1084 Library Books Reviewed!
Dec 29, 2016
When we asked people for some library books to fill up the Edmund Mansion mansion library, we weren't expecting such an overwhelming response. We're really amazed by the creativity and time so many people took to write a book for us.
We received 1084 entries. As part-coder, part-jack-of-all-trades, I pulled the shortest straw and had to read through all the books. I read through around 80 books a day, which took around an hour and a half. At that rate, it took me 14 days to finish all the books. Due to the sheer volume of books, I wasn't doing any sort of grammatical or spelling checks. Whatever people wrote is pretty much how it will end up in the game.
I was looking for anachronisms, inappropriate content, puzzle spoilers or red herrings, things that didn't work within the world of Thimbleweed Park. Many books I only skimmed and didn't get to absorb their awesomeness.
Out of the 1084 entries, 997 were ok on the first pass, 16 were duplicates (entries that someone submitted twice, presumably to fix mistakes), 11 were in a language other than English, 55 needed review and 5 were definite cuts.
Although we'd spoken about letting people translate their entries into other languages, the sheer number of people involved and coordinating that has meant we've decided against that. We used Google translate to check the 11 entries not in English to check that there weren't any issues. All of them were given the go ahead.
For the 55 books for review, we went through them all and talked about why we should or shouldn't accept them. We had to edit some to remove minor issues, anachronisms or author names that might lead to lawyers needing to be paid.
In the end we have a total of 1056 books in the library. That is, only 12 books were cut completely from the game! That's an impressive amount of content, much of it great quality.
We still need to go through and make sure the books fit on the page-art for the most part. But know that if you submitted a library book, it's mostly likely you'll be able to find it in the game!
Although I couldn't take the time to fully read all the entries as I skimmed them, two entries stick out in my mind as my favourites. So in the interests of giving you a sneak peak into how amazing our fans are, I'm going to share those two books with you.
First up is a book sent in by Dinko Galetic in the "Short Stories" section. It's called "Flash Fiction Anthology" by Various Authors:
My other favourite was a book sent in by Synne H. Rustad, it's called "Everyday Enchantments" by Synne Cinnamon.
- Jenn
I like the Flash Fiction Anthology very much too. It's a story of a relationship in a nutshell.
I also like those two entries a lot.
Anyway...I cannot wait.
I agree with that. The font is really hard to read. My suggestion: Don't "rotate" the book, so the font isn't italic anymore.
Not the same on my 15 inches laptop display, where letters are difficult to read. So it's definitely a matter of resolution. When you'll see those pages in the game, I trust they will be far better.
a
g
r
e
e
Yes, you are right. It is boring. But it is readable. :)
I thought similiar about Times, Arial, etc - they are boring fonts. But when I dig more into typography I realized that less is more. A boring "normal" font is 1000 times better than a funny one set in italic that doesn't look boring at the first glance.
If you (Ron) have some spare time (after thimbleweed park) I would recomend you to read a book about typography. It's not only interesting to read but also important for games.
I was generaly speaking: Rotated or italic text is more difficult to read than normal one. It doesn't matter if it is printed, shown on a (high-res-)screen or pixelated. I suggest everyone who would like to print (longer) texts to not rotate them or make them italic.
And please note: I made just a suggestion. You don't have to agree with that. :-)
I'm pretty sure that the readability was impaired primarily because the screenshot is scaled down without anti-aliasing (using nearest-neighbor interpolation), as Ron wrote. Given that you use a modern screen resolution, non-horizontally rendered bitmap fonts wouldn't impair the readability.
Moreover, the C64 font is not funny. Seeing the low resolution on the C64, it's a very pragmatic font. And, honestly, I'm pretty sure that most gamers expect such a retro font. Personally, I would be disappointed if Ron was using Arial with high-res rendering. In such a case, there would even be no need for the pixel art in this game.
"Given that you use a modern screen resolution, non-horizontally rendered bitmap fonts wouldn't impair the readability."
That is true. The fonts and texts in the (I know, not finished and scaled!) screenshots above are readable. The problem is that your eyes will get tired. Reading long(!) italic or non-horizontally texts is more stressful for your eyes. Try it yourself: Change your Browser setting to an italic font. :-)
"Seeing the low resolution on the C64, it's a very pragmatic font."
I don't complain about the font, in fact I like it. :-)
Well, seeing Ron's experience in terms of game design, I found your suggestion regarding typography to be a bit patronizing, but I probably just over-interpreted it. So, I excuse myself for my judgment.
I wonder how much time it would take to read through the entire library.
Option #209: randomize locations of crowd funded entries
About translations: then, will the team translate the content of every book in the all four languages, without any user help, even if it was offered in the form?
Ron Gilbert latest tweet.
Be bold, learn something new. It's not like the game was written in Latin....
