LeChuck's Revenge
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''Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'' is an
adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
developed and published by
LucasArts Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game brand licensing, licensor, former video game developer and video game publisher, publisher, and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George ...
in 1991. Players control the pirate
Guybrush Threepwood Guybrush Ulysses Threepwood is a fictional character who serves as the main protagonist of the '' Monkey Island'' series of computer adventure games by LucasArts. He is a pirate who adventures throughout the Caribbean in search of fame and treasu ...
, who searches for the legendary treasure of Big Whoop and faces the zombie pirate
LeChuck ''Monkey Island'' is a series of adventure games. The first four games were produced and published by LucasArts, earlier known as Lucasfilm Games. The fifth was developed by Telltale Games with LucasArts, while the sixth was developed by Terribl ...
. Like ''
The Secret of Monkey Island ''The Secret of Monkey Island'' is a 1990 point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It takes place in a fictional version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy. The player assumes the role of Guyb ...
'' (1990), development was led by
Ron Gilbert Ronald David Gilbert is an American video game designer, programmer, and producer. His games are generally focused on interactive story-telling, and he is arguably best known for his work on several LucasArts adventure games, including '' Man ...
with
Tim Schafer Timothy John Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games '' ...
and Dave Grossman. ''Monkey Island 2'' was the sixth LucasArts game to use the
SCUMM Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (SCUMM) is a video game engine developed at Lucasfilm Games, later renamed LucasArts, to ease development on their graphic adventure game ''Maniac Mansion'' (1987). It was subsequently used as the engin ...
engine and the first to use the
iMUSE iMUSE (''Interactive Music Streaming Engine'') is an interactive music system used in a number of LucasArts video games. The idea behind iMUSE is to synchronize music with the visual action in a video game so that the audio continuously matches ...
sound system. ''Monkey Island 2'' was a critical success, but a commercial disappointment. It was followed by ''
The Curse of Monkey Island ''The Curse of Monkey Island'' is an adventure PC game developed and published by LucasArts in 1997. A sequel to 1991's '' Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge,'' it is the third game in the ''Monkey Island'' series. It follows protagonist Guyb ...
'' in 1997. A
remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...
was released in 2010, following a similar remake of the first game. In 2022, Gilbert released ''
Return to Monkey Island ''Return to Monkey Island'' is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Terrible Toybox and published by Devolver Digital in association with Lucasfilm Games. The sixth ''Monkey Island'' game, it was released for macOS, Nintendo Switch, and ...
'', set after the
cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or bef ...
of ''Monkey Island 2''.


Gameplay

''LeChuck's Revenge'' plays like most
SCUMM Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (SCUMM) is a video game engine developed at Lucasfilm Games, later renamed LucasArts, to ease development on their graphic adventure game ''Maniac Mansion'' (1987). It was subsequently used as the engin ...
-based
point-and-click Point and click are one of the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse or other pointing device (''click''). An example of point and click is in hypermedi ...
adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...
s. Actions and dialogues are depicted on an Animation Window which covers the top of the screen;
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
al commands are listed in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, while Inventory items are shown as
icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...
s on the lower right-hand corner. A Sentence Line is located below the Animation Window and serves in describing the actions of the player. The game was one of the few adventure games that offered the player a choice in levels of puzzle difficulty. In some versions, before starting the game, the player is prompted to choose between regular version and "Monkey 2 Lite", a relatively stripped-down experience that bypasses many puzzles entirely. On the back of the game's packaging it is jokingly stated that this mode is intended for video-game reviewers.


Plot

Several months after the events of ''
The Secret of Monkey Island ''The Secret of Monkey Island'' is a 1990 point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It takes place in a fictional version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy. The player assumes the role of Guyb ...
'',
Guybrush Threepwood Guybrush Ulysses Threepwood is a fictional character who serves as the main protagonist of the '' Monkey Island'' series of computer adventure games by LucasArts. He is a pirate who adventures throughout the Caribbean in search of fame and treasu ...
is on Scabb Island searching for the legendary treasure of "Big Whoop". He is robbed by Largo LaGrande, former first mate of the pirate
LeChuck ''Monkey Island'' is a series of adventure games. The first four games were produced and published by LucasArts, earlier known as Lucasfilm Games. The fifth was developed by Telltale Games with LucasArts, while the sixth was developed by Terribl ...
whose ghost Guybrush defeated in the previous game. Largo has imposed an embargo on the island, preventing anyone from leaving. Visiting the International House of Mojo in the island's swamp, Guybrush receives guidance from the Voodoo Lady who assisted him in his first adventure. Through actions involving laundry collection and grave-robbing, Guybrush collects the necessary materials for her to make a
voodoo doll A voodoo doll is an effigy that is typically used for the insertion of pins. Such practices are found in various forms in the magic (paranormal), magical traditions of many cultures around the world. Despite its name, the voodoo doll is not prom ...
of Largo, which Guybrush uses against him. However, Guybrush makes the mistake of showing Largo LeChuck's still-living beard, which Largo steals and uses to resurrect LeChuck as an undead
zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...
. From his island fortress, LeChuck swears revenge against Guybrush. The Voodoo Lady reveals that Big Whoop contains the secret to another world which will allow Guybrush to escape LeChuck forever. She gives Guybrush a book which says that the four pirates who discovered the treasure created a map to its location which they divided into four parts. One of the pirates was the grandfather of Guybrush's love interest,
Elaine Marley Elaine Marley (from ''Escape From Monkey Island'' onward called Elaine Marley-Threepwood) is a character in the ''Monkey Island (series), Monkey Island'' series of graphic adventure game, graphic adventure video games. Created by Ron Gilbert for L ...
, who has broken up with him. Guybrush charters a ship sailed by Captain Dread, and sets out to find the map pieces. Guybrush's search takes him back and forth between three islands: Scabb, Phatt, and Booty. On Phatt Island he is imprisoned by order of Governor Phatt, who hopes to claim the bounty LeChuck has placed on him, but Guybrush manages to escape. On Booty Island he encounters Stan, a used ship salesman from the first game who is now selling used coffins. He also reunites with Elaine, who is bitter toward him and says that their relationship was a mistake. Through various quests involving a
Mardi Gras Mardi Gras (, ; also known as Shrove Tuesday) is the final day of Carnival (also known as Shrovetide or Fastelavn); it thus falls on the day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. is French for "Fat Tuesday", referring to it being ...
party, a spitting competition, a
bloodhound The bloodhound is a large scent hound, originally bred for hunting deer, wild boar, rabbits, and since the Middle Ages, for tracking people. Believed to be descended from hounds once kept at the Abbey of Saint-Hubert, Belgium, in French it is ...
, a drinking contest, a
glass-bottom boat A glass-bottom boat is a boat with sections of glass, panoramic bottom glass or other suitable transparency (optics), transparent material, below the waterline allowing passengers to observe the underwater environment from within the boat. The vie ...
, a sunken ship's
figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a practice of who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet '' de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that ...
, rigged gambling, a
library catalog A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliography, bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libra ...
, and temporarily resurrecting the dead, Guybrush manages to collect the map pieces. He takes them to diminutive
cartographer Cartography (; from , 'papyrus, sheet of paper, map'; and , 'write') is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an imagined reality) can ...
Wally, who determines that Big Whoop is on Dinky Island. Wally and the map are soon kidnapped by LeChuck. Guybrush infiltrates LeChuck's fortress but is captured, and LeChuck places him and Wally in an elaborate death-trap. They manage to escape, but Guybrush accidentally sets off an explosion which propels him to Dinky Island. There he encounters
castaway A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a desert island, either to evade kidnapping, captors or the world in general. A person may also be ...
Herman Toothrot, who he previously met on Monkey Island. Navigating a mazelike jungle with the help of a talking parrot, Guybrush locates the site where Big Whoop is supposedly buried. He digs until he hits concrete, and uses dynamite to blast through it. Elaine hears the explosion from Booty Island and sets out to investigate, finding Guybrush dangling over a deep hole which he then falls down, winding up in an underground facility. LeChuck arrives, claims that he is Guybrush's brother, and proceeds to torture him using a voodoo doll. In the tunnels, Guybrush discovers an
E ticket An E ticket (officially an E coupon) was a type of admission ticket used at the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom theme parks before 1982, where it admitted the bearer to the newest, most advanced, or popular rides and attractions. It is now commo ...
, a
first aid First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with a medical emergency, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery until medical services arrive. First aid is gener ...
station, a "lost parents" area with the skeletal remains of his parents, and an elevator leading to Mêlée Island, which he previously visited in ''The Secret of Monkey Island''. He creates a voodoo doll of LeChuck, and dismembers his foe by tearing its leg off. LeChuck begs Guybrush to remove his mask, revealing that he is actually Guybrush's creepy brother, Chuckie. Their reunion is interrupted by a workman, who says that "you kids" should not be there. The two brothers, now appearing as children, exit the tunnels together and meet their parents above-ground in the "Big Whoop"
amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...
. Guybrush is confused, and Chuckie's eyes glow with evil energy. Back on Dinky Island, Elaine wonders if LeChuck has cast a spell over Guybrush.


