The 7th Guest

The 7th Guest, published in 1993 by Virgin Games, is a video-based puzzle computer game, not unlike The Fool's Errand, and predating Myst. It was one of the first computer video games to be released only on CD-ROM. Seventh Guest is a horror story told from the unfolding perspective of the player, as an amnesiac. The game received a great amount of press attention for making video clips a core part of gameplay, for its unprecedentedly large amount of 3D rendered graphics, and for its adult—that is, horror—content.

Description

Old Man Stauf built a house, and filled it with his toys.
Six guests all came one night, their screams the only noise.
Blood inside the library, blood right up the halls.
Dripping down the attic stairs, where the last guest did fall.
No one knows what happened next, no one is left to say,
But if you should see Old Man Stauf, get on your knees and pray!

The story revolves around a man named Henry Stauf. (Appropriate for a game of puzzles, Stauf is itself an anagram for Faust.) Stauf was a drifter and thief, robbing gas stations and grocery stores, until he became a murderer one night in the early 20th century, according to the opening introductory movie. He killed a woman named Grace Willet, who was coming home from choir practice. Stauf killed her with a blow to the head, took her purse, and ran, further secluding himself.

He arrived in the fictional town of Harley-on-the-Hudson, where the story takes place. He lived in isolation until one day he had a vision. His vision was of a doll so perfect that it had to be a gift. Voices spoke to him, telling him exactly what he needed to do. He carved the doll, whittling the haunting face until it was an exact replica of his vision. When he was done, Stauf went to town, to a bar. The owner had a daughter - he said his girl would love the strange doll, so Stauf offered it to the man. The bartender, in turn, offered Stauf food, and a place to stay - a workspace in which to fashion more of his magnificent toys. A simple transaction - the first of many. Stauf opened up a shop, because everyone wanted a Stauf toy. Every boy and girl in town, and all the neighboring towns. "A Stauf Toy Is A Toy For Life," people said. No two were alike. Everyone loved his unique toys. Henry Stauf grew wealthy. But then the virus came - and some of the children started dying, clutching their Stauf toys until the end. And there was one last vision, a new message from the voices, one last dream of a house that the wealthy toymaker was to build. A strange house, a house that scared people .... One night Stauf invited six guests to come to his mansion. He promised them things, their hearts' most secret desires...

The game begins with six prominent civic figures invited to come to Stauf's ominous mansion for the night with the promise that their hearts' greatest desires would come true if they did what he asked. He would not tell them what he wanted, however, only that it had something to do with another "very special guest" who hadn't arrived yet. They had to figure the rest out on their own by solving Stauf's games and puzzles. None of them knew, however, that Stauf was playing a deadly game of his own...

The idea of a mad toymaker using his creation to wreak havoc bears a resemblance to that of Halloween III.

The identity of the "7th Guest" is Tad, a young boy who sneaks into Stauf's house during the night and ends up trapped inside. Clues that Stauf gradually reveals to the 6 guests through his puzzles indicate that they should find the boy and bring him to Stauf.

It is ultimately revealed that Stauf and the House are turning into a demonic entity, using the souls Stauf has stolen from the town's children. Stauf needs the final soul, Tad's, to complete the transformation.

4 of the guests align themselves with Stauf, and attempt to capture Tad and bring him to Stauf so that Stauf will grant them their deepest desires. 2 of the guests align themselves with Tad, and try to help him evade the other guests and escape Stauf's clutches. In the end, the guests are killed either by each other or the house itself, with the final guest bringing Tad before Stauf only to have Stauf reward her with a quick death.

However, at this point Ego reveals himself, encouraging Tad to fight Stauf. After a brief spiritual skirmish, Stauf dissolves into a skeleton and is sucked into a hellhole, while Tad's spirit is freed and thanks Ego for helping him.

Cast and Characters

Henry Stauf (actor Robert Hirschboeck)- The owner of the mansion in which the game takes place. Stauf was a homeless drifter who became a successful toymaker after a series of visions showed him the toys he would create, but the people of Harley know nothing of his past. They only know him as the eccentric old man who makes marvelous toys for their children and became a hugely successful "rags to riches" story.