I don't care if it will take days or weeks or even months to finish the game.
I paid for this game, I had the opportunity to give my contribution in different ways (voice mail, title book, books in the libraries), and I am simply curious to see the creativity of people living in every corner of the world.
Again, it's part of the fun.
Happy new year!
I would like to translate a couple of them to german (and hope that there're other people doing this too).
I am really excited about the game, and I think it's an honour that my book - that all our books! - will be in it. Great to see that there's so much activity and enthusiasm among us backers.
Thanks to the whole team for all your hard work! This is going to be great, I can tell.
Also: Happy new year! Best wishes from Norway! xxx
The first entry published is sadly beatiful, congratulations to the author.
About the second one, well.... I didn't get it. Can anybody explain it to me, please? I understood the literal meaning, but I couldn't find in it anything interesting, maybe it's me. Thank you.
Sorry, I just realized you're the author of the second entry. I didn't want to be rude, just I can't understand it. Can you please try to explain it?
:-)
The invention of the Stormhold Syndrome was a neat idea too.
Also who doesn't love barbershop quartets!!
(btw. a shame they cut that song out in the [original] translated versions...)
It's supposed to be an extract from a book on spells and curses and stuff, and Stormhold Syndrome is meant to be a kind of magic version of Stockholm Syndrome.
Happy new year to you!
transform: rotate(6deg);
:-)
http://mauisland.byethost24.com/screenshot.png
_b
I wanted to download Monkey Island SE on my wife's new iPad, but I can no longer find it on the apple store. Do anybody have any news about that? It's a pity, since I have it on my iPhone, but it's almost unplayable on it... :-/
That being said, I also heard problems with the Windows version of MI:SE not working on Windows 10. I think the issue is Disney not caring about their Lucasarts games anymore now that they left the Video Game side of the business.
Nonetheless, it's hard to dismiss the disadvantages of the abandonment of game development at LucasArts. I really wonder who is supposed to maintain their digital heritage. Hard times for the SCUMM games! Therefore, it's good to know that there are other companies, such as Terrible Toybox.
By the way, there seem to be unofficial ways to make WhatsApp run on iPad (see CopyTrans Apps or iTools). Maybe they would also work with MI: SE.
I'm not soooo fond in computer. Maybe I was in the nineties when I was student, but my job is one of the few jobs still existing in which the use of computers is limited to a minimum amount and mostly involving e-mails and word processors, so I'm not so smart nowadays.
I think that maybe this could work:
https://litchie.com/pages/dospad.html
With original editions, I mean....
I'm sorry for the OT, which from "big" is getting "huge", but maybe it could interest other people. Obviously, if Ron prefers to stop it, I won't be upset :-)
DOSPad looks interesting. But, if you would like to play the original versions of MI (and some other point & click games), the ScummVM app may be technically the most mature choice. Especially, ScummVM is optimized for adventure games. On Android, it works fine, but I can't say anything about the iOS port. Well, here is some information about how to install it:
http://blog.pmlabs-apps.com/scummvm-on-ios-without-jailbreak/
Anyway, your suggestion is quite tricky, but very attractive. I'll surely check it out as first option, followed by dospad.
I hope all this could be useful to somebody else, and I'll update a feedback when done.
Those articles can be used to frighten children.
I'm sure that if you complain about this with a tweet, the devs will read it and will make their best to have the game back on the store. :-)
I still don't play games on a phone .... because reasons.
To me, games are for keeps. Maybe the idea will die as we get old and wither away, but I *like* to play games from long, long ago, but I don't see anyone keeping all their old phones to play old games on it. Games they can never download or buy again.
Anyway, does this mean that the game is still on sale on other platforms?
And, most important: who is Gerry Valentini?
You can listen on here: http://www.deejay.it/audio/gerry-valentini-vs-cristina-davena/435707/
In that episode, he tried to give a new iPhone to Cristina D'Avena.
And because of that, I started to notice that one of them going through depression right now, because among many, many other things, gaming as a whole is something he's had to give up on due to severe health issues.
When you have only one hand that'll *barely* obey your synapses, and your eyesight is impaired to the point that you need special glasses that partialy compensate for your brain being unable to merge the two pictures your eyes are receiving, life as a gamer is near impossible. So my friend is sitting in front of the TV. All day. Every day. More or less just listening.
Since I've told him about Thimbleweed Park again, he really, really wants to play it, and the dilemma is obvious. Either someone needs to play it for him and tell him every little thing, or the game helps him play it somehow.
I guess the verbs are big enough. He'll be able to see them and click them, half the time. He'll misclick many times and things won't work, and he'll throw the towel, when the game doesn't know what he wants it to do, I can already see it coming. If I play it with him - for him - he can't properly articulate what he wants me to do either, because talking is ... hard. And exhausting. What would help?
