Grumpy Gamer

I am equally as glad you are able to pursue smaller projects that are more fulfilling as I am perpetually outraged at the industry at large's reluctance to support the people who do the work/let people own their own work.

Keep doing your thing!

Hell yeah! 100% support for you on this, make what you want and be happy. Also sell it so you get money and can continue making things, we are here to buy it!

Good luck.

That's great to hear Ron. Do what makes you feel good. At the end of the day that's all that matters.

What about licensing your Games engines ? And find a partner to create a label around that ? More babies

"I’m not rich but I can pay for food and rent and make what I want."

You made Humongous Entertainment and sold a gazillion copies of games (which now my children play).

Surely you're writing this on a mega yacht made of gold?

I wish. The company who bought HE was completely incompetent and I didn't make anything. It's a long and heartbreaking story. :-(

Maybe with your own platform or indiegogo or something and a longer timeframe and a way higher budget. You have the creds to make it happen. Only give out digital rewards. Make it most advantageous for you.

I remember it was said here that another MI will not happen and then boom - half life 3 confirmed.

With all the current consolidation in the entertainment industry and their alignments in the past year, it feels like almost everything is owned by a few not so nice people. As a customer, I also don't want to give them more money. Some of the money Disney got from MI is now invested in OpenAI. They are openly stealing every single painting of Tim and you and everyone else. I would love to get more sequels of the old stuff, but not like that. Thanks for not having me make the choice whether to buy MI7 from Disney or not.

Do you already have plans or ideas for your next game? Like genre or story?

Projects could and should be approached much more cooperatively. Unfortunately, this approach is even more “communist-discredited” in the US than it is here in Europe. Yet it would often be the fairest way to approach projects.

You’ve more than earned it. Enjoy life.

Not much to add... but I wanted to thank you for your work!

"... I didn't make anything. It's a long and heartbreaking story. :-("

Oof... I'm really sorry to hear that.

I can't find the whole story online. I think I can piece the basics of it together: HE was bought out with GT shares, and those shares quickly lost value. But I hope you'll share what happened one day.

It resonates deeply with me too, even though I don't have any very popular IP.
It took me many years to understand this—years wasted trying to force myself into predefined frameworks imposed by others.
You're just minding your own business, and at some point someone comes along. Someone you don't even particularly respect, to be honest.
And starts telling you they're "ahead" of you. And it hurts. So you start chasing them. You begin to believe that happiness is a finish line.

So you run, and you grind yourself into the ground, only to arrive exhausted at a place that turns out to be unsatisfying in one way or another.
Then you stop and think about it for a moment-not even that long, tbh-and you realize that happiness isn't a destination at all.
It's a balance. Something you have to nurture every day.
Life is the journey, not the goal. It's a pretty obvious idea when you think about it.
It's the time we choose to spend from an account whose total balance we don't even know.
Focusing solely on the objective-especially considering how long it takes to develop a game-means postponing happiness until tomorrow.
"What will I do when I've made millions?" But if the answer is, "I'm not very obsessed with money... I just want the peace of mind to pursue my passion, which is making videogames",
then it looks a short circuit to me.
Maybe it's better to turn down the volume on that background noise and remember why we do what we do.
Because the crazy thing is, you could have been working on it from the very beginning. Even on your own (which is a supercool thing about making videogames).
And when you do, you suddenly think... damn. You know what? Right now, I’m happy.

Sorry, I don't get your complaint that other people got rich from your ideas. You were an employee. You signed a contract. Like most of us, we don't get the direct revenue stream from our actions but a salary. That also gave you a safety net back then to try something new and not get immediately broken when it failed.

Also, what is the alternative? Monkey Island being insignificant, a financial flop, nobody playing the games. Then no rich investor would have profited, right? LucasFilm made you famous. You can now badge a sticker "a game by Ron Gilbert" on stuff. That is worth something. How many wage earners can do that on their future enterprises? Most of us are not even allowed to talk about what we achieved at work.

It’s tempting to imagine the 🐐 would enjoy unlimited creative and financial freedom…

But this time you don't have to build an engine from scratch. Besides, I'm sure you'll raise the money needed, no matter how dead or alive Kickstarter is.

