The International House of Mojo

Interview with a Game Designer: The Monkey Island Chronicles

Everyone knows that when a Lucasarts classic is created, a game designer gets granted eternal life by Gi-El himself. At least, this is how the myth goes... Nobody knows if this myth is true, the tale is just passed from designer to designer. All the people who know the true secret are either dead or have passed on... to other companies.

This is the tale of Ron Gilbert, and the effect this myth had on his sanity...

It was a bleak December evening, Ron walked the streets San Francisco, carrying a huge folder full of doodles and writings under his arm. It was a holiday season as any other, the carolers were merry and the air smelled like mistletoe and laughter.
None of this for Ronzo though. He mused about pitching a new game idea. After the success of Maniac Mansion, Zak MacKracken and Indiana Jones, this was going to be hís year! He was certain of it. He stopped in front of the big Lucasfilm Games building, inconveniently shaped like an L.
He had a meeting with several big shots of Lucasfilm Games. All of them were elderly men, dressed in Grey dull suites. None of them had probably ever designed a game themselves, or had a spark of imagination for that matter. "Hmmm... Tough crowd," Ron mused. His pitch though, was both enthusiastic and inspiring. He told them about tough, smelly, filthy scalawags, adventures on the high seas and rubber chickens with pulleys in the middle. As he was imitating swordfighting, giving his best "yarrr" and yelling GROG, GROG, GROG for no apparent reason, none of the executives seemed to move a muscle.
When the pitch had ended, a dull looking, poker faced man stood up. "We'll get back to you."
The character of Adrian Ripburger was later based on him, but that's another story...

Weeks passed... Ron had given up all hope. His job at Burger World wasn't so bad... Although Steve, his manager, told him he needed to brighten up or hit the road. Maybe he should've finished accountant school like his mother had told him to.
Coming home late one night after a group of German tourists had ransacked the restaurant he saw his answering machine blinking...
Still wearing his Burger World uniform he hopped on the next tram to the office. They had approved his idea!!!

And thus, the secret of Monkey Island was in development. Ron was given a team of young creative people to boss around. I was one of them, Tim Shafer, a young new coffee boy, I had been given my first big assignment in programming. I admit I was kind of a wisecrack, pitching jokes and plot ideas around the office. It worked though, during development Ron became rather fond of me, and we became great friends.
Ron never felt better in his life. He was doing everything he ever dreamed of doing, making new friends, getting respect and appreciation for his ideas, making other people cook hís meals. It was the most wonderful time of his life.

After a few months the game was released. Ron was pretty excited and held his heart as he sat next to his mailbox. In those times you see, reviews had to come in by mail. Still 2:45... Hadn't his clock just stopped? Was time really moving this slow? He checked the battery, still half full... He was getting sick of the waiting. "I'll go make myself a sandwich," he though to himself. Peanut butter/jelly. 2:46, why was time moving so slowly? Maybe he should find something to do... Yes, he'd watch tv for a little while. Still 2:46? It never seemed to end. Ah, 2:47...
"Kachunck!"
The sound came from his mailbox! His feat never touched the ground as he went way above his apartments speed limit. Tearing open the envelope, he sped through the magazine. Ignoring the entire review he went straight for the verdict. A 9,5!!!
As he leapt for joy, his eye fell on another letter. Lucasarts entertainment company?
What was this? Bladibladibla new company name bladibladibla... Chance to make a sequel to your pirate game? A meeting with Gi-El himself?!?

At the time development began on LeChuck's Revenge (Monkey Island 2), Ron was sick. He felt like a train had ran him over. The development had to start without him, and he didn't like it. It made him mad even.
The first day of the third week of development he came into the office. "Are you feeling better?" I asked him, "How did the meeting go?" "Wennalright," was the short alienating response Ron gave me, and he locked himself into his office.

The following month I felt a change in Ron. Where the first part of Monkey Island gave him energy and joy, the sequel seemed to take it from him. It wasn't that the writing or design were getting worse. It was all top notch. Ron just wasn't. He started coming in late, working nights, sleeping in his office. Knowing him as the funny, life-loving guy he was, I didn't understand why Ron jelled and cursed and threw coffee at his creative team all the time. I decided to talk to Ron, find out what was going on...

