"I think publishers are so reliant on seeing a demo before they do anything, that it's very hard for them to make decisions unless they can see something."

C'mon! You are Ron Gilbert, you are the creator of the best video game series ever made, nobody needs a proof of what you can do. Those pseudo-publishers know nothing about video games history.

You should c'mon! There's a reason why it's called games INDUSTRY! Sorry but who cares about the designer of Monkey Island when they can get the latest license of "James Bond and the Powerful Mighty Bad n Evil non-Evil tomorrow he will never die before the morning" for the same money???! And by the way: the humor of Mister Gilbert - not meant personal - is really strange, do you think this will sell?
I think we should do another MMORPPFG with orcs and elves, the players love them!!

The players might not love all of them, but if "only" 100.000 people pay you 10 bucks a month... well, I'm sure you can do the math. That kind of money will enable you to rent some servers and pay game masters. And you'd probably still have a profit if you let a small team add new content.
At least that's what all the game companies seem to think.

I don't agree. In that case, nobody would produce a Paul McCartney's record just because it's more profitable to produce a hip hop gang's so the can get money for a year or two and after that nobody even remembers the material. There are loads of people from all over the world who still recognizes the quality of the products and buy it, and make a cult out of it for decades. Im not sure if I made my point clear, my english is not good enough to sustain a debate properly, sorry.

Thats why we see so many hip hop gangs on the radio now a days, and so few Paul MacCartneys.... You just contradicted yourself.

Still, great musicians or artists have their own loyal fans, like Ron has, who are always looking forward to their new material. I mean, streets may be full of crap, but still there are plenty of people who recognizes quality and pay for it.

Great interview!
There's place for different types of games and serialized games look like a great idea.
I'm one of those 35 years old, with one son and very little free time gamer.
I loved the first graphic adventures on the Commodore 64, played games like Myst, Marathon, Diablo, etc.
Now I only play Eve Online and random online games like Ikariam. I have a Wii and played Super Mario Galaxy (with my son, who loved it!), but didn't finish Zelda.
I'm looking forward to DeathSpank.
And from the big studio I can only say: DiabloIII!
The future sure looks interesting.

How can you not be in favor of unionizing the game industry? If you have a family, the idea of respectable work hours, paid vacation and holidays, and dare I dream, sick days is a requirement for working in the industry. The industry can't keep hiring twenty year olds forever. Nobody starting in the game industry today will grow old in it without sacrifices they shouldn't have to make.

And hey, the possibility of actual freelance work is great. I dream of a day when game designers can sell game designs on their own merits rather than having to work in Q&A or as a programmer for three AAA titles before anyone in management will even give them the time of day.

Man, you think a lot.

Still, fun to read.

I like Ron because he is one of the few guys in the game world that can see the Big picture in a realistic way

"And just for the record, I am not in favor of unionizing the game business. "

Shoot. I was all ready to go on strike against Grumpy Gamer. I've been more than a little upset about the quality of the snacks on the corporate jet.

"... if it were to happen any time in the near future, it would be a complete disaster."

Maybe you could do another post explaining why do you think it would be a complete disaster. I really don't have an opinion one way or the other, but it is the first time I see somebody expressing such a strong opinion about how bad it would be to do it right now. I would like to hear more about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID9kfv5Hgc8&feature=rec-fresh

Zomg -- this monkey island video is great, although in German.  I speak enough to understand about 90% of it, and they're basically saying exactly what you think they're saying.

"Ein Drei-Kopffiges Affe!" = A Three Headed Monkey!

It's "Ein dreiköpfiger Affe". But otherwise, correct!

Go here for the flash version in English or German.

On producers, sometimes I feel that the people with those titles can have a little too much creative control.

It's not that this is bad, but the job of the producer is to make sure that what needs to get done gets done on time and that people have work to do, and if they have design control then this mentality seems to lead to kind of a "game of type x needs to have these features, so let's make these features." design, which is ultimately results in a game that has no personal voice since the producer/designer is worried about getting the game finished vs. being emotionally invested in the creative direction of the game, you know?

This is why perhaps movies have at least one producer and one director. They both take full time commitment into the project, and they're kind of opposing forces that kind of have to agree to compromises between creativity and scope.

Didn't you guys have both at ye olde/good LucasArts? Project Leads and Producers?

Interesting how I feel that things haven't evolved that much since then:
http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/multimedia/2008/07/gallery_worst_movie_games?slide=4&slideView=4

Ron, if you get to check out No More Heroes, I'd love to hear what you think about it.

About DeathSpank... Is it going to contain references and parodies to such superheroes as Superman,  Fanastic Four, Spider-Man, etc.?

w00t