Credit: Unsplash
Personal attacks have prompted Gilbert to close his blog.
Back in April, veteran game developer Ron Gilbert announced the development of Return to Monkey Island, a new entry in the classic Monkey Island adventure game series set to release later this year. However, since then, with the release of game screenshots and, as of earlier this week, in-game footage, Gilbert and the game’s developer, Terrible Toybox, has been hit with waves of criticism over the art style. Gilbert’s personal blog has been inundated with comments, some offering constructive criticism, but many others telling him outright how much they dislike the art style.
In response to these comments, Gilbert announced on his blog yesterday that he would be going completely radio-silent until the game releases, as he’s grown tired of dealing with negative comments. “I’m shutting down comments. People are just being mean and I’m having to delete personal attack comments,” Gilbert said. “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.” Following this, the entire blog was deleted.
Return to Monkey Island's director Ron Gilbert will no longer post about the game due to online abuse. https://t.co/dfANMCgKZn
— IGN (@IGN) June 30, 2022
Last month, Gilbert spoke about his perspective on the art style shift in Return to Monkey Island. “I wanted the art in Return to Monkey Island to be provocative, shocking, and not what everyone was expecting,” he said. “It’s ironic that the people who don’t want me to make the game I want to make are some of the hard core Monkey Island fans.”
“Return to Monkey Island is an incredible rollercoaster. Get on and have some fun or stomp out of the amusement park because it’s not exactly the rollercoaster you wanted. I hope you’ll jump on with the rest of us.”