Development


Origin

The idea of a sequel to ''The Secret of Monkey Island'' came about during its planning by the game's director,
Lucasfilm Games Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor, former video game developer and publisher, and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development grou ...
employee
Ron Gilbert Ronald David Gilbert is an American video game designer, programmer, and producer. His games are generally focused on interactive story-telling, and he is arguably best known for his work on several LucasArts adventure games, including '' Man ...
. Gilbert envisioned ''The Secret of Monkey Island'' as the first of a trilogy of adventure games, although without fully developing their overarching narrative direction yet. The possibility of a second ''Monkey Island'' game was alluded to by Gilbert in a late 1990 interview with in-company newsletter '' The Adventurer'', and he told ''
Retro Gamer ''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering Retrogaming, retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' ...
'' in 2006 that "I knew there was going to be a sequel" before he completed work on ''The Secret of Monkey Island''. He proceeded to conceive ideas specifically for ''Monkey Island 2'' before Lucasfilm Games set about publishing ''Secret''. Gilbert remarked that his opportunity to develop the sequel came in part from the company's contemporary
project management Project management is the process of supervising the work of a Project team, team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project initiation documentation, project documentation, crea ...
practices which he likened to the narrative setting of ''
Lord of the Flies ''Lord of the Flies'' is the 1954 debut novel of British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of prepubescent British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves that led to ...
'', as the staff was free to " unaround and do whatever we wanted". Further motivation for ''Monkey Island 2'' stemmed from Lucasfilm Games staff's desire to explore unused ideas from ''The Secret of Monkey Island''. Gilbert explained that, although the earlier game's team had omitted several of its design decisions to complete it within deadline, "it didn't matter ..because I could just save the work out and come back to it in the sequel". The reason ''Monkey Island 2'' began, according to Gilbert, was his personal interest in expanding his work in the original game rather than commercially oriented suggestions from Lucasfilm Games' management. Gilbert commented that the game's origin would have been improbable in the latter case, as the company was unable to assess the viability of a potential sequel due to its then limited knowledge of the first title's sales performance. The initial uncertainty of the first game's commercial success also encouraged Gilbert to start the ''Monkey Island 2'' project without express approval of the wider company. He wanted to avoid a scenario where Lucasfilm Games' discontent with the first game's sales would prompt the company to forfeit any new ''Monkey Island'' titles in favor of ventures with greater consumer appeal such as ''
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...
'' licensed games. Gilbert eventually convinced Lucasfilm Games to commit to the creation of the sequel regardless of its profitability, a decision which Gilbert attributed to the "simpler days" of that period of his involvement with the company. In 1990, around the time that the development of ''Monkey Island 2'' was sanctioned, Lucasfilm Games and other
Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in December 10, 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It is best known for creating and producing th ...
subsidiaries were reorganized into integrated divisions of the newly formed LucasArts Entertainment Company. ''Monkey Island 2'' thus became the first adventure game by the company produced under the LucasArts brand name. Development of ''Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'' began shortly after ''The Secret of Monkey Island''s release in October 1990. As with most of their contemporary releases, LucasArts both developed the sequel and self-published the game's original release.


Production

LucasArts sought to commit its projects to a new, more structured production template, to which ''Monkey Island 2'' was one of the company' first games to conform, along with ''
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis ''Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis'' is a point-and-click adventure game developed and published by LucasArts and released in June 1992 for Amiga, DOS, and Macintosh. Almost a year later, it was reissued on CD-ROM as an enhanced "talkie" ed ...
''. This meant that a dedicated
schedule A schedule (, ) or a timetable, as a basic time-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of a sequence of events in the chronological order in which such thing ...
was set for the development of the sequel, under which process further "rough due-dates" were decided and a fully recruited team was allotted to ''Monkey Island 2''. The principal staff members from the original game reprised their duties for the creation of its sequel. Gilbert reassumed the role of project leader, and ''The Secret of Monkey Island'' co-designers, programmers and writers
Tim Schafer Timothy John Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games '' ...
and Dave Grossman also returned to work on ''Monkey Island 2'' in their respective capacities. Grossman briefly disengaged from the game's production when LucasArts requested him to assist ''
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''s then-director
Noah Falstein Noah Falstein (born June 1957) is a game designer and producer who has been in the video game industry since 1980, winning "Game of the Year" titles for multiple games such as '' Battlehawks 1942'' and ''Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis''. ...
in the early development of that title. After concluding this assignment, Grossman resumed his work on ''Monkey Island 2'' until its completion. Staff returning from ''The Secret of Monkey Island'' also included lead artist and cover illustrator
Steve Purcell Steven Ross Purcell (born July 30, 1961) is an American cartoonist, animator, game designer, and voice actor. He is the creator of the media franchise ''Sam & Max'' and received an Eisner Award in 2007 for working on the show. The series has e ...
; animator Sean Turner; composer
Michael Land Michael Z. Land (born 1961) is an American video game composer and musician best known for his scores for various games produced by LucasArts. Biography Early life and career Michael Land was born in the North Shore area north of Boston, Mass ...
; LucasArts
playtest A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and design flaws before releasing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise, and are very common with board games, collectible card games, ...
ing supervisor Judith Lucero, who also authored the instruction manual for the game; and game tester James Hampton. At the same time, ''Monkey Island 2'' was supplemented with newly hired personnel such as artists
Peter Chan Peter Ho-sun Chan (born 28 November 1962), also known as Peter Chan, is a Hong Kong-born filmmaker best known for directing films that span a wide range of genres, including romantic comedies, musical dramas, and historical epics. He is r ...
and Larry Ahern as well as a scripter-programmer. Shelley Day, formerly of
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
, was appointed to produce ''Monkey Island 2'' at LucasArts alongside ''Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis''.


Engine and interface

''Monkey Island 2'' uses the fifth revision of LucasArts' proprietary
game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...
,
SCUMM Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (SCUMM) is a video game engine developed at Lucasfilm Games, later renamed LucasArts, to ease development on their graphic adventure game ''Maniac Mansion'' (1987). It was subsequently used as the engin ...
. The company added a dedicated
interpreter Interpreting is translation from a spoken or signed language into another language, usually in real time to facilitate live communication. It is distinguished from the translation of a written text, which can be more deliberative and make use o ...
for the scripting language (internally dubbed SPUTUM), and background programs that managed the location of objects and characters and simulated character activities. This included FLEM, the code for object states and walking area boundaries, and BILE, a "cel-based animation emulator" that allowed artists to animate individual body parts. The variety of subset programs allowed the engine to execute multiple script functions for an entity, such as those handling the rendition of its audiovisual data. Though the engine was designed as cross-platform, ''Monkey Island 2'' was developed for
IBM PC compatible An IBM PC compatible is any personal computer that is hardware- and software-compatible with the IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) and its subsequent models. Like the original IBM PC, an IBM PC–compatible computer uses an x86-based central p ...
s with the
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operating system, as with LucasArts' other games at the time.Full transcript
.
Also revised was the
graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...
, which employed
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
-based commands as player inputs. For increased accessibility, the team enlarged the
point-and-click Point and click are one of the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse or other pointing device (''click''). An example of point and click is in hypermedi ...
command list menu and removed the "turn on" and "turn off" options. They also updated the player inventory, which replaced the text-only descriptions with icons. The revised engine offered programmers shortcut commands for the coding of the objects within the game. At the same time, according to Johnny L. Wilson of ''
Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...
'', a LucasArts programmer admitted that even with this technique, they contributed around nine man-months to finalize the object-oriented programming in ''Monkey Island 2''. However, in 1992 Rik Haynes of ''
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'' commented that SCUMM's capacity as a
high-level programming language A high-level programming language is a programming language with strong Abstraction (computer science), abstraction from the details of the computer. In contrast to low-level programming languages, it may use natural language ''elements'', be ea ...
helped the creative staff members "to focus on being creative rather than worrying about technical mumbo jumbo". Similarly, in 2013 Ron Gilbert recalled that the underlying functionalities of the SCUMM system enabled the staff to incorporate new ideas into the game's interactive environment directly after suggestion, which thus introduced an aspect of
iterative design Iterative design is a design methodology based on a cyclic process of prototyping, testing, analyzing, and refining a product or process. Based on the results of testing the most recent iteration of a design, changes and refinements are made. T ...
in the production.


