Friday Questions

by Ron Gilbert
Aug 27, 2015

In the interest of making the Friday podcast more exciting (for us and for you), we've decide to add a "Friday Questions" section where David, Gary and I answer and chat about your questions. I think it will be more fun to answer them on the podcast, than in the comments because we can talk about the answers and have more fun with it. If there is anything this project needs, it's more fun.

OK, so this is how it works. In the comments, ask us a question and we'll grab 10 or so that are interesting and/or informative and do our best to answer them.

You have until 10 am (PDT) Friday to post your questions and please keep them focused on Thimbleweed Park or the adventure games one of us was involved in.

- Ron

Questions are closed



Josejulio Martínez - Aug 27, 2015 at 13:52
Will be there tentacles on Thimbleweed Park?

Patrik Spacek - Aug 27, 2015 at 13:58
I have questions about your future plans. Whats the minimum number of sold units to call this game successful and keep you all work on another game? Do you also plan expand your team and hire more people for future project? What is your plan if the game wont be a huge $ support?  Thanks

Markus - Aug 27, 2015 at 13:59
How did you get into game developing?

Kevin Drum - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:00
Do you currently have any more thoughts on the future of your engine?  Do you think you'll make it publicly available?

Are there any adventure games from the past ten or so years that you really like (that aren't your own)?

EdoBvD - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:01
Will that cigarette finally burn her fingers?

Will you do a "creator commented" version of the game (that blog is barely satisfying my curiosity)?

Will the game be multi-player? Is there going to be a FPS version of it, with 81 different pick-able characters (sorry 80)?

Klaus - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:05
Hi, will there be modding support or the possibility the use the engine to something completely different?

Hasteur - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:08
What is your favorite beverage?

W̷̦̦̻̰̩̟̫̪͇ͪ̓̉͠h͇̥̫͈͈͎̦̭ͪͤą̧̹̣̣̙̹̏̎̌ͣ̄t̠̘̝͔̭̊̔ͨ͂̐̈́ ̸̻͙͔ͨ̋̇ͪe̲͙͕̞͇͍̦̩̗̾͋̍̈́̆̂̀̈́͡l̡͚͈̯̓ͤ̏̀͋̂͐͞d̖̖̠̻͛̋͛ͦ̈́ͮ̄ȓͥ͂̊ͩ̽҉̺i͆ͭͤͬ̈́͏͙̺̘͚̞͇͞͠t̵̡̳̬̖̓̃ͬc͎͚̬̜̜̩̠̘̎ͦ̉ͫ͠h͉͍̲̳̯̠ͦ͛͛̓́̊̀͠ ̳̤͉̳̰̪̘̣̬̏̌̈ͯ̀͠e̩̖̻͈̮͕͇̖̍ͪ͜n̶̛̫̼͕̺ͨt̨͖͒̋̎ͫͨͧ͞i̜͖͎̍ͭͯͧ͟͝t̢̘̟̭̖̣͑ͯ̈̓̚i̶̒̔ͬͤ͏͙͚̭͙̯͔͉͡ͅe̦̬̥̾͛s̻̄̉̏̏͐̓̇̚͡ ̛̮̈́͗̔͑ͯͨ͢w̤̬͑͠i̫̝̣̗͛ͥ̊̂̄̚l̛̝͎̭͆̓̈̒̔l͚̼̱͎͕̎͐ͩͯ͘ ̷̢̥̺̺ͮ̔̌b̢̲͚̮̖̯̥͙͓̏͋ͪͬͩͭͭͨ̕ĕ̸̛̜͙̜̹͔̳ͤ̈́͊͘ ̦͚̙́́ͮͫ̏͒̍̐s͚͓̜̬̫ͨͬ̏̈́̈́͋͡ͅp͕͇̗̅̆̍ͅa͗̔̔͏̱̪w̛̞͚̖̙͎̼̟̏̔̿n̩̳ͯ̔ͦ̓͛ͭa̵̶͇̥͔̟͈̱̗ͤ͆͊͛̏̽͑ͥ͘b̷̼̺̌͆͊ͪ̀l͉͉͙͉̘̻̊̄̋ͪ̅̊̈͂e̷͕̘̥̙̱̟͉̋̉ͣͨ̔ ̵̴̖̼͕̼̾̄̎̚i̛̥̟̻̩͉̦̩̤̾ͫ͝n̢͚͖̪̣̥̹͌̈ͣ̚͟ ̢̤̪̟̝͇̦͈̮̉́͂̀ͬ̕gͮ͛̾҉̟̗̳͇͝ͅa͙̙̖̻̯͈̙ͫ̈̆͑͊̾m̩̬̫̬͈̖̝͖̰ͤͯ̈ͯe̲̲͚̻̣̩͇̥͔ͦͧͧͤ̄̃͑͜?͔̖̻̳̦̏͊͑̓

Dominik - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:09
Question: How do you guys TWP is shaping up (Story, Setting, Humor, Size) in comparison to Monkey Island. Do you think it will be en par? Are there things you like more about one of them?

