Ron Gilbert Opposes Fans; Return to Monkey Island Won't be Retro
Ron Gilbert responded to comments from fans who were hoping for old-school, full of „juicy pixels” visuals in Return to Monkey Island.
It's hard to put into words the enthusiasm of adventure game fans when they heard about the return of the Monkey Island series.. Especially since the new game is the responsibility of none other than Ron Gilbert himself.
Although the enthusiasm of players was widespread, part of the community had a complaint about one element - the visuals. Apparently some were hoping for pixel art graphics in the style of another game created by Ron Gilbert (Thimbleweed Park) and - above all - classic installments of Monkey Island itself.
Some people were even under the illusion that the developers would include an option to switch to more old-school visuals. Especially since years ago Gilbert himself told about "an inventory with icons full of big, juicy pixels."
Those hopes were dashed after the publication of a new post on the Grumpy Gamer Blog. Ron Gilbert made it clear that Return to Monkey Island is not a retro game. Yes, at first the creator discussed the use of pixel art with Dave Grossman, but he's been reluctant to do so from the start, and is saddened by critical comments about the new visuals.
Monkey Island is future, not retro
Gilbert explained that in his opinion Monkey Island is a series that is "moving forward." Even the third installment, which was created without his participation, introduced a lot of new features compared to its predecessors (including full dubbing and painted backgrounds). However, in the first two installments the pixels were not "retro" - it was just the way "modern" adventure game graphics looked at the time.
Monkey Island 1 and 2 weren't pixel art games. They were games using state-of-the-art tech and art. [...] If I had stayed [at LucasArts studio - author's note] and done Monkey Island 3 it wouldn't have looked like Monkey Island 2.
That's why Gilbert didn't want Return to Monkey Island to be a "return to the past" like Day of the Tentacle. The new installment had to be "interesting, cool, and exciting," while also being "provocative and shocking" - also in terms of visual style. So there's no talk of retro pixel-art graphics or synthesizer music:
"We didn't want to make a retro game. [...] I wanted to keep moving Monkey Island forward because it's interesting, fun, and exciting. It's what the Monkey Island games have always done. I wanted the art in Return to Monkey Island to be provocative, shocking, and not what everyone was expecting.
Return to Monkey Island may not be the art style you wanted or were expecting but it's the art style I wanted."
Ron Gilbert to gamers and Disney: I will make the game I want
By the way, Gilbert also mentioned that cooperation with Disney - the owner of the new LucasArts - is going very well. He himself had concerns about whether the publisher would let him create the game of his dreams, but apparently his worries were unfounded.
Similarly, the creator does not want to succumb to the pressure from the players, so in the subject of designing Return to Monkey Island and updates from the development. He emphasized this in another point, added to the list of sixteen written almost ten years ago:
"The game would be the game I wanted to make. I don't want the pressure of trying to make the game you want me to make. I would vanish for long periods of time. I would not constantly keep you up-to-date or be feeding the hype-machine. I'd show stuff that excited me or amused me. If you let me do those things, you will love the game. That, I promise."
In other words, forget about constant updates on Return to Monkey Island. And probably also about the imminent announcement of an exact release date. The game will be released this year on unspecified hardware platforms.
