Grumpy Gamer The Making of Maniac Mansion

The Making of Maniac Mansion

Jan 10, 2011 twenty five to two pm

The fine folks at Game Forum Germany have been trying to get me to speak there for the past three years, but something has always come up and prevented me from attending, but this year I vowed to go. This year was going to be different.

I've only been to Germany once before and most of that three days was spent at a hotel attached to the Munich airport doing PR for Total Annihilation. Our hosts did take us into town for dinner one night where we ate at an Italian restaurant. I feel a proper trip to Germany is due and I expect to see lederhosen and lots of them.

I was told I could talk about anything I wanted, which always presents itself as a dilemma. The easy thing to talk about is Monkey Island. Everyone loves to hear about Monkey Island. The next easiest thing would be to talk about DeathSpank since it's shiny and new and I get a lot of email asking me about the game, but in the end I decided to give a talk about the making of Maniac Mansion.

Maniac Mansion is a game that is close to 25 years old and started the whole point-and-click adventure genera in addition to coining the term 'cut-scene' used throughout the civilized world. Maniac Mansion is a game filed with dead ends, backwards puzzles and no-win situations. Maniac Mansion is a flawed game, but that's what makes it so interesting. Gary and I had no idea what we were doing when we started making Maniac Mansion; we didn't even know it was going to be an adventure game.

Despite all it's problems, it's a game that is loved by countless gamers and it holds a very special place in my heart. All the lessons learned from making Maniac Mansion can be seen in the design for Monkey Island. Without one, there would not be the other.

During my research for the talk, I came across an amazing amount of fan art for Maniac Mansion including the wonderful Lego Minifigs seen above.

I'm incredibly excited to be giving this talk and finally seeing Germany and getting a window seat on the way there and back. I'm going to keep the window shade open the whole fight. If I can't sleep on a plane, no one else is going to either.

Other people's comments:

I'm definitely among the people who would love to hear more about Maniac Mansion. The people who get to hear you talk about it are in for a treat. As much as everyone loves Monkey Island (myself included), there's something about Maniac Mansion that has made it my favorite game all these years. And yes, the game could be punishingly difficult, but how else were you supposed to learn to not do stupid things like give Weird Ed the remains of his microwaved hamster?

Greetings grumpy gamer
That's true, everybody love the great Monkey Island... but is normal. For my generation is the best game of all time :D

Here in Spain we are waiting you with open arms! And if this dream comes true, please, talk about Total Annihilation too and his great ost.

Regards of a newbie game designer ;)

looks for cheap flights across Europe and German phrasebooks
traces a plot to kidnap him and bring him to Spain
mwahahaha

Greetings Mr. Gilbert!

You are coming to Germany?? Please! Say that you are coming to Berlin and that there might be a small chance that you could sign me my original packages for Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island and so on..

As i bought Deathspank on the Net you should also sign my console .)

We are looking forward for your trip in Germany! May it be great, funny and of course full of lederhosens and great beer. ;)

Have fun..

Marcel

i am a little younger, so my oldest (and fondest) memory of a scumm adventure is Day of the Tentacle (and ironically, Maniac Mansion inside the DOTT).

i was always interested to hear what was your involvement with and what are your thoughts about the final product of DOTT?

there is lots of history about Monkey Island (which i also greatly enjoyed, both the games and the folklore ;)

but if you don't have it in you to write another 750 word essay about DOTT, i would be happy with a sentence or two right here..

I feel so young right now everyone, Maniac Mansion is older than me, Monkey Island is about the same age as me.
Will you be putting this talk online somewhere? Or should I start walking and swimming to Germany now?

@ Marcel
It's going to be on 27.-28. January 2011 in Hannover.
See here:
http://tinyurl.com/65k2c3g

Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. G. But "lederhosen" are very out-fashioned these days in Germany ^^"

If you want to see some, you should go to Bavaria and visit a folk music party full of retired old-guys (yes, much more older than you are ;) ). With a bit of luck, you could have good chances to see some lederhosen there. But the question is... do you really want that? ^^

> I expect to see lederhosen and lots of them

Haha, you have to know that you'll found them only in Bayern, one of 16 states in Germany. The Game Forum isn't in Bayern, so I'm pretty sure you will not see lederhosen, again. :-)

Anyways, the Making of Maniac Mansion will be a very good talk.

Great to read you're coming to Germany. I'd love to attend your talk in Hanover, but almost certainly won't be able to.

As others have already pointed out, you won't see many lederhosen around these parts of Germany, as they're more prevalent in the south (Bavaria, but also Swabia and Franconia). However, since that's also where all the American tourists go, you most likely won't be surprised much there. As you will be much closer to the north, I would recommend visiting Hamburg, Lübeck and Mecklenburg/the Baltic Sea instead. You'll find lots of history, one of the world's largest harbors, some very nice scenery (even in a crowded country like ours) and beautiful architecture.