Bonus Quetion: What scenario (game world) would you choose for another adventure?

jfrisby - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:09
Are you keeping a spreadsheet on the number of times different verbs are used?  How are Push/Pull/Close doing?

Lorfarius - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:11
Will there be a follow on to this? A possible series or even going onto other adventure games in future for all or any of the team?

Tom - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:16
What sound lib are you using now? Who does the SFX?

skarsson - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:22
What IS the secret of Monkey Island?

Natalija - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:25
Hmmmmm.... I don't know what to ask you. I was like "yeah,all I'll have to do is just ask one question and if it's good ,they'll answer it in the podcast! How cool is that!?".And now... I think the question is stupid so I wont ask it.

Bogdan Barbu - Aug 28, 2015 at 10:52
It's like you're more interested in having your question featured on the podcast than having it answered. Thanks for sharing, though.

Francois Mercier - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:26
I very much like Ron's sence of humor. For me, that count for 50% of the fun of the games he worked on. That was my main motivation to learn english (well. .. almost) in my young ages.  I especially likes what I call "meta-jokes" or "off-side" jokes (like the one in Monkey Island when you almost die like in a Sierra game... Unforgetable! I just like to know if this kind of humor would still be present in TP. Thanks!

Farge-TV - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:27
Do you feel restricted by your Kickstarter pitch, now that you have hired Mark Ferrari and the style has changed somewhat?

Emanuele - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:27
Hi! Here's a question for Ron. I would really love to know something about the removed rooms in monkey island. Thanks!

Grafekovic - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:29
What is your favourite adventure (p'n'c or text) and why? Did the Sierra adventures inspire or challenge you?

7th guest - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:30
Little shop of Horror and the Re-animator was some of the inspiration for Maniac Mansion.

Besides Twin-Peaks, true detective and X-files, what inspirations do you draw on for Thimbleweed park??

And a follow-up question would be if the Navigator-head from Monkey Island also was inspired by the talking severed head of The Re-animator.

Wouter - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:33
Hey Ron. Could you share a breakdown of your budget and expenses so far? Would be super interesting to see.

Dr. Ackermann - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:40
This really seems to have become a topic for Kickstarter games lately…
But hey, since you (Ron) are obviously managing it very well, this might actually become really interesting to hear about. Even the “other guy” may learn from you – maybe? ;-)

Brian Ruff - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:34
What state or region is the town of Thimbleweed Park based?

Jasko2000 - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:35
1. What are the main drawbacks of not having a traditional publisher (apart from Microsoft)? I.e. are there any things that you'd like to do that would be much easier with a traditional publisher?
(The advantages of not having a publisher are obvious, but maybe there is also something positive that you didn't expect?)

2. More technical: Have you figured out the interface for touchscreen devices (where you don't have a mouse pointer to hover over objects)? Will the Windows version support touchscreens for users on Windows 8/10, or will there be a separate dedicated Windows 10 version with touchscreen support?

Ralph Upton - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:36
What happened to the dude that made the music for Maniac Mansion? Why isn't he involved in this project?

longuist - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:36
What are the current (expected) system specs for the game? +(GL Version, Shader Model, Fallback mode?) Can i run it on a Toshiba Libretto?

vegetaman - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:40
Just a general question... What is your favorite point and click adventure game mechanic? (as opposed to other game styles, like FPS games or such)

Hoerry - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:55
What type of music will the game have?

Jeff - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:58
Ron, you recently retweeted an interesting article from RockPaperShotgun about Kickstarted adventure games and how (according to the author) they have all been underwhelming:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/07/06/rpg-adventure-kickstarter/

I'd be curious to hear your take. His point seemed to be that adventure games were the AAA blockbuster games of their time, pushing the limits of what was possible, and that today's adventure game revivalism is aping those designs without bringing that spirit of pushing boundaries. The mechanics of those old games—the verbs, the inventory items—were at the time genuinely the best way to draw you into another universe and allow you to interact with it on a deeper level than anything else, but now those mechanics can feel like limitations: why can't I interact with the scenery or NPCs?

Should today's adventure game creators be "recreating *the feel* we had when playing those games rather than specific experiences that don’t hold up"?

I know TWP has all along prided itself on being a nostalgic victory lap, which I think is cool, but I would love to hear your thoughts on the critique overall.

Joel Dorsey - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:58
Are you going to make monkey 3 after thimbleweed park is over?