Logistics

The overlap between the development assets for the first two ''Monkey Island'' games, Gilbert remarked in 2006, meant that both projects occurred continuously, as a singular creative process. As such, the staff carried over into the sequel the majority of their previously unrealized ideas that had been developed for the first game. Gilbert's assessment was later echoed by Grossman, who further noted that ''Monkey Island 2'' underwent a smooth development cycle because of how cheaply games in its genre could be made. Specifically, he likened a typical adventure title of that period to a
puppet theatre Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performan ...
performance as opposed to a cinematic work with film-like qualities, and believed that the adoption of the former approach allowed LucasArts to build the sequel's plotline and gameplay without excessive resources. Along with technological solutions streamlining the development, the company also decided on a "tight" way of distributing its staff members who were assigned to ''Monkey Island 2''. As a result, the creative personnel were allotted to small groups that worked across a series of planning sessions to establish the sequel's narrative and gameplay features. During development, the artistic staff were situated on a different floor of LucasArts' headquarters building from the location of the designers; the latter were thus required to pay frequent visits to the office of the graphics specialists to review their works-in-progress. Although intended from the very beginning to exceed the scope of its predecessor, Rob Smith estimated that ''Monkey Island 2'' ultimately involved around the same number of development staff as ''The Secret of Monkey Island''. In retrospect, Gilbert recalled the number of personnel that worked on the sequel to be larger than that of his previous game, albeit "small enough that we all talked every day and everyone had a good understanding of the whole game being made". He added that the creation of ''Monkey Island 2'' was devoid of disagreements within the team, and that they were able to resolve situational production concerns in the ordinary course of the development.


Three phases

Three production phases, known as "passes" within the company, divided ''Monkey Island 2'' development, as with LucasArts' other contemporary adventure games. As part of its streamlining of in-house development practices, LucasArts employed image scanning and
digitization Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-readable) format.Collins Dictionary. (n.d.). Definition of 'digitize'. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/ ...
methods to generate assets for ''Monkey Island 2''. In the first "pass", artists originally created hand-drawn images of environments that were set to feature in the game, termed "rooms", in the form of pencil sketches. The outline drawings were processed through a
Sharp Sharp or SHARP may refer to: Acronyms * SHARP (helmet ratings) (Safety Helmet Assessment and Rating Programme), a British motorcycle helmet safety rating scheme * Self Help Addiction Recovery Program, a charitable organisation founded in 199 ...
color scanner and the resulting
digitized graphics Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-readable) format.Collins Dictionary. (n.d.). Definition of 'digitize'. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/ ...
were submitted to a group of programmers to be input to the technological framework for the game. The latter task involved the setting of boundaries for the interactive space of a "room", its integration the material with the encoded
algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for per ...
for the game's
dialogue tree A dialogue tree, or conversation tree, is a gameplay mechanic that is used throughout many adventure games (including action-adventure games) and role-playing video games. When interacting with a non-player character, the player is given a choice ...
mechanics, and the programming for the objects within the modeled scene. The emphasis of the first "pass" was to program everything as fast as possible. The first phase produced an early build of ''Monkey Island 2'' which featured
monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...
scenes navigated by placeholder characters from a number of other then in-development LucasArts games. After this version was delivered LucasArts held an internal "pizza orgy" to commemorate the occasion, during which personnel from the wider company were involved in the initial playtesting of the game and were engaged to offer design input. The early build informed the work of LucasArts'
marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...
department on the artwork for the packaging materials for ''Monkey Island 2'', in particular that of the
cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of c ...
. In the second phase of production, output from the initial stage was revised, as the artists and programmers reiterated on and refined their earlier work. The sketch-based monochrome graphics were processed through the
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graphics editing software on a
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computer, being reworked into more detailed chromatic images of the game's background scenery. The basic graphics and animations of the game's cast of characters were created with DeluxePaint Animation and later implemented along with the modified environmental visuals into the then current builds of ''Monkey Island 2''. On average, the artists spent up to an entire day revising graphics for an in-game scene; by contrast, they required a roughly an hour to create the placeholder visuals. The resultant graphics materials were submitted to LucasArts' marketing department to shape the game's promotion. LucasArts gave to publications such as ''Computer Gaming World'' the latest builds of ''Monkey Island 2'' and gameplay screenshots for press coverage. Also around this time LucasArts completed the packaging solution for ''Monkey Island 2'': the marketers put still images of the game's provisional art into the design of the backside of the retail box. Concurrently the company organized the exposure of the game at prospective trade shows and the involvement of
focus group A focus group is a group interview involving a small number (sometimes up to ten) of demographically predefined participants. Their reactions to specific researcher/evaluator-posed questions are studied. Focus groups are used in market researc ...
s in the game's development. In June 1991, LucasArts showed ''Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'', then temporarily titled ''The Secret of Monkey Island II'', alongside ''Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis'' at the Summer
Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
. That month, Paul Presley of ''
The One The One may refer to: Buildings * The One (shopping centre), a shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong * The One (Toronto), a mixed-use skyscraper under development in Toronto, Canada * The One, a residential skyscraper under constru ...
'' estimated that the game "is still a long way from completion", and later in August, Amaya Lopez of ''
Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. Adding (or subtracting) 0 to any number leaves that number unchanged; in mathematical terminology, 0 is the additive identity of the integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and compl ...
'' reported that the sequel was to be released for PCs and the
Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...
in late 1991. The third and last phase required LucasArts to "put the absolute finishing touches", as put by Johnny L. Wilson, to the entirety of the previously developed material for ''Monkey Island 2''. As production continued, personnel began to work overtime to bring the game's assets to completion, a trend which would extend to the company's subsequent games such as ''
Day of the Tentacle ''Day of the Tentacle'', also known as ''Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle'', is a 1993 graphic adventure game developed and published by LucasArts. It is the sequel to the 1987 game '' Maniac Mansion''. The plot follows Bernard Bernoulli ...
''. Schafer told ''
Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...
'' in 2009 that at the time, the staff members disregarded the risk of personal strain from crunch time practices because most of them had shared similar past experiences during
higher education Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...
, as an outgrowth of the necessity to reside in
dormitories A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm), also known as a hall of residence, a residence hall (often abbreviated to halls), or a hostel, is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential qu ...
and study at underground facilities on
campus A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a corp ...
territory. Summarizing his overview of ''Monkey Island 2''s development, Wilson suggested that LucasArts' three-part process proved to be "a mixed blessing": although intended to provide momentum to the overall production, the procedure only simplified the programmers' workload in the first phase, offset by "trade-offs" to the performance of the remaining staff members. However, Rob Smith retroactively indicated that the team maintained a "straightforward" pace of development, in part due to familiarity with SCUMM's nuances grown from their past work. He specifically noted that the SCUMM engine's capabilities allowed them to introduce concepts, dialogues, and interactive scenes within ''Monkey Island 2'' at all possible phases of the game's development, even directly ahead of its release. According to Smith, the convenience of the team's situation enabled them to conclude work on the sequel within one year from its start. Gilbert asserted that the development staff did not encounter corporate pressure during their work on the game, and reported that the sequel's creation provided him with satisfaction, although "perhaps not as much as the first one".


Release and format

''Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'' was originally released on
floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...
s for
IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the List of IBM Personal Computer models, IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible ''de facto'' standard. Released on ...
s as well as for MS-DOS and
Mac OS Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. in a succession of two major series. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the classic Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system ...
in December 1991. Gilbert later remarked that LucasArts' choice of the release medium for the game, which was distributed on six floppy disks, led him to excise five planned scenes from ''Monkey Island 2'' to fit it in the allotted size limitations. By the month of its initial release, the sequel's launch for the Amiga was delayed to early 1992, and
U.S. Gold U.S. Gold Limited was a British video game publisher based in Witton, Birmingham, England. The company was founded in 1984 by Anne and Geoff Brown in parallel to their distributor firm, CentreSoft, both of which became part of Woodward Brown H ...
, LucasArts' product distributor in
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, had assumed the position of the game's publisher in the relevant territories. The Amiga version was ultimately released in Summer 1992; the development house in charge of the conversion divided ''Monkey Island 2'' into four sequential playable sections that were distributed across eleven floppy disks to adapt the game to the platform's memory constraints. Although
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...
releases of adventure games had become widespread by the time of ''Monkey Island 2''s publication, Gilbert was unwilling to develop such a version of the game. His rationale was that the intricacies of the
compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...
medium, such as a slower
data transfer Data communication, including data transmission and data reception, is the transfer of data, transmitted and received over a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint communication channel. Examples of such channels are copper wires, optical ...
rate than that of contemporary high-end PCs' internal
hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...
s, would prove to be ill-suited to the developing standards of the adventure genre. LucasArts later carried over the revised SCUMM-based interface from ''Monkey Island 2'' into the CD-ROM updated version of ''The Secret of Monkey Island'', released in 1992 for IBM PCs. That year, Gilbert left LucasArts alongside Shelley Day to co-found
Humongous Entertainment Humongous, Inc. (formerly Humongous Entertainment, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company developed multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently ''Putt-Putt (series), Putt-Putt' ...
, a developer of edutainment games for younger audiences. After likewise departing from the former company in 1994, Grossman moved to join Gilbert in his new venture, and Schafer remained at LucasArts as a designer until 2000 when he and several other staff members left to establish
Double Fine Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American video game developer based in San Francisco, California. It is a first-party developer of Xbox Game Studios. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double F ...
.


