~ The Official LOVE OF MI Thread ~

[KR]

Hi everyone! My name is Kyle and this is the official forum thread for the unofficial, fan-made 5th MI game in the series, The Love of Monkey Island. I believe some of you have already seen the game's official website, but in case you haven't, you can find it here:

loveofmi.wordpress.com

This game is a very exciting project that I (as well as the few others involved) am very passionate about and dedicated to. I am aware of other fan-made game efforts over the years (and wish them the best in their creations as well), but this is a completely different deal, with a perfectionistic obsessor like me at the healm. It's going to be a full-length game that picks up shortly after EMI. I suppose really it's more like an MI 4.5 as it's not an official Lucas Arts project and so forth, but it should be great fun nonetheless. You can read the whole story in the 'About' pages on the website.

Now please take into consideration how big and involved the process of creating this game is, and with me just into the script-writing stage right now, there is a significant time to go (and therefor, not very much to see just yet). I ask only for your understanding of the magnitude of the project, your patience for it, and your positive support now that I'm opening it up to you all for discussion. And though it will take a decent amount of time, suffice it to say it will not be as long as other fan-games have been going on, and certainly not until 2015 (the seeming date before the next Lucas Arts offering of the franchise)!!

As said, there is not very much yet to see, so there isn't much about specifics of the game that can be discussed. Later on, when artwork starts emerging, there will be more room for discussion of opinions and such. But at this point, I'd say let's use this thread to ask any general questions you have about the game (I won't be going into specifics very much at all as I'm not going to spoil this game at all for anyone!); as well as any personal questions about myself, others involved, and our skills, interests, perspectives, etc.; and to comment on any news posts on the website (such as on the "Comments" sections on WMI news posts).

With that, I hope you all check out the site, bookmark it, check back often, and gain a positive interest and support of the game, even in its baby stages ("baby stages" though it's been in development for 3/4 of a year now). Please post on here with any questions, comments, so forth, and feel free to e-mail me at the address given on the website.

Take care and fire away!

Kyle R.



LEGAL
This is NOT an official Lucas Arts game nor licensed by Lucas Arts. All material from official Monkey Island games, including (but not limited to) titles, characters, island names, and music are (c) by Lucas Arts and are the sole ownership of Lucas Arts and the games' creators. All materials not from official Monkey Island games are the creation of those in charge of this website and are not affiliated in any way with Lucas Arts. Lucas Arts reserves the rights of all original-game elements and may cease any distribution of anything in use of said elements.
This is a NON-profit project. No money has or will be exchanged in either the creation nor distribution of this game.
This game is created as a work of FAN ART for the purposes of personal entertainment and rejuvination of hype and interest in the entire Monkey Island series during the space in between waiting for a new official game. In essence, this game promotes and benefits Lucas Arts and the interest in its games.
THIS IS A NON-PROFIT WORK OF FAN ART. LUCAS ARTS OWNS ALL RIGHTS TO ORIGINAL MATERIALS IN THIS PROJECT. PLEASE DON'T SUE US!!

[Novotny]

Good luck! I'm a little sceptic about such projects (just look at Darkness, Amulet, Lost Years, Prisoner, Indy and FOA2, Indy and FOY), but I'm all with you and I'm looking forward to see some artworks and music stamps.
Cheers

[Marley]

I too am skeptic. Also about the story, to me the story doesn't sound Monkey Islandy.

[CaptainNiamhy]

I think it'll be really good. The story is a bit different but it could be fun

[Novotny]

Relationship between Guybrysh and Elaine sounds like back to Gillbert, where Guybrush isn't realy serious partner for Elaine. I suspect the guy Elaine fell for is LeChuck in human disguise... Well, if she's under voodoo spell or something, it might work.
If the game will be relased, anyway.

I'd love to see this in the game:

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/5971 ... inexk3.jpg
[fanart by Neola]

[Marley]

I'd like to post some fan art of what i'd like in the game but sadly it was deleted when the site went down for a while and a good few months of work got deleted :S

Also i think it would have boosted sales to 13 year old boys...

[KR]

Novotny and Marley, your skepticism is totally understandable and needs no justification. As said, look how many other fan-made games have set out to be made and have now been putting along for years. And because you don't know me personally, I can't blame you for not really knowing how dedicated of a person I am once I get committed to my projects.

As for concerns of the story, never fear, when you get down to the underlying facts of the entire thing, I think you'll find that it's very Monkey Islandy. The Excerpt from Memoirs is purposely vague in the areas of secrecy, to drive you all nuts hehe

CaptainNiamhy, the story is a bit different but it HAD to be. I had about eight different story possibilities under consideration, and the rest were either too similar to what we've all already seen and played, too limited as to where we could go with them, or they were just too out there. This one has turned out to be the best of those options by FAR. It's a strong and fun storyline, and at the end of the day, I don't feel there is much reason for anyone to be very disatisfied with it. We definitely aren't.

I suspect the guy Elaine fell for is LeChuck in human disguise

Nope I think we've seen enough of LeChuck disguising himself. Besides, LeChuck is dead... for good this time... I swear... But there is a bit of voodoo/magic involvement within the game (duh, it's MI), but that's all I'm gonna say on the matter!

If the game will be relased, anyway.