A magnifying cursor. A big one. Preferably one that occupies a third of screen and can just be dragged left and right.
Zooming in on characters as they speak. Give him talking heads.
Full screen verb interface popping up replacing the game graphics, whenever he clicks something.
Full screen inventory replacing the game graphics when possible.
Dialog progression on key-press. Never miss a word. Never miss a line. Never miss ANY key animation.
Repeating the dialog/scene when clicking the other mouse button. Again: Never miss ANYthing.
Visual cues and hilighting for all clickables.
Life sucks a big one for some people. They can't play fps. They can't play most games even if all it takes is doing left clicks, because they can't see anything.
One arm. And one arm's length. One hand. Two fingers. You gotta be able to do everything with just that.
In view of the following screenshot, TWP can also be run in window mode (instead of full-screen mode):
https://twitter.com/CloudUndSpiele/status/787929613410369536
Therefore, usual magnifier software, which every OS might have ex factory, may work, too.
It's probably easier to walk the character around with one finger using a thumbstick and cycle through hotspots than trying to aim the mouse at them. Also selecting verbs via controller could be easier.
Another alternative could be using a completely different kind of controller. e.g. this is one made for quadriplegics: http://www.quadstick.com/
P.S.: Don't tell him about the specks-of-dust achievement...
It's not that he can't move his arms, legs, hands, fingers, head, tongue and jaw at all anymore. All of them are now only able of making imprecise movements. He can chew and move his tongue around a little, but this is very exhausting, which is why he doesn't talk much. Multiple Sclerosis can effectively reduce your dexterity and all fine motor skills to a point where it's just barely enough to exist. In some cases, worse than that.
It sounds terrible, but a big(!) joystick fixated in front of him might still be the best option, with a button he can trigger with his other "hand" (basically just a fist that never opens, now). I'm watching him struggle, every day, and even the normally simplest tasks become bigger hurdles over time.
Can't wait to play, but we are patients :-)
Jokes apart, since the development is in its final phase, could you tell us what is currently missing / working for the project to its conclusion?
Thank you!
Maybe I am naive (ingenuous), I thought Thimbleweed Park is currently among the most awaited games, the hype is high, and Microsoft should give a good thrust to the marketing.
In other words... your reputation precede you; just knowing there is new Gilbert / Winnick / Fox / Ferrari game, is enough...
But I am not in the business at all, nor into games development / publishing, so keep the above sentence "as is" :-)
Thank you for your answer, I'll wait without any anger. Promised!
Moreover, it would hurt me if the game was offered at less than fair value after a few months.
Hopefully, the game will get positive receptions within the media!
From a certain point of view, the reduction of the price is sad and unfair. But something has to be said:
game piracy is nowadays at its minimum levels, and that is due to the ease of downloading a cheap title.
It is a good thing that there is people who are happy to spend 70 dollars for the latest, shining, glittering and fancy release.
But it is also a good thing that a casual gamer colud play that game, maybe years later with a reasonable expense.
And this also prolonged the life of games in years.
Today you can find on the platforms games which are quite old, and are still on sale at minimun price.
Till the advent of online platforms, everything was different: you paid 50 dollars for a new game, in two years you couldn' hope to find it on shop shelves; and in four years you couldn't hope to run it again on your computer because of the obsolescence of OSes and hardware...
I'm truly glad to read this!
By the way, when I take a look at Amazon Marketplace it seems to me as if the used copies on DVD or on Blu-ray competed against the new ones of the respective game. Not to mention the clearance sales at the stores. So, in the long term, it would be wise to limit the number of physical copies, if you release TWP officially on disk. The collector's boxes are already limited, of course, but many people who won't get such a box already have evinced their interest in a release of TWP on DVD. It may be a little bit frustrating for some fans (including me), but, at least in my opinion, Double-Fine took a clever decision by selling their games via download only.
@ Ema:
I agree with you that low prices actually help against piracy, but if you really come to appreciate a game you've pirated, you are often willing to buy a legal copy afterwards. And, of course, it doesn't help the developers if the earned profit is too low. I agree with Ron that $20 might not be too expensive for a game like TWP.
@Big Red Button
I agree, $20 is a good price for TWP. Maybe even $30. Whoops, I meant $29.99.... :-)
I wasn't saying that games should be sold at low prices. It must be the right price. If you lower the price, you raise the selling, and vice versa.
Marketing managers should know which is the right price to obtain the maximum total income.
What I'm saying is that this "right price" is not fixed. It follows the market, as the offer follows the demand.
It is not disreputable if a game sold at $20 today is still sold, 5 years later, at $5.
More people can play it, and everybody in the business can still continue to earn on it. Nobody would pay a full price for a title of 5 years ago.
