Being a longtime fan of the Monkey Island™ games, it has been a unique privilege to see the game take shape during the past few months at Telltale HQ. I'm really excited about the launch of the new series, and one thing that has sent my geekiness about the existence of new MI games soaring to dangerous new levels is the prospect of seeing a new Monkey Island painting by Steve Purcell...
I first visited Telltale's office in the summer of 2005, about a month before Out from Boneville's release. At the time I had a day job writing medical brochures and did game journalism for Adventure Gamers on the side. Doug Tabacco, Adventure Gamers' webmaster, came with me. After a brief tour of the one-room office, including a glimpse of the mysterious Blue Line, we entered the Maurice Richard Memorial Conference Room for an interview with Dan and Kevin, co-founders of the company. Then we headed into Kevin's office where he showed us several scenes from Out from Boneville, including the dinner scene and the part where Fone Bone walks around the dark cliffs carrying a torch. Designers Dave Grossman and Heather Logas watched over our shoulders as Doug and I pointed and clicked around this brand new adventure game that hadn't yet been unveiled to the world. There's only one word I can think of to describe that Telltale afternoon: incredible.
You have to understand. Adventure games were having a rough time of it. Sam & Max: Freelance Police, Jane Jensen's Gray Matter, and Cyan's URU had recently been canceled. The genre was a laughing stock on the web, with many gaming publications gleefully proclaiming the adventure genre dead and scoring the games I loved very low, just for the fun of it (or so it seemed). The days of discovering a new Sierra or LucasArts game on the shelf at Egghead Software and bringing it home for hours, weeks, even months of gaming goodness were no more. And here was Telltale, a company that unapologetically stepped out of LucasArts' shadow and set up shop to bring me -- us, adventure gamers -- the games we still loved.
I had already sent my resume to Telltale twice before this August 2005 visit. The first time was right after I read Adventure Gamers' profile piece on the young company, the day they announced their intentions to the world. Not fifteen minutes later, I received an email from Telltale's CEO, Dan Connors. "Thanks for the interest," he wrote. "We don't have anything specific now but we may in the future. Keep in touch." (Words he may have lived to regret!)
As a kid, when I was asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, I had two answers that alternated depending on my mood. Some days, I wanted to be a famous writer. Other days, I wanted to work at Sierra On-Line. In 2005, Sierra as we knew it was no more, but Telltale had the same spark, the same cozy, family feel, the same dedication to making the story games I loved. That spring at E3, when the Adventure Gamers contingent met with Telltale at a paper plate and napkin-strewn table in Kentia Hall, I coyly slipped Dan my resume again. "We're not hiring right now," he said, to which I replied, "Call me when you are."
Hey there. We made a new gameplay video! It's a peek at the first few moments of Tales of Monkey Island Chapter One, "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal". You might notice that it includes an sample of some of the inventory-item-combining action you'll face while playing. Enjoy!
Arrrrr, matey! I be writin' this here blog because I've been up to my eyeballs in pirates lately and my therapist says it's probably better to write about it than to continue attempting to make my co-workers walk the plank of my cubicle.
Writing for Monkey Island is a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work. Imagining yourself in that fantastic (if a bit twisted) pirate world full of sword fights, ship battles, and boisterous bearded buccaneers is exciting, yet it doesn't always come so naturally. It's easy to lose momentum when you spend 8-10 hours a day writing these adventures at a desk in an office building. So when I found out that good old fashioned pirates (not the modern automatic-weapon carrying kind) were invading Northern California this past weekend, I had to make an appearance and give my inspiration a good kick in the fundament!
For those who have never been to a Pirate Festival, it's a lot like a renaissance festival, only with a lot more spitting and parrots. I have to admit, the event was a lot more inspirational than I expected. One of the things that surprised me was how experiencing this spectacle reminded me of how I felt the first time I played The Secret of Monkey Island™. I was suddenly in this world outside of my own, filled with larger than life characters! Brightly colored costumes, fearsome make up, unruly cheers while they toasted their spoils and growling threats at each other at sword point! The interesting thing was that even though all of the "pirates" were engaged in activities that clearly did not include me, I somehow always felt like I was being invited to participate in an unspoken way. I suppose that is the nature of the event, knowing psychologically that this entire world is set up for my personal entertainment. It's the same way with Monkey Island. You want to go exploring and meet up with interesting people and feel like you are being invited into that world, however strange it may be.
I am so pleased that I attended the event. Watching pirate movies in a small window on a computer monitor is one thing, but actually getting out into a living pirate world is something far superior. The experience of being on the water, feeling the boom of cannon fire, smelling the stink of Rum, having the opportunity to actually interact with these men of low moral fiber as they shout insults at you is something that I will be working hard to reflect in our game. I left the festival with that youthful feeling of wonderment restored. As pushed my way out through the crowd avoiding the foul breath of the pirate wearing a necklace of alligator skulls and bashfully eyeing the buxom ladies in laced up corsets, I had only one thought in my mind: I wanna be a pirate!
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