Matthias, that makes sense for MM / MI, but I think you're way off when Humongous Entertainment is brought into it.

- HE had two founders, one of them was Ron.
- HE was super successful and sold millions of copies.
- HE was sold to another company for 76 million USD.

So the fact that Ron didn't get anything out of HE is quite outrageous and sad.

I think you're missing the point. What's happened has happened, but I won't do it again. Employers take advantage of employees, publishers take advantage of devs, friends take advantage of friends and that's sad. But I'm done. From now on I make games for me and the enjoyment of doing it.

I wish you the best and will continue to stop by every now and again to see what you have done. This is a worrying sign of the state of this industry and i can’t help but think of the independent artists you have been working with in the past..

It makes sense.
Small games may be a niche and you carry the entrepreneurial risk, but at least you are free in your decisions and get the harvest.
Also, in terms of gaming fun from the consumer's perspective, small games often do not need to hide from successful AAA titles.
As long as you can pay your bills, a lot of employed game designers may envy you.

In my opinion, TWP still would have become a great game even if you had not reached all of the goals on Kickstarter.

So, will there be TP2 or another adventure?

I think what Ron is saying is no unless there is a way to get the money without someone else taking it all.

I feel very much the same way. Made lots of people wealthy over the years and now, mostly retired, find myself just wanting to make small games with people I like. Making games with friends is a noble idea. My problem is most of my friends are still having to work their day jobs, and don't have the time or energy to make spare time stuff. Plus, we're all kind of worn out and just a little bit jaded. The harsh realities, with thousands of games being pumped out on Steam, is kind of soul destroying as far as getting people to play the stuff you make. Making games for the love of it is beyond the scope of most people's financial realities too. Oh well. Any artists out there want to make a game with me? :D

I'd love to see a scaled down Rogue/NetHack inspired adventure with a rich story and humorous script.

I'd love to get a short Ron Gilbert adventure game that was bare-bones, crammed with jokes, and simple EGA block-color graphics and simple sprites, like King's Quest 1 or Space Quest 1.
Just the essentials, strip it all back down.
No voices or fancy animation, just interesting locations, jokes, and fun puzzles.
Fast turnaround. Would allow for innovation and rapid implementation of ideas within a simple, no-fuss framework.

"It's a long and heartbreaking story. :-("

Oh no! :( I think everyone secretly assumed you were financially independent after Humongous. If you could bear the pain, I'm sure a lot of us would love to hear more about your post-LEC days. (Obviously the internet has heard the sad story of Shelley being convicted -- or part of it, at least.)

Life is full of ups and downs. I'm glad you're in a place where you can pursue the projects you want, though!

Focusing on the personal enjoyment makes sense to me. I thought Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure was created partly for the the enjoyment of doing it. It certainly makes me miss the good old halcyon days of the pandemic.

ron, can’t wait to see the small games that you made for yourself! this is a pretty bold decision and align with the artistry that you add in your projects. I’m pretty sure that they’ll be awesome

We already have one. It's called Death by Scrolling. It's a lot of fun, but probably not for pure adventure fans.

Big supporter here. Been playing for 30+ years and there are very few things that I can say that I've been doing for so long. There's a reason I keep following and checking in with your blog and mojo. I am excited for whatever is next. Keep up the great work.

I think that if you're not enjoying what you're making, then there's no point. As much as I would love to play Thimbleweed Park 2, I wouldn't want to play a game that you weren't happy about making in the first place.

Perhaps sometime in the future, the situation will change and you'll have the chance to make a TWP2 in a way that makes it a happy experience and we will all be the better for it. But maybe not, and that's obviously ok.

Nothing but love and respect. All the best for your current and future projects. Love playing Death by Scrolling, will replay TWP soon, am playing MI2 with my kids right now, once we‘re done with that we will play Return to Monkey Island again.

Thank you for your Monkey Island!

Hi Ron,

If you are still interested in detective stories, take a look at the old movie Balkan Spy ( youtu.be/XQmkwZk_d_E?si=UpBN-u7my1i_qAvJ ). It has been declared cultural heritage of great importance in Serbia. You can watch it in two ways: as a tragic drama or as a hilarious comedy.

