Thimbleweed Park

Thimbleweed Park is a retro- style point-and-click adventure game by the US developer studio Terrible Toybox that was released in 2017. The game was designed by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick , the creators of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion , and financed, among other things, with the help of a crowdfunding campaign.

action

The main storyline in Thimbleweed Park takes place in 1987. A body is found in the river near the run-down town of Thimbleweed Park . The two FBI agents Angela Ray and junior agent Antonio Reyes investigate the murder, where they are initially hindered by the local sheriff . Also, the local coroner and medical examiner 's not a big help. Instead, the small town is teeming with numerous machines , the so-called trons . These are all equipped with artificial intelligence and are operated with exchangeable electron tubes .

In the meantime, the young game programmer Delores Edmund is returning to Thimbleweed Park. She had left town a few years ago to work for a computer game company. Her uncle Chuck Edmund , the rich and eccentric city founder, hotel owner and operator of a pillow factory , was so angry about this that he initially had her struck off his will . Chuck originally wanted his niece to be the sole heir to his pillow factory because Delores is extremely talented at programming software. But then Uncle Chuck died, her father Franklin Edmund suddenly disappeared too, and Delores would now like to clarify the circumstances surrounding the death and missing of both men. She is also interested in the will. What she doesn't know is that Franklin himself was recently murdered at the local hotel and is now haunted there. Franklin, in turn, tries to contact Delores to make sure she is okay and he can say goodbye to her.

The embittered and sociopathic clown Ransome lives in an abandoned circus area , who once gained fame through stage shows in which he deliberately insulted the audience. This went well until he from Madame Morena , a voodoo talented , gypsy with a curse was occupied. Since that fateful day he has been broke, can no longer remove his makeup and is avoided by all city dwellers. To make matters worse, he was transferred by Franklin when he wanted to offer and discuss a lucrative talking doll business. Ransome sees himself betrayed and now, like Delores, goes in search of Franklin.

In the sewers lives the impoverished homeless Willie T. Wino , a talented watchmaker , jeweler and violin player who was apparently ruined by fraud on the part of Uncle Chuck. When Willie carries the dead man's purse with him by the river, he becomes the main suspect and arrested. But the FBI agents quickly discover that Willie was only used as a scapegoat . The real killer has to be someone else.

Agent Reyes, however, also has a personal motive for coming to Thimbleweed Park: many years ago, the local pillow factory burned down to a large extent and the workers lost their jobs. To Reyes' chagrin, his father was blamed for the misfortune. With the investigation of the murder of the corpse on the river, Reyes also wants to clarify the truth about the factory fire and clear his father's name. Agent Ray also has a mission of her own: She is supposed to steal certain game programming software.

The agents soon realize that the sheriff, coroner, and hotel receptionist all look exactly alike. And all three of them look just like Uncle Chuck. Apparently, Thimbleweed Park and Chuck are hiding a dark secret. In order to be able to fathom this, the protagonists gain access to the half-destroyed factory. What is hidden there is an indescribable shock for everyone involved. Shortly before his supposed death, Uncle Chuck managed to transfer his mind into a computer with artificial intelligence that he had developed. In doing so, he learned that everyone in history is trapped in a computer game. In order to escape, those affected must delete the game.

Ultimately, Delores succeeds in paralyzing the company's computer's security system, and the FBI agents manage to penetrate to the virtual form of Chuck. When Delores can separate her uncle from the artificial intelligence, Chuck asks everyone involved for forgiveness and tells what really happened many years ago: His own creation had become independent, tricked and enslaved him. The computer converted the former pillow factory into a clone factory. This explains why the sheriff, coroner, and hotel receptionist all look alike and are modeled on Chuck. Before Delores deletes the game, the main characters want to complete their personal missions: Ransome apologizes to Madame Morena and the townspeople for his nasty behavior, Franklin says goodbye to Delores and disappears into the afterlife . Reyes is able to publish a report in the local newspaper containing a confession from Chuck, proving the innocence of Reyes' father. Agent Ray manages to steal the software and is then transferred out of the game by her clients. Delores then shuts down the computer and exits the game.

Game principle and technology

control

The game offers the menu of options and commands used in Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken , for which both of the aforementioned games became famous. The commands open, close, give, take, look at, talk to, press, pull and use are arranged in three vertical columns on the far left. To the right of this is the item inventory. Recorded objects appear as miniature representations in small, square windows. The player moves a cross-shaped mouse pointer over the image. Objects, people, and places that can be interacted with are named and highlighted.

Gameplay

Thimbleweed Park is a classic point-and-click adventure. The player takes on the role of several game characters, solves puzzles by picking up and combining objects and engages in dialogues with other game characters in order to advance the plot. While Maniac Mansion still had dead ends and the game characters could die, Thimbleweed Park (almost) doesn't. The philosophy of mostly not punishing the player while exploring and tearing them out of the game world is therefore the same as in later LucasArts adventures.

In addition to the normal game mode, Thimbleweed Park also offers a simple mode for inexperienced adventure players. The simple mode differs from the normal mode in that some puzzles are skipped or have already been solved.

Production notes

Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, who know each other from the time they developed Maniac Mansion at Lucasfilm Games , decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign for an adventure game in 2014 to explore what the charms of classic point-and- Click adventure games in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which they think many newer adventure games lack. The game should feel like “opening an old, dusty desk drawer and finding an undiscovered LucasArts adventure that you haven't played before”.

