Editing Day of the Tentacle (section)

=== Creative design ===
In planning the plot, the four designers considered a number of concepts, eventually choosing an idea of Gilbert's about time travel that they believed was the most interesting. The four discussed what time periods to focus on, settling on the Revolutionary War and the future. The Revolutionary War offered opportunities to craft many puzzles around that period, such as changing the Constitution to affect the future. Grossman noted the appeal of the need to make wide-sweeping changes such as the Constitution just to achieve a small personal goal, believing this captured the essence of adventure games.<ref name="usgamer design"/> The future period allowed them to explore the nature of cause and effect without any historical bounds.<ref name="usgamer design">{{Cite web |url=http://www.usgamer.net/articles/day-of-the-tentacle-the-oral-history |title=Day of the Tentacle: The Oral History |first=Bob |last=Mackey |date=March 7, 2016 |access-date=March 7, 2016 |work=[[USgamer]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309215914/http://www.usgamer.net/articles/day-of-the-tentacle-the-oral-history |archive-date=March 9, 2016}}</ref> Grossman and Schafer decided to carry over previous characters that they felt were the most entertaining. The two considered the Edison family "essential" and chose Bernard because of his "unqualified nerdiness".<ref name="GamesTm-Retro"/> Bernard was considered "everyone's favorite character" from ''Maniac Mansion'', and was the clear first choice for the protagonists.<ref name="usgamer design"/> The game's other protagonists, Laverne and Hoagie, were based on a [[Mexican people|Mexican]] ex-girlfriend of Grossman's and a [[Megadeth]] roadie named Tony that Schafer had met, respectively.<ref name="Edge">{{cite magazine |title=Master of Unreality: The life and times of Tim Schafer, from metal to LucasArts and Double Fine—and back to metal... |magazine=[[Edge (magazine)|Edge]] |pages=82–87 |date=August 2009 |issue=204 |publisher=[[Future Publishing]] |location=United Kingdom}}</ref> Schafer and Grossman planned to use a character selection system similar to the first game but felt that it would have complicated the design process and increased production costs. Believing that it added little to the gameplay, they removed it early in the process and reduced the number of player characters from six to three.<ref name="GamesTm-Retro"/> The dropped characters included Razor, a female musician from the previous game; Moonglow, a short character in baggy clothes; and Chester, a black [[Beat Generation|beat]] poet. Ideas for Chester, however, morphed into new twin characters in the Edison family.<ref name="RetroMaking">{{cite journal |journal=Retro Gamer |publisher=Imagine Publishing |location=[[Bournemouth]] |title=The Making of Day of the Tentacle |first=Kim |last=Wild |issue=81 |date=September 2010 |pages=84–87 |url=http://www.nowgamer.com/features/1171/making-of-day-of-the-tentacle?o=2 |access-date=February 25, 2011 |issn=1742-3155 |oclc=489477015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150603075642/http://www.nowgamer.com/features/1171/making-of-day-of-the-tentacle?o=2 |archive-date=June 3, 2015}}</ref> The smaller number of characters reduced the strain on the game's engine in terms of [[Scripting language|scripting]] and [[Computer animation|animation]].<ref name="GamesTm-Retro-2"/>

The staff collaboratively designed the characters. They first discussed the character personalities, which Larry Ahern used to create concept art. Ahern wanted to make sure that the art style was consistent and the character designs were established early, in contrast to what had happened with ''Monkey Island 2'', in which various artists came in later to help fill in art assets as necessary, creating a disjointed style.<ref name="usgamer art"/> [[Looney Tunes]] animation shorts, particularly the [[Chuck Jones]]-directed ''[[Rabbit of Seville]]'', ''[[What's Opera, Doc?]]'', and ''[[Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century]]'' inspired the artistic design. The cartoonish style also lent itself to providing larger visible faces to enable more expressive characters.<ref name="usgamer art">{{cite web |url=http://www.usgamer.net/articles/behind-the-art-of-day-of-the-tentacle |title=Behind the Art of Day of the Tentacle |first=Bob |last=Mackey |date=March 7, 2016 |access-date=March 7, 2016 |work=[[USgamer]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309214035/http://www.usgamer.net/articles/behind-the-art-of-day-of-the-tentacle |archive-date=March 9, 2016}}</ref> [[Peter Chan (artist)|Peter Chan]] designed backgrounds, spending around two days to progress from concept sketch to final art for each background.<ref name="RetroMaking"/> Chan too used [[Looney Tunes]] as influence for the backgrounds, trying to emulate the style of Jones and [[Maurice Noble]]. Ahern and Chan went back and forth with character and background art to make sure both styles worked together without too much distraction. They further had Jones visit their studio during development to provide input into their developing art.<ref name="usgamer art"/> The choice of art style inspired further ideas from the designers. Grossman cited cartoons featuring [[Pepé Le Pew]], and commented that the gag involving a painted white stripe on [[Penelope Pussycat]] inspired a puzzle in the game. The artists spent a year creating the in-game animations.<ref name="RetroMaking"/>

The script was written in the evening when fewer people were in the office.<ref name="GamesTm-Retro"/><ref name="RetroMaking"/> Grossman considered it the easiest aspect of production, but encountered difficulties when writing with others around.<ref name="GamesTm-Retro"/>

{{quote box
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| quote = With a time travel story, I leave a bottle of wine somewhere, and it causes a bottle of vinegar to appear in the same place four hundred years later. Same basic idea: I do X over here, and it causes Y over there. Whether ‘over there’ means in the next room or 400 years in the future is irrelevant. I will say that it was really fun to think about the effects of large amounts of time on things like wine bottles and sweaters in dryers, and to imagine how altering fundamentals of history like the Constitution and the flag could be used to accomplish petty, selfish goals like the acquisition of a vacuum and a tentacle costume. We definitely enjoyed ourselves designing that game.
| source = Dave Grossman on designing the game's puzzles<ref name="RetroMaking"/>
}}

Grossman and Schafer brainstormed regularly to devise the time travel puzzles and collaborated with members of the development team as well as other LucasArts employees. They would identify puzzle problems and work towards a solution similar to how the game plays. Most issues were addressed prior to programming, but some details were left unfinished to work on later.<ref name="GamesTm-Retro"/> The staff conceived puzzles involving the [[History of the United States (1776–1789)|U.S.'s early history]] based on their memory of their compulsory education, and using the more legendary aspects of history, such as George Washington cutting down a cherry tree to appeal to international audiences.<ref name="usgamer design"/><ref name="RetroMaking"/> To complete the elements, Grossman researched the period to maintain historical accuracy, visiting libraries and contacting reference librarians. The studio, however, took [[Artistic license|creative license]] towards facts to fit them into the game's design.<ref name="GamesTm-Retro"/><ref name="RetroMaking"/>

''Day of the Tentacle'' features a four-minute-long animated opening credit sequence, the first LucasArts game to have such. Ahern noted that their previous games would run the credits over primarily still shots which would only last for a few minutes, but with ''Tentacle'', the team had grown so large that they worried this approach would be boring to players.<ref name="usgamer art"/> They assigned [[Kyle Balda]], an intern at CalArts, to create the animated sequence, with Chan helping to create minimalist backgrounds to aid in the animation.<ref name="usgamer art"/> Originally this sequence was around seven minutes long, and included the three characters arriving at the mansion and releasing Purple Tentacle. Another LucasArts designer, Hal Barwood, suggested they cut it in half, leading to the shortened version as in the released game, and having the player take over when they arrive at the mansion.<ref name="usgamer art"/>