Leaderboard

I guess I never noticed since I only just recently joined the forums after Return to Monkey Island was announced lol. Gotta admit, feels a little surreal to be talking with a game developer from a previous MI game in anticipation for a new MI game, but I think is also indicative of how special this upcoming game truly is. Full circle some might say.

I love the screens that have that kind of repoussoir in the foreground. It really gives the whole scene that much more depth and credibility. By Monkey Island 2, they had perfected the technique and we even had out-of-focus elements directly in front of our noses that framed and guided our view. The two slanting ship masts that guide our view into Wally's home, for example. The map room under Rum Roger's house. The foreground of the Booty Island shop. Sometimes I feel like it's a lost art form as well and would today be considered a waste of space by modern designers. It really, really isn't. It's an early example of interactive storytelling, and I love it dearly. From the guy who brought you "cut-scenes", here's a story that actually changes depending on how the protagonist acts. There's more of course, with an entire cutscene (Elaine meeting Guybrush on the dock) being optional depending on what order you do your tasks in. I really, really hope Ron brings this back. There may be even more hilarious applications of the paradigm. 😄

I've added all the maps (at their current states) to the opening post. I'll probably update the FOA map eventually with cleaner versions, and further color options (based on the box/manual and poster).

I know this has been discussed before many times, but I absolutely loved iMUSE in MI2. Besides Woodtick, I remember being amazed by how the music from one theme would slowly fade away while the new theme would fade in when you made a transition. Every game before that the music changes were just so abrupt. You left a 'room' and the musics would just halt. I remember hearing that abruptness in other (non-LA) games even years later, and always wondering why they couldn't do something like iMUSE did back in 1991.

This poster here is full of nice details: First it serves to get Guybrush taken to Gov. Platt and imprisoned, and then we have to use it to do the same to Captain Kate. Then it's already a nice detail that they took Guybrush's look from Monkey 1 and put a cheap mustache on his face. Perfectly logical in a time where there are no photos and you have to rely on hearsay. But even nicer, of course, are all the crimes that can be read on it - and that renew themselves again and again when he's done some new crap. A nice gag, which I also discovered much too late...

I played it about 6 months before it came out. For many of their games they do a 'friends and family' playtest period of a couple of weeks. Almost all the speech was in, and the gameplay was pretty much locked down, it was mainly cutscene polish and minor bugs at that point that were holding it up, but I remember we also pointed out some plot elements we were a little confused about toward the end of the game that meant that they added a little dialogue later on to clarify some stuff. I think Tim talks about it in one of the videos. My best video game boast is that I'm in the credits for Psychonauts 2 three times - once as a community moderator, once as a playtester, and once as a backer

If you're interested in trying to re-create the screenshots from the back of the Sam & Max Hit the Road box, the early version of the Wak-A-Rat score box is used in an early WIP pre-release demo (the one with Sam & Max as the LucasArts logo): The left-hand number is the score and the right-hand number is the time elapsed so far. There's also an alternate version of the Wak-A-Rat game background without the score box in both the early demo and the published game: It's the same design in both versions AFAIK. In the published game the regular Wak-A-Rat room is Room 18 and the unused version is Room 19, while in the early demo they're Rooms 14 and 15 respectively. As for the Mystery Vortex screenshot, you might want to have a look at the various random colors of the two other doors in the Mystery Vortex and try borrowing their palettes for re-coloring the doors visible in the screenshot accordingly. And also looking through the costume files to see if the animation of Sam's hat flying off is used anywhere (IIRC it is but I can't remember where). A good tool for that might be Tomas' SCUMM Costume Viewer. And for Conroy Bumpus' "Aooooooooooo..." (with 11 Os) you might try using a tool like ScummTR to alter the dialogue text in that scene and manually alter the text color based on the dark blue text color that's probably used elsewhere in the game. Note that the ellipsis (three dots) in dialog lines is treated as a special symbol in the SCUMM game fonts, so you'd want to see how ScummTR treats that when it dumps the game dialogue into a text file and match that accordingly. (And if you do use ScummTR, make sure to back up your game files first!)

I also want to express my appreciate @Jake for all that you did with Tales - I really enjoyed it, and thought that you guys did an amazing job. I also don't know what strings had to be pulled and what puzzle pieces had to align to make it happen, but I was (and still am) extremely grateful to have MI return to our screens again. On a side note I was lurking around the Mixnmojo forums in the late 90s and I remember seeing your name a lot. When I saw that you were involved in Tales I thought that was an amazing turn of events to go from a fan to being a part of making a game happen. Super jealous to be honest, but you did great work!

There are some things that excite me a ton, and I would consider them "small details" that we rarely talk about. Please share your favorite things from the games that make you happy. Window Lights In the town of Mêlée Island you can see some window lights turn on and off. Changing location names on the map Some location names change when you visit them the first time.