Also, try Currywurst and Döner for typical German fast food.

If you're interested in reading about the language beforehand, the best (and probably most accurate) account of a foreigner trying to learn it would be "The Awful German Language" by Mark Twain.

Have a nice trip!
Ecki

As for the lederhosen: You are speaking in Hanover, there are several bavarian restaurants in town and on the fair ground, so you should be able to see at least one of them.

Or, one of the forum attendants reads this post and buys enough trousers.

If you have some spare time in Germany, visit other areas too, please, because being in Hanover is really not representative for Germany. You should see Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Munich, Schwarzwald as well. (Only some examples)

Great news.
But who is this Countess Gamers? Should I know her?
Google Image Search brings up interesting results.

I expect video of the whole event!

Oh NO! LEGO-MANIAC-MANSION!!! Don't give LucasArts THAT idea!!!

Great. Your first proper trip to Germany and they're inviting you to the city of Hangover…

Maniac Mansion is broken in some ways, but it is also full of awesome. Day of the Tentacle is also fantastic (props to Dave and Tim). Yes, I use 'is' because they're still so great after so many years.

I'm sure every country in the world would like to have you speaking in them. Since I'm pretty sure you're never coming to my little Southeast Asian nation, all I can do is settle for videos of your talks in other countries. Have fun and stuff!

Please do not come to my country, which is Czech Republic. We like you in Germany. I am not trying to be mean.

^ROFL

I'm selling these fine leather hosen.

Maniac Mansion is one of the best games ever. However, many people seem not to give it the importance it deserves.

This is Morgan19; I made those LEGO figures. Thanks for the mention! I'm frankly floored and honored that you noticed the figures and appreciated them enough to post about it-- Maniac Mansion has always been one of my favorite adventure games and the two seemed like a natural combination.

m19

I played (or tried to play) Maniac Mansion the first time when I was about 10 on NES. But it was too difficult and I got too freaked out by the family and that infernal clock's weird sounded ticking in the hallway!

I look forward to the inevitable "Making of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". (Seriously.)

That reminds me, though I don't know why, but some time ago, when I was a wee kid, back in the time before Day of The Tentacle was released, I had a this dream about Maniac Mansion. It was a dream of sequel to the game, though I seem to recall it played in very similar manner to the original one. The biggest difference was, that it had moody, photo realistic style graphics (not photos though).

All I remember from that dream, and I am sure you can excuse me as it was so long time ago, it started as Dave, who was going in to the mansion.

Since more then 20 years, I had the dream to become very rich, and then to build a 1:1 real house version of the Maniac Mansion house.
With a fake nuclear power reactor in the basement also, of course!
Then, of course, to invite the creators of the game to see this house!

So far, I have no money for this.
So I was at least waiting for a 3D first person view version of Maniac Mansion all the years - without success, have to admit.

you can always 3d model it yourself (the house) not that hard. just start by runnign through the game, take notes, transcript that to a floor plan, then start modeling

I still remember the review of MM on ZZZap!!!

I have so deeply loved this game.
It was (is!) so revolutionary, experimental, unique!

A work of a genius.

Today VG industry really lack of a new Ron Gilbert.

Close the damm window!

Great, of course this has to happen a week after I moved away from Hanover. And don't listen to them Ron, in Germany of course we're wearing Lederhosen like everywhere all the time. What kind of Germans would we be if we didn't.

Dude come see Berlin as well its only about 120 miles away from Hanover and its way cooler than Munich

The Maniac Mansion talk was superb, I highly recommend it - or rather, the improved version coming to GDC next month. Ron does a great impersonation of a guy who is comfortable speaking in public, and the mix of insight, nostalgia, and inspiration is pitch-perfect.

Wish I could have made it -- would have been great to listen to you and Richard Dansky talking games.

I finally got around to playing DeathSpank on Steam (though I picked it up over Xmas) and blazed through it (well...'blazed'...), completely every sidequest and every dialog tree, for about 15 hours over 2 days! Thanks for making another entertaining game.

I'm very excited to hear that you and Tim Schafer are putting your heads together again. I look forward to learning more about what you come up with!

On a mundane note, two questions about Thongs of Virtue:

a) were you as involved in the DeathSpank sequel as in the original game, writing-wise, + design, et etcetera?; and

b) is there a facility to "carry over" your level, stats, cash etc from the first game? While I realise this would be almost entirely superficial (there's very little to distinguish one DeathSpank from another), it would add a feeling of continuity similar to that achieved in the Mass Effect games.

DeathSpank was one big game that was split in two at the last minute, so I designed and was just in involved in both of them. They never communicated that fact correctly.