The door to Ron's office gave a long creeping sound as it opened. Nobody had dared to step inside for a long time, ideas where shared through post-its that people found at their desk in the morning and small pieces of paper that were shoved under the door.
A small ray of light came through the closed shutters, it was the only light in the whole room. A thick, heavy air filled the office. It smelled like a mixture of cheese and dirt.
A soft crawling sound came from a corner, it sounded like somewhat of a rodent.
"Ron? Ronzo? Are you in here?" I asked the darkness.
Suddenly the pale blue light of a computer monitor lit the back wall. In the dim light a silhouette of a figure was visible. "Come closer... " The voice was dusty, gravelly, almost inhuman-like.
"Ron... We thought you might want to go through a couple of ideas with us... You know... Have a staff meeting... Or just you know, have some fun... Like old times."
"Like old times? And how are you expecting to deliver a good game in time if we'd work like old times?" Ron's shouting took me by surprise. "I'm stuck between three islands here, Tim! Three Islands! Who the hell thought of that?!?
"Well... You did, Ron," I replied carefully.
Ron bend over into the light. I remember having trouble holding a scream. I didn't expect the face I saw to have the same rosy cheeks that I remembered. But I didn't expect this either.
Purple lines marked the space under his eyes which showed a maze of red veins. The rosy cheeks I remembered had sank deeply into his face. The pale blue light of the monitor was almost able to hide the blue veins that accented the white dull skin, up until the ragged long fat hairs that hang down his face. The dry sore lips moved again.
"Have you ever heard the sound of ants walking in a straight line, Tim? Of a rat crawling in the small space between the walls in another building? I hear it now... All the time, Tim. Do you know the feeling that you get when you peel an orange if your finger nails are clipped to short? I know it... I have it all the time now. That weak greasy but painful feeling... This smell... The smell of fear throughout the city. Can you smell it?
"Smells like dirty cheese to me."
"I can't take it anymore, Tim." Ron seemed to cry. "I don't know what's happening to me."

He bend over what seemed to be his desk. I backed up, but Ron had already grabbed hold of me. "I want to do it, Tim. I want to go out with you guys again. Have fun. Making up silly references to Disneyland and just laugh again altogether." As he said this he seemed to liven up. He almost looked like his own self again...
"It's the meeting, isn't it?" I asked carefully, "The meeting with Gi-El. What did he do to you?"
"Nothing, stay away from there! Stay away! I don't want you to go there! You hear! There is nothing wrong with Gi-El. It's uninteresting and I DON'T WANT YOU TO GO THERE!"
He held me so strongly and shook me so hard that I felt like my eyes where gonna pop out of my sockets. A fear took hold of me, and as soon as he released me I ran.
"DON'T GO TO GI-EL! LEAVE HIM ALONE!" These were the last words I heard as I slammed the door shut...
These were also the last things Ron said to me. I came into the office the next day, the door to his office was open. In there were several cleaning women trying to tidy up the place. Finally I could see the room I left so hurriedly the other day.
The ground was covered in dirt, cracks and greasy spots lined the wall and chairs and pottery that were once neatly set up were spread across the floor, as were several dead rats.

The game was wrapped up the following month, but I've never heard or seen anything of Ron since. I heard he still keeps a blog somewhere though...

"What an incredible story!" Bill Tiller exclaimed. "I know," Tim said, pouring another cup of coffee, "I've never told anyone at Lucasarts ever. But Since you're not working there anymore, I thought you'd might want to hear it. You want another cup?"
"No, I've had enough. I should be going anyway, it's getting late."
"Alright, what are you gonna do next by the way?"
"I've saved up some money to start my own game company, I'm thinking about calling it Autumn Moon, I'd like to make some more classic adventure games, like in the golden days."
"That's quite the project, good luck with that!"

Night had fallen when the two shook hands and said their good-byes. It was a beautiful clear night in San Francisco. Bill felt quite good about the talk as he rode home in his convertible, although it left him with kind of a sour aftertaste.
While crossing the Golden Gate bridge he suddenly felt a shock to his car. Before he was able to turn around he felt two hands turning his head sideways, and a cutting pain to his neck. Then, the feeling as if all life was drained out of him. Then, nothing...
While the blood dripped over the leather coating he looked up, straight into a familiar face.
"Don't worry," Ron said, "I'm going to give you the choice I never had... "

-- submitted by Joop van den Beucken

Celebrating the release of Rouge Leaders, we sat down with David Fox and Ron Gilbert to talk about their fondest memories working at LucasArts.

