Possible story for a Grim Fandango 2 - based on Quantum Physics & Superstring Theory
I am pretty much a purist too, but while thinking how Grim Fandango could be expanded into a great sequel I made up/wrote this possible story...
[Grim Fandango 2]
Manny Calavera discovers that heaven is not an end but a temporal dimensional habitat in the road of eternity. His existence is merely part of a quantum spiritual field state (QSF) of a spatial sub-string of the Milky Way connected cluster. Beyond the limitations of fourth-dimensional space, then Manny is able to exist beyond time and space. Still as for the matrix of the universe, he cannot have a conscious existence of the other 7 dimensions. However quantum fluctuations that would dramatically change the nature of current existence for all organic beings, seem to be happening as the gods (multi-versal scientists) have taken upon as a task to shape the current
11 dimensional matrix of the current universe into a Bosonic string matrix of 26
dimensions rendering our current matrix obsolete and obliterating our existence to give way for the new matrix. The gods have decided to do this based on the human scientific consciousness of a possible 26th dimensional universe and they render the current model is so obsolete that even the organic creatures realize it. So in his quantum spiritual state Manny must either convince the organics to focus their physics theories in an 11-dimensional universe, or he must kill the gods to avoid the obliteration of the current universal matrix.
This could be an endless graphical adventure, a philosophically compelling intellectual game in which the player can experience time paradoxes (time travel), and multi-dimensional spatial existence as the universe is shifting dimensions due to the Multiversal-Scientists coding and debugging
the new matrix model.
Another possibility could be that the Multiversal-Scientists are using a Multiverse Quantum C (a spoon of the C language) based language, called Qwava (spoon of Java) which is an interpreter based language that's running the Virtual Machine in the current matrix and shifting it to the new 26-dimensional one, and Manny must find a way to destroy the interpreter so the Qwava coded matrix cannot come into existence.
I suppose this story could be adapted to a Maniac Mansion 3 / DoTT2 game or made into a whole series of graphical adventures.
Well what do you guys think?
[Grim Fandango 2]
Manny Calavera discovers that heaven is not an end but a temporal dimensional habitat in the road of eternity. His existence is merely part of a quantum spiritual field state (QSF) of a spatial sub-string of the Milky Way connected cluster. Beyond the limitations of fourth-dimensional space, then Manny is able to exist beyond time and space. Still as for the matrix of the universe, he cannot have a conscious existence of the other 7 dimensions. However quantum fluctuations that would dramatically change the nature of current existence for all organic beings, seem to be happening as the gods (multi-versal scientists) have taken upon as a task to shape the current
11 dimensional matrix of the current universe into a Bosonic string matrix of 26
dimensions rendering our current matrix obsolete and obliterating our existence to give way for the new matrix. The gods have decided to do this based on the human scientific consciousness of a possible 26th dimensional universe and they render the current model is so obsolete that even the organic creatures realize it. So in his quantum spiritual state Manny must either convince the organics to focus their physics theories in an 11-dimensional universe, or he must kill the gods to avoid the obliteration of the current universal matrix.
This could be an endless graphical adventure, a philosophically compelling intellectual game in which the player can experience time paradoxes (time travel), and multi-dimensional spatial existence as the universe is shifting dimensions due to the Multiversal-Scientists coding and debugging
the new matrix model.Another possibility could be that the Multiversal-Scientists are using a Multiverse Quantum C (a spoon of the C language) based language, called Qwava (spoon of Java) which is an interpreter based language that's running the Virtual Machine in the current matrix and shifting it to the new 26-dimensional one, and Manny must find a way to destroy the interpreter so the Qwava coded matrix cannot come into existence.
I suppose this story could be adapted to a Maniac Mansion 3 / DoTT2 game or made into a whole series of graphical adventures.
Well what do you guys think?
