Ron Gilbert joins Double Fine

Double Fine boss Tim Schafer has hired his old colleague and Monkey Island co-creator Ron Gilbert to work on a mystery project at Double Fine, a game which has yet to be pitched to publishers.

Speaking to Kotaku in an interview yesterday, Gilbert and Schafer revealed that they started working together officially again last week, although Gilbert kidded that he's yet to be paid. Apparently, Gilbert has sometimes worked from a desk in the Double Fine offices, as he finds it too distracting working from home.

"For the last couple of months Tim has been loaning me his desk here, as he has in the past," Gilbert told Kotaku.

"We have just been talking about different ideas I've had for games, kinda going back and forth like we do, and then Tim suggested, 'Hey why don't you come here and build this thing.'"

Set to be started in earnest after Double Fine's Costume Quest is released by THQ over the next couple of months, the new project is said to be a brand new IP, not a sequel or remake of any existing title, with plenty of adventure game elements.

Gilbert will have complete creative control over the game, although Schafer has said that he'll be contributing to the brainstorming sessions. The pair expect to be pitching the game to an unknown publisher in the next couple of weeks.