Return to Monkey Island’s Ron Gilbert addresses concerns over look

It "may not be the art style you wanted but it's the art style I wanted," he said.

Return to Monkey Island‘s Ron Gilbert has taken to a blog posts that addresses fans concerned over the sequel’s look and feel.

Gilbert directly addresses those who were hoping the sequel would have a retro, pixel art style of games of old.

“I have made one pixel art game in my entire career and that was Thimbleweed Park,” Gilbert wrote. “Monkey Island 1 and 2 weren’t pixel art games. They were games using state-of-the-art tech and art. Monkey Island 1 was 16 color EGA and we jumped at the chance to upgrade it to 256 colors. Monkey Island 2 featured the magical wizardry of scanned art by Peter Chan and Steve Purcell and we lusted to keep pushing everything forward.”

Gilbert used the post to express his dismay over those who’ve criticised Return‘s look.

“It’s ironic that the people who don’t want me to make the game I want to make are some of the hard core Monkey Island fans,” he lamented. “And that is what makes me sad about all the comments.”

Gilbert continued on to praise Rex Crowle, a previous designer on titles including Littlebigplanet and Tearaway, throwing his support behind the creatives working on the sequel.

“I wanted the art in Return to Monkey Island to be provocative, shocking, and not what everyone was expecting,” he continued. “Rex is an amazing creative force and we have a team of incredible artists, animators, sound designers, programmers, and testers all pouring their souls into this game and it’s beautiful to see, play, and listen to.”

Ultimately, Gilbert stressed that “Return to Monkey Island may not be the art style you wanted or were expecting but it’s the art style I wanted.”

We’ll have more of Return to Monkey Island as it becomes available.