Well, if you haven’t heard the news already, LucasArts are releasing a special edition remastered version of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. Originally released in 1991, it is regarded by many fans as the greatest of the Monkey Island games, and perhaps even one of the best video games ever made. But what was so special about this classic game? I’ve done a lot of thinking about this question as I’ve worked on my own Point & Click adventure game, and here are my thoughts.

Building on a Strong Foundation

In many ways, LeChuck’s Revenge is the big-budget elder brother of the original Secret of Monkey Island (see my analysis of that here). Whether it’s the artwork, the music, the scope of the story, the intrigue – LeChuck’s Revenge takes everything that’s great about the original and pushes it to another level, made possible by the extra resources and the advance of computer technology. Where SoMI was charming in its simplicity, MI2 is a true epic, reaching the dizzy heights of storytelling that show a development team on top of their game.

A Feast for the Senses

Initially I had intended to comment separately on the different aspects of the game: its stunningly beautiful background images, its intricately woven musical score, its razor-sharp script. But the truth is that you can’t separate one from another – they all work together perfectly to create one of the most atmospheric experiences of my childhood. It’s a feast for the senses, and it rocks!

Much of this was enabled by the technological advances going on. The increased resolution and colour depth, combined with the advent of scanners, meant that Peter Chan and Steve Purcell were able to hand-draw and colour their backgrounds before scanning them in, making them look absolutely gorgeous. Michael Land and Peter McConnell were able to use spare processor cycles to develop their cutting-edge iMUSE technology to power the music: it is this that makes the seamless musical transitions possible, synchronising the score with the action as it takes place.

As an example of how it all works together, take one of the scariest moments from the game: when you first enter the swamp on Scabb Island to visit the Voodoo Lady. Standing on the river bank, you just get the eerie chords of a hammond organ. As you step inside a make-shift boat fashioned from an old coffin, a simple drum beat is added in. Then as you sail your way deeper into the swamp, you begin to hear the haunting bass line. And so it continues to build as you enter the Voodoo Lady’s house – combined with the background art it works to create what is perhaps one of the most atmospheric experiences gamers had ever known at the time.

Mystery and Intrigue

I believe it was one of the Monkey Island developers who said that people love questions more than they enjoy hearing the answers. LeChuck’s Revenge pushed this philosophy to the extreme – it is full of mystery and intrigue that still has people discussing it today. It is full of clues as to a deeper truth regarding Guybrush’s identity and family history, yet it never provides a clear answer. Done badly, this would just be frustrating, but Monkey Island somehow manages to pull it off in a way that leaves you clamouring for more.

The key to this is the sense of depth to the game. There is more to these characters and the world they inhabit than simply meets the eye – you get the distinct impression that these are real people with a real history. Somehow they exist beyond the brief window into their lives that we’re given during the events of the game itself. I guess that this is why people find the conspiracy theory that suggests the whole game takes place in Guybrush’s imagination so deeply unsatisfying.

The Special Edition

So what does all this mean for the new Special Edition, due out this summer? Fans all over the net seem to be rejoicing that the art style of the original backgrounds appear to have been kept, whilst being updated to be nice and shiny and high-res. There is some concern that updating the music to feature a full orchestral score will allow the magic of iMuse to continue to function – but personally I’m cautiously optimistic on this front. I long to hear some of those classic tunes in all their digital glory! And perhaps the addition of developer commentaries from the likes of Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer will finally offer some closure to that greatest of all mysteries: what IS the Secret of Monkey Island?

Roll on the summer!

• Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge was considered a commercial failure at the time, selling only 25,000 copies (far less than rival King’s Quest) – i.e. don’t be too optimistic when predicting how many copies you might sell!
• With both Monkey Island games and Day of the Tentacle, they apparently brainstormed the puzzles first before deciding on the details of the story

I’m always fascinated by the little details of the process by which these great games were made, since from my own experience it turns out to be really hard work!!

What is a Graphic Adventure?

But first, what do I mean by a graphic adventure, or Point & Click adventure game? The classic examples I’ve used in the past have been Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle. The creator of Monkey Island, Ron Gilbert, described the graphic adventure in this way: “games in which the pace is slow and the reward is for thinking and figuring, rather than quick reflexes.” The element that brings adventure games to life for me is the stories around which they are woven. They’re games in which the characters and the story are the focus, and players move forwards by solving puzzles and interacting with those characters. So what is it about them that make them so great for teaching the Bible? Here are five reasons that I’ve come up with, but maybe you have more!

