Ron Gilbert, the mind behind Monkey Island, is working on a new RPG that mixes Zelda, Thimbleweed Park, and Diablo, with the iconic graphic adventure designer already sharing details on the project’s progress on Mastodon.
The studio’s official site, under the banner of Terrible Toybox, says the game will be available at the end of 2024 or early 2025, if necessary. This will be Toybox’s second follow-up after the extremely successful Return to Monkey Island released in 2022 and quickly led fans of the franchise go back on a new adventure with the same creator.
There is little information about this particular Ron Gilbert title; the game doesn’t even have a name yet. Right now, Gilbert says he’s still adding people to the core team and that the idea and mechanics are yet to be fully developed.
TimeExtenstion first reported on the project, indicating it started production several months ago and has already made reasonable progress. Gilbert also confirmed via Mastodon that Elissa Black has joined the project and will be in charge of quest designs. Black worked on games like Swords of Freeport, TownCraft, Metrocide, and Objects in Space.
The man behind Monkey Island has also designed his own hashtag for the nameless game; in every post, he puts #rpgtbd, meaning RPG to be determined. The game will have a 2D-pixel art style based on an 8-bit classic title.
On Mastodon, Gilbert has suggested he’s “not very motivated to finish” the game, but the fans are hoping he can get over the slump. Return to Monkey Island, the previous project from Gilbert, accomplished outstanding scores; on Metacritic, it has 87 total. This veteran video game designer still has a large fan base that follows him everywhere, no matter the project—they’ll now be eagerly awaiting further news.
