| I replayed Secret of Monkey Island this weekend and was really struck by what a ramshackle, distorted place Melee Island is. It is an accurate cartoon caricature of slapdash architecture on sinking ground. Here's the very first place Guybrush is controllable in: https://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/secret-of-monkey-island... https://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/secret-of-monkey-island... Look at those walls. Not a vertical one in sight. They're all leaning. Deeper in town: https://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/secret-of-monkey-island... https://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/secret-of-monkey-island... Lots of straight lines, but no two buildings are in the same perspective. It's cartoon cubism, filtered through a 640x480 grid. Maurice Noble's work with Chuck Jones looms large over the backgrounds but so does the realities of what cheap shacks slapped together by pirates on constantly-sinking ground would look like. I suspect the "Chuck Jones" art style of DOTT he's referring to is the character design. Which was so Jones-influenced that I recall hearing that when Lucasfilm had a chance to show it to Chuck, he did the most flattering thing possible: he tried to hire the animators to work at the new studio he was opening up. |
I played Day of the Tentacle last night (remastered version on iPad, but the pixel art not the new art). My impression is it's kinda like monkey island except more extreme. Like someone took monkey island and added loads more vortex art tool.