Famend recreation developer Ron Gilbert’s newest recreation is in no way what any of us would possibly’ve anticipated. As noticed by Time Extension, the sport’s been teased as “Basic Zelda meets Diablo meets Thimbleweed Park,” and is about to launch in 2024…perhaps.
Gilbert, famed for his tenure at LucasArts the place he developed legendary journey video games like Maniac Mansion and the Monkey Island sequence, started work on the title earlier this yr, and has been teasing out its growth on his Mastodon account. We all know little else concerning the recreation at this second, however as of some days in the past, Gilbert formally unveiled the sport and revealed that Elissa Black (who co-founded Flat Earth Video games, makers of Objects in Area) can be becoming a member of the workforce as a quest designer. Gilbert joked that her addition to the workforce “ups the prospect by 37% that I’ll end the sport earlier than turning into bored and disillusioned.”
The submit additionally includes a screenshot of the in-development RPG, which boasts a comfortable however acquainted pixel-art type. The few sprites featured within the picture don’t look too completely different from characters featured in a few of Gilbert’s different video games, particularly Thimbleweed Park.
Since leaving LucasArts, Gilbert has remained lively within the video games trade, becoming a member of forces with TIm Schafer at Double Nice Leisure within the early 2010s to develop the journey recreation The Cave, earlier than ultimately leaving and founding his personal studio, Horrible Toybox, the place he labored on the throwback point-and-click Thimbleweed Park. Sure, the exact same Thimbleweed Park that’s inspiring Gilbert’s newest recreation. Extra of us ought to take inspiration from ourselves. Fuck yeah, Ron.
Since Thimbleweed Park’s launch in 2017, Gilbert and his studio additionally sneakily labored on and launched 2022’s acclaimed Return to Monkey Island. The sport marked Gilbert’s first contribution to the sequence he created since Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge in 1991.
Although Gilbert appears to imagine that he and the workforce at Horrible Toybox may launch the sport later this yr, the itemizing on the firm’s web site does throw in a parenthetical that jokes, “perhaps early 2025, that is gamedev in spite of everything.” It doesn’t matter what, it seems like we’re getting a brand new Ron Gilbert recreation comparatively quickly, people!
