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Ron Gilbert started production on Thimbleweed Park 2
- theandrewbailey 2mo ago> P.P.P.S There will be a GOG version. Very good news. GOG provides offline installers so you can always backup, install, and play your games forever.
- WalterGR 2mo agoSteam has a CLI that installs games. I’ve been meaning to use it to install each of my games and archive their installation for future offline use. That’s not as convenient as an easy-to-download offline installer, certainly, but seems workable in theory. Maybe I’m unaware of limitation(s) to this approach? https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD
- nkellenicki 2mo agoSteamCMD doesn't strip Steam DRM - even with files backed up (which the Steam GUI will do, no need for SteamCMD), you wont be able to use them without an internet connection and authenticating with Steam every now and then. GOG's bundles are offline and DRM free. You could store them on a disk, and 30 years from now reinstall and play on an airgapped computer with no authentication required.
- esperent 2mo agoI've been playing Thimbleweed Park on Android recently. In general I do love point and click puzzle games but my feelings on this one are very mixed. * The writing is hit or miss * The story is just serviceable * Only about 20% of the jokes land for me * The constant 4th wall breaking is just bad And then there's the puzzles. Maybe I made a mistake in selecting hard mode at the start but it's got the worst of the genre's "what the hell" moments... And it's really long. About halfway through I started using a guide and for the majority of the latter game puzzles, there's no logic to solving them so you'd have to resort to clicking everything and with 5 playable characters, about 40 things in my inventory (most of which can be given to other characters) by the end game and 30 or more locations, there's just too much. I'm going to finish this - probably today actually, I'm right at the end - but I'm not finishing it by feeling excited for the second one. By contrast I replayed the broken sword games last year and while they show their age and have plenty of what the hell moments, a big difference is that I cared about the story and characters while playing. George and Nico are funny, dumb, endearing. I don't feel that way about anything or anyone in Thimbleweed Park.
- alberto-m 2mo agoI found the puzzles fair enough, but my impressions about writing and characters match yours.
- pteraspidomorph 2mo agoI suspect that while Ron Gilbert is great at what he does, Tim Schafer was always the funnier writer of the Monkey Island trio...
- wccrawford 2mo agoI didn't play on hard, but that wasn't my experience with the puzzles. I thought they were all pretty good. I didn't use a guide at all. It's been a while, but I think I pretty much agree about the writing and story. I pretty much don't even remember it.
- tarkin2 2mo agoI wonder did you enjoy the Monkey Island games. I really loved Delores and Ransome particularly in TWP.
- NikolaNovak 2mo agoI gave up half way through. There was a lack of direction (for me) and too many permutations of clicks, characters, items and locations. The humour was ok, the story I was willing to give a chance. But I didn't want to resort to a walk through so I just kind of petered out.
- andai 2mo agoDid you like the King's Quest games?
- account42 2mo agoIt's an point and click adventure made by a renowned point and click designer for point and click adventure enthusiasts. Some moon logic is to be expected - I didn't find it to be particularly bad in this game. I think its OK to have games that are targeted at veterans of a certain genre. The 4th wall breaking was lame though, especially the ending.
- Razengan 2mo agoAfter how he basically gave the middle finger to fans waiting 100 years for the "real" ending to Monkey Island 2, my reaction is meh -_- Though Thimbleweed Park 1 was awesome in every way I wish/hope someone else would take up the mantle of continuing the -spirit- of Monkey Island and make a new franchise with a similar rename: call it Ape Archipelago or something :)
- dark-star 2mo agoEven though Monkey Island now has a real (i.e. canonical) ending, it sucks. I prefer the original continuation of MI3 to the 25-years-late official, canonical sequel
- tarkin2 2mo agoI pretty much saw the ending an effort to put the story to end and move on after all the years of speculation.
- agos 2mo agoit's clearly in that direction (and that's fine), but I would debate the "effort" part
- tarkin2 2mo agoThe link given elsewhere here about the multi-layered aspect of the stories from 1, 2 and RMI gives it a bit more depth. Obviously if you take it on the surface level only it's low effort.