Design and writing


Overall principles

According to Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer, their chief idea for ''Monkey Island 2'' was to expand on ''The Secret of Monkey Island''s narrative scope and gameplay elements. Gilbert wanted a more open-ended adventure game than the first game, where one navigates confined isolated areas. Consequently, he decided on exploration of multiple islands as the overarching feature of ''Monkey Island 2''s gameplay. In August 1991, Gilbert described the sequel as the most nonlinear game being produced at LucasArts at the time. Competing games in the genre such as
Sierra On-Line Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game ge ...
's '' King's Quest IV'' served as a reference point for Gilbert: he intended the sequel to forgo those titles' tendency to kill the protagonist for player mistakes in favor of a more forgiving model. This approach coincided with his earlier concept that had been applied in ''The Secret of Monkey Island'', whose design excluded events leading to the player character's death so as to emphasize the narrative and
puzzle-solving A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to find the sol ...
aspects. In the game, this is realized by the story being told as a flashback by Guybrush to his love interest
Elaine Marley Elaine Marley (from ''Escape From Monkey Island'' onward called Elaine Marley-Threepwood) is a character in the ''Monkey Island (series), Monkey Island'' series of graphic adventure game, graphic adventure video games. Created by Ron Gilbert for L ...
; whenever a decision would lead to Guybrush's death (such as not escaping LeChuck's deathtrap), Elaine will interject that this contradicts Guybrush being alive in front of her, allowing the player to retry. One of Gilbert's other ideas was that the average challenge level in contemporary adventure games was too low and harmed their
play value Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...
, and he thus sought to make ''Monkey Island 2'' tougher overall.


Two difficulty modes

Ensuring the accessibility of the sequel's gameplay to the widest variety of players regardless of their skill was a related concern of the team, as expressed by both Gilbert and Dave Grossman. To this end, Gilbert decided to introduce alternative
difficulty levels Game balance is a branch of game design with the intention of improving gameplay and user experience by balancing difficulty and fairness. Game balance consists of adjusting rewards, challenges, and/or elements of a game to create the intended pla ...
in ''Monkey Island 2'': the game would adapt the composition and complexity of its playable sections according to a preferred gameplay mode chosen from a prompt at the start of the game. He initially wanted the sequel to offer three escalating grades of difficulty, a feature which was in the originally revealed build of ''Monkey Island 2''. Only two options of gameplay were ultimately implemented, specifically the streamlined and abridged mode, "Monkey Lite", and the mainline complex one, "Monkey Classic". Monkey Lite was set to give players a brief overview of the game's basics, as a sample of the content in the full version, as Noah Falstein explained in ''The Adventurer''s summer 1992 issue. He described the creation of the dual difficulty system to be troublesome for the team, in that they were required to avoid repetition in the two variations and to differentiate the identity of each solution to the gameplay. Falstein concluded that ''Monkey Island 2''s capacity as a twofold interactive experience served to make the sequel appealing both to newcomers to the ''Monkey Island'' franchise and to skilled players who expected a challenging sequel. Similarly, Gilbert later stated his belief of the feature's continued relevance for modern adventure game design, as he perceived a growth of
casual game A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessio ...
rs who appreciated gameplay avenues suited for their decreasing
free time Leisure (, ) has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, work, job hunting, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. Leis ...
. The team's design practices were unaffected by the mode division, Gilbert remarked in 2015, as they had decided against developing the basis of ''Monkey Island 2'' by incrementally building on the game's simplified model. Instead, they did the inverse: the development staff originally implemented the hard mode as the core template of the game and then restructured this into an abbreviated counterpart. To that end, they gradually reviewed the planned layout of mandatory playable situations, reconsidering the solutions to each of the mainline game's puzzles. Gilbert gave this example: if the team discovered a puzzle that required players to obtain a key to a locked in-game doorway after their progress through many in-between events, the team would render the passage readily open to hasten the resolution of that part of the game. To accomplish a "presolved" adaptation of the game in its easy mode, they identified chains of puzzles within the design of ''Monkey Island 2'' and then excised or modified those sequences' elements. Rather than to substantially reimagine the sequel's story and gameplay for its shorter variant, the designers' focus was merely to determine which sections of ''Monkey Island 2'' could be easily revised so as to retain satisfactory overall
pacing Pacing may refer to: In sport * Pacing, an athletic technique of spreading one's effort out over longer-distance track and field races (also in swimming) * Pacing (horse gait), a horse gait used in standardbred horse races * Motor-paced racing ...
. Gilbert recalled that the game's underlying technology allowed LucasArts to alter and adjust elements of the title on an
impromptu An impromptu (, , loosely meaning "offhand") is a free-form musical composition with the character of an ''ex tempore'' improvisation as if prompted by the spirit of the moment, usually for a solo instrument, such as piano. According to ''Allgeme ...
basis. Gilbert found this practice to exhibit his preference to base his games on broadly defined plans, as opposed to precise
design document A software design description (a.k.a. software design document or SDD; just design document; also Software Design Specification) is a representation of a software design that is to be used for recording design information, addressing various de ...
s, and admitted that he would struggle to direct a similar work to ''Monkey Island 2'' in the face of formalized development procedures.


Puzzles

The design of ''Monkey Island 2'' was a more collaborative process compared to ''The Secret of Monkey Island''s, where the team had built on Gilbert's own concepts and outlines developed before production. The creation of the sequel's puzzles involved the game's principal writers and programmers, whose output Rik Haynes described as "funny and bizarre". For example, Schafer was responsible for an in-game contest about spitting the furthest, which players are engaged to win – a challenge he believed to be unique in adventure games at the time. Artists were also encouraged to submit opinions during planning. Grossman recalled that the staff held the corresponding meetings in a confined working space, and "those sessions often became hilarious enough to be dangerous, with me asthmatically coughing up my own brain from laughing too much". Gilbert managed design: he mapped out what he called "Puzzle Dependecy Charts", schematic
diagram A diagram is a symbolic Depiction, representation of information using Visualization (graphics), visualization techniques. Diagrams have been used since prehistoric times on Cave painting, walls of caves, but became more prevalent during the Age o ...
s depicting the puzzle arrangements, which he generated with the MicroPlanner X-Pert software on a Macintosh computer. With these he planned structural branches of the puzzle solutions, as models of overarching and situational milestones that players were to advance through in his games. As part of this technique, Gilbert also laid out chains of successive puzzles, which were designed in reverse: the premises of the first and intermediary puzzles were recursively inferred from the solution of the final one. These puzzle sequences were then aligned as singular entities into
nonlinear In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system (or a non-linear system) is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathe ...
flowchart A flowchart is a type of diagram that represents a workflow or process. A flowchart can also be defined as a diagrammatic representation of an algorithm, a step-by-step approach to solving a task. The flowchart shows the steps as boxes of v ...
-like representations, wherein the solution of the initial part segued into unrelated branches for player progress, before culminating at a common in-game destination. From that convergence point, a further diagram of the same type would be spun off into subsequent, similarly ordered schemes; the reiteration of those patterns formed the overall puzzle framework in Gilbert's projects at LucasArts, including ''Monkey Island 2''. In the design of specific puzzles, the team mimicked a player's approach to solving them, Grossman remarked in retrospect. In a 2006 interview with ''Retro Gamer'', he illustrated the general planning method with a puzzle involving ''Monkey Island 2'' character Captain Kate. From this mindset, the team began by setting an in-game objective of stealing an item from the character. They proceeded to identify every realistic solution to the situation – which included the player covertly embezzling the item or coercing Captain Kate into yielding it – and gradually forwent banal solution possibilites until the exhaustion of such ideas. Having discarded those options entirely, the team moved to devise an unorthodox resolution to the puzzle: requiring players to cause the arrest of Captain Kate in order for the character's belongings to become accessible. The designers' consequent goal was to develop the logic of events within which this could come to pass. As outlined by Grossman, those criteria guided the team's entire work on the development of puzzles for ''Monkey Island 2''. Gameplay segments were arranged around the game's multiple settings, Gilbert recalled, and he described the result as "a complicated web of puzzles ..
hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
kind of jumbled all around", in contrast to ''The Secret of Monkey Island''s more linear approach. He also noted that the puzzle structure in the sequel was distinguished by its greater reliance on "dialogue puzzles", a term for nonlinear scenarios of player-driven conversations with the game's characters which feature alternative response options. The team's co-authorship of the design for the game contributed to the increased complexity of its puzzles, including their emergence in consecutive successions in ''Monkey Island 2''. Although Gilbert remarked that the sequel epitomized his accrued experience and practices in attempting to create a comprehensive template of an adventure game, he had also stated that certain puzzles and scenes in the game qualified as redundant in retrospect. Specifically, Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman cited concerns with the puzzle wherein players were meant to use an earlier-captured
monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...
as an improvised
wrench A wrench or spanner is a tool used to provide grip and mechanical advantage in applying torque to turn objects—usually rotary fasteners, such as nuts and bolts—or keep them from turning. In the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand ...
to open a passageway to a new location,
pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...
ning on the English language term "
monkey wrench A monkey wrench is a type of smooth-jawed adjustable wrench, a 19th century American refinement of 18th-century English coach wrenches. It was widely used in the 19th and early 20th century. It is of interest as an antique among tool collectors ...
". Grossman explained that, whereas the intended
wordplay Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...
was understood by the game's domestic audience due to the phrase's predominance in
the United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, it was unknown outside the North American market and thus was difficult to translate into the overseas versions of the game. Gilbert later described this as his least accomplished design of a puzzle and apologized to players for its addition to the game. The experience led him to realize that the prospect of his games' distribution beyond the American market would necessitate cultural adaptation of their contextual elements, an aspect Gilbert has attempted to account for in his subsequent works. Gilbert nevertheless stated his belief that he was able to materialize the vast majority of his plans for ''Monkey Island 2'' in the released version. However, previously, after the game's release, Gilbert had stated that he " asstill trying to figure out how to get everything I want into an adventure game".