After a joint brainstorming on possible actions for the game, they decided some of the outlined of them concepts they liked the most, to a neo-noir - Mystery - Satire weaving, with bonds on television series such as Twin Peaks , The Twilight Zone , The Outer Limits , The X-Files, and True Detective .

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, they brought other former Lucasfilm Games employees into the team, such as David Fox , creator of Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders , and Mark Ferrari , who drew the background graphics for The Secret of Monkey Island and Loom .

Gilbert and Winnick operate under the name Terrible Toybox, Inc.

The project was founded at Kickstarter on November 18, 2014 . The goal was 375,000 US dollars , which was reached after just one week by over 10,000 donors. As a result, the project managers set further goals, from which sum which additional features should be included in the game.

Donation amount	Realization / feature
$ 375,000	Financing the project
$ 425,000	Translation of the game texts into German , French , Italian and Spanish
$ 425,001	This gag was added spontaneously by the project managers when Boris Schneider-Johne offered his free translation services.
$ 525,000	English voice output
$ 625,000	Porting to the mobile operating systems Android and iOS

The last two goals were exchanged after the translation stage was reached, as the project managers rated voice output as more important than porting to mobile devices. One month after its start, on December 18, 2014, the Kickstarter project was successfully funded by 15,623 donors with a total of 626,250 US dollars . After fees of around 9% to the service providers Kickstarter and Amazon and minus the uncovered payments, the project ended up with a sum of 564,162 US dollars. Parallel funding through PayPal brought in an additional $ 8,000 for the founders to serve as a reserve . All goals had been achieved by the time it was first published. Only the porting to the mobile operating systems was postponed according to the developers.

Individual donations were also rewarded with certain considerations during the financing phase. For example, you could get a DRM-free copy of the game for $ 20 or more as soon as it was finished. If you played pirated copies of Maniac Mansion or Monkey Island in your youth , you could jokingly buy yourself free from an amount of 25 US dollars . From 50 US dollars you got your own entry in the phone book in the game, which you can even equip with a personal answering machine message. In addition to other merchandising items, from a sum of 5,000 US dollars, you could even secure a personalized character in the game or from 10,000 US dollars a hand-made doll of a character in the game. All amounts always include all considerations for the lower amounts.

Development of the game started in early 2015. Since the game was funded by donations, the founders decided to provide a weekly blog and podcast status report on the development process and insights into the techniques and strategies used. Often the readers were also asked publicly if they knew of certain programming tools that could be helpful in development. However, since not all freely or commercially available programs or tools could solve all problems, it was decided to rewrite the game's engine from scratch.

The game was released on March 30, 2017 for Linux , macOS , Windows and for the Xbox One . On August 22nd, 2017 the release for the PlayStation 4 took place . The release for iOS devices came on September 19, 2017 . The game has also been available for the Nintendo Switch since September 21, 2017 . For Android devices, the game was released on October 10, 2017.

With regard to the financial feasibility of a possible direct successor or, in general, a new adventure game that meets its quality requirements, Ron Gilbert was very critical.

Running Gags and Easter Eggs

There are numerous running gags and Easter eggs in Thimbleweed Park , most of them referring to the famous games Maniac Mansion , Zak McKracken and Monkey Island . For example, the player can admire the man-eating plant from the Maniac Mansion in the local general store, there is a hamster in the microwave and actually a chainsaw with gasoline. The navigator's head comes from Monkey Island and is now on display in Madame Morena's occult shop. The nasal cannula, well-known from Zak McKracken, is also used several times. Last but not least, the number 1138 should be mentioned: Ransome has to pay a circus worker $ 1138 to get his joke book back. The number comes from George Lucas ' first feature film THX 1138 .

reception

Thimbleweed Park received mostly positive reviews. The review database Metacritic aggregates 59 reviews to a mean value of 84. IGN saw the game in the direct tradition of the LucasArts games Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion . The magazine praised the story, compact chain of puzzles and complex conversation puzzles, but criticized the speakers, who would “not breathe life” into the game.

Adventurecorner.de: “The old masters are back and impressively prove that adventures with a classic look can still work today. 'Thimbleweed Park' brings an unimagined playful freedom in the genre comparison with the puzzles, as far as the order and variety of the tasks are concerned. The developers never lose sight of the player. Everywhere we discover small details, find clues to possible solutions or enjoy allusions to the old classics. In addition, the story manages to really tie the player to the monitor. There is an easier version for inexperienced players - almost everything has been thought of here. The graphics in the pixel look are also convincing and even the control, which at first glance seems cumbersome, quickly becomes second nature. On the other hand, points are deducted for minor blunders in the screen texts in the German version, which do not always fit into the given framework or the partly identical conversation options of the two agents ... "- Rating: 89%
Adventures-Kompakt.de: “Thimbleweed Park is a new adventure by Ron Gilbert, the creator of Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2. So if you expect a similar game again, you won't be disappointed. The game has many nice features of the old games and embellishes them with contemporary humor, especially in the first part of the game, a successful and exciting story. The game can therefore inspire older and younger age groups. There is a small downer: there are no German speakers - so English voices and German texts. ”- Rating: 86%

Thimbleweed Park won the Aeggie Awards of the trade magazine Adventure Gamers 2017 in the category "Best Gameplay" and also won the audience awards in the categories "Best Story", "Best Writing - Comedy" and "Best Gameplay".