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Comments
This is way to much quatum-slang for any normal person to understand. Don't get me wrong, I would love a sequel to the Great Game that is Grim Fandango. But the way you wrote it down it would only be understood by quantum-physisists and physicsgeeks. I'm sorry to say this but it might be a good idea to dumb down your idea and try again.
Still I realy like the way you started, Heaven is but a temporary stop in the journey of the soul.
Manny and Meche and co. are sitting on the soft and comfortable benches in a train. Manny is smoking a cigarette and he smiles at the kids who are also on board. Even though Manny doesn´t have lips to smile with, the kids give a nice white smile in return, even though they don´t have lips either.
Meche: "Manny, how was your life?"
Manny, looking out the window with his eyeholes fixed to the beautiful landscape, he is thinking something very deeply and Meche´s question shakes him out of his thoughts: "Uhhh... I don´t really want to talk about it. Does it even matter anymore?"
Manny dives back deep into his thoughts quickly and Meche decides to leave him alone. Instead she turns to the kids and starts to play somekind of a game with them. The game involves thumbs.
Suddenly Manny notices something and all of his thoughts seem to fade away in that exact second. He looks like he can´t believe his eyes. He turns to face Meche and the kids and opens his mouth:
"Meche, kids, we´re on the wrong train."
That being said, I'm sure they can come up with some new characters for all this action to revolve around, and Glottis will still be somewhere in there, making vehicles go faster and with more style. I think numble there said it all when he pointed out that Grim Fandango is all about Mexican folklore and film noir.
If you still want to apply all these great quantum ideas to something, then by all means invent a new setting and characters to fit them, instead of shoehorning these ideas into an existing storyline.
And then we get to play Manny's life before he died.
Knowing what he did beforehand also ruins a lot of the mystery behind Manny (and you always want a protagonist with a mysterious past in noir), and Grim Fandango seemed set on making you feel like the adventure in the game was the pinnacle of his soul's experience.
You lose all this (and Glottis!) if you go back to the land of the living. But hey, we were always intrigued about Yoda, Vader and Obi-Wan, and George Lucas helped us there...
Well I meant the 'complex' aspects of theoretical physics to be the underlying story, but in a graphic adventure game they would be expressed in a much 'simpler' manner, so that the average gamer can understand the story.
Indeed, I agree. What I actually wrote is more science-fiction and philosophy, which only relate to the original story of Grim Fandango at the metaphysical level (barely), so if anything it could/should be the story for an original graphic adventure saga.
Yes, I agree. The reason why I didn't write it in screenplay-like format, is because it wasn't a submission, but a mere post of an idea that just occurred to me. It was more like a possible underlying story to something, the core idea, which then can be expanded into a full blown screenplay/script with all the characters, the different atmospheres and backgrounds, situations, etc.
Anyhow, I like your idea for an opening sequence.
That's quite a viable possibility, indeed. It can be based in the exploration and dynamics of the land of the dead, rather than a sequel to Manny's story. They can further explore the elements of Mexican folklore and possibly incorporate other American folkloric myths/legends from all the various ethnicities that have settled in the American lands throughout history.
So, like I previously said to numble's quote, indeed the idea for this story I could apply to an original graphical adventure story.
Then you must definitely play it, it is a great game, one of the greatest graphic adventures, and the only great 3D one. As for how to get it...
Well you probably won't find it in any store, you'll have to be lucky as hell to go into EBGames or Gamestop and find it on a PC shelf, but you can try. Sadly LucasArts has such poor support for their old games that they don't even have it in their online store, and it is rather unlikely they will release it in any classic games package in any near future. So your real choice is to actually download it, get it through bittorrent (preferably) or IRC or a P2P.
:eek:
Or even better, go to eBay where they have numerous copies (from N. America and the UK).
There are many copies of this game around that you may be able to get a hold of without resorting to downloading. I'm not sure where you're from, fco, but look at auction sites and other online game outlets as well.
