Designing Freddy Pharkas II

[Tawmis]

The idea came to me to post some threads about other Sierra games, when I was just digging through my email and found an ancient story I had written where the next King's Quest game would be Edgar (from King's Quest IV) seeking out Rosella to try and win her hand in marriage. It was, in my head, a cool idea because Edgar would technically be a king (with his mother - spoilers! - now dead).

So, I thought - given the chance, if you were brought in to help, or pitch ideas, or help direct (so let's avoid answers like, "I'd call in Jane Jensen/Al Lowe/Roberta Willians/Scott Murphy/Mark Crowe/Jim Walls/Christy Marx/etc" - and assume they're there too ) - to work on the next game.

So in this case - if you were a part of the creative team, what would you hope for in the next FREDDY PHARKAS II?

[Collector]

Freddy tries his hand at becoming a riverboat gambler?

[Rath Darkblade]

Freddy tries his hand at becoming a riverboat gambler?

...because the discussion here reminded you of riverboats?

I'm not sure why Freddy would leave his home town, to be honest. IIRC (which I probably don't), Freddy at the end of FPFP is famous in the town, has married his childhood sweetheart, and everything seems to be going all right. Why would he give that up and become a riverboat gambler (or anything else, for that matter)?

He could be the town's sheriff, I suppose... but that doesn't lend itself much to adventuring. Wait a sec... maybe he'd be the sheriff at the start of chapter 1, dealing with various jerks.

By the end of chapter 1, he's figured out who's sending these jerks - and in chapter 2, he has to round up a posse and go after them!

In chapter 3, he follows the clues on to the riverboat (and maybe tries his hand at gambling)... by the end of chapter 3, we find out that the riverboat captain is the big bad - he's been sailing up and down the river, trawling for fellow baddies and sending them after Freddy (why? We don't know). At the end of chapter 3, the big bad has escaped and Freddy captains the riverboat to go after him! (Cue exciting chase music, a la the Indiana Jones Theme!)

In chapter 4, we catch up to Big Bad, who is revealed to be.......... and over to you. (I can't think of a way to unravel this - can you?)

[Tawmis]

Freddy tries his hand at becoming a riverboat gambler?

...because the discussion here reminded you of riverboats?

I'm not sure why Freddy would leave his home town, to be honest. IIRC (which I probably don't), Freddy at the end of FPFP is famous in the town, has married his childhood sweetheart, and everything seems to be going all right. Why would he give that up and become a riverboat gambler (or anything else, for that matter)?

Why would he do it? It's pretty easy. The town is running out of money - and a big gambling thing comes up on a riverboat. (Think along the lines of the movie Maverick). So Freddy first needs to somehow gather enough funds to enter the "entry" fee for even being considered (so there's a few quests), then he needs to make his way to the Riverboat (there's some more quests), then once on the Riverboat, he ends up helping a few people, and the end concludes with you doing some gambling (like LSL1) to win the big hand at the end and save your town.

[Collector]

Easy to invent any number of reasons.

[Datadog]

Here's a random idea: Reverse Gold Rush.

Freddy and the people of Coarsegold decide they're fed up with the old west (too much horse flatulence?) and want to go back east. From there, the game becomes a parody of "Gold Rush", where Freddy has to find the best route back to Brooklyn.

You can go back through the usual paths, cross-country, Panama jungle and Cape Horn. But in Al Lowe fashion, there's other, more inconvenient routes you can take. Instead of Cape Horn, try the longer way around the Arctic Ocean. Or even longer by crossing the Pacific ocean and circumventing the whole planet just to get back to the North America. Or instead of Panama, try a cheaper path up through Canada where the game gets stuck on French until you're out of the Canadian jungle. Or instead of a wagon train, just buy yourself some new shoes and keep walking screen-right until you're at the east coast.

And once you get to Brooklyn, Freddy might realize he forgot something back home, or decides the grass isn't any greener back here, so now you have to find a path back to Coarsegold. The game will then find excuses make you go back and forth across the country at least three times, using different paths each time, before you finally resettle back where you started.

[Rath Darkblade]

And once you get to Brooklyn, Freddy might realize he forgot something back home...

"Honey? Did you remember to turn off your bunsen burner?"

"Oh no..."

(...back in Coarsegold...)

"Look, honey! A light in yonder windo-"

*KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

[BBP]

Best Post Ever, Datadog!