Paulup - Aug 27, 2015 at 14:59
The Thimbleweed Park project is carefully avoiding the pitfalls that other Kickstarted adventure games have encountered (eg. huge delays, budgeting problems, not being classic-feeling enough, etc.)...

Do you think Thimbleweed Park has an advantage in that you were able to learn from some of the other games' mistakes?

And if you had been the first Kickstarted adventure game, do you think you would have done things differently and been more likely to have succumbed to the same pitfalls that other games have?

Hodge - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:01
If you could take one of the tools/techniques you've been using for Thimbleweed Park and send it back to the 1980s to help with the development of Maniac Mansion, what would it be?

Milo Casagrande - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:01
What game/games, if any, are you playing right now?
Any games you are taking inspiration from for Thimbleweed Park?
Aside from the "verb interface" (if we can call it that), which do you consider a good point-n-click game interface from other games you played?

ciaps - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:03
1) Did you end up using Spine, for the animations, in the end?

2) Do you like cats? Cats should be in the game.

3) I read on a magic book that you have the intention to reuse the engine you are making for making a glorious, very awaited sequel, for completing a trilogy of a game. Is that true?

Dan Sorensen - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:18
I sent this in as a blog post idea, but maybe it's better for a discussion: with the C64, you had a known screen resolution. Now with many screen resolutions on your target devices, how are you guys handling screen resolution? Does Ron have to creatively scale the pixels? Do Mark and Gary have to produce different cropped/scaled versions of their art for each target platform? Do you just letterbox everything?

It is a technical question, but seems like it would have a big impact on making pixel art look right/intentional/pretty on different systems.

Brocc Lee - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:23
How much Winnick would a woodchuck Winnick if a woodchuck could chuck Winnick?

Andy - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:23
Will you keep making these sorts of games if we keep giving you money?

Seems like a great business model: sell the game before you even start, and make everyone feel part of the process.

Forget Kickstarter.. It could be a subscription model.. I bet we could find 5000 fans of your work to give $10 to $20 each per month for access to fun development blogs and a free adventure game every 18 months.

Franzy - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:41
I back this question and the idea wholeheartedly !!!

Hjniels - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:47
I'm in!

Tim Wright - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:31
Programming question:  When using a custom engine like this, how do you tackle testing that the game will run on all the different operating systems, graphics cards, and all those weird *.dll/*.so errors?  Is there a base system like SDL underneath, or do you get porting help, or what?

Bobe - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:32
Now that you're this far into the project, are you still happy you didn't go with JavaScript/HTML5?

Erik de Keijzer - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:42
Will there be a possibility to choose from different characters to start TWP with, and therefore there is another solution to finish the puzzles in the game in a different way (because of the choosen characters at the beginning of the game) ?

Will there be reference to previouw Lucas Arts adventures like Zak Mc Cracken, or Maniac Mansion, or Day of the Tentacle in the game TWP ? Like drawings of paintings in a room or something like that to remember about the older adventure games? Also with some funny scentence when you draw the mousepointer over such object.

arvenius - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:43
b) are you planning to extend the game with features or even additional content after release or just fix occuring bugs? if so, will it be free or DLC like?

a) Would you make games for oldschool platforms if the audience was still big enough to carry it (i know, its not, but still)?

d) regarding b), do you think the universe and characters you created for tp will be re-used in any of your follow up games, adventure or not?

g) will TP include telemetry and data collection code?

c) can you point me to a place where I can learn the correct alphabet?

arvenius - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:48
oh oh and one more because im currently addicted

f) what do you think of Evoland 2? =)

charlestondance - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:49
I have always wanted to know more about iMuse. Maybe you can comment on how it came about, how it worked in the engine and why you think the idea has kind of fallen out of favour? Would you consider something like iMuse in Thimbleweed park?

Arto - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:58
Will the box have marble themed sides?
Why the Lucas games' boxes had the marble themes?

Sushi - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:49
Arto,
Check out the comments section of the Facebook post by Mr. Fox on November 19th in the group "we want Zak McKracken and the alien mind benders special edition"; there's already some background on the marble design there.

Marcelo Staudt - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:58
What is the chance of the engine be open source?
What do you guys think of ScummVm?