Back then, games that were 5 years old were simply... forgotten, no longer on sale and often no longer playable on newer machines.
And I have to add something: maybe TWP as a niche product can't expect to be sold at prices comparable to the last chapter of a GTA or a Fallout saga.
But thanks to the online shops and thanks to this price policy, this niche product CAN HAVE a niche market, and can be sold. And can make happy a niche amount of people.
20 years ago nobody would have developed a product for the nostalgics of the games of the 70s...
Because it would have been impossible to sell such a product on the shelves, at any price.
In this case, I agree with you.
Nevertheless, I'm convinced that it wouldn't be necessary to reduce the price to $5 within 5 years, because even after 5 years there will be enough people who would pay more than $10 since TWP is not only a good indie game but it also brings back old memories.
@Ron Gilbert: There are sometimes backers who think they get video games on Kickstarter for a bargain. And I can understand that some won't be happy when the game is released with a discount on release. But most backers are reasonable and you shouldn't think much about backers when deciding prices.
Hopefully, you're right.
If you can do that at all, my suggestion would be to give preview copies of this game to Twitch streamers and Youtube let's players. Have people like Totalbiscuit do a "WTF is ..." video about Thimbleweed Park, if you can persuade them to. The german youtube channel GameTube would surely be all over this as well as the german youtube channel Pietsmiet, and Gronkh, no doubts there.
Not sure about english speaking gamers, but it probably wouldn't hurt to offer this game to some of them, like Markiplier and many others. No doubt Matt Barton from YouTube would also be interested, as he's interviewed a lot of you.
I know this is probably not the old way to promote games. It's the new way.
Normally Let's Players don't play the game completely, and you cannot exhaust all dialog options in the first play anyway so there should be some replayability too.
Besides, everyone who *really* cares enough will play the game unspoiled, and whomever is interested enough will be buying after watching only a portion of it.
Oops, with 'does' I meant 'those'.
But not easy to achieve, you need to add at least one letter on the left and squeeze an M and B in there, hmmm
Conan O'Brian might fall for Ransom, too.
?
Not so much the other ones which were all about marketing of newly released games of those kind I don't care about...
But an episode with TWP would be awesome! Maybe with Elijah Wood, I'm sure he will like that game!
Marketing material can be fun. It might look like a nuisance for the creator, distracting from the actual merrits of the game, but seeing the pictures of your booth, it just feels whole and a healthly manifestation of something otherwise entirely virtual. I guess that is one reason why people like to have boxes, even if most games would be easier accessible online. In a way a box is pure marketing, but still it adds some value. And I for my part like seeing the imagination going into clever promotion and can enjoy it for its own sake (sometimes even for games I am not the slightest bit interested in).
Then again, I don't really follow game magazines or websites, so what do I know. I only read game media when there are interesting headlines in news gathering sites.
I'm happy to see it as a top first page result in Google searching, since it is displayed as an answer by Google itself powered by Wikipedia (probably due to an agreement between Google and Wikipedia to substain the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation).
I tried to keep it easy to read and to insert the most interesting things such as Gilbert and Winnick original conversation about the game as read on Grumpy Gamer, the second phase with kickstarter success and more team members from LucasFilm Games like Fox and Ferrari, the game mechanichs of original point and click games and references to Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion, and obviously links to this blog and Ron's Blog.
I try to keep it updated with some minor changes to avoid wrong speculations, as requested by wikipedia guidelines. More could be done adding other interesting things and some of the wonderful images posted on this dev blog, but I (we) need authorization to upload it on wikimedia commons (I can't even do it but I would learn for the occasion...)
Give me a hand, let's create better pages, let's create new pages in other languages (they're only 5 by now, including Italian). Let's spread the word about Thimbleweed Park!
I'll check it!
He knows (and imitate as well) Frank Matano (he did a little show during and episode of Italia's Got Talent show), where Frank Matano was one of the judges.
I'll personally talk to him about Thimbleweed Park, and I'll ask him to contact Frank Matano.
Little by little... let's help Ron in spreading the word about TWP!
He's a youtuber which gained a lot of popularity, and he's now a TV and movie star in Italy... So he doesn't need to be paid to review the game, but obviously he will review it for free only if he will like the game a lot.
And, besides, if he doesn't like it or simply he is not interested in it, he could "pay-per-review" it for sure, but probably at movie-star-crazy-rates....
This was ust to explain to non-italian people what we are talking about...
I have met Claudio Lauretta! See my twitter profile for the picture with him :-)
I have talked with him, I asked if he knows Frank Matano, and he said yes, personally!
I talked him about Thimbleweed Park, and if Frank Matano could be interested in playing it and making a video, in his own way, when the game will come out. Claudio Lauretta answered me: "Why Not?" :-) So, let's talk with him within a few months !!!
