Ron Gilbert has shared more light on his return to Monkey Island in new interview

“I think the more important thing, rather than owning it, is that I really want to have creative freedom. I don’t want to make a game and have someone tell me what to do. It’s not that It’s a gig-rental job. So that’s probably more important than actually owning it, which is being able to make the game that we want to make.”

Two years ago, the whole situation came to a head when Gilbert met with a representative for Digital Devolver, who put him in touch with the head of licensing at Lucasfilm. Immediately after that meeting, Gilbert flew to Grossman to seriously discuss what they were going to do with another Monkey Island game.

“We just came up with all kinds of ideas and talked about what the theme was, and what we meant to say in the game, all that,” said Gilbert.

As for the sequel, Gilbert says he’ll take a more hands-on approach to game development. Right now he has a team of 25 working on Return To Monkey Island, which will feature a “modern” art style. Gilbert explained that the reason for changing the art style was that he wanted to “embrace something new.”

Gilbert also explains how important Return To Monkey has always been to him starting where Monkey Island 2 ends, so it will be picked up at the theme park where the second Monkey Island left off.

Return To Monkey Island will retain the classic point-and-click style but with an improved interface. It is set to release later this year.

Luis Joshua Gutierrez is a freelance writer for IGN.