N-Europe's Editor-in-Chief Tom Phillips got the chance to chat to Dave Grossman at last week's WiiWare & DSiWare event in London. One of several LucasArts veterans on the team, Tales is not the first Monkey Island title he has worked on...

Tom Phillips: First off, could you explain your role in Tales of Monkey Island, and your history with the series?
Dave Grossman: Well, I was a writer and designer on Secret of Monkey Island and LeChuck's Revenge [the first and second Monkey Island titles] - those were the first two games I worked on, the ones I really learned the craft with. On this new series I am TellTale's 'Design Director', which means that I'm kinda like the editor - I backseat drive all these games. You'll notice that each episode has its own director - I'm here for continuity, to push them to make these the best games they can be.
Tom: Having worked on the series in the past, what do you think you bring to the Tales episodes?
Dave: I reckon I have good understanding about what the characters should be about, what the game style should be - what fits and what doesn't - and also how to get there. I think a lot of people think: 'well, Monkey Island games are funny, so let's just make a funny game about pirates', but there's a lot more to it than that. The underlying story is fairly serious - and the first drafts of the Tales story had the story getting a little bit too silly for what I thought fitted the tone.
Tom: Yeh, I really think it has kept to the original series. What was it like for you to come back to the series after so long?
Dave: A little bit weird actually! It's been, for me, almost eighteen years. And it was something I never expected to have the opportunity to do again, because after I left LucasArts that was that, y'know, I wasn't going to do a Monkey game again, LucasArts were fairly sure they weren't going to do a Monkey game again, or allow anyone to touch the property. But luckily we at Telltale were able to talk them into that. It's been a bit like re-connecting with an old high school friend you haven't seen for a long time but who you know you'd really love to, and who you really develop a great new friendship with. I think Guybrush's charmed me all over again. We're both a little different now - I think me more than him. But it still works.

Meet pirate hunter Morgan Le Flay

Tom: Did Telltale ever consider a more classical look to the Tales series, say the pre-rendered background of previous games?
Dave: No, I don't think so. Telltale exists as a 3D studio, and so we built the game around that. Even if you see something from us that looks like a flash game, under that is 3D. Really because when we are looking at camera angles, we want to be able to change things at the last minute, rather than have ourselves locked into things we can't alter. Sometimes we need to move shots, alter the positions of things because they don't look right in the frame, right up until the last minute. And that's really all dependent on it being 3D. We have a lot of artists on the team who worked on Curse of Monkey Island [the third game in the series] who had a lot of ideas about what would look good for the game on Wii, but also preserve the look of the earlier games in the series, the colour palette if you will. And also how Guybrush looks this time around, since he changes every game.
Tom: Yeah, I like that he finally has a beard now!
Dave: Yeah, it's been joked about for a long time, and this is set several years on from the last Monkey Island so we figured it was finally time.
Tom: He's a married man now, a little bit older...
Dave: A little bit older but probably none the wiser!
Tom: *laughs* If all goes well, would you like to come back and work on another Monkey Island game?
Dave: Y'know... I've been asked not to comment on that...

Concept of the lovely Elaine Marley-Threepwood

Tom: Okay, next question! Why did Telltale choose WiiWare for this project? Over Xbox Marketplace or something for the Playstation?
Dave: We thought the Wii had the right marketplace for this sort of a title, we were going for a slightly casual, slightly older family market, somewhere in-between the casual gamer and the hardcore market. Those are the kind of people who play WiiWare, sitting on the couch playing the game either alone or with family, having that kind of armchair - almost watching a movie but actually playing the movie - experience.
Tom: Absolutely. Are you working on any other titles at present you can tell us about?
Dave: Yeh, I am, I can't tell you a whole lot but I can say we're in design on another season of Sam and Max.
Tom: That's great, yeah. But if LucasArts gave you another series to work on would you say yes?
Dave: I can't talk about that I'm afraid -
Tom: Not even a wish list?
Dave: Nope, because last time I got in trouble! Somebody said 'just imagine, you are doing another LucasArts game...' so I started talking about Loom, and then the next day it was all over the internet that Telltale were doing a new Loom, which meant I had to burst everyone's bubble and say 'no, we're not'. So I don't want to start another rumour...
Tom: Grim Fandango!
Dave: Oh yeah, we're totally doing Grim Fandango!
Tom: Not!
Dave: Indeed!!
Tom: A question I know for all Murray fans out there - will we get to see Murray?
Dave: Yes, actually he's coming up in Episode Three! You will see Murray.
Tom: And how about a bit of Stan? We had a reference to him already...
Dave: Y'know, I'm not going to comment on any other characters yet, don't want to spoil things too much, and hey, you have confirmation of Murray!
Tom: Indeed, indeed! Okay then, our final question: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Dave: About as much wood as woodchuck could chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood! Stumbled over it a bit there but I think that's right, I'm on the spot!
Tom: Thankyou so much for your time, Dave. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Dave: No problem, thanks!

Once again, many thanks to Dave Grossman for being such a lovely guy, and Nintendo for hosting the very successful event. Expect several more interviews from the day very soon!