KickStarter Thimbleweed Park: A New Ron Gilbert Classic Point & Click Adventure

[mindx2]

#6

Phone book and voicemail message
Posted by Ron Gilbert & Gary Winnick

Welcome new backers! And old backers! Not that I'm saying you're old, just that you might not be one of the new backers. I mean you might be old and that's OK too... Hmmmm, now I'm just screwing things up... Let's try that again...

Thanks to everyone for all the amazing support. It's great to know so many people love pixels as much as we do and it's thrilling to know we're going to get to make you the best damn adventure game we can.

Quick question: what could be cooler than having your name in the Thimbleweed Park phonebook, used for actual puzzle solving? If your answer is “nothing”, then you’d be wrong.

For this action packed sixth update, we’re announcing that anyone who backs at $50 or higher will not only get their name in the Thimbleweed Park phone book (used for actual puzzle solving), but you’ll also be able to record your own custom voicemail message when the number is called.

Imagine the thrill of looking your name up, calling the number and hearing your own voice asking players to leave a message. Let your creative juices out and be as funny or serious as you want*. That’s the Thimbleweed Park way!

The phone book and the personal voicemail message are a Kickstarter exclusive. It will not be offered again. Operators are standing by.

Several people have asked if it's OK to have the name of a family member appear in the phone book, rather than their own. That's 100% OK. When the project ends and we're ready to compile to phone book, a survey will be sent out asking for the name and instructions for sending the voicemail. The voicemail is completely optional. If you don't provide one, the phone will just ring and ring and ring and ring.

We'll be doing the voicemail message, even if the Talkies™ stretch goal isn't achieved. But of course it will! We're positive thinkers. I know we can. I know we can. I know we can.

* All voicemail messages are subject to our approval.

P.S. Thanks to commenter Matthias B for suggesting this.

I think that's kind of a neat thing. It's definitely unique.

 

[SuicideBunny]

that "absolution of guilt" reward.... where's mah paypal button, thimbleweed park?

 

[Jaesun]

that "absolution of guilt" reward.... where's mah paypal button, thimbleweed park?

Yeah, they made the goal, and with only 15 days left they REALLY need to get that PayPal option ASAP.

 

[Jammet]

Hello . I've just joined rpgcodex. Nice meeting you all.

I am all over Thimbleweed Park, but the last few days I'm practically just ... trying to pull myself together waiting for that PayPal button that was said to be there once the game is funded. But. Isn't it funded already? Am I misinterpreting this and they want to actually wait until the entire 30 days are up? But-but ... I wanna get into the phone book. And ... and I also wanna have a voice message. Kinda had the idea for that myself before another commenter brought it up.

Am I doomed to just have to wait until I can't get that anymore? Today Ron wrote that only backers who back during the kickstarter process will get to have that voice message feature. So -- does this lock me out? Huaaeelp!

 

[Jools]

You really won't, because people judge the shit out of your game solely on graphics. They really do. And while good graphics are nice to look at, man, some games are pretty to look at but play like absolute shit as a game.

Bt

And let's guess which of the two would sell more, after all... :D

 

[Jools]

Hello . I've just joined rpgcodex. Nice meeting you all.

Hello. Welcome to the Codex.

 

[Outlander]

Hello . I've just joined rpgcodex. Nice meeting you all.

I am all over Thimbleweed Park, but the last few days I'm practically just ... trying to pull myself together waiting for that PayPal button that was said to be there once the game is funded. But. Isn't it funded already? Am I misinterpreting this and they want to actually wait until the entire 30 days are up? But-but ... I wanna get into the phone book. And ... and I also wanna have a voice message. Kinda had the idea for that myself before another commenter brought it up.

Am I doomed to just have to wait until I can't get that anymore? Today Ron wrote that only backers who back during the kickstarter process will get to have that voice message feature. So -- does this lock me out? Huaaeelp!

Hello and welcome. Try to tweet just that directly to Ron if you haven't already: https://twitter.com/grumpygamer

Don't have a tweeter account? Then go make one!

 

[Astral Rag]

Hello . I've just joined rpgcodex. Nice meeting you all.

I am all over Thimbleweed Park, but the last few days I'm practically just ... trying to pull myself together waiting for that PayPal button that was said to be there once the game is funded. But. Isn't it funded already? Am I misinterpreting this and they want to actually wait until the entire 30 days are up? But-but ... I wanna get into the phone book. And ... and I also wanna have a voice message. Kinda had the idea for that myself before another commenter brought it up.

Am I doomed to just have to wait until I can't get that anymore? Today Ron wrote that only backers who back during the kickstarter process will get to have that voice message feature. So -- does this lock me out? Huaaeelp!

https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/540184463808802816

Your prayers have been answered already thanks to the awesome powers of The Codex

 

[mindx2]

Update #7

#7
PayPal! PayPal! PayPal!
Posted by Ron Gilbert & Gary Winnick

Sorry it's take so long to get the PayPal link up. Lot of little details and paperwork and permits and hearings and quorum votes. Running a Kickstarter is all about the backstabbing and politics. It's like an episode of House of Cards.