Story

As with the game's predecessor, the puzzles in ''Monkey Island 2'' were created prior to its storyline; the vast majority of the plot's details were unestablished when the project started. Gilbert's puzzle charts supplied the general layout of the game's narrative, and the team then "made he storylineup as we went". Gilbert believed that the theme of revenge served as a universally resonant narrative premise, and the story was thus based around LeChuck seeking vengeance against Guybrush Threepwood for defeating the former in the previous game. As with the previous game, Gilbert distributed the writing duties for discrete sections of the game between Schafer and Grossman, and assigned each of them to individual scenes and characters in accordance with the designers' comic sensibilities. ''Monkey Island 2'' was "a little bit dark" intrinsically yet simultaneously conducive to comedic writing, Gilbert acknowledged in 2014; earlier he had remarked that he regarded the game as an avenue to realize the unexplored humorous material intended for its predecessor. Several months after the game's release, Schafer described ''Monkey Island 2'' as a
parodic A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...
game which employed ironic subversion of its own archetypical traits and those of other contemporary computer games. He explained that "every time that you expected a payoff,
he game He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
would do something that was kind of a non-payoff" and that "
he game's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...
taste of humor asnot for everybody". From the conceptualized story foundation, the team developed the game's characters. Gilbert noted that certain returning characters from the previous game were carried over due to their popularity among the staff, and others, such as the Voodoo Lady, were included to reinforce particular motifs in the story. Rik Haynes commented that, aside from the conversations with the characters that were added solely for atmosphere, specific dialogues were written to telegraph suggestions to players for advancing through the game. Among references to non-interactive media in the game, LucasArts added a tribute to the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' attraction - which provided the stylistic inspiration for the first game - as well as numerous nods to the ''
Indiana Jones ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise consisting of five films and a prequel television series, along with games, comics, and tie-in novels, that depicts the adventures of Indiana Jones (character), Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, ...
'' and ''Star Wars'' franchises, and an allusion to the ''James Bond'' films. Reconciling the planned puzzles for the game with its narrative was a major point of focus for the designers of ''Monkey Island 2''. Rik Haynes reported that Gilbert "was so absorbed by the process, in fact, that he even solved tricky problems in his sleep".


Playtesting

Contiguous suggestions addressing the game's playability came from LucasArts game testers as they reviewed various development builds of ''Monkey Island 2''. Gilbert recalled an instance during development when Judith Lucero and members of her team e-mailed him an extensive overhaul proposal for ''Monkey Island 2''s then current version. James Hampton stated that this document, internally dubbed the "Giant "D" ("D" for "Design") Bug", was collaboratively developed by him and the game's other testers and offered "our ideas and reactions to the earliest builds of the game". They recommended in particular additions to the game's length and difficulty, and specified edits to its storyline and puzzles. Discussing Gilbert's response, Hampton noted that he encouraged agency among the development staff over the course of the creative process and thus approved of the testers' considerations. A number of their concepts were therefore implemented in the finished game, such as "
screwball A screwball is a baseball and fastpitch softball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action. The pitch is sometimes known ...
"
cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...
s depicting between-island travels of the player character in the game's overworld map, as a pastiche of analogous scenes in the ''Indiana Jones'' films. Also carried over from the proposal was a
library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...
location with a multitude of references to the game's events and
easter eggs Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are Egg decorating, decorated for the Christian holiday of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are commonly used during the season of Eastertide (Easter ...
from the team, via an interactive
card catalog A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a group of libraries is also ...
. Reminiscing on the game testers' contributions, Gilbert said that they "have a unique perspective on the game and poke not only at the bugs but also the design and the thought process of playing a game" and "are a critical gear in the machinery that makes up making a game".


Ending

Planning the game's ending was another problem wherein Gilbert sought input from LucasArts staff beyond the principal creative team. He had struggled to conceive a satisfactory finale for the sequel, and postponed the issue repeatedly during the game's production. As such, by the time LucasArts moved to finalize ''Monkey Island 2'', Gilbert's concern with developing the conclusion was renewed. James Hampton claimed that a meeting was held to establish the game's climax with LucasArts game testers, during which his suggestion for an ending akin to the ''
St. Elsewhere ''St. Elsewhere'' is an American medical drama television series created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982, to May 25, 1988. The series stars Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd, and William Daniels as ...
'' finale - which revealed the events of that show to exist in a dream-like fictional universe - provided the basis for the closing scenes of the game. Gilbert stated the idea for the game's denouement came from his ongoing anxiety over the lack of a suitable concept as development neared completion. He explained that he came up with the used ending spontaneously, when "one day, literally laying in bed on a Saturday morning, it just kind of hit me ..how he game hadto end". He later indicated that the ending was intended to convey a metaphor rather than to be subject to a literal interpretation. Schafer regarded the finale of ''Monkey Island 2'' as an outgrowth of the game's subversive brand of humor, and admitted that the climax was contrary to popular expectations. Gilbert acknowledged that the sequel's conclusion was controversial among players since its release, and that he had planned the ending to invoke conflicted sentiments "from day one". He explained that he made the ending purposely provocative to elicit differing public perceptions of it, a reaction which he believed to be evidence of creative accomplishment. Although Gilbert said in 2015 that the finale provided "perfect" closure for the game's storyline, he had conceded after his departure from LucasArts that the ending's ambiguousness complicated any plans of a direct continuation. Specifically, he expressed his belief that the development team for the next installment, ''The Curse of Monkey Island'', "would mention that I had made their life hell". Gilbert nevertheless asserted that the completion of the ''Monkey Island 2'' project marked his discovery of a hypothetical
plot device A plot device or plot mechanism is any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelief ...
with which he could build on the sequel's narrative and finish the overarching story arc of his planned adventure game trilogy.


Visual design


New technology

The company's then-ongoing push into modernizing its graphics production pipeline was exemplified by the creation of ''Monkey Island 2''s visuals, LucasArts art department supervisor Collette Michaud suggested shortly before release. The company allotted a larger number of artists than in its past projects to ''Monkey Island 2'', divided into two groups: background artists and
animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...
specialists. This staff layout came from LucasArts's wider decision to increase the total art resources of its planned titles, mandated by the evolving technological demands of the computer game industry. Specifically, the
VGA Video Graphics Array (VGA) is a video display controller and accompanying de facto graphics standard, first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, which became ubiquitous in the IBM PC compatible industry within three years. T ...
visual interface had become the graphics standard for high-end personal computers and the latter's hard drive components had dropped in price when ''Monkey Island 2'' completion drew close. Peter Chan, who debuted in video game development with this title, remarked that LucasArts productions lacked the position of an
art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...
at the time, in keeping with the company's small-scale distribution of its staff resources. The duties of lead artists were assigned to both him and Steve Purcell, designations that Chan said to be perfunctory, as "for us, I think because it was so new, lead artist just meant the guy who was stuck doing most of the art". Purcell mentioned that, whereas the mainline EGA-compatible version of the previous game had a limited 16 color palette, the company's adoption of the VGA format's 256-color scheme for ''Monkey Island 2'' meant that "we had all the colors we needed". As the only returning staff member among ''Monkey Island 2''s head artists, Purcell sought to ensure the overall visual consistency between the game and its predecessor. A series of lengthy planning discussions guided the creation of the game's audiovisuals, which were fashioned to complement the game's plotline. Overall, Rik Haynes estimated the resulting graphics assets to comprise around 6.4 million pixels of on-screen visual information. Haynes reported that the art team's concern with enhancing the graphical quality of ''Monkey Island 2'' led them to consider atypical devices for realizing the game's static visuals. Around that time, competing companies Sierra On-Line and
Dynamix Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of video games from 1984 to 2001, best known for the flight simulator Red Baron (1990 video game), ''Red Baron'', the puzzle video game, puzzle game ''The Incredible Machine (video game), The Incredible Mach ...
had released several titles whose graphics were generated from scanned images and digitized
live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...
footage. The success of those titles prompted LucasArts to incorporate a scanning-based method into the production of their game's visuals. Reminiscing on that development, Purcell explained the artists' capability to initially model the in-game locations on paper and then to implement the images digitally lent them "a greater range". After experimenting with various art media in the creation of the environmental paintings, LucasArts developed a process that involved an amalgam of graphical techniques. Initially, the artists used colored pen markers to draw a rough representation of a scene – an approach originated by Chan – whose details they then augmented and reinforced by applying paint. Thereby they finalized the overlaid drawing with
colored pencil A colored pencil (American English), coloured pencil (Commonwealth English), colour pencil (Indian English), map pencil, pencil crayon, or coloured/colouring lead (Canadian English, Newfoundland English) is a type of pencil constructed of a na ...
s, utilized to eliminate "soft edges". Upon the digitization of those visualizations, LucasArts added further adjustments and effects "not easily achieved with traditional painting methods" to the resulting pictures with proprietary graphics software. The background artwork was primarily developed by Chan and partly created by Purcell, who was responsible for locations such as the interior of Wally B. Feed's cabin in Woodtick. Sean Turner also painted the visual designs for certain scenes in the game. Purcell sought to impart depth to the background graphics by adding elements that suggested the presence of a foreground visual dimension in the on-screen depiction of settings such as the Bloody Lip Bar, a location which the player character visits in Woodtick. Citing that same scene, Purcell remarked that he attempted to provide the environmental visuals with humorous imagery, which, with respect to Purcell's example, meant details "like the spitoon with overshot loogies all over the doorframe". He was also inclined to introduce
anachronistic An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common typ ...
visual elements in the background artwork, although one of those elements, a "50's era
jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...
" that was planned to feature in the Bloody Lip Bar, was omitted from the final game.


