Designed as a sequel to the first two games – The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge – the new game is released by Devolver Digital in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games. It also brings back original co-writer Dave Grossman and LucasArts composers Michael Land, Michael McConnell and Clint Bajakian. Co-creator Tim Schafer – who manages Microsoft Double Fine – is not coming back. On Twitter, Gilbert said that his development studio Terrible Toybox has been working on the game for 2 years “in complete secrecy”. Introducing Return to Monkey Island, a new Ron Gilbert game that starts where Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge stopped. pic.twitter.com/frkrN1OLXD – Return Digital (@returndigital) April 4, 2022 We do not have more information about the game than is included in the short teaser trailer above, but we do have a 2013 blog post by Gilbert in which he presented his ideas for a new game in the series. At the time, he said he would like it to be “a retro game coming back to Monkey Island 1 and 2” and specifically ignore the facts of each game in the series after the second – and since this game follows LeChuck’s game Revenge, it seems, may have gotten his wish. His other ideas at the time included making it a “hard-core adventure game” with no lessons, no hint systems, no puzzle or catering to the mass market, or modernization. In addition, he wanted retro art but with modern material (to help the team do what Lucasarts could not do in the 1990s), a “full stock”, a physical version, a dialogue puzzle with no verbs used for commands. He also said he would like to rebuild the SCUMM engine of the original, among other things. Return to Monkey Island follows a series of works that appear to return to classic franchises from Disney’s Lucasfilm Games – including Indiana Jones, many new Star Wars works, and more. This is not the first time Monkey Island has bred its skeletal head after receiving an extended Easter Egg in the Sea of Thieves Pirates of the Caribbean briefing. We spoke with Lucasfilm Games about the project last year, which said the idea was to work with developers to make their dream games with Disney IP. Given that Gilbert has publicly stated that he would like to buy the franchise from Disney, he may have thought it was the next best option. Joe Skrebels is the Executive Editor of IGN News. Follow him on Twitter. Do you have a tip for us? Do you want to discuss a possible story? Send email to [email protected]
