Monkey Island legend Ron Gilbert had big plans for a retro Zelda-style open-world RPG, but publishers said no: "They didn’t look at it as 'we're gonna make $100 million and it’s worth investing in'"

Ron Gilbert may always be best known as the writer and director of the beloved LucasArts point-and-click adventure game, The Secret of Monkey Island, but these days it seems he's keen to take on other genres. He recently launched a roguelike action game called Death by Scrolling, and prior to that he even had a concept for retro Zelda-style open-world RPG – an idea that fell through under the cruel analytics of game publishing.After the launch of Return to Monkey Island in 2022, Gilbert ha