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

[Ripcord]

Originally Posted by Shwoo

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.

...Or he's just really good at it.

[Clord]

Oh and it was indicated at least in English dialogue that originally that brain got body too.

[Shwoo]

The exact line is

I had found a mysterious toy and was using my strange power over it to amaze and delight the ladies of my village. It was then that Skun-ka'pe's ship landed. He was intrigued by my power and invited me on board his spaceship.

I don't think he'd called the power strange if it was normal for the stalk-eyed platypus people.

[hansschmucker]

OK, so after fixing that the timeline would look something like that

TOMB
-Sam and Max find hieroglyphs and a tunnel
-take the toy box
-take the skeletons
-follow the tunnel to

EXCAVATION SITE
-meet depressed archaeologist
-archaeologist reveals that skeletons are made of styrofoam and some glue
-get directed to the history museum for more information

MUSEUM
-meet the disgruntled director who wants to change the past
-get him to open the toy box
-find out that he's using alien remains to work on a time machine that he wants to use to make archeology more popular
-find out that he has support from /somewhere/
-fight him and his timemachine
-create duplicates of themselves to distract him which he sends back in time

[The Highway]

ok, now we can pretty much begin!

[hansschmucker]

We're still missing characters, puzzles and the details inside the museum. If you have any ideas for good puzzles don't hold back: I can add pretty much everything from complex item interaction to control-panel puzzles as long as it's not time-based.

[The Highway]

i reckon that the skeletons of themselves should be made from the ribs of that giant unicorn skeleton in the concept art, but as they go to retrieve them they are blown all around the museum by a mysterious force. Or at least 3 remain in the museum. the rest go into a safe, conveniently. not. luckily, 3 is all you need!

[hansschmucker]

Uh... one more thing that we should definitely decide on is the narration style: Dialog-only or Narrator-driven? i.e. should it read

"The Cave of the molemen sect has apparently been abandoned. The devil's toy box is still there and so are the skeleton that look like you and your little buddy."

or

"Sam: Here we are. The molemen have run off and the disturbing skeletons are still here."

[The Highway]

definately the second one. otherwise we can't include as much dialogue! also, sam always says stuff like, "here we are at the X, little buddy"

[hansschmucker]

OK then. I was thinking about the first one since classic text-adventures do things that way, but you're probably right: we'd want this one to be as Sam-and-Max-centric as possible. So let's just go through this room by room until we get to the museum, where we'll have to flesh things out considerably:

What or who can we add to the cave that would make things more interesting? Should the mole-people still be there? Are there any reasons for puzzles there?

[Astro Gnocci]

you could keep the narrator as a character who just sits there somewhere and tells you what's going on in some room, for no apparent reason. I dunno, might be a fun way to include the telltale's one and make fun of him, but i'm not sure how it could actually work.

[hansschmucker]

Let's just stick to the no-narrator approach, otherwise we'll be going back and forth about that.

OK now, we're a bit limited when it comes to ingredients in the first room, so I'd actually leave the mole-people in there. Now we need a task that they can give to Sam and Max that unless completed would realistically keep them from going through the tunnel unless completed.

-----------------------

How about the tunnel behind the skeletons having collapsed and Sam and Max have to find a way through, eventhough there's just a tiny opening... which is easy with Stinky's cellphone: Problem is that the phone would break if thrown through, so we need to find a way to protect it. Something sick and strange, yet plausible: Think banana-jelly (which we can't use, since getting it would involve going back to the street, which we don't want to do).

-----------------------

It must be something that the mole-worshipers would hand out... what do mole-people have that is shock-absorbing? Only their clothes really: that would mean getting them to follow their idol's (max) behaviour of walking around naked... Is there any way to convince them through anything but dialogue? A puzzle solution requiring dialog is at best annoying, I'd prefer the "use x with y" approach. What do Sam and Max have that they could use to convince them?
Alternatively, how could we make them loose their faith at which point they would drop the silly robes and leave?

-----------------------

The more I think about it, I think it would get to complex if we asked the user to understand that in order to get through the hole, he would have to use stinky's cell, in order for which to work he'd need the robes, for which he would have to convince them to drop their faith. Better let them loose their faith automatically. We'd still need an explanation for that though.

-----------------------

OK, so the revised timeline for Room1 would be (I've dropped taking the skeletons along, we'll just use the Box itself or some drawings in the tunnel to link to the museum):

====TOMB===
/TAKE BOX
/LOOK AT SKELETONS (at which point they fall apart and the collapsed tunnel and the tiny hole though are revealed)
/TALK TO WORSHIPERS (who now have nothing to worship and will drop their robes and leave)
/PICK UP ROBES
/USE ROBES WITH STINKY'S CELL (so you get a shock-protected cellphone)
/USE PROTECTED PHONE WITH HOLE (in order to get a teleportation target inside the tunnel)
/TELEPORT TO STINKY'S CELL

-----------------------

So now we're inside the tunnel... should anything be there? Except for hieroglyphs maybe? Should there be anything to do? Or should it just lead straight to the digging site?

