First Post

by Ron Gilbert
Jan 01, 2015

Welcome to the Thimbleweed Park Development Diary. If anyone in the gaming press had bothered to mention it, I'm sure it would have been voted most anticipated development diary of 2015. But no one did. I'm not bitter.

Thanks again to everyone who supported our Kickstarter. Even if you couldn't be a backer, your tweets and kind thoughts were enough. 2015 is going to be a magical year for Gary and I. Working together again on a point & click adventure is an odd dream come true.

See, I'm not bitter.

Yet.

The plan is for myself, Gary and (eventually) other team members to post here at least every Monday for the duration of the project. We'll take you through what we're working on, decisions we're making, get your feedback, and talk about any issues we're dealing with.

We'll have (non-spoiler) test builds for people to download, try out the UI and generally stress the tech.

Our plan is to spend the next 4 months finalizing the design, wrapping up loose ends of the story, story boarding all the rooms, and getting the engine in shape. Come May 1st, we'll start full production of the game.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be talking a lot about the engine and our tech plans.

Welcome aboard.

Santiago - Jan 01, 2015 at 00:10

I am so glad you are back doing an old style adventure game. I am 35 and grew up with Guybrush, so all this is wonderful news. I am not a backer but I will buy the game the minute it is out. Best wishes for 2015 for you two!

Lennart - Jan 01, 2015 at 10:10

Happy new year. No accounts on this blog?

Ron Gilbert ✓ - Jan 01, 2015 at 13:43

No, I don't see a reason to have accounts, it just a lot of work. Garvatar is a nice way to feel more "official". If there ever becomes a good reason to add accounts, I'll do that.

Strawberry - Jan 01, 2015 at 13:35

Hurray! Looking forward to following this blog.

Bastionride - Jan 01, 2015 at 13:54

Are you going to post some cool in-progress art?

Ron Gilbert ✓ - Jan 01, 2015 at 13:55

Tons of it!

Brocc - Jan 02, 2015 at 13:19

I would love to get an email each time an update is posted by you. But maybe too much work...

Oliver - Jan 02, 2015 at 14:38

The site has a RSS feed. This is much better than a notificatoin eMail.

gzip - Jan 03, 2015 at 01:57

RSS. Bah. +1 for pushing to my inbox. Where do I sign up?

LeChuck - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:06

Welcome back to the kings of point-and-click adventures!

Rene - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:06

Go go go! (But take your time :P)

Yossarian Strange - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:10

Sounds great, looking forward to the blog.

Damian - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:11

Yay! It's here!
Great to read the news. Will be waiting every mondays for those updates. :)
Glad to be part of the project.
And... Happy New Year!

Joshua witt - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:12

Which game engine are you planning on using? Unity?

DS_Nadine - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:31

Something homecooked I'd assume. How else should it fit onto a floppy disc when the retail version comes out. :D

Willy Z. - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:18

Happy New Year :D I'm really looking forward to reading all there is about the engine and the development process of the game :D Always been curious ever since the old days when I played Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle !! Ohhh look at all that pixel goodness , nom nom nom :D

Alex Legrand - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:19

"Getting the engine in shape in 4 months"
that is insane but it should be interesting

Luis Correia - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:20

I guess this will be an open dev blog, not restricted to Kickstarter backers.

(I've nothing against it)

As I've expressed over Twitter some weeks ago, I'm available to translate all text (for free) into Portuguese (pt_PT).
Feel free to contact me privatly about it.

Nuno S. - Jan 01, 2015 at 16:27

I've volunteered for that as well, so if this idea goes forward please count me in :)

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:43

Hello! I'm very excited to see the work-in-progress of this game!
If I could help in some way, I'll do with pleasure!
SEE YA!™

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:53

Sorry for this message, just testing gravatar :-)

Timmy - Jan 01, 2015 at 14:59

Would you consider releasing the engine asan open source project? So looking forward to read all about it!

PrinzJohnny99 - Jan 01, 2015 at 15:02

Happy new year! Best wishes for 2015 and may the force be with Thimbleweed Park!

Ricky Derocher AKA DoctorFargo - Jan 01, 2015 at 15:48

Are you going to be able to blow anything up in a microwave in this game?

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Jan 01, 2015 at 16:18

Probably, they are planning to put a microwave oven into a microwave oven. Imagine, what a mess!!!

Deepfield - Jan 01, 2015 at 16:44

hey zak, why did you kill that poor little squirrel? everyone talks about the hamster, yet noone talks about you murdering an innocent rodent!

Zak Phoenix McKracken? - Jan 02, 2015 at 05:43

Me?! I love squirrels. Especially two-headed ones! I double love them! I usually give them some peanuts I receive on flies, from San Francisco to Seattle, then I go through their cave, and check if they are in the nest. Never hit a three-headed squirrel in my life! I can swear on my four-headed hamster.

