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.
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.
Posted by: bacon | July 28, 2004 at 10:25 PM
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.
Posted by: Jeffool | July 29, 2004 at 06:11 PM