[The Highway]

TOMB
Sam: Well, here we are in this great dirty hole, little buddy.
Max: Yeah, and this cave's pretty filthy, too.
Sam: Yeah, and this... Wait, what did you think I was talking about?
Max: What did I think who was something about what?
Sam: Never mind. Let's find a way out of this cave.
Max: I hope it involves overly-complicated puzzles!
Sam: I'm sure it will, little buddy.

TALK TO MAX (serves as sort of a hint service)
Sam: I'm baffled, little buddy!
Max: Me too. Luckily I have much too short of an attention span to really care abou... Hey! Skeletons! Lookie, Sam! Let's make them pick their noses!

DISCOVER OPENING
Sam: Well, what do you know!? A convenient little opening in this caved in wall that everyone can see! Except for YOU!
Max: Except for who, Sam?
Sam: The Government, of course! They're always watching us!
Max: Sam, I pretty much AM the government, so there is no way in Hell that they know anything about anything!
Sam: Well then... Let's try getting out of here, hey little buddy?
Max: You read my mind, Sam!
Sam: No, I think it's the other way around. Goofball.

INVENTORY
Sam: {Just says everything in the inventory}

MOLE PEOPLE
Max: Hey! Filthy Mole Men!
Sam: Max, be a little more sensitive to the... Eughh!
Mole Man: What?
Max: As I am your leader, I believe it is only fitting to behave exactly like me.
Sam: Ummm, maybe not EXACTLY like him... Like, only act like him in the wearing-of-clothes-part.
Mole Man: But he doesn't wear clothes!
Max: Exactly
Sam: Sweet Moleman Nipples on a ride to Santa Monaco on a Cheese Log! My eyes are burning!
Mole Man: Where should I put my forbidden clothing, Leader?
Max: I don't care, dump it on the ground; Sam's the one who has to pick it up and carry it around in his suit anyway!
Sam: &%$#
Max: Ampersand, percent, dollar, hash? Your cursing has gone downhill ever since you took that anger management class!

BOX
Sam: Ooh, it's an unholy box of terrible evil, Max! I dare you to touch it!
Max: Ok. (Max absorbs power from the box, floats in midair, and smacks Sam across the face with his power. Then, it vanishes, and Sam pockets the Toybox. Bet you wish this was a graphical game now, huh?)
Max: Who was that?
Sam: Don't worry about it, it was just pesky narration. But I have a feeling we won't be hearing from him any more...
Max: Right. Because I just cleaned his clock!
Sam: You killed him!?!
Max: What? No, I literally cleaned his clock in exchange for him not butting in anymore!

ROBES
Sam: God, the things I do... Shudder...

USE ROBES WITH CELL
Sam: Oh, great, the sweat shorted out the phone's camera!
Max: Did it erase the harddrive?
Sam: No, why?
Max: Uh, no reason. By the way, Sam, can I see that phone for a second?

USE PROTECTED CELL WITH HOLE
Sam: Conveniently, it fits right through, even with the extra padding!
Max: I hope it doesn't fall into the river!

TELEPORT (anytime)
Max: Got your barfbag, Sam?
Sam: Barfbag? What the...
{TELEPORT}
Sam: Blarrrghh!
Max: It's OK, Sam, even men throw up sometimes!
Sam: Max, that's not like you to say that!?
Max: I wasn't done! Even men throw up sometimes... Sissy men!
Sam: {slap}

That's all I could be bothered doing for the time being. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's 12:15, and I need sleep!

[The Highway]

I reckon heiroglyphics stating the cell number of a cell at the digging site would be good. Luckily, there is a toy nearby that enables Max to translate any language. In the river of DOOM! mwahahaha!

[hansschmucker]

*smile* I'll adapt the prototype to the current script tonight, so we can see how it works out. Great stuff. Good night.

[The Highway]

'night. just remember, that isn't all of the possible things you could do. but you already know that, right? :P

[hansschmucker]

I know, but I figured we'd first do only the necessary stuff, then put it up and let people post what they wanted to do and whether the game understood them.

[The Highway]

so if they did something else, we could have it all like:

UNIDENTIFIED SCRIPT
Sam: No, don't do that, idiot!!
Max: But it seemed like such a good idea!
Sam: Just don't.

[hansschmucker]

Sure. The basic order of things right now is:
1. See if there's a literal room-specific match ("look at max" -> "not in this light")
2. See if there's a wildcard room-specific match ("look at *" -> "it's too dark to see anything")
3. See if there's a literal global match
4. See if there's a wildcard global match
5. Trigger room default action
6. Trigger global default action

[The Highway]

cool