Genuinely legendary game designer Ron Gilbert – whose works include the classic adventure game Monkey Island, the RTS Total Annihilation (as producer), and the term “cutscenes” – is making a new game.
The Terrible Toybox website describes it as “Classic Zelda meets Diablo meets Thimbleweed Park”, and one of the other people working on it is Elissa Black, co-designer and writer of the wonderful Objects In Space… who is also, I’ve just learned from her personal website, working on a retro 90s style turn-based spaceship command game influenced by the 1971 mainframe adaptation of Star Trek. Argh, so many good things in one article.
]]>I will hoover up any crumb about Return To Monkey Island I can find, no matter how small, so 43 seconds of new footage feels practically like a full meal. That's the length of a new clip shared by Ron Gilbert on Twitter, and it shows Guybrush exploring a snowy town as well as how Return's dialogue trees look for, I think, the first time.
]]>Monkey Island co-creator Ron Gilbert appears to have taken down his long-running blog today, after posting that he doesn’t feel he can share news about the upcoming Return To Monkey Island online anymore. While no longer there to view, VGC managed to capture Gilbert’s post on grumpygamer.com before the site became unavailable. You can see the new art style for yourself in the trailer below.
]]>Terrible Toybox have shared more of point’n’click adventure threequel reboot Return To Monkey Island today. It’s the first time we’ve got a good look at the third Monkey Island captained by Ron Gilbert in motion, but it had the weird honour of appearing during a Nintendo Direct. Have a watch of the trailer below.
]]>Last month's news that original creator Ron Gilbert is making a new Monkey Island is the surprise of the year so far. For Gilbert, his involvement has apparently brought a lot of comments, and an expectation that whatever he's making will line up with comments he's made over the past twenty years.
Not so, says Gilbert. On the subject of his previous comments, he says "None of these are promises or anything I owe anybody."
]]>My brain is slightly breaking with the news that: 1) a new Monkey Island game is coming; 2) it's led by Ron Gilbert, the designer of the first two piratical comedy adventure games; and 3) it's a direct sequel to Monkey Island 2, a game which already has a sequel. Remarkable news. Come watch the trailer announcing Return To Monkey Island.
]]>In celebration of The Secret Of Monkey Island's 30th birthday last month (30!), the Video Game History Foundation held a stream discussing the classic adventure game with boss man Ron Gilbert. That cost $10 to help support their preservation work, but after a few weeks they've made it free for everyone to watch. Seeing as the Foundation are well into the development of games, not just finished products, they also delve into cut content and even give a live demonstration of SCUMM coding. If you fight like a dairy farmer, this is for you.
]]>The gaming history buffs of the Video Game History Foundation have unveiled a new project called the "video game source project" for preserving content from game development. They're kicking it off by going to the human source of The Secret Of Monkey Island. On October 30th they'll be hosting an event where Ron Gilbert, one of the original creators, will dig into cut content and stories from yon old adventure game.
]]>We're all invited back to the strange town of Thimbleweed Park for a free new little spin-off. Over the weekend, Ron Gilbert and pals released Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure, a new story standalone story which grew out of a prototype for Gilbert's next game engine. And it's free for everyone to play, whether you own the original or not. And if you do want the original, that's discounted on sale right now too.
]]>Adventure game remakes are common. But not everyone likes to see their old favourites revived. Mitch Kocen asked veteran point-and-clickmen Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer, among others, when they think it’s OK to remaster the classics
Without intervention, every video game you have ever loved will eventually become unplayable. The technology that enables the next generation of games cripples the last. At some point, systems simply can’t run slowly enough to support games made decades prior. For many years, it wasn’t possible to (legally) play older games without digging out the old computer gathering dust in your basement. Fortunately, there is a resurgence of classic games on modern hardware. These re-releases often come with new (or improved) graphics and sound, and sometimes include the option to view the game in its original form. Yet some creators are concerned that these changes compromise the game’s original artistic vision.
]]>You can now play old-school arcade games within old-school adventure game Thimbelweed Park [official site]. Cool-a-reno. The town's arcade was previously just a facade, but now you can snoop inside and pop a token into such 8-bit delights as Meteor Menace, Space Slime and Die! Enemy Scumm!
But, like the rest of Thimbleweed Park, it's not quite as straightforward as you might hope. You'll have to solve puzzles to get access to those tokens, creator Ron Gilbert said on Twitter. The arcade is only available in the game's hard mode as well, so expect those puzzles to bend your mind.
