Tales of Monkey Island isn't our first time walking the plank… far from it! Our team includes designers, writers, artists, and others who worked on all four of the previous Monkey Island titles, as well as many other adventure game classics.
At LucasArts, Dave was one of the main forces behind The Secret of Monkey Island and its sequel, along with Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer. He also co-designed Day of the Tentacle and later worked with Ron to create some of Humongous Entertainment's most enduring franchises, writing and often co-designing Pajama Sam and Freddi Fish adventure games for kids. Since 2005, Dave has been wrangling the design team at Telltale, putting his distinct thumbprint on the Sam & Max series, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, and Bone. IGN recently recognized him as one of the most influential game designers of all time. He also carves a mean pumpkin.
Mark has worked as a designer on Telltale's CSI games, and was lead designer on Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, Telltale's first WiiWare series. He's also the creator of the Nick Bounty series of indie games. When Mark started working at Telltale, his Monkey Island ring tone sent confused Telltale employees into a time warp every time the phone rang.
During his decade-plus tenure at LucasArts, Mike was kept as far away from Star Wars as possible, instead acting as lead designer on titles like Escape from Monkey Island, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Afterlife, and the never-released Sam & Max: Freelance Police. After several years working as lead writer on Star Trek Online, Mike came to Telltale, where he co-designed Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People . His disturbing blend of dry wit, convoluted syntactical constructions, and bathroom humor have added a healthy helping of absurdity to the Tales of Monkey Island proceedings.
Another LucasArts alum, Joe cut his game development teeth as a tester on The Secret of Monkey Island and Loom. He went on to do design work on The Dig and other projects, including the unreleased Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix. He has also designed games for companies including Sony, Mattel, and EA. At Telltale, Joe started as a designer on Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures before joining the illustrious Tales of Monkey Island crew.
Before arriving at Telltale as a designer on Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, Sean worked in creative development at Disney, where he rode "Pirates of the Caribbean" fortnightly. Playing the Monkey Island series as a youth made him realize that you don't have to be a genius programmer to work in game development—just a good writer and a smartass. Both qualities are serving him well on the Tales of Monkey Island team.
As an artist on Curse of Monkey Island, Derek was responsible for many of Guybrush's animations—including the legendary insult swordfighting sequences—as well as character concept art. He went on to become the art lead for Sam & Max: Freelance Police, where he lovingly nurtured the creation of hilarious sequences you never got to see. He joined Telltale to guide the Tales of Monkey Island art team from first concept through to final product.
Dave began his game industry career as a 2D animator on Curse of Monkey Island, then transitioned to 3D for in-game and cutscene animation on Grim Fandango. He animated many of Escape from Monkey Island's iconic cutscenes ("Good times, and free grog!"), before moving on to various other projects at LucasArts and beyond. With art direction credits on Telltale games from Bone to Sam & Max to Strong Bad under his belt, Dave has returned to Monkey Island, serving as joint art director on Tales.
Kim has worked as an artist on Curse of Monkey Island, Escape from Monkey Island, Full Throttle, The Dig, and several other well-known LucasArts games. After serving as lead environment artist on both Sam & Max seasons, with work on Bone and Wallace & Gromit mixed in, Kim is back in the Caribbean as lead environment artist and modeler on Tales of Monkey Island.
As a youth, Daniel fired up The Secret of Monkey Island and was amazed by the way that every element—from the art to the music to the humor—combined to create the best cinematic storytelling he had ever seen in a video game. As Telltale's senior choreographer, Daniel has sustained this cinematic vision through his work on Bone, Sam & Max, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, and now Tales of Monkey Island.
As a tester at LucasArts, Randy was the first person to play through Curse of Monkey Island, when it was still mostly pencil drawings. His QA career included several other LucasArts projects, including adventure games Grim Fandango and Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion, before he switched over to the dark programming side with Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. His lead programming credits at Telltale include Bone, Sam & Max, and now Tales of Monkey Island.
As the composer of all four of the previous Monkey Island games and The Dig and a contributor to Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Sam & Max Hit the Road, Michael Land is the John Williams of adventure games. If you've ever hummed along to a Monkey Island tune, you have Michael to thank—and after playing Tales of Monkey Island, you'll thank him all over again.
The Monkey Island legacy began before the advent of "talkie" games, but starting with Curse of Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood had a voice. Dominic Armato was that voice, and he's back for Tales of Monkey Island, flying to the Bay Area monthly to participate in voice recording sessions with Telltale's team.
These are the folks making Tales of Monkey Island a reality—plus, of course, a motley crew of animators, choreographers, programmers, producers, and testers with loads of experience developing Telltale's award-winning lineup. See our full team listing here.