If you can back through Kickstarter, we kindly ask you to do that, but if you can't, please click on our highly clickable Humble Bundle PayPal link.

SuicideBunny
Jammet

 

[SuicideBunny]

aaand backed. if this turns out to be another ba, i'm going postal.

 

[deuxhero]

What are you going to do if that remake sucks though?

 

[Jaesun]

aaand backed. if this turns out to be another ba, i'm going postal.

Even if this is BAD, it will be 1000 times better than Broken Age.....

 

[LESS T_T]

An interview with IndieGames: http://indiegames.com/2014/12/ron_gilbert_and_gary_winnick_o.html

It's more or less a recap of the AdventureGamers interview, but this is always music to my ears:

Ron: I miss verbs. A few years after Monkey Island, verbs started disappearing. All we were left with was "use," but it always felt like something was missing. You get additional puzzle solving and humor opportunities through verbs. I don't think they will have a big comeback--there are downsides to them--but in doing a true classic point & click game, I think we need them.

And about the engine, and adventure games Ron recently played:

It also seems that you will be using a proprietary engine and not something ready-made like AGS or Wintermute. Why?

Ron: I think I'm a game engine snob. Using other people's engines always frustrates me because they inevitably can't do something I want, and I start tearing into them trying add features. In the end, I've just found it easier to write my own engine.

[...]

Finally, how do you see adventure games today? Have you played any of the recent releases?

Ron: Games like Kentucky Route Zero and The Stanley Parable are excellent games. Neither are true point and click adventures, but they are an evolution of the genre that's fun to see. For me, if I'm designing an adventure game, I want it to be true point & click, but I enjoy playing them all.

 

[J_C]

Well what do we have here? A classic p'n'c adventure? By Ron Gilbert? Is he trying to one up our Lord and Saviour Tim Schafer?

Was considering backing until I saw that an actually important feature, voiceovers is a stretch goal which comes after the phone/tablet version. Fuck the tablet version. I will wait until the last day. If they make the VO stretchgoal, I'll back it.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

How come you can say that when the game you defend the most is a phone/tablet game?

EDIT:

Oh, I understand, J_C, you wanted it to be a tablet/phone game from the get go, not a stretch goal.

 

[Cazzeris]

How come you can say that when the game you defend the most is a phone/tablet game?

Don't try to find a rational explanation to his behavior, he's just a

 

[Darth Slaughter]

How come you can say that when the game you defend the most is a phone/tablet game?

Don't try to find a rational explanation to his behavior, he's just a

I edited my post...

 

[Cazzeris]

Oh, I understand, J_C, you wanted it to be a tablet/phone game from the get go, not a stretch goal.

 

[Jaesun]

I think J_C has the wrong tag....

 

[J_C]

How come you can say that when the game you defend the most is a phone/tablet game?

EDIT:

Oh, I understand, J_C, you wanted it to be a tablet/phone game from the get go, not a stretch goal.

If you would put your reading comprehension skills into use, you would understand what I wrote. Basicly just the opposite what you implied. I wrote that my problem is that the phone/tablet streachgoal is BEFORE the voiceacting. I couldn't care less about the phone version, it should be the very last.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

How come you can say that when the game you defend the most is a phone/tablet game?

EDIT:

Oh, I understand, J_C, you wanted it to be a tablet/phone game from the get go, not a stretch goal.

If you would put your reading comprehension skills into use, you would understand what I wrote. Basicly just the opposite what you implied. I wrote that my problem is that the phone/tablet streachgoal is BEFORE the voiceacting. I couldn't care less about the phone version, it should be the very last.

I understood, but I was extrapolating...:D

 

[J_C]

How come you can say that when the game you defend the most is a phone/tablet game?

EDIT:

Oh, I understand, J_C, you wanted it to be a tablet/phone game from the get go, not a stretch goal.

If you would put your reading comprehension skills into use, you would understand what I wrote. Basicly just the opposite what you implied. I wrote that my problem is that the phone/tablet streachgoal is BEFORE the voiceacting. I couldn't care less about the phone version, it should be the very last.

I understood, but I was extrapolating...:D

Enough people are hurting me, why do you torture meeeee??????!!!!

 

[Darth Slaughter]

because... it's fun, matt!

 

[taxalot]

I don't want voice acting, nor the modern music they implied. This shit should work from the get go under ScummVM using MIDIs or Chiptunes.

 

[bertram_tung]

Well, they listened to J_C's feedback and switched the IOS/Android and Voice acting stretch goals.

Also.... Screens!