Sam & Max text-adventure, engine done: now we need content

[hansschmucker]

I'm still sick and in bed, so I've got a little too much time on my hands and you know the saying about idle hands.
I wanted to see if I could write a little text adventure featuring Sam and Max, maybe incorporating some of the speculations about episode 2. The engine was done in an evening and while the code is a mess, at least it works (in Firefox 3.6: sorry for users of other browsers, but this uses some Javascript 1.8 features as well as DOM storage for autosaving) and is very easy to develop content for. Basically, there's just a demo room so far, but if we can come up with a decent story and some good lines I think it could make a nice little toy while we're waiting for episode 2.

The game:
http://www.tapper-ware.net/devel/js/...re/index.xhtml

The demo data file:
http://www.tapper-ware.net/devel/js/...enture/data.js

So, any ideas?

[Shwoo]

I could help with that. Do you have anything in mind?

[hansschmucker]

To be brutally honest, I'm still trying to find the basic ingredients. I mean right now we have:

A strange toybox
Skelletons of Sam and Max
Skunkape's abandoned spaceship
A museum location

How this could fit together I do not know yet.

[The Highway]

whatever you figure out the PLOT to be, PM me and i'll do some dialogue for you

[hansschmucker]

Great. I'm not a native speaker, so writing dialogue is a tad difficult.

[Shwoo]

I'm good at copying speech patterns, and I've tried to copy the way Sam and Max speak before, so I could probably do some dialogue as well.

I think, with the plot, you should go in some completely ridiculous that's obviously not what's going to happen.

[taumel]

2d or 3d? :O)

[Ribs]

Originally Posted by taumel

2d or 3d? :O)

I hope this is sarcasm

[taumel]

I'm not sure, i'll have to look this one up. :O)

[GuruGuru214]

It's going to be the most mind-blowingly awesome 3D text you've ever seen, of course!

[The Highway]

Originally Posted by Shwoo

I'm good at copying speech patterns, and I've tried to copy the way Sam and Max speak before, so I could probably do some dialogue as well.

I think, with the plot, you should go in some completely ridiculous that's obviously not what's going to happen.

We should work together! Come visit Perth, theres slightly more stuff to do than in Canberra! Oh, wait, they took down the ferris wheel... There is one more thing to do!

[Shwoo]

What are you talking about, Canberra is full of stuff to do. We have a street! And... a weird looking tower? And the lighting in the tunnel near Black Mountain is orange. Orange!

Besides, Perth's too hot... Can it wait until July?

[hansschmucker]

Hmm ... would this work for you (just a setup, not actually a story):

The skeletons are actually remains of a time travel paradox that was created when Sam and Max tried to use the new toy they found to time travel to ancient times (thinking that the bones originated from there), instead ending up in an archeological museum in the not so distant past where Mack Salmon was trying to use the power of remains from aliens who visited ancient Egypt to fix his "condition".

Seems ridiculous enough for me.

[Shwoo]

Yeah, that is pretty ridiculous.

[The Highway]

yeah, we could add some more flesh to it and work on the dialogue, and it could be done in like a matter of weeks!

[hansschmucker]

I'd even think that one week could be enough. Anyway, I need a break now... I'm still not feeling too well

[The Highway]

get some rest, then. we can work on this later.

[hansschmucker]

Couldn't sleep, but I feel better now.

I've thought some more about the paradox idea and the more I think about it, the more I think it would be impossible to include in a coherent storyline: In order for duplicates to exist when Sam and Max discover the tomb, they would have had to timetravel before, otherwise the causality doesn't work unless we have a timetravel and a cloning device, which would be a bit much. We need another explanation and as much as it pains me, that means that the skeletons can't be Sam and Max.

The nearest thing I can think of right now would be:
After Sam and Max discover the tomb, they link it to ancient Egypt and head for the museum where an evil archeologist of some sort is experimenting to use the mystical abilities of certain artifacts from ancient Egypt to open wormholes to different times and places. The "artifacts" are actually inhabitants of Gordon's planet who, without being stripped of their body like Skunkape did, are able to assume the form of existing objects. They had studied ancient Egypt and laid dormant when it collapsed, until they were dug out by archeologists. The villain wants to use their powers to basically overcome a inferiority complex by fixing the timeline so that archeologists are seen as the cream of the crop (supported by an invisible puppet master with an agenda of his own). Sam and Max have to stop him and in the course of this they create duplicated of themselves from banana jelly and styrofoam which are prompty sent back in time during the final battle with the evil archeologist.

I think we can build a story on that.

[Shwoo]

A story that complicated would probably take more than a week. Just warning you.

Also, I don't think the brain's species is supposed to be inherently psychic. The brain was using his power to impress girls when Skun-ka'pe showed up, which makes it sound like it's not common.

[Ribs]

Do something sillier! Like Sam and Max are attacked by Swedish Rats!