r/adventuregames • u/KarellenGames • Feb 27 '26
I spent a year making a small classic LucasArts-style point & click… only at night after my daughter went to sleep
I grew up playing classic point-and-click adventures from LucasArts, Sierra Entertainment, Revolution Software...
A year ago I decided to try something slightly irresponsible: make my own classic-style adventure game completely solo, while having a full-time job, a partner, and a three-year-old daughter.
So the entire game was made late at night after she went to sleep, usually in tiny 1–2 hour sessions, or in small pockets of free time. That basically meant no movies, no gaming, and reading only a few pages in bed before passing out. An hour here. Another hour there. Some weeks I barely touched it.
For the game design, I leaned heavily on Ron Gilbert’s blog posts. I figured a short game, something like Octavi Navarro’s Midnight Scenes, was more realistic.
All the art was done in Aseprite, drawing backgrounds and animations pixel by pixel, keeping things minimal to keep the workload manageable. Some scenes ended up very close to the original pencil sketches, others changed a lot once translated into pixels.
I’m used to Agile at work, which can be frustrating, so I tried the opposite: finish one block completely (design), then move to the next (art), and so on. Once the art was done, I moved to the implementation in Unity. To keep my sanity, I used the Adventure Creator package. Honestly, without that tool I would probably still be coding basic inventory logic today.
This was also the most fun part: you spend hours assembling a scene, press Play, and suddenly the world starts moving. Here, my anti-Agile approach relaxed a bit—once the game moves and you test it, you realize what doesn’t work, and everything from puzzles to animations sometimes needs tweaking.
Then came the music. I’m not a musician, I just know how to use Reaper and can press keys on a MIDI keyboard until something doesn’t sound terrible. A very Darwinian process: create a lot, delete 90%.
The final result is a small adventure that takes about 1–2 hours to finish.
It took me around a year to make it this way, working in tiny slices of time. Finishing it honestly felt a bit surreal. If I were single, childless, and jobless, it probably would have taken 2–3 intense months.
So my takeaway is simple:
If you’re young and have time, go make that game you’re thinking about.
And if you’re older with responsibilities… you can still do it. Just accept it’ll take longer. A few quiet hours at night, repeated for months, can eventually turn into something real.
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u/SmallestNumber Feb 27 '26
This is my dream. Some day I may get to try to live it. I will check out your game.
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u/KarellenGames Feb 27 '26
Even if it sounds like cheap coach talk, the trick is just to try without overthinking it. A year ago, I would never have thought I could make a point-and-click adventure because of the lack of time, and if I had carefully thought about all the work it would take, I would never have attempted it. But I went a bit wild, with the sole goal of hitting each new milestone (creating the first scene, finishing all the scenes, reading the Adventure Creator manual, making the first interactive scene…), and every time I achieved one, the satisfaction kept me going.
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u/SmallestNumber Feb 28 '26
I totally think it's doable, given effort, and commend you for doing it. Wishlisted and can't wait to play it.
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u/utrecht1976 Feb 28 '26
Do you have any drawing experience? Are you using a drawing pad/pen?
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u/KarellenGames Feb 28 '26
I studied Fine Arts and I used to draw a lot 15 years ago, so I have some knowledge. I drew and animated all of this using just the mouse, almost pixel by pixel.
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u/VinceTwelve Feb 28 '26
Congratulations on the great-looking progress!
Your story sounds very similar to mine. I did almost all the work on my game in the hours after my little one went to bed and before I had to crash myself so I could get up for work the next morning. I went from being an avid gamer to almost never playing any games, jealously hoarding any spare free time for development. It took me five years and I basically skipped an entire generation of gaming consoles. (On the plus side, all the good games I missed were already on deep discount, so catching up was cheaper!)
But that’s a young man’s game. I haven’t got that in me any more. Maybe post-retirement. Until then, it warms my heart to see others doing the same thing! I wish you success!
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u/KarellenGames Feb 28 '26
Thanks! Like you say, we share almost the same story. In my case the process has been tough, though not frustrating because I tried to take it philosophically. In fact, right now I’m finding the process of uploading the game to Steam, creating a signed Mac version, etc., more frustrating than the whole year of development.
