Friday Questions

by Ron Gilbert
Sep 21, 2016

It's time for Friday questions!

Things are crazy around Team Thimbleweed right now, but we'll take the time off to do a Friday Questions podcast.

Make the questions good and remember, only one question per comment.

- Ron

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED
COMMENTS ARE CLOSED
COMMENTS ARE CLOSED

Akolade - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:16

Who has to listen to every single voicemail message to make sure they are all acceptable?

Ricardo Marichal - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:16

Hi Ron. When are you going to write about the music of Thimbleweed Park in this blog ? Thanks !!

67th man from mercury - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:17

There have always been much positive buzz around the adventure games of lucasarts and sierra. But have you guys ever played westwood studios adventure games, the kyrandia games? And if so, what did you think of them?

SunDancer - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:19

Will there be a useable toilette in the game? Or a Microwave? Or a broom?

Aaron Murray - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:20

What proportion of the total game file size will be voicemail files?

Hasteur - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:21

Will there be ways to catastrophically mess up your adventure (i.e. using a hammer to break through the glass above an H-Bomb's triggering switch)?

Katie Parsons - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:22

If Guybrush Threepwood and Angela Ray met in a bar, how would the conversation go?

Hasteur - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:22

Will there be a way to deduce which phone numbers are "no answer" and which ones do have a voicemail attached to them?

urielz - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:25

Will you consider providing some sort of support for modding the game?

Kenney - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:28

What's a point & click puzzle you wished you had designed?

Peter Pedaci - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:28

How are you today?

Paul Jacobson - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:36

What will you guys do, after the game is released? take a year off? jump straight into the next thing?

Bogdan Barbu - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:37

Hace you settled on a lip sync tool? If not, this is probably what you want: https://github.com/DanielSWolf/rhubarb-lip-sync

PS: No actual answer needed, just making you read this for our benefit. :)

Geoffrey Paulsen - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:34

Christian Stigen - Sep 22, 2016 at 07:49

Wow, that was pretty impressive!

Ema - Sep 22, 2016 at 12:32

No, why isn't the answer needed? It's a good question, I'd like to hear the answer.
I'd like to know if the lip sync has been implemented yet, since I don't have any idea on what could be the correct timing for such a tool.
And do you write the lip sync tool first, or do you draw the mouth positions first?

Thank you

Bogdan Barbu - Sep 22, 2016 at 13:35

I figured no answer is needed because that information isn't going to change the game. What was more important was to suggest something in case the answer was no. :)

Regarding your other question, it doesn't really matter whether you first do the tool or the art just like it doesn't matter whether you first draw the game's sprites or implement the engine. You may do one first or do them concomitantly.

The components of speech are called phonemes and the tool interprets recording to find out where each one occurs. Each phoneme has a corresponding mouth position. The game engine simply uses that timing information to render the correct mouth position at the right time.

Bmmanuel - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:41

Multi-character mechanics are rare in adventure games, but they're one of your trademarks. In Maniac Mansion and The Cave, players choose among playable characters and can use them immediately. In Zak McKracken and Day of the Tentacle, they're given one character and have to unlock access to the others. Which system will Thimbleweed park use? How quickly will we get access to all five playable characters?

vegetaman - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:42

What kind of snacks and beverages do you guys (and gals) enjoy while working? Heavy on the caffeine (ie. Mountain Dew), energy drinks, tea, water, cheetos, doritos, mixed nuts, etc?

Rob Osinga - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:45

Hi Guys, will certain music be interactive with actions , puzzlesolves if so, how?

Thnx,
Love this blog.

Christian - Sep 21, 2016 at 12:56

Will the ending rather provide closoure or will there be much room for a sequel?

Andreas - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:03

Did you ever ask Jonathan Frakes, if he would voice sexy Riker?

Alexander Aubrey - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:15

For that matter, any developments on voice talent to share?

JD Day of the Tentacle fan - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:15

Hi!

For all Us old farts (43 year old, that is) that have lost all capacity to concentrate and think....how "hard" is this game going to be? How frustrated that I don't "find the answer" to a particular puzzle can I expect to be?

Martin Wendt - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:17

Have you ever felt or been stalked by fans/people?

Geoffrey Paulsen - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:55

That you KNOW of... ?

Soren Ladegaard - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:18

Will the game save automatically or can I choose when to save a "savegame file"? If so, can I move that savegame file between multiple computers? I may have several computers myself or want to bring the savegame file with me to a friend's house.

