Funny. I was just reading an interview with him, which followed your interview with GameSpot.

Oh God, I got hyped-up about Monkey 5, and that doesn't exist. :'(

If you want me to kill the guys from LucasArts, no problemo....To help with the negotiations...

Since Sam 'n' Max is back in business.

Oh, God, give me RON GILBERT/TIM SCHAFER MONKEY!

My feelings about the new S&M "episodes" have gone up and down a bit. When I first heard about it I was ecstatic, then when I heard some other company had bought the rights and are going to sell episodes instead of a full game I wasn't expecting it to be any good.
But after reading the article you linked here I might just have to give it a chance afterall. I guess it all depends on the rest of the team now.

The one plus side of doing this in episodes is that if I don't like the first then I don't have to buy the rest.

Telltale are a quality company. The last title I bought from them (Bone) was visually and technically stunning. Its puzzles and characters lacked a bit, but Dave G hadn't asserted his influence at that stage. Expect big things I reckon.

Good to hear :)
I'd never heard of the company before so it's nice to hear from someone who's seen some of their work.

Yes.  I have tried both episodes of Boneville, quite Lucas and Monkey theme you feel. The 3D graphics is simply nice. Camera movement is something new for adventure games that I liked, but...

its relatively pricy for the very short episodes which you manage to finish in 1 or 2 days. Sound effects are still lacking a lot. Control is not fast and smooth as I like it from MI days. I know they are just starting the taking the risk for the good of adventure games, and I am grateful. But if it continues to be this short, you will shortly get bored, and it kills the thrill and theme of the adventure game. Unlike when you played long MI2 and lived the character it self.

They're doing great, but hope they fix what's remaining. After all, you dont wantr Sam & Max to be a 2 hour game only do you?

Unfortunately the Trailer doesn't give any idea about the game. But maybe this is difficult with adventure games. We'll see.

Not gonna lie, Ron. Puh-retty excited.

Soooo after a while of LucasArts ignoring all there IP and releasing only StarWars games they'll give Ron the rights to MI?

Most companies that aren't failing will not sell IP.

LucasArts give Steve Purcell rights to Sam And Max because they hadn't used the IP in a while.

Hmm, I wonder what company holds the MI rights? Oh yeah, LucasArts.

No. Lucas Arts didn't give Steve anything.

Steve owned the rights to Sam and Max. He licensed his intellectual property to Lucas Arts in order to get the game made.

When you license something from someone, there is a time frame. Their time limit ran out, and Steve regained his ability to license his IP to another game company.

Lucas Arts had to either follow through with using the license or lose it. There is no such problem with Monkey Island, because Monkey Island is owned by Lucas Arts.

Argh, 3D characters?!? WHY!?!? WHYYYY?!?!?

I'm sick of this "It has to be 3D! it's cutting-edge!" shit. what's wrong with a nicely drawn hi-res, slick animation, 2d-character? specially in a game coming from a comic.

So it sells :S

They're not doing it to be "cutting edge," which it can never possibly be considering Telltale's size and funding.  3D is cheaper and quicker (hand drawn 2D would probably be impossibe).  And Purcell's involved in the whole process, so the style should be faithful to the comics.

Have you seen the screenshot? (I hope it's only a mockup)

It still sucks :( Are you sure it's less expensive? Maybe Ron can comment on it? =P

The people who are making the game can and have commented on it.  And yes, it's less expensive.

Dang.. it looks awful.. but well, if it's necessary to make the game a reality I can overlook that aspect ;)

Sounds like you're going to be interested in Vampyre when it comes out next year.

Well you can create drawn looking with 3D it's just not that easy (take for example futurama which is in 3d). You can even easily render 3D with cartoon for example http://www.finaltoon.com/ ... and yes there are also live cartoon renderings http://www.booyah.com/article05-dx9.html and even games with cartoon rendering.

It's just looks like the telltales engine is not yet that well refined so they would be capable for shaders that allows cartoon rendering. 'Cause that would make the Sam&Max sweet!

Neat interview. Dave is just great, I love that he is still involved in developing games.

I had the chance to interview him last year

And that's it. Dave rules!

P.S: He once told me "I'm afraid I'm under blood oath not to reveal the true secret of Monkey Island.  We all are."

Ah Grossman, I still recieve his poems every week... not because of that mailing list, he just has a deep attraction to me. ;)

So does this mean that the Monkey Island license will eventually run out off time with Lucas Arts and fall to you? I wait for that day with eager anticipation.

Also the scene mentioned where Guybrush is behind a wall in the Marley mansion is one of my all time favorite game moments. Top three at least!

The reason Sam & Max ran out for LucasArts is that it was never theirs in the first place.  They're Steve Purcell's characters that he licensed to them.  Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Full Throttle, etc. are all owned by LucasArts; they won't revert back to their creators because their creators created them for their company as IP.  That's not to say Ron can never have it...nowadays unused trademarks become public domain, in what, 95 years?  As long as Ron stays in shape he can make is own Monkey Island 5 eventually.  So can you!