"I'd have to say working on Zak was the highlight of my career," stated Fox. "It's bizarre how I got the idea, really. After a rude awakening from a peculiar dream, I began my morning routine a bit early. As I moseyed on out of my apartment to retrieve the mail, something felt a little off. The normally-bustling streets of San Francisco were but a whisper. I shrugged it off and opened the mailbox, only to discover a startling letter from the phone company. 'This can't be right,' I thought to myself. Luckily, the phone company was right down the street, making it easier for me to take matters into my own hands.

"I marched down to the offices of TPC still perplexed as to why there was still not a soul to be seen, save for a lethargic bus driver. As I entered the doors, a shady-looking fellow sporting a nice pair of shades and a ten gallon hat approached me and inquired, 'How may I help you?' I simply handed him my phone bill. 'Ah, I see. That will be $1138.'

"'You don't understand,' I replied. 'There's been a mistake.' His response was the following: 'With all due respect, sir, we don't make mistakes.' I could tell he was quickly agitated because he was staring at me in a way that I felt like his hat was even giving me nasty looks. Not able to argue with such logic, I handed him my cash card. I went home, and then I went to bed."

"That's it?" we asked. Fox replied, "That's it." Gilbert then added, "David actually came into my office the next day and shared his experience with me. He then went on with this conspiracy theory about how The Phone Company was really a race of undercover aliens with the intent of making the human race dumber by utilizing the phone lines. It was the funniest thing I had ever heard, but at the same time, I thought the poor man was crazy."

"So how did this game actually make it into production?" we asked. "Well," said Gilbert. "A couple of the guys and I decided it would be funny to come up with a game idea based on David's experience, and pitch it to the company. We were actually expecting to get shot down; in fact we wanted to get rejected. The only reason we had put the pitch together was so we could record their reactions on hidden camera and show it to Fox. We were expecting a reaction along the lines of, 'Are these guys serious?' What we got was, 'Brilliant!' Thus Zak McKracken was born. It's a real shame, too. That could have ultimately been one of the best pranks I'd ever pulled."

-- submitted by Scott Cooper

Hello, my name's Brian and I am a collector of fine, top quality Lucasarts Adventure games. I've spent most of my life tracking and playing the classics that made Lucasarts a quality company. To gain a better understanding of the games that changed my life forever, I hunted down and stalked a few of Lucasart's best.

My first "interview" was with Noah Falstein the men behind Lucasart's two good Indiana Jones games. When I first approached him, his first question to me was "Who are you and why have you been camped across my street for a week?". After we got the logistics out of the way, I began my interview:

BRIAN: What was it like working for Lucasarts?

NOEL: Who?

BRIAN: Er... the company where you made the two classic Indiana Jones games...

NOEL: Oh... Them. Yeah, I get confused when "Star Wars" isn't said in the same sentence with them.

BRIAN: So what was it like?

NOEL: It was a wonderfully dreadful experience. At first, <Deleted> wanted us to make some graphic adventure about Ewoks but I told him "<Deleted> are you out of your fucking mind! Who'd want to stare at the screen watching EWOKS for hours?"

BRIAN: So it was a bumpy start?

NOEL: To say the least... And don't get me started on his Star Wars Christmas Special FPS.

BRIAN: After you made Fate of Atlantis, you left. Why?

NOEL: <Deleted*> got more power and twice as many Star Wars games were put into works.

• • Hint, ex-president of a science series obsessed company.

I left the comfort of Noah Falstein's yard and continued on to another legend, Bill Tiller. After letting him who how I felt about Escape from Monkey Island, I got to questioning:

BRIAN: How are those teeth, Bill?

BILL: They'll be fine once I get them back into my mouth. And my nose has finally stopped bleeding.

BRIAN: Oh... Anyways, what was it like working for Lucasarts during the production of The Dig?

BILL: It sucked.

BRIAN: Oh?

BILL: Yeah. After The Dig, we got into a super badass sci-fi racing game tat had weapons and such; like Wipeout but WAY cooler.

BRIAN: What happened to it?

BILL: George happened to it. He had us take out all the weapons and even replaced the ships!

BRIAN: So the game WAS released?

BILL: Yeah, its called "Stars Wars: Episode I Racer" now.

Last on my wondrous voyage was to the house of the great man himself, Ron Gilbert. Unfortunately, Ron's old pals phoned him ahead of time, so he left on vacation. Luckily, Lucasarts treats its ex-members the way the Church of Scientology does so they were more than happily to tell me where he was, his ATM pin, and his social security number. I finally found him in Antarctica, staying in and underground base:

RON: Good lord, you found me!!

BRIAN: Of course!

RON: What do you want from me? And can you please stop kissing my feet!!

