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I'm sorry.

Oh, gads, no, that would never happen. This baby's coming and ain't nothing stopping it 😄 Now, if we're talking about any potential for Ron's future involvement or the likelihood of other things happening with Monkey Island after RMI... that's a completely different story, and that DOES concern me. But I'd be a lot more worried if this game weren't so stinking good. I don't want to set myself up for disappointment, but I have a hunch the reaction is going to be magnificent to behold.

This is very satisfying to look at

So the secret was never about Monkeys, but about a Frenchman looking for "Mon key!"

Incase you're wondering if they're reading your Tweets, I sent a nice message of support to the team (@grumpygamer @phrenopolis @JennSandercock @DavidBFox) and got likes back from them. Why not let them know that there are people who there who are super excited about Return!

I haven't read any comment section, Reddit boards, Twitter, anything! And I couldn't be happier about this: I loved the trailer, the art style, the music, Dom's voice-over, everything, I am still 100% psyched! Nothing and nobody has managed (or will manage) to put down my excitement! I'm just waiting for the moment when I'll be in my pajamas, plausibly with an autumn breeze coming from my window, my earl grey tea, and the game up and running either on my PC or my Switch (or both? ). Aaah Do yourselves a favour, if you can and if your job allows for that of course, suppress the FOMO and try not looking at Twitter/YouTube/anything Because at the end of the line, it's just not worth it to have our excitement artificially put down by an uneducated mass of people who think writing mean stuff on the internet has no consequence on the real world.

The same fellow who made that scrapbook also made this:

Speaking of remasters…

And while I went that far, I thought there was no better time than now to display these posters, and the few other physical pieces of Monkey Island merch that I've acquired over the years, plus my physical editions of the games themselves, and display them in one location. Introducing Monkey Corner! (Overlooking the fact that I clearly need ink in my printer, I'm happy with the result nonetheless!)

In anticipation for the new game, and in celebration of the new trailer, I decided to use the assets to hand to Photoshop a ReMI poster that would line up alongside the other Monkey Island posters in last years' LimitedRun box set. (I simply cropped the ReMI key art to the appropriate size (25.5cm x 20.5cm) and pasted the logo onto the top of it.) If you'd like to print one out for yourselves, see the image attached.

I actually think that Ron himself is probably rather thick skinned about all this, despite being visibly annoyed. My sense is that his concern is more for his team. And it's them and particularly Rex that I feel sorry for in all this. I have happened to meet Rex on a couple of occasions - quite accidentally, since we appear to have a few mutual friends. On both occasions that I've met him he's really come across as very sweet and kind, which is maybe why some of the harsher criticism eats at me a bit. I don't know who people think Rex is, but he's just this very genuine, humble guy who is a true Monkey Island fan who has managed to land a dream project, and all I'd want for someone like that, (just the same as I felt when I found out that Jake was working on Tales) is that people would be encouraging and accepting of his efforts. And if they couldn't find it in themselves to do that, at least to believe that he was making said efforts in good faith, and that he's not here to ruin your favourite thing. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I'd been handed a project like this, only for the headlines on gaming websites to be filled with stuff about how Ron's having an argument with fans over my art, instead of people just being excited that the months-ago-impossible game exists and maybe giving the people who worked on it the benefit of the doubt. And I don't know exactly how I'd feel in Ron's shoes, having handed someone a project like this knowing that for them it's something they never thought that they'd get to work on in a million years. But I imagine I'd feel very protective of them, and hope that this would be a joyful project for them to be involved in, and not soured by years of nostalgia meeting reality.

The good news is Disney does acknowledge FOA, as they have featured Sophia’s necklace at Jock Lindsay’s Hangar Bar (their Indiana Jones bar) at Walt Disney World.

There are several reasons: Like all cross-platform frameworks, SDL trades off compatibility for lowest common denominator. I can almost always tell when I'm running an SDL app because it has the "feel" of one in its UI behavior, and it just doesn't feel as polished as a natively written program. On top of that, DREAMM has a number of extra-game behaviors (e.g., the frontend, installation, etc) that fit better with the native GUI, versus writing custom UI controls and logic to run in an SDL context (though to be fair I ended up customizing a decent amount of the native Win32 controls, but that wasn't my initial plan). As a personal programming preference, I am generally framework-averse. My experience with most frameworks is that they get me 80-90% of what I want, but I spend an inordinate amount of time fighting that final 10-20%. It usually ends up being a wash, time-wise, and a net negative, frustration-wise. I also prefer writing code with minimal dependencies. As it sits today, all the code in DREAMM is 100% my own, and its only dependency is bog standard Win32. I'd call it lean & mean in general, though the template explosion from my i386 emulator makes the final product a bit of a chonk. All that being said, there is enough interest in other platforms that I will probably do an experimental port to SDL in the not-too-distant future to see how well I can make it work, and also to evaluate just how much work I'm looking at for extra-game behaviors. (And, now that you pushed me to articulate it, I will import this into the FAQ!)

