The International House of Mojo

How telling is it that Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer, who arrived on the scene together over 20 years ago, remain the only two designers most gamers can think of when it comes to comedic games? It's a worn-out cliche, but it remains true: comedy is hard - hard work; hard to produce; and hard to perform.

"While the decision to leave LucasArts did not happen overnight or come easily, I really feel that now is the best time for me to move on and explore new creative challenges and I look forward to the next phase of my career."

"We've got Ron who worked on... Monkey Island... he was the pioneer of adventures in the 80's... he started teaching us what adventure games were, and what they meant."

Working on the first screen shots, the logo and web page for our new episodic game.

No CMI SE for me. Not sure there will even be one. Bummed.

We're hearing all your feedback and will have news on much of it shortly. To clarify: MISE2 isn't planned for an OSX release at this time, will let you know if and when that changes!

Because Monkey Island is known for its puzzles as well as its humor, I was expecting more puzzle-centric quests. However a vast majority of the "Unimportant Things" followed the same formula as the main missions -- fetching ingredients and items or happily slaying monsters on behalf of other people. Granted, this is what most RPG's deliver, but I was expecting a bit more given the developer's background

What’s next in the pipeline for you?
I’ve been really blessed to play the characters I have. I still remember the feeling of booking my first job, walking into the session and feeling like all the hard work, patience and perseverance was worth it. The memories of working on Psychonauts, not knowing at the time what a huge deal it was – to the present, working with Telltale – who no doubt will continue to make quality, well told stories, making you laugh and cry. I don’t know what is next for me, but I’ve really been lucky so far! I have a feeling it’s just going to get better and better.

However, the developers refrained from recreating the original game's intro, which left many fans slightly upset. That is why I wanted to step into the breach - I used trailer and in-game video material as well as the music that is played while browsing the menu (which is a remake of the original theme). Using Adobe After Effects 7, I put together a trailer, I hope many fans will enjoy.

"I have no idea why, but people actually listened to me."

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge out now in New Zealand for iPhone and iPad.

It's out in the UK at midnight, and it's likely to cost £5.99 / $9.99 on iPad and £4.99 / $7.99 on iPhone.

Eurogamer: What's the latest on the PC version of DeathSpank? Will it actually be released?

Ron Gilbert: We're not really talking about the PC version right now. We're focusing on the Xbox and the PSN versions.

Ye be warned: This tutorial is NOT FOR BEGINNERS, it’s for people who know their way around Photoshop and are looking to further their design knowledge/skills

Q: You mentioned on your blog that you recently had lunch with Gary Winnick, your co-creator on Maniac Mansion. Is that something you'd like to revisit?

RG: I don't have the same desire to revisit that as I would, say, Monkey Island. I'm not really sure why. It'd be fun to do, but it's not a burning thing inside me.

Q: How about the idea of working with Gary again? Is that something you'd like to do?

RG: Yeah, I love collaborating with people a lot. Gary's a great guy, he's a wonderful artist and he's very, very funny. We kinda bounce stuff around every time we meet, but there's nothing firmed up at the moment.

Playing with the new LucasArts forums. Love the new features, can't wait to get it live soon for all of you!