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I have an AGS game that is not in any database..

I once uploaded it here with a lot of description as to what it is, what's the reason, etc.

It seems NO ONE read the description and they judged a moped as a ferrari and disparaged me to hell and back.

I don't know what's wrong with people, but if anyone is interested, I can upload my AGS game somewhere and let people play it - AS LONG AS THEY ARE FAIR in their judgment of it. It's a THREE-room game, with a puzzle you can complete, its point is to draw in people that might want to create a TRUE sequel to Maniac Mansion with me. DOTT is great, but its style is different. Thimbleweed Park has a very inconsistent resolution and a pretty silly plot, plus, it does not happen fully in a mansion, and so on.

Nothing quite touches Maniac Mansion as a 'true sequel', so I would be GLAD to upload it to an appreciative audience that knows what it's supposed to be and so on.

Hopefully, we could create a maybe 20-room or 50-room FULL GAME in true (TRUE!!) Maniac Mansion style, not some Amiga version crap or 'Maniac Mansion Mania'-stuff.

Suggesting some Maniac Mansion style games for the OP: Trapped on the Balcony, The Castle (very close to your described dream game) or simply Thimbleweed Park (which may be too tongue in cheek?).

Thanks for the recommendations.

I am aware of the 'Thimbleweed Park', and I was actually trying to sort of 'compete against it', alas, it proved to be impossible to get my product up because of lack of a scripter.

I don't think the Castle thing is even close to what I want, plus, it's COMMERCIAL, so I can't even play it.

Thanks anyways... for PROVING that what I am describing simply does not exist.. yet.

Yeah, Thimbleweed Park doesn't quite cut it.

 I am aware of ALL the facts.. I know who is behind the project and all that. I know that even Gary Winnick is involved with the graphics, some of which are pretty darn good, I must confess.

But it's not QUITE what I want to create. There are, factually, NO 'actual continuation' of Maniac Mansion projects at all. NOTHING 'continues' where we left off. Sure, storywise, DOTT does. Sure, SCUMM-wise, Zak McKRacken and the Alien Mindbenders(tm) does. Sure, in many other ways, some of these things do, even Thimbleweed Park.

However, I can't be the only one that Thimbleweed Park rubs the wrong way. Its ending is too 'Twin Peaks' and 'Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'. While it does give interesting insights to Maniac Mansion if you go to the right locations just before the actual ending, it's not QUITE what I mean.

What I want to see and play, and I am sure others would too, if they realized how good Maniac Mansion originally was and how amazing it would be to just continnue where it left off, is..

..TRUE 'more of the same but in a different mansion'.

I haven't checked all recommendations yet - thanks for those, by the way! - but I am trying to point out that NOTHING, not DOTT, not 'Maniac Mansion Mania', not 'Thimbleweed Park', not 'Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders', and CERTAINLY not the curiously 'beloved' 'TSOMI' and 'MI2:LR' games have done it.

Back in the day, I thought Loom, Indy3, Zak, etc. would give it to me. If I just play enough SCUMM games, enough Sierra Space Quest-style stuff, I would get to heavenly bliss of 'continuing the adventure'.

However, this is as if someone wanted to see again those lovely 'pre-AB3D2:TKG' pictures that were supposed to be some kind of 1x1 patch for AB3D, and then someone hands them 'Posiris' as the solution.

Sure, it scratches a PART of the itch, but it does not give it a full completion.

You can't get full satisfaction from that, it's TOO different. It doesn't give you the 'Star Wars'-style locations that the screenshots promised us (but nothing ever delivered).

There IS no true sequel to Maniac Mansion, no matter how you spin it, and _I_ want to create it.

In my opinion, a TRUE SEQUEL (again, there's NOTHING wrong with DOTT as a game, but as a sequel, it does NOT offer us 'more Maniac Mansion', but just a completely different thing that is VERY good)

..would be a game that looks like Maniac Mansion, feels like Maniac Mansion, sounds like Maniac Mansion, but just gives us a different mansion (which means, MORE stuff, new stuff but with the expected style).

Nothing I have seen so far comes even close.

I probably have to reiterate this so people don't get TOO mad; DOTT is amazing, great, absolutely brilliant, and I want to give 50 bucks immediately to the people responsible just to reward them for this really cool and wonderful experience they graciously gave us. It's AMAZING!!

Ok? DOTT is sublime and astonishing! Nothing WRONG with it whatsoever.