Best regards,

Soren Ladegaard - Denmark

Soren Ladegaard - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:21

With the game being financed via Kickstart will you then be at "break even" at launch or will you have to sell X number of copies before the game becomes profitable? Or will it be profitable from the very first copy sold?

Best regards,

Soren Ladegaard - Denmark

Okona - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:21

How about making a Thimbleweed Park construction kit, so people can make their own adventures in and around the town of Thimbleweed Park using the fantastic Characters and Background.

In newer parlance you would call that modding support.

Bender - Sep 22, 2016 at 05:12

I'm ging to build my own Thimbleweed Park, with Blackjack and [beep]. In fact, forget about the Thimbleweed Park.

Stef - Sep 22, 2016 at 11:30

...and the Blackjack

Okona - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:22

How about a directors commentary, or something to include the fantastic wealth of information of this blog into the game.

Someone - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:23

How will you advertise/promote Thimbleweed Park in the future?

At the moment you are presenting the game on PAX, Gamescom and other conferences. Will you produce TV spots? Will you publish advetisements in newspapers and/or magazines? Are you going to use Google Ads?

David - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:25

What's your podcast recording/editing toolchain? I know you mentioned a while ago you switched to a new tool.
Thanks!

Ben Slinger - Sep 22, 2016 at 08:32

Second this, I was going to ask about the podcast recording tool you mentioned too. I have a podcast and we just record locally in Audacity, but I'm not sure what we're going to do when we start having guests on so I'm curious about options.

juan martín - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:35

For each of you: your top5 non lucas adventure games.

Arto - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:05

For each of you: your top 3 Lucas adventures.

Sean - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:43

Will there be keyboard shortcuts in the game (e.g. P for Pick Up, Y for Pull (Yank), etc..)?

Dieter - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:17

Yes. Please read the other blog posts for further informations.

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:48

Did you choose which country or town or event IN EUROPE you will move next, to let people play the Thimbleweed Park demo?

Matt - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:56

The art and animation that I have seen has a really nice lighting quality to it. I understand some of it may be painted into the background but there are obviously some other lighting tricks going on as well. Is the "dynamic" lighting made up of elements that are drawn and overlayed or does the game engine use spotlights or point lights to illuminate the art?

Thanks. The game is looking really great.
Matt

Guille Krampus - Sep 21, 2016 at 13:59

Will you bring a unique and spectacular secret versión for us to play in Argentina at the event?

eHenryThripshaw - Sep 21, 2016 at 14:04

If you ever make the so called Monkey Island 3a, would you use the 80s SCUMM style like TWP or would you do something different?

Dieter - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:28

I think the answer is here: http://grumpygamer.com/if_i_made_another_monkeyisland

Jaume - Sep 21, 2016 at 14:15

Can you play the voicemail for telephone number 5901? Thanks

Derrick Reisdorf - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:05

Come on, people. Voice mail systems were not widely used until the 90s.
Answering machine messages.

-please wait for the beep-

Derrick Reisdorf - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:18

At least I remember our household and every one I know still having answering machines in their homes in '87.

Derrick Reisdorf - Sep 21, 2016 at 14:41

What are some pros and cons of crowdsourcing some of the game's content- the occult book titles, the answering machine messages, and the library literature?
(And could you see yourself crowdsourcing content in future projects?)

Derrick Reisdorf - Sep 21, 2016 at 14:46

When designing/creating a (point-and-click) adventure game, is there any consideration to ensuring there is a good variety of puzzles?
You mentioned only one closeup/logic puzzle is in the game; any urge to conjure up another one or maybe even include a mini-game?

Tom A - Sep 21, 2016 at 14:48

Ron, what kind of programming style do you prefer? Is it plain C or do you use C++ and how many C++ features do you use, if any?

jackie - Sep 21, 2016 at 14:59

If thimbleweed park is a success, do you all plan keep on making adventure games?

Milo Casagrande - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:24

How will you release Thimbleweed once the Linux version is ready? Will you use one of the new cool technology like Snappy, Flatpack, AppImage, or will you package it the old trusted way (.deb, .rpm or .tgz)?

(No flame war please)

Milo Casagrande - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:25

You have been treating us with a year and more of funny, interesting and well done podcasts. Once the game is shipped, will you continue to produce a weekly podcast to entertain us? :-)

Wluut - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:27

We know that you are doing sprints and weekly standups.
What other techniques from agile frameworks like Scrum, Kanban or whatever do you find useful, and what techniques proved worthless or hindering?

