With the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island hitting the web last week and the remake of Secret of Monkey Island out there this week, the adventure gaming world has been seized by pirate fever. I’d like to think that the Telltale offices are beginning to resemble the Scumm Bar these days, full of developers in seafaring attire sipping on their grog.

What better time to ask them a few questions? I passed a few pieces of eight to the good Mike Stemmle, who graciously gave me a few minutes of his time. Mike has been putting a ton of work into Monkey Island and let slip a couple of interesting tidbits.

Read on, ye scurvy dogs.

Where exactly does Tales of Monkey Island fit into the grand timeline?

Some undefined number of years after Escape from Monkey Island. Elaine and Guybrush have been swashbuckling their way across the seas, fighting LeChuck and generally having a swell pirate time.

Will there be references to the other games in the series?

Plenty, although new players don’t need to have played them to understand what’s going on.

In a similar vein, will we be visiting any familiar locations?

Maybe one of them. Maybe.

Anyone that has played an adventure game (especially a Telltale game) has an idea of what the gameplay will be like. Do you have any surprises in store?

Oh, we’ve always got a few surprises. Longtime Telltale players will notice that we’ve added “inventory combination” puzzles in to the mix, an old-school throwback to the early days of adventure gaming. And we’ve also upgraded our control scheme a bit, adding direct control of the character, which’ll add some punch to a number of puzzles in our later episodes. And you can bet that we’ll also be throwing in some one-off puzzles with some freaky interfaces.

When we left him, Guybrush’s hand was possessed by the Pox of LeChuck. Does this impact the gameplay in any significant way, or is more of a story concern?

I’d say that after the first ten minutes of episode 2, the state of Guybrush’s hand will be of tremendous story and gameplay concern.

In your opinion, what is the single coolest new thing that Telltale is bringing to the Monkey Island series?

Morgan Le Flay, pirate hunter.

Why resurrect Monkey Island specifically? Did you guys approach LucasArts, or was it the other way around?

It’s been a sort of mutual courtship that’s taken years to consummate.

Did you put any thought into developing Tales as a single game instead of individual episodes?

Personally, I tend to think of Tales AS a single game… one that’s broken into five ludicrously satisfying chapters. But no, we never thought of doing it non-episodically. We’ve gotten pretty good at it.

Obviously the Telltale Tool is designed for 3D games, but is there any chance of seeing a 2D adventure game from you guys in the future? Did you consider it for Tales of Monkey Island?

I’ve been reliably informed by our animators that making a 2D game that’s as interactive and good-looking as Tales would cost a bajillion dollars. I told them that that wasn’t a real number, but then they showed me a spreadsheet, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t add up to a bajillion dollars. So I guess that answer is “maybe”?

Was it hard to get the old voice cast back into the studio?

Not really. Although some of them have gained a few pounds, our sound studios have really wide doors.

Tales of Monkey Island is a nice title for an episodic series. It sounds like we could see more “Tales.” Are there plans for more Monkey Island seasons down the line, or do you see this as more of a one-off thing?

I’d personally love to do more Monkey Islands.

Now, I always love asking you guys this question. What are some of the crazy stories or strange things that happened during the development process?

This one time, while working on Chapter One, my wife gave birth to twins. How freaky is that!?

Were you also involved in the decision to release an HD upgrade of the original Monkey Island? Think that you could convince LucasArts to do the same with all of their other old adventure games?

The Special Edition was all LucasArts, as far as I know. Damn fine idea, though.

Will we see a new Sam & Max adventure this year? How about an episodic DSiWare game?

The designs and concept art for the next Sam & Max series is bubbling along, and warm bodies will probably be assigned to bring it into full development real soon! And I’d love to do a DSiWare game someday, but we’ve got nothing to speak to there for right now.

Big thanks to Mike Stemmle for answering our questions and to Joel Dreskin for setting everything up! Tales of Monkey Island Episode 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is out now for the PC, and will be released on WiiWare later this summer. Want to learn more?

Official Website
Tales of Monkey Island demo
Our review of Episode 1