Indie Game Dream Crushed! Ron Gilbert's Zelda-Like RPG Canceled!

It's a sad day for fans of classic adventure games, folks. Ron Gilbert, the legendary creator behind the Monkey Island series, has revealed that his new 2D Zelda-esque RPG project has been shelved. Apparently, funding proved to be an insurmountable obstacle. I know, bummer.

Indie Game Dream Crushed! Ron Gilbert's Zelda-Like...

Gilbert explained the situation frankly, stating that the publisher deals on the table were simply "horrible." He suggested that the game's retro aesthetic and genre didn't exactly set the industry on fire. This is a bit surprising because I always thought there was an audience for that sort of thing.

"Doing a pixelated old-school Zelda thing isn't the big, hot item," Gilbert admitted. He went on to say that publishers didn't see the project as a guaranteed blockbuster, so they were unwilling to offer the kind of financial support he needed. "The amount of money they're willing to put up and the deals they were offering just made absolutely no sense to me to go do this." It's a tough pill to swallow, but it highlights the increasingly risk-averse nature of the AAA game publishing world.

While crowdfunding might seem like an obvious alternative, Gilbert believes that particular avenue is no longer as viable as it once was. Remember the Kickstarter boom? "Kickstarter is basically dead these days as a way of funding games," he said. And honestly, he might have a point. The sheer volume of projects vying for attention makes it harder than ever to stand out.

Gilbert also reflected on how dramatically the industry has changed since he started his career. Back then, developers had more freedom to experiment and take risks. "I think that's why I really enjoy the indie game market because it's kind of free of a lot of that stuff that big publishers bring to it," he said. "There's a lot more creativity and you know, strangeness, and bizarreness." That's where a lot of truly innovative games are coming from these days, and I have to agree with him.

However, there's a tiny silver lining to all this. Some of the artwork created for the cancelled RPG has found a new home in Gilbert's latest game, "Death by Scrolling." So at least some of the creative energy found its way into another project.

He also made a point about the role of personality in the modern games industry, "The [developers] that are successful are not necessarily the good ones, but the good ones that also present well on YouTube." said Gilbert. "And you know, I think that's kind of a problem, that's a gate now... In some ways, I think it's too bad because as a developer, you have to be a performer. And I'm not a performer, right? If I was making movies, I would be a director, not an actor." It seems authenticity in the industry is becoming just as, if not more, important than the quality of the games.

Despite this setback, it's worth remembering that Ron Gilbert has a history of pulling off the seemingly impossible. After all, he and co-writer Dave Grossman delivered "Return to Monkey Island" in 2022, a project many fans (myself included) had given up on ever seeing. So, while this Zelda-like RPG might be gone for now, who knows what the future holds? One thing's for sure: Ron Gilbert's creativity and passion for game development are far from extinguished.