Ego (voice of Michael Mish)- The player's character, a disembodied consciousness that moves through the house solving puzzles and observing the events of that mysterious night at Stauf's house as they unfolded long ago. The entire game takes place in first-person view through Ego's eyes. Ego does not know how he came to the house, or why, he only knows that there is a reason for him to be there that he hasn't figured out yet.

Tad (actor Douglas Knapp) - A boy who lives next door to the Stauf mansion. On the night of the party he enters the house on a dare by climbing in through a window, then discovers that he can't get out again. He spends most of the game dodging Stauf's guests while he tries to find a way to escape the house.

Towards the end of the game, it is revealed that the aforementioned Ego is, in fact, the spirit of Tad in an older guise, having been trapped in the Stauf mansion in his own personal purgatory and made to relive the events of the seven guests' gathering, with his only means of escape being the puzzles laying throughout the house. It is implied that, by the time chronicled at the game's prologue, Ego has spent several years -- possibly even decades -- trying to help Tad (and by proximity, himself) escape, but consistently failed to meet Stauf's challenges. Whether Ego was subjected to the same series of puzzles in his past incarnations as is presented in the game, is unknown.

Edward and Elinor Knox (Guests one and two) (actors Larry Roher and Jolene Patrick)- An older, married couple. Elinor is a decent woman who still loves her husband and seems to want to help the boy, Tad, as much as she can. Edward is having severe financial difficulties, and he shows little love or concern for his wife, instead teaming up with the younger Martine Burden to try to solve the mystery. His greatest desire is to start over with a new life, a full bank account, and no marriage tying him down. Her desire is also to start over again, but with Edward still at her side.

Martine Burden (Guest three) (actress Debra Ritz Mason)- Young, pretty, and ambitious, Martine was once named Miss Harley-on-the-Hudson, but she hated the small town and left as soon as she had the chance. Now she is back after her wealthy boyfriend dumped her. She is immediately attracted to the older Edward Knox, whose desires for wealth and a new life away from Elinor are quite compatible with her own desires for power and status.

Brian Dutton (Guest four) (actor Michael Pocaro)- A middle-aged man who walks with a cane. Dutton owns a shop in Harley-on-the-Hudson and has sold goods to Henry Stauf. Brian admires the way Stauf had grown wealthy and the way he had solved his own problems, and his greatest desire is to be as successful as Stauf, but he is also haunted by memories of seeing his brother fall through thin ice and drown when he was a child.

Julia Heine (Guest five) (actress Julia Tucker)- An older woman, and quite vain. She is unhappy with her life, recently lost her job at the bank, and has developed a fondness for drinking sherry in the afternoons. Her heart's desire is to be young and beautiful again, when she felt like she could take on the world.

Hamilton Temple (Guest six) (actor Ted Lawson)- A professional stage magician nearing the end of his career, he is a kindly man who also tries to help Tad, and he gets along well with Elinor Knox. His greatest desire is to know if there is such a thing as real magic, and if there is, can Stauf give him the ability to use it?

Production Team

Graeme Devine Lead Programmer, Designer and Founder
Rob Landeros Art Director and Founder
Dave Luehmann Producer
Robert Stein III Lead Artist / Animator, Design
Gene Bodio freelance 3D artist
Alan Iglasias freelance 3D artist
Matthew Costello freelance Writer
The Fat Man Music

Gameplay

The game is played by wandering the mansion, solving logic puzzles and watching videos that further the story along. Stauf is an ever-present menace, taunting you with clues, mocking you as you fail his puzzles ("We'll all be dead by the time you solve this!"), and expressing displeasure when you succeed ("Don't think you'll be so lucky next time!"). A moderately complex plot of manipulation and sin is played out by surprisingly talented actors through film clips as you progress between rooms by solving twenty-one puzzles of shifting nature and increasing difficulty. The first puzzles most players encounter is either a one where players must select the right interconnected letters inside the lens of a telescope to form a coherent sentence ("There is no possible way"); or a relatively simple cake puzzle, where the player has to divide the cake evenly into six pieces, each containing two skull and two headstone decorations. Other puzzles include mazes, chess problems, logical deductions, Simon-style pattern-matching, word manipulations, and even an extremely difficult game of Othello that utilizes an AI (and would later go on to make an encore appearance in the sequel). For players who need help or simply can't solve a particular puzzle, there is a hint book in one room of the house. The first two times it is consulted about a puzzle it gives clues about how to solve it, the third time it simply completes the puzzle for you so that you can go on with the game. Overuse of the hint book, however, leads to certain rooms of the house being locked, thus making it impossible to complete the game.

