 The game was conceived in 1988 by Lucasfilm employee Ron Gilbert , who designed it with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman . Gilbert 's frustrations with contemporary adventure titles led him to make the player character 's death almost impossible , which meant that gameplay focused the game on exploration . The atmosphere was based on that of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride . The Secret of Monkey Island was the fifth game built with the SCUMM engine , which was heavily modified to include a more user @-@ friendly interface . 
 The game was conceived in 1988 by Lucasfilm employee Ron Gilbert , <a href='null_relcl' title='1'><mark>who</mark></a>designed it with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman . Gilbert <a href='null_genetive' title='2'><mark>'s</mark></a>frustrations with contemporary adventure titles led him to make the player character <a href='null_genetive' title='3'><mark>'s</mark></a>death almost impossible , which meant that gameplay focused the game on exploration . The atmosphere was based on that of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride . The Secret of Monkey Island was the fifth game built with the SCUMM engine , which was heavily modified to include a more user @-@ friendly interface . 
The game was conceived in 1988 by Lucasfilm employee Ron Gilbert , designed it with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman . Gilbert  frustrations wit contemporary adventure titles led em to make da player character  death almost impossible , which meant that gameplay focused the game on exploration . Tdaatmosphere was based on dat of thdairates of the Caribbean theme park ride . The Secret of Monkey Island was the fifth game built wwthedaUMM engine , which was heavily modified to include a more user @-@ friendly interface .