Wait, better yet, I remember hearing about this at Adventure Gamers
http://www.gamestation.co.uk/product.asp?id=10106498291282&P36=49XGAC&R36=43HF
Noone9, what you suggest seems to place environment and [immensely convoluted] situation over character. That's why it wouldn't work for Grim Fandango.
Might work for something original, though. Think about gearing the idea toward that.
Anything Grim Fandango related would be awesome. Either a continuation with Manny, or with another character, or a possible what if scenario. Maybe you could add on an event that happened on the way. I always thought the forest was creepy.
Etc.
But people already know what happens in the end and what the ultimate story is, so the desire to play such scenarios is probably only limited to the fringe hardcore.
But such an example is where I see an episodic format working, though. I recently played Grim Fandango, and it felt very long at around 20-25 hours of playtime, yet all the empty space in between years show that there clearly was space for more story, just that pushing longer game time was probably undesirable. Split into 3-4 hour episodic chunks, and I think it would have been more palatable for gamers and designers. And there probably would be a lot more development of story and characters--Lola's death-by-sprouting at the lighthouse was dramatic, but imagine how much more dramatic it would be if she had been an active character of earlier "episodes."
I think that if you had to do another game about Manny and friends, they would be back in the world of the living (the train having taken them back and of course they wouldn't remember their past lives/deaths). But people would have stopped dying as the DoD has stopped because of the events of the first game causing such a big shake up that the entire system broke down. Manny would slowly remember parts of his previous journey and would have to fix everything by figuring out all the problems and dying so he could return to and restart the DoD. Obviously drama, reunions and hi-jinks (possibly even zany ones) would occur. The game could take place in the world of the living (at first normal and boring but slowly becoming more and more creepy and bizarre as Manny remembers his past life) and the land of the dead (initially only seen in flashbacks and seeming dark and sinister but slowly becoming more bright and normal as time wears on).
I know, I know, and it was pretty hilarious to see the dramatic "1 year later" cutscenes... I was just using it as an example (and excuse) for me to stand on my soapbox and say "hey, it's possible the episodic games might actually make for longer storylines and here is an example of how it could've possibly worked."
Of course I could've just said, "Many TV shows often allow for more involved and fully-fleshed characters and storylines than full-length big-budget movies do," and avoided any suggestion of messing with the awesome completeness of Grim Fandango.
My mistake, I didn't read it properly.
It's alright, I didn't write it properly. P=
Now, THAT I would have bought.
I've solved the mystery of how the sequal should go
I've read the comments and some very good points have been brought up. I like a lot of them.
Maybe best to save string theory for another series but i like your style, you got imagination
The key to a good lucasarts point and click is absurdism, and it's gotta be about Manny if it's Grim Fandango 2, he's just so iconic for the game, like Guybrush
The problem is how to draw Manny out of his happy ending.
Indeed it it should maintain Mexican folklore and film noir as a basis
& I like the question from the train scenario "What was your life like"
Hmmm what was Manny's life like?
We know that he was serving time to the powers that be
Why?...Maybe he had a shady past
Let's leave his past a relative mystery...but lets bring a peice of his life into the Land of the dead.
An old friend perhaps, or even better an old ENEMY who dies
Now we have a new character (Villian) who must make the 4 year journey, who concerns Manny
Especially...if he steals Manny's identity
The opening scene could be a new reaper with an unfamiliar Manny Calavera client
The second part could have Manny and Meche and the Kids in the Ninth Heaven living in bliss
Then suddenly the authorities arrest Manny for identity fraud and he goes to heaven incarceration
A new Mystery...WHO is the real MANNY CALAVERA
Manny (probably starting in prison clothes) must break out of jail, reenter the land of the dead to find the imposter and clear his name
It's not going to be easy, it's going to have twists and turns and it's going to take 4 years
P.S. Glottis will be in it to supe up Manny's rides,
Chepito,
A facially scared olivia,
and my favorite The Florist
Goz
Manny finally gets his ticket on the number nine train. The train however is redirected to the land of the living. After snooping around to find a reason Manny realises that the reason is himself. He is aging backwards and becoming a living person. He is sprouted by the driver and left in the land of the living. Meche jumps off the train and gets on the zeppelin to the land of the living to search for her lost love.
