Return to Monkey Island artist on coming back to the series: "If I could, I would"

A few years ago, we all took a trip back to Ron Gilbert's famous Monkey Island series for a new chapter in the story dubbed Return to Monkey Island. That title was well-received and the question now is whether we'll have to wait another 20 years for the next game.

As part of our coverage of BCN Game Fest, we caught up with artist Zoe Nguyen to speak about her time working on Return to Monkey Island under the stewardship of art director Rex Crowle.

"On Return to Monkey Island, I was a game artist and Rex Crowle was the art director," Crowle explained. "That for me was an amazing experience because Rex is a really good art director and a really nice person to work with. So for me, I feel like working on that project was honestly everything that I wanted. It was everything that I had hoped for in the sense that Rex had a clear idea of what he wanted to do and a really good art bible. And so the art team could really put in more of their ideas knowing that we were all working under the same umbrella. We all speak the same language visually. And so we can basically make proposals that are more bold because we know we're not going to propose something that's completely out of scope. And especially because we were all working remotely, we only met each other once the project was released or announced, because it was also during COVID. We didn't get to meet at all. And that was really important. I really give a lot of credit to Rex and his art bible for bringing the art team together and giving us the option to think of what's going to be the fun thing instead of what's going to be the right thing."

We also queried Nguyen as to whether she would ever like to return to the Monkey Island series, to which she told us.

"I think that the island gave us what it wanted to give us. I mean, I'm always happy to replay those games and dive back into Ron Gilbert's universe. But I mean, if I could, I would."

Beyond this, Nguyen also has experience working at Tequila Works on Rime and The Sexy Brutale. We asked about what it was like bringing those two indie gems to life.

"For sure. I mean, Tequila Works is where I realised I wanted to be an art director. I really grew so much in that company. And they were a very art-driven company. So I found that, for me, the process of working on the games like Rime, like The Sexy Brutale, it really taught me how to think of style and language, how to teach a player through visuals how the world works, and also how valuable it is to include references and people from outside of the games industry to bring something fresh to the visuals."

You can see the full (and subtitled) interview with Nguyen below for more on mobile and PC/console development differences and how she goes about creating an Art Bible for creative teams to rely on.