Ron Gilbert working on Penny Arcade game

Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert is lending a hand on the Penny Arcade game, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, those involved revealed (well, shouted) yesterday.

It sounds like they're already reaping the benefits. "We had our first meeting with Ron pretty early in the design process. Tycho and I were getting the story fleshed out and we had some ideas about the design and overall pace of the game," Mike Krahulik (Gabe) wrote in an update.

"We laid it all out for Ron and then he picked up a whiteboard marker and started teaching class. I'm not sure how many people can say they got a game design 101 course taught by Ron Gilbert, but that's exactly what Tycho and I got that day. His insights into the way you move the player through an interactive story so that they get to explore the world but don't lose the narrative were incredible.

"He was drawing diagrams and helping us really visualise the game in a way that had never even occurred to us. We're ridiculously lucky to have him on board and helping us with On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One."

Gilbert's pretty chuffed too. "I have been a fan of Penny Arcade because I have always found their comic so funny and biting," he explained. "When I first heard they were making a game and that they had chosen to weave adventure game elements into it, I knew immediately I wanted to be involved. Working with the Penny Arcade guys and the team at Hothead has been an absolute riot."

Announced at the Penny Arcade Expo last August, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is an episodic "RPG/adventure" series. It draws on the popular web-comic's various characters - including Tycho and Gabe, obviously - for inspiration, but won't be contemporary. "You'll see a lot of familiar faces in the game but all in the context of this 1920s sort of steam punk/Lovecraft world called New Arcadia," Krahuik said of it back in March.

Be sure to check out the first trailer if you haven't already.