The next two questions are specifically for Larry. Recently many developers have been extending old and much-loved franchises that they didn't originally conceive (Fallout 3 and BioShock come to mind.) I think you were one of the first people to take on a problem like that with The Curse of Monkey Island. Did you want to create a game with your own signature (like a spiritual successor), or did you want it to seamlessly blend in with the first two Monkey Island games? Was it possible to please old fans while also introducing a new spin?

LA: You know, I thought it was a great situation for designing my first game (well, co-designing, with Jonathan). Because, on the one hand, we were getting to work on a fun franchise that was still so rich with potential, and on the other hand, it had been so long since the previous installment, and production values had improved so much, that it felt like we could put our own spin on it.

I know there are some vocal fans that will say the art changes I implemented “ruined” Monkey Island, but I’m pretty sure they’re in the minority. I’d like to think. I hope (you’re not putting my contact info on this article, are you?). The way I saw it, the characters in the first two games were so small and low-res anyway, that we had some freedom to reinterpret them a bit while adding more pixels. Also, I wanted the visual style to hint at the comical nature of the IP a little more than it had in the previous two. Of course, I was the guy who did a bunch of animations on Monkey Island 2 where I kept trying to squeeze in an anvil dropping on Guybrush’s head (Ron never went for it), so I have been known to get carried away.

Monkey Island 2 had a notoriously bizarre ending, which Monkey Island 3 mostly ignored until the very end. It then explained every detail in a lengthy grand finale dialog sequence. How difficult was it to work with the complexities of the existing Monkey Island plot? And was it always the plan to explain everything in the final dialog sequence?

LA: Well, I guess I can say this, since I have no responsibility to the sales of the product anymore, but… I think one of our failures was not working the elements of that explanation, and LeChuck himself, in better over the course of the game. And, I mean interactively, not just through cutscenes. Our other goof was the big finale cutscene that we trimmed down to nothing because we were paranoid about staying on schedule and budget.

But, we wrote the lengthy LeChuck chat, since we didn’t know where Ron was going with the ending to Monkey Island 2, and were afraid that our brilliant explanation would focus too much attention on off-themed locations. We had other swashbuckling things in mind, and didn’t want to put players back at Big Whoop amusement park too much (and we really didn’t want it at the beginning… gotta start out as piratey as possible).

So, it was a struggle between the yin of explaining Monkey Island 2, and the yang of telling our different pirate story. And the yuck…the yuck, I guess, of screwing them both up. Kind of a yin/yang/yuck thing. Thankfully, Curse of Monkey Island was a comedy, so we could just make fun LeChuck’s tedious exposition, pepper it with jokes, and call it a day.

How does your design approach with Insecticide compare to games you've created in the past?

LA: Insecticide was fun, because I felt like it was the first opportunity to blend elements of everything we’d been doing recently with everything we liked and were good at from the old days (back when we had to walk 10 miles in the snow just to get to a computer, and we made art with pixels as big as your head). So, a lot of the detective levels are pretty rich environments with characters and props that all have some depth and story to them. But, we’re combining that with 3rd person action, so there’s an interesting balance. Even though the two styles are separated, I think they inform each other.

The games you worked on at LucasArts were painted and animated in 2D. Most games today are rendered in 3D — even A Vampyre Story by Autumn Moon Studios uses 3D characters. In your opinion, is complete 2D still a viable style for computer games? Would you perhaps have done Insecticide in 2D if it were a DS exclusive?

ML: Tons of casual games are still made in 2D. And there have been a handful of 2D adventure titles on the DS, so it still can be done. But the real question is, can you really give a "AAA" or close to it experience with pure 2D? I honestly think the only way to do it is to still use 3D to make a 2D look. Any 2D film like the Triplets of Belleville does this, and we all know games that do it as well. But in the world of Web and Flash based games, which my other companies Pileated Pictures and Planet Cazmo are still firmly entrenched in, there are plenty of pure 2D games. But, even this will eventually change, I think. 3D just gives too much flexibility.