]]>I'm constantly getting stuck in Thimbleweed Park [official site], the old-school adventure game from the creators of Maniac Mansion, Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick. I always seem to have an inventory full of loose popcorn, soot, a t-shirt and some dynamite with no clue as to how to combine them in order to get ice cream cake to a hungry ghost.
I thought I was just being dense, but it turns out that I'm not the only one who's had issues. Fans and critics have remarked that the game needed a hint system and the team has, somewhat reluctantly, obliged. And not just any old hint system: a proper hint hotline you can call from the in-game phones, reminiscent of the real gaming hint lines of the '80s.
]]>Thimbleweed Park [official site], the new adventure game from Maniac Mansion creators Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, finally has a release date. On March 30th, two-and-a-quarter years after the game's crowdfunding campaign ended, we'll be welcomed into the small town of Thimbleweed Park to investigate murder and other strange goings-on. It'll bring puzzles, chat, jokes, japes - y'know, stuff you'd broadly expect from the reunion of a pair of LucasArts adventure veterans.
]]>This week I've been tinkering with a preview build of Thimbleweed Park which is the point and click murder mystery from Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick (them off Maniac Mansion). I used to love playing point and click games when I was little - my siblings and I would play them together over weeks and weeks - but for me they feel so rooted in that time's technology and gamescape that I don't think I've found any of the modern revamps/revisits/reworks/riffs of interest. Thimbleweed Park's recent trailers did trigger a little frisson of curiosity though, and I've also been tasked with booting up The Dig by John for a new Game Swap. The result of all of this was an unexpected 2am conclusion about what point and clicks can learn from hidden object adventures.
]]>Thimbleweed Park [official site] - that's the point and click adventure game being spearheaded by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick of Maniac Mansion fame - has a new trailer. I've been curious about the game for a while and we've had some really interesting bits on the site about it, like Adam's interview with Gilbert at GDC. But this is the first time a trailer for it has stoked something other than that slightly distant professional interest:
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
There have been a lot of attempts to find a more modern form for the point-and-click adventure. The Cave has the benefit of being designed by Ron Gilbert, the creator of some of the best, with art and animation from the always-good-at-those-particular-things Double Fine.
]]>Thimbleweed Park [official site] - a sinister and quirky point and click from Maniac Mansion's Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick - has a trailer out to coincide with Gamescom. Adam went to see a demo of the game back in March and that focused around the playable character of celebrity clown, Ransome. This trailer takes a look at aspiring game developer and heiress Delores Edmund - another playable character - and gives a bit of background on the game's namesake:
]]>Yesterday, I spent forty five minutes with influential adventure game designer of yore Ron Gilbert. We played a portion of his point and click revival Thimbleweed Park and discussed adventure game design in depth. Many of my questions were inspired by Gilbert’s 1989 statement of intent, Why Adventure Games Suck. As Thimbleweed Park looks back to that time, it seemed appropriate to ask what has changed for the better. And for the worse.
A clown is scrubbing and clawing at his face, attempting to remove the pasty makeup and honking red nose that are the tools of his trade. He can’t. The clowning is no longer a costume, it has become his reality. Long live the new flesh.
]]>Thimbleweed Park [official site] is the upcoming point-and-click adventure from Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick that's billed as a "true spiritual successor" to the duo's 1987 classic Maniac Mansion. It's designed to emulate the LucasArts games of Way Back When, complete with black comedy and an instantly recognisable SCUMM-style interface, and now has a new trailer. Introducing Agent Ray:
]]>Broken Age was trapped between two posts: its need to satisfy the nostalgia of the people who funded it via Kickstarter, and its desire to be accessible and reach a modern audience. The former group seemed displeased with the results, which is maybe what's pushed Thimbleweed Park beyond its own $375,000 Kickstarter goal in just a week. It's from the creators of Maniac Mansion, Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, and they're creating a point and click adventure that feels like "opening a dusty old desk drawer and finding an undiscovered LucasArts adventure game you’ve never played before."
]]>Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the crowdfunding waters - the Old Men Of Videogames are back, and they want your cash so they can pick up where they left off. Again. This time it's Ron Gilbert & Garry Winnick, creators of Lucasarts point'n'click grandparent Maniac Mansion (not to mention a little game called Monkey Island), and they're after $375k to make a spiritual sequel named Thimbleweed Park.
