As a game designer, one of the things you have to deal with is coming up with ideas that will never, ever see the light of day.

Over time, you appreciate the process, even if those games will never get produced. With each new idea, you get a little better at articulating what might make an interesting experience.

Like any designer with any time in this industry, I have many ideas that only exist in the form a single document and my mind. Some ideas only exist as an outline. Since I’m digging through my own past documents, I’ll share what I find as I find it.

When I worked at High Voltage, we worked on a lot of licensed properties. This was great, because it gave us a chance to work with many different characters and settings. I left High Voltage in 2007 to work at Buzz Monkey in Eugene, OR.

In late 2008, I had outlined an idea for an action-adventure game — heavy on the adventure, in the vein of Zack and Wiki — that would have been a perfect companion property to The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.

If you’re not familiar with the cartoon, it’s the story of a young boy, Flapjack, and his guardians. One of his guardians was a layabout and lout, named Cap’n K’nuckles, while the other was a very protective and nurturing talking whale, named Bubbie. Cap’n K’nuckles would tell tales of the legendary Candied Island, where candy galore could be found. Throughout the series, they’d often get into misadventures in their attempt to get free candy. Occasionally, they’d travel from their home — Stormalong Harbor — and set foot on strange lands across the ocean, like Blood Island, Pickle Island, and Laundry Island. Seafarin’ magic, disturbing situations, and shenanigans abounded in every episode.

As far as the game was concerned, I had the idea that Cap’n K’nuckles would find a fragment of a map leading to “Cand… …sland.” Assuming that the map led to Candied Island, the story’s heroes would set out on an epic quest to reach this island paradise, only to end up on Candy Island. The gag was that everyone who landed on Candy Island eventually turned into candy.

Bubby was the first to be affected, whales having a natural weakness to candification (of course). K’nuckles would change more slowly during the initial tutorial, but would be reduced to immobility after eating his candy peg legs.

Flapjack, being such a sweet child, would have some natural immunity to the candification process. His quest would center on finding a way to turn Bubby and Cap’n K’nuckles back to normal, so that they could once again return to Stormalong Harbor. Like Majora’s Mask, the player would have a certain number of game days to solve the puzzle before Flapjack would be turned into a candy statue of himself. Flapjack’s character and his representation in the UI would slowly change into a candy version of himself, in order to visually support this transformation.

As Flapjack, the player would have to solve puzzles, talk to strangers… strangers offering candy, of course… and navigate through some colorful, yet dangerous environments throughout the appetizing archipelago that dotted the Lemonade Sea. Along the way, Flapjack would run into the King of All Candy, a village of carnivorous candy people, and Vegetable Stu, characters created especially for the game.

Unfortunately, Buzz Monkey wasn’t really in the business of working on licensed properties, so the idea never got off the ground. I have the makings of a storyboard for the opening scene on Candy Island somewhere. If I can find it, I’ll create an animatic to show how the game would have started.