The Adventure Games

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games was a series of five video games that tied in with the first two years of the Matt Smith era on television. They were notably the first video games to feature the voice of the actors playing the then-current Doctor and companions.

They were delivered primarily by download from the main BBC Doctor Who website and were mainly intended for the personal computer platform. The earliest versions of the games ran on Windows and Macintosh operating systems, but they later became available to other platforms. Though primarily for UK customers — since the games had in part been funded by the BBC license fee — the games were eventually made available internationally.

They were discontinued after series 6.

Promotion
Details regarding the games were announced on 21 April 2010. The games are being produced in conjunction with the Doctor Who TV production team, with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan lending their voices and likenesses to the games. In announcing the games, series producer Piers Wenger stated that they are part of Series 5: "There aren't 13 episodes of Doctor Who this year. There are 17 - four of which are interactive. Everything you see and experience within the game is part of the Doctor Who universe."

Footage of the games was shown after Victory of the Daleks, revealing one "episode" would involve the Daleks and a destroyed London in 1963 with the tagline Fight The Daleks. This was later revealed to be City of the Daleks by Phil Ford, initially announced as being available on the 5th June. A second series of another four episodes has been commisioned for release in 2011.

Availability
The first of the games, City of the Daleks, was released for download via the BBC's official Doctor Who website on 2nd June 2010 for PCs - several days earlier than the originally announced release date of 5th June. It was later revealed that the early release of the game was part of a system test as they gear up for the official release date. A trailer for the game was shown straight after Vincent and the Doctor on Saturday to mark its official launch . A Macintosh version was later released on 15th June 2010.

At present, the first four games are available to international audiences from Direct2Drive, for $3.70 American. However, Direct2Drive has controversially chosen not to make the Mac OS version of the game available, which has had the side-effect of preventing some gaming sites from reviewing the game.

Robert Nashak from BBC Worldwide has also said that in the future, there may be retail versions of the games.

Gameplay
The Adventure Games are a puzzle-based game: the player has to navigate obstacles with a specific pattern to them, crack codes, use objects to bypass obstacles, and navigate mazes. There is little margin for error: most hazards kill automatically, and (as the Eleventh Doctor) it can be hard to escape from his enemies once they've spotted you. The game follows a linear path: tasks have to be handled a certain way and in a certain sequence.

Playable characters
Playable characters in all the games are the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond and in the second series Rory Williams. However, the player is unable to choose which character to play with, as this is tied to in-game story progression. The only exception is at the end of TARDIS.

Collectables
Each episode has collectible cards, marked with a "DW", which provide extra information on the Doctor Who universe. There are fifty to collect in total, ten each of Doctors, Companions, Friends, Enemies, and Jelly Babies.

Doctors

 * First Doctor
 * Second Doctor
 * Third Doctor
 * Fourth Doctor
 * Fifth Doctor
 * Sixth Doctor
 * Seventh Doctor
 * Eighth Doctor
 * Ninth Doctor
 * Tenth Doctor

Companion

 * Amy Pond
 * Rory Williams
 * Donna Noble
 * Captain Jack Harkness
 * K9
 * Martha Jones
 * Micky Smith
 * Rose Tyler
 * Sarah Jane Smith
 * Wilfred Mott

Friends

 * Captain Adelaide Brooke
 * Adipose
 * Winston Churchill
 * Van Gogh
 * River Song
 * Hath
 * Jackie Tyler
 * Nasreen Chaudhry
 * Liz Ten
 * The Ood

Enemies

 * Autons
 * Cybermen
 * Daleks
 * Smiler
 * The Master
 * Vashta Nerada
 * Sisters of the Water
 * Silurians
 * Sontarans
 * Weeping Angels

Jelly Babies

 * Strawberry
 * Lemon
 * Raspberry
 * Lime
 * Blackcurrant
 * Orange
 * Blueberry
 * Vanilla
 * Liquorice
 * Chocolate

Primary cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Rory Williams - Arthur Darvill

Series 1

 * Sylvia - Sara Carver
 * Chisholm - Barnaby Edwards
 * Elizabeth Meadows, the Entity and Jones - Sarah Douglas
 * Daleks, Cybermen and Oswald Fox - Nicholas Briggs

Series 2

 * Guy Fawkes - Ralph Little
 * Lady Elizabeth Winters - Emilia Fox
 * Barnaby - Chris Johnson
 * Charlie - Jamie Oram
 * Geoffrey Plum - Phil Daniels
 * Field Major Kaarsh - Dan Starkey
 * Black Rod - Miles Richardson

Series 2
Series 2 of the Adventure games was announced in 2010. The first game was The Gunpowder Plot

Producers

 * Gary Russell

Executive producers

 * Steven Moffat
 * Piers Wenger
 * Beth Willis
 * Anwen Aspden
 * Charles Cecil

Writers

 * Phil Ford
 * James Moran