That is truly the question. But let me just say that the only thing that will keep this game from coming out is not slacking off or laziness, it's Lucas Arts. Let's just all hope and pray that it doesn't come to that, that if they take notice of it at all, they realize what is genuinely is: a love-driven work of fan-art that is essentially a boost in the interest and morale for the MI franchise so people don't forget about it and stop caring within the next 7+ yr gap before they come out with an official 5th game. We're doing our part to help keep people in the MI zone bridging between the official games (in other words, we're doing what we can to help keep them their core MI customers).

Good questions and comments, guys. Thank you so much for your interest and support. Again, ask anything you like (which doesn't mean I'll be able to answer everything). I'd be happy to tell you about any past projects and experience of mine to help you understand more background on the one in charge of this game, if you are interested. So, whatever you wanna know, shoot!

Also worth noting is that one Mr. Dalixam of WMI himself has been involved in some decision making of the game since its development began, including helping to choose this storyline. And while I don't want to speak for him or anything, he (to the best of my knowledge) completely approves and supports the direction we're going.

Kyle R.

[Novotny]

I'll miss old rotting LeChuck. Would be nice to see him again, even as a side character. But, anyway, it's your game and your decision. Hope your villian's going to be a good one. And that he's not going to be just an ordinary human.

I said I'm skeptic about the project. But I'm much more skeptic about LucasA*se. There's no chance to make them start a new MI project. All they can do is killing fangames.

[KR]

I'll miss old rotting LeChuck. Would be nice to see him again, even as a side character. But, anyway, it's your game and your decision. Hope your villian's going to be a good one. And that he's not going to be just an ordinary human.

Don't worry; there's lots of layers to the antagonistic side of the game. But I can't say anything more specifically than that on that topic

In picking the best storyline, one of the biggest driving factors was choosing one that had such a negative consequence that Guybrush would HAVE to do something (since he's sort of a "reluctant hero" type). That was the biggest thing to give the game momentum and keep the player interested.

For example, a couple ideas that were not ultimately chosen were things like Guybrush accidentally blowing up his and Elaine's house and spending the whole game trying to get it fixed. Aside from the fact that there's about a whole hour's worth of play there, I don't think getting yelled at by Elaine is something so uncommon that Guybrush would fear it enough to do manual labor and rebuild a mansion, or even go out of his way to hire contractors... clearly, that one lost a bit of substance along with its momentum. Another idea was that someone came along and started robbing the entire Tri-Island Area of its grog (to what ends we never decided). This, for one thing, started to feel too much like EMI, with some bloke coming along and changing the area around and stuff, but then also, Guybrush always claims his piratey might and love for grog, but I think we'd almost all agree that he doesn't always stand up to his word, and would more likely just take up drinking Kool-Aid or something than have the drive to go out and save grog.

So we had to pick an idea that was more personal and created more of a drive for our lead swashbuckler. And the idea we chose does just that. It was a challenge to keep away from repetition of previous games with what went on with Elaine, LeChuck, etc. but that's the reason we wrote out so many ideas. And oddly enough, in moving away from being too similar to the stories of the previous games, our game came to feel much more Monkey Islandy. Go figure.

[Marley]

Considering that LeChuck is meant to be in love with Elaine though, surely a voodoo love plot could involve LeChuck without making the story seem too repetitive, if done away from SMI which wouldn't be too hard.
I just think LeChuck is the main enemy and does not need replacing...

But either way goodl uck with the project, i hope it is completed, and please keep us updated with art and posts just so we know you are progressing.

[KR]

Hey guys. How's it going? Sorry I haven't been updating you all as much as I'd like, but as I said in my little update on the website today, there's (understandably) only so much I can say during this process.

So there's nothing tremendous to update you with. I just wanted to let you know that I am working on the script and it's coming along well. Guybrush is acquiring his help at this point in the script. We're really getting into the neck of the woods of creating all-new characters and, while it's definitely a challenge to come up with good ones, I think it's going pretty well and we're getting some good ones. A chunk of the last couple weeks has been spent developing those characters as well as a few other aspects we came up with for later on in the game.

Ummm... that's really about all I can say at this point for an update. Any questions? I'd love to answer any that I can.

Kyle R.

PS: Sorry for the smily overload Ah, there I go again.

[Fearless Flying Monkey]

Need any help with anything? This is the place to ask, but I wish you the best of luck whatever happens.

[KR]

Thank you very much for offering, but I think we're pretty good. I will certainly ask if we reach a need for more help in the future. Thanks again for the offer as well as your support!

KR

[Fearless Flying Monkey]

Thank you very much for offering, but I think we're pretty good. I will certainly ask if we reach a need for more help in the future. Thanks again for the offer as well as your support!

KR

How many are in your team? Just you at the moment I'm guessing for the script stage?

[KR]

How many are in your team? Just you at the moment I'm guessing for the script stage?

It's essentially three people. There's me, in charge of the whole thing and doing most of the work (and on the website, I do my best to explain how that's a good thing, despite all the work). Then there's my best friend, who's not only a great actor/creator of characters/voices, but also a frequent source of helpful opinions for me. And third is my girl, who will be a sort of advisor about art issues and is also a good source to help with decisions for the storyline and so forth. We may bring in a few other close friends for voices in the future, but for the most part, it's the three of us. As I explain on the site, having it as such a small and intimate group of people, with most of the work in my own hands, might seem overbearing to most, but for me personally it means that we will be able to work on it almost constantly, rather than waiting on a larger team to all coordinate and wait around for Timmy or Sally to finish up their bit, etc. It's definitely a lot of work, but I'm the type of person that loves projects that require the vein of work as this and am very dedicated to seeing it through.