Incline SCUMM co-creator releasing design docs for Lucasarts games, planning to release SCUMM source code

[LESS T_T]

SCUMM co-creator Aric Wilmunder releasing design docs for Lucasarts adventure games and more from his career:

A PEAK INTO MY GAMES INDUSTRY ARCHIVE

Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Maniac Mansion, The Dig, Indy Iron Phoenix, the list goes on. I worked on all of these and had a suspicion that someday there would be interest in how these games were made. Years ago I visited the LucasArts facility in the San Francisco Presidio and brought along two grocery bags of design documents. I asked if they had an archivist and I was told that since I had kept these safe for over two decades, it was best if I just kept them together. I have met with the archivist at Stanford and these documents will either end up there or at a museum dedicated to preserving game design. Until then, I plan to release a few documents every month, and I am currently looking at using GitHub for archiving the SCUMM source code.

Check out the list and download docs here: http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games.html

 

[MRY]

The change that Monkey Island underwent from initial concept to final game makes the strongest case for iteration and creative flexibility that I've seen this side of Mad Max: Fury Road.

 

[LESS T_T]

He added SCUMM Tutorial and SCUMM Manual.

SCUMM Tutorial 0.1.pdf

1991 The SCUMM Tutorial. So you wish you could build a SCUMM game? First we send you to SCUMM University more affectionally known as SCUMM-U. After the first group of games, a full-time writer was hired to document the SCUMM engine. This project was always a moving target as the engine continued to evolved. One group of students made their own class T-Shirt. SH-209 was the room we used for training in the Stable House at Skywalker Ranch.

The SCUMM Manual.pdf

1996 The SCUMM Manual. Commands, Functions, Scumm Variables, Glossary entries, System files, Language references, Flow control, Terms, Applications, and Retired commands, this is the definitive guide to the language. Don’t want all that detail? Here’s just the Glossary.

 

[LESS T_T]

Cover pages for Forge, Sam & Max, and did you know that Indiana Jones Last Crusade was originally not going to be a SCUMM game? Here’s a look at the original design.

Horrendous.

 

[LESS T_T]

1988 04 27 Star Trek The SCUMM Game. There is n designer credit on this document, but within LucasArts there was always an understanding that anyone in the organization could propose a game. If they could get momentum behind the design and team members were available, anything was possible.

http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games_files/1988 04 27 Star Trek - The SCUMM Game.compressed.pdf

1979 Source Code for Star Raiders. As part of my development for Star Raiders II, my boss at Atari tracked down a copy of the original source code. Over a decade later, I loaned the printout it to a friend and he released it to the gaming community.

https://archive.org/details/AtariStarRaidersSourceCode

1992 02 24 Maniac Mansion II - Day of the Tentacle. Tim Schaferand Dave Grossman, graduates of our recent SCUMM-U team up with a proposal for the sequel to Maniac Mansion. Noteworthy items include characters Moonglow, Chester, and Razor from Maniac I.

http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games_files/1992 02 24 Maniac Mansion II - DOTT.compressed.pdf

199? No date on this document but this time Kalani, Michael and I teamed up for a game that was a cross between the A-Team and Mission Impossible with a pulp-science fiction feel.

http://wilmunder.com/Arics_World/Games_files/199X The Secret Project.compressed.pdf

 

[vonAchdorf]

"the older, more sophisticated and less action-oriented IBM audience"