Ah! Hey, I'm trevor, concept artist, illustrator and designer.

 To answer what excites me about Adventure games, I gotta reach in to my favorite video game of all time, Metroid Prime. I reach toward this game in a lot of ways whenever I think about what makes an experience particularly engaging to me. The first thing that really sticks out is an element that's echoed (holy shit no pun intended) in other games that I find myself particularly engrossed in, like Transistor and The Witness. In all 3 of those games, the Surface story of those games are very simplistic and underwhelming, but they offer a giant treasure box of suplementary, but totally optional research and infobites that adds depth to the world or to the feeling they want to imbue in you. Metroid Prime wouldnt be the same game without the wealth of backstory you get from scanning the objects. I think that ties into my want to understand the world around me and not just see it.

The second thing, is that I love the way MP burns the planet's history AND the game's mechanics into the environment and architecture. Im really big into architecture. The way buildings look and the way they work are so indicative of their culture, and I think this genre can do a lot with that. Solid Environmental puzzles are a must for me in adventure games, because I want to feel like my understanding of the world around me has caused something to happen. Something deliberate and purposeful. If I can combine the knowledge I gained from analyzing the environment and combine that with the technical understanding of my items or moves, I should be able to come to a new realization on my own for that Ah-ha! moment and do something awesome. LoZ:Breath of the Wild is full of moments like that, where you have a toolbox of powers and a world full of crap to mess with, and you find yourself asking "Can I do this?".. lo and behold you can, and you created that opportunity through your own ingenuity. That's Gold.

The third thing is that those elements are paced out around a really satisfying primary/secondary element. Metroid prime would not be fun if Samus was just a historian and not a gun-blasting bountry hunter. The flow of action into curiousity and back into action is flawless there. Transistor is the same way, giving you a rich combat system to vibe with between the downtime of sating your curiousity about the world and its people. Horizon: Zero Dawn is also near flawless with this element. The combat is so satisfying in that game, and the massive open world is so full of personality and cool shit that exploring is fun as hell, regardless if you run into 3 bloodthirsty robot alligators, A quest to save someone from slavers, or a databite from the old world.

1. The option to uncover a richer backstory than originally appears
2. The feeling that I figured out a puzzle by being crafty and paying attention
3. A flow of action that fluctuates between exploration and action effectively.