Phase 3: vacation
Profit is Phase 4.
Phase 4: Depression.
Phase 5: Get a real job.
It's the indie lifestyle.
;-)
We don't expect only to enjoy this wonderful adventure, we expect you to bring as far as possible, even to the very next generation! The world deserves it! You deserve it!
You guys had all the backbone to make this game! :) Ride it into the sunset! I'm really proud of you all!
Be aware and be ready for situations, but keep strong :).
Take it away George!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEwdHF7PR50
We know the date, and we are sure of it at 95%.
But if you tell that, people understands 100%, and gets mad if the date changes just by one single day.
It happened, so that we had to change our policy.
So I approve the Dev Team policy. No need for a date, after all. :-)
Little OT of that, i think the backlash against devs for moving the release date it's born when developers and PR overhype their game for improve the sales. See No Man's Sky.
Weary -> wary
Not a native, BTW.
Personally I don't think youtubers like Matano or Piewdiepie are the right choice to share the gameplay. I see TP more like a special gift for people who have always loved the great work of this team. I'm not a marketing expert and don't know if Ron idea is somehow related to this fact, but I think the arrival of 3rd Season of Twin Peaks after 25 years and Thimbleweed Park are connected and this is really a great moment for us 80's gamers!!!
Of course want to reach ALL potential gamers out there, including kids. And if Piewdiepie works I'm fine with it.
I agree with Ema's comment below (well, except I allow those kids to like the game too :-)
The question mark is: will the game get a good reception by young players? By massive players? By casual players?
But I noticed something... I often see in the streets young teens who has a phone cover shaped as a microcassette tape.
The funny thing is that probably they have never seen the real thing live! They know it from the movies...
Today fancy young hipster people like vintage stuff.
Well, that's not true. They don't like "old" vintage stuff, they like new stuff which has a vintage look.
What is better than a fantastic vintage adventure game straight from 1987 to impress your friends, who are still stuck on stupid mindbending games featuring candies or fat birds?
Actually, it is not important that they like the game, win the game, or even play the game. It is important that they buy it.
Better, that they buy it on the less playable device: their mobile phone. Because we don't need them to play it, we need them to carry it out with them, to show to friends, because the art is fancy and beautiful and the one who has such games is such a cool guy!
So, young youtubers are a good idea in my opinion.... as long as they can like and understand the game.
In that case they can promote it as a fashionable item.
The risk is they could review the game with conceit, marking it as a weird divertissment for nostalgic forty-agers...
Piracy is a stump argument these days. As long as games are affordable, people who are really interested in a game (not the *-collectors and curious alleged buyers), are likely to buy it. You should give a small incentive close to release (like the 10%), then try to keep the price stable whilst going on sales actions here and there, all depending on the specific case and how well a game sells.
Btw. when will it be released? So far it's still the game i'm looking most forward to this year.
But your first paragraph is IMHO bullshit.
Release is probably March.
Thanks for the date.
About younger players: this might be totally new type of game for people who are under, say, 22 yo. If they watch a video they might think "yeh, kinda cool artsy graphics", but if they get to play it for awhile, they might think "I need to solve more puzzles! I need to know how the story evolves! Gimme more!". So I would say a demo might not be a bad idea. If you need to pick a platform, I'd say it's iOS. And then Android. Yes, I know, takes time and money, but marketing always does.
Keep up the good work and look forward to playing TP!
Cheers!
P.S.: if there's ever a desire to see this game ported to Portuguese, I'd be happy to help!
http://i.imgur.com/BJOCxpG.gif
I also hope that everybody in the blog will remain spoiler free, but -at the same time- we could discuss puzzles: back then when I was stuck on a puzzle, discussing it at school with friends was a game-in-game.
Today, looking up in a walkthrough for a solution is not a game. It is not fun. It is really a bad sensation, like your're cheating.
But sometimes you have to do it.
It is frustrating, after the third long and busy day at work, to come home and wander for one hour -again!- in those same 4 rooms to find why you can't solve that puzzle, especially if you have the solution in your mind but you simply missed a small object or you missed a room which entrance wasn't quite evident.... most of the times I get stuck for reasons like this.
I have a proposal: I don't have the time and the knowlegdge to do that, but if this blog will ever be closed, one of us should create an unofficial blog after the release, so that we could move there.
So we could discuss the game as we like without cluttering Ron's blog. I hope that the developers, who will always be welcome there, will come to say "cheers" forn time to time...
What a fantastic source of behind-the-scenes material this is! (imagine we could have had the same back then in the late 80's/early 90's...)
I will probably download all of it, just in case.
Other than that, we have a nice bunch of fans gathered here. Would be nice to stay in touch.