Peter - Aug 27, 2015 at 15:59
1. You guys worked on „Maniac Mansion“, „Indiana Jones and the last Crusade“, „Zak McKracken“, „Loom“, „Monkey Island 1“ and „Monkey Island 2“ (Mark also on „Fate of Atlantis“). What is similar, what is different if you compare you’re work to the time at Lucasfilm ???
2. The mood of the general design is very „Blue Hour“ like, similar to „Loom“ or „Monkey Island 1“. Do you plan to create a similar look and feel to that game, from the visual Part or was it not a aim?
3. Why are you taken so much care of create a pendant to the old game, but not to the music (Why are you guys not working again with Michael Land, because he was a important aspect of the look and feel of the old games).
4. Do you plan to add some other „old“ guys from the Lucasfilm Days, like Tim Schafer or Dave Grossmann to the game? (Tim Schafer wrote the great Dialogue with Stan in Monkey 1)
5. If you write the engine for the game by yourself: Can this be the reason for delays in the production ?
6. You work first time with Mark Ferrari since the old Lucasfilm Days: Why is he painting the stars different, like in Monkey Island and Loom? (they look like dots and are not blinking !!!)
7. A Question to David Fox: If you crash the egg in Zak it is not possible to get the oxygen tank in the airplane. Than you have a problem on Mars. What should I do (in Zak McKracken) and: Is it possible that you guys could create a new Zak Mc Kracken Game?
8. What happened to Stan? Will Stan appear in in Thimbleweed Park?
9. Will there be text like „You can turn out you’re computer. Maybe you could go out and play with you’re friends!“ at the end of Thimbleweed Park?
10. Will there be Maps in Thimbleweed like in Monkey1 and: How many different locations are you planning? Just the town in Thimbleweed or some other cities/islands that we can explore?
11. Will it be possible to travel like in Monkey 1 / Fate of Atlantis / Crusade / Zak: Airplanes, Boats, Cars ???
12. Will there be a action sequence ???
13. A question to Gary: Do you design different visual looks for feelings for the characters: fear, happiness, laughing, annoyance ???
14. Do you plan to publish the game also in DVD cases, like Limbo or Broken Age ???
15. What are you guys thinking of Games like „Limbo“ or „Broken Age“ ???
16. What about Noah Fahlstein ??? You need Noah !!! :D
17. Do you have called Steve Purcell for a short meeting ???
18. Do you have some contacts to old Lucas Arts people, what are they thinking about Timbleweed Park ???
19. Could you imagine to introduce you’re game also at different places like Comic Conventions (Comic Con) or do a small Tour and visiting country like Germany (like Don Rosa did) for signing video game packages and answering questions to you’re fans ???
20. Could you imagine to write a book about you’re old games and about the history ???

Arto - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:22
"or do a small Tour and visiting country like Germany (like Don Rosa did) for signing video game packages and answering questions to you’re fans ?"
Oh yeah! Don Rosa visited also our small (200K) town in northern Finland. Line was waaaay too long. Would queue for TP team though.

Sushi - Aug 27, 2015 at 17:24
Re 17 :  Steve is with Disney now... Wait a minute... Disney owns the rights to MI now.... hmmmm....
Re 8 : Stan is canonically trapped in one of his previously owned coffins. A chuck the plant appearance seems more plausible.
Re 7: How do you crash the egg? (use in sink; turn on switch (shredder) ?) Anyway, restarting would be the only solution I know of. Yes, Zak was not perfect.

General remark to Ron, Gary, David & Mark: I see the word "old" was used a LOT in Peter's questions above.  I think I can safely speak for all of us that we as fans do not think you guys are *old*. We are equally long-term fans. Middle-aged, perhaps. Nostalgic, probably. Old-school, for sure. In a good way. Please, don't be mad... mind your blood pressure! ;)

Rob Osinga - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:01
What are  the minimum specs / demands for the savegames?  Do caracters need to be saved in the last position? Or can they be standing in the roomentrance?
How about encryption of savegamedata?

Natalija - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:08
Why do you have tick next to your name when you say something in the comments?

Mattias Cedervall - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:14
What do you think about Nintendo? Has Nintendo shown interest in Thimbleweed Park?

Have Sierra tried to recruit you?

Did you try to hire the composer that composed the great music for the NES version of Maniac Mansion?

Marcel Taeumel - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:14
In retrospect, what was the biggest design flaw and what the most challenging technical challenge you had to deal with during the development of Maniac Mansion (or Monkey 1 if you like) -- irrespective of the constraints Lucasfilm imposed (Floppy Count (tm) etc...)?

entropy - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:21
All team:

Did you like the tv show Twin Peaks? (I do!)
I read somewhere that TWP is partly inspired by Twin Peaks.
Is that true?

Ron:

Since you allowed a question about an older adventure game...
What is the question you've ever wanted to be asked about
your Monkey Island games but no one did so far? And please answer it.

Kai - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:22
Have you considered including "dead ends" or deaths in Thimbleweed Park? I know you take pride in creating games that never become unwinnable. Also, I think we all agree there is nothing more frustrating than being punished during the final battle for not picking up an object in the first room. However, don't you think that punching a few holes in the safety net - at least when the player clearly ignores all warnings - would add a little bit of excitement to the game, given its detective/crime/whodunit theme?

Necrosis Thanatos - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:26
Will there be any gratuitous T & A in Thimbleweed Park?   :-)

Arto - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:30
Was the popularity of the occult book store book title suggestion post a surprise? How many title suggestions did you imagine to receive? 2?