Aha, interesting. That's certainly an encouragement to buy the second part.

While their marketing of the 2nd game might not have been well thought through (perhaps they were worried that if it was seen as 'Part 2' and not a full game, people would balk at the price), I have to admit, the method of the splitting was effective -- there was a certain unexpected frisson as the medieval castle path gave way to a [REDACTED]! Strange, but invigorating, for a mainly comic invention like DeathSpank to gain that hint of genuine stakes at the last moment. I'll be interested to see to what degree that's followed up in Thongs of Virtue.

Hello Ron,

Any chances the talk was recorded and you could share it? It'd be very interesting to hear you talk about Maniac Mansion.

That game, 21 years ago, worked as my first english teacher (I'm from Argentina) thanks to the fascination I had (and I still have) with it.

Thanks!
Ariel

The interview with Ron by YouTube user AdventureTreffKanal shows that at least some parts of the talk were recorded. Hopefully that means it will be available for the general public to view at some point in the future.

Oh dear, even tough Hannover is near by for me I missed the Game Forum :(
Too bad. I should check this site more often.
By the way, Maniac Mansion is awesome. But when I tried to play it for the first time I was far too young to get anywhere in the game. I'm glad I 'rediscovered' it 10 years later. So much fun! And I just saw all the death scenes at youtube (I hadn't run into one by myself!) .. seriously, the Tentacle Mating Call made me laugh madly :D

Talking about the design mistakes that were apparently made in Maniac Mansion, I hope you weren't talking about the pseudo real-time elements. In some ways, Maniac Mansion is a much more advanced game than many of the games inspired by it - to this day.

The internal script of the game did a pretty good job at giving the impression that all the while you were busy stealing cheese, feeding tentacles and, um, microwaving hamsters - the Edison's were moving and busy themselves all along. And Nurse Edna probably just about to burst into that room you were standing in, or worse (see that mirror above her bed;-) )

There went a lot of work into keeping that illusion of a living video game world alive, particularly for a 1987ish game. One of my favourites has got to be when you rang the bell multiple times in succession - you could witness Weird Ed going upstairs to downstairs from his room, crossing every single room you would come through yourself. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" ;-) Things never really evolved from that, rather the contrary. Your average adventure game NPCs is forever stuck in his cozy place, looping through his five frames of animation until you go click. You're likely to see more of that in a Bioware or Obsidian Entertainment game than a genuine point'n'clicker these days. But these folks have likely taken a lesson in Infocom and LucasArts games anyways.

I've uploaded you some unedited samples of the talk that I recorded with my camera. Nothing special, though. I hope nordmedia does hurry up a little with the release of the full speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaefSQfSfBs&feature=related

Another video of Ron's talk is available here: http://www.gameswelt.tv/18037/ron-gilbert/gfg-vortrag-ueber-maniac-mansion.html

Hi Ron, long time...I just had to post a note as I ran across you by accident on the Wiki..wow! MM was one of my earliest favorites before I figured out how to make my modem talk and found the web. I also did day care for a while and Freddy and some of your others were my kids first learning tools...cudos and thank you! Hope you enjoyed Germany.
LLL

Ahhh this game always intimidated me far too much when I was younger. I think I waited too long to play it.

Hey Ron,

any news about your next (iphone?!?!?) project?

And what is your opinion about Kinect?

Thank you very much for all!!!

Ah, I wish I could be in the audience. Monkey Island 1 and 2 remain godlike, but I've always remembered what SCUMM stands for and what was responsible for giving the world Green Tentacle.

Plus, it let you put the hamster in the microwave. You can't tell me that isn't boss.

Hey Ron, they have a picture of you looking very serious:
http://www.nordmedia.de/content/digitale_medien/digital_media_cluster/game_forum_germany/veranstaltung/subcontent/teilnehmerrekord_im_jubilaeumsjahr/index.11785.html

Hi Ron,

speaking about development history, I am really courious to know which was your real involvement in Zak Mk.....
I always believed that you has given a very distinctive mark also to this game!

No, Zak was made by David Fox. After Maniac Mansion I focused on the SCUMM system for a year before doing the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade game.

I wonder how different it must have been working on the indy game compared to MM and MI.
I suppose working with such a franchise must be very different, as you have to follow the character's personality, not to mention the story, and I guess the studios must have a say on what goes and what doesn't.
It'd be interesting to hear (read) about your experience on that game, do you have any interesting anecdotes? (hey, it might even make an interesting blog entry on its own :D)

Yes, but as David Fox has said many times, you are the one that pushed for the crazy comedy feel of the final game! Isn't it?
And Ron, by the way, you are GREAT!!!

RON?

