Design Documents

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Grabbed by the Ghoulies.

To do: Continue adding the various internal documents. Might need to put specific years into other subpages as there's like 29 undated

1999#

Sept. 17 Story Overview#

[[File:GbtG_Dev_Sept17_1999StoryDocument.jpg|thumb|348px|The original 1999 design idea for Grabbed by the Ghoulies, complete with notes.]] This document is one of the earliest pieces for Grabbed by the Ghoulies, predating the game entering full development by around a year.
At this time, the introductory to the games story was significantly different, including:

• The story follows two brothers, a older brother that goes unnamed and a younger brother by the name of Zak.
  • The final follows Cooper and his girlfriend, Amber.
• Zak makes the approach to the entrance of the house and is swiftly grabbed and pulled into the house.
  • The final has Amber captured at the main gate and taken into the mansion.
• Zombies come after the older brother at the start and they're fended off by light.
  • The final has Cooper ambushed by Imps, and he has to beat them up.

After the main contents, there are notes hand written below, likely written at a later date. (Due to the "small caps" style of handwriting, intended capitalization is unclear.)

*Dracula is scared of blood - also likes sunlight. Sunbathes
*Daddy as well as Mummy
*Zombies all Practise Moving Their Eyes + Holding Arms Out, in 'Zombie School'. 
*Headless Horseman - Keeps Dropping Head
* Witch Who's Really Beautiful but Think's She Isn't + Vice Versa (Sisters)
* Warlock with Shite Spells
* Should be Boy + Girl, One is captured at random. Game plays slightly differently depending on char.
**(Press button during intro to select which one gets nicked)
*Near B-Movie intro "Oh No... It can't be!" "But It Is!" "He (or She)'s been '''''Grabbed by the Ghoulies'''''!"
* Straight into Game, no title pages, menus, options, etc.
**(On 1st Game Only). Once another game started, need selection pages.

2000#

October 9th Overview#

This document is dated for October 9, 2000, the same month & year the game entered full production.
Most of the document ended up staying the same all the way to the final game Some key elements of the document are, but not limited to:

• The house is home to both Baron Von Ghoul and a later scrapped character, Baroness Von Ghoul, as well as Doctor Krackpot.
• Cooper and Amber had not been given names by the time of this document's creation.
• Background interactions were intended to be minimal, with enemy combat being fairly extensive.
  • Some unique interactions mentioned are chainsawing haunted furniture and vacuuming up ghosts, both are not weapons in the final release.
• Multiplayer was planned to be present, mentioned as being important for Ghoulies.

2001#

March 22nd Design Information#

On March 22, 2001, Version 4 of Grabbed by the Ghoulies' Design Information document was drafted, over 5 months since the Overview document was written.
A variety of changes were made inbetween presumably Version 3 and Version 4 of the Design Information documents, these include:

• Multiplayer has been completely scrapped.
• An idea for accessing and playing challenges from within areas was scrapped.
• 1st person shooting sections are ruled out for Ghoulies.
• Major collectibles have been removed, instead ruling for having weapons replenish their ammo automatically and giving/removing items when necessary.
• The in-game inventory has been scrapped.
• An idea for a hub world has been scrapped, returning to the game being a linear experience.
• The Candlestick was removed as a permanent weapon.
  • The Permanent Weapons list, as well as the Objects & Items list and Boss Ghoulies lists were finalised.

June 5 Ghouly Usage Document#

On June 5, 2001, two pages were drafted for the purpose of detailing the various ghoulies for the game and where they would be.
The available columns detail elements regarding each ghouly, those being:

• Hierarchy/Other Ghoulies (The ghouly's name)
• Order Seen (Never used for these documents)
• First Seen (Which chapter and area they first appear in)
• Events Where Used (All the scripted events they appear in)
• Areas Where Used (All the areas they appear in)

Page 1#

Various ghoulies are present that never appeared in the final game:

• Shooting, Armoured and Queen Spiders
• Skull
• Bone, Pirate and Robot Skeleton
  • Pirate Skeletons were possibly reworked into Pirate Zombies
• Flying and Cloaked Vampires
• Ice, Fire & Plague Zombies
• Scampering & Stone Mummies
• Standard, Ghost & Vampire Bats
• Floating, Ghost, Giant and Giant Stone Hand
• Ghosts
• Phantoms
• Shadow Imps
• The Invisible and Almost Invisible Man

Next to some of the listed ghoulies, various notes were written for the Heirarchy Ghoulies:

There's also a handwritten "Problems | Thoughts" area below the main contents:

Problems|Thoughts
* Ghost Hand offers little difference to Ghost or Ghost Bat. Remove?
* Phantom hasn't got a plane.
* Combine bone skel and pirate skel? Throws bones at range, uses sword up close? or just throws his sword?

Page 2#

Even more ghoulies are present on the second page that never appeared in the final game:

• Beetle
• Chandelier (Possibly intended to be a world hazard)
• Cocoons
• Desks
• Dragon Head
• Evil Toy
• Eye
• Floorboard
• Guillotine
• Hooded Figure
• Madman
• Shape Shifter
• Snapdragon
• Both the Small and Large Venus Fly Traps
• Werewolf

Like the first page, notes were written for this page as well. There's lines next to various ghouly entries for the Other Ghoulies:

There's also various notes left under the table, one being for Haunted Objects:

 Haunted Objects  C2 A2.3  C4 A15.5
S(crossed out):- Musical Instruments, Furniture, Desk(?), Door, (Tool Board(?), TV, Picture
Combine all these as 'Haunted Objects'?

And another for potential problems:

Problems
* Haunted Clothes, Grim Reaper & Hooded Figure may be seen as too similar.
* Chandelier isn't really a baddy. Remove?
* Is Cocoon a baddy? Limted use. Remove?
* Not enough Venus Flytrap usage. Combine into one? (Large Version)
* Beetle isn't used. Only place will be Cursed Mummies. Remove?

