(Idea) Scrooge McDuck, the Telltale game
Hey everyone!
Now, I know a license for this kind of thing could be pretty heavy on Telltale's part, and they might end up being too restricted to do what they really want with it (cough Warren Spector + Epic Mickey cough), but Don Rosa seemed to know exactly what he was doing, and got through with most of his brilliant ideas.
Who's Don Rosa, you might ask?
Why, in the name of odd analogies, he's the brilliant uncle of Scrooge McDuck (Scrooge's pop being Carl Barks), and, in my opinion as well as many others, the best writer and artist ever to bring life into the great group of ducks. He drew Disney comics for about 20 years before his retirement in 2006, and was the sole reason me and many friends ever bought Donald Duck magazines.
I was thinking about possible Telltale Games series, and the idea of controlling Scrooge in a point and click adventure game stuck in my head. I love the thought, and would really love to see it happen!
There are plenty of villains to use in every episode, such as the Beagle Boys (and their Grandpa), Magica de Spell and Flintheart Glomgold. Or even brand new ones, as we often saw in both Don Rosa's and Carl Barks' comics.
You could also have a flashback episode that goes back into Scrooge's Klondike days, where he, as a gold digger, would hold his stand against Soapy Slick.
Surely some of you have read the old Scrooge comics and would consider an adventure game with Scrooge, Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie?
Or if Disney comics ain't your thing, maybe you watched Duck Tales?
Now, I know a license for this kind of thing could be pretty heavy on Telltale's part, and they might end up being too restricted to do what they really want with it (cough Warren Spector + Epic Mickey cough), but Don Rosa seemed to know exactly what he was doing, and got through with most of his brilliant ideas.
Who's Don Rosa, you might ask?
Why, in the name of odd analogies, he's the brilliant uncle of Scrooge McDuck (Scrooge's pop being Carl Barks), and, in my opinion as well as many others, the best writer and artist ever to bring life into the great group of ducks. He drew Disney comics for about 20 years before his retirement in 2006, and was the sole reason me and many friends ever bought Donald Duck magazines.
I was thinking about possible Telltale Games series, and the idea of controlling Scrooge in a point and click adventure game stuck in my head. I love the thought, and would really love to see it happen!
There are plenty of villains to use in every episode, such as the Beagle Boys (and their Grandpa), Magica de Spell and Flintheart Glomgold. Or even brand new ones, as we often saw in both Don Rosa's and Carl Barks' comics.
You could also have a flashback episode that goes back into Scrooge's Klondike days, where he, as a gold digger, would hold his stand against Soapy Slick.
Surely some of you have read the old Scrooge comics and would consider an adventure game with Scrooge, Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie?
Or if Disney comics ain't your thing, maybe you watched Duck Tales?
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Comments
I would personally LOVE to see it happen, have you read Rosa's comics? Or Barks'?
I wonder what rights the comic writers had. Don Rosa had to put his ideas through editors, and got away with many radical concepts. He's the only known writer to have included the death of a duck in a comic (handled very tastefully), as well as strongly hinting at a scene with sexual interaction (however, this comic wasn't published in some countries because of this part).
Both of these scenes are part of the complete "The Life and Times of Scrooge Mcduck" series, and were quite important for the storyline progression.
I also wonder what rights Telltale have with Back to the Future and Jurassic Park. Universal must be a tough company to break through as well.
I always liked the ducks better than Mickey.
Speaking about games... I remember the Duck Tales NES game to be quite good.
And I loved the Duck Tales TV series show
But what I'd like to look up is what kinds of rights the comic creators have, but I have no idea where to start.
Disney is the problem here, since Don Rosa isn't popular in U.S.A. and the target isn't kids they would never ever say yes for something like this. I know he's very big in Finland that's why Don Rosa did the Kalevala story (I love that story *_*) but that -sadly- isn't enough
Just for the lulz... let's say Disney is going to say yes, I'm sure everything will be toned down for the kiddies and won't be anything like Don Rosa's stuff.
By the way, maybe you could ask him if he could possibly be interested in doing something like that, I know he's currently responding to many questions on this forum: clickclickclick.
I bet he would say something like this: it's totally cool for me if the product will be VERY good but Disney would never give a go for a project like this, they hate my stuff!
I know what you are talking about, so I'll leave this here: they totally did it.
Since we are gossiping (extra-lol) one thing that totally got me was this theory by Don Rosa: Ludwig Von Drake married to Matilda McDuck, what a twist! :-O Blew my mind XD
And yeah, Duck comics have their strongest fanbase in Europe (but doesn't Wallace and Gromit too?
Great to see another fan as rabid as me!
Quest for Kalevala is one of my favorite Don Rosa stories, there are just so many awesome concepts, pieced together into one fantastic story.
But you just reminded me about the Ludwig + Matilda relationship, and I had completely forgotten about that... :P I think it's a fun theory!
I think Rosa explained that "maybe Ludwig was on a vacation" in "A Letter from Home", where we see the most recent version of Matilda, haha.
But I guess there's just that problem. Epic Mickey was toned down an extreme lot, and it's sad, since I really wanted to see the game that concept art would have turned into.
Life of D. Duck I & II
Don't be put off by the style of the drawings. It's seriously great fun.
The greatest comic writer there is, ever was and ever will be. I got 4/8 of his Finnish releases autographed. Those stories would make nice base for adventure games!