Hoerspiegel - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:36
1. Are you going to have your wives' forenames in the game?
2. Will there be any multi-headed animals?
3. Is there going to be any relation to Twin Peaks?

Alain - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:42
Why such a complicated name ?

Ashley B - Aug 27, 2015 at 21:26
I'm going to field this question with a completely uneducated answer*, but all the appearance of being correct.  I reckon it's to avoid anyone saying that the name is already taken and launching a Kickstarter campaign to pay the laywers to then sue for infringement.  I once drew a cartoon character who was a volcano.  I called him 'Pop Tart' because I thought that was funny.  Turned out to be a breakfast product sold in countries foreign to me, so I had to rename quickly.

*Uneducated because I have no direct connection to this project, but wish that I did lol.  (Other than posting here)

Bogdan Barbu - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:46
I have a few questions about the game engine and a few about Terrible Toybox, Inc. in general. I know you may not know the answers to some of these questions but we'd love to hear your thoughts anyway.

1. Does the engine support elevated terrain? E.g., it would be nice for the actors to actually climb the curb at the Quickie Pal. Although I'm pretty sure that was hacked together, Monkey Island 2 has this cool effect on the road that leads to the Governor's Mansion, where Guybrush can walk on a hill as well as behind it. I wrote an adventure game engine some years ago and implemented this as part of the walk-box system because of that particular room in MI2.

2. Will any of the rooms be seen from non-typical angles (e.g., seeing a neighbourhood from above or something)? Or is that just too expensive in terms of asset creation?

3. If you continue to make adventure games after Thimbleweed Park is released, how do you expect to fund them? Ideally, the sales from Thimbleweed Park would cover the next project but I don't think that's realistic due to the small market, as excited as I am about the game personally. Do you think a company can successfully crowdfund more than one project without folks raising eyebrows? On the bright side, you can reuse the engine so that will save you something.

4. Should you continue to make adventure games, do you expect you might stray away from low-resolution pixel art? I'm curious whether your ideal vision for the company is to create games like those from the Lucasfilm Games era, whether you hope to treat every game on a case-by-case basis, or whether Thimbleweed Park has low-resolution art simply due to limited financial resources?

Cheers.

Bogdan Barbu - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:53
5. This is going to be controversial in this community but I expect that as VR picks up in the next couple of years, first-person adventure games will be a natural place to go. I know 2D point & click adventure games have their charm but I'm talking about something else now. What are your thoughts on this new medium, that puts so much emphasis on the experience, for adventure games?

Alessander - Aug 27, 2015 at 17:38
I support this question. I prefer adventure games in 2D rather than in 3D, but I'm also quite interested in the upcoming VR headsets...

Bogdan Barbu - Aug 28, 2015 at 03:14
6. What did Ron think about the Tales of Monkey Island? I've never heard him say anything about it. For what it's worth, I thought it was pretty amazing, both story-, puzzle-, and length-wise.

Iron Curtain - Aug 28, 2015 at 09:41
I asked Ron Gilbert what he thought of Tales of Minkey Island at PAX 2009, and his response was a long pause, then simply "I like it."

Bogdan Barbu - Aug 28, 2015 at 10:54
LOL. Thanks.

Domino - Aug 28, 2015 at 04:59
I was going to ask the 4th question, too. It's really cool that you're making a game looking like it's from the MI1-MI2 era, but it would also be amazing to see you make a game that would have HD graphics. I am sure that there are a lot of game developers (programmers, artists, etc.) that would love to work on a game, written and directed by you guys, so it shouldn't be a problem to find people for your team. Of course, HD graphics would cost more, but provided that you have enough finances, would you be interested in creating an HD game? Or do you just love pixel-art and aren't going to move away from it?

Hamdi - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:48
In Thimbleweed Park, do you ever consider making jokes about UI differences between different UI of adventure games, like the joke you guys did in Monkey Island 2 "Insert Disk 22 and press button to continue", the Monkey Island 1 reference?

And here are some of the details of the same question:
What do you think about the UI in general in adventure games? Do you think the one that you are using is the best? Why?
You are using in the Thimbleweed Park, do you ever think is worth tweaking it to be a better user experience  other than using the classic ones that you have designed back then?
At least do you ever consider to have an alternative to the current classic version? Like what you have achieved such in The Cave?
Maybe it is not worth to change it all since it is the classical adventure game you have been building and this is that nostalgia, but do you consider making some interactive jokes in game related to the UI alternatives in other adventure games?

Thanks and  looking forward to the Podcast :)

Peter Campbell - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:50
How nervous were you guys when you were getting ready to launch the Kickstarter campaign for Thimbleweed Park and were you surprised that the campaign reached it's initial funding goal within the first week?

