A statement from Devolver
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I don’t foresee any scenario where Ron continues making Monkey Island games, without Rex Crowley drawing the art for them. And if there is such a scenario, it’s out of our hands anyway. What will be, will be.
A statement like this one was probably required. In any case, I hope that all people involved in the production of the game will stop talking about it and focus on the game development and marketing.
In my opinion, feeding a diatribe that exists in “uncharted waters” (harassment, minimization of harassment, political associations, etc.) will not lead to a positive outcome for the game.
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I personally have fully come around to the art (except Guybrush’s leggy awkward walk cycle), but it seems like the publisher making such a statement is fairly unorthodox. I think they’d ordinarily ignore such criticism or enact change behind the scenes.
I still suspect it’s a budgetary thing since the critical reception should have been anticipated and everything was probably justified by spending less on artist/animator hours and instead programmatically moving blocky assets to achieve a result.
Ron said that they had more budget for the artists, compared to TWP.
My understanding of that interview is that they invested more money to obtain exactly this style.
Where are the extra people coming from? More art?
Ron: It’s definitely more art; there’s a few more programmers… there might be like one more programmer. But most of it’s art. Just a lot more artists, a lot more animators than we had on Thimbleweed Park.
Is that because you have a bigger budget to play with?
Ron: Yeah, it’s bigger budget. Also it’s a different art style; it’s a lot… harder’s not the right word, but there’s a lot more that has to go into it. So, you know, there’s several animators, several background artists. We have a dedicated storyboard artist; all Sarah [Thomas] does is storyboards for us. So every scene is all storyboarded out. We didn’t have that on Thimbleweed Park.
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If he is comparing it to TWP, I am very much not surprised. It had a very indie vibe which I think we all loved. If it’s compared to the art from Lucas games I would be fairly shocked if the art budget, considering inflation, even compared.
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A lot of people have made comments in regards to Rex Crowe’s art within the game, along with its Spine animated characters and said that it’s unfair to judge the game for that because they are an indie studio working with a low budget. It’s utter nonsense. Just look at a game like Deponia…
That game is an indie adventure game and it likely had a smaller budget than Return to Monkey Island. You can absolutely still have a game that looks amazing with frame by frame animation on a game with the budget size of Return to Monkey Island. That the game looks like it does and uses Spine animation is entirely a creative choice… and a very regrettable one at that, in my opinion.
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These frames are so busy to me. That one you just posted, the clips from RTMI. I am a simple man and I feel like I’m literally not even going to notice objects that I’m supposed to pick up and put in my inventory.
Changing the subject…
What do you think of the new islands?
I mean, based on what we know so far…
Brrr-Muda seems interesting. I feel like it’s the first time we’ll visit this kind of environment in Monkey Island. It seems like we’ll have to participate to some kind of contest – I interpret it like that at least, with the judge. I like the Artic/Warrior vibe.
I don’t think we saw anything related to Terror Island. I have high hopes for this one. I imagine a spooky environment, a bit like Nightmare Before Christmas. Maybe it will have some of the vibe of Blood Island from Curse or the cemetery from MI2 – that would be great.
Also, I’m still wondering if we’re gonna visit the islands one by one, like most of the Monkey games, or if it will be open, like in MI2 – which I love.
It will be interesting for sure. I actually like the fact that we’ll visit a mix of old and new islands. It seems like Melee Island will have a lot of new things to offer.
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I would like a section of the game that gives the player access to more than two islands, as it happened in MI2. The freedom of visiting Scabb, Booty and Phatt whenever I wanted gave me the impression of a big game.
Brr…Muda doesn’t inspire me much, because it’s a cold land and that doesn’t translate into environments that I’m particularly interested to visit. But who knows, maybe there is more that meets the eye.
About Terror Island, we did see something, but it’s well hidden:
It’s the map that Wally is working on (in the video trailer) and since it has scary faces drawn inside, I have decided that it’s Terror Island. 
