The Secret of Monkey Island
"The Secret of Monkey Island" ultimately cost $200,000 to produce, and was developed over nine months.
Tales of Monkey Island
To promote "Tales of Monkey Island", Telltale Games posted a series of fan-made Flash short films on their website. Entitled "I Wonder What Happens in Tales of Monkey Island", the series was created by German animator Marius Fietzek, who co-wrote it with Andrei Constantinescu. The series' artwork was produced by Martin Koehler. Presented as a cartoon version of "Tales of Monkey Island", the shorts speculated on the game's story and content, and depicted hypothetical events for the upcoming chapters. The first episode debuted on July 5, 2009, two days before the release of "Launch of the "Screaming Narwhal"". The second and third episodes followed on August 6 and September 16, respectively; the penultimate episode was released on October 22. For the final installment, released on December 4, Fietzek recruited Smudo of the German hip hop band Die Fantastischen Vier to do a musical number. Emerson-Johnson described the series as "absolutely fantastic", and said that "it really seems like these games appeal to people in a way that spurs huge amounts of excellent creative energy". He noted that Telltale "was passing [the videos] around for a good week" after they were posted.