Derrick Reisdorf - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:53
Let Your Fingers do the Walking
How exactly will the phonebook be used in the game?
When should we expect to submit our answering machine messages?
How do you intend to deal with reviewing all of the submitted messages?

Please Don't Hurt My Feelies
Have you given any consideration to what kind of feelie you intend to include with the boxed copy?
Or, will it have to be a surprise?

The Lesser of Two Evils
Which do you least like when playing or designing a classic adventure game: mazes, or pixel hunting?
Which scenario do you think is most (or least) enjoyable for a game-adventurer:
You find yourself in a dark room and need to "feel" your way around the room with the mouse cursor;
or, you are stuck in a maze, of sorts, and you need to solve a puzzle to navigate your way to its end.
Since both of these puzzle mechanisms have been done before, would you ever retread them, perhaps if you added a new "twist"?

Get Figgy With It
What are your thoughts on Fig (a new crowd-funding platform)?  Pros?  Cons?  Would you consider doing a crowd-funded game again, and if so which would you do?

Back In My Day
Is the game still set in 1987 (or, thereabouts)?  If so, are you making sure to squeeze loads of late-80s and early-90s references to pop culture and technology of the time?

Lastly.
Ron, do you know that you're my hero?

Derrick Reisdorf - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:56
In reference to the Fig question:
I meant to ask which crowd-funding method would you consider.

The Count - Aug 27, 2015 at 16:57
I wonder if this section will be closed after 1046 comments…
(No, this is not a question which should be addressed during the podcast.)

Guys, please follow Natalija’s example and check whether your questions are relevant to others and “worthier” than the ones already raised. Ron has better things to do than read through dozens of pages just to find 10 good questions.
Nothing personal, just think about it.

longuist - Aug 28, 2015 at 09:01
..and check the FAQ (The button in the upper right corner labeled "FAQ") A lot of questions are already answered there..

Pertex - Aug 27, 2015 at 17:00
Will there be a killer feature in Thimbleweed Park, something really new and cool like the insult duels in Monkey Island?

Michael Hoffmann - Aug 27, 2015 at 17:06
1. A couple of weeks ago, in the blog post "Design Dilemma" you asked the users for help designing a specific puzzle. Were you able to use one (or maybe a combination of several) of the suggestions?

2. In the comments to the blog post "Cutting" several users (including myself ;-) ) pointed out they would like to see the bank vault kept in the game. Did you reconsider your decision to cut this room?

Dan - Aug 27, 2015 at 17:08
Ron, you wrote that this will be the 4th adventure game engine you've built. I only know the SCUMM engine. What are the two others?

Jaap - Aug 27, 2015 at 17:56
Did one of you guys ever start a game project and just quit it after e.g.
- being fed up with the concept
- simply because it wouldn't be possible to finish because of a limited budget or lack of resources
- because the concept turned out to be way to ambitious?

Working on an adventure game myself now and in a stage where any of the above could happen.

criskywalker - Aug 27, 2015 at 18:35
Guys, are you excited about Metal Gear Solid V, that's going to be released in a few days? Would you ever like to create an adventure game with Kojima-san?

Ron, in retrospect, is there anything you would have done differently about Monkey Island? Some features that you would have cut or things that you would have liked to include?

Is there some feature in Thimbleweed Park is totally new to adventure games? Something no one else tried before?

Is Thimbleweed Park art? After seeing Mark Ferrari's amazing backgrounds, I'm pretty sure it, at least, includes some fantastic art! But is the game art? Why? Are all games art?

How have things you've seen in recent years influenced your work? There have been so many amazing TV series like Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and cool movies like Ex Machina, which makes me sure your perception of entertainment must be different nowadays than in the Lucasarts days.

What's your opinion about indie games. In some ways I think how you worked in Lucasarts days is similar to indie production, but at the same time it had a lot of AAA production.

What are your favourite games nowadays? Are you excited about any of this year big games like MGS V, Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3? I'm pretty sure that Thimbleweed Park will be one my GOTY in 2016!

Finally, will we get to know The Secret of Thimbleweed Park?

urielz - Aug 27, 2015 at 18:54
Will Gary be doing all the animations in the end? Are you using Spine?

Helge Frisenette - Aug 27, 2015 at 20:09
Favorite book, movie, album, TV series, play, comic, game, food etc.
Might sound mundane, but it tells you a lot about a person and even more when someone reacts to the answer.

skarsson - Aug 27, 2015 at 20:28
Ron, what do you think of Guybrush's middle name (Ulysses)?

How come Michael Land, Clint Bajakian and Peter McConnell aren't involved in Thimbleweed Park?

