THE Ron Gilbert

I'm having a really good day: my unborn baby is normal and a girl; Activision extended my contract, so any fears about being included in the recent round of layoffs are unfounded; a friend said she loved my novel; and I just discovered that THE Ron Gilbert is blogging AND has a link to me.

Ron Gilbert, for all you whippersnappers who've only been doing this game development stuff for a couple years, is the guy who ushered in a new age of graphic adventure games before the whole genre imploded.

I've written about him and Tim Schafer before. It feels like I wrote that article a decade ago. Game developer years are like dog years, which makes me about 70, and Ron Gilbert 105 or something. Three things about the article: for me, someone who never actually worked at LucasArts, it's a gray area where Ron Gilbert ends and Tim Schafer begins. Also, I was overly harsh on Sam & Max, which was a fine game, it kept me playing until the end, it was just no Monkey Island or Day of The Tentacle. Finally, I sound anti-focus-test in that article. I love focus tests. You can't do enough focus testing. But focus testing cannot make a game that has no spark or magic good.

Like Warren Spector, Ron Gilbert had a manifesto, and like Warren Spector's manifesto turned into Deus Ex, his manifesto turned into Monkey Island, which is such a brilliant game...I was such a fanboy...I remember meeting Ron Gilbert at a CES in Vegas and totally trying to kiss his ass...and now he's linked to my site...

This must be how Primus felt when they got to open for Rush.

Comments

[bacon]

It's certainly good to see Ron Gilbert blogging, and even better that he's gonna have something to do with Psychonauts. I've only played a couple of demos of humongous' games, but they seemed a bit naff, yet gave some of that pleasurable/story feeling in solving the puzzles, that Gilbert seems to have a knack with. With Schafer & Gilbert together again, the world better look out. One unpulled thread that has been bugging me for years is that of the true storyline to the true monkey island 3 game that never was. I really loved the ending to 2.

[Jeffool]

Yessir, those adventure games were mighty fine gam- Heeey! You were a fan of Rocket Jockey?!

/opens arms wide
Hug?

*ahem* Sorry. Just loved that game.