Maniac Mansion sequel, though.. I want it to LOOK like Maniac Mansion. I want it to FEEL like Maniac Mansion, but more, new rooms, another mansion, etc.

I have a big vision for this, I have planned this since the 1980s, I have ideas, I know how to create a 50-room (or even just 25-room)-version of this. I know what to do and how, except, I CAN'T SCRIPT.

I appreciate the replies here, but they don't seem to QUITE get the point - it's not Maniac Mansion until it's 'Maniac Mansion'. DOTT is NOT Maniac MAnsion, it's a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THING altogether.

Thimbleweed Park utilizes some REALLY weird resolutions and color configurations, the graphics never look quite 'right' to me, it's not clear what resolution it's supposed to exist in, plus, the story is too weird, and the 'Grumpy' one's manic obsession with CATALOGUES kills it.

Don't have MAZES or LABYRINTHS in your game, don't have CATALOGUES or 'REPETITIVE ROOMS' (the hotel is a big SIN!) in your game. It does not benefit the player.

What I loved about Maniac Mansionm was the feeling of 'I wonder what's behind that door'. If every room looks the same, you lose that feeling.

There's more to say, but yeah.. please join me in creating a TRUE SEQUEL to Maniac Mansion. I can do the graphics, I can do the sound effects (with real C64 and at least real SID, plus, real OPL3), I can do the musics (not that a game like this needs much), I can do the dialogues, the jokes, the humor, the characters, the design, the game itself, the 'story', the ideas, the rooms..

I can do it ALL, except the scripting and UI.

Anyone that actually LOVED Maniac Mansion.. I would be honored to collaborate with and give them all I can.

Also, I am happy to give my data - graphics, animations, music, sound effects - for YOUR game, whatever your game might be, as long as I don't find it too stupid or annoying (or cruel).

Thanks for reading this rant.. I am just PASSIONATE about this, so please understand.

I would like to see a 'true sequel' to Maniac Mansion be made.

Day of the Tentacle is a wonderful game, but it steers so far away from Maniac Mansion stylistically, visually, soundwise and atmospherically, it's a very different experience.

I would love to see a 'next mansion', that's not the same (as it IS in DOTT), but done in the unimitable Maniac Mansion style (Commodore 64-version, of course - Amiga version uses weird colors and looks very 'flat' by comparison, plus, it lacks the atmosphere. The other versions.. best not to even talk about them..)

So, a C64 Maniac Mansion,but with a 'new mansion' - as atmospheric as possible, as similar GUI as possible, as similar 'all happens inside one mansion' as possible and so on, but different mansion, different characters, different 'story' and so on. Still happening on a moonlight autumny night, though.

I guess I am trying to re-capture what I experienced in the 1980s with that game, that nothing else has ever been able to provide for me, but dang, I am SURE there is a missing game there... I am sure a game like that would find its audience and fill a sore, empty spot in many people - to, instead of 'returning to THE mansion', people would be able to 'go to a brand NEW mansion', but in VERY similar style and atmosphere.

Consequently, that is what I am trying to create with AGS, the sole reason why I even downloaded AGS and have been trying to create this vision, to manifest it into reality. I have had this vision for decades, only making it more detailed during the years, but alas, haven't been able to create it fully.

I did make a few-rooms 'demo preview' version just to show people what I am trying to create, but the full game would be about 20 to 50 rooms big, my 'preview' is only a few rooms.

I did make a post about it in the 'recruitment' section, in case anyone is interested.

It's not my fault that the game I would like to see is also the game I would like to create. It's a shame Maniac Mansion never got a true sequel. DOTT is great, but it's like taking Back to the Future, and giving us a wonderful 'Inspector Gadget' episode. It's just not the same.

In any case, it's not MORE of the same, at best, it's 'more of the DIFFERENT'.

Maniac Mansion seems more 'realistic and serious', whereas DOTT seems a bit over-the-top silly and cartoony with its wonky perspectives and heavy emphasis on comedy and 'animation' instead of building a solid mansion you can adventure in.

The time-travel aspect is great, but at the same time, it takes away from the 'solid mansion', splitting it into three different-yet-similar 'places' you adventure in. In movies, 'characters' are great, so as a cartoon or movie, it would be fantastic, but as a game, it's not quite 'Maniac Mansion', and all this 'attempt to be a cartoon/movie' takes away from actually PLAYING THE GAME.