Frank - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:28

Will there be director's commentaries for scenes, rooms, characters or objects? Maybe only available after one solved a puzzle or the entire game.

Alejandro - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:32

Will you bring merchandising from the game to Argentina? Regards!

Cole Trickle - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:37

Is the body in the lake the only sprite/graphic that has the original art style from the kickstarter pitch? Will it be changed until release?

Ignacio - Sep 22, 2016 at 13:32

Isn't it a body in the river?

Arto - Sep 22, 2016 at 15:02

I think it's a pond.

Geoffrey Paulsen - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:53

Have you begun multi-platform testing? How has that been going? Finding a lot of bugs there?
What Software Engineering have you done to improve quality across platforms that might be unique for Thimbleweedpark?

Tom - Sep 21, 2016 at 15:57

Is there any randomness to the game (I know there will not be multiple endings)?

Damian - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:02

Will the podcast continue after releasing thimbleweed park?

Aubrey - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:23

...even if there isn't additional work on TP? We would love updates on how you spend your time off (even though, technically, that would be working to give us the update...)

Ken Christensen - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:08

Have you started reading through the submissions for the library? What are your thoughts so far?

Amb - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:10

Do you think Ransome would play as Arm or Core?

hoerry - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:11

Why did you choose the name Terrible Toybox for your company?

Mario F. - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:14

Has TP planned to be a single game or do you already have Part II and Part III in your minds?

Caspar - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:15

Which people are necessary to create the "classical" Lucasfilm Games Retro-Feel. I know in this team is: Ron Gilbert, David Fox, Gary Winnick and Mark Ferrari. But what about the other faces like Brian Moriarty, Hal Barwood, Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, Steve Purcell, Peter Chan, Bill Eaken, Michael Land, Martin Cameron, Matthew Alan Kane, David Spangler, Noah Falstein, Mike Ebert, Eric Hammond, Jonathan Ackley, Larry Ahern, Clint Bajakian, Sean Clark, Peter McConnell and Michael Stemmle. Which people are responsible and able to create the classical retro feel and which people could you imagine to add to a team for a future project? (This is one Question!)

Mattias Cedervall - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:18

Will we be able to turn off the title cards? I hope so!

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:04

:-D
The right question should be: Is there an option to turn off the title cards?
...but you already know the answer!

Dieter - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:10

As I said already: We need more Options! ;)

Arto - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:33

Regarding this: how many options will we have?

Mattias Cedervall - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:46

I'm posting an old comment again in case you didn't see it:

You are very welcome to Sweden, Arto! ;-) You speak some Swedish, right? Have you been here before? I've been to Finland. I saw the hockey game Thursday night with my Finnish buddy. He thought Sweden would win (he was rooting for Finland) and I thought Finland would win (I was rooting for Sweden). Finland won by 3-2. Some people call me Matti. :-)

Arto - Sep 22, 2016 at 15:09

Speak: not understandably. Write: sure, but the reader might laugh. Read: fluently. Listen... depends on speaker. I've visited Sweden often, North & South (which is a great 1989 game, btw).

Mattias Cedervall - Sep 22, 2016 at 15:18

That's nice. :-) I know a couple of Finnish words and sentences. Jag skulle gärna lära mig mer finska. I think I have played North & South for NES once.

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Sep 22, 2016 at 16:50

Pardon me, if I cone to Sweden, I'll be on my friend's hands! I don't speak/read/write/understand a single word in Swedish or Finnish!

RedPhantom - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:19

If a huge movie or TV studio came to you guys asking to make an adventure game based on an one of their intellectual properties, what would you want decide to do?

Andreas (tcmsurfer) - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:29

After Thimbleweed Park, what will you do? Take a break or plan for another game? If another game, please the same set of people and be open about it just like Thimbleweed Park!!!

Andreas (tcmsurfer) - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:34

Rather a message than a question for Mr. David Fox: With 10 years of age, Zak was my first adventure I ever saw and it fascinated me. My love for this genre originates from this game. Thank you very much and keep those inspiring ideas coming. Looking forward to Thimbleweed Park and any future projects

Daniel Newman - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:52

When is the latest we can upgrade our kickstarter to "Big Box"?

Dieter - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:12

If this is a serious question: You can't. The pledges are closed.