Animation

For the animated graphics in ''Monkey Island 2'', Ron Gilbert sought to ensure that the movements of the game's characters were rendered in a "simple and cartoony" style, in keeping with the previous game. The team of artists that worked on that aspect of the game was led by Turner, a former employee of Lucasfilm subsidiary
Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American Film, motion picture visual effects, computer animation and stereo conversion digital studio founded by George Lucas on May 26, 1975. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lu ...
, and was also composed of Michaud, Larry Ahern, Mike McLaughlin and Steve Purcell. Turner's primary responsibility concerned shaping the aesthetics and stylistic direction of the dynamic visuals in the game. An experienced specialist in traditional animation, he wanted his work with 2D digital visuals to exceed the limitations of the
computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images and art with the aid of computers. Computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, digital art, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. ...
medium. Turner utilized two distinct procedures to develop his output: the artwork was alternately built with software tools in DeluxePaint Animation and scanned from sequences of hand-drawn
cel A cel, short for '' celluloid'', is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid (consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor) was used during the first half of the 20th cent ...
images. The second algorithm was primarily employed to produce animations that contained large objects; Michaud explained that the artists found their efforts to be streamlined when such assets were originally depicted on paper and then imported into a suitable form for digital manipulation. LucasArts still used the software-based solution to generate the majority of the characters' animations, whose creation the art staff believed to be expedited when realized under a computer interface. Michaud stated that Turner's professional background and humorous sensibilities inspired the individual contributions of his team, "allowing them to open up and have some fun with the animations". Larry Ahern also remarked that Gilbert instructed the animators by providing them with lists describing the game's entities that were required to move in a specific scene. Ahern recalled that, in the initial period of his engagement with ''Monkey Island 2'', he was unable to discern the in-game context for his work on a particular event in the title due to Gilbert's abstract directions. According to Ahern, he "tried asking questions about it, and
ilbert Ilbert is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Courtenay Ilbert Sir Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert, (12 June 1841 – 14 May 1924) was a distinguished British lawyer and civil servant who served as legal adviser to the Viceroy o ...
said, 'Just do this, this, this, and this, laundry list, check it off', and I got real frustrated with that". He then enquired with Schafer and Grossman about the purpose of the character actions that he was tasked to choreograph. Ahern explained that the co-designers proceeded to describe to him the intended effect of the respective scenes, and "I'd say, 'Oh, well, wouldn't it be more fun if I did it this way', and they'd go, 'Yeah, that'd be even better. Go do that'". As a result, Ahern asked Schafer and Grossman to negotiate Gilbert's approval for his proposal, a concern which the two agreed to address.


Cover

Aside from his immediate role in the graphics production for ''Monkey Island 2'', Steve Purcell was responsible the game's cover artwork. The preparation of the game's packaging involved Collette Michaud, Purcell's then-girlfriend and future wife. Although at the time that the game's branding was devised, the majority of the packaging solutions for planned LucasArts products were conceived by the company's executive officers, Purcell stated that the project leaders for those titles were strongly inclined to promote their own vision for the styling of the games' covers. Purcell specified that for ''Monkey Island 2'', Gilbert requested a cover illustration resembling that of a classic book. Purcell recalled that his capacity as an artist on the first two ''Monkey Island'' games enabled him to readily identify the prospective cover's core visual elements. Continuing a trend from ''The Secret of Monkey Island'', Purcell painted sketches that displayed his concepts for the cover's presentation to establish the basic design of the artwork. Purcell noted that those pictures were intended to convey general ideas that he wanted to bring to completion, rather than to comprise fully formed illustrations. After Purcell delivered the paintings, LucasArts selected a satisfactory cover archetype and tasked him to "transfer the sketch to the board". The finished template image for the game's cover was an
oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...
by Purcell drawn on a
linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong and absorbent, and it dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. Lin ...
canvas Canvas is an extremely durable Plain weave, plain-woven Cloth, fabric used for making sails, tents, Tent#Marquees and larger tents, marquees, backpacks, Shelter (building), shelters, as a Support (art), support for oil painting and for other ite ...
. With respect to the scale of the painting, Purcell decided to "do it big – two by three feet", and he spent a month developing the resultant artwork. Michaud posed in costume as a
model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...
for the cover's depictions of Guybrush Threepwood and LeChuck to provide Purcell with a reference point for the light distribution in the artwork. According to Purcell, the cover's visuals were meant to reveal to players lifesized representations of the game's characters and setting, portrayed without the graphical limitations of the title's underlying technology. Described by ''Retro Gamer'' as reminiscent of an
N.C. Wyeth Newell Convers Wyeth (October 22, 1882 – October 19, 1945), known as N. C. Wyeth, was an American painter and illustrator. He was a student of Howard Pyle and became one of America's most well-known illustrators. Wyeth created more than 3,000 ...
book illustration The illustration of manuscript books was well established in ancient times, and the tradition of the illuminated manuscript thrived in the West until the invention of printing. Other parts of the world had comparable traditions, such as the Per ...
, ''Monkey Island 2''s cover art has garnered a positive public reception since the game's release, which Purcell stated "makes all the effort worthwhile". Purcell still possesses the original painting of the cover, which is currently placed in his office.


Art direction

The game's artists and animators - as well as its composers - collaborated with LucasArts programmers to shape an engaging realization of the game's scenario, stylized to utilize cinematic techniques such as scrolling panoramas of the title's environments and proportional character scaling. Less than a year after the launch of the game, Dave Grossman described aspects of its presentation with the term "interactive cartoon", in that the title was conducive to "crazy and cartoony" interactive sequences. He cited the example of the game's sequence wherein Largo LaGrande extorted money and valuables from Guybrush Threepwood on the bridge leading to Woodtick, an event which Grossman said to prompt players " save">Saved_game.html" ;"title="o Saved game">savethe game at that point so they could go back and watch it a few times". Peter Chan said that the artistic direction of ''Monkey Island 2'' was already decided when he joined its team, which focused his efforts on attempting to mimic existing visual references, although the corporate culture of LucasArts at the time allowed him opportunities to introduce unplanned graphical elements in the game. In contrast, Ahern retrospectively voiced his discontent with some of the game's animation, which he said was uneven because of the animators' capability to add stylistically disparate graphics assets to the title without immediate supervision. He explained that "there was nobody officially art directing
he game He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
and coming in and saying, 'No, that character's off-model, or that needs to look more like this'". Ahern was frustrated with this situation, which he believed to be the source of a major stylistic dissonance between the game's individual animated scenes. As a result of this experience, when Ahern was appointed to serve as an animator for ''Day of the Tentacle'', he requested LucasArts for the authority to institute uniform design criteria for that title's art team, so as to facilitate a cohesive artistic process. Conversely, Grossman later indicated that ''Monkey Island 2''s artwork – along with its music – imparted "a terrific sense of place" and a "tremendously cinematic" ambiance to the game.


