being able to take a look back at a very interesting part of my childhood and fondly recall some of my prime gaming experiences.
It's been great being able to take a look back at a very interesting part of my childhood and fondly recall some of my prime gaming experiences.
February 12, 2019
💚💚💚💚💚
Beautifully made and packed with interviews and blown up screen shots of games from another era. What's not to love.
Beautifully made and packed with interviews and blown up screen shots of games from another era. What's not to love.
September 10, 2019
Wunderschön aufgemacht und höchst informativ. Ein Muss für jeden Fan des Genres.
September 11, 2020
A must have for every gamer. A masterpiece.
September 26, 2021
The art pages are fantastic, and it's a great reference guide to the genre, but the interviews get repetitive.
September 16, 2022
Great! A must have for all the fans of 90s point 'n' click adventure games!
October 16, 2024
It may look like an art book but it’s also filled with meaty interviews. Took me months to get through this massive and lovely book.
January 6, 2021
Excellent collection of information about a well- manicured list of point-and-click adventure games! The insight into the world of creating them is presented in a mind-nurturing, creative way which only someone with pure passion for the topic can achieve.
Well done, guys!
The only thing I would improve us to have a more-friendly, less-professional approach to the interviews, because at times, especially if someone decides to leave all interviews for last like I did, they can get a bit monotone. Adding *more* random questions from your discussions to the mix would improve that kind of experience.
Well done, guys!
The only thing I would improve us to have a more-friendly, less-professional approach to the interviews, because at times, especially if someone decides to leave all interviews for last like I did, they can get a bit monotone. Adding *more* random questions from your discussions to the mix would improve that kind of experience.
Read
December 12, 2018Si el asunto es dar una visión general desde la nostalgia (Sierra, Lucasarts) hasta la actualidad (Telltale, Wadjet Eye), cumple con creces: las entrevistas son interesantes, aunque a veces un tanto repetitivas (queda claro que, efectivamente, las oficinas del Rancho Skywalker eran muy bonitas y todo el mundo las recuerda con cariño) y aunque podría centrarse más en el diseño de mecánicas detrás de esos juegos (no es el caso) o, al menos, de concept art, la verdad es que es un repaso muy interesante que apunta a los enormes huecos que aún tenemos que rellenar en la muy reciente pero ya en peligro Historia de los Videojuegos.
Ausencias notables: "Teenagent", "Dráscula", "5 days a stranger", "Lost in time", "Sanitarium", "Blackstar: Agent of Justice", "Neuromancer", "Shadow of the comet", "Prisioner of Ice", "Lost Eden", "Evidence: the last report", "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream", "Hollywood Monsters", "Normality", "Igor: Objective Uikokahonia", "Beavis & Butthead in Virtual Stupidity", "Monthy Python and the Quest of the Holy Grail", "Time Passenger", "Muppets Treasure Island"...
Ausencias notables: "Teenagent", "Dráscula", "5 days a stranger", "Lost in time", "Sanitarium", "Blackstar: Agent of Justice", "Neuromancer", "Shadow of the comet", "Prisioner of Ice", "Lost Eden", "Evidence: the last report", "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream", "Hollywood Monsters", "Normality", "Igor: Objective Uikokahonia", "Beavis & Butthead in Virtual Stupidity", "Monthy Python and the Quest of the Holy Grail", "Time Passenger", "Muppets Treasure Island"...
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews