Ronald David Gilbert was born on January 1, 1964. He is an American video game designer, programmer, and producer. His games often focus on interactive storytelling. He is most well known for creating several adventure games for LucasArts, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. In 2009, IGN named him one of the top 100 game creators of all time.

In 1983, while still a student, he helped create a program called Graphics BASIC. Later, he worked on action games for a company named HESware, which later closed. He then joined Lucasfilm Games, which later became LucasArts. There, he was allowed to create his own games. He developed a technology called SCUMM, which was used in many later games. After leaving LucasArts, he co-founded a children’s gaming company called Humongous Entertainment in 1992 and another company, Cavedog Entertainment, in 1995. At these companies, he produced games such as Total Annihilation for adults.

In 2001, he co-founded another company called Hulabee Entertainment with Shelley Day. They created children’s games from 2001 to 2003. From 2004 to 2007, he worked with a company named Beep Games. From 2008 to 2010, he was a creative director at Hothead Games, a studio in Vancouver. During this time, he also worked with Telltale Games and Penny Arcade. In 2013, he left Double Fine Productions after helping create the game The Cave. In 2017, he announced a new game called Thimbleweed Park with Terrible Toybox. Since 2014, he has been a writer, designer, and programmer for this project. In 2022, he returned to the Monkey Island series, helping to design and write Return to Monkey Island.

Biography

Ronald David Gilbert was born in La Grande, Oregon. His father, David E. Gilbert, was a physics professor and former president of Eastern Oregon University (then called Eastern Oregon State College). At first, Ronald wanted to become a film director. He became interested in games when he was thirteen years old after seeing his father use a HP-65 programmable calculator. He found it exciting to program games on the calculator, such as a Battleship-like game included with it. This inspired him to learn how to create other games. Ronald saw programming games as a creative way to express himself while studying film. He was also influenced by the film Star Wars (1977), which showed him how technology could let players interact with stories and characters. These interests led him to start making games.

The influence of Star Wars and his love for storytelling led Ronald, at age fourteen, to make films with his friend Tom McFarlane using a Super-8 camera. Their first film, Stars Blasters, was directed by Ronald and acted by Tom and Frank Lang in 1978. In 1979, they made another film, Tomorrow Never Came, which Ronald directed and acted in with Tom.

In 1979, Ronald’s parents bought a NorthStar Horizon home computer. At fifteen, he began learning how to program games. He studied games like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Asteroids, Space Invaders, and Robotron: 2084 for hours, memorizing every detail. He then tried to recreate them on his computer and made changes to them. He also looked at advertisements for Atari 2600 games in magazines, imagined how they played, and tried to make them on his computer. After finishing games, he invited friends to test them and give feedback.

In 1983, while still a student at Eastern Oregon State College, Ronald wrote a program called Graphics BASIC with Tom McFarlane. They sold it to a company named HESware, which later hired Ronald. He worked there for about six months, making action games for the Commodore 64 (C64), but none were released because the company closed. Later, Ronald joined Lucasfilm Games, which became LucasArts. He made C64 versions of Lucasfilm’s Atari 800 games. In 1985, he co-created Maniac Mansion, a game set in a dark Victorian mansion with a mad scientist, his family, and strange aliens.

Maniac Mansion included cutscenes, a term Ronald coined, which paused gameplay to tell the story. He also created a scripting language called Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (SCUMM). This technology was used in many LucasArts adventure games, except Grim Fandango and Escape From Monkey Island. The name SCUMM became famous because of a location in The Secret of Monkey Island called the SCUMM Bar.

Ronald made many successful adventure games at LucasArts, including The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. In 1992, he left LucasArts to start Humongous Entertainment with Shelley Day. At Humongous, he worked on games like Putt-Putt, Fatty Bear, Freddi Fish, Pajama Sam, and the Backyard Sports series. These games used a version of the SCUMM engine.

In 1995, Ronald founded Cavedog Entertainment, a sister company of Humongous for non-kid games. In 1996, GameSpot ranked him 15th on a list of the most influential people in computer gaming. In 1997, Computer Gaming World also ranked him 15th for creating the SCUMM engine. At Cavedog, he produced Total Annihilation and worked on a game called Good & Evil, which was canceled when Cavedog closed in 1999.

In 2005, Ronald was designing a new adventure/RPG game and started a blog called Grumpy Gamer. In 2007, he created a Monkey Island-themed guild in World of Warcraft and worked with Hothead Games on Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. He was a keynote speaker at Penny Arcade Expo in 2009.

In 2008, he joined Hothead Games as creative director, helping develop DeathSpank, an adventure/RPG. He also contributed to Tales of Monkey Island for Telltale Games. In 2010, he left Hothead but continued promoting DeathSpank with Electronic Arts.

In 2010, Ronald joined Double Fine Productions, where he worked with Tim Schafer on The Cave, released in 2013. After LucasArts was bought by Disney in 2012, the rights to Monkey Island went to Disney. Ronald expressed concerns about the franchise’s future but hoped to work with Disney on a new game.

In 2013, Ronald left Double Fine, stating his role was to make The Cave. Later, he worked on Scurvy Scallywags with Clayton Kauzlaric. In 2014, he reunited with Gary Winnick to create Thimbleweed Park, a new point-and-click game. The game reached its funding goal on Kickstarter.

Written works

Gilbert, Ron (December 1989). "Why adventure games suck – And What We Can Do About It." Journal of Computer Game Design, Volume 3, Issue 2, pages 4 to 7.