Jonathan Ackley, one of the co-directors of the 1997 point-and-click classic Curse of Monkey Island, has announced he and his design partner, Larry Ahern, are reuniting to work on a new comedy adventure game, and that they are currently on the lookout for a publisher.
If you're someone who grew up playing LucasArts adventure games, it's more than likely that you've experienced a game that Ackley has worked on in the past.
Not only was he one half of the design duo that brought people the third title in the Monkey Island series, but he also had a hand in a bunch of other beloved LucasArts games as a programmer, such as Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Sam & Max Hit The Road.
After leaving LucasArts, Ackley went to work for LEGO for a couple of years, before joining Walt Disney Imagineering in 2001. There he would work on designs for a bunch of memorable attractions for Disney parks, such as "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" and "Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure", before departing the company in December 2020. Now it seems he is finally ready to make his epic return to games, revealing on LinkedIn and Twitter/X that he and Ahern are set to collaborate again and he has a development team "ready to roll".
Posting on LinkedIn, Ackley didn't share too much about the project, only that it would be "a modern take on the classic genre" and contain "a cofounding mystery", "a hapless butler", and an "interplanetary threat":
"A surprise post today! My design partner of "The Curse of Monkey Island" Larry Ahern and I have been developing a new comedy narrative adventure. It's a modern take on the classic genre. A confounding mystery. A hapless butler. An interplanetary threat. Our development team is ready to roll, and we'd love to meet with potential publishing partners. Hit me up if you'd like to talk!"
As things stand, we probably shouldn't expect to see any concept art or trailers in the near future. But being huge fans of Ackley and Ahern's back catalog, it's hard not to get excited at even the mere mention that they're up to something new, and in the genre where they made their name in the first place.
Are you excited about the prospect of a new game from the directing duo? Let us know in the comments!