Any interest in MI fangame?

Started by Aractus, Thu 27/02/2014 09:13:26

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Aractus

More than a decade ago now I once dreamt of doing a Monkey Island fangame. So I was on holiday the other week, and put pen to paper and designed a game in 2 days that essentially would fulfill the basic requirements: the story I wanted and humour. I've codenamed the game "Manky Island" (yes named after one of the kremlings in the original DKC).

Without giving too much away about the plot, at this stage, it's a standard 3-act story (beginning, middle, end) can be adapted to a 4-part game, and doesn't require the use of any IP thus avoiding legal issues entirely (no MI character names and no MI islands, etc). This fact actually adds to the humour of the game.

Act1: 1 level, puzzels written, requires a total of 6 rooms and at least 10 characters. Story complete. This is intended to be the shortest level.
Act2: 2 levels (or could be combined into one longer level), puzzles designed but not written. Story complete.
Act3: 1-2 levels, not yet written. Story designed but not written.

I'll talk a bit about act2 - act2 involves getting to "manky island" (1st part), which contains the pirate hub, and then joining a pirate crew (2nd part). The problem is that you can't just join a crew with no expertise, and so you have to go around the island and complete training in order to gain a skill that one of the crews may be interested in. Becoming a qualified rower, becoming a qualified banjo player, that kind of thing. True-to-life, the pirate hub is where all the pirates hang out when they aren't at sea and thus the main attractions will be a hotel or two and some pubs! The idea is that you will collect items as you complete training, and you have to complete puzzles to complete the training, and once you've been trained in just about everything a crew might need - navigation, fishing, kidnapping, extortion, etc etc, there are no more pirates left on the island as they've all gone out to sea, that is except for one last crew and thus you join it the only way that any decent wannabe pirate would - via stowaway. There are a lot of ways to have fun with this concept.

If I were to decide to develop this project, would anyone be interested to take part? I'm by no means recruiting at this stage, just explaining my idea, a bit, and wondering if there's interest?

Grim

I would love to see such game made, but what you described sounds a bit too much LIKE Monkey Island. What's the twist?

Aractus

MI never had a real pirate hub. But yes, the plot is quite similar to MI1, or at least Act 2. Act 1 and 3 - the beginning and end - are not. Also note that at this stage the game requires two islands, neither of them are Monkey Island (or any other actual island from MI games). But it's much more realistic than the MI1 plot-line since every pirate crew member would be expected to do something, and even if they can't navigate or fight, they could still be a pirate if they could cook or do something else useful. But the plot can always be rewritten, I simply like the present Act 2 plot because it allows for a lot of freedom within it to design puzzles, characters and humour. An alternate one would still have to a. pick up from where act 1 ends, and b. provide suitable mechanisms for the desired game-play environment.

Gribbler

Idea sounds very cool but that seem like a pretty big project. Is this going to be your first game created with AGS? I don't mean to discourage you but there've been many attempts to make MI fan game in the past and to my knowledge none of them have been actually finished.

Aractus

Although I haven't played them, these are finished games:

http://www.boxofmystery.com/games/devils-triangle/
http://www.boxofmystery.com/games/lechucks-revenge/

It would be my intention to do it part-by-part. Sort of how Telltale releases their games (although nowhere near as big a game of course). Part 1 is short, requires 6 rooms and about 12 characters.

miguel

QuotePart 1 is short, requires 6 rooms and about 12 characters.
But to do it right even a one-room game is hard work, time consuming and difficult.

Why don't you come up with a polished playable room of your idea and try to get people interested?
Working on a RON game!!!!!

Gribbler

Quote from: AractusPart 1 is short, requires 6 rooms and about 12 characters.
My game has pretty much the same number of rooms and two times less characters and it took me 6 years to develop it. :) Although my team consisted of two people (including me :) ) If you manage to gather dedicated team members and keep their spirit high during development, this is doable.

Ryan Timothy B

Manky Island? Why not something like Pirate Island or Gorilla Island, or Land of Monkeys, etc. Manky sounds odd.

