Untitled Ron Gilbert RPG Has Been Canceled

You’re probably hitting 40 a cultured gamer who is familiar with the classics if you know the name Ron Gilbert without needing to search it—and it doesn’t get much more classic than titles like Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island. Gilbert’s work on those games and many others has garnered him a lot of praise and accolades over the years, to the point that one might assume that any project the creator was interested in making would be an easy sell to publishers. Alas, that was not the case with the untitled RPG that Gilbert was working on.

Announced back in 2024, the game was initially touted as “classic Zelda meets Diablo meets Thimbleweed Park.” Gilbert set out with a squad of three to produce the RPG, which was an ambitious open-world adventure boasting gorgeous pixel art. Sadly, while the concept seemed interesting, Gilbert stated that “[he] just [didn’t] have the money or the time to build a big open-world game like that,” going on to add that “It’s either a passion project you spent ten years on, or you just need a bunch of money to be able to hire people and resources.”

Gilbert said that offers from publishers for the new game were “terrible,” as they considered a game of this ilk to be out of vogue and, thus, not worthy of a meaningful investment. Gilbert says that publishers are now “very analytics-driven,” using formulas to predict what will or won’t sell, and thus the feeling that many consumers have that gaming has become rather formulaic and repetitive in terms of the variety of content that’s being offered.

It’s a shame to find out that this one didn’t come to fruition. Would you have been interested in playing Gilbert’s RPG? Share with us below and on social media!

Source: Ars Tecnica