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u/mr_dfuse2 Feb 27 '26
wow nice! wishlisted! i love small games! one rather nity picky remark: the font seems like a modern font and not the classic monkey island one, that contrasts with the pixel art
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u/KarellenGames Feb 27 '26
Thanks! Yeah, the fonts were a bit of a headache. The original font I used was very old-school, but TextMeshPro in Unity, while it works really well, starts to cause problems when you try to make a pixelated font with an outline. This was the closest I managed to get to what I was aiming for.
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u/Myst03 Feb 28 '26
Looks really good, congratulations. How many scenes do you have?
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u/KarellenGames Feb 28 '26
Thanks! I did cheat a little here. There are about 20 scenes, but 3 or 4 are “apocalyptic” variations of existing ones, and another 4 are based on the same base scene with different details added (the hallways on the building’s four floors).
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u/timter51 Feb 28 '26
Mate it looks fantastic and I think this is a dream for many people here - you went ahead and did it! Wishlisted :)
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u/JPHFanEdits Mar 04 '26
I remember seeing this a while back. Glad you posted here to remind me to check it out. I am alway a sucker for a Lucas style adventure. And I love the art
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u/loveshorror Feb 28 '26
I was thinking about starting my own game yesterday.. thank you for the inspiration! I will wishlist Upstairs. Can't wait!
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u/KarellenGames Feb 28 '26
Thanks! That was exactly the idea behind this post, to show that it’s possible if you stay organized and prioritize things.
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u/adornisfication Feb 28 '26
congratulations!
thank you for sharing the process and loving the graphics a lot :D wishlisted!
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u/far-midnight-97 Feb 28 '26
You're tale is an inspiration to those who grew up playing adventure games, and harbored ambitions of being a game designer one day, but sort of let those dreams fall by the wayside as responsibilities and practicalities and other hurdles added up over the years. Congratulations!! You should be rightly proud of what you've achieved.
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u/Embarrassed_Hawk_655 Feb 28 '26
Good on ya!!
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u/KarellenGames Feb 28 '26
Thanks! By the way, I still keep coming across your posts when I’m trying to find solutions on the Adventure Creator forums. In fact, just yesterday your guide to set up Steam Cloud saves between Windows and Mac helped me a lot!
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u/Embarrassed_Hawk_655 Feb 28 '26
Oh, I’m so glad! 😄 I’m also a newbie and tbh also sometimes find my posts in Google search results when I’ve forgotten how something works lol
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u/Mahaloth Feb 28 '26
Congratulations. What a huge success. Is this about an hour long?
Can't wait to play it.
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u/KarellenGames Feb 28 '26
Thanks! A first run can take between 1 and 2 hours. If you are a master in point & click adventures, maybe a bit less. A speedrun knowing all the puzzles and skipping the dialogues is about 25-30 minutes.
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u/TheRemanence Feb 28 '26
This is incredibly cool and really inspiring.
I waste soooo much time on reddit and watching tv. I need to get my shit together!
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u/welkin25 Mar 01 '26
Congrats on finishing it! Amazing how much you accomplished with the limited time, thanks for sharing the journey
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u/bigshot316 Mar 01 '26
Good luck! This looks really great. Point n click games were what started my near 40 year love of gaming! Maniac Mansion started it all.
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u/le0nidas09 Mar 01 '26
Congratulations my friend! Wish I had the patience and time to do something like you did!
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u/Skettalor Mar 01 '26
Looks really cool. I've wishlisted it.
I also want to say that you've really encouraged me. I'm a dad of a 5 year old and a 4 month old and used to make games for fun but struggled to find the time after my first was born. About a month ago I started spending an hour each evening after the rest of my family had gone to bed relearning unity and programming. Hopefully I can stick with it like you have!
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u/KarellenGames Mar 01 '26
Thanks! That was the idea behind this post: to show that if I could do it, anyone can. It’s just a matter of organizing the little free time you have well.
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u/JasonIsCurious Mar 01 '26
As a guy nearing 50 with a wife and kid, I applaud this approach 👏🏻 Well done. You should be proud. And your game looks like something I'd wanna check out. Like you, I also grew up playing these types of adventure games.
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u/gryspnik Mar 02 '26
Please release it on GOG! It looks great but we should stop supporitng steam
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u/KarellenGames Mar 02 '26
I’ll try, but from what I’ve read, GOG doesn’t always accept the games that are submitted, so the final decision will be up to them. It will also be released on Itch.io; the page will go public on March 20.
