Home | Passport To Adventure: The SCUMM Story From three-headed monkeys to rubber chickens with pulleys, the Passport to Adventure documentary will explore how SCUMM revolutionized adventure gaming and spawned some of the greatest point-and-click...

Btw our AGE OF EMPIRES author has a doc in the works that might be worth your time: www.scummdoc.com @scummdoc.bsky.social

Meanwhile, somewhere deep in the...uh, past? I thought maybe I could connect it to SCUMM with some Monkey Island wordplay, but the gist of it is that my latest book is up for preorder. It tells the story of the creation of the original Age of Empires, and I think it's a great yarn.

Confirmed cast: Brad Taylor. Brad joined LucasArts in 1990 to help with SCUMM system development, then carried on that vital work through eight years as lead system programmer for Humongous Entertainment. His contributions include the uSWEAT/uSMELL, SPLAT, and CYST animation tools, the 3DO and Windows engine ports, and lots of performance optimizations.

When I contacted Ron Gilbert about the documentary, he told me "you need to talk to Brad Taylor". And talk to him I will. He goes by @lardratboy.bsky.social on here, and you'll hear lots of tech stories and insights from him if the doc goes ahead.

Sign up at scummdoc.com to help get it greenlit.

Home | Passport To Adventure: The SCUMM Story From three-headed monkeys to rubber chickens with pulleys, the Passport to Adventure documentary will explore how SCUMM revolutionized adventure gaming and spawned some of the greatest point-and-click...

If we don't get there soon, they'll kill the doc. (And I'll have to move on to my plan B, as I'm going to tell some version of this story, one way or another.) So if you want to see/support a glossy commercial documentary about LucasArts/Humongous adventure games, sign up at scummdoc.com now.

It costs a lot to make these documentaries — like a couple hundred grand minimum — and this is a niche concept in a difficult biz/marketing climate with a studio that's only had modest success with its past gaming docs. So we need loads of people to show interest if we're to get it over the line.

Real talk: We're coming up on three months in "validation" and have yet to reach a point where the powers that be at CREATORVC can be confident this thing is commercially viable (which is not to say that there's not a viable audience, only that we're not sure we've found it).

Confirmed Cast: Steve Purcell. Steve created zany crimefighting duo Sam & Max, who made numerous cameos in background art both before and after they got their own game. He also painted the cover art for several SCUMM adventures. HIs SCUMM-related credits also include character art/animation on Loom.

Confirmed Cast: Collette Michaud. Collette served as head of the LucasArts art department through the first half of the 90s. She was also lead animator on Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, co-designer on Sam & Max Hit the Road, and one of a few animators on Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. She met her husband, Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell, through their mutual work as artists at LucasArts.

I'm so very pleased to say that Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell and his wife Collette Michaud, the former LucasArts art department manager, have agreed to be interviewed for the documentary, should it go ahead. (And if you want to help make sure it goes ahead, please sign up at scummdoc.com.)

Passport to Adventure Update #2 New cast names, press, and a request!

Update: We have three new confirmed cast members (Steve Purcell, Collette Michaud, Brad Taylor) but we need to see way more interest in the project (ideally in the form of mailing list signups) if the documentary is to actually get made. Details: www.scummdoc.com/p/passport-t...

Far too many games journos are enthusiasts who enter the profession without training and then have to work without the safety net of a good editor. All the good editors I had in my years of freelancing would rip my work to shreds if I wasn't critical/skeptical of every claim a source makes.

A dynamically lit 3D cursor with user defined RGB lighting (spot- and point lights can be set up on a per-room basis, using the HD pack's hd_manifest.json)

A GPU accelerated vector art cursor displaying my project's logo/mascot. Currently, I'm having to disable anti-aliasing due to a bug in the renderer.

The 3D renderer supports detailed .glb models with PBR textures and an option for custom vertex and fragment shaders. Animated textures are likewise supported.

@scummdoc.bsky.social My HD renderer for SCUMM (now known as StoryBun. A name I chose as a homage to the cancelled StoryDroid engine originally planned for The Dig) gained SVG support & a PBR pipeline with GLB support for static objects and cursors.

Coming up next: 3D actors and animated 3D objects

Pixeldust AB - Monkey Island Project Joachim Ljunggren/Pixeldust is a Designer, Title Sequence and Motion Graphics Producer based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Over the past 15 years Joachim has designed, directed and produced title sequences a...

This in-development C64 conversion of The Secret of Monkey Island looks incredible. pixeldust.se/monkey-islan...

