The International House of Mojo

Ronzo is in a saucy mood and decided to tease his legion with confirmation of another reprised character. In fact, the very first character ever seen in a Monkey Island game:

The great Rob Paulsen was in fact the voice of the Melee Island lookout in The Secret of Monkey Island special edition, so it's cool that they're keeping consistency there.

Of course, with all these signs that we're returning to Melee, we're teased with the possibility that we'll get to see what The International House of Mojo looks like, Rex Crowle style. To think, Ron went to all this trouble as an elaborate excuse to supply us with a new logo.

Source: Twitter

While we at Mojo are excited about Return to Monkey Island, we also cannot shirk our journalistic integrity and report on scandals surrounding the sixth entry into the franchise. Anonymous sources have sent us a comparison of promotional logos, one from the website and trailer and one from the website’s OG image. (The latter being the one you see when you link to the site on Twitter.) To wit…

One is in the style of the original logo, the OG closer to the one from the Tales of Monkey Island era. One hydrated, one shriveled. What can we read into this? I think it’s safe to say it is all part of… Although, it’s hard to say which logo is censoring which, I think it’s safe to say that the purists amongst us prefer the original. We are also old, so take that for what it’s worth…

It’s been two days. You’ve all had your fun, and now it’s time to turn to pressing matters.

It’s time to put our feet back on the ground, drop the nonsense, stop forestalling the inevitable and embrace our duty.

It’s time to vote on the best Monkey Island official site.

• First up you got your basic Curse of Monkey Island official site, all right. Now with this one you get HTML frames, chattering Murrays, and a developer diaries section filled with vintage Dan Pettit anecdotes. An easy choice for those with discerning tastes who also need to stay within a sensible budget.
• Fancier customers may not be prepared to settle for less than Escape from Monkey Island's official site, a triumph of judicially-appointed UI controls and conservative screen resolution expectations. It is said that if you contemplate its all-encompassing blueness with deep enough concentration, you can actually start to levitate. And, ladies: it's said to be single.
• And then there’s the newest contender of the pageant, an oven-fresh splash screen for Return to Monkey Island organically sourced and tailor-fit for the modern sensibility. Sleek. Elegant. Purple. These are but a few of the elements lifted shamelessly from Mixnmojo, but we admire anyone with the good sense to steal from the best.

There you have it. To which does your heart belong? Cast your vote in the comments, or declare loudly to Lucasfilm through indifference that they were wrong to revive this series. Whichever expresses your feelings best.

Unsurprising to most—but apparently shocking to some—is that Ron Gilbert’s "If I Made Another Monkey Island" post from 2013 has passed its expiration date. That is to say, the almost ten-year-old musings may very well not apply to Return To Monkey Island. To quote Ronzo:

Now go relive that ReMI trailer one more time to keep riding this high.

(News nabbed from The Legend of Monkey Island’s Twitter.)

More to come.

Official web site. Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman, Land, McConnell, and Bajakian reportedly onboard. (See what I did there?!) Oh, and Dom, too!

Rex Crowle of Knights And Bikes confirmed as art director.

David Fox confirmed as lead programmer. We've heard murmurs about some other familiar name -- more to come.

Khris Brown is on as casting and voice direction.

Robert Megone of Thimbleweed Park-fame is joining in, too.

Ronzo has confirmed that CMI is canon; presumable EMI and TMI are, too. Do note the retcon in the trailer, though: the seagull that was killed off in TMI is back. Devolver state that the game "picks up where Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge left off".

For German fans: Marcel Weyers is translating Kehre Zur Affeninsel Zurück .

Want the trailer music in MP3 format? Mojo provides because Mojo loves you.

Jenn Sandercock is a producer on the game -- she previously worked on Thimbleweed Park.

Jared Emerson-Johnson confirmed as a music producer.

Noah Falstein pulled rank and got in on the playesting.

Known fanboy Elijah Wood raised his grog to the news.

Alexandra Boyd says, "there is only one true Elaine!" and jumps back into action.

Perhaps most strikingly of all, both The SCUMM Bar and The Legend of MI have had no choice but to update their front pages in the wake of all this. I guess that’s just something Ron will have to live with.

Ron Gilbert hates April Fool's Day. His dislike of the day is something that his blog celebrates every year by acknowledging the lack of an April Fool's Day joke on it. He's done this 18 years in a row. This year, however, he decided to mix things up a little by announcing a new Monkey Island game.

Has he decided to do a deal with Disney, or did he just become a bit less grumpy this year?

Make of it what you will! ;)

Update: Reader Sopabuena has done some detective work in the forums and uncovered this ancient Tweet:

An April Fool's Joke 18 years in the making or the most "Ronzo" game announcement of all time? Join the discussion!

Source: Grumpy Gamer

Or your Limited Run Games pre-order, if you prefer to look at it that way. Check it out:

You can read a few more words about Ron's sorrowful passion here.

It is tough to be a living legend. Ron's got that mysterious new game to make, but right now his hands are literally too busy signing four trillion certificates of authenticity (huge mistake), so the auteur has no choice but to consent to help. To this end, a few new job opportunities have appeared on the Terrible Toybox web site.

Do you have what it takes to drag limestone blocks across a desert's expanse in order to construct the great pyramid that is the next Gilbert/Winnick joint? Cast your name into the bowl, qualified game developer, and be judged.