I also check the mix'n'mojo from time to time, but it is a bit scattered and not nostalgic enough for my taste (I don't care about 99% of telltale games e.g.) - the secret history of lucasarts games is a good read though!
I've red some where that you were downloading all the podcasts, all the videos, all the unfinished art and that you had more than 3,2 Gb of such material.
I feel a bit shameless, but... wouldn't you mind to share all this material?
After my post I had the idea of starting to collect all the material that appeared in the blog, and this post by Sushi suggested me the idea of asking you.
You could put everything online and publish the link on this blog... I think all the fans and the users of the bolg would be grateful :-)
- In the beginning i randomly saved some articles about TP. It differs from country to country, but some of it might be copyrighted. Even if its freely available, i don't know if i can publish it...
- I guess Ron is ok with it to to pack everything together, so one does not have to harvest everything individually. This includes: soundcloud (podcast), vimeo (videos :), pictures from the blog, kickstarter, twitter (pictures only!) and instagram (not yet done).
- the pictures arent well sorted atm. This sounds like work...
- its not meant to be complete. But maybe its a good starting point for some kind of community based repository. Anyone having too much webspace?
- i used to have a good program to make a very complete snapshot of a website which also changes all links to local ones. Its totally outdated though. Is there a good and free program (or app :) ?
- Dont expect anything prior to the launch of this masterpiece formerly known as thimbleweed makeitanoptionmon
I have used this only on Mac. Don't really know how iOS version works.
At least all the blog posts, images and comments at the current time are now saved for all "eternity".
Somehow, it's a bit sad that this project is drawing to a close. But, of course, it's time for the creators to read their harvest. I really hope that they're going to inform us about their future game development processes in a similar way, even if those projects will probably not be crowd-funded! I would stay tuna... eh... tuned.
By the way, I just finished The Cave (for my first time). What an irony that the finish is so near from early on in that game! If someone would like to run it on a PC, I can recommend to play it with an Xbox 360 controller for USB (even though I had a few minor issues with the mapping). It's a nice game! I'm definitely going to replay it with a different trio some day. Maybe after finishing TWP, when I have to wait for the release of their subsequent adventure game.
My tuna head also stays tuned!
Back then I played The™ Cave™ with PS2 controllers (the only console I own).
I then bought XBox 360 controllers to play on Windows which were my favourites until I've got an XBox One controller.
Since I have an Xbox One, I also own an Xbox One controller, but I haven't tried it on my PC yet. I don't see any notable difference between the Xbox One controller and the Xbox 360 controllers in the field. All of them are good enough to me. For this reason, it's a pity that the Xbox One doesn't support Xbox 360 controllers! :-)
There are two big pros for the new ones though:
1. The D-pad of the 360 controller is horrible. What were they thinking? It's easy to accidentally push a wrong (diagonal) direction. This is mainly a problem when playing old-school games where one button press in the wrong direction instantly kills you.
2. The connectivity of XBox One controllers is much better: You can connect the same controller either wired or wireless. With 360 controllers you've bought either the one or the other kind.
Preventing long static segments
Watch yourself in a mirror saying "This is exceedingly illegal." Your lips barely moved, right? That's exactly what would happen in previous versions of Rhubarb Lip-Sync. Only worse: Because there is only one "clenched teeth" mouth shape, the mouth would stay completely static during phrases like this. Rhubarb Lip-Sync 1.4.0 now does what a professional animator would do: It opens the mouth a bit wider for some syllables, keeping the lips moving. This may be cheating, but it looks much better!
The inspiration for this change came from a post by longuist back in August (https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/library_books). Not knowing hot to fix that, I asked Jim Richardson for help, who is one of the great traditional animators. He was kind enough to bring me onto the right track! (https://animateducated.blogspot.com/2016/10/lip-sync-animation-2.html?showComment=1478861729702#c2940729096183546458)
Artistic timing
Previous versions of Rhubarb Lip-Sync have tried to reproduce the timing of the recording as precisely as possible. For rapid speech, this often resulted in jittery animation that didn't look good: It tried to fit too much information into the available time. Traditional animators have known this problem since the 1930s. Instead of slavishly following the timing of the recording, they focus on important sounds and mouth shapes, showing them earlier (and thus longer) than would be realistic. On the other hand, they often skip unimportant sounds and mouth shapes altogether.
Rhubarb Lip-Sync 1.3.0 adds a new step in the animation pipeline that emulates this artistic approach. The resulting animation looks much cleaner and smoother. Ironically, it also looks more in-sync than the precise animation created by earlier versions.
If you want even more details, have a look at the official repo (https://github.com/DanielSWolf/rhubarb-lip-sync/releases)!
Thank you for your effort!
Nice read, including the explanations in your repo,. Its like a full blogpost we dont see often these days for obvious reasons.
