IGN turn to interview Ron & Dave
IGN also managed to get an interview with Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman. The interview doesn't contain plenty of new information, but it's still worth checking.
When Ron is questioned about how they approached the game from the start, he says they wanted it to be a solid pirate adventure.
Dave and I spent a lot of time talking about ‘What is Monkey Island? What does it mean to us now? What does it mean to Guybrush now?’ Thinking about interesting stories. For me I wanted this game to be a good solid pirate adventure. I felt like some of the past Monkey Islands had veered a little bit into the silly territory. And I wanted this to just be, ‘It’s a pirate adventure.’ Guybrush is sailing the seas and visiting islands, and so that was a cornerstone that I wanted to do.