Top all-time · #794
Ron Gilbert
Personal blog · grumpygamer.comgamesculture
Ron Gilbert writes Grumpy Gamer, a personal blog at grumpygamer.com about games and culture. Since 2009, 81 different Hacker News readers have linked it 102 times, most often “Why Adventure Games Suck (1989)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 4 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers value Ron Gilbert's blog as the personal writing of the SCUMM and Monkey Island designer, covering adventure game design (puzzle dependency charts, why adventure games suck) and Thimbleweed Park development. Commenters recommend it as a fun read.
- Recommended for · 4 comments
- Commenters call the blog fun and a fun read, and recommend it to fans of adventure games.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Ron Gilbert's often incoherent and bitter ramblings about the Game Industry
Most-linked posts?
- Why Adventure Games Suck (1989)6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2013-04-16
- Source code of “Delores: A Thimbleweed Park mini-adventure” released6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2020-05-26
- If I Made Another Monkey Island (2013)5 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2018-05-14
- If I Made Another Monkey Island (2013)5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2014-08-18
- Puzzle Dependency Charts4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2014-08-12
- Guybrush Fact vs. Fiction3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-11-29
- Why Adventure Games Suck (1989)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-01-20
- /puzzle_dependency_charts/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-04-05
- Puzzle Dependency Charts (2014)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-10-18
- When I made another Monkey Island2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-05-03
What Hacker News says?
https://grumpygamer.com
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Favorite Blogs by Individuals?”Submitted When I made another Monkey Island as a story · 460 points
HN discussionRon Gilbert who wrote SCUMM has a blog. It’s kinda fun https://grumpygamer.com/about He also wrote a new adventure game and blogged about its development https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/
Comment linking /about
on “Coffee Is Hard”Submitted Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island as a story · 435 points
HN discussionAdventure game frustration was solved, and used to make some classics. https://grumpygamer.com/puzzle_dependency_charts some adventure game puzzles became way too obtuse to be fun. https://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html
Comment linking /puzzle_dependency_charts
on “Coffee Is Hard”Submitted If I Made Another Monkey Island... as a story · 309 points
HN discussionThe same engine that was used earlier by "Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure": https://grumpygamer.com/delores_dev
Comment linking /delores_dev
on ““Return to Monkey Island” is out today”Submitted If I Made Another Monkey Island (2013) as a story · 283 points
HN discussionJust a few days ago HN had a posting from way back when (Ron Gilbert, 1989) explaining exactly how this game needs polishing: https://grumpygamer.com/why_adventure_games_suck
Comment linking /why_adventure_games_suck
on “Show HN: Skynet Simulator”Submitted Happy Birthday Monkey Island as a story · 266 points
HN discussionRead it from the man himself - and also common myths around the filename: https://grumpygamer.com/guybrush_fact_fiction
Comment linking /guybrush_fact_fiction
on “When I made another Monkey Island”Submitted Return to Monkey Island as a story · 262 points
HN discussionThis is a nice (short) post, but the one with the great storytelling was 2015's celebration: https://grumpygamer.com/monkey25
Comment linking /monkey25
on “Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island”Submitted Source code of “Delores: A Thimbleweed Park mini-adventure” released as a story · 211 points
HN discussionIs this inspired by Death by Scrolling, the upcoming video game by Ron Gilbert? https://www.grumpygamer.com/deathbyscrolling5/ Even the fire effect coming after you looks similar.
Comment linking /deathbyscrolling5/
on “DOOMscrolling: The Game”Submitted Return to Monkey Island trailer [video] as a story · 186 points
HN discussionIsn't avoiding dead ends one of the reasons you use a puzzle dependency chart? http://grumpygamer.com/puzzle_dependency_charts I always think of finite state automata, but these adventure games with all the different inventory and actions can be remarkably hard to model.
Comment linking /puzzle_dependency_charts
on “Teeny Tiny Mansion: text adventure game formally proven to have no dead ends”Submitted “The joy of sharing has been driven from me“ as a story · 185 points
HN discussionRon Gilbert (who worked on the original Monkey Island game) has a site is kinda fun if you liked adventure games. He's been posting old artwork/ideas, some of the puzzle diagrams and things he's been digging up from his storage locker. A fun read. http://grumpygamer.com/
Comment linking /
on “Monkey Island – Insult Swordfighting Game”Submitted Guybrush Fact vs. Fiction as a story · 155 points
HN discussionI mean its a bad example, but not the only example of obtuse puzzles in games preventing forward progress in game. Dead ends and not being able to finish if messed up a previous steps were real problems. This was a bigger issue when the internet wasn't available to help out. I like adventure games, but even still they can be difficult and frustrating (although maybe I'm not great at them) Puzzle Dependency charts in…
Comment linking /puzzle_dependency_charts/
on “The End of Sierra as We Knew It, Part 1: The Acquisition”Submitted Why Adventure Games Suck (1989) as a story · 150 points
HN discussionCopying and pasting what I wrote in another comment, Ron has said "The only way I would or could make another Monkey Island is if I owned the IP." https://grumpygamer.com/if_i_made_another_monkeyisland (He has also said this in podcasts).
Comment linking /if_i_made_another_monkeyisland
on “Disney, please sell the rights to Monkey Island back to its creator Ron Gilbert”Submitted Why Adventure Games Suck (1989) as a story · 131 points
HN discussionRon has said "The only way I would or could make another Monkey Island is if I owned the IP." https://grumpygamer.com/if_i_made_another_monkeyisland
Comment linking /if_i_made_another_monkeyisland
on “Disney, please sell the rights to Monkey Island back to its creator Ron Gilbert”Submitted ASM as a story · 117 points
HN discussionFrom 2013: "If I end up being able to make this game at some point, we all might find that it fits nicely in between Monkey Island 2 and Curse of Monkey Island." https://grumpygamer.com/just_to_clarify_point_12
Comment linking /just_to_clarify_point_12
on “Return to Monkey Island, Coming 2022”Submitted Grumpy Gamer – SCUMM Notes from the C64 as a story · 110 points
HN discussionAs I was confused by the quote "Ron Gilbert told me he'd never make another Monkey Island unless...", it seems to come from this: > That quote is a reference to a manifesto Gilbert wrote in 2013 about his dreams of creating another Monkey Island game [ https://grumpygamer.com/if_i_made_another_monkeyisland ]. The post made clear that Monkey Island would never officially return unless Gilbert owned the series' IP. "I…
Comment linking /if_i_made_another_monkeyisland
on “Return to Monkey Island, Coming 2022”Submitted The creator of Monkey Island plays and narrates his game, 20 years later. as a story · 104 points
HN discussion
