Congratulations to all fans of the Monkey Island saga! Because the demake of The Curse of Monkey Island is moving forward smoothly, and we're getting closer to enjoying the third installment in the series in the "original style", with pixelated graphics, just as we old-school gamers love. And all thanks to a fan who has been working on this for years, for everyone's enjoyment. A true hero!
A Style Change That Divided Fans
I suppose you would have had to be there, at the exact time and place, with thousands of hours of gameplay under your belt, to understand the outrage caused by the change in graphical style in the third installment of the Monkey Island saga. After two colorful and pixelated games that quickly reached cult status, The Curse of Monkey Island introduced a completely different style: hand-drawn cartoon graphics and a total face-lift for Guybrush Threepwood, the story's protagonist. There's no denying the game was good, because it was, but back then we were all very conservative and expected a graphical evolution, yes, but one that followed the line of the previous ones. That's why, despite the passage of time, many fans still don't consider Monkey Island 3 a "genuine" sequel.
But that is about to change very soon! Because Edgar Partida, one of those old-school fans, is doing a complete "demake" of the game, reprogramming everything from scratch but this time with pixel graphics. Edgar is using the AGS (Adventure Game Studio) engine, using the original hand-drawn graphics but pixelating them to give them that retro feel. On that last point, some comments on his YouTube channel criticize Edgar's decision to only "convert" the game's graphics, when it would have been better to make them from scratch. "I never tried to do anything other than pixelate or touch up the original backgrounds," Edgar clarifies in response. "I've had to learn to program (I didn't have a damn clue before diving into this) and get into pixel art until I was able to do any type of animation with one of these little characters... Believe me, that's a huge job... (...) So you see, it was simply impossible for me to make the backgrounds from scratch for this DEMAKE because that's exactly what I don't know how to do... hahaha. Of course it would be amazing if the backgrounds were also created from scratch, but I'm just a poor mortal!!!"
More Than Just a Demake
The demake of The Curse of Monkey Island doesn't have a release date yet, but its creator assures it will come out, even if it costs him his life. Then, if all goes well, Edgar will have his own project to pursue, a project that looks even more interesting than this one! "I have my own script (based on the first two Monkey Island games by Ron Gilbert) that I've been working on nonstop for a few years now. I have almost 300 pages of that script. The idea is for me to do all the animations, music, and programming but... I'm not good at drawing backgrounds! I mean, I can draw more or less, but I want quality backgrounds... so I started this DEMAKE as a resume to find artists who can design the backgrounds I need for my own original script!" Edgar assures. So now you know, if you want to contribute to this pixel hero's work, look him up on his YouTube channel.
Oh, and along the same lines, remember that Ron Gilbert still owes us Thimbleweed Park! Without a doubt, a good time to be an "old school" fan of graphic adventures.
