On a recent play through of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, I took notes on how many unique characters and locations there are to get an idea of just how much work goes in to creating classic adventure games.
Characters
There are 84 unique sprite designs in Monkey Island 2.
I considered a sprite design to be unique if it was substantially different from another design, even if it was the same character.
So, Guybrush hanging from a rope in the opening scene would count as one design and regular Guybrush standing or walking would count as a separate design.
Of these 84 unique sprites:
- 29 have either partial or full movement animations (full would include forward and back walking animations, as well as left and right)
- 55 have voice acting and talking animations
- 42 have idle animations
- 14 have additional custom animations (e.g. Guybrush and Largo both have animations for when they are attacked with a voodoo doll).
For the Special Edition, 18 voice actors provided the voices for those characters that talk.
Locations
There are five major named locations—Scabb Island, Phatt Island, Booty Island, LeChuck’s Fortress, and Dinky Island—as well as a few other maps and backgrounds that don’t belong anywhere (e.g. Dread’s Ship).
In total, there are 105 unique backgrounds including splash screens and maps. Additionally, some of these backgrounds also have multiple versions with minor variations (like the tunnels in LeChuck’s Fortress).
Of these, 21 are panoramic backgrounds that scroll as the player reaches the edge.
Other Items
There are additional visual assets that I didn’t include, notably the inventory icons, menu screens, and UI elements like the custom cursor in the Special Edition.
Check My Work!
Here’s the spreadsheet in full:
It also has information on which characters appear in which scene.