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Spoiler warning: This article contains major spoilers for the game The Secret of Monkey Island. If you haven’t played the game yet, I suggest you skip this article until you have. These notes won’t make much sense if you haven’t played the game anyway.

When LucasArts re-released The Secret of Monkey Island on Xbox Live a few days ago, I was thrilled. Of course, I immediately bought and played it. I noticed how well-designed this game is, even by today’s standards. So, I decided to annotate a playthrough of Monkey Island to learn about its design. I did this merely as a personal exercise, but since I went through all this trouble already, I thought I might as well share my notes here. Please, keep in mind that this article isn’t meant as a review, but as a way to learn from great game design.

Again, this article is full of spoilers. You have been warned.

Ron Gilbert has also published some of his thoughts on the design of Monkey Island. Of course, since he is the original designer of the game, his thoughts are much more valuable than mine. From time to time, I’ll refer to his notes, so when I write something like ‘according to Ron Gilbert’, I’m referring to his blog post.

Thoughts on replaying Monkey Island

The first time I played The Secret of Monkey Island must have been over fifteen years ago. I don’t directly recall replaying the game before, but I know I must have, since I played both the EGA version and the VGA version at some point. Still, I gather that it’s been just about fifteen years ago since I last played this game and it’s amazing how much I still remember about its puzzles. Of course, that made replaying it today a quicker and different experience.

Thoughts on the Special Edition

The make-over is good, but it doesn’t have the attention to detail the original has. It feels like the team that did the remake was on a strict time limit and had to cut a few corners. Still, the rejuvenated version is more than adequate to enjoy the game, especially if you haven’t played the game before.

If you prefer the original experience, it’s available at the press of a button. Actually, original isn’t completely accurate, since the Special Edition includes the VGA version, not the original EGA version, but it still feels authentic.

Introduction

The conversation between the blind look-out and Guybrush is a wonderfully efficient introduction. Guybrush is introduced, his overall goal becomes clear (‘I want to be a pirate’) and the player is clearly told where to start: the Scumm Bar.

Guiding the player

After the introduction, Guybrush automatically walks down the stairs. Next, we see him walking down from the cliff. When you get control of Guybrush, it just makes sense to continue in the direction he was already walking, which will lead you to the Scumm Bar.

In this way, the player is guided very naturally along the correct path. If you had gained control of Guybrush at the look-out point, or if you hadn’t seen him walk down the cliff, you might have started off in the wrong direction.

The three trials

Because the three trials are introduced together, you get the opportunity to solve several puzzles at once. This way, you don’t get stuck so easily.

List quests are often overdone in games, especially RPGs. The problem with throwing a lot of list of quests at the player is that she’ll start to feel like she is doing other people’s groceries. Fortunately, Monkey Island has only one such quest.

Entering the kitchen

Getting into the kitchen when the cook’s not watching, is straight-forward enough. It was a real good decision not to have him return while you’re in there. Now you can explore the kitchen at your own pace.

Getting the fish

I remember that getting the fish from the Scumm Bar kitchen had me stumped for quite a while the first time I played Monkey Island, and this time around, I was baffled again. I think what makes it hard, is that the loose board doesn’t show up on the action line. If it did, the puzzle would probably be very easy to solve, but I still think it’s the better way to go.

Buying the treasure map

The first time you encounter the Citizen of Mêlée, you don’t have money to buy the treasure map. This introduces another sub-goal you can work towards.

Once you have the map, the Citizen of Mêlée doesn’t want to talk to you again, which makes it clear that you don’t need to bother with him anymore. Of course, they could have removed him from the street altogether.

Men of Low Moral Fiber

You can finish the game without ever talking to the Men of Low Moral Fiber. They do serve a purpose, though, and it’s a wonderfully subtle one.

A lot of puzzle threads are locked until you earn some money at the Fettucini Brothers. In theory, you can take care of this issue right away, but with the way Mêlée Island is laid out, it’s likely you’ll spend some time in the village before exploring the rest of the island.

The Men of Low Moral Fiber give you two pieces of eight. This allows you to buy a roll of breath mints, which in turn allows you to talk to Otis. This also makes it possible to obtain the Idol of Many Hands. In other words, the Men of Low Moral Fiber are a shortcut of sorts.

Note that you only need one piece of eight to buy the breath mints. The reason you get two pieces of eight instead of just the one you need, is that you can waste a coin in the grog machine at Stan’s.

The voodoo lady

The voodoo lady is a great character and defines a large part of the mood of Monkey Island with her voodoo tricks and her foreshadowing of events. She is also completely unnecessary plot wise: you can finish the game without ever talking to the voodoo lady.

In my opinion, the voodoo lady is a great example of how adding content that may not strictly be necessary can greatly enhance the end product (much like the Johnny B. Goode-scene in Back to the Future).

Rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle

This must be the most memorable inventory item ever found in a computer game! I also like the short dialog Guybrush and the voodoo lady have about it.

Meeting Fester Shinetop

Introducing Fester Shinetop before you have your run-in with him in the governor’s mansion is good storytelling. This meeting isn’t forced upon you, though. You are lured into the alley, which makes it very likely that you talk to the sheriff, and it doesn’t break the flow of the game.

