 The game was conceived in 1988 by Lucasfilm employee Ron Gilbert , who designed it with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman . Gilbert 's <unk> 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 . 
