Duckman: The Graphic Adventures of a Private Dick

Did You Know?

• The game contains about thirty locations.
• There are two ways to interact with a person: a normal way and an angry way.
• A version for the PlayStation was originally planned for early 1997.

Plot

Private detective Duckman becomes a celebrity and is about to star in his own TV show, abandoning his family. He is replaced by a more muscular, superhero-like Duckman. Rejected by his family, Duckman considers suicide, but his friend Cornfed urges him to reclaim his place. After humorous adventures, Duckman reaches the studio, confronts the impersonator—a robot—and destroys it. The plot culminates with Duckman opposing his arch-enemy King Chicken.

Development

The Illusions Gaming Company turned two major animated series into video games, one of which was Duckman: The Graphic Adventures of a Private Dick. The other was Beavis and Butt-Head in Virtual Stupidity. Initially called Duckman: The Legend of the Fall, the game’s artwork involved 10,000 hand-drawn frames spread across 80 scenes in 40 locations. Creative director Darren Bartlett said capturing the show’s humor was key, so the developers worked with the show’s writers to create the plot and its offbeat, non-sequitur dialogue. Most of the TV cast returned to voice their characters, but Jason Alexander did not reprise his role as Duckman. Producer Matt Seymour explained Alexander turned it down because the performance hurt his voice and the game had many more lines. Playmates Interactive showed the game at E3 1996.