A pair of fans of classic sitcom Seinfeld have created a pitch for Seinfeld Adventure, a point-and-click adventure game, and shared it with the Internet.
The pitch comes from Jacob Janerka, and Ivan Dixon. As stated on the pitch’s official website, the pair explain how they met through their love of the 90’s sitcom.
Rather than pitch the idea to studio, or even the rights holders to Seinfeld, the pair hope demand will be generated by pitching the concept to the Internet at large.
“We need actual, real internet people to show that there is a demand for it. In the past, Jacob has shown snippets of the concept to great public reception with articles on IGN, Nerdist, and reaching the front page of Reddit twice. However, this is a full pitch rather than a few screenshots. We need you to share this far and wide if you would like this to happen.”
The concept of the game is “What if there was an official Seinfeld point-and-click adventure game that was never released?” Janerka and Dixon explain how the point-and-click genre would not only match other games popular at the time (Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and King’s Quest), but that the genre fits the show’s “surprisingly rich world.”
“Point-and-click adventure games often involve some sort of task or mission that requires a mix of conversational skills, puzzle solving, item collection and use. In Seinfeld, conflict also arises regularly from miscommunication or involves novel items (think episodes like The Pez, The Junior Mint, The Statue, The Calzone, The Fusilli Jerry, The Couch, The Big Salad etc). All this melds perfectly with the point-and-click formula!”
Janerka and Dixon explain that they do not want to make “a fan service game that repeats jokes or plots that people already are familiar with.” They want to make a brand new story that not only work within the game while “remaining faithful to the tone and themes of the show.”
This even down to the game’s run time being “roughly half an hour” like an episode of the show, though this can be scaled to “multiple half-hour episodes can be made or added later as DLC.” The pair explain further.
“Also like the show, the story would take place over three separate acts. In each act you will assume the role of Jerry, George or Elaine as their stories interweave and overlap with one another, just like the show. Similar to the game Day of the Tentacle, you will be allowed to play multiple characters. Kramer appears throughout the story, but will not be playable, as he works better narratively as a ‘wild card,’ someone who can influence the story but not be controlled.”
While the game’s intended audience is the fans of the show, events such as Netflix acquiring the streaming rights of the show for over $500 million dollars means they feel there is a younger audience. In addition, new fans may experience the show for the first time through the game.
Janerka and Dixon have even proposed the concept for the first “episode”, The Email.
“Jerry is dating a publicist who accidentally reveals his email address to Kenny Bania through a group email. Now Bania fills Jerry’s inbox with a flurry of spam emails asking for feedback on his new stand-up set. Jerry decides to break up with the publicist over this, but he doesn’t want to deal with the interaction face-to-face. Kramer suggests ending the relationship via email and avoiding it all together. Jerry does this before Elaine reminds him that the publicist was supposed to get them all tickets to the opening night of the new movie ‘Rochelle, Rochelle 2’. George devises a plan to corrupt Jerry’s girlfriend’s computer before she can read her emails so that they can still collect the tickets. Kramer says he knows who can help. Someone with a sworn vendetta against email. Someone who has devoted their whole life to analogue mail and sees email as a threat to his livelihood. Someone named Newman.”
The pair also point out how their own experiences and work would help. Janerka had developed point-and-click adventure game Paradigm on his own, and is currently working on a new first-person adventure game, The Dungeon Experience.
Dixon meanwhile is an animation writer and director. He has co-directed Childish Gambino’s Feels Like Summer music video, and has created sprite-based intros for The Simpsons, Adventure Time, and Rick & Morty; in addition to other projects for IPs Fallout, Wolfenstein, Game of Thrones, and The Watchmen. He currently co-runs the animation studio Studio Showoff.
“Together, we meld into a powerful entity that spends what little spare time we have to pitch a long shot to secure the Seinfeld rights,” the pair explain. “Somewhat more relevantly, we both have worked together to develop a TV show pilot with a team. With all our experiences combined, we could build a Seinfeld dream team to make this game a reality.”
Assuming the pair got approval from Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David (they feel even a free fan game could “get us into deep waters if they so choose to target us”), they would then look into hiring a team, and fund the project via the rights holders, or via crowdfunding such as Kickstarter.
You can find the Unofficial Pitch trailer below.
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Image: Press Kit