]]>Well, this is slightly unexpected. Ron Gilbert's always kinda done his own thing, but sharing a colorful roof of pure, shining whimsy with partner in pirate-y crime Tim Schafer just sort of, you know, made sense. It is, however, like they say: all good things must come to an end. Also, The Cave was actually only kind of all right, so maybe this is for the best. But what's next for the man they call "RonnyG" (and I guess also Grumpy Gamer)? Solve a series of increasingly obtuse puzzles to get past the break for more. Hint: the first one involves clicking. And also a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle.
]]>We'd rather hoped to have brought you a review of Double Fine's The Cave by now, but unfortunately Sega only made 360 code available before release. And then to make matters dumb, despite its release date being today, and its being out today on 360, the Steam version has seemingly been set for the incorrect date, and is locked until tomorrow morning. Having already completed it twice on the consolebox, I'm in the frustrating position of wanting to tell you wot I think, but completely unable to advise you as to the state of the PC build. So while I hope this might get someone's attention and have the Steam build unlocked for everyone, below I'll give you a couple of lines of impressions and tell you to cross your legs.
]]>Wanna know what you usually find in caves? Bats. Awful, shrieky little things with webbed wings, beady eyes, and a thirst for that red stuff that sloshes around under your precious neckflesh. Also spiky ceiling rocks that could fall and cave in your head, and lots of unpleasantly cold water. But sometimes - every once in an eerily blue moon - you also find yourself. Or at least, that's what Ron Gilbert's talking cave argues in a new trailer, and who are we to disagree? Not caves, that's for sure - so probably not particularly qualified. But this cave also seems to know people, so what do I know? Probably nothing. Hear about the Adventurer, Knight, Time Traveler, and Twins in The Cave's learned, slightly sultry baritone after the break.
]]>The Cave is right around the corner. Well, not literally - unless you live inside a rocky outcropping in the frigid wildness or are being stalked by some kind of sentient, not-completely-immobile cave. But Ron Gilbert's Cave is rapidly nearing its January 2013 release date, and naturally, that raises questions. Fortunately, I was standing right next to the very same Ron Gilbert when those questions came up, so I decided to ask him. Find out after the break why - in spite of its platform-y looks - The Cave's a PC game at heart and how that ties into Gilbert's plans for whatever he ends up making next.
]]>I have been - to put it lightly - bothered by the fact that Ron Gilbert's The Cave only has seven playable characters. Six or nine, you see, would make each playthrough nice and clean - no character overlap. But seven? That's messy. I'll get juicy character development and thick, fibrous hunks of plot thread all over my shoes as I wade through The Cave's murky depths. It'll be gross. But why? What diabolical plan could Gilbert possibly have in store that would warrant such numerical absurdity? During PAX, I asked him about it, and he explained to me the grisly fates of two characters that didn't make the cut - as well as why he kind of really doesn't like DLC.
]]>Mr Ron Gilbert, inventor of clicking, has released a bunch more screenshots of his forthcoming adventure, The Cave. The existence of The Cave does seem something of an anomaly - Doublefine ran their famous Kickstarter campaign on the basis that publishers won't fund the development of adventure games. And almost simultaneously announced they're developing a new adventure game published by Sega. Huh. IS the sort of disguise as a platformer really that effective? You can take a look at how it's shaping up below.
]]>Yesterday, I had a chat with the first half of Ron Gilbert about his upcoming descent into madness (and in the game), The Cave. Shortly after, the other half of Ron Gilbert teetered awkwardly into the room, so I decided to speak with it as well. In this very special non-Cave-flavored episode, we discuss goofy adventure game logic, the ups and downs of being inextricably tied to a legendary hit like Monkey Island, leaving a legacy, rebelling against that legacy, and kids games like the secretly-completely-rad Pajama Sam. Also Diablo III for some reason. The thrilling conclusion's after the break.
]]>You should be excited about The Cave. It is, after all, Monkey Island maestro Ron Gilbert's latest brainchild and - startling revelation that brains can have children aside - it looks to be a pleasant reminder that Double Fine's far, far more than just a one-trick Kickstarter pony. Also, and I can't stress this enough, the cave talks. So, after seeing it in action last week, I crept back into Double Fine's offices for a nice, long chat with Gilbert himself, who - much like your average magical cave - also talks. There, we discussed the game's parentage (Is Maniac Mansion the father? Shocking reveal on page 17), real life inspirations, why there's an odd number of main characters, the Cave's voice, and the reason Gilbert can never go on a whirlwind tour of the world's finest caves. Oh, and more, of course.