I know it’s just a dream wishlist and may not likely happen, but I’m curious what games you all would like to see remastered and what features you’d like to see included. My list is below: The Curse of Monkey Island - Remastered Graphics (That ESRGAN upscale that Laserschwert made was perfect, and/or Bill Tiller was shopping around his examples as well) - Live Orchestration Soundtrack because banjos. - Additional cutscenes added would love to see the Elaine cutscenes from the finale - “Plank of Love” music video - developer commentary Escape from Monkey Island - Remastered Graphics - similar to the Grim Fandango treatment - Add in the Monkey Kombat Chart to keep track of combinations Tales of Monkey Island - Remastered graphics - the Skunkape team did such a great job with Sam & Max that my hope is that they could someday give the same treatment to this series - Developer Commentary - Flow the chapters together similar to Sam & Max Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis -You guessed it, remastered graphics - Live orchestration - Because I love this soundtrack - new Voice acting - controversial, but as much as I Love Doug Lee as Indy, the rest of it feels a little dated If I was feeling extra I would add Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine too but I’m not sure what I would want from it. But I’m curious to see what your dream remasters are!

😏 Good call! I just threw this together, really! Give us a minute... EDIT: Updated!

Avril Harrison drew the classic Deluxe Paint King Tut illustration. What a powerhouse team Monkey Island had in seemingly every version.

The things I want most in this order are: A do-over of MI1SE. When it's a remaster I think the graphics should at least be trying to be in the spirit of the original, otherwise it's more of a remake. Also adopt the interface and other features of MI2SE. Add in the ability to mix and match any elements of old and new, including being able to switch between EGA, VGA and special edition, switch voices and music over in any mode, independently, etc. Fix the stuff that went wrong in MI2SE. Again, lemme hear the new music with old graphics, if I want. Fix the MT-32 stuff or even better, emulate it so that it's closer to the original. Tales. The Sam and Max ones give some precedent for doing this so it feels less out of reach than the other remasters. Curse. It's well loved enough to deserve an upres and high fidelity soundtrack, and more tools exist now to make this plausible. Escape: Maybe I'd be more willing to replay this if it got a bit of a makeover, and I feel like once you've done the others you should just complete the set.

Exactly. The idea that the game isn't going to be released because of a negative vocal minority, when it's months away from completion, makes no sense at all. You may as well be concerned that Ron is going change the protagonist into Leisure Suit Larry, then quit the game industry by sprouting a pair of wings and flying to Mars, never to be seen again. Worse than that though, I find that kind of speculation quite belittling and insulting towards him.

I thought it was Poppa Peeshew

Let's form a Mix N Mojo crew!!

Oh man. While we are saddened by the ugly wave of hateful comments, here and there are beautiful, hopeful shines of love that give me so much joy and hope! While haters rant, others create art. They make things. It's wonderful. 🥰

A Captain Madison is mentioned in the game description on nintendo.com. Seems to be one of the new pirate leaders: 'Hip, young pirate leaders led by Captain Madison have shuffled the old guard from power, Melee Island has taken a turn for the worse, and famed businessman Stan has been imprisoned for ‘marketing-related crimes’.'

Presumably referring to this I would say... reading between the lines, that is... to really be able to have a conversation about this, we'll have to play the game.

Wait, sorry. Turns out I'm interpreting it wrong. This logo is actually trying to remind me that I can dare the opposing team for double the dollars, or take the physical challenge.

A CMI remaster with upscaled backgrounds and better audio would be nice, of course, but it’d be more like a “nice to have” to me. I’d rather have an EMI remaster with better graphics and and point & click. The keyboard controls really are clunky and take away some of the fun (as everything takes so long). And maybe redo the background – never was a fan of those pre-rendered ones. As for a TMI remake/remaster my wish list would be: - new character models for all the ones that were reused - better lighting (especially Ep. 1) - maybe P&C if possible - Soundtrack with live instruments/orchestra In the case of MI1 and MI2 I’d love to see the games remade with Rex Crowle adapting the look of Return. The scrapbook pictures in the ReMI trailer shows, how well that could work. The voice cast could stay, although I’d personally prefer some of the more goofier voices to be recast. While remaking the games it could also be fun, if Ron Gilbert said down to change some puzzles slightly or incorporating new ones, to give the player something new not only in art and sound (although I’d prefer a completely new one after ReMI).