Deepfield - Jan 01, 2015 at 16:28

we can only hope so. =/

Deepfield - Jan 01, 2015 at 16:16

will there be fuel for the chainsaw this time? will there be tentacles? will there be t-shirts? i want one!
happy 2015 all btw =)

Julio - Jan 01, 2015 at 16:55

Wow, wow, wow. This is one of the reasons one have for living.
I wanna my absolution for pirating Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion. Wouldn't be any chance to get it in paper?
I want to be sure that I've got your gorgiveness hahahahahaha. Not, really, I'd be great to get it in paper. If not, don't worry. This is only part of my enthusiasm.

Cheeseness - Jan 02, 2015 at 00:07

Yay, this is going to be fun.

LichiMan - Jan 02, 2015 at 05:51

Best gift ever! 2015 is starting great! Happy new year!
Hope we have a Terrible Toybox animation logo with the characters of the game and hilarious credits :)

delMar - Jan 02, 2015 at 06:09

Great to see this site up and running.
Can't wait to read all the dirty details...

Happy 2015!

Christian - Jan 02, 2015 at 09:52

I hope there will not spoiled to much on this blog?

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Jan 02, 2015 at 10:07

Who knows... to avoid the risk, don't read the blog :-)

patoland - Jan 02, 2015 at 11:57

Hi! Great to see the blog alive as promissed! Please don't hesitate to publish hard and arid articles about the developement of the engine, as you started in the grumpygamer site please!! good luck and happy new year!

Iron Curtain - Jan 02, 2015 at 12:58

Will the test build be on OS X and Linux in addition to Windows? Also, will the test build be sort of like a demo?

Firebird - Jan 02, 2015 at 13:00

I just wanted to check and make sure if the Thimbleweed Park Development Diary is now live?

Colette - Jan 02, 2015 at 13:09

I played Maniac Mansion when I was 11 and never forgot it. I'm so, so happy that you two can do this project, and thrilled to support it. Will be cheering you on from the sidelines until the day I get to play. :)

Nikolai - Jan 02, 2015 at 13:12

Is the Thimbleweed Park Development Diary now live? If not, when can I expect the first update? If so, is this the first update? If so, can I get a cookie?

Joseph J Marcus - Jan 02, 2015 at 13:18

I am so excited for this project! I have been telling all of my gamer friends about it. We have fond memories, and can't wait for new ones!

I'm also excited to share this with my son who is 6. I need to pull out my old copies of Maniac Mansion and Zak McKraken to play with him.

Patrick Libuda - Jan 02, 2015 at 13:32

Hi,

All the best for 2015 :-). Have fun with creating your little epic. Any chance of it including iMuse ;-)?

Cheers
Patrick

Dirk - Jan 02, 2015 at 13:38

Hello,

so good luck for 2015 and have fun while programming and testing the game.

regards
Dirk

Grafity - Jan 02, 2015 at 13:50

Good Luck Guys,

looking forward reading about your progress, and of course playing the game some day

Raymond Day - Jan 02, 2015 at 14:03

I played Maniac Mansion on the C=64 and it was very good. The best game I like was Earth bound on the Nintendo. I would think Maniac Mansion is the 2ND best game. It will be super to have it like that on a PC.

-Raymond Day

Thorbjoern - Jan 02, 2015 at 14:36

Awesome!! Looking forward to reading from the project! Enjoyed every single kickstarter project update!! Have fun with the development and coding and such of the game!

STuFF - Jan 02, 2015 at 14:37

this is SO good. thx.

Barbara Anne - Jan 02, 2015 at 15:08

Best of luck guys. Feel free to post stories about old SCUMM games if you can't think of anything to blog.

Ralph Egas - Jan 02, 2015 at 15:16

Hey Ron,

Awesome, this initiative. Can't wait to beta test. We've met in Amsterdam years ago in front of "The Bulldog" (if I recall correctly), sipping wine and talking about WoW ;). I recall exchanging ideas back then even to revive P&C adventure games. Glad to seeing that coming off the ground after so many years. I don't anyone expected this (the real deal) to happen. Thank you for being awesome.

Anyway, I have had my own studio called Abstraction Games for 7 years now and just wanted you to know if there's ever any need for tech support on any platform please don't hesitate to reach out on @AbstractionGame of @ralphegas for help / advice, the free kind.

Good luck on your quest!

Cheers,
Ralph

Lee Allan Sanders - Jan 02, 2015 at 15:23

Best wishes for an astonishingly productive 2015, and hurry up and get it done so I can play please :-)

Momomomo - Jan 02, 2015 at 15:30

Happy new year everybody! I really look forward to reading all the inside stuff :) .. tech, art, design... don't skip anything! ^.^

Nicolas - Jan 02, 2015 at 15:33

Good luck guys! Stay focused

Lord DogBrain, Esq - Jan 02, 2015 at 17:17

I will be interested to see if the engine is a straight 6 or a Rotary, that would be cool! A ROTARY Game Engine with fender flare! AND FLAMES! IT'S GOTTA HAVE FLAMES!!

Knock 'em dead guys, show the punks what gaming geezers can do!

Omar - Jan 02, 2015 at 17:26

For God i am a backer and i want your game in Spanish PLEASE :D :D :D

Ron Gilbert ✓ - Jan 02, 2015 at 17:43

Spanish was one of the stretch goals.

