Video Game Book Club: Grim Fandango & Point-and-Click Adventure Games

One of the last and best games from the golden era of its genre, Grim Fandango is a great representative of the Point-and-Click Adventure genre.

In our Video Game Book Club series, we pick a game—sometimes popular, sometimes not—that is worth a closer look. Just like a typical book club, bring all your thoughts and opinions to the table and we'll hold an open discussion. We'll discuss the individual game, but also seek out larger truths about game design in general.

It's not often that a genre simply dies out, but that's what happened to the point-and-click adventure genre in the late 90s. Although companies like Lucasarts and Sierra On-Line published a bunch of games in this genre through the 80s and 90s with series like King's Quest, Space Quest, Sam & Max, and Monkey Island, by the 2000s such games were rarely released. Why did this happen? What are the pros and cons of this genre? And could they see a resurgence in the future?

Grim Fandango was originally released in 1998, and so represents the genre at its most mature point. Rather than the recently-released Return to Monkey Island, I think this game gives us an unflinching look at the genre in its original era -- warts and all.

The only requirements are that you've played Grim Fandango before joining. You don't need to have finished the game to be a part of the discussion! If you have familiarity with the point-and-click adventure genre as a whole it will help as well. Some suggestions from me:

• Day of the Tentacle
• The Secret of Monkey Island
• Full Throttle
• Space Quest 6
• Sam & Max Hit The Road
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
• Beneath a Steel Sky

The event will take place in a meeting room at Publik Coffee on West Temple. Please note that this is not the Publik in the Avenues or by the U. The meeting room is upstairs, on the side of the building furthest from the staircase. We have 2 hours reserved, so even if you can't make it on time feel free to join us at any point.

The room seats about 10-12 comfortably, but it starts to get crowded beyond that. I'm going to cap the attendees at 18 just to make sure we're not crammed in like sardines. Please don't RSVP unless you see yourself realistically attending, and please update your RSVP if you later decide not to go.

If you can't make it but want to carry on the conversation digitally, be sure to join our Discord server!