Cemetery
Jul 27, 2016
We added a cemetery to the game. The decision was made a few months ago, but we only just got the art. I thought I'd talk about why we added it so late and the decisions that lead up to that.
I'm going to dance around a few spoilers here, so bare (or is it bear... English is stupid) with me.
There are a lot of dead people in Thimbleweed Park, it's a twisty little mystery that begins with the body found in the river just outside of town. A few days before our story gets started, the owner of the local pillow factory, beloved founding father of Thimbleweed Park, and Delores's Uncle, died of a heart attack. It's an important plot point, but just mentioning it in dialog wasn't getting the it across.
There is an old adage: show don't tell. So what we decided to do was add a cemetery that you come across before entering the town that has a giant tomb, adorned with flowers from the recent funeral, for our beloved town leader.
Once we added the cemetery, other ideas started to pop up. There was a puzzle chain involving Franklin that always felt a little contrived, and now that we had a cemetery, we could adjust the puzzle to make it more interesting.
Franklin, being a ghost who's stuck in the hotel always limited his usefulness. Adding the cemetery provided a (logical) place that he could go beyond the hotel. So, we add another puzzle to allow him to move between the two places.
Another benefit of the cemetery was it made the reading of Delores's Uncle's will a lot more interesting, since it could take place in his tomb and added a new puzzle to get into the tomb.
The cemetery started out as an idea to solve a story issue, but blossomed into a great room that added several new and interesting puzzles.
Also, cemeteries are cool.
- Ron
"Here lies Nibbles the dog. He was a bad dog. We're glad he's dead."
"Here lies Orange Tentacle. It was never meant to be.'
'Grave of the unknown two-headed squirrel."
Perhaps Ron should start a contest to suggest some creative epitaphs.
Sebastian
I've stopped killing the two-headed squirrel after learning there is another way. But Sushi died a lot of deaths and in many different ways...
That would indeed be funny!
You can drown yourself, irradiate yourself, explode yourself(s), Weird Ed f*cks you up if you give him a certain present, Edna and Purple Tentacle would let you rot to death in the dungeon, Meteor gets serious quickly and Green Tentacle... well, he can actually kill you multiple ways (one of those being much worse than what Edna could ever do to you after chaining you to a bed).
See my post below, if you care. :)
:)
The bottom animation: is this wobbling an
effect in the game or just added for this post?
It looks like this post-processing does not respect
the underlying pixel matrix resolution.
Not sure if you disagree, but I think this does not
works well with a consistent retro feeling of the game.
It's like some retro pixel games "feature" sprites
that can rotate arbitrary angles and scale independent
from the background resolution.
Yes, you can clearly see pixels stretched and shifted.
That's my whole point.
The comment about the background might have
been a bit misleading (take it as a different example).
I didn't know this second mode will be available.
http://i.imgur.com/rNKJ3P3.jpg
I'm perfectly fine with this.
If it looks like crap will be still a matter of taste, I guess.
And yes, this effect might jitter and flicker like hell when done pixel perfect.
I've tried this: http://ezgif.com/resize?url=https://storage.googleapis.com/images.thimbleweedpark.com/franklin_cemetery.gif
Resize it to a height of 160 pixels and watch the result with an image viewer which doesn't use any filter when zoomed.
I don't know how to explain it properly. :)
If you look at the wobbling effect, you can see that
it is applied to a higher resolution (I guess display res) and,
thus, the pixels of the game are distorted (stretched and dislocated).
As Ron implied, doing the effect pixel perfect would
result in a significantly less smooth experience (but a more credible one *grin*).
Hence, it is great to hear that two modes will be available.
But yes, as Big Red Button said there is a lot of anti-aliasing happening (but than on the other hand it already uses a lot more than 256 colours already).
If you were going for a soap-opera-flashback-ish "dream" sequence, or a spooky ambiance feel, then there are better effects that could be more effective.
-dZ.