Zombocast - Aug 27, 2015 at 20:42
With your obvious succcess with Thimbleweed Park hitting more than 10,000 sales the first month on Xbox One and 100,000 on Steam. Do you feel your next title will be as successful, now that Mark Ferrari had pursued other opportunities?
Also, what made you decide to go with an Action RPG, instaid of Point and Click Adventure for your next title? Do you think your game engine will perform well with the 5 player co-op mentioned as a stretch goal in kickstarter last week?
Lastly, there has been rumors that your next title will also be an Oculus Rift exclusive and John Carmack will personally be assisting in the development and optimization of the new engine, can you confirm?

°Ransom the clown, executive press for the Thimbleweed Times

Ashley B - Aug 27, 2015 at 21:16
Did you manage to solve the chainsaw puzzle?  Of course Im not asking what solution you applied, just whether or not you have a puzzle in place now - and whether it came us collectively or from a flash of inspiration subsequent to your post.

Mike McP - Aug 27, 2015 at 21:44
With the MS deal, do you worry you'll lose your indie street cred?  Along those same lines, when is that line officially crossed?

I don't particularly care about the label, because I'm old and hate everyone original hips, but I'm just curious about your take on it.  Thanks, guys!

Laihanen - Aug 28, 2015 at 01:02
Is it possible to get stuck (for doing something wrong) or die in the game?

Henk - Aug 28, 2015 at 02:48
Did Lucasarts ask you to do MI3 or didn't they ask?

Also: Don't you think that doing a kickstarter to get the rights to license Monkey Island and create a new version'3' would be a great idea after completing Timbleweek Park? (You know you'd be funded within a day or 2 right?)

Derrick Reisdorf - Aug 28, 2015 at 08:28
Disney simply doesn't want/need to sell the rights to Monkey Island.
I wonder, if we dangled a big enough carrot in front of them...?
...or, I suppose, a big enough piece of cheese?

tomimt - Aug 28, 2015 at 03:10
As we know, this will be an old school adventure game, but as we also know old school games could have some design choices that are relatively poor from as far game play goes (dead ends, exessive pixel hunting, un-intuitive puzzles, moon logic etc.). Where do you draw the line with those?  What are the old school elements you won't use.

Fanman - Aug 28, 2015 at 03:17
Maybe to early, but do you have any thoughts on followup like TWP 2? What kind of criteria should be met before you would consider it?

Fanman - Aug 28, 2015 at 03:20
Sorry missed the time limit...damm the timezones:-)

Daniel - Aug 28, 2015 at 03:25
will there be a computer in the game that has maniac mansion on it?

Derrick Reisdorf - Aug 28, 2015 at 08:31
They are remaking Day of the Tentacle.  Let's hope it's in there.  :)

Paul Jacobson - Aug 28, 2015 at 03:31
I really like the opening tune for the podcasts is that music going to be used for the game title music?
in all honesty I've come to associate the two together now =)

badde - Aug 28, 2015 at 03:35
What weather is in thimbleweedpark?

Mario - Aug 28, 2015 at 03:47
You guys all worked already together years ago and without a doubt it seems the perfect match for point n' click adventure games.
Like the Wild Maniac Monkey Mindbenders Bunch.
So why not making your own adventure game design company/label?
Someday maybe get the rights for the old lucas projects back.
There should be backers out there who would back the money for you to buy the rights for your stuff.
And in this case a good bait could be the making of MI3.

What you think?

Colin - Aug 28, 2015 at 04:26
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?

Steve - Aug 28, 2015 at 04:51
You are placing allot of effort into creating your adventure game engine in parallel to the game itself. Would you consider releasing the game engine as a standalone product after the games release, either as a commercial offering or as open source?

DZ-Jay - Aug 28, 2015 at 05:12
What does "allot" mean?  (Ron, can you answer that in the podcast?)

Derrick Reisdorf - Aug 28, 2015 at 08:40
al·lot    /əˈlät/

verb
       give or apportion (something) to someone as a share or task.

Alfonso "King of GnG" Maruccia - Aug 28, 2015 at 04:59
Are there plans to insert a monkey-based joke/puzzle in an adventure game that's unfortunately devoid of monkey contents? And I mean it: where are the monkeys?

Derrick Reisdorf - Aug 28, 2015 at 08:42
There is a shortage of bananas in Thimbleweed Park.

DZ-Jay - Aug 28, 2015 at 05:18
Hi, Ron,

Here's my question:  Can you give a bit of detail on the technology available in the early 1980s to design and create video games, from your personal experience?  For instance, was it all C=64s and people punching in Assembly Language opcodes, or were there VAX or PDPs with cross-compilers and emulators?

And for bonus points, how were the sound effects designed back then?  Was it someone playing with knobs, sliders, and patch cables on a synth console until something sounded right? Was it someone analysing natural sounds spectrally using an Oscilloscope and other machines?  Or was it just some dude PEEK-n-POKEing the SID randomly until it sounded interesting?