You mean like this? (Made by Jason Lewis)

I would love a remaster of Zac McKracken but I’m also a wimp and would want a mode where I won’t run out of money in the game.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is zero chance Ron would even consider that. It would be a complete disrespect to not only himself but to his entire team and all the voice actors. Ron has shown how proud he is of not only the game, but his team as well. Beyond that, releasing the game without any pressured changes would be the ultimate win over these toxic people. The disrespectful and toxic can wallow in their own self-pity while Ron releases the game he wanted to make.

It's great to see fans come out in droves to express their love. That's the thing right? They were always there, but people who like stuff don't feel the need to shout it from the rooftops, and are offen scared off by all the fierce negativity. I've seen some concern from people that the game could be cancelled because of this; I don't think so. Even if Ron was remotely thinking about it (again I don't think so, it's clear he's immensely proud of the work he and his team have done), this isn't simply his decision to make, he has Disney and Lucasfilm to answer to, and there's no way they would can a near-complete game they've sunk money into.

If there's one good thing to be had from all the barrage of nasty stuff we all witnessed in the last few days, is how a great part of the community banded together in defense of a creator's right to fulfill his own creative vision. In a way, all this negative stuff might've ended creating even more goodwill for the game.

I think if we're going to compare artwork then you have do it using the ORIGINAL versions of the games... namely the EGA version of SOMI. The VGA version already started to make moves away from the EGA artwork, which the original team were intimately involved with. Ron famously doesn't like the VGA portraits, for example. So you can't hold those up and say THIS is Monkey Island! It's actually the subsequent team's interpretation. So, if you ask me, anyone who wants to complain about the art style through out the series has to start here. Monkey 1 (1990) Monkey 2 (1991) Curse (1996) Escape (2001) Tales (2009) Return (2022)

My favorite shot has got to be the lookout on Melee. The colors are so gorgeous and the shapes feel so three dimensional while also closely adhering to this game’s style. It looks almost like a Pixar color script or something.

Also, say whatever you like about the art style, but the colors are AMAZING

I love it all but I think my favorite part about it is Elaine. 😍

Howdy, fellow Monkey Island fans! I've been lurking this thread since page one and have thoroughly enjoyed all the discussion and speculation. Thanks for the fun. I just want to say that I am so unbelievably happy that we are getting another Monkey Island game. I've grown up with the series and they're my comfort games. I'm preaching to the choir here, but there's something so incredibly enchanting about every single aspect -- the writing, the voice acting, the music, the locations... I plan to retire to Plunder Island. I'm currently working my way back through the games (for the umpteenth time) and they never get old. There's always something new to discover or appreciate. I love them all. Yes, even Escape! And the fact that we're getting another entry in the series? Helmed by some of the original creators? It's honestly a dream come true. My heart was literally racing when I saw the announcement. I never thought this would happen. I cannot wait to play Return. It's a shining light in a maddening world. It makes me so sad to see that Ron isn't going to post about the game anymore and that he and the team are being personally attacked. What an ugly situation. I don't think anything is perfect, and there will be things I like and dislike about Return (hopefully much more to like!), but there's a way to kindly express your opinions. Or to just... not. Some things you can keep to yourself and/or not direct at the people creating the game. It reminds me of the pathetic 'outrage' following the Sam & Max remaster. Anyway, I'm just another internet rando, but if any of the team happen to read this, know that I appreciate all your hard work, I'm so excited to play Return, and thank you for keeping Monkey Island alive. Please don't let the vitriolic vocal minority get to you (easier said than done, I know). My life is greatly enriched because of the series and you are responsible for hours upon hours of joy. And now back to lurking!

Devolver also does some physical releases through a different limited run-style company. I hope someone does one.

Nice job, but may I make a few suggestions: - The flying skull is hidden behind the S. Wouldn’t it be cooler if you could bring it upfront so it would look like it would fly through the S? - Same with Elaine behind D. Let her head squeeze through the D 😀

That is so incredibly cursed and I hate that I actually kind of like it

Use a nice CRT shader for the ultimate experience. It’ll smush the pixels together in a way consistent with the tech of the time, which one of the artists Mark Ferrari confirmed was something he exploited to make the dithered areas look smoother.

Love it, @Toymafia88! Those sleeves though ... and that blonde, blonde hair. Return Guybrush seems a direct continuation of Tales and the Special Edition of LCR far more than of actual TSoMI and MI2:LCR. He does have Curse hair though.