Hmmm... in that case Ron had better start drinking lots of formaldehyde! It's going to be hard to hang on that long.

I'm worried that this game won't live up to my expectations, but given that there haven't been many new ideas in the entertainment industry for a while now.. I won't be surprised.  Perhaps if I look at this as less "Ooohhh new Sam n Max game" and more like "FINALLY!  A new adventure game!" I won't be disappointed.  I think we must always remember that rose colored glasses are often a lot like beer goggles.  Use nostalgia with care.  After all, look what happened to Star Wars.

You've probably been sent this already, but here's a rather wonderful DOTT mural:
http://www.vgb.no/138/perma/87394/

When those Lucas Arts-guys are smart and they´ve got in mind the sucess of the actual Priates of the Carribean-movie plus the still stong adventuregame-fanbase (here in europe especially) they would have asked Ron and Steve and Tim to return! If I would be the chief of LEC I would give Ron a pole position in their development department - compared with Miyamotos role at Nintendo. Can´t understand the world, can´t understand the games business...frustrating -_-

What about creating a whole new Pirate-franchise?

All with the good old spirit,only without the name Monkey Island?

Shall they keep the bloody copyrights,they dont have the genius in their crew.

Too bad S&M will be "episodic content" - which is just another way to overcharge the players for a product which would usually be cheaper if it were a complete game - plus you'll never know if they have to can it during the middle of development due to disappointing sales figures.

No thanks. Give me a complete game for my bucks or get lost, Telltale!

If they have to can it, at least you'll have gotten some of it instead of nothing at all. And it's not like you'd get something like half a movie that way, as each episode is standalone.
Personally, I think Sam and Max is excellently suited to episodic content. From the genre to Sam and Max themselves (and their comic origin), it seems perfect. Now let's hope the games themselves are good too!

I'm still torn about episodic content.

On one hand, it sounds like a great idea. We wouldn't have to wait nearly as long as we would have to for a full game, and the prices would be low.

On the other hand, I fear that this kind of content could damage the industry in the wrong hands.

Imagine the kind of episodic content that would come from EA games.

Shudder

As was already said, I also fear that eventually we'll end up paying more money for less game.

(The problem where you think you're being the longest journey but it's really TLC II.)

Although the idea of episodic games doesn't thrill me, we have to accept that changes need to be made to the way we get games.  I don't want a situation in 10 years time where my only purchase options are the latest incarnations of Need for Speed and Call of Duty.

Other forms of media are split into different sized chunks, and its probably about time the same happened with games.  We can make an analogy between games and movies/tv:

Cinema Movie = Full priced game
Straight to DVD Movie = Budget game
TV = Episodic content

Episodic games would allow developers to take a few more risks - if something new didn't work out just leave it out of the next episode.  If something new works well, use it more in the next episode.

I agree with you completely.

I just feel that in the wrong hands it could be bad.

Yeah, no doubt there!

The downside of the analogy is that there is a lot of crap on TV...

I think I read in another interview that after they release so many episodes, they'll release them as a pack that you can buy.

wow. what a well laid out piece. you have true comic timing…and in print! i found my smiles chuckling and my laughter just plain freaking out. thanks. Loved the interview!!

@Ron

Off Topic,but very important for me to know:

Do you know the difference between schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder?

http://i.somethingawful.com//sasbi/2006/07/jumpman16/Supernorn.jpg

I like it =)

Hey Ron!
If either of us was  big-titted,female and blonde,i'd stalk you
.......

I just love you man.............

So what about those fuckin Monkey Island rights?

Are we gonna get them back and give them to the only man on earth,who knows,what to do with them,or are we  gonna wait,till im a mighty pirate myself in next life?

At least,Lets start a petition

Unless LA goes bankrupt they won't be selling off the IP.

A petition isn't worth the time an the energy.

If it didn't work for Sam and Max in an instance where people wanted to GIVE THEM MONEY to buy an almost finished game, it's not going to work now.

Sad but true...
I was drunk yesterday

Hi Ron,
  
            Any chance you'll be taking up a consultation role with the new "Sam and Max" game?  You should ask Dave - I'm sure there is still time.

        In addition, there is a feature on LucasArts in "Edge" in the U.K. - nice cover art, albeit with Peter Hirschmann's completely unconvincing, market-strategy-laden, interview - more "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" - combined with his "biomechanical AI" and "DMM" ("Digital Molecular Matter") wank-talk, it being "pure pleasure of interaction", according to a rather uncritical "Edge" (which they try to correct in a separate box, if making solving it a matter of simply snapping components together).  However, it seems more a "Lawnmower Man" exposé, more Renderware vs. Physics class, a sprinkle of "Red Faction", and such an oppositional view to Nintendo, and a side distraction from those (good) companies in this next-generation looking to privilege their content over the architecture, just as the DS has cleared the way for a less critical, but no less controversial, lead-in for the Wii, taking physics back out of gaming and into the controller itself.  