- agos 2mo agothat's a nice fan theory which does involve some very real elements from the game (the meta narrative, the genre awareness, the nearly constant fourth wall breaking, the multiple layers, the ambiguity) but speculates a lot and veers towards some wild hypothesis ("Stan is LeChuck" makes no sense however you put it). I do appreciate the multi layered aspect, and it's the number one element which keeps me coming back to MI games, and I especially appreciated the way in which RMI felt like a fading dream, with stuff being ever more "slightly off" than before. But if this is indeed the intended "meaning" of the whole thing, the authors didn't do a great job at it. We get only bits and pieces of this purported hidden "reality", and on the other side we have a couple of very easy to read narrative levels where The Secret is clearly a MacGuffin (a trope the authors love: see the rewards for the three trials, and the treasure being literally called "Big whoop"), the absurdity and the anachronisms are the point, and once it's over the only thing they can say is... the game is over, now turn this off and go do something more interesting, which is a nice joke and sufficiently meta. The issue is that it's ok the first time, but after the third time it's an overused trope
- hnx0rqy49u 2mo ago[dead]
- willyyr 2mo agoLoved the first part. Can't wait to play it. Didn't know there was an iOS Version for the first one, time to replay that on my phone on a plane :D
- dandersch 2mo agoI would have preferred the same team working on a new IP. Thimbleweed Park 1 has possibly the worst ending of a game, ever. Just an endless series of being told that I am a big dummy for having suspended my disbelief. I see no way of believably returning to that world without the retcon of a lifetime.
- jaffa2 2mo agoI found Thimbleweed Park 1 very difficult. The puzzles were too hard. I didn't complete it. I tried to play it with my girlfriend, I thought it would be a nice game to work together to play/solve. It stumped both of us. No fun.
- tarkin2 2mo agoIf you every played the first two Monkey Island games, and understand the lore behind that, then the ending is pretty good. Thimbleweed park, in many way, was a spiritual successor to Monkey Island 2 that Gilbert couldn't make for IP reasons back in the day. With at in mind, I enjoyed the ending. That said, Monkey Island 2 got a lot of criticism for its ending too...
- davidivadavid 2mo agoOh and if you really love that dumb, sophomoric ending, you can also get Return to Monkey Island, which is yet another game Gilbert ruined with this tired trope. And that's why Curse of Monkey Island is and will always remain the best MI game.
- bhaak 2mo ago> Oh and if you really love that dumb, sophomoric ending, you can also get Return to Monkey Island, which is yet another game Gilbert ruined with this tired trope. Isn't it a bit different with Return to Monkey Island? The story is told to kids by Guybrush and Guybrush being an unreliable narrator, it's uncertain how much of the story was real or an imagination by him. The last scene though shows that something real somewhat similar to what Guybrush told did happen. Also it completely retcons the ending of Monkey Island 2.
- zedr 2mo agoGreat news! Thimbleweed Park is a lovely game. I played it with my children and manage to recreate the atmosphere of those evenings in 1990, spent in front of a Commodore Amiga 500 running Zak McKraken and Maniac Mansion.
- InsideOutSanta 2mo agoYeah, I loved it, too. Not quite on the level of the first two Monkey Island games, but still a great experience. One of the few games I actually finished in the last bunch of years. I think the time between the original and this will work out well for me to be excited to play a sequel.
- wisdomseaker 2mo agoHmm I don't remember completing the first and other than finding the phone amusing I don't remember much else about it. Will await reviews once done but if anyone hasn't played The drifter yet that is worth checking out
- adithyassekhar 2mo agoI had a weird relationship with the first game. The final scene of TP1; the one where they show the rising sun over a hill, that felt so at home for me. It was the only reason I played the game, to see that scene. Something about the colors reminded me of my childhood. Of course I could just see it on youtube or a screenshot but I wanted it to feel natural, I wanted the story and characters to take me to that hill scene. That’s all I cared about.
- amiga386 2mo agoPlease let it not be meta. Please oh please oh please. Thimbleweek Park 1 was nothing but meta. Return to Monkey Island was corpo art and meta. "The real treasure was the friends you made along the way, computer game player". Thanks Ron. I've forgotten the ending of The Cave, it was probably meta too, but at least it had some good slapstick.
- davidivadavid 2mo agoI gave up the belief he could abstain from that after he ruined Return.
- rubslopes 2mo agoYeah, me too. He did it once on MI2, fine. But again and again? I just wish he could tell a complete story for once.
