EN ROUTE TO THE CARIBBEAN · SINCE 1999
At the origins of the Caribbean
Inspirations
An attraction and a novel, before the films
The origins of Monkey Island are the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland and the novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. They are two different influences: the atmosphere of the pirate adventure on the one hand, the supernatural on the other. The first game is from 1990: the similarities with the subsequent Jack Sparrow films do not mean that Guybrush was born from those films.
Name of the protagonist
Guybrush: a name born on the drawing board
Steve Purcell drew the protagonist in Deluxe Paint, where a portion of the image can become a "brush". Ron Gilbert recalls that, as he continually saw those files, he ended up calling the character Guybrush. It also corrected a much-repeated misconception: the file was guybrush.lbm, not guy.brush. The name comes from the artists' work, not a .brush extension.
Original graphics
The Amiga in the memories, the PC in the laboratory
Many players have known the saga on Amiga, but Gilbert specifies that the graphics of the first Monkey Island were created with Deluxe Paint on PC under MS-DOS. The machine on which the game is played and the one used by the authors do not necessarily coincide: a small distinction that also illustrates the work necessary to bring an adventure to different systems.
Behind the images
The backgrounds of the second chapter passed through the scanner
For Monkey Island 2 the path changed: according to Gilbert, the backdrops were acquired on a Mac with Photoshop 1.0, then transferred to a PC and finished in Deluxe Paint. Behind those islands there was therefore not just an artist who placed pixels on the screen, but a passage between different tools and processes.
How an adventure takes shape
Development Tools
SCUMM was born for another game
The acronym stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion: the system was developed for Maniac Mansion, before Guybrush arrived in Mêlée. Separating the description of scenes and actions from the more technical work helped the authors construct dialogue, events and puzzles. Monkey Island therefore inherits a tool already at the service of Lucasfilm stories.
Source: Lucasfilm · The origins of SCUMM
The world of the saga
A tavern name with a programmer origin
The SCUMM Bar takes its name from that system. It's a link between the place where Guybrush's career began and the laboratory that made the game possible: a signature of the authors hidden in plain sight. What is of interest here is the origin of the name; quotes and encounters to be found in the tavern belong to the Easter egg collection.
Source: Lucasfilm · The SCUMM Bar
Writing and design
The joke becomes a weapon
The insult duels of the first Monkey Island transform combat into a question of listening, memory and verbal readiness. The gimmick tells the character of the saga well: language does not only accompany the puzzles, it can itself become the mechanism with which to overcome them. It's a design choice, even before a collection of memorable lines.
1997 · The Curse
With The Curse, even the voices change the pace
The Curse of Monkey Island features a world designed with a marked cartoon flavor and voiced dialogue. Pauses, accents and interpretations are added to the text, becoming part of the characters' identity. The official sheet also documents the Italian audio: for those who came from the first two episodes, listening to those characters was a new way of meeting them.
2000 · Escape
Escape can also be learned from the keyboard
The original Escape manual dedicates space to movement, choice of actions, inventory and keyboard commands. It is a concrete testimony of how much the experience had changed compared to the verbs and the pointer of the first chapters: not only a new appearance for Guybrush, but new habits for those who guided him. In the fourth game sheet you will also find the concept art and the Italian voices.
Source: LucasArts · The original Escape manual, preserved by MOCAGH [Original document]
A saga that changes and returns
2009 · Tales
Tales: five episodes, one adventure
Tales of Monkey Island was born from the collaboration between Telltale Games and LucasArts and was presented as a five-part series. The episodes belong to the same journey, rather than being five independent sequels. The publication in installments also changes the player's expectations: each stage leaves a route still to be followed.
Source: Telltale and LucasArts · The original Tales press sheet [Original document]
2010 · LeChuck's Revenge
A Special Edition that lets the authors talk
The Special Edition of Monkey Island 2 combines the game with comments from Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. In the interview at the time, producer Craig Derrick recalls the meeting in the studio as an opportunity to listen to the stories of the original team. In addition to the remake, it is a way to go through the adventure accompanied by its creators.
Source: GameSpot · Interview with the authors of the Special Edition
2022 · Return
From fan art to artistic direction
Rex Crowle had sent Gilbert his own illustration of Guybrush as early as 2008 or 2009. Gilbert remembered it when it came time to form the Return to Monkey Island team. A drawing born from a passion for the saga thus became an important precedent for the choice of its new artistic director.
2022 · Return
The return was built remotely
Lucasfilm says the core Return team consisted of around two dozen people, working remotely. With Gilbert and Dave Grossman the experience and memory of the first games return, but the adventure is born through a new organization and a new visual sensitivity. Returning to Monkey Island did not mean physically recreating the 1990 study.
2023 · The Legend of Monkey Island
A trip to the Caribbean hosted by another game
The Legend of Monkey Island is the crossover created by Rare and Lucasfilm Games within Sea of Thieves. It includes three connected Tall Tales: it is not the seventh main chapter of the saga. The distinction helps guide you between Guybrush's adventures and projects that bring his world into other games.