IMHO YES. You can achieve the same results with a UI like the one in Sam’n’Max, and have all the screen for the art and story.
But also if you remove the verbs many of us would be moaning. 
If Ron does it, he must have found a way to make it work.
I’m pissing my pants to know what he has in mind.
I do not mind the verb-interface as such. In fact, when playing the remastered versions of MI 1 and 2, I had to switch to the old interface as the controls of the “remaster” were clunky and unintuitive.
That said, unless there are at least a handful of objects or hotspots that give different results when combined with different verbs, I do see no reason why more than a “use” and “look” interaction should be present. Personally, I have no issue whatsoever with “immersion”: if in a verb-less game I click on a door, I do it with the intention to “open” it, and so it makes no difference to me if I just click it, or if I select the corresponding verb beforehand.
Also, from a design perspective, I think it should always be possible to replace a verb+object combination with an object+object one, if one is really concerned about difficulty or requires different interactions with the same object.
Thing is, even back in 1993, Legend of Kyrandia had a completely verb-less interface. It didn’t even have “look”. The tricky part was that it also didn’t highlight its hotspots, so you never knew what in a scene was interactive, unless you clicked on it. Another case of difficulty increased by UI design rather than by the actual puzzles.
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Yes. But in practice, is there a game that used a verb coin but kept the distinction between pickup, push and use (and open, if I don’t ask too much :))?
Also, an attractive feature of using a verb coin is that one of the verbs can become context-sensitive. (change depending on the clicked object) This verb would never spoil puzzles, and at the same time it would allow you to effectively have many more verbs in the game. e.g. you click the candle, and “blow on” appears in the coin. this does not solve a puzzle but it is a good thing, because then you can remove the generic “use” verb.
Worst adventure ever made, by the way.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
It was a Gobliins done bad.
Can you at least tell us if Monkey1 and 2 would work well with this interface? Or is it something that requires a specific design from the start?
It was a bit of a mixed bag for sure. But I did like the graphics: the greens of the forest area were simply beautiful. E.g. http://i404.photobucket.com/albums/pp121/Sky_Render/lok_2_40.png
Also, it had a different vibe to it: more like a fable and less like your average fantasy fare.
Guess back then I did not like it enough to bother with any of its sequels, but I recently played the second part and it was an okay experience.
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Yes. Larry 7. 
It’s a mixture of different input methods: If you click on an object, a list with several verbs appears on the screen. If a proper verb isn’t there, you can enter a command (with your keyboard) similar to the old Sierra adventures with the parser. The funny thing is: In some situations you have to enter a verb with your keyboard. (btw: I guess Ron is thinking of a similar interface.)
I have only found these two images of the interface in the internet:
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The player uses his smartphone to control the characters on the TV screen?
I didn’t know about Larry 7. The UI looks great (at first glance). Thank you.
It’s worth playing it.
btw: The first boxed edition of the game included a scratch-n-sniff card (Scratch and sniff - Wikipedia). In some of the rooms a number appeared in the corner. That was the sign to “scratch” the corresponding field on the card and “sniff” on the spot. You don’t need this to solve a puzzle but it was a cool gadget.
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I know[quote=“Someone, post:30, topic:556”]
The player uses his smartphone to control the characters on the TV screen?
[/quote]
I got it! He uses a motion sensor like Playstation Move. 
But that would be like a one-click-interface. On the smartphone you can show different verbs or use speech recognition. (“Hey Ransome, walk to the door on the vista!”)
I really got it this time. Wait for it…
You don’t tell the game what to do: the game tells YOU.
Imagine an oculus rift version of Monkey Island…
In a galaxy far far away…
Oh I liked Kyrandia but I am generally very forgiving.
This weeping willow reminds me of The Matrix.
To Ron
Yes, that’s a big problem that totally go against what I said before, unless you trace a line that separates the “explorable” part of the screen from the rest, and even in that case, a player would feel forced to stay there (not to mention that a disappearing inventory had to be implemented). Together with the other reasons there’s no benefit in remove verbs in TWP.
I also see no reason to change UI of TWP but IF…
Verbs could be moved to a popup (verb coin, whatever) and since it doesn’t make sense to show the lower part as playable area just resize the inventory to fit everything. This allows to see most of the inventory at once without need to scroll.
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