Not to be confused with Pac-Man: Adventures in Time, Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, or Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures.
Pac-Man Adventures was a scrapped video game that was in development around 2004. It is notable in that renowned animator and filmmaker Don Bluth was brought on to develop concept art and storyboards for the game.[1][2] The game would eventually be reworked into Pac-Man World 3.
Development[]
Most of what is currently known about Pac-Man Adventures' development comes from Jeffrey Lujan, a former employee of Namco Hometek who had previously worked alongside Bluth in the animation industry.[3] Adventures entered production with the goal of fleshing out both Pac-Man's personality and the world in which he lived. Having previously recommended Bluth and fellow animator Gary Goldman to make cutscenes for I-Ninja, another Namco-published title, Lujan suggested that the two be brought on for the Pac-Man project. Bluth and Goldman were heavily involved in the game's planning phase. In addition to designing characters and environments for the game, they also crafted a backstory for Pac-Man himself.[3]
When asked about what kind of game Adventures would have been, Lujan described it simply as "an open-world adventure/RPG style game." Lujan also explained that the game's story was written to appeal to players who were familiar with and had played the original arcade game, yet yearned for deeper experiences. Although the story would have incorporated darker elements not present in previous titles, Hometek did not intend to diverge from the series' typical ratings range; instead, they wanted to create a unique experience. Lujan also recalled that Namco of Japan was quite receptive to Pac-Man Adventures, as well as Hometek's other Pac-Man-related projects; he noted that this level of flexibility was rare, considering how closely they monitored their other IPs. [3]
At one point in development, there were conversation about developing Pac-Man Adventures fully in-house; however, internal restructuring forced Hometek to partially outsource development to Blitz Games. Eventually, Adventures was scrapped and repurposed into a new entry of the Pac-Man World series; the reason behind this decision is currently unknown.[3]
Gallery[]
Concept Art[]
_Concept_Artwork.jpg "Pac-Man Adventures Gogekka Central Gogekka (Yellow) Concept Artwork.jpg (363 KB)")
_Line_Concept_Artwork.jpg "Pac-Man Adventures Gogekka Central Gogekka (Yellow) Line Concept Artwork.jpg (372 KB)")
Storyboards[]