Finding the sword master

Finding the sword master is a nice puzzle. Following the store keeper is quite a logical step to take. This puzzle also has the added benefit that it shows the player that there is more to the island than just the village; something that can be easily overlooked.

Feeding the dogs

Throwing spiced meat to the dogs to put them to sleep, is quite reasonable, but there are two small things that bother me about this puzzle. First, if you feed the dogs untreated meat, they just eat it and Guybrush says nothing. I would’ve liked a bit more feedback there.

The second problem is that there is no way to know what effect the flower has until you have solved the puzzle. Otis mentions the yellow flower, but never says anything about its effects. Adding the flower to the meat is basically just a matter of trial-and-error.

The Ming vase

I’m not entirely sure about the purpose of the Ming vase that you can pick up in the governor’s mansion, but I think it’s supposed to teach you about the effect grog has on its container. When you go to the Scumm Bar’s kitchen and pour grog into the vase, Guybrush will tell you that the grog eats right through it: a subtle hint for the grog puzzle.

Obtaining the idol

Ron Gilbert gives a bit of history on the scene in the governor’s mansion. I remember that the first time I played this, I was quite confused over what was going on. The fact that my English wasn’t good enough yet to understand all the words that appeared on the action line didn’t help.

Escaping the water

This is a great moment, with all the unreachable cutting tools around you and then the obvious solution of picking up the idol. What strikes me most about this puzzle is that when you solve it, you actually have that feeling of ‘duh, that was obvious’, while in real-life, it makes no sense at all. If the idol sinks Guybrush when it’s tied to his leg, it will also sink Guybrush when he picks it up. Still, it works.

Drowning

If Guybrush drowns, you will have to reload a saved game. In a game that has no death-situations other than this, I’d say that can be quite annoying. It would probably be better to just ‘rewind’ to the moment Shinetop throws Guybrush into the water.
Oddly enough, in the remake, Guybrush doesn’t change color the way he does in the original version.

Feeding the troll

The troll puzzle always feels a bit unnecessary to me; it adds another puzzle, but without a lot of purpose. Of course, there are more puzzles that are there just to have another puzzle, but this is the only one that feels slightly out of place to me. Anyway.
Clearly, this puzzle is based on a play with words: ‘I want something that will attract attention, but has no real importance.’ A red herring. English isn’t my native language, and when I first played this game at the age of thirteen, I had no idea what a red herring was, so the puzzle was quite hard and the solution didn’t make a lot of sense.

Something similar happened to a friend of mine many years later, when he was playing The Curse of Monkey Island. He complained that he had been stuck for quite a while because he didn’t know what ipecac meant. He felt that the designers shouldn’t have used such an uncommon word, because it puts an undue burden on foreigners.

Although I understand his frustration, I don’t think a designer can do much about it. You can’t really know which words people will understand or not, so how much should you dumb your game down? It’s just something players who don’t have English as their mother tongue will have to accept, I guess. The only real solution would be to translate the entire game. Good luck translating the red herring joke, though.

Meathook

The Meathook character feels a bit underdeveloped to me. I agree with Ron Gilbert that the parrot puzzle is a bit lame; it’s not even much of a puzzle. Your first talk with Meathook has some comedy value, but doesn’t add much other than that, and Meathook is never a part of any puzzle. If Meathook’s tattoo had been used instead of the Jolly Roger flag, as mentioned by Ron Gilbert, he would have had a reason for being there.

Insult sword fighting

Insult sword fighting is a stroke of genius, no matter how tedious Ron Gilbert thinks it is. It’s just the perfect way to put some action into an adventure game, without resulting to arcade mechanics. It’s so funny and novel that you don’t mind going through it again and again when you play the game for the first time.

I do understand Ron’s point, though. When you replay Monkey Island, insult sword fighting is a gimmick you’ve already seen, so you might be a little less patient with it. What I think could have helped, is if the insult system had been a little bit more intelligent. Sometimes, you are fighting a lot of pirates and none of them have the answers to your insults and also none of them give you any new insults. If the game picked insults and answers a bit more appropriately, the whole puzzle would be quicker.

Still, that’s nitpicking. Insult sword fighting is just brilliant.

Transporting grog

The grog puzzle is not an easy one, but I quite like it. What’s hardest about the puzzle is not necessarily the transportation of the grog; you find out how that works after a couple of failed attempts. The problem is knowing where to carry the grog to.

Ron Gilbert mentions that he was stumped by the grog puzzle recently and had to look it up on the internet. And then he says: ‘That’s a damn good puzzle.’ Does he really mean that the puzzle is good because it’s so hard he couldn’t solve it? I usually don’t enjoy being completely stuck.

By the way, the controls of the remake are really inconvenient for this puzzle. I recommend switching to the original version for this part. Even without a mouse, the interface of the original version is quicker.

Obtaining credit

I like the fact that you can’t ask the storekeeper for a line of credit unless you have spoken to Stan. This way, you don’t ask for credit just because the option is there in the dialog tree and see what use it is later. Of course, if you do this kind of locking with everything, you run the risk of making the game too linear.