Just curious how long it takes to batch-process the whole of audio files of TP. How many hours might 16K lines be?
when I was a kid, I was reading several computer magazines, and their reviews of the upcoming games completely polarized me,
so that I liked what they liked for the most part, and mostly disliked what they disliked.
So that I'd say that the marketing should push on the magazines, to captivate their reviewers.
But is this still valid nowadays?
I think their part has been greatly reduced.
Nowadays, there are several source of information, and maybe they are just glisssed, bypassed, ignored.
Teens and tweens listen to their idols (youtubers, singers) or to their close friends.
If -for instance- Steam wants to promote a certain product, be sure that Steam will do it, and it will be a best-seller.
I think those platforms will promote -more or less- the game, since they know that these indie products have a certain niche market.
I remember they promoted MI, MI2, DOTT and Grim Fandango's special editions.
Those titles are still on sale, with prices ranging from EUR10 to EUR 15 (EUR 20 for Tales of Monkey Island).
And they're still promoted, since sometimes they advertise sales on those titles.
Not to mention that you can find on Steam even the original versions of Indy4, Indy3, Loom, The Dig, at EUR 6, which is quite an high price compared to many younger titles sold at 1.99....
I checked the "news" page on Steam prior to write this comment, and they feature on it even "goat simulator", side-by-side GTA5...
:-D
It should be important also to promote the game with the curators of the platforms. They have many, many followers.
Anyway, the young youtuber strategy could work only if it is systematic. One should contact as many famous youtubers as possible.
If one out of ten will make a review, the goal will be reached.
Half billion viewers should be enough.
(...thimble-jingle, thumble-jungle, yeah... )
Can I use the Thimbleweed Park music intro as a background music for a commercial title card, broadcasted in the local cinema where I usually give a hand?
Here is the link of the video (11 seconds) (the video is not searchable in Youtube, but only accessible by direct link):
https://youtu.be/n_OYhBlj-_4
(you know, subliminal message... :-) )
In Italy things are different: the trademark owner enrolls in SIAE (a global company of authors and publishers), and it's the company, through its agents, that is responsible to collect money for the use of protected material.
Then, the company, based on the usage of the protected material, pays the owners proportionally.
The only way to lose the rights is to not be enrolled (voluntary) in SIAE.
If I use a protected material without owner's permission, and the SIAE detects me, I am obliged to pay a "fine" (ticket).
Thanks for explanation!
Maybe we discussed this earlier... I remember you don't want to release a public demo.
But... are you managing to release demoes/trailers to newspapers, curators of game platforms, independent reviewers with many followers on the social media?
Thank you
https://youtu.be/-F_8qaQ3DD0?t=13
Well maybe the singing? :D
http://bit.ly/2jhrGCJ
http://imgur.com/a/Yu1JP
NEED IT. WANT IT.
MIGHT NOT JUST LOVE IT, BUT LIVE IT.
BE IT.
DON'T PLAY IT, BE IT.
DON'T DREAM IT, BE IT.
DON'T DREAM IT, BEEE IT.
SMILE, AND THAT WILL MEAN I MAY
'CAUSE I'VE SEEN BLUE SKIES
THROUGH THE TEARS IN MY EYES
LIKE I'M OUTSIDE IN THE RAIN
FREE TO TRY AND FIND A "GAME"
I WANT TO GO
TO THE LATE NIGHT, DOUBLE FEATURE ADVENTURE GAME!
IT'S BEYOND ME!
HELP ME, MOMMY!
MY LUST IS SO SINCERE....
The new short movie of Daniele Spadoni is online: "Pixel world - endangered".
I am sure that every user of this blog will be able to recognize four characters at least :-)
The most adventurer players among you, will recognize also the last one, for sure...
Here is the link : https://youtu.be/RmWxWBGdXRc
Enjoy!!!
I would also love an old car with new features, but I'd favor a late 60s muscle car. ;-)
When we ("experienced" not to say "old") users have played the brand new Lucas* adventure games (MM, Zak), we loved everything in it: it was a perfect mix of innovation.
Our brain, in situations like those ones, stores every tiny bit of information: colors, resolution, music, sfx, emotions, humor, story, locations...
So, all that style, that was an innovation at that time, was cataloged as "GOOD" by our brain.
Years pass, Lucas* games continues to live, but their creators change, and the perfect mix goes phut.
I'm talking about MI3 and MI4, for instance. They changed graphics, but also story, humor, music and other elements.
Our brain has cataloged the whole thing as "NOT SO GOOD".
That's the reason why we wanted Thimbleweed Park to be as closest as possible to the very first Lucas* adventure games: because we know that the mix was good, not to say perfect, and every modification that could alter that perfection, scares us.
