Idle Thumbs brings the wizard to PAX in their interview with Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert, who is apparently a defender of shooting people that don’t think video games are art. Ron talks about his upcoming game, Deathspank, which Chris notes is a sort of convergence of the Diablo-style, hack-and-slash genre and the graphic adventure genre. Combining those two genres results in a lot of conflicting elements, but item collection bridges the gap and a fine tuning of the pacing between combat and exploration sequences makes Deathspank a little more coherent.
The guys gush a little bit about Animal Crossing and Ron talks about how the game influences some of the sensibilities that he brings to his projects. The conversation quickly turns back to Deathspank and the design ethic behind the game’s storyline. Ron discusses the nature of linear storytelling and how tiny advancements in freedom, like changing dialogue and the ability to roam a game’s environment, can touch consumers in subtle, satisfying ways.
The podcast wraps up with the thought that attributes of adventure games have slowly seeped their way into other genres. It then evolves into a short conversation about how the video game medium has the potential to deliver a particularly fulfilling experience due to its unmatched interactive nature.
Covered games and topics: DeathSpank, Cyborg mouse, The Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Animal Crossing
Idle Thumbs kicks off its PAX coverage and continues its trend of interviewing Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert on a bidecennial basis with this hastily-edited affair. Enjoy.
Runtime – 48:39
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