I can only speak for myself as someone who’s not keen on the art style but I certainly don’t view it as a betrayal or a sell out in an attempt to attract a more casual audience. I just view it as a creative decision made in good faith, which I don’t personally care for. I still have absolute faith in Ron and co to deliver a fantastic game, with well crafted puzzles, a gripping narrative and a fantastic soundtrack.
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Me too. That nose looks more like… well. I get flashbacks to the movie Nothing but Trouble
About the whole vocal minority discussion - the stress is on vocal, regardless of what they think will match with what the majority of players will think. (Spoiler: the majority doesn’t care about the art style most probably… unless more than 50% of the buyers are die hard fans). For any developer, it is a gamble and the only right thing to do is stay true to their own vision. Even if that means not pleasing the oldest (and hardest to please) players.
Yes, the C64 Maniac Mansion style mockup gives me warm fuzzy feelings. As would an EGA or VGA pixel style. But I would not not buy the game on day 1 because the art style isn’t what I daydream about. It’s just fun to ramble about it. I’m vocal here.
And I join the silent majority on Twitter, accepting whatever we get thrown our side.
After all, kids, remember: these icons are not final!
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I fail to see the contradiction. My first quote was in regards to the general notion of attempting to appeal to a mainstream audience when designing an adventure game. Whereas my second quote was in specific regards to Return to Monkey Island and my belief as to why Ron chose the art style direction that he did.
Ah, but at least 50% of the people who buy Return to Monkey Island WILL be die hard fans of adventure games and Monkey Island (and that’s a very conservative estimate). I have no doubt of this.
Well, if he intends to do that by removing the part where we get stuck and frustrated, we have bigger problems than the graphics…
(problems to which you’re prepared, I’m sure 
)
And if he keeps the “getting stuck” part, the tension between art and gameplay remains…
Maybe he will solve the conundrum simply using a hint system, like he did in Thimbleweed Park.
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…right.
So my initial premise is false.
It should have been “you will get stuck and be frustrated if you want to”. And it no longer follows that the mainstream art is a risk.
I wonder if they have finished the voice recordings yet and I wonder if we’ll get another trailer before the release…
I wonder what activities remain between voice recording and the release.
(We know that they are still in the process of adding music, so that’s one)
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I don’t know if they’ll be trailers or other stuff, but in an interview they said:
When can we expect to hear more about Return to Monkey Island ?
Ron: There will be more. We’re not just going to drop the game on Steam one night.
Dave: That would be just like us, though.
Anyway, I expect a proper trailer, sooner or later.
I consider the video published on April 4th, 2022 just a teaser.
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Hopefully, we’ll get a Behind the Schemes video from DevolverDigital. Maybe they’ll make a music video for RTMI just like they made The Ballad of Rambro for Broforce.
As I mentioned before, its the Art directors and IP’s owner decisions how the game will look like.
But what is modern doesnt mean its good.
I just wish we still had the Nine old Men and Walt Disney good artistic eye. Walt was very specific about high details, shades and lighting that works perfectly and impress on large screen.
Todays artworks looks very lazy, very lame and smudgy. Its missing the 90s quality. If you look at the Monkey Island 2 concept arts that has been scanned and polish, its absolutely different story compare what is happening here. Monkey Island series became a flash stylized comedy with lots of major art changes and instead of improve and move it to another level, the developers are loosing the opportunity here.
Well, that’s the world we live in, but I always prefer to look at the Ducktales from 90s than the updated series 2020. Its much more pleasant to look at and the art is well awarded.
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Indeed. Peter Chan’s artwork for Monkey Island 2 (before being scanned and given a lower resolution in-game) is especially gorgeous…
It just looks so vibrant and piratey! The Special Edition came close to replicating the look but Chan’s original pieces are superior.
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Thank you!
Lord, I pray the number is lower than that. There aren’t a ton of us around, I suspect.
The leaked sales figures from Steam, posted by Paul give you a pretty decent indication for how niche the adventure game genre is…
Going by those numbers and taking other release platforms into account (such as GOG), I’d expect Return to Monkey Island to shift around 1 million units or so, at absolute best, upon release (more likely around the 650,000 mark). It’s really not a major release, even though it absolutely is for us fans of the genre and of Monkey Island.
Having said that, it’s worth noting that adventure games tend to have a good shelf life when compared to other genres, as in they continue to sell well after the initial release date; likely due to their non-reliance upon the latest tech or gameplay innovations. Therefore, over time the sales figures for Return to Monkey Island will continue to steadily increase. Given the relatively low budget of the title, it’s a sound financial investment on the part of the developers.
That is to say that I doubt that the game really needs to sell all that well in order to recoup the money invested and make a profit. It’s not a AAA, big budgeted game. GTA V has sold 160 million copies around the world, but it had a budget of $265 million, so it’s all relative. I’m sure that Return to Monkey Island will do well enough in terms of sales to turn a healthy profit, considering that it’s an independently produced game. It’s just not going to set the world on fire, financially speaking but it was never going to. Adventure games simply don’t sell all that well because the audience for them is tiny in comparison to the sheer number of people who play videogames around the world.
Still, I’m sure that the game will do exceptionally well in terms of adventure game sales and we, as fans of the genre, ought to be elated that we’re receiving this game at all. I certainly know that I am.
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What do you guess the budget is? Ron once said (around 2018) he would budget at 6 millions in case he did M3a.
I almost wouldn’t venture to guess, given that I’m not as well versed in production budgets for videogames as I am movies but if pushed, then somewhere of the region of $4 million to $6 million seems like a reasonable estimate for the scope of the project.
Given that it has a developing team twice the size of TWP, with a production time span more or less equal… I’d say more or less the budget should slighlty more than double TWP’s… Unless they’re going to make localized talkie versions, so maybe 3 times TWP’s. I don’t see other hidden costs, but maybe you can think of some
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And how much was that?