Returning to Monkey Island will add features to reach the existing audience of players

This isn’t the first time that Ron Gilbert is seriously considering returning to the universe monkey islandBut it was the moment when all the factors coincided that he no longer had excuses not to. The developer revealed in an interview how digital back He ends up convincing him and how he embarks on a mission to get back the phantom pirate Guybrush Thripwood.

In an interview with the specialized portal ArsTechnicacreator monkey island He admitted that one of the concerns that halted his operation was science How to follow one of the most popular game novels. My first question when contacted by the Devolver team was about this: weight of expectation. The developer said, was it something you really wanted to counter?

Distributor Ideas digital back be encouraged Gilbert Previously Dave Grossman, programmer of the SCUMM interface on which the original work was created, and co-writer of the franchise. They both agreed to keep going and faced another major challenge: How do you adapt to a rustic point and click adventure with current times?

Based on this concept, the new Back to Monkey Island It was built with references that evoked new models and inside jokes, but with a direct reference to nostalgia. “We realized we wanted to build a forward-looking game; that was the inspiration for the kind of art, design, and UI that we did. Everything we built was thinking about a game for the future, not for the pastGilbert narrated.

It was these kinds of reflections that plagued the development team’s first discussions and they soon realized that, too. The need to include different game modes. With a mission to please a broad spectrum of audience, Gilbert and Grossman suggested A system of difficulty modes, clues and other dynamics similar to the current puzzles.

“Frustration now is a big factor for people. There are more demands on the player, and they don’t have the same kind of frustration as they did 30 years ago,” Grossman said.

Development guidelines were the result of the reaction to thimbleoid park (2017), a video game created by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winick, dedicated to awakening nostalgia on all levels. However, the idea of ​​returning to Monkey Island was not just a tribute, But an inspiration to a new generation of fans.

“he is the new Monkey Island game over else Monkey Island game. It’s a subtle distinction, but it’s very important…developing it the same way but better is always a challenge,” Grossman described.

Although no further details have been revealed yet, the developers have stated that they have worked with the original SCUMM interface to reproduce the current player’s induction logic. “Philosophically, the interface is designed to empower players more each time they perform successful actions and reduce frustration. Instead of random answers, all characters will have good ideas for everything,” Grossman said.

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