Seeing the higher resolution, I wouldn't call it the actual renaissance. I'm convinced that this effect wouldn't remind you of the 90s any more, if you only watched it in fullscreen on a Full-HD (or even better a UHD) display.
I don't dislike the above effect. Though, I wonder if the wobbling wouldn't become annoying over the minutes/hours of playing, because it's perpetually in motion. Moreover, I would prefer an effect that could be used for the pixel purists mode as well.
By the way, up to now, I have assumed that the vintage film effect from the first trailer https://vimeo.com/157583742 at 0:25, when Ransome puts his false nose on, would have been the "flashback effect".
Jokes aside, Ron's always been great when an adventure turns to creepy (it's one of my favorite aspects of MI2).
1) There is a nuclear reactor "Made in Chernobyl", and the disaster occurred in April 1986, but this isn't an evidence that the story is set after 1986.
2) The intro starts with "Twenty years ago today..." but there is no date shown.
We assume that "today" is referred to the day the player is playing, that was 1987.
Correct?
Btw. I always thought 20 years is a ridiculous long time...
I will ask the author this very question, for the upcoming Podcast Questions.
It would be also interesting to know how old they are, is this somewhere mentioned? Weird Ed could be maybe 30?
I will ask for when MM is set, and you will ask for the age of MM's characters.
One question per user...
OK?
Btw. the sound quality on that Vevo channel kills at least my ears...
I'm sorry to hear about your biological microphones... :-(
"Would you like your name in the TP Cemetery™ ?
- $10 : your name written on the ground
- $25 : your name written on a little tombstone
- $50 : you deserve a big tombstone with your name, date of birth and date of death
- $200 : Hi Stan, how are you?
You make my life so much more interesting with your adventure games (not so much strike 3 games).
I am really excited about playing the game...
It's "bear with me". As in "carry a metaphorical burden with me".
1. Ray (Female Agent)
2. Antonio Rayes (Male Agent)
3. Delores (young game designer girl)
4. Franklin (the ghost)
5. Ransome (Clown)
6. Chet (Pizza guy, survivalist)
7. Sandy (Diner Girl)
8. Dave (Diner Guy)
9/10. Pigeon Brothers (Small Pigeon, Big Pigeon)
11. Willie (Town Bum)
12. Madame Morena (Old lady)
13. Ms Cole (Bank teller)
14. Mr Cruffman (Safely first manager)
15. Natalie (Nickel News journalist)
16. Margie (Delores sister)
17. Carney Joe (Carnival guy)
18. Ransoms lawyer
19. Postal worker
20. Sheriff
21. Coroner
22. Hotel Manager
Btw. the male agent is called Reyes.
Bring it on ! I can't wait !
It's one of the 10 commandments of adventure games.
Like hiding treasures behind a waterfall...
As a suggestion of intro for Thimbleweed Park, maybe agents Ray and Rayes could be surprised by the funeral of Delores' uncle as they go see the body in the river. And it should be raining!
https://youtu.be/xGyqPmMoVwo
but there is a daylight part in TP or all the game will be in just one night?
Thx
PS
It's 10 o clcok :D
So there probably won't be any daytime in the main part of the game.
but Franklin actually appears in both images :-)
a cemetery, by definition, is a place to remember people and their stories
since an adventure games are about telling stories, it's a perfect
especially with dead people in the story
Ron, I really like the idea that you're exploring new territories -- "renaissance" thingy
even if it means taking risks; Art is about taking risks
in most cases, we forget about the bad experiments, and only remember the great ones
Go go go!
PS: still waiting for a blog-post by busy-bee Mark :-)
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023586/8-Bit-8-Bitish-Graphics
In my opinion, he tells and explains so much there that he doesn't leave any question unanswered.
Of course, we are only seeing a very short clip here, so maybe it odd just the short transition to a flashback.
Is just apply this effect to only one of the layers- like just the trees in the background, for example.
Not sure if it'd be fitting, but I just think it would look cool.