Ron Gilbert no longer works at Double Fine he confirms on his website. Tim Schafer's studio took on the humurous game developer for one project, "The Cave," which released to mixed-reviews on home consoles in January. The game was a flawed, if enjoyable experience, but it's impossible to tell if it had anything to do with Gilbert's departure. They could have been doing a wait-and-see on the sales numbers or Gilbert may have simply signed up for a one-and-done to begin with. What's certanly true is both Gilbert and Schafer aren't talking about it, the latter of which took to Twitter to express his goodbye.
"Sad to say @grumpygamer feels like it's time to spread his grumpy wings and fly. Good luck, Ron! Thanks for The Cave!" Double Fine just anounced "Dropchord," "a new music-driven score challenge game developed for the revolutionary Leap Motion Controller as well as iOS devices," according to their website.
Gilbert's GrumpyGamer blog updated last night with the news of his departure.
"Now that The Cave is done and unleashed on an unsuspecting world (ok, we did do a bunch of PR, so it wasn't exactly unsuspecting), it's time for me to move on from Double Fine and plot my next move," writes Gilbert. "So many games left to be designed." He isn't leaving games, just one game studio, and he's already made a clear one or two routes he plans on taking. The first is a mobile game.
"For the short term, Clayton Kauzlaric and I have been toiling away on another iOS side project that I'm going to focus on over the next few months. It's called "Scurvy Scallywags in The Voyage to Discover the Ultimate Sea Shanty: A Musical Match-3 Pirate RPG." I'll post some screen shots in the next few days. Mobile games are fun, sure Ron, but what about the game that made you? What about "Monkey Island?"
Well, LucasArts retains the rights to that franchise, which of course now means Disney holds the reigns, but Gilbert told Eurogamer late last years that he plans on pursuing the franchise at some point in the future.
"I have a call in to Mickey Mouse, but he hasn't returned my call," Gilbert joked. More seriously, "I would love to get the rights back to 'Monkey Island' and be able to really make the game I want to make."
So there you have it, mobile games and 'Monkey Island' are on Gilbert's mind, his past and his future are one indeed!