BRIAN: Sorry about that... I just wanna ask some questions.

RON: Shoot.

BRIAN: What was it like working for Lucasarts?

RON: Fun... until they wanted me to make a graphic adventure staring Bren Derlin.

BRIAN: Who's "Bren Derlin"?

RON: He's just some random rebel officer in Empire Strike's Back.

BRIAN: Why would anyone wanna play a game about a Star Wars character no one's ever heard of?

RON: That's what I said.

BRIAN: What was it like making "The Secret of Monkey Island"?

RON: Apart from getting fans like you, it was great. It was the only time Lucasarts didn't trying to jam Star Wars down our thoughts... though they did try to convince us to replace the swords with lightsabers.

And there you have it folks! Tune in next time when I explore Ron Gilbert's underwear draw for the true Secret of Monkey Island!

-- submitted by lazarusryu

DAY OF THE TENTACLE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE MANSION

The true story of how 'Day of the Tentacle' came to be is one of the strangest, most blood curdling stories known to man. To understand it, one must first familiarise themselves with the bizarre work ethos of Lucasarts, during the late eighties and early nineties.

Fans of classic wannabe pirate simulator, 'The Secret of Monkey Island', will be well aware that the likenesses of Elaine Marley and Carla were taken from real life employees at the fledgling LucasFilm Games. However, most are unaware of the purpose behind these cameos. Far from being an affectionate gesture, they were actually the only form of payment Carla Green and Avril Harrison ever received for their work with the company.

This habit of paying the staff in cameo appearances was conceived by Gary Winnick to keep costs down, during production on Day of the Tentacle's 1987 precursor, 'Maniac Mansion'. The company was over budget and didn't have the finances to pay all the college students who had been brought in to test the game. Winnick correctly theorised, remembering similar experiences from his youth, that the students would gladly forego their wages for the street cred they would gain from having their faces in the game.

Winnick had however not counted on the machinations of one of the brighter students, nerdy Bernard Bernoulli. Not only did he insist on having his name in the game, as well as his likeness, he also demanded that he appear in two further games from the company – one in a starring role. Winnick agreed but after production wrapped on Mansion, Bernoulli's request for two further appearances was largely forgotten.

It was not however forgotten by Bernoulli himself, who threatened LucasArts with legal action in the early 90's. Steve Purcell quickly stepped to the company's rescue by suggesting Bernard feature as a cameo in the upcoming 'Sam & Max: Hit the Road' but the promised starring role would require greater planning. Bernoulli's own suggestion of 'Bernard Bernoulli Conquers the Martians' was quickly thrown out, as was an idea to rebrand 'Zombies Ate My Neighbours' as 'Bernard Bernoulli Ate My Neighbours'.

After an absurd number of executive lunches, it was finally agreed that the only feasible solution was to create a sequel to the original Maniac Mansion. A team was quickly assembled to tackle the issue but the central question of what the game should be about alluded designers, Schafer and Grossman, until George Lucas invited them to his Skywalker Ranch for a brainstorming session.

While Lucas' ideas were not used, his invitation to go fishing in Lake Ewok proved a winner. During the exertion, a real-life giant squid (which had been placed in the lake by Lucas as a practical joke) burst out of the water and threatened to consume Dave Grossman. Fortunately, Schafer - who never left home without his antique cutlass - leapt into action, slicing the tentacles of the beast clean off.

Later, whilst dining on fresh calamari, the two reflected on their "Day of the Tentacle". "Actually, that'd be a pretty good name for the game" pondered Grossman. And the rest, as they say, is history...

submitted by Mojo-mad

The real history of Grim Fandango

The Old Days

To understand Grim Fandango and it's development it is important to understand what was going on internally at LucasArts at the time and how that contrasted to what things were like at LucasArts before.

"The suits didn't really understand what we were doing and left us pretty much to our own devices back then. We had so much freedom that there was a real sense of being high on creativity.

In retrospect it was probably all the drugs, rather than the creative freedom, that was making us high - but either way we were making great games." -- David Fox, 1998

Right from the companies inception George Lucas sent out memos showing that he not only supported the use of recreational drugs in his company, it was actually mandated as part of the business plan. His mantra of "Kick ass games, no Star Wars, lots of drugs." was widely reported in the gaming press at the time, and when the first few games started to trickle out it was clear that it wasn't all just talk. Hit inspired hits such as Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders(1988) and Zombies Ate My Neighbours(1993) further cemented LucasArts as the game company that psychoactive chemicals built.