Too many games have so many 'intros' and 'story elements', they actually stop being GAMES anymore. People just sit and watch with controller in their hands is not really playing, is it? Maniac Mansion had the perfect proportion of 'cut-scenes' and gameplay - those scenes only happened at important points, making your heartbeat fasten and your palms sweat.

When you have to wade through multiple cutscenes just to be able to play a little bit, then have to wade through some more, it's no longer interesting, exciting or even entertaining. I am not saying DOTT is boring (it really isn't), but the way games went overboard with 'story', means they forgot GAMEPLAY should be what games are for, not 'watching things' or 'advancing the plot/story'.

I have always said games are not a storytelling format, it's a playing format - but corporations don't care, and audiences don't seem to care, either, because they don't know any better. But your brain does.

I grew up with PLAYING games, so it's quite jarring to suddenly arrive at an era with unskippable, boring cutscenes. I can't understand that reason for that.

 In any case, DOTT is a great experience, even a good game - but it's not 'more Maniac Mansion' for someone that just completed Maniac Mansion and wants 'more mansions to complete'.

It even happens in the SAME mansion - how out of touch is that?

In any case, I want to see 'more Maniac Mansion', as I have wanted since 1988, when I completed Maniac Mansion all by myself, literally jumped up and down out of sheer joy... I want a game that brings people the same kind of joy and sense of accomplishment.

No one can probably quite create the feeling that a kid has when playing Maniac Mansion in the autumn with the sound of crickets in the background, on a full moon 1980s night, where the old disk drive is howling almost like a small wolf every time a room starts to load... nothing can probably quite re-create all THAT.

However, I think it's still possible to create a 'true sequel' to Maniac Mansion - a game that would feel as much as possible as something that continues where Maniac Mansion left off, or 'replicates' the mansion, without making it too 'samey' - a different mansion with the same atmosphere and style, the same GUI, similar, but different characters..

..the point is to make the player feel as if they are getting MORE Maniac Mansion - not the same thing over again, not a reboot/remix/rewhatever, not a completely different-style sequel that still happens in the same mansion, but a NEW mansion, new adventure, with 'more of the same style and atmosphere'.

I wonder why this is so hard to explain... in any case, THAT is the kind of game I would like to see made.

Oh, also, it does NOT matter whether I (with or without collaboration/team/etc.) am the one that manages to create it, or someone else - I just want to see it MADE.

Greenthings!

I have a bit of an ambitious project going on - I would love to make another game like 'Maniac Mansion', but not in the vein of 'Day of the Tentacle'.

Instead, I would like to make a game that 'mimics' the original Maniac Mansion as much as possible, when it comes to graphics, visuals, sounds, style, GUI, atmosphere and so on.

Some differences are of course inevitable and thus, acceptable. I have my whole story planned and most of the big house envisioned, I have thought long and hard about different types of rooms and how it all ties to form coherent puzzles and such. Basically, I have a 'vision' I want to realize, but alas, I lack the scripting skillz to do it.

(Believe me, I tried!)

I am more of an 'artist type', so I can almost easily create and generate lots of graphics, music, sound effects (using real sound chips and my own mouth and so on, so the sounds will always be unique, or 'original art', if you will) and such, but also, background graphics, animations, sprites, characters and so on.

I am a bit limited when it comes to modern times, but for this type of 2D adventure games, á la Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken and such, I think my abilities reach just barely.

Of course my graphics are nothing amazing, there are much better artists around, I also can't do the modern 'midi' type stuff, as I use real sound chips, like Yamaha's FM synthesis chips and of course the magnificent C64's SID chips as well.

I have practiced the Commodore 64 graphic format quite extensively, so although I can probably never quite reach Maniac Mansion level of Gary Winnick's amazing talent, I hope to at least be able to create relatively similar room art with 'my personal flavor' added.

It will all become clear when I upload my tiny preview project I made with AGS, that has only a few rooms so you only get a small taste of what I want to create, but it should be enough to understand the style, visuals, sounds and such. I might want to even add some musics to it, á la Monkey Island 2:LeChuck's Revenge - obviously I can't compose music as good as that, but using the Yamaha OPL technology, the sound of the music should be similar, and perhaps the music might be relatively acceptable, who knows (can't judge my own stuff).

My proposal is as follows:

 - You script my adventure game for me to my specifications, with communication back and forth, and I will take your ideas into account, but I will have the last say on everything. I will treat you kindly and in a friendly manner, but it is my project, so what I want and say, goes. My logic rules the project, but the main goal IS to make the player to have fun, feel good and excited and all that, so I am always open to ideas and if my ideas are unacceptable or can't be made to work, that is perfectly acceptable just as well.