And here I was thinking ... with just a teensy bit of rearrangement, they could have made a stylized key out of the o of Monkey and the I of island. That was a freebie, Disney! Next one's going to cost ya. URhhghhhhhnnnn slow weekend. I'd like some news. 🆕

On balance though I think I'd do it again. I think the first time you play an anticipated game is ALWAYS weird, so I definitely felt that with Psychonauts 2. So while it added to the weirdness that I played it with some music cues missing, and lots of animations unfinished, and very occasionally some voice lines missing, and a variety of bugs/polish stuff to contend with, it didn't feel too bad to me for that to be my first experience of the game. By the time the game came out, I was actually really interested in re-playing it. I could see what had changed, but also with none of the baggage that playing an anticipated game for the first time usually comes with. The game that a game actually is, is never the same as the weird amorphous blob of a game in your head, so when you first play it the reality is always competing (unfairly) with that idealised version in your head. I expect the same will happen with ReMI. The first time I play it it'll be weird, because I have all these expectations about what I'm going to get and none of them are going to be QUITE matched, I'm sure. It'll take a couple of play throughs in order for me to be able to meet the game on its own terms. So yeah, the actual experiencing the unpolished version of the game is actually quite nice, because your expectations are automatically lowered by knowing it's incomplete, and then by the time you get to replay it your expectations are set appropriately. The bit I like less is just not being able to SAY anything. Just having to sit on it for however long, instead of experience it as a kind of communal event.

Holy crap, I literally never noticed that until you just pointed it out

Oh yeah, I can understand that. Balancing the trade off of insider information with the isolation it brings is definitely a tricky balancing act. I have the tiniest bit of experience with that in that for about a year or so I wrote for a short-lived online magazine and got to review a few of Telltale's episodes, and the part I relate to the most in your post is what you said about experiencing an unpolished build of a game. I don't think it was ever a hugely unfinished copy that I had to write about, but there were certainly aspects that weren't done yet and it made me wonder if the experience was somewhat tainted. As a fan, I think I would regret seeing something like a pre-alpha build of ReMI because it would lack a lot of context that makes the truly big moments land the way they're intended to for an audience on a first playthrough. With all that said, I do remember reading Mojo's reviews of the Tales episodes in advance of their release and really enjoying the first impressions they gave off while keeping enough of the big surprises on lock so as not to blow anything. It built the excitement for finally getting to play it myself, which is usually the main reason I read reviews for something I know I'm already on bored for; Mojo's always been very good at non-spoilery reviews that give you just enough to make you that much more interested; alternatively, if it's a negative review, you at least know you've been warned, and it hits differently when it's coming from them cause it's one of us saying it, you know?

This would largely be Devolver's decision, I suspect. But personally I think we should experience the release same as everyone else. While having a website sometimes gives Mojo access that other's don't have, I think we're best as a collection of fans, experiencing things in the same way as fans. Like... being part of the Double Fine community moderation team means that sometimes I get access to information and things ahead of time, and it's a double edged sword honestly. It's nice to get the scoop on some stuff, but it's hard to hold onto that and not be able to discuss it with the rest of the community, especially when you see something a long way ahead of time. You have to sort of form a little mini-community with the people who also got the early look, and that can feel uncomfortably cliquey. And when you're looking at work in progress, there's a definite trade-off between the fun of seeing something early, and unpolished, and maybe with some interesting bugs or flaws, and seeing something pristine for the first time as a fan is expected to. Not that that last part is a concern in this situation, but still, I think there's a certain niceness to most of the Mojo contributors experiencing stuff at the same time as everyone else.

But what was her plan exactly? Despite Elaine claiming to have one, I don't think it was more than keeping an eye on LeChuck, and that much she divulged to Guybrush at the end of the second chapter. Afterwards, she was clearly taken over by the pox and there is an extreme implication that LeChuck had more of an influence over her than expected due to his voodoo trust artifact. Overall and with all due respect, I don't agree with you at all; there is one amazing piece of storytelling in Tales and that is Elaine's uncursed wedding ring, which she gives to Guybrush in the second chapter. It was Elaine's subtle way of saying "trust me" and it rings (no pun intended) true throughout the rest of the game. Despite all of Guybrush's bumbling's, he always manages to keep that ring safe and is even used as the final puzzle for him to come back to life. Even observing the ring throughout that game, Guybrush's observations make it clear how much it means to him to keep it safe because it represents Elaine and his connection to her. Elaine and Guybrush were a team in that game because, at that point in their relationship, there was built in trust. In some ways, that's what relationships and marriages are; never truly knowing what the other person is thinking at all times, but trusting them enough to be their in own person. Again, I cannot compliment Tales enough for its amazing storytelling. Side note: @JakeI actually didn't realize you were the same Jake that worked on Tales (stupid me lol). I still remember when you responded to my questions on the old Telltale forums for Tales of Monkey Island over 13 years ago. Great to see you here and thank you for delivering an amazing game.

This is super interesting. I would have thought the team pushed for using the old logo, but it was a good decision nonetheless I think!

I don't remember this one verbatim, but if you have interacted with Spiffy in the SCUMM Bar, Guybrush will say "it's the dog from the bar" if you Look At the painting in the Governor's Mansion. Otherwise, he'll say "it's a man and a dog." (Paraphrased.)

I know it's not MI, but re the logo: The level of attention to detail was so exact. (It's why the font changes in Full Throttle Remastered really bugged me.)

That top one especially really gives a sense of how big Monkey Island itself is. That's definitely something you want for a place that's meant to contain a mysterious Secret. My hope for Return is that there is a lot of unexplored areas of the island we get to see as Guybrush gets closer to uncovering the Secret and maybe revealing new mysteries.

We take it for granted at this point, but that the coda changes if you leave Herman of if you abandon the crew is 👏.

Monkey 1 has some amazing views. I love how much of the screen they occupy.

I always find it really funny how much LeChimp looks like Homer Simpson.