LimpingFish

#8
Quotemanky

manky (ˈm抋kɪ)

â€"adj , mankier, mankiest
1.     worthless, rotten, or in bad taste
2.     dirty, filthy, or bad

[via Polari from Italian mancare - to be lacking]

Steam: LimpingFish
PSN: LFishRoller
XB: TheActualLimpingFish
Spotify: LimpingFish

Ryan Timothy B


qptain Nemo

To be honest I think it's a mistake to present this as a MI fangame. It sounds like a relatively decent concept, and even though it draws obvious inspiration from MI it could stand on its own legs if done well. Of course as an avid MI fan you may see it differently, but naming it "Manky Island" just for the sake of a reference on top of the already obvious homages seems really unnecessary and silly to me.

Also not being able to choose your crew after all that effort may be frustrating (and yeah I know it's played for comedic effect, but this kind of plot device has been done so often in comedic adventure games, it's more frustrating than funny). But if you can actually use your developed skills at least in the crew you get, it could still be quite fun.

Ryan Timothy B

I think I've got a better idea:

You want to be a pirate but the only boat that will even talk to you (because you sneak in a rotted hole in the side of the ship as it's docked ashore) is the lowliest of ships. Gross. Grime down the walls. In a real need of strong leadership and some TLC. You manage to talk to the quarter master who's this big tough rugged guy but overly lazy and drinks a lot of grog, just like the rest of the crew - he also REALLY fears the captain, says the guy is fearless and evil. The quartermaster tells you that you can be a crew member but your duty is to clean. Your first task is to clean the galley so the cook can prepare a meal, they haven't eaten in days. No player would be interested in picking up garbage and spoiled food or cleaning grime, but a simple mopping the floors would do. You discover a note that was misplaced, saying the cook went to the jungle/mountains to get a special ingredient and won't be back for a few days.

Here's your moment. You show the quartermaster the note and he promotes you to temporary cook and demands you feed the lazy crew. A little inventory puzzle to fix the oven or something. Following a recipe left on the cupboard, but you don't have much food to work with. Little scraps here and there. Taking huge freedom on the interpretation of what the recipe is asking for and what you put in. Some items are rotten (fish). A mop head. Things no one would want to eat. The food smells absolutely amazing, everyone is hungry in anticipation. But the delicious smelling food gives everyone food poisoning and the quartermaster demands you go get the cook back before you kill everyone with your meals. Oh Boy! Your first real pirate adventure.

Somewhere in the mountains or jungle you learn of a plot. Something bad. Like an evil pirate who is looking for a voodoo cursed object that will be able to make everyone on the island vanish, where he can take all the loot he desires. The cook was locked in the dungeon of this ancient castle the enemy pirate is occupying, you free him but inadvertently get yourself locked in a different cell. The cook says he's no hero, thanks you for the rescue and runs away. You have to do a series of push the block puzzles on the wall to free yourself (a pixel hunt quest, a slightly different colored block to start the puzzle). Push one block and two push out. Push one of those and a skeleton hanging from a chain lowers a bit. Push the wrong ones and it raises. Finally you get the skeleton low enough and you can take his rusty sword or bone, or whatever, to break the lock.

Now you must meet your captain to tell him of this news. He turns out to not be so fearless and evil as the quartermaster led you to believe, but is short, fat and nerdy, who really likes finger painting (his whole cabin is filled with finger paintings), doesn't have the nerve to do anything about it. Suggests you deal with it on your own.

That's all I got. Heavily inspired by MI1 and MI2.

Art that closely resembles MI2, 320x200. Pixely. Lots of darkness, yet very colorful and grimy world.

Ghost

Quote from: qptain Nemo on Thu 27/02/2014 23:37:46
To be honest I think it's a mistake to present this as a MI fangame. It sounds like a relatively decent concept, and even though it draws obvious inspiration from MI it could stand on its own legs if done well.

True, and a good point. Picaroo started out as a "true MI fangame" and later developed a different style and plot, all for the better actually. Pirates are a good theme for an adventure game and there's nothing wrong with creating your own brand- I'd always prefer an original "inspired by x" game over a fangame. It'll take more of an effort to create something from whole cloth, sure.

I can't second Gribbler's point strongly enough: The concept you see as "small" is rather ambituous and may take you quite a while to fully flesh out. Quality art and animations can take anything from a month to a year and I'd rather invest that time into an original game than a fan-game.

The episodic format brings some problems of its own. You may want to create a template that gives you the interface and basic assets, because you can't use resources from one AGS game in the next.

Still, pirate adventure? Sign me up!

Aractus

I'll do some sketching and be back (too bad drawing isn't my strong point lol).

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