
That inspired her to create her own game, and she added graphics to make the experience more interesting. She searched for other adventure games to play, but there weren’t many other options. She enjoyed playing the text-only game, in which the player explores a mysterious cave filled with treasure. She was a stay-at-home mom who developed an interest in video games after her husband, a computer programmer at IBM, brought home an Apple II computer with the Colossal Cave Adventure game loaded on it, according to the Lemelson-MIT program ’s profile of her. Often called “Queen of the Graphic Adventure,” Williams was not an engineer by trade. The award recognizes breakthrough technologies and game design milestones. She was honored this year with the Pioneer Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. One of the people gamers have to thank for the genre is Roberta Williams who, along with her husband, Ken, created a number of early graphic adventure games including King’s Quest, Mystery House, and Phantasmagoria.

Adventure games including Broken Age, Machinarium, and Myst are popular because they feature beautiful graphics and extensive story lines, and they test players’ critical-thinking skills. Players solve puzzles to move the plot along. THE INSTITUTE Adventure video games have grown in popularity now that people are staying home more due to coronavirus-related restrictions, according to The Washington Post.
