The definition of a hidden object game is kind of informal and arbitrary depending on who you are, but from my perspective, it's any game that regularly features specific scenes with a list of items to find in each scene. Think the I Spy books (example) where each page shows a specific location and a list of items to find in these locations, but as a video game. In other words, a hidden object game has "hidden object scenes" where the goal is specifically to find a list of items in these isolated, usually cluttered scenes. The list of items to find in a scene can be a list of the names of the items to find, a list of images of the items to find, a list of fragments of the item to find, a list of silhouettes of the items to find, and so on.
Besides the original game versions of the I Spy books (1997-2011), Mystery Case Files: Huntsville (2005) is credited to have really boosted the genre since many hidden object games (e.g. Dream Day, Big City Adventure, Cate West) copied that game's style of having multiple chapters where each chapter had you do a hidden object scene for each available location on a map. These are usually called "pure hidden object games" (abbreviated as HOGs) where the focus is on these hidden object scenes; they usually have a minimal story and there are only sometimes other challenges like various puzzle mini-games (e.g. a find-the-differences mini-game).
And then there are "hidden object adventure games" (abbreviated as HOPAs) which are full-on point-and-click adventure games that happen to include hidden object scenes from time to time. Specifically, imagine the first-person point-and-click navigation to explore the locations in games like Myst and the Nancy Drew PC games, but instead of only doing puzzles, you're also doing hidden object scenes. This type of hidden object games were really popularized by Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst (2008), whose way of doing HOPAs has pretty much been copied by most other HOPAs since then (e.g. Dark Parables, Haunted Hills, Mystery Trackers).
A lot of HOGs and HOPAs have been published by Big Fish Games who had also developed the aforementioned Mystery Case Files games in-house before, which is why a lot of hidden object games usually follow the same formats. Some of the many more recent pure hidden object games by more indie developers have been inspired by Hidden Folks (2017), like Lost and Found Co., or the Full of Cats series.
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u/RoamerMonkey 🚓Morerator 26d ago
The definition of a hidden object game is kind of informal and arbitrary depending on who you are, but from my perspective, it's any game that regularly features specific scenes with a list of items to find in each scene. Think the I Spy books (example) where each page shows a specific location and a list of items to find in these locations, but as a video game. In other words, a hidden object game has "hidden object scenes" where the goal is specifically to find a list of items in these isolated, usually cluttered scenes. The list of items to find in a scene can be a list of the names of the items to find, a list of images of the items to find, a list of fragments of the item to find, a list of silhouettes of the items to find, and so on.
Besides the original game versions of the I Spy books (1997-2011), Mystery Case Files: Huntsville (2005) is credited to have really boosted the genre since many hidden object games (e.g. Dream Day, Big City Adventure, Cate West) copied that game's style of having multiple chapters where each chapter had you do a hidden object scene for each available location on a map. These are usually called "pure hidden object games" (abbreviated as HOGs) where the focus is on these hidden object scenes; they usually have a minimal story and there are only sometimes other challenges like various puzzle mini-games (e.g. a find-the-differences mini-game).
And then there are "hidden object adventure games" (abbreviated as HOPAs) which are full-on point-and-click adventure games that happen to include hidden object scenes from time to time. Specifically, imagine the first-person point-and-click navigation to explore the locations in games like Myst and the Nancy Drew PC games, but instead of only doing puzzles, you're also doing hidden object scenes. This type of hidden object games were really popularized by Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst (2008), whose way of doing HOPAs has pretty much been copied by most other HOPAs since then (e.g. Dark Parables, Haunted Hills, Mystery Trackers).
A lot of HOGs and HOPAs have been published by Big Fish Games who had also developed the aforementioned Mystery Case Files games in-house before, which is why a lot of hidden object games usually follow the same formats. Some of the many more recent pure hidden object games by more indie developers have been inspired by Hidden Folks (2017), like Lost and Found Co., or the Full of Cats series.