“All games after Monkey Island 2 do not exist in my Monkey Island universe“, had decreed Ron Gilbert in 2013, at a time when the author of Maniac Mansion, The Cave and Thimbleweed Park imagined never having the opportunity to reconnect with the license of Lucasfilm Games, but had nevertheless spent time time to draw the outline of what “his” Monkey Island 3 would be. And a few years later, the man kept his word: Return to Monkey Island will begin exactly as he had envisioned it for years, namely from the memorable and enigmatic end of Monkey Island 2imagined more than 30 years ago.
“One of the really important things for me was that I wanted the game to start at the end of Monkey Island 2, when you enter the amusement park. I wanted the game to start there. I don’t want to go into all the details, but we start there, and then there’s a lot of weird twists and turns as you might expect from us“, confirms Ron Gilbert. To explain to everyone what it is all about, it is best to use the terms of Julien Pirou in his Retro Island dedicated to the series:
“This confrontation leads to a bizarre and confusing ending, which some have compared to the endings of Brazil or Twin Peaks. We discover that LeChuck and Guybrush would actually be two children, two brothers playing pirates in an amusement park… or not? In short, a real brain reversal, open to multiple interpretations. And since Ron Gilbert left Lucasarts soon after to found his own company, Humongous Entertainment, and therefore didn’t make his own Monkey Island 3 to answer the questions left hanging, many gamers were left a little wary.“
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From his wish list of 2013, Ron Gilbert conceded a few deviations, the first being to have returned to Monkey Island without being in possession of the franchise as he would have liked. Failing to be able to buy Disney, the author was satisfied to find sufficient creative freedom. The opportunity fans have been dreaming of came during PAX 2019, during a chat with Devolver Digital’s Nigel Lowrie, himself close to former PlayStation John Drake who had just been named VP of in charge of adaptations of Disney licenses in video games. The spark was therefore born before the start of the pandemic and it was in December 2019 that Ron Gilbert began to discuss the project with his fellow author Dave Grossman to seriously discuss what a new Monkey Island would be.
Some may be wondering what Ron Gilbert has been up to professionally in the three years since the release of Thimbleweed Park and the start of the project Return to Monkey Island. We learn that the author had started working on an RPG for a year, but never arrived at something satisfactory. The project was therefore abandoned even if Ron Gilbert does not rule out coming back to it once the page Return to Monkey Island tour. As for Dave Grossman, he was beginning to find the time long at Earplay and jumped at the chance after hearing the magic words “Monkey Island”, his enthusiasm even helping to chase away the few doubts and worries of Ron Gilbert.
While Terrible Toybox (the name of Ron Gilbert’s studio), Devolver Digital and Lucasfilm Games have kept it perfectly secret all this time, the fact is that the development of Return to Monkey Island is coming to an end, with the game expected in 2022. According to Ron Gilbert, the development team numbered 25 at peak production, with that number now down as the bulk of the work has been completed. The development of Return to Monkey Island required more artists and animators compared to Thimbleweed Park, whose workforce did not exceed 14 people, recalls Ron Gilbert. The budget was also larger and all team members made the game remotely, setting a limit of 40 hours per week. With some overflows but no crunchwe promise.
Candid from start to finish, the interview also tells us how Rex Crowle, former key element of Media Molecule where he notably directed the memorable Tearaway, found himself at the helm of the artistic direction of Return to Monkey Island not thanks to its fame in the video game industry but thanks to a fan creation made 15 years ago:
“He had made a version of Guybrush in blocks, and he sent it to me a long time ago, in 2007 or 2008. I remember he sent it to me, and I had no idea who he was, just some guy sending me fanart. I really liked it and made it my wallpaper for a long time. When I started thinking about Secret of Monkey Island, I was reminded of how striking that image was. So I started googling his name and found he had done Knights and Bikes and some other stuff I didn’t know existed. Then I emailed him“, says Ron Gilbert.
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