LA: I think it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. For a long time the issue was more about style; you could accomplish such a variety of unique looks in 2D that weren’t possible in 3D because the technical limitations seemed to impose a certain sameness to it. But that’s improving. Meanwhile, the big bonus with 3D is the ability to add textural detail and lighting to the characters, as well as reusing animations from different angles. You can save a lot of work just by not having to redo animations from multiple camera angles.

But, at the end of the day, I think it comes down to what look you want. There are ways to get a unique style in 3D, and there are tricks for keeping production work to a minimum in 2D. As for Insecticide on the DS, we never considered full 2D, but did toy with pre-rendering 3D backgrounds to give us higher visual quality. But, at the end of the day, we wanted the immersiveness of full real-time 3D, and we think it was the right choice.

What differences are there between the PC and DS versions of Insecticide in terms of graphics or gameplay?

ML: The DS has much reduced poly count and texture limit. The gameplay is fairly similar as the levels and stories follow each other.

LA: Yeah, we’ve been saying they’re the same game, which they essentially are, but there will be some minor differences. Obviously, there are some variations with the interface, but the mouse and the stylus both allow us to give them a similar flavor, which is great. And, the PC version will have some additional level of detail, both in terms of visuals, items to interact with, and some extended content in the cutscenes. And, the PC is delivered in two separate chapters, whereas the DS is all on one cart, so some things were adjusted to fit the experience of each version.


Have you used ScummVM to play any of the games you worked on in the past? If so, what is your opinion of the ScummVM project?

ML: I’ve used it a little and I think the whole thing is amazing. I don't keep up with it on a regular basis, but I heard they had it working on the DS too? I really want to check that out.

LA: I haven’t used it, but I definitely want to set up the old games on my DS. I’ve been telling my son about it, since he’s never played any of them (and he pretty much stole my DS once we finished production on Insecticide). So, now I’m going to force him to play some old skool games.

It's great to see so many studios staffed by LucasArts veterans creating new games, like Autumn Moon, Double Fine, Telltale Games and your own company Crackpot Entertainment. Will all of you ever form some kind of awesome alliance?

ML: We already have one. We meet once a year on the eclipse wearing dark hooded robes in a foggy field. I can't talk more about what happens after that, and your readers likely wouldn't want to read it. In all seriousness, we are friends with all of those guys and wish them the best on their projects!

LA: What are you talking about, Mike?! What about that whole East Coast vs. West Coast gang rivalry thing you’ve been going on about? Bad blood? Take no prisoners? Last time we rumbled with Telltale, Mike and Dan Connors met in an alley behind the GameStop, respective studios in tow. They stared each other down, strapped one hand together, armed themselves with controllers in the other, and had a game battle to the tune of Beat It. There was a lot of moonwalking, and I played a wicked guitar solo. Or something like that. My memory’s a little hazy.

What are your hopes and dreams for Crackpot Entertainment going forward? More action-adventures? Episodic gaming?

LA: My dream is to create that perfect game that makes an audience cry. I really feel the elusive formula is probably just a combination of the right inventory items, a double-jump, and maybe a power-up when you least expect it. Next thing you know, you feel a catch in your throat and we gotcha! I’ve misted up a few times with Insecticide, but I just don’t think we have enough polygons yet to really get anybody sobbing. We looked into getting the Terms of Endearment license, but Shirley McLean’s holding out for a MMORPG deal, so we scrapped that plan.

ML: Actually, we want to keep making original stuff — that is our primary objective. We will always want to make games with great worlds, characters, and stories. As I have said, we are IP [Intellectual Property] driven, but I think we will always want to play with pace and ways to convey story in games, and that is tough if its a 100% action game. Thanks again for this interview and (blatant sell pitch coming!) we hope people pre-order Insecticide DS!