]]>I recently got to see Ron Gilbert's latest slice of adventure platformer mania, The Cave, in action. It was pretty great. I mean, characters walked and jumped and moved - as though propelled ever onward by the invisible hand of fate or the very visible hand of someone holding a controller. You should've been there. But since you weren't, I desperately struggled to find a way to best relay that experience back to you. At first, my preview was a bunch of screenshot cut-outs glued to popsicle sticks, and then I fiddled with tiny felt finger puppets. Alas, however, it just wasn't the same. But then Double Fine released this trailer. Madness, I thought. How could a mere video beat the fully 3D, impossibly high-def and immersive experience of a finger puppet? But you know what? It sort of works. Given time, these things might even catch on.
]]>Really, there are only two things you need to know about Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion mastermind Ron Gilbert's The Cave: 1) It takes place inside a talking cave. 2) The cave is mysterious. And a bit sultry. "Welcome," the Cave said as the demo began. "Don't let my sultry and mysterious voice startle you." Meanwhile, when asked about the titular magic rock formation's overall role in the game's proceedings, Gilbert chimed in: "He's kinda mysterious. Sultry, too,"
OK, maybe there's a bit more to it than that. Here are the basics: there are seven characters, each of whom has ventured to a time-and-space-transcending cave to "learn something about themselves and who they might become." So yeah, Mr Cave (whose last name is hopefully not "Johnson" - that could get confusing) gets top billing, but this is a game first and foremost about those seven - with backgrounds ranging from Medieval knight to time-traveler. So you pick any three, descend into the depths of their respective madnesses (and, you know, a cave), and leap between them to advance through an interconnected Metroidvania-style world. Appearances, however, can be deceiving, so here's the bit that should have you jumping for nostalgic joy: "It is an adventure game," said Gilbert, quickly pocketing an entire bucket in-game. "You want to pick up everything you can."
]]>For the longest time, Double Fine's been hinting at a "secret project" heralding from the gleefully demented brain of Monkey Island veteran Ron Gilbert. But what could it be? A truly next-gen oven mitt? Bread that butters other bread, which in turn butters it back? A bluetooth headset that doesn't make you look like you deserve to be crushed by a phone factory? Turns out, it's definitely better than all of those things put together, even though I have no earthly idea what it is yet. I mean, look at that image. Apparently, Game Informer had to assemble it from separate, smaller images. This, I am certain, could revolutionize gaming - provided, of course, Double Fine includes a 37-step tutorial explaining that the small pieces aren't for eating. I always mess that part up.
]]>John spent this weekend glowing after interviewing Tim Schafer on Friday evening. He's listening to it right now, so he can make text zaps for your eye goo. But that's this afternoon-ish. In the here and now I have an interview, the first in a series it seems, by Double Fine's Tim talking to Double Fine's Grumpy Gilbert about a genre of game called "Adventure". It was filmed before the Kickstarter madness propelled their old-school 2D adventure game upwards, so it's rather humble and nice. I expect the next video to be shot in 3D on a beach, with Tim reclined in a sun lounger while George Clooney reads out the questions and instructs the interviewee to not look directly at Tim. Until that day, here's everyday Tim and Ron talking about adventure games, in the Double Fine offices.
]]>Double Fine's Kickstarter (currently wobbly under the weight of money), the planned month-long fund raise for $400,000, has just crossed $1,000,000 in the first 24 hours. One. Million. Dollars. In a day.
I know it's crazy, but it kind of makes me a bit teary-eyed.
]]>Well this is quite the thing. While we're all in the middle of crossing our fingers, legs and internal organs in the hope that Mojang and Double Fine will find a way to fund a sequel to Psychonauts, Schafer's company have surprised us by announcing they're seeking funding for another dream project - a new "old school" graphic adventure game from Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert. You know - two guys of the three guys who wrote Monkey Island. The team that led to some of the greatest adventures ever made. Please squee now. And now they're trying out a Kickstarter to make it happen.
]]>Obviously we've known that Ron Gilbert has been working with/at Tim Schafer's Double Fine for over a year now, but ON WHAT we'd regularly scream at the sky. Then Double Fine revealed they were basically ignoring the PC for all their games, and we crossed them out of our Christmas lists and spank banks, and got on with our lives. Then they threw us all by releasing Costume Quest on PC, raising hopes that further projects will also reach our shores. So it is that I hold hope in my belly that this Gilbert/Schafer project will be adorned by my PC. Because apparently it's an idea that predates even Maniac Mansion.