Ossi Ojutkangas - Jan 02, 2015 at 17:53

Excellent. I'm a Finnish adventure game fan who loves to play the games in Spanish. What? Of course I backed you!

Andreas - Jan 02, 2015 at 18:17

Gary and me* ;)

So excited about this!

Mark DeRidder - Jan 02, 2015 at 18:54

This is exciting Ron! I'll be checking in often! Can't wait to see how you guys make the magic happen!

Henry Voigt - Jan 02, 2015 at 19:33

Hello & congratulations!

I was wondering if those of use who helped fund the game will get their names in the games credits under a kickstarter heading or something.
Just an idea :)

Have a wonderful day!

Seba - Jan 02, 2015 at 21:25

Herro! And don't You worry - this is the most anticipated development diary of 2015 in my heart, and gosh darnit, that's all that matters.

Tom - Jan 03, 2015 at 02:58

Perhaps we may find a computer to play DOTT on, which then let's us play Maniac Mansion inside that?

Tom - Jan 03, 2015 at 02:59

Perhaps we may find a computer to play DOTT on, which then let's us play Maniac Mansion inside that?

Eduardo Zola - Jan 03, 2015 at 06:55

I am a happy backer !! So glad you guys are back again ! Back to the Mansion !! rsrsrs

Thanks a lot for all the SCUMMs games.

looking forward to the new game!

Davide - Jan 03, 2015 at 07:54

Glad to see you're finally back Ron ! Wish you the best of luck for this project but I'm sure you won't need it :D

Panos Pileidis - Jan 03, 2015 at 08:39

Great news! I am 35 years old and I grew up with Monkey Island and the Edisons and I still enjoy point n click games. Really happy to have backed this project. Best of luck and happy new year!!!

Jammet - Jan 03, 2015 at 10:19

And we have lift-off! =^_^=

Thanks so much for this! That you follow through on this plan and idea is not only just gonna be a sweet spot in "future history", it's going to be a blast to play this, and I look forward to this amazing feeling I've had when I first played Maniac Mansion! And no I'm not using tinted glasses or a pedestal. We know what this is all about. :)

Ian - Jan 05, 2015 at 08:07

A small request, can you link this RSS feed to automatically post to your Facebook fan page? I am incredibly lazy and forgetful.

Thanks,
Ian
Kickstarter backer #11204

Sergio Losilla - Jan 06, 2015 at 07:21

Dear Ron,

This post makes me very sad indeed. I just learnt about this project here: http://www.adventuregamers.com/hypeometer/view/27773, by sheer luck. I won't say that I avidly read all game news sources, but I would have expected to bump into it, one way or another. Well, I am happy that the project has succeeded, and I am sure it will pick up and not go unnoticed in the coming months.

But I just wanted to say thank you for your courage and your passion: I doubt that there are many people who have been in the industry for over 30 years that would sit down and write game engines by themselves.

peterszky - Jan 06, 2015 at 13:01

I missed the Kickstarter, but now you have my support! :)

Thank you for the exemption from piracy (although now I got all the big boxes on my shelf). I can ensure you that now not only conspiracy is the only piracy what I don't like! :D

Peter

Rob - Jan 07, 2015 at 16:17

Awesome start to a new year :) I'll be closely following this blog!

Sebastian - Jan 29, 2015 at 16:33

Yo everybody, if you want to get an email in your inbox as soon as there's a new blog post, check out this IFTTT recipe I made: https://ifttt.com/recipes/251736-get-email-notification-for-new-blog-posts-on-blog-thimbleweedpark-com

Cristian - Jan 30, 2015 at 06:40

Hi, I'm very happy to hear that one of the most exciting games this back story, mysterious charisma perfect convinacion creativity, Greetings from Argentina, we are very excited about the successes back!

McKracken - Mar 22, 2015 at 15:41

I have played Zak McKracken for the first time only a few weeks ago. It is such a great game! Now I really hope that this game will be epic. I hope the game will be rich with idea and contain references to conspiracy theories, philosophical ideas, pop-culture, politics, physics, and many other sources. It would also be great if mini-games, this to explore, and things to experiment with (e.g. fish in the bowl) would be included.

Gloria Viktoria - Mar 31, 2015 at 18:06

I
AM
CRYING

just found out about this project and I am so so excited!
I love you! A lot!
Seriously!

Mattias Cedervall - Apr 14, 2015 at 13:38

Wow, it's already been four months since the first post...

Ron Gilbert ✓ - Dec 01, 2015 at 11:47

Test

conejo - Dec 28, 2015 at 08:43

I really wanted to do the translations to spanish, but I guess you already have the people to do that, so in any case I ask you (and those who will translate it) PLEASE PLEASE translate it to a standard or simple spanish because you really have no idea how annoying is to each spanish speaking country to read or listen spanish from other continent/country. Or in any case, translate the game in spanish for spain and latin america please.

Isaac Cardenas - Feb 11, 2016 at 13:13

Savvy comments , Apropos , if people wants to merge some PDF files , my friend found a tool here www.altomerge.com.