The game was made with Sean Clark and Michael Stemmle as lead designers, both of whom worked on LucasArts' previous adventure titles "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis" and "Sam & Max Hit the Road". Sean Clark also worked on "Loom" and "The Dig". "Escape" uses a slightly improved version of the GrimE engine introduced by "Grim Fandango". Compared to the rest of the series, the SCUMM scripting language was replaced by the Lua programming language. This is referenced in-game; the pirate-themed SCUMM Bar, which first appeared in "The Secret of Monkey Island", is replaced during the game with the tropical-themed Lua Bar.