SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Series of Cartoons Utilizing Maniac Mansion

Title: an horse Joined: Feb 26 2012 Posts: 169

I am a super massive nerd for Maniac Mansion. It was one of the first games that captured my imagination in terms of it's story and characters beyond just sitting there and playing it. I remember writing stories set in that world for assignments in school when I was a kid. I want to do that again.

Whoever was following the 2012 forum battles might have seen my little flash animation. I had a grander idea for it but kind of just threw in random shit (IE. Powerpuff tits) when I felt like I was wasting my time with it, and getting off track with the point of the battle.

What my idea is, is to make an ongoing series set in the mansion with all the original cast (The game, not the TV show). To animate it would be a great exercise for me and not too difficult once I've made a few symbols of characters, walk cycles, and backgrounds.

I'm fishing for ideas and fans of the game to write scripts for/with me and help and give me pointers/advice. I'd also like a little feedback on whether anybody is even interested in something like this. There's a plethora of amateur animation on YouTube already. I want to really make this stand out, and I figured this would be the best place to ask for outside input.

So, what do think abut that? Should I put the hamster in the microwave? Even if you don't care enough to comment, please vote in the poll so I have at least some indication of interest. Thanks.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

Since the game isn't terribly long, have you thought of just animating an entire playthrough of the game if you get what I mean? Could be very cool. Also, it'd be a good exercise for later when you wanna do something original.

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

Definitely do it. It sounds cool.

Since you can't play with all the characters at once in the game you could do something where one group start then a second group come in and how they converge or interact with eachother or something like that.

EDIT: To elaborate more: One group has three characters and they have a set of reasons for being in the mansion but then there is a second group who have their own set of reasons for being there.

You could make it like a race to the end to save Sandy or them racing for each of the different endings (or triggering them, maybe they have different motives? There would obviously be a move away from the game a bit here) and then maybe a sort of rewind sort of retrospect where if person x in say Group 2 did x instead of y then how would the story have changed?

Title: an horse Joined: Feb 26 2012 Posts: 169

JoshWoodzy wrote:

Since the game isn't terribly long, have you thought of just animating an entire playthrough of the game if you get what I mean? Could be very cool. Also, it'd be a good exercise for later when you wanna do something original.

That's not a bad idea actually. The trick would be figuring out how to do it with all the characters though. I wouldn't want to just pick three. And then develop ways to make it really cinematic and visually interesting.