I want us to have FUN with this project, so it's not gonna be any kind of sweaty thing, I want you to also be excited about being able to bring a game like this into existence to delight generations to come.

 - I will then do the same for you graphically/musically/aurally, within my limitations, of course. I can't make MIDI stuff, but I can give you mp3s of real Yamaha chip-generated music and SID (and other methods)-generated sound effects for YOUR project. I think it's fair if it's one project per one project - so you help me create my game, I help you create yours, we're even. Anything more we can then negotiate separately, I would not mind if we make multiple projects this way, it would probably be exquisite fun!

Some caveats!

 There are things I won't do, things I might have to be heavily persuaded to do and so on. If I think what you are planning is stupid, it's hard to find motivation to keep going (happened in the past..)

 There are things I don't know HOW to do, and might not be able to learn. I can't do MIDI stuff, so what you get from me is GIFs, BMPs (MAYBE PNGs), mp3s and maybe WAVs, and that's about it. Anything else is going to be a struggle, impossibility or a negotiation at least.

Some other points..

 - I think we can negotiate through difficulties, I like to think I am flexible, but I also have very strict walls, beyond which I just won't go, no matter what. Anything 'wrong', 'unjust' and 'unethical' would be good examples.

 - ANYTHING political and you can just find someone else immediately. I won't do politics of ANY KIND for ANY REASON.

 - Any 'message' can go to the toilet right away. Just stop. No messages. Just FUN GAME, ok?

- I will work very hard and endeavour to flow my finest self into any project I am involved with, I won't give you anything I am not pleased with, I am not going to be lazy about it. I will prioritize quality whenever I can, and give you the best stuff I possibly can.

 - As soon as we both agree that we could at least try to work together, I will be glad to give you a gallery of my graphics so you can decide if I am good enough for your project. Mind you, I am best at Commodore 64 format (16 fixed colors, 160x200 or 160x240 (I don't mind, which) resolution), and have worked a long time with 160x200 and 160x240 resolutions, but I will be glad to use more colors than 16 or even less!

 (I have dabbled a bit also in 320x240 and 320x200 Monochrome, which means only two colors, black and white, and trying to make things look good by just dithering a lot - like old Macintoshes used to do it)

Sometimes I have tried weird techniques, like making some 'gradient sky' with some 'painting package', then converting that to 160x240 and editing it down and using 256 colors with it - the results are sometimes pretty ticklish!

So, if any of this sounds good, please contact me and maybe we can give it a try..

I will be glad to send you materials of many kinds, from my pen drawings of the concepts and such, to my AGS project that technically works and is 'completeable', but consists only of a few rooms, so it's extremely tiny, but still gives a bit of a 'taste' and easy understanding of what I am trying to do (you just have to multiply the scale in your mind to about 20 to 50 rooms instead of a few and so on)

I would love to just casually, with no time limits or such, try to see what we could come up with together.

There is the idea of just making a 'test game' first, it could consist of maybe 5 to 7 rooms or maybe even 10, just to see if our collaboration works.. so if it does, then it should be easy to expand that to 20 or 50 rooms, right? (Not easy as in toil, but in concept)

I have lots of ideas, so it's frustrating to not be able to express them.

Oh, I have also made unrelated 'demos', which are small 2D 'stories' with just programming in basic (easier than scripting, let me tell ya!). They also showcase my music, graphics, animations, sound effects and so on, so I would be glad to share those as well if you choose to accept this mission.

One more point - I want everything to be 'casual' instead of 'achievement-oriented', so no deadlines or anything too strict, absolutely no money, nothing 'corporate' or suffocating - just free-flowing creative fun and such. I would like to have a very uplifting creative environment, in the style of the old Atari corporation, where they didn't even have to wear shoes and so on.

I am seeking that kind of relaxed atmosphere, where we can just brainstorm things freely and see what happens when we conk our heads together and come up with ideas that we then manifest into reality.

Feel free to ask questions and whatnot, I appreciate your contributions, whatever they may be.

The only real requirement is that you are actually able to script better than me, and can bring this dream into reality before I depart this world, and can accept my limitations as well.

Within those constraints, I plan to work as hard for you as you are willing to work for me, so in the end, it's all going to be equal.

Thank you for your time, and I wish you a fun summer regardless!

Sincerely,

 - Schedina