How the art gets done in Broken Relic #pixelart #pixelartprocess #art #game #gamedev #gamedeveloper

@scummdoc.bsky.social

Working on an HD renderer (think Remonkeyed Engine, as seen in DOTT Remastered and Full Throttle Remastered) for SCUMM games

So far fonts (still working on font rendering. Still lacks kerning), backgrounds and objects can be replaced

More on my Patreon/YouTube

I know the internet trains us to want everything on demand and for free.

But it's important to remember - if you love something someone makes, support them by:

Amplifying their efforts
Being appreciative with kind words
Compensating them for their work

It makes a huge difference!

Here's a short clip from my interview about the project with @cressup.bsky.social, briefly going into how delightful the Humongous Entertainment games are and why I'm really looking forward to interviewing Ron Gilbert and Tami Borowick and others about them.

Rosewater and Lamplight City are still sitting unplayed in my library, but I loved A Golden Wake — it's a fantastic point-and-click adventure that combines old-school sensibilities with smart design and an intriguing plot inspired by real history.

I hope my daughters try swearing in longhand when they're older. It seems like an underrated skill.

I was thrilled to interview Videogame historian and documentarian @mossrc.bsky.social on @thefandomfoundry.bsky.social MakerCast.

Check out his latest project, Passport to Adventure so it can become your next favorite documentary.

scummdoc.com

Freddi angrily confronts the ghost who has been scaring all the other kids.

Freddi and Luther embarking on a new adventure through the haunted schoolhouse. This photo shows the inventory bubbles at the bottom of the screen. We hadn't picked anything up yet, but it notably has pre-set positions in the UI for each item you can collect.

I started another Freddi Fish adventure with my four year old a few days ago, and had to leave her to play by herself for some of the time. She found the "ghost" frightening and was frustrated she couldn't always go where she wanted, but was once again drawn in by the world and characters.

Nice easter egg on DuckDuckGo.com. If you search for “Guybrush Threepwood”, the logo transforms into Guybrush.

Spotted by Technical_Pass7714 on Reddit.

The Thing Expanded Trailer feat. Kurt Russell & John Carpenter (2026) YouTube video by CREATORVC LIVE

My colleagues at CREATORVC (the studio behind this project) just released the final trailer for new documentary The Thing Expanded, featuring Kurt Russell, John Carpenter, Keith David, and more. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDIa...

I'm always happy to see this box, even if it's just in my timeline.

What a game! It's unquestionably one of the best adventure games ever made, and also one of the most influential!

Erma The Game

Pajama Sam

Putt Putt

Freddi Fish

Our game and the games that inspired it.
#erma #indiegames

This. Loom is criminally underrated and underappreciated, and I want this documentary to change that (or at least help).

Home | Passport To Adventure: The SCUMM Story From three-headed monkeys to rubber chickens with pulleys, the Passport to Adventure documentary will explore how SCUMM revolutionized adventure gaming and spawned some of the greatest point-and-click...

The people behind the FPS documentary I covered a while back are looking into making a documentary on Lucasarts SCUMM adventure games!

It's early. They're assessing interest before going ahead but already got people like Ron Gilbert on board.

www.scummdoc.com

The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)

Which event/sport have you enjoyed the most? I seem to have a different favourite every go round. (This time it's the speed skating; last time it was curling.)

An advertorial-looking page about The Secret of Monkey Island for SEGA CD, featuring a half-dozen screenshots with captions plus a longer text block and an illustration of Guybrush with a sword. The main copy reads: YO HO HO AND A BARREL OF MONKEYS Shiver me timbers, laddie. Youngsters like you need to be careful if you wish to survive Monkey Island. Fates worse than keel hauling await those not up to the challenge. Voodoo curses, ghosts, and witch doctors are but a few of the many obstacles you'll encounter. Landlubbers listen closely, and i will tell ye a tale of treasure. Long ago a vicious of pirate named LeChuck found a secret entryway into an underworld. Filled with lava: it was. He met an awful fate, but he left behind more booty than you can imagine. Guarded by his ghost, no one has ever been able to steal his treasure. Will you be the first?

EGM showcases the SEGA CD port of The Secret of Monkey Island without once mentioning its long load times, four-digit passwords, or awkward gamepad-controlled cursor. (It was a good port, though, all things considered.)

If I've learned anything from "Putt Putt goes to the Zoo" and "Sam and Max" its that if you see an object strange and out of place, pick it up. It'll be useful for a puzzle later

Home | Passport To Adventure: The SCUMM Story From three-headed monkeys to rubber chickens with pulleys, the Passport to Adventure documentary will explore how SCUMM revolutionized adventure gaming and spawned some of the greatest point-and-click...

If you want something like that, but for LucasArts point-and-clicks, head to scummdoc.com and sign up. We're planning something a little different (and better!) with Passport to Adventure, and have learnt a lot since FPS, but that Duke3D video gives a good indication of what we're capable of.