Hugo's House of Horrors


Hugo's House of Horrors is a computer game released in 1990. Gray Design Associates created a parser-based adventure game, reminiscent of the Sierra Entertainment "Quest" games and thematically similar to Maniac Mansion. The game also features tongue-in-cheek comedy.

Plot

In the game, the player controls the protagonist, Hugo, who has come to a haunted house to look for his girlfriend Penelope, who hasn't been seen since she went to babysit there. The premise bears similarity to LucasFilm Games' Maniac Mansion, released in 1987, where the main character enters a mansion in order to rescue his girlfriend from a mad scientist.

Gameplay

The player moves Hugo around by using the arrow keys on the keyboard, and controls his actions by entering commands on the keyboard.

Inspiration

In an interview, the game's designer David Gray claimed that he had never played Maniac Mansion and was only aware of the game's similarities after it was released, "Unbelievable as it may seem, when I wrote Hugo's House of Horrors in 1989 I was completely unaware of Maniac Mansion and to this day have never played it. Why? So I can truthfully say I've never played it! The truth is that Hugo's House of Horrors was actually inspired after playing the original Sierra game Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards and as far as game mechanics and look, Hugo should have more in common with that game".
In another interview, David Gray also admitted to being inspired by Captain Comic by Michael Denio, stating "This was the first computer game I saw with large cartoon like characters that moved fluidly and I tried to emulate it." He also mentioned that the Windows Point-and-Click port was inspired by Beneath a Steel Sky.

Sequels

In 1991 GDA released a sequel, Hugo II, Whodunit?, and in 1992 a third installment, Hugo III, Jungle of Doom!. Nitemare 3-D, a game that came out in 1994, is arguably the fourth installment of the Hugo series, though Nitemare 3-D, instead of being an adventure game, is a Wolfenstein 3D clone, in which Hugo ventures into the haunted mansion to rescue Penelope by shooting enemies with various guns.