Top 10 PC Game Developers - #4 Ron Gilbert

Mr Gilbert is in the middle

Famous for: Maniac Mansion, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Monkey Island and SCUMM
Affiliations: Lucasarts and Hothead Games

Ron Gilbert developed his first game, Maniac Mansion, for the now defunct Lucasarts (known as Lucasfilm Games back then) in 1985. Before creating the game, he actually developed a scripting language specifically for the game known as the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (SCUMM). SCUMM would be used in almost all of Lucasarts's point 'n' click adventure games and was only finally replaced in 1998 by GrimE (Grim Fandango's engine). Not bad considering it was developed in the mid-80s. Anyway, Maniac Mansion turned out to be a success and Gilbert would go on to create the pirate adventure franchise Monkey Island which to this day still has a legion of loyal fans.

More recently Gilbert has worked on such games as the hack 'n' slash RPG, Deathspank (broken up into three games) and this year the puzzle platformer, The Cave. While his early contributions have been few, they have had a significant impact on the PC gaming industry. His recent games, although not as pioneering, still retain that humour we love so well and this is why I think he deserves the #4 slot on my Top 10 PC Game Developers list.

Up next at #3, a man who has become a sort of crusader for PC gaming in recent times and he's a veteran space sim designer to boot.

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