Ron Gilbert is a legend for adventure game fans. He’s the game director for iconic classics includingManiac Mansion, the first twoMonkey Islandgames, and more recentlyThe CaveandThimbleweed Park. Gilbert’s next project is unknown, but he may have just told fans exactly what he’s working on. In a recent post to Gilbert’s blog, he told readers that he’s working on a newMonkey Islandgame. There’s just one big catch, which is that Gilbert posted it on April Fool’s Day - but the story doesn’t end there.
Normally, an April Fool’s Day post would instantly be recognized as a joke. It wouldn’t be surprising if many of Glibert’s own fans saw his post about anewMonkey Islandgameand immediately dismissed it, but there is a problem with that interpretation. Gilbert has a long history of expressly not celebrating April Fool’s Day. In 2021, Glibert explained that his Grumpy Gamer blog “has been and always will be April Fools' Day free” for 17 years running. Suffice to say, the situation’s more opaque than a typical April Fool’s Day post would make it seem.
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The post on the Grumpy Gamer’s blog for 2022 also acknowledges its long history of refusing to celebrateApril Fool’s Day. The post reads, “For 18 years the Grumpy Gamer blog has been April Fools' Day free because it’s a stupid tradition. So to mix things up a little I’m taking this opportunity to announce I’ve decided to make anotherMonkey Island.” The intention is to be cryptic, obviously. The intention is to confuse the situation so that nobody knows whether Ron Gilbert is actually working on a newMonkey Island.
There doesn’t appear to be any immediately obvious evidence that could be used to dismissRon Glibert’s claim. Gilbert is working on an unknown project, after all. What’s been revealed via job listings has only confirmed that the studio is working on another point and click adventure game.
As for theMonkey Islandlicense, the last known owner is, of course, Disney. TheMonkey Islandgames were published by LucasArts, which was included inDisney’s acquisition of Lucasfilmin 2012. In 2016, Glibert asked Disney to sell him back the IP for the franchise. He also said at the time that getting back theMonkey IslandIP would allow him to “make the game I want to make.” It’s possible that Disney did sellMonkey Islandback to Gilbert in the years since, or it’s possible Disney is licensingMonkey Islandback to him.
One interesting detail to consider is that Gilbert was recently directly involved with aMonkey Islandrelease. He signed over 7,000 Certificates of Arr!thenticity for theLimited Run Gamesrelease of theMonkey Island Anthology, made in partnership with Disney. Perhaps Gilbert was able to work something out with Disney spinning out of that. Here’s hoping all theMonkey Islandfans across the world have a new project worth looking forward to.
