Navigating the seas of change with Return to Monkey Island's Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman
The revival of LucasArts' Monkey Island series with Return to Monkey Island has come as a pleasant surprise. The last game, Tales from Monkey Island, came out in 2009. Its developer Telltale Games, was shuttered in 2018. There've been few, if any, signs that the series would make a comeback.
Cut this past April, when Gilbert and series co-writer Dave Grossman announced they’d been clandestinely working on the sixth game in the series for the past two years. The project brings with it the return of many of the team members who had made the original games, including voice actors Dominic Armato, Alexandra Boyd, Danny Delk (Guybrush Threepwood, Elaine, and Murray the Talking Skull), and composers Michael Land, Peter McConnell, and Clint Bajakian.
Though the Monkey Island games are still beloved by players and developers alike, so much has changed since the series was in its heyday. At PAX West 2022, I sat down with Gilbert and Grossman to discuss this fresh chapter in the Monkey Island world. In making the sequel, the pair chose to update the games' visuals, add new design techniques, and adapt the point-and-click format to work with controllers.
As they put it, you can still design new games for a classic-loving audience. Here's how.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
I was watching a really interesting GDC talk by some folks at Vicarious Visions, the team who handled Diablo II: Resurrected, who do a lot of remakes and remasters. They were saying that in order to appease a returning fanbase, there needs to be about a 70/30 split between old and new material.
I found that formula very interesting and wondered how much that resonates with you as you build this new game in a series with so many iconic
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