Ron Gilbert started production on Thimbleweed Park 2

I'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.

I 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.

> 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.

I 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.

Great 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.

I 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...

As 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.

<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>

Loved 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

Please 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.

It 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.

This is great news! That was such a fun game.

Hmm 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

After 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 :)

What takes it so long to release this kind of game early 2028 ?

[dead]

After the endings of Thimbleweed Park and Return To Monkey Island, I lost a lot of respect for Ron Gilbert.