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The Secret of Monkey Island's swordfighting

Here's a thing.

Pirates love swordfighting, that's a given. This creates something of a problem when you're designing a pirate-themed, point-and-click adventure game in which you don't want any real-time action sequences.

Ron Gilbert, the co-creator of the The Secret of Monkey Island, faced this very dilemma back in the late 1980s. He wanted his game's swashbuckling to play out much the same as the rest of the adventure, with an emphasis on puzzle solving and thoughtfulness. For some time, these ideas only seemed to clash.

It would be Hollywood star, Errol Flynn that eventually gave Gilbert the answer he needed. Join me in the video below as we take a look back at the design process responsible for "You fight like a Dairy Farmer!" and "How appropriate! You fight like a cow!"

Cover image for YouTube videoThe Secret of Monkey Island's Insult Swordfighting - Here's A Thing