Maybe this dark island is Terror as well:
I’m for sure more intrigued by it, even if we haven’t seen much. Or maybe exactly because we haven’t see much.
I also wonder what’s the island where Elaine has her Marley Foundation and I hope it’s yet another brand new island, not mentioned anywhere:
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I don’t know why but this reminds me of an interesting book in “TWP”. (I wasted a lot of time finding interesting books on TWP)
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For me, it’s on par with the MI series. Only problem is, they broke it with the engine update. Yes, the upgrade loads much faster, and it brought the game to Linux, but the new engine chops off the beginning of every voiced line for some reason, which is very annoying. The way I play Deponia is running the last version before the engine upgrade (the one just before the Linux port was released) in Virtualbox running Windows XP with a single CPU core.
What’s very different to MI, is the consistent art style throughout all 4 games, though.
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That screenshot has a lot of detail but I wouldn’t call it a good location. Maybe it’s the subject (a junkyard) that’s not very enticing, I don’t know. Seeing it, I thought “thank goodness RtMI is not like that”. 
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I’ll try to refrain from saying anything so negative as that about Deponia but “thank goodness RtMI is not like that” indeed!
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Don’t even think about it, you SCUMMbag!
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The point I was making was that it was perfectly feasible for Ron and co to have used a graphical style as lush and detailed as The Curse of Monkey Island or any other such example and for them to use frame-by-frame animation, within the budget they are working within. I wasn’t suggesting that the game ought to literally have Deponia’s art style or similar locations.
Basically, I was refuting the notion put forth by certain people that Return to Monkey Island looks the way it does because of budget constraints. That’s demonstrably not the case.
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Well, maybe RtMI is going to have an unprecedented amount of animations… something that would have been too expensive otherwise.
That is a valid point. You may very well be correct. It still doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have gone for a different and more expensive looking art style though, which was my ultimate point. I just want to put that theory to bed; the notion that budget constraints meant that they had to go with the art style that they went with.
I don’t much care for the incredibly on-the-nose pun that is Brrr-Muda’s name. It feels like the sort of joke you’d see in Escape From Monkey Island, as opposed to the humour of the original two games.
I also don’t enjoy exploring arctic environments in games very much. I’m always disappointed when a game goes to such locations. I find them uninviting to explore and myself detached from immersion when doing so. I especially like my Monkey Island islands to be full of colour and warmth, with lots of atmosphere. Personally, I can’t think of a less atmospheric and inviting environment than an arctic one. I think that it’s the monotone whites and a cold, oppressive atmosphere which leaves me feeling detached.
I’m also a little bit worried about how, or rather if they’re going to explain why there’s an arctic island in the Caribbean. I hope that there’s an explanation of a voodoo curse or some such, which has cast a chilly spell on a previously tropical island (though why the Island would have been named Brrr-Muda when it used to be tropical is beyond me).
If there’s no explanation whatsoever or a handwave for such an island’s existence within the Caribbean, then that’s gonna bother me a bit. I know that the Monkey Island games have lots of silliness, anachronisms and nonsense in them but we all have to draw the line somewhere. For example, the gigantic robotic monkey at the end of Escape From Monkey Island was a step too far for me. I fear that Brrr-Muda has the potential to equally step over that line for me personally.
Terror Island sounds intriguing and judging by the map on Wally’s desk with an X on it and Guybrush dangling over an X in the trailer, that’s probably the Island itself. I also suspect that the shot of LeChuck and his lackey within the jungle is also set on Terror Island. I think that will be the joke; it’s called Terror Island but it’s filled with cute bunnies, squirrils and other cuddly critters.
For me, referencing Deponia doesn’t exactly put anything to bed. I will agree that the art decision likely wasn’t made entirely for budgetary reasons. I could definitely see Ron being like, “hey I love Rex’s art … and you know what, programmatic animation will be faster, cheaper, easier … decision made.”