For me, a side effect of all this was that I spent a lot of time twiddling with the safe in the store, long before I could ever open it. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about presenting a puzzle that cannot be solved until later. If you have too many of those, it can become frustrating, but if you have none at all, the game might become too straight-forward.

Buying a ship

Stan is a great character, no doubt about it. The only part I don’t like about buying a ship is declining all the extras. There are just too many. After declining about three of them, I think I’ve shown that I understand the puzzle.

Parts

The screens that mark the start of a new part aren’t strictly necessary. I like them, though, because they give a sense of progression; they are valuable rewards.

Captain’s log

The captain’s log serves the same purpose in part 2 as the conversation with the look-out did in part 1: it tells you what you should be doing. Very useful, even though the log is a bit long.

Stuck on the ship

Ron Gilbert tells us that the part on the ship is more linear on purpose, to give the player a small break. That’s not a bad decision, but it does have a drawback. I remember being stuck on some puzzle on the ship, when I first played Monkey Island (I don’t exactly remember which one). Without any other puzzles to try, this becomes frustrating quite quickly. Remember that this was in the days before the internet, so it could take days before you got out of situations like these.

Cannon

It’s a bit strange that you have to carry around a heap of ever-burning business cards in your pocket to light the cannon, but hey. It’s a good thing that you already did the human cannonball thing in the circus tent: now you know what the cannon is for, and you know you need a helmet.

The art of rocks

If you play Monkey Island for the first time, you will probably sink you own ship. Shooting rocks is quite fun. There is a bit of risk that the player just hurls rocks in every possible direction to see what happens. I’m not a fan of such hit-and-miss gameplay and Monkey Island does its best to steer clear of it whenever it can. In this case, you can see the banana tree from the top of the mountain, and a note by the cannibals mentions a rock nearly hitting the banana tree, so you know what you should be aiming for.

Bananas

The single most frustrating puzzle for me in the entire game is getting the monkey to follow you. I remember having trouble with this the first time I played Monkey Island, and it baffled me again on my recent playthrough.

What bothers me about this puzzle is not that I couldn’t solve it right away, but that it’s so unclear on what you should do. When you give the first banana to the monkey, it follows you for a short while to indicate that you are on the right track. When the monkey suddenly turns back, it’s not really clear why and you’re left feeling that you just wasted a banana.

Then, after some effort, you find two more bananas and you think, surely, now you can get the monkey to follow you. But the result is the same. You’re fresh out of bananas again and you have no idea what more the monkey wants from you. The last two bananas are ‘locked’ on the other side of the island so there is no way you can know that they’re there. Also, you are never told that it takes five bananas to get the monkey to follow you.

The problem could be eased by a little more feedback from Guybrush. After you give the monkey a banana, Guybrush could say something like: ‘I think he wants more.’

Fort

The fort is way too easy to miss. When I replayed Monkey Island recently, I knew the fort was on the edge the volcano and I still couldn’t find it. Fortunately, pixel hunting went out of style many years ago.

The navigator’s necklace and Captain Smirk

Ron makes a good point about obtaining the necklace: ‘Begging for the necklace from the head of the navigator is a bad puzzle. It’s too easy for players to think they’re on the wrong path.’ I agree.

Interestingly enough, you encounter a very similar puzzle earlier in Monkey Island, but there the execution is much better. When you talk to Captain Smirk, you need to convince him that you have what it takes to become a sword fighter. Basically, you need to keep whining. If you don’t, Captain Smirk slams the door shut, which is very clear feedback that you didn’t pick the correct option. Also, when you knock on the door again, the conversation continues where you left off, making it easy to guess what to do next.

Moving around

The maps in Monkey Island are a great way to give the islands a sense of scope, as well as a smart way to allow fast travel. Much of the tedium of adventure games comes from walking between locations, and maps make that more manageable.
For the same reason, I agree with Ron Gilbert that jumping from the ghost ship to the cannibal village and back was the right decision. Not only would travelling have been tedious, it also would have been pointless, since there is nothing else left for you to do on the island. I understand why there was discussion about this, because it does break with the normal flow of the game, but it worked out well.

The final fight

It’s nice that the final part is a lot of action and requires little from the player; it makes it feel like a reward. The controls of the Special Edition do get a bit in the way, though. You do need to be somewhat quick when picking up the root beer. With a mouse, that’s no problem, but positioning the cursor with the thumbstick is slower and less precise.

Some additional notes

The Secret of Monkey Island does a really good job of guiding the player through the game, especially in the first part. It’s what stood out to me most about the game’s design.

Where did the name Guybrush come from?

What’s up with the black chest in the hold of the Sea Monkey? Does it serve any purpose?

The hints are a nice feature of the Special Edition. I think they could be implemented better, but they are a welcome addition.

It’s impossible for me to judge the difficulty of this game by modern standards, since I remember too much from previously playing Monkey Island, even though that was about fifteen years ago.

It’s amazing how well this game’s design has held up over the years. With most older games that I revisit, I discover that the design is severely outdated.

LucasArts has made a lot of people very happy by re-releasing The Secret of Monkey Island.

(6 votes, average: 4.17 out of 5)

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