Rooms#

Snooker Room#

The general layout for the Snooker Room is the same as the final, dated to July 3, 2001. Notable differences are:

• The Double Door was turned into just a single door in the final.
• There's no grandfather clock present in the layout.
• One of the trophies in the trophy cabinet was meant to hold an eye symbol to unlock the door to the Gaming Room.

There are also some notes on the side for key elements for the area:

* Snooker Table Light is the main source of light for this room. Any individual wall mounted lights should be small so the edges of the room appear gloomier.
* Skeletons will jump through the skeleton portraits to ambush the player.
* The player can grab the snooker table at either end and swing it to cause damage to the skeletons. No room objects should be in range of the table when being swung.

2002#

Rooms#

Cottage Garden#

The general layout for the Cottage Garden is the same as the final, dated to January 3, 2002. Notable changes are:

• The Cottage Lawn has some changes in the objects on the land.
  • The Giant Toadstool was moved closer to the pond.
  • A park bench was added near to where the Giant Toadstool used to be.
  • The Floral Bush near the Cottage was removed.

There are also some notes on the side for key elements for the area:

* The cottage and its lawn should look well kept. They are also set lower down than the rest of the map along with the small area around Door 45.
* Compared to the cottage area, the rest of the map should look eerie & spooky.
* The large roots of the dead looking trees should be twisted, one could be broken where the path passes, another could disappear underground and reappear a few feet away.

Museum#

One of the various scrapped areas for the game. This room would have shown off some of the game's unused enemies.
There were to be two doors, one from A1·1 - Central Hallway Upstairs and one leading to Area 16·1 - Library.
There are some notes on the side for key elements for the area:

* On each of the small pedestals, unused baddies should stand acting as red herrings as to what attacks the player.
* On the large central pedestal, there should be a scale model of a pirate ship which is used to spawn many Pirate Skeletons.
* Various items could be in the display case -one could even hold the Sabrewulf Amulet.
* Space for hidden Temp. Weapons should be left in the dioramas.
* Some wall glass displays should hang where there is space between pedestals.
* The figurines in the dioramas should be in humorous poses.
* Each pedestal and display case should have its own light (different colours though, in different areas of the room). 
** Some pedestals may have their own light turned off or it could flicker. The Egyptian diorama wants to be more lit than the Caveman scene.

Gallery#

One of the various scrapped areas for the game. This area would've been the first sightings of the Werewolf ghouly.
There were to be a total of four doors.

• Two entrances from:
  • A15·3 - Attic
  • A1·1 - Central Hallway Upstairs
• Two exits to:
  • A2·2 - Gaming Room
  • A1·1 - Central Hallway Upstairs

There's a note for the stairway area behind a set of curtains:

This area behind the curtains is a junk area & should be old, worn & dusty. 

There are also some notes on the side for key elements for the area:

* In each arch there should be a spotlight (two for the larger arches)
* The Werewolf portraits will be used to generate Werewolves.
* The other paintings should be hung haphazardly.
* The larger paintings should depict other ghoulies that look suspicious.
* The smaller paintings may be haunted pictures, temp weapons or neither.
* Apart from the area behind the curtains, the room should be decorative & kept

Rafters#

One of the various scrapped areas for the game. This area was intended to house one of the scrolls and would've been connnected to A15·1 - Attic and A16 - Gallery.

There are some notes on the side for key elements for the area:

* The rafters needn't be straight like illustrated, but wonky and skew-whiff.
* Pipes should run along the walls and connect all of the boilers, water tanks and cylindrical tanks together. 
** They should be above the players head height though, where they cross over the rafters.
* Skylights in the roof (see cross-section) let in shafts of light. They should be evenly spread along the length of the room and not opposite one another.
* Some low beams should cross the room width ways, only a little higher than the pipes do.
* Airborne baddies will be positioned on the beams and pipes.
* The scroll could be stuck to the wall on a web.

2003#

Not Dated#

Along with the other documents that have written dates, there are a number of documents which aren't given any specific date.

Ghoulhaven Hall Overview Maps#

There are currently two versions of the map overview of Ghoulhaven Hall that have been released by Gregg Mayles. They are only of the ground floors & exterior rooms of Ghoulhaven Hall.

Early Map#

A much older version of the overview for Ghoulhaven Hall, containing a lot less areas than the later map or final. There's a number of other differences with this map, including:

• The vegetable garden is much simpler and more open, with the Cottage and Greenhouses being singular rooms.
• The Boathouse isn't in the pathway to the Lighthouse.
• There is an extra large patch of field at the Farmyard.
• The "Garbage Yard" is an interior room and goes by the name "Delivery Yard" on this map.
• Many of the areas in the Ghoulhaven Hall Wings aren't properly named at this point in time.
• There are a number of unused areas present, examples being
  • Playhouse
  • The Chapel area
  • The Crypt & Catacombs area

Near-Final Map#

A newer map that looks to more closely resemble the final game's layout, but still has a few differences present between this map and the final, such as:

• Several boss rooms that were later scrapped from the final release.
  • These include Area 13.4 (Dracula Boss Room), Area 9.5 (Devil Boss Room) and Area 17.5 (Werewolf Boss Room)
• Several unused areas are still present, including:
  • Playhouse
  • The Chapel area
  • The Crypt & Catacombs area
  • Museum
• The Greenhouse is comprised of three areas, one was removed in the final.
• The Cottage building is split into three areas on this map (A13.5 (Cottage Living Room), A13.6 (Cottage Bedroom) and A13.7 (Tool Shed)). It was merged into one singular area for the final.