Hi Ron,

In some of earlier interviews you said that a good game will fully bring the player into it's world and how it is one of your principles of game making (with which I totally agree). Now, I was watching your GDC session last night where you sad that making the non-player controlled events in Maniac Mansion was a kind of a mistake. Maybe that is/was a bad conclusion (at least nowadays).
So, during the 'first run' in Monkey Island or DeathSpank the NPCs seem vivid and lively making the player stay and play more, but when the game progress gets stuck and player starts wandering and searching for the next clue that same characters seem totally opposite and so the world feels quite empty and sad after all that 'first run' vividness which usually takes out the will for playing.
OK, 'random' events would produce lock ups, but a good solution would be something like in 'The Last Express' by Jordan Mechner where all events are semi-random which still brings very strong impression and mostly fixes the feeling I mentioned. (if you haven't heard or played the game I recommend it, it's one of the best; here's 10min. long making of video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddWb4LX69sE)
I think it would have been better if, for example, side quests in DeathSpank had that design, also that would greatly improve the replayability.

Cheers.

No "no april fools" on grumpy gamer this year? I look forward to it all year long!

Hey! Pay attention! Except where otherwise noted, this site is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

The Making of Maniac Mansion

Other people's comments:

Posted by Sarah LeBoeuf on Jan 10, 2011 quarter to three pm

Posted by RtypeX on Jan 10, 2011 five past three pm

Posted by Someone on Jan 10, 2011 twenty past four pm

Posted by [marcel] on Jan 10, 2011 five to four pm

Posted by tom on Jan 10, 2011 five pm

Posted by Wannabe_marysue on Jan 10, 2011 five past seven pm

Posted by Christian on Jan 10, 2011 quarter past eleven pm

Posted by Amenofus on Jan 11, 2011 ten to one am

Posted by Gameplorer on Jan 11, 2011 ten past one am

Posted by Ecki on Jan 11, 2011 half past one am

Posted by etg on Jan 11, 2011 five past two am

Posted by Mario on Jan 11, 2011 four am

Posted by clone2727 on Jan 11, 2011 quarter past eight am

Posted by Linux-Gamer on Jan 11, 2011 five to one pm

Posted by Daniel on Jan 11, 2011 twenty past two pm

Posted by Rojasono on Jan 11, 2011 twenty five past two pm

Posted by Mihas on Jan 11, 2011 quarter to five pm

Posted by Turmoil23 on Jan 26, 2011 five to eleven am

Posted by PeteSahat on Jan 12, 2011 ten to eleven am

Posted by Fedexior on Jan 12, 2011 twenty five to three pm

Posted by Morgan19 on Jan 13, 2011 twenty five past two pm

Posted by F.Konkas on Jan 14, 2011 ten to one pm

Posted by Johnny W on Jan 14, 2011 five to eight pm

Posted by tomi on Jan 17, 2011 twenty past three am

Posted by Weber on Jan 18, 2011 four am

Posted by Turmoil23 on Jan 26, 2011 five to eleven am

Posted by Geny on Jan 22, 2011 quarter to eight am

Posted by mon on Jan 23, 2011 five pm

Posted by CptFastbreak on Jan 25, 2011 one am

Posted by Green Tentacle on Jan 25, 2011 five to eight am

Posted by Noah Falstein on Jan 31, 2011 quarter to nine am

Posted by David Midgley on Feb 1, 2011 ten to seven pm

Posted by Ron Gilbert on Feb 1, 2011 ten to seven pm

Posted by David Midgley on Feb 3, 2011 five past eleven am

Posted by Ariel on Feb 3, 2011 twenty five to seven pm

Posted by Greg on Feb 3, 2011 quarter to ten pm

Posted by Luzze on Feb 6, 2011 twenty to three am

Posted by Sven on Feb 6, 2011 five past seven pm

Posted by basti on Feb 7, 2011 ten to five am

Posted by Winkelmann on Feb 7, 2011 twenty to six am

Posted by Laury Laurence on Feb 11, 2011 ten to eleven pm

Posted by Keeper Garrett on Feb 11, 2011 five past eleven pm

Posted by CouriousMe on Feb 15, 2011 half past eight am

Posted by Herm on Feb 24, 2011 ten past three am

Posted by Noah Falstein on Feb 24, 2011 five pm

Posted by ZakaryMk on Feb 28, 2011 quarter past seven am

Posted by Ron Gilbert on Feb 28, 2011 twenty five to nine am

Posted by Chalito on Mar 2, 2011 quarter to six am

Posted by ZakaryMk on Mar 3, 2011 five past three pm

Posted by SOMEBODY on Mar 23, 2011 five to seven am

Posted by etran on Mar 30, 2011 ten to two pm

Posted by No april fools on Apr 1, 2011 five past eight am