Inquiring minds want to know! :)

     -dZ.

Andy Hall - Aug 28, 2015 at 05:50
Ron/Gary: There have been a lot of prior Kickstarter game projects that have not gone smoothly (to be polite), how did these effect your approach to starting the project?

Gary:: Were you ever tempted to try and use old-school tools like DPaint under emulation for that extra bit of authenticity and are there any drawbacks to using modern tools to recreate the look?

Everyone:  It's only 6 months in, but if you were to do this again, what is the biggest thing would you do differently if anything?

Nacho - Aug 28, 2015 at 06:41
Hi,

I started with game development (Im software engineer but just this year I start with game development) and I wan to know if you have pieces of code (free ,open source,etc..) or recommended lecture to start learning.. I read this blog (I love it ) and other ones , but I feel that there is a gap between a novice game developer like me and the this that you are showing.

Thanks

Zarbulonian - Aug 28, 2015 at 07:08
I guess most of us know about the Guy brush thing, but why Threepwood?

RCM - Aug 28, 2015 at 07:21
Are there any games/projects any of you have worked on that you wish got more attention/popularity?

Jeremy G - Aug 28, 2015 at 08:21
Will there be someone dressed like Guybrush at Thimblecon?

Jeremy G - Aug 28, 2015 at 08:23
Will there be someone dressed like Guybrush at Thimblecon?

Derrick Reisdorf - Aug 28, 2015 at 08:53
Where's the Terrible Toybox logo?
Is that something you are required to register but didn't bother to do so?

Derrick Reisdorf - Aug 28, 2015 at 09:12
Please pick more than 10.  :)

Maybe you can do 10 this week, Answer 10 the next.  And, 10 the next.
Pick 10 questions on Thimbleweed game-related questions this week.
Pick 10 techy programmy things for the following week.
Answer 10 questions about Monkey Island (and other past projects) the week after.

Derrick Reisdorf - Aug 28, 2015 at 10:21
Do you think it is difficult to be inspired by something but not create something that is derivative?
At what point do you think derivation becomes imitation?  Paying "homage" to something is often looked at in a positive manner.  How does that differ than plagiarism, other than that of acknowledging the original artist?

Can you describe how the ideas of Thimbleweed came about?  The story, its characters?

Also, when I played through The Cave (which I really liked), it did remind me of an old C64 game I liked by Datasoft, The Goonies.  It was an action platformer that relied heavily on puzzle-solving (but you could not carry items).  It was a bit different than other games at the time due to the puzzle-solving element.  Did you ever play that game?

stderr - Aug 28, 2015 at 11:20
Back in March ( http://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/doing_better/550321d48195c3e7779bbdf3 ) I asked if you would release one of your test programs as a very limited demo.
As far as I understood your answer ( http://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/doing_better/550322d08195c313789bbdf3 ) you were considering it.

Any news? :-)

(BTW: I don't know why those two links has the wrong date and time. http://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/doing_better has the correct timestamps.)

Sushi - Aug 28, 2015 at 11:44
How does the current amount of script code (not engine) compare to the amount of comments on the blog? (in kbyte or wordcount)

Dan - Aug 28, 2015 at 11:46
Will the characters nod when they are speaking, as they did in the post-bobblehead-era?

Gv - Aug 28, 2015 at 12:46
How does Mark do the dithering in the backgrounds? Is he using a software feature or he does it by hand?

Rob - Aug 28, 2015 at 13:08
To: Rob

Long time fan of your games. It's crazy that I'm 45 and was playing your games in my 20's and still look forward to every release. I can remember living in Virginia Beach surfing all day waiting tables by night, but after work some cold beers a pizza and Monkey Island adventures were a perfect way to end the day. It was a great time for games because you had set the bar for a new gaming platform/engine very high and everyone else had to conform to the new standard. I started my gaming in the late 70's with Zork and working my way up....seeing monkey island at that time was like going from tube TV to 4k....it was like wow....right. Now my kids 9(boy) and 13(girl) and replaying your games with me having a great time. It's funny but I look back at the puzzle solving aspect and how the worlds were developed. You made the player think outside the box, use multiple tools or what you needed may have been right in front of you. I think in some ways this type of thinking strategy has helped me in life to not limit my thinking and to look for what might not reveal itself in the typical form. This is hard for some people and easier for others. I enjoy seeing my kids look for these solutions. I'm working for a Financial Firm helping people retire and save money and solving each persons unique financial puzzle based on their willingness to take risk. My Question: The money that you receive from your initial fundraising along with sales and royalties from past and future games are you guys allocating a certain percentage of the sales towards future games and hopefully part towards retirement. Thanks Hope you guys have a great weekend. Rob