Personally, I think it's unlikely that the outstanding three Monkey Island games would receive high-end remasters/overhauls to the degree that MI1/2 recieved (Curse already being a very high standard aside from it's resolution/compression limitations, and the other two games both essentially being "a niche of a niche" and likely not being seen as worth the money by the studio). But theoretically, if a deal was able to be worked out to bundle all three games together into "lite - medium remasters" and released in a collection, I'd be all over that. Here's what I'd like to see. The Curse of Monkey Island - 4K Resolution (upscaled backgrounds with AI, redraw/trace character sprites in 4K. Uncompress the cutscenes.) - Widescreen (expand 4:3 artwork to 16:9, see more of scrolling backdrops onscreen at once) - Uncompressed soundtrack. (It exists already! The soundtrack is already wonderful. It just needs to be less compressed in-game. The same goes for the voices too.) - Console/multi-platform support. (Bringing the game to modern platforms, giving it longevity after years of its' initial release.) Escape From Monkey Island - 4K Resolution (apparently on modern emulators, this fixes the issue of the character models being so compressed in-game? If so, great! We're halfway there!) - Widescreen (if 3D art assets still exist to recapture backgrounds. If not, upscale the 4:3 backgrounds with AI.) - Mouse-based control scheme, similar to Grim Fandango Remastered. - Alexandra Boyd as Elaine (for the sake of continuity across the series. British Elaine should be the default voice in the remaster, with an option in the settings to toggle back to US Elaine should the players wish.) - Uncompressed audio. (If the HQ audio for Curse's soundtrack exists, hopefully EMI's should too. Again, no need to update the music itself, just uncompress. The voices could do with uncompressing too.) - Monkey Kombat chart from PS2 version patched into remaster. - Console/multi-platform support. (Bringing the game to modern platforms, giving it longevity after years of its' initial release.) EDIT: Thinking about it, Escape would probably be very difficult to convert into widescreen. Not only would they need to dig up the 3D background source files and recapture all of the backdrops (hoping their early 2000's software still works/is compatible in the meantime) but they'd have to do the same with the cutscenes as well, which rendered the characters and backdrops on different planes and later composited them together. I can't see them thinking widescreen would be worth the effort, so I'd anticipate they'd upscale/uncompress the 4:3 backdrops and cutscenes they have and make do. Tales of Monkey Island - Leilani Jones-Wilmore as the Voodoo Lady (again, for the purposes of continuity across the whole series.) - Live recorded soundtrack. (Even if not the whole soundtrack, the signature pieces could really benefit from live recordings to maintain the quality of CMI/EMI's soundtracks. Other tracks could perhaps do with lifts using alternate instrument banks.) - Improved lighting/shadows. (The Sam & Max remasters improved the first two seasons visuals in this department greatly, and it'd be great to see the same done for Tales.) - Console/multi-platform support. (Bringing the game to modern platforms, giving it longevity after years of its' initial release.)

I can't help myself, but this is really an excellent policy 😄

It is sad, but I’ve personally stopped reading into it too much now. There is a clear pattern emerging of these idiots mostly coming from some pretty sad corners of the internet, for example you look at their Reddit profiles and they’re full of right-wing nonsense. I think there is unfortunately a subset of fans of most things — after all, they were once children just like us — who also have an incredibly toxic view of the world, and a knack for sharing that toxicity far and wide. In a funny sort of way it makes me feel better about it all, because frankly there is no helping those people. And so the only reasonable option is to disengage and not allow them to poison the good vibes, which is what I have been doing when the nastier comments appear in the Mojosphere — straight into the bin.

Thank you all for the kind words ☺️ Online, people are nice as well, but slowly I’m getting comments like “Looks better than Return to Monkey Island”, and this just drags me down. The general criticism of the game bums me out already, but getting these comments on my video is just too much. I feel like I added another platform for these rude commentators. It’s never “Personally, I like you art style better.”. It’s always stated as a fact: “This is better.” I’m paraphrasing, there are more detailed comments, but you can just feel that they are less interested in sharing their thoughts, but more interested in giving Return to Monkey Island another slap. I’m super emotionally invested and my mind colors these things more dramatic then they maybe are. And luckily, there are only few comments like these. But I can’t help but feeling sad because of this. Also: My art style better?! It’s ridiculous! I’m not talking myself down, I’m proud of the looks of the movie, but people don’t know what they are talking about. I hope it doesn’t become more in the future.

When Stan says on the website that he's in jail for "marketing related crimes," I laughed it off as a non-canon joke for the website, but the game's description also mentions this. I think this means there's a very real chance that Stan is actually going to be in jail for selling NFTs like he says on the website, and the thought of that is almost too amazing to fathom.

Haha right there with you!

Well you all agreed with me that EMI was by far the best in the series so they may have a point…. 😂

now we just need FOA STUFF AND WE GOOD

Hello @CalisDraws I have made several of the boxes in the 2 part board game box style, also called a telescoping box. The originals I have are all this style and I don’t like the folded ones so much. I have only made games for Amiga so far so no Sam and Max but below is an example 🙂 I cut hard cardboard and glue them then wrap them with the print. I made an exact size for lucasarts and a bit smaller one. if you make a new thread for boxes later it might be a better place 😊 jjjj