Music

The score for ''Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'' was composed by Michael Land in conjunction with his former college housemate
Peter McConnell Peter Nelson McConnell (born April 19, 1960), also known as Peter Mc, is an American video game composer and musician. He is best known for his work at LucasArts and for composing the soundtracks for every ''Sly Cooper'' game since the second ...
and high school friend
Clint Bajakian Clint Bajakian (born 1962) is an American video game composer and musician. Biography Bajakian was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He was linked with music since age of eight. In middle school, Bajakian played in marching bands, and also pla ...
, both newly hired by LucasArts to work on the game. The game's music was developed on a Macintosh II computer using
Digital Performer Digital Performer is a digital audio workstation and music sequencer software package published by Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) of Cambridge, Massachusetts for the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows platforms. Ancestry In 1984, Mark of the U ...
and reformulated into PC-compatible
MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...
tracks via a dedicated sound program that McConnell had written as his first job at the company. The in-game arrangements of the compositions employed recordings of the composers' live performances of the tracks over a MIDI keyboard and a
music sequencer A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling Musical note, note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open ...
. Land, McConnell and Bajakian split the scoring responsibilities between themselves in equal measure, and did not allot the title of lead composer to a specific musician. McConnell likened their collective's working dynamic to that of a professional
band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...
: the members were willing to exchange their duties in writing music for the game's individual locations, and created some of the tracks collaboratively. As with the previous series game, Michael Land coordinated his contributions with Ron Gilbert, who nevertheless was largely disengaged from the music's development. After relating to Land a general request to compose music driven by Calypso-inspired percussion, Gilbert refrained from further involvement, as he gave significant credence to Land's professional capabilities. Describing his area of focus, Land remarked that "from the beginning of the game, I wanted the music to sound like what you'd hear coming out of a radio if you were walking down a street on a Caribbean Island". Although the soundtrack of ''Monkey Island 2'' incorporated
leitmotif A leitmotif or () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is a partial angliciz ...
s, their use in the game eschewed an emphasis on character-related tracks that McConnell stated to be typical of
film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...
s. Instead, he and his colleagues utilized the musical device to convey an invocation of a "pirate
reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...
" aesthetic across the individual compositions. The trio thus sought to establish an overriding thematic direction that disassociated the players' perception of the tracks from their attribution to the characters. The composers only broke away from that paradigm when preparing music that pertained to notable members of the game's cast such as the Voodoo Lady.


iMUSE

''Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'' served as the first LucasArts game to use Interactive Music Streaming Engine (iMUSE), the company's proprietary
adaptive music Adaptation, in biology, is the process or trait by which organisms or population better match their environment Adaptation may also refer to: Arts * Adaptation (arts), a transfer of a work of art from one medium to another ** Film adaptation, ...
engine that was co-designed by Land and McConnell. The technology originated from Land's frustration with the implementation of ''The Secret of Monkey Island''s music, whose integration with the title's gameplay he believed to be unsatisfactory. By the time that McConnell was recruited by LucasArts, Land had envisioned an audio sequencing system that could construct a flexible progression of a given soundtrack's compositions in an interactive environment. Land engaged him to collaborate on this concept, and McConnell later commented that "we made a very good design team in realizing and expanding on this vision". According to McConnell, the composers' reference for the iMUSE system was a speculative image of a
pit orchestra A pit orchestra is a type of orchestra that accompanies performers in Musical theatre, musicals, operas, ballets, and other shows involving music. The term was also used for orchestras accompanying silent movies when more than a piano was used. ...
in a
musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...
whose conductor closely observed the enactment of the scored material and could "direct virtuoso musicians to make smooth transitions to any place in the music at any time, in a way that is, well, musical". The resultant solution allowed the compositions in the game to dynamically alter in response to the playable character's interaction with a specific environment or situation in ''Monkey Island 2''. The iMUSE technology enabled the game to feature
progressive music Progressive music is music that attempts to expand existing stylistic boundaries associated with specific music genre, genres of music. The word comes from the basic concept of ":wiktionary:progress, progress", which refers to advancements thr ...
arrangements that adapted to the events throughout the course of the game's story, as well as logical transitions from one track to another, and provided for several other
sound engineering An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduct ...
functionalities. Describing the summarized effect of those features when applied in practice, Gilbert commented that "the
core Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (laboratory), a highly specialized shared research resource * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber ...
starts at the beginning and ends at the end of the game, and is just one ever-evolving piece of music". Land and McConnell spent nine months on the creation of the iMUSE system's first incarnation, an integrated framework of audio drivers that governed the engine's various capabilities. McConnell recalled that LucasArts staff was initially confused as to the classification of the technology, whose subset programs and their associated MIDI track data "took up an entire floppy disk in a five-disk game". In reaction, McConnell and Land devised an identifiable designation for the system and proceeded to explicate their design to LucasArts personnel, which clarified the issue. McConnell remarked that, although he and Land were confident in the practicability of the iMUSE system during its inception, the composers found the application of its initial version to be very complicated. Bajakian cited major difficulties in ensuring that the encoded sound and music data were compatible with the available variety of sound cards on the computer hardware market. McConnell stated that the technology was required to undergo several iterations across five years from the release of ''Monkey Island 2'' to become suitable for widespread use by LucasArts audio programmers. However, he noted that the core engine managed an average delivery of high-end audio performance during its host titles' gameplay, which helped to obscure the system's underlying complexity from the staff. Interviewed by Rob Smith in 2008, LucasArts then general manager Kelly Flock stated that the iMUSE technology marked the introduction of a novel avenue for the designers to mediate the relationship between the players' actions and the
background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...
in a game. He noted that, in past adventure titles, the protagonist's appearance in a location within the game triggered a looping composition with a static structure that was divorced from the player-driven events in the scene. According to Flock, Land and McConnell's system contrasted this trend by accounting for the frequency of the player character's visits to an area in the game and their subsequent actions therein, in response to which the engine would alter the music to suit the circumstances of current gameplay segment and apply sound effects that were appropriate. Flock stated that Land was able to build up
suspense Suspense is a state of anxiety or excitement caused by mysteriousness, uncertainty, doubt, or undecidedness. In a narrative work, suspense is the audience's excited anticipation about the plot or conflict (which may be heightened by a viol ...
in sections of the game with aural manipulations, a concept that the prievous LucasArts products did not incorporate. In commercializing the iMUSE system, LucasArts chose not to
license A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...
its exploitation to competing companies, and instead appropriated the technology by
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
ing it for internally developed titles, which led the engine to perpetuate as a commonplace feature of SCUMM-based adventure games. Flock summarized that Land and McConnell's work was critical to the design of the ambiance in those titles and labeled it as "probably the single most important technology that was developed t LucasArts.


Special edition

As with ''The Secret of Monkey Island'', LucasArts released a
remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...
of the sequel with updated audiovisuals titled ''Monkey Island 2: Special Edition'' for the PlayStation 3, iPhone, iPod Touch, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox 360 in July 2010. The Mac OS X version has not yet been released, while the iOS version was retired in March 2015. The Special Editions of ''
The Secret of Monkey Island ''The Secret of Monkey Island'' is a 1990 point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It takes place in a fictional version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy. The player assumes the role of Guyb ...
'' and its sequel were later released physically for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC (exclusively in Europe) as ''Monkey Island Special Edition Collection''. The special edition includes updated graphics, updated high-quality audio engine, new voice-overs, additional content such as concept art, and an in-game hint system. The "lite" mode from the original game ("for game reviewers") has been omitted. Further, the original introductory sequence with the main musical theme has been removed, purportedly because it displayed credits for the original game, now outdated. Players can opt to switch from the updated version into the original at any time during the game, though an option allows players to retain the voice-overs of the remake. Players can opt to use the original point-and-click control scheme, or can directly control the movements of Guybrush using a control pad or similar device. The remake was announced by LucasArts during their annual
Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year, Game Developers Choice Awards and ...
on March 10, 2010, with the previous creators of the adventures, Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman, in attendance. The trio of game designers have recorded a commentary track for the Special Edition that can be brought up in many locations, using silhouettes in the fashion of ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then ...
'' overlaid on the graphics. Craig Derrick announced on a new interface that was in the vein of ''
The Curse of Monkey Island ''The Curse of Monkey Island'' is an adventure PC game developed and published by LucasArts in 1997. A sequel to 1991's '' Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge,'' it is the third game in the ''Monkey Island'' series. It follows protagonist Guyb ...
''s and a return of the original voice cast, including
Dominic Armato Dominic Armato (born November 18, 1976) is an American voice actor, journalist and food critic. He is best known for his work on LucasArts games. His most famous role is the voice of the pirate Guybrush Threepwood in the Monkey Island (series), ' ...
as Guybrush,
Alexandra Boyd Alexandra Boyd is a British actress, director, screenwriter and producer. Her acting credits include Clarissa Mason in ''Coronation Street'' and Sarah Olmsted in Mr Holland's Opus. In recent years she has turned to screenwriting and film direc ...
as Elaine,
Earl Boen Earl Boen (; August 8, 1941 – January 5, 2023) was an American character actor. He is perhaps best known for portraying criminal psychiatrist Doctor Peter Silberman from Terminator (franchise), the ''Terminator'' franchise. Boen was also very ...
in his final performance as LeChuck, and even
Neil Ross Neil David Ross is a British–born actor. Noted for his Trans-Atlantic accent, he has provided voices in many American cartoons, most notably ''G.I. Joe'', '' Spider-Man: The Animated Series'', '' My Life as a Teenage Robot'', '' Voltron'', a ...
as Wally.
Phil LaMarr Phil LaMarr is an American actor and comedian. He was one of the original featured cast members on the sketch comedy television series '' Mad TV'', where he stayed for five seasons. His voice acting roles in animated series include the Sam B of ' ...
was also confirmed as Dread and
Tom Kane Tom Kane (born 1962) is an American former voice actor. He is known for his work in animation and video games, most notably the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Career Kane began his voice acting career in 1977 when he was just 14 years old. Some of his ...
as additional voices.


