Ron Gilbert Ponders Monkey Island's Future Form

Karloff

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Ron Gilbert Ponders Monkey Island's Future Form



"I am not making another Monkey Island," says Gilbert. "I have no plans to make another Monkey Island." But ...

"It would be a retro game that harkened back to Monkey Island 1 and 2," says Ron Gilbert, maker of The Cave and, of course, the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood, wannabe pirate extraordinaire. Not that he's planning on making a sequel to his cult hit series Monkey Island. He makes that very clear, and in any event he no longer holds the rights [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120879-Creator-Wants-Monkey-Island-Back]. Owning the IP, incidentally, is item number 14 on his long list of things he would do if he ever got to make another Monkey Island - or as he would rather call it, Monkey Island 3a - but, for now, all Gilbert has is a 17-point wish list.

He'd rebuild SCUMM. "I'd build an engine and a language where funny ideas can be laughed about at lunch and be a game in the afternoon," Gilbert says. "SCUMM did that." He only wants a small team, of 10 or less, crafting a game with pure monkey love. Full voiced monkey love, for that matter, with enhanced low-res graphics, just enough to make it look good without getting bogged down in 3D. Even so, it wouldn't be the Monkey Island 3 he was going to make in 1992. "I could never make that game now," says Gilbert. "It is lost to time."

Dialogue puzzles and hardcore adventure game trickery, with a full-on inventory; these are a few of Gilbert's favorite things, but he acknowledges that this sort of gaming is more for the enthusiast than the mass market. Verbs shall be forbidden in the new utopia, and also game journalists, which may mean that journalists are secretly verbs in disguise. "The press won't get advanced copies," says Gilbert, "I feel they should play it at the same time you do."

"I hope they won't be mad at me," he adds. "My Metacritic score hopes they won't be mad at me."

But most important of all is point 17: it will be the game that Gilbert wants to make. He doesn't want the pressure of trying to make something for the fans; he'd rather just vanish into his own creation for a while, and let things take shape as they will. Not that any of this is going to happen - his first two points make that very clear - but if it did, he promises we'd love the game that would result.

Maybe we would. Only time, and a fair amount of luck, will tell.

Source: Grumpy Gamer [http://grumpygamer.com/5777333]


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Milanezi

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DVS BSTrD said:
I'm not saying Ron Gilbert wants to make another Monkey Island
But he wants to make another Monkery Island.
That. And as long as it's Monkey Island, at least as far as I matter, it would be fan service hahah I love Monkey Island. I don't think he's great enough to say "he would do his thing and people would love it" it's not like he is a Renaissance painter or something...
 

SonicWaffle

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Milanezi said:
DVS BSTrD said:
I'm not saying Ron Gilbert wants to make another Monkey Island
But he wants to make another Monkery Island.
That. And as long as it's Monkey Island, at least as far as I matter, it would be fan service hahah I love Monkey Island. I don't think he's great enough to say "he would do his thing and people would love it" it's not like he is a Renaissance painter or something...
I dunno, the fourth Monkey Island put me right off my beloved franchise. I always loved the series, but for me that game was a real coffin nail. Using the keyboard rather than the mouse? No.

No.

NO.

Developers, go sit in the corner and think about what you did.
 

Milanezi

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SonicWaffle said:
Milanezi said:
DVS BSTrD said:
I'm not saying Ron Gilbert wants to make another Monkey Island
But he wants to make another Monkery Island.
That. And as long as it's Monkey Island, at least as far as I matter, it would be fan service hahah I love Monkey Island. I don't think he's great enough to say "he would do his thing and people would love it" it's not like he is a Renaissance painter or something...
I dunno, the fourth Monkey Island put me right off my beloved franchise. I always loved the series, but for me that game was a real coffin nail. Using the keyboard rather than the mouse? No.

No.

NO.

Developers, go sit in the corner and think about what you did.
Lol, yeah, I enjoyed that game, but I know what you mean, although I played it on a PS2 (worst loading time of the gen...). Telltale's episodes were pretty weak (meaning NOT FUNNY) as well in my opinion, Monkey Island 1 & 2 and Curse of Monkey Island are just jewels in my game collection :)
 

Ayjona

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Karloff said:
He'd rebuild SCUMM. "I'd build an engine and a language where funny ideas can be laughed about at lunch and be a game in the afternoon," Gilbert says. "SCUMM did that." He only wants a small team, of 10 or less, crafting a game with pure monkey love. Full voiced monkey love, for that matter, with enhanced low-res graphics, just enough to make it look good without getting bogged down in 3D.
This, I believe, would be the most significant consequence of this game that we are never going to see. A modern descendant of SCUMM, perhaps one that can be cheaply licensed to small-time and indie adventure game makers (kinda like the mobile Unreal Engine licensing terms and pricing), might do wonders for the small and emergent point-n-click adventure game rennaisance that is spreading across mobile devices and desktop platforms right now (primarily thanks to Telltale, but they are certainly not the only ones. Quest for Glory and King's Quest remakes and sequels, Fester Mudd from Replay, Hector: Badge of Carnage from Straandlooper, HD remakes of Monkey Island 1 and 2, and a host of old point-n-clicks released to mobile app stores, from Beneath a Steel Sky and Broken Sword to Inherit the Earth and Simon the Sorcerer).
 
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Wait a moment. He's suggesting we'd absolutely love a game that's never going to be made?
Sounds a bit like the amazing woman in my imagination. I'd totally love her if she existed too o.o
 

Ayjona

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DVS BSTrD said:
I'm not the one who said that. That's was the OP.
The Escapist forum backend will have to take full responsibility for that ;) I pressed "Quote" above the top post, the original article, and had an empty comment field (no quote tag from any of your posts lying about in the reply field).