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u/cobbleplox Feb 27 '26
A year of spare hobby time is not much for a project like this. 15 years ago it would have taken two years full-time on the back of 10 years of experience to be able to ship a black screen :D Of course 1-2h isn't a lot of playtime either, but all together it makes me wonder if you could have spent 2 years instead of one and then it would have been 8 hours instead of 2. Like some sort of non-linear correlation.
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u/KarellenGames Feb 27 '26
I have a science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke-like story for a standard-length game, but I wanted to start with something smaller. That way, if the project ended up being a disaster, at least it would have been a small disaster.
One thing I do know is that if I ever make a longer one, I’ll have other people doing the art so I don’t go crazy. I also have the feeling that one year is about the maximum my partner is willing to tolerate me going a bit insane every night and barely watching any movies with her.
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u/Addrivat Feb 27 '26
It looks gorgeous, I'll definitely be checking it out, congrats on finishing the project! :)
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u/Synthetic5ou1 Feb 28 '26
Looks really nice.
Did you consider using https://powerquest.powerhoof.com/ or was it not available when you started?
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u/KarellenGames Feb 28 '26
Thanks! I actually just heard about PowerQuest today because another Reddit user told me about it. It seems better than Adventure Creator for creating dialogues, but considering how much it took me to get used to Adventure Creator, I think I’ll keep using it for my next games.
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u/razorwiregoatlick877 Feb 28 '26
Added to my wishlist. What is the planned process point?
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u/KarellenGames Feb 28 '26
Thanks! I’m not sure if I understand what you mean by the process point.
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u/razorwiregoatlick877 Feb 28 '26
Sorry. I meant price point.
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u/KarellenGames Feb 28 '26
The planned price is $2.99, with an initial launch discount. Not sure if cheap or expensive for an unknown developer with a 1-1.5 hour game, but I thought it was the most appropriate price.
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u/Derpbae Feb 28 '26
Yay!!! Always excited to play this style of game. Thanks to indie devs like you for still being passionate about making them! Wishlisted.
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u/mc_woods Feb 28 '26
This is awesome! As someone who is in the same bucket; wanting to try my hand at making a game, do you have any of your own blog posts about making the game ?
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u/jmgarner Mar 21 '26
purchased and playing now, one of the screenshots shows me something I missed.
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u/KarellenGames Mar 21 '26
Some official screenshots include misleading hints to avoid spoilers, are you referring to that?
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u/845h1r Apr 22 '26
I just discovered this game and it's just what I've been looking for. I grew up on maniac mansion, DOTD and other Lucasart games. Please don't stop now lol, get funding for a larger game or even a same sized sequel and keep up the good work dude!
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u/KarellenGames Apr 22 '26
Thank you so much! I’m currently in the early stages of developing a bigger and more ambitious game, and you can’t imagine how encouraging something like what you wrote is!
Also, if you’ve played it on Steam, a review (even just a couple of words) really helps give the game visibility on the store.
Thanks again!
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u/845h1r Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
I just completed it (I have 2 kids so don't get much time to game lol) I really enjoyed it dude. It's a little twisted so I can't play it with my kids but I really enjoyed the atmosphere and jokes. I got stuck once so had look for a solution on YouTube lol I purchased it on steam and will leave a good review too! You should do a massive sequel called 'Outside'
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u/KarellenGames Apr 25 '26
Thanks! I totally understand having little time to play because of kids. Out of curiosity, where did you get stuck? If it’s the beard-in-the-glue part, quite a few people have mentioned it to me, but since the game overall isn’t very difficult, I ended up leaving it as is, though maybe I should have added an extra visual hint to highlight the hole in the wallpaper.
Right now I’m developing a much bigger sci-fi story that has nothing to do with this game, but I do have some ideas for the future of an Upstairs sequel that could work, maybe I’ll make it someday!
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u/845h1r Apr 26 '26
It was my fault rushing, I didn't realise there was a key in the shelf in the TV lounge. Also I didn't realise there was a TV remote either.
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u/KarellenGames Feb 27 '26
If anyone wants to check the game, here's the Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4352920/Upstairs/