]]>The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is not the only game Hothead is currently working on, it transpires. Those man-fellas and lady-fellas are also turning their attentions to a third DeathSpank game. DeathSpank is, you might recall, the creation of former Lucas Arts heroman Ron Gilbert; he's now reunited with former colleague Tim Schafer at Doublefine, with Hothead confirming to Kotaku that the 'Spank will be entirely their own work. It is called The Baconing, it is promised to be major improvement upon the first two games, and it features (in fine, crappy superhero comic tradition) The Anti-Spank.
]]>Which isn't much of a story, until Kotaku reveal that the staffmember is in fact Ron "Monkey Island" Gilbert, being hired by Tim "Monkey Island" Schafer. The interview is really worth reading for the gags alone, but basically Gilbert was working in the Double Fine office (As he hates working from Home) and Schafer offered him the gig to make what they were talking about. This fits neatly into Doublefine's current many-small-games biz plan. RPS will look forward to the announcement of the game, doing several posts until the fact it's a console exclusive is revealed and then rolling our eyes and wondering why we bother writing about Double Fine when they bit our pretty red heart in two, Daddy, Daddy, You Bastard, etc.
]]>1UP only have a bloody exclusive, so we're going to have to link to them. Curse them and their exclusives and their fashionable haircuts. They're doing a week of DeathSpank coverage starting with a preview, including the aforementioned screens. Ron Gilbert does an Adventure Game/Action-RPG cross-breed based on an office running joke which just wouldn't stop. I'm excited by this. More of this kind of thing. And more when we know anything which isn't based on 1UP's bloody exclusive. Bloody 1UP.
]]>File under 'so pointless it's brilliant'. Via Ron Gilbert (one of the minds behind Monkey Island, and currently working on DeathSpank), one enterprising Spanish LucasArts fan's DIY The Secret of Monkey Island Converse trainers:
]]>Ron "Grumpy Gamer" Gilbert's forthcoming DeathSpank has been quiet for a while. But now, all of a sudden, we have three teaser trailers to enjoy. Or be completely confused by. The game, which he says is coming out in 2009, has a booth at PAX, but there's no need to travel all the way there when you can watch the videos below.
]]>During GDC, gaming uber-blog Joystiq had the rather splendid idea of asking adventure game developers to solve their own "obnoxious" adventure-style puzzle. The victims were Ron Gilbert, Steve Purcell, Mike Stemmle, Eric Wolpaw, and Ragnar Tørnquist. Each solves the challenge - getting past a robot bear to enter a cave - in their own distinct style, and they're all worth a read. And then along comes Tim Schafer.
]]>The very moment we heard the news that Ron Gilbert had upped sticks to Canada, become Creative Director of Hothead, and announced his new game, we leapt upon him for more details. More details we have, in our exclusive chat with the brains behind your favourite adventure experiences. We discuss his new job, get some juicy details on his new game, DeathSpank, the role adventure games can play today, and the merits of episodic gameplay. And find out who Grimtub Hobblepotty is.
RPS: Congratulations on the new job. Can you tell us what you'll be doing as a Creative Director?
Ron Gilbert: First of all, it's great to be at Hothead, I could not be more thrilled. My job will be to oversee the creative aspects of the games, with most of my focus on the game designs and working closely with the designers.
RPS: What was it about Hothead that drew you toward them? We mean, beyond their agreeing to publish your game...
RG: I got to know the people here while I was consulting on the Penny Arcade game and I was really impressed with their indie spirit and how they looked at games. They were really into ideas and concepts that were different and "creative". They loved the strange satirical humor of DeathSpank and got it right away. We hit it off quickly and I realized I'd be able to make DeathSpank the way it needed to be made with them.
]]>The hero of a generation of gamers, Mr Ron "Monkey Island" Gilbert, has announced his new game, and the publisher who'll be distributing it.
Ready?
DeathSpank Episode 1: Orphans of Justice.
It's an "RPG Adventure", featuring a character from the short-lived Grumpy Gamer cartoons. Gilbert explains,
"I called up Tim Schafer and said "Loan me a desk, I have a game to design!" and I proceeded to crank out what can only be called the perfect melding of a Monkey Island style adventure game with the wicked RPG game play of Diablo. Clayton [Kauzlaric] and I got together and banged the kicks out, slapped some meat on the characters and tightened up our story and world, and damn it, we had a design you could cook an egg on."
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