When in the land of the living she cannot talk to ordinary people. She seeks out a clairvoyant who uses a vague knowledge of the geography of the land of the dead to guess at where Manny has landed, continents away. Meche sets off to find him.
Exactly one year later (would you beleive) she arrives at a small railway town. She finds Manny's ticket in a field of flowers and digs him up, to discover he is no longer dead. They are both, however, stuck in the land of the living. Manny realises his dilemma, the reason he could not remember the sin he did in his previous life is because he has not commited it yet. He would have to kill someone if they were to get home. Unable to take an innocent life they wait for a villainous one.
A year later they find a business man who is making an unusual trade using the dead as slave labour. When they attack him, it becomes evident he has been experimenting with the dead, Manny being one of his earlier experiments. He has brought a dead version of himself through to the land of the living, effectively rendering him immortal. His dead self takes a shine to Meche and demands she be made his personal assistant. Manny, however, he pushes through a portal to the land of the dead.
He lands (In the water of course) at Rubacava, which is now a vast Metropolis spreading as far as the eyes can see. He disguises his vile living body so as not to offend the dead and gets a job (pick one, leave plenty of room for unlikely advancement). A year later he discovers that the reason the land of the dead is so overpopulated is that the number nine train is no longer running. The only way out is through a portal to the land of the living.
He goes through, is forced into slavery, escapes and is reunited with his beloved Meche.
She has a plan for getting rid of the bussinessman by destroying both his living and dead selves simultaneously. Meche takes the dead and Manny takes the living, but not before getting himself killed, so normal skeletal service is resumed.
Salvador Limones, a travel agent in the DOD uncovers a crooked game played by the department. He then assembles a group of souls wronged by the department and form the Lost Souls Alliance.
Then the game goes through the events of Grim Fandango, and ends Salvador sacrificing his head to help Manny defeat Hector LeMans.
The natural evolution of it would be what was the natural evolution of noir - in my eyes, Hitchcock. You create a character that gets themselves into a lot of trouble, maybe by accident. Say they're a driver - they drop off a customer at the edge of the Petrified Forest, and that customer is shot and killed. He's the suspect. He runs for his life. Maybe they're a frustrated writer by day, boxer by night who gets mistaken for some high-ranking official in the DoD. It's a world populated by calaca skeletons, which can have only so many variations on their look. It's not that far-fetched.
Or, maybe you'd take a different route - the "modern noir" route, as it were. Charles Willeford, the Coen Brothers, maybe a dash of James Ellroy.
That universe has a lot of potential for a lot of great stories. I'd love to work on something like that.
Yes, the Land of the Dead is seemingly a whole world which boasts potential for other stories. However, it serves ONE purpose, and that is being the path from El Marrow all the way to the 9th Underworld. We have already seen the journey through Manny's eyes so I really don't see the point in returning to that World.
This game shows how important that endings are to the future sequels. In Monkey Island, we end with Guybrush celebrating over defeating LeChuck and we are left with the entire Carribean and other possible stories. Then we have the two Carnival Endings. Howerver, Grim Fandango showed the end of Manny's journey through the Land of the Dead (Which is the game). Not much room for any sequels, but the ending was perfectly executed.
To Summarize: The Land of the Dead is simply a path from one world to the next, and Manny's journey serves the LOtD's purpose.
From MixNMojo:
Basically, it is a pre-counterfit ticket story when Manny was head salesman at the DoD. (Remember this was mentioned in the story.) Basically a simular set up... Some how Manny discovers a glitch that made five (number of ephisodes) lost souls not recieve their tickets on the Number 9, and once he finds out he has to go find them to give them their tickets.