The irony is that still we witnessed so many great changes between MM and MI, that for some reason do not get acknowledges the same way. The reduced number of verbs, the ability to talk and the lack of dead ends, all factors which made MI so much better than anything before.
Rather than the missing link between Zak and MI, Thimbleweed seems to become something the genre could have become, had it not taken the wrong road several times on the way (like: fancy graphics instead of well designed puzzles, simplification instead of options paired with a clever design using them, 3d because everything must be 3d, Schafer being allowed to design on his own, etc.).
Tim Schafer made (and designed) great games.
The Steam reviews for Broken Age, Brütal Legend, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts are all 'Very Positive'.
metacritic scores are: 73, 80, 84 and 87.
Btw. MI2SE got 87 too.
But of course everyone was blended by Psychonauts creativity and they actually never enjoyed playing this mediocre platformer...
I'm sure that Tim's popularity has its seeds in his activities at Lucasfilm. But, as I mentioned, I've never played Tim Schafer's more recent games yet. Maybe they are deserving their popularity. Anyway, he runs a successful company!
After founding Double Fine he concentrated on console games, creating Psychonauts and Brütal Legends.
I assume those got their own fans and they probably didn't that many of his original fans from point'n'click times.
In my case (since I don't really own consoles) I've played these games very late when finally PC ports came out.
I'm an original backer of Broken Age and liked it very much (+ the documentary!). But I also didn't expect an oldschool adventure in retro look with 24 verbs etc. Some folks get easily hyped and develop high expectations of games which then can never be satisfied anyway.
https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/818910218931224576
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knj4L2rw6ms
I didn't know of it back then.
I think you are referring to this: (I couldn't find an actual game screenshot)
http://www.worldofmi.com/images/categories/7/Underwater.jpg
I have vague memories of that.
If in MI4 I was a little disapponted, for the story, bugs, 3D graphics in general, with Tales of Monkey Island I felt good, every chapter was well-designed.
I loved in particular the 5th episode, when Guybrush is really dead. Really. Really really. DEAD.
It's always good to have some titles in mind. At least it's done by Dave Grossman, a former LucasArts game developer.
@Gv: Yes, the second image it is! I've found those screenshots:
- http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3h7KtcdquYg/VFlF7TVTLlI/AAAAAAAAEBQ/rxsXEdVlUBM/s1600/DSCN4070.JPG
- https://screenshots.en.sftcdn.net/en/scrn/49000/49790/escape-from-monkey-island-9.jpg
Even though I enjoyed playing Monkey Island 1 more than MI2, and MI3 has a lot of ambiance that took me back to MI1 I have to do justice to MI2 and say that storywise is a lot better than those.
IWWHITOMI - http://silverwolfpet.com/i-wonder-what-happens-in-tales-of-monkey-island/
(spoiler alert: start with IWWHITOMI Episode 1 but don't watch the next one unless you've played the previous episode)
But, in my opinion, the critical responses to EMI and Grim Fandango were way too positive back then. For some reason, adventure games didn't work as good in 3D. Above all, it wasn't point & click any more. So, when EMI and Grim were released, LucasArts were disappointed by the low sales and they never released another adventure game again. What a tragic ending for such an erstwhile success story - caused by a series of bad decisions!
By the way, I think that most of their later adventure games by Lucasfilm were more appropriate for a younger audience. The MI series is a good example for this. When I was a child, I knew some adults who enjoyed MI 1 & 2, whereas a few years later the same people didn't have the slightest interest in CMI and EMI. Maybe the game designers at Lucasfilm weren't aware about the fact that the fans of their earlier games already had become a bit older. Of course, charming artworks and humor are very important elements in such games, but you have to make sure that the game doesn't appear to be too puerile to older gamers, if you don't want to discourage them.
It's great that they've added point'n'click to the Remastered version after seeing that ResidualVM mod. Finally controls are fixed for those who want it that way.
The Mail felt like a nice surprise. Like you've found a flyer about an upcoming festival in your town. It's not quite there yet but thinking about that it will be soon, raises your mood already.
I will play with retro pixel mood, I still fight like a cow after all...
*Disclaimer: there seems to be no evidence about any of this in internet. How curious.
*Disclaimer: there seems to be no evidence about any of this in internet. How curious.
/Quote
Then it must be TRUE! Everybody knows that the internet is full of lies!
https://d.justpo.st/media/images/2013/12/f3a9fd9ac4102e8215a7149d9b9a6e3f.jpg
I was wondering...
1) can Gary post some original preparatory art for the game which hasn't been published yet?
2) can David tell us a funny story about the development of the game?
3) can we take a look at the unused sketches for the game logo?
Just waiting for the game :)
But it's not a funny story. It's far too important then to make jokes about it!
https://twitter.com/DavidBFox/status/819260308682207232