Just to add if you ask me "you will be buying "Dark Parables" again? The answer is yes, is part of my collection there on BFG!

HOGs found their way here? Well done GOG, here's my money! I'm not fan of these games myself, but they should make a great gift so yeah, instabuy! :)

ps. oh, i just noticed the new footer from where i stand, nice!

My wife will be happy indeed. She loves hidden object games.

What are these hidden object games exactly? Are they just adventure games with more pixel hunting?

They are observation games. You get a list or words or icons (depending on versions), and you have to localize them scattered within in a big chaotic image.

It's basically "spot the looney" or "find waldo" on a computer (or tablet).

And often there's some of plot that serves as an excuse for you to go from screen to screen, trying to find all those, well, hidden objects.

As they are very simple games, a lot of them are available as browser games, if you wish to try out the concept freely. For instance here :

https://www.bigfishgames.com/online-games/genres/15/hidden-object.html

As someone who's played a lot of these games (as I don't have nearly enough time to play 'proper' games') I will say there are some hidden gems here and there but it's mostly mediocrity. Big Fish mantra of 'a new game every day' means quantity over quality, lack of ambition over creativity.

Even if Enigmatis is ever so casual, it still annoys me to see the 4:3 artwork stretched to fit widescreen :-(

I seriously cannot stand generic hidden object games. A few exceptions would be the ones similar to the Drawn series where it's not just pixel hunting in a screen full of junk.

The one thing that REALLY annoys me is picking up an 'adventure' and finding it's a hidden object where the screenshots have been taken from the bits in between to make it look like a point and click or similar genre.

If GOG must sell these games, can they please ensure they are clearly marked as HOG's and the screenshots fully represent the game so that I can make an informed decision as to whether or not I want to buy them?

But think of all the times where I've been inflicted widescreen artwork compressed in my 4:3 minitor. :-(

well.. If You are talking about the BFG download client, while it is a DRM, it is very user friendly because it allow you to try as many games You want for FREE, for an hour...
That's how I make my mom try Her BFG games before buying them.. I wish Steam allow us to do the same.

They're actually a mix of different elements. What Telika describes is just one part of it, the part that gives the genre its name. They can contain lots of other puzzles too though, in addition to Hidden-Object-Screens. They're basically more casual adventure games in which many of the usual item puzzles of classic point-and-click adventures are replaced by traditional puzzles (e.g. sliding block puzzles, jigsaw puzzles etc.). Think more Island of Dr. Brain or Myst than Monkey Island, but on a very, very easy and casual level (and with hint systems on top of it), so that you don't really get stuck. Often, the puzzles are also rather disconnected from the story.

Personally, I don't think it's such a bad concept to offer an alternative kind of adventure game that's more addictive and/or relaxing, easier than the classic ones and more focused on traditional puzzles than dialogue or inventory puzzles. What I don't like so much about the average HOG is that their design is often rather gaudy and kitsch and that their story-telling is pretty unimaginative, trite and clichéd. And ironically, IMO the Hidden-Object-Screens are the element that's most detached from the rest of the game, they feel tacked on to me, their inclusion hardly ever makes sense in the context of the story.

The Artifex Mundi games are some of the best HOGs available, but sadly that isn't saying much, since they are just as guilty of the things I criticized above. I think I haven't found a HOG or better yet more casual adventure game of similar sort yet that significantly differs from others and surpasses them in originality, story depth and style. They all stick pretty close to the same old formula, from what I've seen.

Tiny Bang Story is a bit of an exception though. It's not necessarily a very memorable or original game, but it is an HOG that's more akin to a relaxing picture book than kitschy genre fiction, tells a story without words IIRC, or at least without narrator, and actually renounces the typical detached Hidden Object screens that I find so distracting and weird. (In Tiny Bang Story every screen has things to search for and collect, but you don't get a written list of random and totally unrelated items to click on, the hidden object hunt is much better integrated into the general setting of the game).

Looks like anyone that doesn't want Gog to be infested with this crap is getting their posts low rated .... go figure.

Thanks for the suggestion!

You'll have to let me know what you think. :-)