Ever since hearing that Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island maestro Ron Gilbert had moved to Double Fine Productions (The Brutal Legend and Psychonauts studio headed by his old partner in crime Tim Schafer), I've been dying to know what he's been working on.
We've had all manner of announcements from the studio lately, but nothing yet on Gilbert's game, though he is doubtless hard at work on it. Today, Gilbert posted a couple of pieces of concept art to his blog, Grumpy Gamer, which is the first hint we've had of what the game will look like. The first one is a lady in a lab coat with outsized glasses straight out of The Far Side (she's called "The Scientist"), and a rough-looking gentleman in a double-breasted suit known as "The Mobster."
More compelling than the images, perhaps, are Gilbert's own words in the post—he says that the two characters are playable, and that he's excited about the game:
This is an idea that has been in my head for a long long long time. It predates Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island. It's a game that needed to be made.
These are two of the playable characters. That's all I can say right now, but more will follow later.
Well, color me intrigued. We've got a feeler out to Double Fine asking for additional information, and we'll let you know if and when we hear more.
First Concept Art [Grumpy Gamer]
You can contact Kirk Hamilton, the author of this post, at kirk@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.