The drug culture that permeated the LucasArts ethos reached it's peak in 1994 when Tim Schafer's request for an in-house dealer was granted.

"I was doing research for Full Throttle at the time. I wanted to have this section in the game where Ben, the main character, took peyote and went on this hallucinogenic trip. As I say, I was doing research into the game and as a result I was taking loads of that stuff.

Anyway, it ended up being a real hassle going out and trying to score when I had dialogue to write, concept art to approve and a whole bunch of other stuff going on at the same time. Eventually I went to my boss and said hey, it would really help if we had a source on site. He said he'd run it by the board and two weeks later Jake turned up." -- Tim Schafer, 2001

Jake Rodkin was the man brought in to provide narcotics to the development staff. He was given a disused stationary cupboard as an office and, for all intents and purposes, an unlimited budget. For eight months everything went well; productivity was booming and morale was through the roof.

The Charlie Incident

The atmosphere turned sour when allegations of theft were raised. Ron Gilbert remembers the day it all went down:

"George (Lucas) himself called us all in for a meeting right after lunch. Everyone was there from the sound guys to the artists to management, it was unheard of. George was really into speed at the time and, well, we were fairly sure he hadn't slept for several days. He had this deranged look in his bulging, unblinking, bloodshot eyes like he was going to start killing.

Basically he said that 6 kilos of cocaine had gone missing from the stationary cupboard and if nobody owned up to taking it then there would be no more drugs for anyone. We all just stood there in silence exchanging shocked looks. Every so often George would say 'I can wait all day if I have to.' or 'It's your time you're wasting, you know, not mine." but after 4 hours nobody put their hand up." -- Ron Gilbert, 1999

George Lucas had been finding himself increasingly paranoid for some time and felt deeply betrayed by the theft. A few days later, whilst suffering from severe bad vibes, George realised the incident was part of a conspiracy against him in the management team. They were immediately fired and replaced by the one group of people Lucas felt he could trust: his lawyers.

Brave New LucasArts

Memo's were immediately circulated indicating that, after careful evaluation, the new managerial staff felt the "Kick ass games, no Star Wars, lots of drugs." business model was no longer appropriate given current marketplace realities. The "Ass games and Star Wars" initiative was launched two days later. Under the new regime staff were required, amongst other things, to turn up at 9 AM every day, work, wear shoes and relieve themselves only in designated "restrooms". The slew of new rules did not go over well; morale plummeted and developers left in droves. Ron Gilbert was among of the first to go:

"I had been experimenting with mixing amphetamines and benzodiazepines since '93 and developed a bit of a habit. I tried to stick it out after the Charlie Incident but I was shaking and vomiting the whole time. Some people had it worse, others seemed to be coping, but no-one was happy. Most of the freelancers had left and there was constant talk of people leaving and starting their own companies or finding work elsewhere. Three weeks after the change I was gone.

At first I felt bad for the people I left behind, people who needed the job security and couldn't just walk out, but in the end I just got on the horse and rode away." -- Ron Gilbert, 1999

The song LucasArts was playing been had changed forever and, it seemed, nobody wanted to dance to the new tune.

Grim Fandango

Tim Schafer was one of the few who remained because he needed the regular paycheck, but that didn't mean he was going to take the changes sitting. Tim fought back the best way he knew how: with his art. He started work on Grim Fandango which was to become scathing critique of LucasArts policies.

The main villain, Hector LeMans (to rhyme with "The Man"), was a parody of the accountants and lawyers that had overrun and corrupted the once great studio. The LSA, a direct reference to lysergic acid, represented the developers fighting for their right to consume mind altering substances.

"After Full Throttle I developed a thing for hallucinogens. In late in 1994 there was this time I was on acid and I saw God. The actual face of God, it was so beautiful. I can only half remember what the experience was like but I knew that I had had it and I knew I had to try and find Him again. Then George went mental and stole my ticket to see God from me, my 'ticket on the number 9' I called it. I felt like a lost soul. That's where the Lost Souls Alliance came from." -- Tim Schafer, 2004

The symbolism ran deep in the game, but in order to get the game made Tim had to hide the true meaning of the story from those who would green-light production. To do this the narrative was wrapped up in a shallow film noir aesthetic and vague Aztec motifs. Sadly the disguise was too good and it fooled most reviewers and gamers too, but now the truth has been revealed: Grim Fandango, it's probably all about drugs.

-- submitted by neon_git

Next page: the winnar!

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