Source: Terrible Toybox

Being cool and popular, we recently received the following email:

Do I need to draw you a road map? Go download those digitally liberated soundtracks right now!

Source: Bandcamp

If you were a person of good taste, you'd already know this from reading our forums, but if for whatever reason you're not...

Terrible Toybox are looking for an art director, and as you will see in the description, the studio is working on an "unannounced 2D pixel art adventure game." That's pretty much it. But Ronzo and Winnick and new adventure game are words you want to hear together.

Excited? Go to the forums and giddy your heart out there!

Source: Rum Rogers on the forums

The Thimbleweed Park interface-turned-free video game Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure is now DRM-free on GOG, following its release on Epic and Steam last month.

Speaking of GOG, their summer sale (which ends June 15) is on, including a selection of Double Fine games and other adventure game stuff outside Mojo's sphere of influence, but which you should look into anyway. In my opinion, works like Primordia and Technobabylon stand comfortably shoulder-to-shoulder with the best LucasArts and its alumni ever swung-out.

Source: GOG

We mentioned this on Twitter (which we intend on using until the White House shuts it down) but seeing Rum_Rogers threatened to break up with us, we'll mention it here, too: Ronzo has released Delores's source code. For free. On GitHub. If that means anything to you, then great. If not, then go about your life like the rest of us, and enjoy your freedoms while you have them.

Well, here's one for the quarantine dwellers: Ronzo's prototype for a new adventure game interface has all of a sudden morphed into a small adventure game: Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure. Read all about it, then get it from Steam or Epic Store. For free. How can you lose?

Always nice to see Humongous get some love. The good folks over at Vice have put together a lovely history of the studio that brought SCUMM to kids with the likes of Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish and Putt Putt. The article contains new quotes from Ron as well as Humongous designer Tami Borowick, so do check it out.

And don't forget that the old Humongous titles are readily available these days, just like all the other SCUMM games, now that I mention it. And no matter how jaded you've become about this world we live in, that's a pretty rad thing.

Source: Vice

Look, I don't know what this is all about. el "LucasTones" Tee came running in, screaming about a new Monkey Island poster by Steve Purcell, and that it's for sale right here. That page turned out to be in French, so I'm out beyond that.

elTee mumbled something about some French book about the making of The Secret of Monkey Island, and that's where the painting is from, but, really, who cares? You can get a poster by Steve Purcell, and that's more than you deserve. Run and spend €40, cold, hard, cash right now.

Update! Doug "Mojo 9" Tabacco brings word of an English language ordering page.

Humble Bundle, the pay what you want/some money goes to charity bundle maker, are currently selling every Humongous Games release in a single bundle.

If you fancy seeing what Ron Gilbert (and sometimes Dave Grossman) got up to in the 1990s after they left LucasArts, get the Humongous Entertainment Humble Bundle.

Thanks to reader Call me Squinky for alerting us to this.

Source: Humble Bundle

Remember Humongous Entertainment? I know at least one guy who plays adventure games as a result of Ron Gilbert's ultimately doomed but memorable foray into children's adventure games, and the Pajama Sam games—created by Gilbert, Richard Moe, and Rhonda Conley, and centred on a kid named Sam and his cape, facing the scary things that children do—are on sale to prove why. They really are very good.

In other news, Americans, apparently, spell it "pajama." If you've ever wondered why the self-proclaimed "greatest country in the world" can't quite crack the literacy top 20, this might be a good place to start "analyzing".

Source: GOG

This is just a kind reminder by yours procrastinator truly that Thimbleweed Park is being given away for free today and until March 7 by the Epic Games Store, which, like Steam, GOG, and Origin, is a digital games platform. If, like me, you still haven't played this game, and if, unlike me, you haven't bought it yet, now's your chance. It should be available later today.

Thimbleweed Park is the latest from Maniac Mansion co-creators Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick. It should be a good way to send-off the winter (I find winter ideal for video games, especially adventure games; does anyone else?).

Source: Epic Games Store

Thanks to Jones Jr. for pointing this out in the comments to an earlier story:

Thimbleweed Park, the latest from Maniac "you microwave a hamster" Mansion co-creators Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, will be free for users of the Epic Games Store from February 21 through March 7. Remi was a big fan.

Epic Games is trying to compete with GOG, Steam, Origin, and one-to-two-platforms-for-my-games convenience to make a name for itself. It makes one game yours to keep for free every two weeks; the current pick is Axiom Verge, and Subnautica and What Remains of Edith Finch preceded it. It also makes exclusive offers, like the new Supergiant Games outing Hades (and Supergiant is a great developer to support: A+ games, writing, and storytelling, made by an indie team with real heart).

Anyway, this has apparently been known for a while, but we're not late! Technically. Mojo, immediately bringing you the latest news from last week!

Source: Epic Games

The GOG.com winter sale is in full swing, and features new, one-day only discounts daily. And lo, so it came to pass that on this December 27th, 2018, Thimbleweed Park featured a whopping 55% discount.

Personally, I have never seen Thimbleweed Park on sale, so now's a chance to buy the latest from that one guy that made one game about the monkeys. Mojo reviewed Thimbleweed Park and Remi liked it.

Source: GOG