Development

''Monkey Island 2: Special Edition''s production was overseen by Craig Derrick and his team at LucasArts, known internally as "Team 3", which had been responsible for the remake of the first ''Monkey Island'' game. Derrick, a devoted enthusiast of the series, had sought an opportunity to participate in the franchise since the start of his employment at LucasArts, who at the time were disinterested in adventure game development. This situation led Derrick to face difficulties in negotiating an approval for his proposal to recreate ''The Secret of Monkey Island'' with the company's management due to their uncertainty about the financial feasibility of renewing LucasArts' former association with the genre, whose popularity they assumed to be in decline. After the successful release of ''The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition'' in 2009, Derrick was able to readily convince LucasArts to pursue the idea for a remake of ''Monkey Island 2''. By this time that this decision was sanctioned, the majority of staff from the team of ''The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition'' was already occupied with another project. To compensate, LucasArts augmented the team for ''Monkey Island 2: Special Edition'' with staff from the company's foreign departments, and assigned the majority of the production duties to its
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
division. To match the scope and complexity of the original 1991 title, LucasArts was led to leverage a greater amount of development resources for the renewed counterpart of ''Monkey Island 2'' than for the previous remake. According to Derrick, the increased workload was mitigated by his colleagues' accumulated experience and access to technological solutions that had been introduced for ''The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition''. He explained that those accrued assets enabled LucasArts to materialize an authentic recreation of ''Monkey Island 2'' and supplement it with new functionalities in the same timeframe during which the completed iteration of the first remake was crafted. Those additions included the feature that enabled the playback in the game of the background audio commentary by Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman, recorded for the remake at the 2010 Game Developers Conference. Derrick had planned to procure the designers' engagement in the creation of a similar commentary track for ''The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition'', but was unable to proceed with this incentive due to scheduling setbacks on the side of an unidentified party. Derrick attributed the implementation of the feature in the remake of ''Monkey Island 2'' to the distribution of its development between LucasArts'
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
and Singapore departments. He mentioned that, although this type of delegated work caused certain difficulties in the teams' collaboration, the Singapore division had been previously involved with certain aspects of ''The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition'' and thus was able to coordinate an efficient approach to those issues. Derrick commented the result of this distributed process satisfied his expectations. Prior to the game's release, Gilbert reported to have been pleased with the remake's rendition of the gameplay and technical elements of ''Monkey Island 2'', and remarked that ''Monkey Island 2: Special Edition''s capability to allow for the instant transition between the game's new and original audiovisuals "really showed the care, love, and respect that LucasArts has for these games".


Reception


Sales

''Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'' was highly anticipated; ''
Amiga Power ''Amiga Power'' (''AP'') was a monthly magazine about Amiga video games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing and ran for 65 issues, from May 1991 to September 1996. History The first issue of ''Amiga Power'' was publi ...
'' called it the most eagerly awaited game of 1992. According to Ron Gilbert, ''Monkey Island 2'' and its predecessor "sold well, but
Sierra Online Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game gen ...
and ''
King's Quest ''King's Quest'' is a graphic adventure game series, released between 1980 and 2016 and created by the American software company Sierra Entertainment. It is widely considered a classic series from the golden era of adventure games. Following ...
'' were still kicking our ass completely!" A writer for ''
Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...
'' noted that the games were "relatively minor hit in the United States, but became blockbusters on the PC and the Amiga throughout Europe. Conversely, ''
Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...
'' reported that both games "sold very poorly on release". Designer
Tim Schafer Timothy John Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is an American video game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in July 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games '' ...
said that ''Monkey Island 2'' sold about 25,000 copies, despite its being released at a time when LucasArts was "really excited if we sold 100,000 copies of a PC graphic adventure". Following the underperformance of ''Monkey Island 2'', Schafer recalled that the management came and told them that ''Monkey'' was a failure and that they should make something else. He speculated that the ''Monkey Island'' series' reputation grew as a result of
software piracy Online piracy or software piracy is the practice of downloading and distributing copyrighted works digitally without permission, such as music, movies or software. History Nathan Fisk traces the origins of modern online piracy back to similar ...
. According to Schafer, the pressure to develop a more commercially viable game ultimately led to the creation of ''
Full Throttle Wide open throttle or wide-open throttle (WOT), also called full throttle, is the fully opened state of a throttle on an engine (internal combustion engine or steam engine). The term also, by extension, usually refers to the maximum-speed state o ...
'', which became the first LucasArts adventure to sell one million units.


Reviews

''Monkey Island 2'' received consistently high reviews for all versions, 95% from ''
Amiga Computing ''Amiga Computing'' is a discontinued monthly computer magazine Computer magazines are about computers and related subjects, such as networking and the Internet. Most computer magazines offer (or offered) advice, some offer programming ...
'' for the Amiga version, 96% from ''
Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') is a British-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot web ...
'' for the PC version. When Kixx XL rereleased ''Monkey Island 2'' as a budget game, the reviews remained high getting 91% from ''
CU Amiga ''Commodore User'', (also referred to as ''CU'') later renamed to ''CU Amiga'', is a British magazine initially published by Paradox Group before being acquired by EMAP. Timeline ''Commodore User'' was launched in October 1983 with an initial pr ...
''. The game is still considered very high quality with contemporary reviewers scoring the game highly. ''Monkey Island 2'' is often considered one of the greatest in the
point-and-click Point and click are one of the actions of a computer user moving a pointer to a certain location on a screen (''pointing'') and then pressing a button on a mouse or other pointing device (''click''). An example of point and click is in hypermedi ...
genre, and it still stands up well against modern adventure game titles. The game holds a rating of 90% on the
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site
GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
. ''Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'' was rated highly for several reasons. The game is considered user friendly as it has a "lite" mode. This allowed beginners to play the game at an easier setting. The overall difficulty of both modes is also considered to be good. The redesign in controls, such as the fewer verbs and graphical inventory were rated well as increasing the game's ease of use. Music in ''Monkey Island 2'' was noted for its use of the iMUSE system. Reviewers noted that for the first time the sound is an integral part of the atmosphere. Graphically, the game was considered an improvement over its predecessor, with reviewers very impressed. It is also noted by critics that the developers of ''Monkey Island 2'' made using the Amiga version's 11
floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...
s relatively smooth, but also noted that installing the game on a
hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...
is recommended. In 1992 ''
Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...
'' named it the year's best adventure game, praising its "challenging puzzles and wonderful sense of humor, along with a stunning visual presentation". In 1996 the magazine ranked it as the 74th best game of all time. In 1994, ''
PC Gamer UK ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games mag ...
'' named ''Monkey Island 2'' the fourth best computer game of all time. The editors wrote: "Anyone who claims to have an interest in adventuring cannot afford to be without this". In 1996,
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ranked the game 29th on their "Top 100 Games of All Time". In 2011,
Adventure Gamers ''Adventure Gamers'' is a computer game website created by Marek Bronstring in March 1999 dedicated to the genre of adventure games. It publishes reviews and previews of adventure games, as well as opinion articles and interviews with game de ...
named ''Monkey Island 2'' the eighth-best adventure game ever released. In a celebration of the series 30th anniversary, Ron Gilbert shared secrets from its original
source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...
during a video conversation with the Video Games History Foundation. These included early character prototypes, deleted scenes, unused animations and alternative game environments from the first two games.


Special Edition

The ''Special Edition'' was given a score of B+ by Gaming Bus; the site stated that there was more music and it was of higher quality, the graphics were improved, there was additional content, and the core game was still intact, though the hints were too helpful and there were some problems with controls.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monkey Island 2: Lechuck's Revenge 1991 video games Adventure games Amiga games Cancelled Sega CD games Classic Mac OS games DOS games Fiction about Louisiana Voodoo FM Towns games IOS games LucasArts games MacOS games Monkey Island games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation Network games Point-and-click adventure games SCUMM games ScummVM-supported games Single-player video games U.S. Gold games Video game sequels Video games about pirates Video games about zombies Video games scored by Clint Bajakian Video games scored by Michael Land Video games scored by Peter McConnell Video games set in the 17th century Video games set on fictional islands Video games developed in the United States Video games with commentaries Xbox 360 Live Arcade games Xbox 360 games Windows games