1. A Focus on Narrative

It hardly needs saying that a large chunk of the Bible is in the form of narrative, stories in which we see the character of God in the way that he interacts with his world and his people. Teaching such narrative involves two things: the events themselves – what is actually happening – and then the significance of those events. It’s not enough to know that David killed Goliath – what is the narrative teaching us about God’s character when this unarmed Israelite shepherd boy slays the mighty pagan warrior with a single shot of his sling? When I tell people I’m making a Bible-teaching Computer Game, their first instinct is to assume I’m making some kind of First Person Shooter, “David the Giant Slayer”, in which you run around with your sling shooting pebbles at people. But even if such a game could succeed in teaching people that there was a guy called David who killed another guy with a rock (which is a problem in itself, given the possibility that you might miss!) it would be very hard to explain the significance of those events in an FPS game. Contrast that with a graphic adventure, however, where your character could watch David kill Goliath, and then go and talk to him afterwards and ask all sorts of questions about why he was so angered by Goliath’s defiance of the armies of Israel and what the source of his courage was.

2. Stories Take You On a Journey

One of the common objections to the idea of Christian computer games is the assumption that nobody other than Christians would ever want to play them. Looking at some of the games already out there, I’m inclined to agree! But one of the brilliant things about telling a story is that it lets you take your player on a journey – from disinterest to curiosity, from unbelief to faith in Jesus Christ, or from faith to ever more wholehearted living. Every great story involves a character changing in some way, learning from their mistakes and ultimately overcoming adversity. It’s exactly the same with great Bible teaching – it should never be a merely intellectual exercise, the imparting of knowledge without changing the way you think and behave. At the start of Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood had no idea what was involved in being a pirate, but by the end he’d learnt how to swashbuckle with the best of them. The whole point of a Graphic Adventure is to take the player on a journey, and that makes them an ideal medium for teaching the Bible.

3. Puzzles Make You Think

It probably sounds tautological to say that puzzles make you think, but that makes them fantastic as a way to help people apply what they’re learning from the Bible. Suppose you’ve been hearing a sermon about the sovereignty of God – how he is completely in control of events. The exact question your Bible teacher is wanting you to start asking yourself during the week is “how should I act in this situation if God is sovereign?” The puzzles in an adventure game can encourage you to do just that – find a way forward given the premise of the game, in this case that God is sovereign. Figuring out what those puzzles might be and thinking of suitable solutions for them is the tricky bit, but my experience so far is that when it’s done well it can be a really powerful tool for application.

4. They’re Fun To Play Together

When I was a kid, before the days of the Internet and multiplayer gaming, I used to invite one of my friends round to play on the computer with me, and inevitably one of us would be pretty bored for most of the time, as we sat there watching the other person playing. As other people have noted,
most games give you a certain sense of satisfaction simply from interacting with them – steering your car, firing your gun, jumping between platforms. That means that gaming is really not a spectator sport – it’s boring for the person watching who is not getting that constant stream of satisfying feedback. By contrast, virtually all of the adventure games I played as a kid were played together with somebody else, without being the least bit boring for the one observing. That’s because the emphasis is far less on the basic interactions of gameplay – there is little thrill in instructing your character to pick up an inventory item. The reward comes from solving puzzles and making progress – something that can be shared equally by both the person doing the pointing and clicking, and the person by their side giving the ideas. Some people have highlighted this style of gameplay as a downside of adventure games – and it certainly does mean a certain amount of patience is required, meaning these games are not for everybody – but I think it’s the key to making them fun to play together. Parents might enjoy playing a Bible-teaching adventure game together with their child as a shared experience, or two siblings could enjoy it together.

5. People Grow to Love Them

This final point is a result of all that has gone before – rich stories with vibrant characters, taking you on a journey as you think through puzzles, perhaps in a shared experience with another person – all of these factors mean that people grow to really love adventure games. When I talk to people who’ve played Monkey Island, their eyes suddenly light up and their whole body language exudes an enthusiasm that I don’t often see when talking about computer games. Like a good novel or a beloved movie, great adventure games seem to capture a space in people’s hearts. Imagine if people were being made to feel that way about a game based on a Bible story – what a fantastic positive memory to leave people with.

So there you have it, my top five reasons why adventure games would work brilliantly as a way to teach the Bible. It’s my hope and prayer that my own Bible-teaching computer game will be able to put these ideas into practice and help people to learn how fantastic God’s word really is!