Ron Gilbert — Designer

United States · Born 1964 · Lucasfilm Games / Humongous Entertainment · Game Designer, Programmer

Co-creator of Maniac Mansion, inventor of the SCUMM adventure engine and the director of The Secret of Monkey Island — and author of the 1989 essay "Why Adventure Games Suck".

Ron Gilbert was born on 1 January 1964 and grew up in La Grande, Oregon. As a student in 1983 he co-wrote Graphics BASIC with Tom McFarlane and sold it to HESware, which hired him; when HESware went out of business he joined Lucasfilm Games. There he and artist Gary Winnick created Maniac Mansion (1987), for which Gilbert built SCUMM, the scripting system that ran almost every LucasArts adventure that followed. He then wrote and directed The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) and directed Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991). In December 1989 he published the essay "Why Adventure Games Suck - And What We Can Do About It" in the Journal of Computer Game Design. In 1992 he left to co-found Humongous Entertainment with Shelley Day, making children's adventure series such as Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish and Pajama Sam, and in 1995 he founded its sister company Cavedog, which released Total Annihilation. Decades later he returned to the form he helped define: Thimbleweed Park (2017), made again with Gary Winnick, and Return to Monkey Island (2022).