Ahoy there. My name is Kyle and I (unfortunately) am NOT a mighty pirate. I am just a young guy who fell in love with a little PC game franchise called ‘Monkey Island’. I got into the games with “The Curse of Monkey Island” around 1999 or 2000, and since then have acquired and immersed myself in the others. I fell in love with the game-play, the characters, the humor, the themes and motifs, the music, and everything else many other fans have.
Since my childhood and pre-teen years, I have practiced virtually every form of art I could get my hands on, from drawing, to writing/acting/directing everything from home movies with the neighborhood friends to theatre (for which I was heavily involved all through junior high and high school), and music (my primary passion). In many of those works, I’ve surely thrown in inspiration from the Monkey Island games, particularly in an adaptation of the “card playing” sequence on Blood Island that a couple friends and I performed one year). All of this makes for a point.
A little while back, I popped in “Curse…” for old time’s sake, which got me back into the whole Monkey Island craze. After that, I scoured the web (as many of you surely have) for any word on a Monkey Island 5. Thanks to a number of fan sites (World of Monkey Island pulling the ranks), I discovered the terrible news that most of us all now know: MI5 probably ain’t gonna happen any time soon, maybe even not before 2015. I’m sure you know how I feel when I say I really don’t want to wait that damn long. So I began to do a little thinking, and I came to a conclusion…
I am going to make an unofficial Monkey Island 5 computer game.
I have a good amount of computer programming knowledge (let’s say “enough”) and have acquired the necessary capabilities to pull it off. And one thing that is for sure is my commitment and patience (I’m a weirdo who’s got the patience for some of the things most people see as so meticulous, at least when it comes to fun projects like this) as well as a very firm grasp on the comedic and thematic feel of the games.
And while I first began commiting to this project for mostly myself and a friend or two that are involved, I quickly got to thinking that all the other fans out there could really get enjoyment out of it as well. So I’m really striving to make a universally good game for all of us Monkey Islanders to gets hours and hours of enjoyment from. I mean, don’t be expecting a “next gen” official offering that Lucas Arts would be capable of, but I believe I am very able and more than willing to make a good, strong, more-than-quality-enough game, especially if there is a strong want for it 
As Monkey Island and all of its elements are the sole property of Lucas Arts, I can’t legally charge anyone else that I distribute the game to–which is GREAT, because I didn’t WANT to do so anyways. This game is intended to rejuvinate hype and interest in the entire franchise during this official-game downtime. I think the Monkey Island franchise rocks and should be enjoyed by as many people as possible, and would love to share my hard (but fun) work with others. Once finished, the game will be free for anyone to download and enjoy. And enjoy it I hope they do… sorry, got a little Yoda-ish for a second there…
The look of the game will be most remeniscent of “Curse…”–which I happen to favor–with 2D cartoon-like features (though I humbly won’t claim to be able to produce such beautiful art and animation as the creators of said game). The backgrounds and characters will be hand drawn and colored on the computer just as the talented Bill Tiller lead way with “Curse…”. The game-play (not that it variates that much between the games) will be somewhere between “LeChuck’s Revenge” and “Curse…”, but more like the latter probably. I will (again, humbly) create my own adaptations of the original musical themes, keeping true to the originals and maybe throwing in my own little flare here and there As for the voices, I will provide the voice of Guybrush (which will be close enough to not be worth complaining about) in addition to other characters, and will be joined by a long-time good friend (who also has years of experience acting and so forth) for supporting-character voices, as well as one or two other buddies who wish to contribute. So for that aspect of the game, at least, let me just say don’t worry about characters and voices, you’ll get quite the handful of memorable ones… trust me 
Now, please take to heart that for the most part I alone will be making this game, and it is a long and involved process, so it will take some good time (but not ’till 2015!). At the VERY least it will take a “healthy” number of months. Now, the fact that it is largely just me working on this project may worry some, but it actually turns out to be an advantage (at least for me, personally) because while other fan-made attempts (that have been going on for how many years now?) may be waiting around for Timmy to do his job or Sally to get this done, I will have it all on my shoulders. I know that sounds ambiguous, but what it means for me is that I (who have a strong, genuine passion for this kind of project) can chug right along without delay from start to finish. And I won’t judge the people working hard on any other games as I don’t know them, but I do know that I am a very dedicated person. While they MAY work on their projects maybe a few hours a week, I will be working on mine a few hours every night. So, luckily, while it may seem like all this work for mostly just one person could be overwhelming, this one person has an obsessively dedicated and perfectionistic niche for these types of things. So never fear, my friends; especially since I have the backing force of my long-time friend/silly-project partner (who almost has the other half of my brain when it comes to comedy and such-related work). If we make something that will be good times for us, then it will surely be (and certainly has been in the past) loads of fun for other people. And, not meaning to lose modesty, we haven’t yet failed at making something that is good times for us.
So, there is undoubtedly a lot to do. But I am quite excited about this as I hope all who read this and support me are. So strap yourselves in and hope with me that we come to a great conclusion. Take care of yourselves!
Sincerely,
Kyle R.
PS: No monkeys were harmed in the writing of this statement.
