Hothead Games announces that Ron Gilbert, designer of the famed Monkey Island series, has signed on as their new Creative Director. This comes within the announcement and that they will be publishing his next game, DeathSpank, an episodic adventure described as "Monkey Island meets Diablo." The preliminary DeathSpank website is online, offering "Orphans of Justice" as the title of the first episode, which is said to be "coming soonish." Here's the announcement:

The Great White North, January 9, 2008 – In a move that may upset the balance of the universe (or at least that around the 49th parallel), Hothead Games announced plans to publish Ron Gilbert's long-awaited RPG-Adventure game, DeathSpank. Described as "Monkey Island meets Diablo", the game will be released in episodic format and feature Gilbert's unique style of humor and storytelling. In a related move, Ron Gilbert will be joining the company’s Vancouver-based studio as Creative Director, effective immediately.

Speaking from his secret game design cave, Ron Gilbert said, "I've spent over four years trying to find the right publisher for this strange little game. Now that I’ve done it, you just know that somewhere four horsemen are saddling up."

The episodic game follows the thong-tastic adventures of a misguided hero named DeathSpank, a character that first appeared on Gilbert's Grumpy Gamer website in a series of animated comics he penned with long-time creative collaborator, Clayton Kauzlaric.

Hothead prepared for Gilbert's arrival by ordering the finest morsels of jellied moose meat and lager brewed with water from the nearest available glacier. "We're all huge fans of Monkey Island and we love Ron's unique vision and sense of humor," said Joel DeYoung, COO of Hothead Games. "Ron shares Hothead’s goal of bringing much-needed humor and innovation into games, so having him here in Vancouver as our Creative Director is an excellent fit."

"I'm really excited to be working with Hothead Games not only on DeathSpank, but as their new Creative Director," said Gilbert. "I got to know everyone at Hothead while I was helping with On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. They really understand humor and being creative like very few publishers do."

As Creative Director, Gilbert will work in the Vancouver-based studio on all of Hothead’s games. He is also expected to improve his hockey skills substantially during his stay.