Layout of the house

I have found a coloured opening of the Addams Family Show which can be viewed here:

You can see how bright their house is but still has that creepy interior with the older style such as the wooden banisters and furniture.

Screen shots of the first episode explores the whole house, which will help with my game.

Front entrance. The bear skin rug growls when stepped on

View of the living room. Odd furniture and cages around the place

Lurch at the Hapsichord. Very large chandelier on ceiling with a large staircase. Very open.

Has few stuffed animals, including an Armour suit. Their chairs are wicker chairs. Very large rug .

Have very odd paintings. This one was (apparently) their family member

A dismembered leg in a sword fish shocks most people when entering the house. Prized possession.

Wednesday's room is very large for a 6 year old, with a large bed. Shows the wealth in the family.

The childrens play room, filled with torture devices. Very dark part of the house.

Gomez's exploding train room

Pugsley collects car stops, taking them whether their in use or not.

I found these pictures on this site: http://hookedonhouses.net/2010/10/31/the-addams-family-house-where-every-night-is-halloween/

I have also found the floor plan of the set, however, it is slightly difficult to read but it is the best quality i can find. I'll just have to try and follow it if i can.

floor plan of family

Visual Research: Addams Family

After much thought i decided to work on the Addams Family home as it has so much style and visuals that would work well with my illustrations. It would be the perfect setting for a treasure hunting game, where the player would explore th house searching and collecting items.

There are three different time periods on the Addams Family. One is based on the comic strips by Charles Addams which is set during 1938 in The New Yorker. These strips are just one paneled cartoons with a single morbid joke from the family. These run between 1938 till Charles death in 1978. The shows took inspiration from the comics, using some of their jokes and interpreting them into full long episodes.

The Addams Family comic strip

https://uk.pinterest.com/emmalgh/addams-family-cartoons/

The show in the 1960's follows the comic closely, keeping their strange, morbid jokes with the gothic style. The show explores the house more than the comic, but keeping the same style, staircase and deathtraps. As the show was in black and white it is hard to tell the colours, however, there are some remastered images of the set. Surprisingly the set was brightly coloured as props were reused from other TV shows, which costs less than designing their own set. 

Their house is flowery pink and yellow....don't know whether to change the colours or use them.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3021327/asides/the-addams-familys-living-room-was-pink

Comparing the 60's show to the show during the 90's and the Time Burton movies, the house was very dark, gothic standard with spirals, black, dust, etc. It was more misty than usual with the gothic style. It had richer colours that's not florescent, but the walls were peeling which was not how the house was represented in the 60's.

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/photopost/data/1791/newaddamscde45555.jpg

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/200947

http://www.lkessler.com/addshows.shtml

The house will have the same setting and style as the one in the 60's. For the colour scheme I would still use the bright colours, but darken them a little bit to have more a gothic atmosphere. I wouldn't need to add the cheesy props that was placed in the 90's show such as skeletons, scary statues, etc. The props in the 60's show were very basic and odd, with no need for horror as its basically about an odd family in a quiet suburban neighborhood who look down on anything that is un-ordinary.

The game I will create will be a simple point and click game, exploring the house and interacting with objects. There will be paintings of the family members around the house that can move slightly (eyes or expressions). I will be designing the house on Illustrator and Photoshop along with the objects/assets. I will then move these illustrations and assets onto either Flash or GameMaker to create the point and click.

Project Ideas

I have a few project Ideas that I would like to design for the Environment for Games. There are 4 topics: Memories, TV/Film, Books and History. I have 3 ideas for these topics and will choose what one I want to work on throughout the year.

For Memories I wanted to create my old house from when I was 8 years old. The old house in England used to terrify me at night with the noises and creaks. From this I want to create a horror game environment, distorting the rooms in perspective from an 8 year olds eyes. Most children have vivid imaginations and I want to use that to create horror. I remember hearing footsteps running up and down the stairs (It was my cats), creaking from upstairs (the house was old so the roofs would expands at night) and shadows at night (The bathroom was opposite my bedroom and with the light on and mum and dad tip toeing everywhere they created the shadows). I will add more tense atmosphere to the environment such as the TV turning on by itself, odd noises and turning mum and dads shadow into an actual being. The game will be a point and click game, exploring the rooms and trying to survive the night. I was inspired by the games "P.T" demo, "Five nights at Freddys" and "Amnesia".

"Five Nights at Freddys" Duck
https://secure.static.tumblr.com/bcb3a78b5c67e33e9fc02a07434e80d1/nzavyjy/5Kbnf1a0b/tumblr_
static_tumblr_static_6k6zik8clqcksswo0s8ks0k04_640.gif

For History I want to look at the Scottish History during the Independence over 700 years ago. I would want to create the environment of the Scottish highlands and have info about that period of time. I would follow closely to King Robert the Bruce, as he has interested me since I studied history at college. I would either use his story of the cave and the spider before the battle of Bannockburn against King Edward II or explore the his home in first person view. It can be a fun learning game for those studying the history.

King Robert the Bruce
http://www.markchurms.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=mc&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=folio-size-image-8hx12w_mc-bruce-ac

For the Narrative game I recently read a very short story "How the Marquis got his Coat Back" by Neil Gaiman. The book is based during another book called "Neverwhere" and explores what happens when the Marquis came back to life and look for his coat. I think it was cut from the original story as it is a total different story altogether from the main. However, the characters in this short book are very descriptive and the imagination of the story is really well put. The setting is underneath London, down in the tube tunnels and undergrounds, as most people who lived in London said that theres another city underneath. The main character, the Marquis, has already been illustrated in the graphic novels, so I would want to design him away from those illustrations and into my designs. The game will be similar to the Discworld gamne, where the player will walk around the environment and interact with the characters. It will be a puzzle solving game and the main goal is to find his coat through clues and tasks.

Discworld PC game
http://www.denofgeek.us/games/discworld/246101/looking-back-at-the-discworld-video-game

Finally for TV/Film I have two ideas. One idea is focusing on the "Asterix and Obelix" movies and I would have it set around their village, interacting with the characters with point and click. It will be third person and the player will be a "gaul" on their own, rather than playing a character.

The other idea was based on the film "The Addams Family" where the player can explore the house. The house will be based on Tim Burton designs and will be a point and click game, exploring odd and creepy objects and collecting. The player can be a new assistant to the family and will be tasked with Wednesday to collect objects for her experiment.

The Addams Family House
http://arch.designcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=36734

I will design the Environment on Illustration and Photoshop, then transfer the images on Flash to create the game.