        I understand that next-generation costs are going to be extremely high, but it seems odd to me that LucasArts are saying "engine" or "middleware" (it seems that DMM is set up as marketable middleware) over "story".  I know nothing from the interview (and E3 video) of what "Indiana Jones" will actually contain, although according to Hirschmann, he would like to "get the gold guy back to that golden age level of trust" and "would love for LucasArts to get back to the point that if you knew nothing about the game, you would go into the store, see it and want to buy it, just because you knew what that logo stood for"... although which real logo you want, given the currency of “LucasArts” as logo, is entirely up to us it seems: "Indiana Jones" or "Star Wars".  If that fails, you can always have the peculiar "physics" of "Thrillville"... sucking before it even arrives.    
  
^Doody.

What do you guys think of "Dreamfall-The longest Journey"?

I loved it. But it was a bit short unfortunately.

'Scuse my ignorance, but is it related to 'The Longest Journey' - the adventure game with April Ryan release a good few years ago?  Or is that just coincidence?  I really enjoyed that one!

It's TLJ2.

Unfortunately as an adventure game it is horrible. There's not really any puzzles to solve. It's a lot of "fetching."

For the most part you are told what items to pick up and where to go.

The story is really good, but it's not really a "game," as the gameplay is non existant.

The story is good enough to keep you going until the end, but it is no where near as fun as the first one.

Yeah, it felt more like an interactive movie than a game really.
I did enjoy the story a lot though so I thought it well worth the money despite it being what it was :)

Ok thanks,
I think,i'll try it.
Maybe something with some story and "soul"......

Time will tell... as always.

The overall feel of the infos/trailer/comics so far looks pretty promising, though.

Well, I'll have another tea for now. FORE!

Well, I'm gonna be really, really original and I've gotta tell ya something you may haven't heard yet. Here it goes: Monkey Island saga is the best adventure game ever!!!!! I loved the story, the puzzles [the difficulty is OK, not impossible (unlike Discworld 1), not easy as pie (unlike Dreamfall, above discussed)], and the 'richness?' of the characters. This puts it above other titles such as S&M or DOTT. It was the first game I played (The Secret of Monkey Island) and I finished it when I was 7, while my friends were playing with their barbies, hehehe...

By the way, I have made for myself a T-shirt with the caption 'I found the treasure of Melee Island and I only got this stupid shirt' in spanish. Hope you don't mind if I don't send you a check, do you? You know, money don't fall from trees ^^U. You can see it on my space (it is entirely in spanish, sorry ^^U)

Oh, hope you enjoy reading Dark Tower, I liked it ^^.

PS: Sorry for my english, I get helped writing this, but I wanted to tell you that I really liked it and that here in Spain you will receive a lot of support.

A friend of mine printed a T-shirt for me for my birthday. It's white with black sleeves, and it has the secret of monkey island logo on the front (with a little monkey) and it says "I found the treasure of mêlée Island and all I got is this stupid T-shirt" on the back, in the same font as in the game (pixelated and all).

Oh, I also use LeChuck's song as my cellphone's ringtone.. so far one guy recognized it in college ;)

p.s.: Ron, I don't know about checks, but If you ever come to Argentina and need directions or a place to stay, drop me a line :)

Not only in Spain ;) Btw. where do i get Monkey Island-merchandising-products ? I would like to wear a MI-t-shirt, would like to wake up with the MI-theme from my clock every morning etc....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJOLK1bhEfs

this is so wtf

Sorry, this is an offtopic, but I thought you should see this Lego made Le Chuck zombie pirate

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=202133

Thanks, and keep it up!

FORGET IT. You can dream all you like, but he's not going to make another Monkey Island game, so will you stop making all these off-topic comments? He's obviously moved on.

Argh!... we won't understand those words... we are "FANs"...

There are a lot of non proffesional projects working on sequels of MI. I ehard that the same Carmack had touched a bit the Doom Legacy projects and it don't crashes the laws at all... I think... It's a little suggestion... emh... ^^

I found this to be so genius, I thought I'd share
http://www.artofmarkbryan.com/index.html

I was really suprised when I found out that Ron's name was also attatched to Total Annihilation. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

I love all of the Adventure Games that Ron has made, but TA had some of the best RTS PVP I've ever expierianced.

We modded the ** (are we allowed to curse here?) out of that game... we  added Nukes, Counter Nukes, Super Power Plants... any unit we could find on the internet with our crappy modems, we stuck into this game.

Eventually we had so many mods installed that the game didn't run anymore.

I'm not quite sure, but I don't think Ron worked much on TA. It was Chris Taylor's game, wasn't it?

Mobygames lists him as both "producer" and "additional design". I'm sure his work on the title must have been influential

In a recent interview he called it Chris Taylor's brain child, but he's credited on the game.