Ron Gilbert, game director for Return to Monkey Island, has said he will no longer share updates about the game online after comments on his personal blog began attacking him.
When Gilbert posted a trailer for the game Tuesday, fans of the original Monkey Island began to criticize the new game's change in art style, and to attack Gilbert for his work on the game. He ultimately said comments had become too negative for him to enjoy sharing news about the game.
"I'm shutting down comments," he wrote Thursday under the trailer posting. "People are just being mean and I'm having to delete personal attack comments. It's an amazing game and everyone on the team is very proud of it. Play it or don't play it but don't ruin it for everyone else.
"I won't be posting anymore about the game. The joy of sharing has been driven from me," he concluded.
Rex Crowle is serving as art director on the game. He has previously worked on LittleBigPlanet, Tearaway, and Knights and Bikes. Gilbert has previously praised Crowle's work on his blog, writing, "Rex is an amazing creative force and we have a team of incredible artists, animators, sound designers, programmers, and testers all pouring their souls into this game and it's beautiful to see, play, and listen to."
Gilbert created the Monkey Island series of adventure games at LucasArts, leading development on the first two games in series, released in 1990 and 1991 respectively. After his departure in 1995, LucasArts went on to release three more entries: The Curse of Monkey Island (1997), Escape from Monkey Island (2000) and Tales of Monkey Island (2009).
Meanwhile, Gilbert worked at Double Fine to release The Cave (2013) and then founded his own studio, Terrible Toybox, to release Thimbleweed Park (2017). Terrible Toybox will collaborate with Lucasfilm Games to release Return, with Devolver Digital publishing. The story picks up where Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991) left off, and is slated for release on Nintendo Switch and PC later this year.