- Decabytes 2mo agoAs someone who didn’t play many of the point and click adventures growing up, thimbleweed park was a lot of fun. I also like the genre more than visual novels. I kind of felt like the dialogue was supposed to be cheesy so I just rolled with it. Were some of the things a little frustrating? Yea, but I think there is a lot of life left in this genre and I’m sure Ron will make some improvements. I can’t wait to play the next one.
- madamelic 2mo ago<not asking in a mean way> Not enmeshed in game development and have only done it very lightly: what takes a game like this 1.5 - 2 years to finish? Like at a minimum, it's art, sound, graphics, and programming. If they are re-using assets, that's one of them ~done. So what's taking them 2 years? My background is in SaaS type stuff and if I went to who hired me and said it would take 2 years to build out a non-cutting edge product I am pretty sure I'd get fired. So can any game devs briefly/not-briefly explain why game dev like this takes so long? I am just curious to understand the dev cycle. I'd assume that with investment, he'd have at least one person per team so all of these can largely be intertwined with each other but largely running at the same time. </not asking in a mean way>
- dbalatero 2mo agoDon't really have the context, but I'd trust the expert that it will get done on the schedule they want. I'd say people on the outside of things often ask these kinds of questions due to lacking any context on production schedules. See: the last time your PM said "can't we just..." He's also a small shop and perhaps they intentionally move slower. I suspect he doesn't need to urgently get paid for this. Story writing is probably non linear in time it takes, and I imagine there's a fair amount of waterfall. E.g you can't schedule voice actors until the story and dialogue is done. Oh wait, the voice actors have other commitments so they'll be by in 3 months. Etc.
- melozo 2mo agoI think you’re underrating the sheer amount of iteration that occurs. SaaS has requirements and then implementation- it’s a product that has a target it hits. Yes, churn happens, but the point is you’re working to a specific goal. Games and any creative work isn’t like that. There’s constant iteration as new ideas come up or developers learn in play testing that certain parts of the game work better than others, and so they realign things continually and keep refining. I’m not a game dev btw, but blogs from devs show a continual cycle of refinement and feature creep.
- probably_wrong 2mo agoThe best answer to that question is the development blog they made for the first game: https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/archives.html https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/archives.html At a quick glance: four months for the engine (which they wrote from scratch [1]) and, based on the budget [2], roughly nine months for crowdsourcing and pre-production (setting the overall story and puzzles, deciding on the look of the game, building small proofs-of-concept), seven months for production, three months for testing and bugfixing, and two months for release (which they overshot by three months). [1] https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/roadmap1.html https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/roadmap1.html [2] https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/budget1.html https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/budget1.html
- drooopy 2mo agoIt was fun at the beginning but I got bored of it 2/3rds of the way in. The puzzles were an absolute chore to figure out and solve and the story kinda run out of steam.
- m00dy 2mo agoWhat takes it so long to release this kind of game early 2028 ?
- vaylian 2mo agoHint: The tech is not the hard part. The puzzles, stories, voice acting and animations take considerable time.
- jamesrcole 2mo agoAfter the endings of Thimbleweed Park and Return To Monkey Island, I lost a lot of respect for Ron Gilbert.
- taeric 2mo agoThis is great news! That was such a fun game.
- Folcon 2mo agoI enjoyed Thimbleweed Park personally, however for all those old Monkey Island fans like myself I'd encourage you to read this[0] analysis of the game series and lore to uncover the secret of Monkey Island by DM81 I found it a really enjoyable read and a plausible take, so I thought it was worth sharing here It's relevant as it's posted in the Thimbleweed Park forums ;) -[0]: https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/return-to-monkey-island-toward-a-theory-of-everything/5661 https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/return-to-monkey-island...
- tarkin2 2mo agoThat link was amazing. I felt that Return to Monkey Island was a bit of a cop-out. But the multi-layer, Mulholland Drive-esq, storytelling is a real eye-opener. It appears that his multi-layered storytelling found its way into Thimbleweed Park and surface-level understanding probably won't get you far.
- Folcon 2mo agoI know right? I felt I had to share it for fellow fans
- p0w3n3d 2mo agoIt's THE Ron Gilbert! The one who created Monkey Island!