Noah Stapleton - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:56

Are there any sort of plans for Thimbleweed Park to have some sort of co-op or multiplayer mode where one player plays as Angela and the other plays as Antonio?

Geoffrey Paulsen - Sep 21, 2016 at 16:57

Compare and contrast Timbleweed Park with your lucid dreaming about what-if you wrote another monkey island game on your blog: http://grumpygamer.com/if_i_made_another_monkeyisland

dareDev - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:09

I've noticed that you've made a few references to not being completely happy with the rendering/game engine. What would you change about it if you had the time to do so - also are you happy with your choice of scripting language/system?

Brian Ruff - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:10

Do you guys have any rituals to fight stress during crunch-time? Exercise, video games, Cheetos?

Big Red Button - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:10

Would you tell us the total number of acts in TWP?

Aubrey - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:14

Would the act titles be spoilers? If so, you can tell them, and beep out the spoiler parts!

Aubrey - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:21

Ron,

I've heard you talk about open sourcing the engine in the past and would love to hear any developments that you've added to the game that would support moving in this direction. This still in the cards?

Big Red Button - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:39

What are the odds that there will be a stand-alone version of TWP on DVD?

Adrian - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:46

If i try to touch Guybrush with Angela, she will say "i can't touch that" too?

Mattias Cedervall - Sep 21, 2016 at 17:48

Will you have the time to implement dynamic fog that react to the playable character's movement?

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Sep 22, 2016 at 03:00

Maybe it's because I live in the Po Valley, and we have fog for several months a year... but...
...why do you want fog in this game?!?

Big Red Button - Sep 22, 2016 at 04:46

As far as I've seen, there is static fog at some places. But, I think that there are more reasonable things that are not certain yet either, such as lip-sync.

Mattias Cedervall - Sep 22, 2016 at 06:36

Lip-synch is at the top of my wish list and the dynamic fog comes second.

Mattias Cedervall - Sep 22, 2016 at 06:34

It's great for setting a mood! Haven't you seen the movie "An American werewolf in London"? If no, your sentence is to watch that movie!

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Sep 22, 2016 at 08:19

I have watched "An American werewolf in Paris", eheheh!

Mattias Cedervall - Sep 22, 2016 at 15:20

Good. Good!

Peter Brodersen - Sep 21, 2016 at 18:26

The available software on the market as well as open source communities has exploded since the development of Maniac Mansion.

Which piece of software that you would otherwise have to develop and code in-house in the old days has saved you most time during the development of Thimbleweed Park?

Nathan - Sep 21, 2016 at 18:38

Are there any secrets hidden in your games that have yet to be discovered?

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Sep 22, 2016 at 03:02

I have been told there is a reference to Uncharted 4, in the Part 11 of Thimbleweed Park.

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Sep 22, 2016 at 03:26

...and, of course, I have evidence! Here's a frame stolen from Thimbleweed Park. You can check it!
- TAKE THAT! -
http://www.cinemapioxi.it/zak/TP-delores.png

Nathan - Sep 21, 2016 at 18:41

What is each of your's favorite adventure game?

Nathan - Sep 21, 2016 at 18:43

What adventure game puzzle are you most proud of designing?

Miles Teg - Sep 21, 2016 at 18:52

Are there alternetive puzzle-routes / solutions in some cases?

Steve Borden - Sep 21, 2016 at 19:18

What type of clown is Ransome inspired by? Is he a Krusty the Clown type? An old school Bozo? Is he more of a Triumph from Conan, since he's an insult comic? What comedian/clown can we expect him to remind us of?

Patricio Martinotti - Sep 21, 2016 at 19:27

Hi Ron, I'm Patricio Martinotti from Argentina. Did you feel with the release of Stranger Things the past july, a kind of premonition about the retro-fever that Thimbleweed Park will arise the next january? Do you see connections between them? Thanks and best regards.

Paulup - Sep 21, 2016 at 19:38

You guys make games with really great humor in them... what influenced your senses of humor? (Which TV shows, movies, comedians, etc... and that question is for all three of you).

Andrew - Sep 21, 2016 at 21:23

Now that the game is getting closer to completion are deciding some bugs are now features and if so how to you make that choice

Amb - Sep 21, 2016 at 21:27

Did you ever decide to match the outside lights with the room states of the hotel?

Orcan Ogetbil - Sep 22, 2016 at 00:21

Are you going to handle (user) bug reporting after the game is released, if so, how?

