Hi everybody!

I just want to announce that I am working on my first custom mansion.

It will have some 200+ rooms and will be kind of old-school featuring pretty much everything from easy to suicide. The difference to other mansions will be that the total amount of gold you can get (500.000 $) is spread across a couple of big secret vault-areas. Problem: There wont be any hints as to where the secrets are. This means that if you do not find any secrets you will have to be careful because you will not get a lot of extra lives from the "legit" gold. On the other hand, as soon as you start finding secrets, dying wont be an issue anymore (We're talking serious extra-lives per vault here). This might sound boring, because the challenge of making it through the mansion alive will be gone after your got like 50 lives. But I never meant to build a mansion that actually kills Jack off. I like the little fella and I wouldn't want to see him dead  ;). The challenge in my mansion will be to find as many of the secrets as possible without checking the preview pics in the level-editor.

The whole thing also has a story. It takes place in Paris in 1789 and Jack Malone is plundering the palace of an aristocrat who just fled from the city because of the revolution. The aristocrat (a marquis) is kind of making fun of Jack in the beginning (via signs) and gets whinier and whinier later as Jack finds more and more secrets.

Well, of course it all sounds a bit vague right now. I just want to let you know that there is a big new mansion in progress. As soon as I feel like this is actually going to be ready soon, I'll post a screenshot.

If anyone already thinks he or she would like to beta the whole thing, let me know!  [smiley=laugh.gif]

Cheers,
Leo

Hi Leo,

Cool, finally a mansion where we don't have to panic that there aren't enough lives for Jack.

I would love to beta test the mansion for you.....perhaps, as you create the rooms?  Or when it's completely finished.

Hi Missy!

Thanks for volunteering! I'll let you know when the mansion is finished and then you can test it. I don't want to give it away while it is not complete. I hope you understand.

BTW: You might still die if you don't find the secrets...  ;)

Ciao, Leo

Hi everybody! I am still working on the mansion. I am testing it myself right now to correct some minor glitches. To keep you interested (I hope) here is a little screen-shot of the starting area.

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Beautiful! Looking forward to it.
8-)

[smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]Lovely palace! [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]I cant wait!

Hi Leo,

Wow !!!   What a screenshot!  It looks simply fantabulous, and such detail and design elements to come together as a beautiful French Palace; "Pompomrouge".  

For a first mansion, it appears to already be a masterpiece in the lay out !  Can't wait to get inside the palace, and feel like a Queen, with Jack as my Prince, hunting for those treasure vaults! 
                                                [smiley=bath.gif]

Thanks for the preview,

SandyBean [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

Hee, Hee Sandy Bean....you are sooo cute!

Yes indeed, the castle looks like a French Palace.  

I can't wait to do the beta testing!   [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

Thanks for the encouragement, you guys!

I just found out that if you play this mansion, you might want to pay attention whenever your lives go from 99 to 00, which might happen up to five times during the game. The problem is that the money is not concentrated at the very end of the game (although the real dough only starts to come in after you're halfway through), so you might find yourself coming out of a big-bucks-treasure vault and into an area rich with monsters and suddenly realize that you only have one or two lives. Yikes!

Well, thanks again for all your kind words. I am going to finish my beta-testing, remove all the glitches, do the fine-tuning for the design and then the whole thing is up for beta-ing!  :D

This looks beautiful Leo - looking forward to it! :D

Indeed. This looks absolutely breathtaking...!

It's hard to believe that this is a "first mansion".....   ;)   :o
This is really only the "starting section" ??

I hope it's gonna be released soon !?
And I'm looking forward to more mansions by Leo.

BTW, frost.... I'd love to see a new one from you one of these days...??!!

Aquamat: I swear this is my first mansion [smiley=engel017.gif]

I got the game about two years ago and first I did nothing but play all the mansions, normal or custom. I played around with the editor a bit but it seemed too complicated at that time. Well, this summer I had some time to kill and I finally made it happen: I started my first custom mansion and it will be finished soon!

Oh, apparently once your lives go from 99 to 00 the game remembers this and puts you back to 99 if you die while you are in the 00. I didn't know that. This pretty much turns "Palais Pompomrouge" into a cash-fest for people who know how to find secrets... A couple of rooms after the fourth safe pedestal skilled secret-hunters should find that dying is out of the question.

I've played the whole mansion twice now. It is possible to make it through every room without losing a life, even if some of them look rather hard or scary at first.

I still have to add one section of about 20 rooms, I still have to fix all the bugs and cheap deaths (no Jack Stuck so far, but I'm sure they'll pop up eventually) and I still have to put a finishing touch on the design. I expect the mansion to be up for Beta-testing before November. Sorry if this sound rather long for you guys, but this is my first mansion and I want it to be good and not a rush-job.

Thanks again for your feedback and the first positive reactions. This really gives me a needed boost to not lose enthusiasm so shortly before I reach the goal [smiley=dankk2.gif]

See y'all
Leo

Hi Leo,

You sound so excited and so you should be.  
November is just around the corner.  
If you ever need a pep talk to keep you going, just give us a post.  The forum members are very supportive, as you can see already.

[smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif] [smiley=vrolijk_26.gif] [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

Looks nice! Love the design, keep at it! :)

WOW really good design!! regards, this will be a nice mansion I think  8-)

Leo, this mansion is stunning. I also have to say I can't believe it's your first one! Very nice looking.

Hello to all my fellow MM players

I just finished the beta testing for this mansion.

I DO NOT want to elaborate with compliments for now,  for reasons of the play.

Hint: FORGET THAT THIS IS A FIRST CM.

This CM must be experienced by you all.

See, the slightest word will let the cat out of the bag.

All I can say at this point is:  PLAY THIS MANSION!

I will post my raves later, when I see by your posts that you are into this mansion.

Leo, be prepared to be very busy with posts!  hee,hee,hee!   [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif] [smiley=tekst-toppie.gif]

Wow!

Thanks for the nice review, Missy!

If this mansion will find the favor of the players out there, I'll continue with the sequel to "Palais Pompomrouge" right away, which will be called "Jacques Revenge". Accomplishing this sequel might take some time, which is why I am also working on a little fun mansion called "Bubbles" so you guys have something to do while waiting for the big one  ;)