Does the concept for this original game still exist? Or did it went the way of the lego pirate ship?
This sounds interesting.
Maniac Mansion was conceived in 1985 when Lucasfilm Games employees Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick were assigned to create an original game. Gilbert had been hired the previous year as a programmer for the game Koronis Rift. He befriended Winnick over their similar tastes in humor, film, and television. Company management provided little oversight in the creation of Maniac Mansion, a trend to which Gilbert credited the success of several of his games for Lucasfilm.
Gilbert and Winnick co-wrote and...
Maniac Mansion’s story and structure were designed before coding commenced. The project’s earliest incarnation was a simple paper-and-pencil board game, in which the mansion’s floor plan was used as a game board, and cards represented events and characters.[18] Lines connected the rooms to illustrate pathways by which characters could travel. Strips of cellulose acetate were used to map out the game’s puzzles by tracking which items worked together when used by certain characters. Impressed by the map’s complexity, Winnick included it in the final game as a poster hung on a wall.[16] Because each character contributes different skills and resources, the pair spent months working on the event combinations that could occur. This extended the game’s production time beyond that of previous Lucasfilm Games projects, which almost led to Gilbert’s firing.[15][21] The game’s dialogue, written by David Fox, was not created until after programming had begun.[18]
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I’d love to see that released. Could even make a Cluedo (Clue) version!