Simon Simon - Sep 22, 2016 at 01:57

Will the pin and/or the trading cards be available for sale or are they event-only?

Evan - Sep 22, 2016 at 02:06

Will the game have any multitouch controls for tablets and phones?

LostTrainDude - Sep 22, 2016 at 03:38

Ron, how much detailed are the game world and the actual plot in your pre-production phase? Being a small-time adventure game developer myself I wonder how not to get lost in infinite worldbuilding without actual gameplay.

Big Red Button - Sep 22, 2016 at 10:54

In this regard, I recommend to you to take a look at the early blog entries.
There has been shown and explained a lot of so-called wireframe art, which are placeholders for allowing to test early versions of the puzzles until they get either replaced by final art or completely removed, due to improvements of the puzzle design.

Diduz - Sep 22, 2016 at 04:07

Ron, in a previous podcast you said pixelated replicas of yourself, David and Gary will be in the game, and that we'll be able to interact with them. Will they be voiced by you? That would be hilarious.

Dieter - Sep 22, 2016 at 04:33

Gary, most people here in the blog are "talking" or writing to Ron. Isn't this annoying, because you are one of the co-designer? And how much influence to the story had each of you (including the other team memebers)?

Christian - Sep 22, 2016 at 05:13

In which state is Thimbleweed Park located?

Christian - Sep 22, 2016 at 05:15

Will the packaged assets be encrypted and protected? (I loved peeking into the assets of some adventure games and see animations etc. Unfortunately scumm was too well compressed) What file format do you use?

Martin Wendt - Sep 22, 2016 at 05:24

At least the old SCUMM used merely RLE compression with some special selection of most common bytes. Only for later SCUMMs EORing was added as far as I know.

Christian - Sep 22, 2016 at 13:46

Is there actually a way to browse through all the Scumm assets now, including animations, costumes, walk areas and overlays? I remember there was a subproject of scummvm, but it was no binary etc.

Big Red Button - Sep 22, 2016 at 06:03

To my knowledge, they use .json files.

Christian Stigen - Sep 22, 2016 at 06:03

Have any of you ever pulled a "do you know who I am?" to gain advantages, and how did that work out for you? You each get one point if it worked, but two points if you embarrased yourself.

Balloon Boy - Sep 22, 2016 at 06:11

Hey Ron, is there any aspect of game design that you personally find a lot easier/harder to accomplish today versus early in your career?

Booya - Sep 22, 2016 at 06:46

Will there be different ways to solve some puzzles, like in Maniac Mansion?

Gv - Sep 22, 2016 at 06:55

My question is: Was Mark Ferrari involved in the VGA versions of Monkey Island and Loom?

Big Red Button - Sep 22, 2016 at 11:06

For all I know, in terms of MI, he was only involved in the EGA version, but, this was the original version.
I assume hat this also applies to Loom.

Katie Parsons - Sep 22, 2016 at 08:36

Will there be any 'points of no return' that force the player to start the game from the beginning or an early save point?

Such as using the paint remover in the wrong way in Maniac Mansion.

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Sep 22, 2016 at 08:59

Whoa, that paint remover!!! I was a kid when I realized that I did the wrong thing.

Marcel Taeumel - Sep 22, 2016 at 08:54

Will the demo(s) used at PAX (etc.) be released to the public or will there be another kind of free demo? I liked the EGA demo for Monkey Island with the red herring. :)

Martin Wendt - Sep 22, 2016 at 10:50

and with regard to demos, do you recall how and why the c64 demo of Maniac Mansion came to life and made rounds?

Jesper Hansen - Sep 22, 2016 at 10:18

You have been very open on the blog about the whole process of building the game. Have you ever regretted that you started out being so open? (ie. too many stupid/repeated questions you had to deal with, writing blog posts/doing podcasts taking up too much time, etc.)

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Sep 22, 2016 at 10:56

Come to think, at that time the only copy of Maniac Mansion I had was this very one:
https://youtu.be/9AA_QPR95ww?t=11s

Marco Lizza - Sep 22, 2016 at 11:27

Classic! You could spot Daglish's style from the very first note... :)

( I remember this, erm, "Intro" too... luckily I managed to buy an original copy a couple of years later )

Marco Lizza - Sep 22, 2016 at 11:30

What's the single most annoying/strange/silly software bug you caused and managed to resolve?

