Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert has a 2D pixel art game in the works
Described as "classic Zelda meets Diablo meets Thimbleweed Park".
Today I learned Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert is working on a new game, which he describes as "Classic Zelda meets Diablo meets Thimbleweed Park". Well, hello there!
Work on this project actually started several months ago, but it only came to my attention this afternoon thanks to TimeExtension. I have since done more browsing, and come across some posts on Terrible Toybox, as well as Gilbert's own Mastodon page.
Now, admittedly there still isn't a huge amount of information on Gilbert's upcoming project at this time. The game doesn't even have a proper name yet, and rather has been labelled as Game Name TBD on Terrible Toybox's website. Meanwhile, Gilbert has been using the hashtag #rpgtbd to tag his social media posts.
But, regardless, the information that is there is enough to make me very excited. First off, the fact that this is coming from the man that gave the world Guybrush Threepwood, and he has used the words 'classic Zelda' to tease the game is pretty awesome. But then, the handful of screenshots he has shared also look great.
As you can see in the images above and below, the upcoming release has a charming 2D pixel aesthetic. The screenshots shared so far show a town, which is said to have both a bakery and a weapon shop. As Gilbert noted, these two establishments will really set players up with "all [they'll] need before setting out on a day of questing".
There is also a graveyard area, and I assume that this will lead to the cemetery crypt and the source of those skeletons.
Earlier this month, Gilbert also announced Elissa Black, who has worked on Swords of Freeport and TownCraft, had joined the team as a quest designer. "This ups the chance by 37 percent that I'll finish the game before becoming bored and disillusioned," Gilbert said announcing Black's arrival to the team.
Right now, Game Name TBD is slated to launch late this year, although Terrible Toybox says this may slip into early next year. "This is gamedev after all," the site reasons.
I will let you know as soon as I hear more.