The 7th Guest was the first game for the PC platform to be available only on CD-ROM, since it was too large to be distributed on floppy disks: it came on 2 CDs. Removing some of the large movies and videos obviously wasn't an option, as they were essential to the gameplay. This game, along with LucasArts' Rebel Assault and Brøderbund's Myst, helped promote the adoption of CD drives, which were not yet common.

The Music of T7G

The second disc of the CD-ROM set included a very large single audio track playable on any regular CD player. In total, the track was over an hour long and it included both the in-game music, composed by already leading video game musician The Fat Man, and two live music recordings: "The Game", whose melody in various permutations and stylistic variations became the background music for most of the game (as well as the theme for a piano puzzle) and whose lyrics were based on Stauf's twisted plot, and "Skeletons in My Closet", a jazzy tune with a female lead voice which was the ending-credits theme.

Legacy

A sequel, The 11th Hour, was released, along with a collection of puzzles from both games called Uncle Henry's Playhouse. A novel based on the 7th Guest was also released, with details and scenes that were unable to be included into the game.

An official third installment was started at Trilobyte, but was never completed due to the demise of the company. Rob Landeros also attempted to create an official third installment, titled The Collector, in which the user does not return to the Stauf Mansion, but is instead taken to a musem in which Henry Stauf, now known as "Doktor Stauf", is the curator. The game was to be developed by Lunny Interactive For a time, they had a working demonstration available for public viewing. However, the demonstration has since been taken down, and the project is assumed to be dead. The design document for The Collector may still be found here [http://www.roblanderos.com/collector/

An unofficial third installment is in development as of this writing (Dec 2005), titled The 13th Doll ^*. It is being developed by fans of the original series, who became tired of waiting for an official third installment. The developers are spread out across the globe, but most are based out of Europe and the United States. When completed, the game will be available free of charge to the public.

The birth of a company

The 7th Guest was the brainchild of game designer/graphic artist Rob Landeros and a Virgin MasterTronics programmer, Graeme Devine. When Landeros and Devine presented their idea for the game, they were promptly "fired" so that they could start their own company, Trilobyte, dedicated solely to the development of this game. They originally intended to create the movements through the mansion using video. 3D graphics and animation were introduced to the title early in '91 when Robert Stein III[http://www.rs3art.com joined the team. Trilobyte developed the game and went on to produce the sequel, with Landeros as game designer and Devine as the lead programmer. Unfortunately, The 11th Hour had trouble overcoming some technical hurdles and was late to market. Despite high presales due to the success and popularity of The 7th Guest, the sequel sold much less than the expected sales numbers. This was due to several factors: the game was designed for DOS when Windows 95 was already available and popular, causing many people to call in frustration trying to get the game to work; inferior puzzles compared to The 7th Guest; and the music was MIDI and not WAV.

Rob Landeros developed a game called TLC, Tender Loving Care but, to the dismay of Devine (who found out about its content well into development), had a considerable amount of adult themes. The company folded before TLC could be released. The interactive game was subsequently published by Aftermath Media. Before Trilobyte's demise they released two additional game titles, Clandestiny and Uncle Henry's Playhouse. The latter a comical twist of Henry Stauf's devious puzzles.

A third 7th Guest game was on the drawing board, but very little of it was worked on before the company went under. It is currently under development by fans world-wide calling the new installment The 13th Doll, soon to be released as public domain software.

Trivia

The creators came up with the idea for the game after watching an episode of Twin Peaks in an airport bar. The initial idea was to create a game based on the show.
Although released for DOS first, it was later ported for Windows. The versions are not identical, however, since the Windows version had several changes made to some puzzles, making them easier.

External links

Haunted Glory: The Rise and Fall of Trilobyte - Detailed article that goes into the making of the 7th Guest, the 11th Hour, and what went on in the company.
The Stauf Mansion - Detailed information on the games, the planned third part of the series, and rare test animations by Trilobyte.
Unofficial arrangements (ReMixes) of The 7th Guest's soundtrack at OverClocked ReMix, one of which was created by the game's composer, The Fat Man.
The 7th Guest III: The Thirteenth Doll (fangame)
The Making of The 7th Guest (article contains video)