Rainer G - Sep 22, 2016 at 13:02

Could you please provide the trading cards as PDF/PNG or include them in the game? I got some of them at gamescom and there are good jokes on them.

Derrick Reisdorf - Sep 22, 2016 at 15:08

Trading cards??? Wha what??
I want!!!

Ron Gilbert ✓ - Sep 22, 2016 at 15:11

https://twitter.com/ja2ke/status/776858877463699457

The Pinny Arcade pins will be for sale soon, not sure about the trading cards.

Steffen - Sep 22, 2016 at 15:31

Very funny. You should work this out and put it somewhere in the game.
For example: a card game with the radio DJ. If you win he plays a wished song...

Carlo Valenti - Sep 22, 2016 at 13:27

Would you send me a big, big hug?
Big big hug to you all!

Geoffrey Paulsen - Sep 22, 2016 at 13:27

small click boxes - I only think they're unacceptable if the lights are out and we have to look for them, but if it's visible on the screen and just happens to be small, I think that's fine. This example seems FINE to me:
http://images.grumpygamer.com/mi-1a.jpg

Carlo Valenti - Sep 22, 2016 at 13:27

Would you send me a big, big hug?
Big big hug to you all!

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Sep 22, 2016 at 16:46

...unless you send dark chocolate, first!

Philipp - Sep 22, 2016 at 14:40

When telling a story that is set in the past that opens up the possibility, temptation perhaps, to make clever prophetic references or jokes about the "future" that lies between then and now. Has that come up during the writing of Thimbleweed Park and, if so, how did you deal with it?

Cormac - Sep 22, 2016 at 14:51

Hey
I'm a bit late to the podcast but catching up (hit April today). I'm curious about sound in the game. David has mentioned adding sound effects a few times in the podcasts and I was wondering if this is a role he's taken on because of the nature of Thimbleweeds development or whether this was something he used to do in the LucasArts days as well? Did the role of sound/audio work land with the programmers then?
thanks

Kim Jørgensen - Sep 22, 2016 at 15:12

With the release of the source code for Habitat I noticed the similarities in the disk drive code with Maniac Mansion (and Zak). There is even some dead code in Maniac Mansion that is a remainder of the file access logic in Habitat.

Are there any interesting stories behind this, or can you tell us how code and tools was shared between games back then?

Derrick Reisdorf - Sep 22, 2016 at 15:21

The Mount Rushmore of point-and-click graphic adventure games: Roberta Williams, Ron Gilbert, Tim Shafer, and...? Who would be the 4th head of granite? Don't worry about hurting anyone's feelings- I checked with everyone and they're cool with whomever you choose.

Andrew Hanson - Sep 22, 2016 at 16:25

I will go ahead and answer this for you. Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy morphed into one face called Andromeda.

Big Red Button - Sep 22, 2016 at 17:18

My personal four choices: Gilbert, Winnick, Fox, Schafer.
The p'n'c games by Sierra have never been 'my thing'.

Sushi - Sep 22, 2016 at 16:47

Did you find it more difficult to come up with good, unique puzzles today, compared to your days at Lucasfilm Games? Because there are many more adventure games released since then, I imagine you might have went "oh, no, that sounds too familiar" more often. And how did you keep things fresh, challenging and interesting? (Assuming the puzzles won't be in the same rotting state as that body floating in the river over there.)

L Dimas - Sep 22, 2016 at 16:53

You sound so tired today, guys. When do you think the game will finally be shipped? Be frank with us and relax, we are delay-proof.

Andrew Hanson - Sep 22, 2016 at 17:02

Do you plan to hint at any unmentionable, highly controversial plot twists at the end of a certain second game in a series that baffled all the fans who eagerly awaited a followup that never came? If so, will this reference explain any aspects of what really happened in that carnival? "Cause I wants to know!

criskywalker - Sep 22, 2016 at 17:29

Oh, hi guys!
How much more difficult is creating an adventure game with multiple playable main characters like Thimbleweed Park as opposed to a game with a single playable character?

Gv - Sep 22, 2016 at 17:58

In the EGA mode of the VGA versions (does it make sense?) of Monkey Island and Loom, do the engine run an algorithm? But also look very good, are the images corrected somehow by hand?

TeddyFine - Sep 22, 2016 at 21:58

How do you organise the logic for all the puzzles in your code? Do you have a big array of booleans to keep track an evaluate the state of the puzzles/game?