Kind regards and happy holidays.

P.S. The people who made this film also ended up empty-handed, even though the movie is one of the best in the region.

I would be very much surprised if Ron's name and Thimbleweed IP would not get 20 fans, myself included, interested to invest 50K in Thimbleweed Park 2 and get a small profit out of it. I guess Ron is just not interested anymore in doing this stuff purely for the money.

I would love to make an another TWP. I just won't do it while being taken advantage of by publishers (or investors). It's very hard to raise money, I've done it before. I've talked to investors about TWP2 and it falls apart when they worry about their "return" or if they have control or they don't really have the money. You can discount every one of these things, but they always happen and it derails things. Yes, it would be nice to find 20 fans willing to put up 50k, but I guarantee each with have endless questions and some will bail at the last minute.

Raising money over Kickstarter or similar platform is not an option?

That's what this post completely ignores. How can you expect generous investors with those numbers? MI is my favorite game of all time and I'd pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege of playing another one, but ask me to put down a huge investment and I'd probably walk away, even with it already being an established franchise...

"It's a long and heartbreaking story. :-("

Have you talked with someone about this? Sometimes it's worthwhile to work on healing the past before deciding to make something new.

Dear Ron.

I completely agree with the making what you want philosophy, but I think you might underestimate how many people love your Art/Work. Here in Norway there is a whole generation that loves Monkey Island SO much I Am very shure there is a lot of people that are willing to donate or work for free (promotion etc) to make a new adventure game happen. Dont underestimate peoples kindness if you just give them a chance. It would be a fantastic thing and an inspiration for others if we could do this together! Kind of the ultimate touchee to the industry.


Best Regards sigurd

Listen Ron, I think all agree with you - at this point of life, take care of you happiness. You earned the right to be a little selfish. Actually we all should be doing that, however as human buings we love to punish ourserves in younger years, before we earn that enlightment - your happiness is more important to you than happiness of others.

Anyway, with you taste of humor and games you made, I think you'd be perfect guy to make an adventure game out of "The Dresden Diaries" books. The setup is perfect - washout magician in mundane Chicago, trying to make a living as a private detective. Always unfortunete with love, success and hapiness, trying to save humanity all the time. If you guys never heard about it - try the books. They are on Discword level :)

Best Regards all.

Sorry I ment "The Dresden Files" not "The Dresden Diaries"... it probably also exists but is about disfunctional princess....

I think it is great choice to make smaller games, Mr. Gilbert!

However, as I live in the past, I can't help thinking the following:

What I would really really really like to see is a new, awesome point and click adventure game that would work on my real 386 computer. Everyone could still play it with DOSBox though. There are all kinds of launchers for DOSBox, so running the game should be easy.

So, how much would it actually cost to make such a game nowadays? Some things to consider:

- No need for voice acting as it was a later novelty. I personally never got used to voice acting on early 1990s VGA adventure games. It breaks the illusion for me!
- No need for ports on multiple operating systems as DOSBox is available for PC, Mac and Linux.
- No need for physical copies with big boxes and manual and stuff. Just sell it on Steam!
- For the graphics you can use modern software instead of Deluxe Paint. I'd imagine this would make the process a whole lot easier.
- Programming for 386 is actually also a lot easier nowadays than in those olden days. Just use Visual Studio and compile it by TurboC and TurboAssembler or whatever inside DOSBox. Compile time is much faster than it used to be. If your program hangs, a reboot takes a second. It is actually quite fun!
- Once a game engine such as SCUMM (+iMuse) will be created there isn't so much coding to do for the following titles. If you can use the original SCUMM engine, that's even better!

Of all the Kickstarters I backed, Thimbleweed was the most professionally run with the most satisfying parcours (those podcasts!!!) and end result. At that moment it really represented “what was missing in my life” and I would blindly contribute even more than I did then. I was totally satisfied and i think sales for instance on ebay of standard additions show that i am not the only one. That said, if Ron can’t find any ungreedy investors, i’m fine with what Ron produced in the last couple of years.