Options

by Ron Gilbert
Mar 31, 2017

As promised, here are some of the options you can set in Thimbleweed Park.

First, you need to find the Prefs.json file.

Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Terrible Toybox/Thimbleweed Park
Windows: AppData\Roaming\Terrible Toybox\Thimbleweed Park
Linux: ~/.local/share/Terrible Toybox/Thimbleweed Park

Most of these are just debugging, so don't complain (haha... don't complain... who am I kidding) about them giving you weird results, these are not meant for mere mortals, which is why they are not on the options menu.

We're a very small team and we just didn't have the time to iterate on these without letting more important issues slide.


Can the window be resized when in windowed mode. Since we use nearest neighbor scaling, this can produce ugly result.  If things get goofy with the windows, go into Prefs and delete all the entries that start with "window" to return back to the default.

windowResizeable: 0

Amount of wiggle when mousing over the verbs, 0 = none

verbWiggle: 1

Amount of wiggle when mousing over the dialog lines

dialogWiggle:1

Turns on pixel perfect mode. It hasn't been tested very well, so it might cause issues. I'm sure it could be better, but we ran out of time.  Remember, this is only the game scene, not the UI.

UPDATE: pixelPerfect mode seems to be broken if you're not running windowed at 1280x720. No idea, used to work just fine.

pixelPerfect: 0

Number of times to "pop" the inventory when adding an object.

inventoryPopCount: 5

Holding down the TAB key will show you hot spots. It's not 100% accurate and might show false positives or false negatives.

hotspotCheater: 0

When the verb or dialog is on screen, how transparent is the background.

uiBackingAlpha: 0.33

Alternate location for save files (like dropbox).  You have to use /, even on windows. If you save them in dangerous places, it's all your fault.  Applications that are sandboxed may not allow the saves to this location.

savePath: "/path/path/"

Show the system cursor.

systemCursor: 0

Clicking the right button will skip dialog, but only when you're in a cut-scene or the cursor is off.

rightClickSkipsDialog: 0

For key mapping, you can only use lowercase, as it won't see the shift key.  You can also use numbers without quotes for scan codes. Some international keyboards map keys oddly.  The only key you can't remap is "o", since it beings up options.  I'm changing o to control-o for options in the next patch, then you will be able to.

keySelect1: "1"
keySelect2: "2"
keySelect3: "3"
keySelect4: "4"
keySelect5: "5"
keyOpen: "q"
keyClose: "a"
keyGiveTo: "z"
keyPickup: "w"
keyLookAt: "s"
keyTalkTo: "x"
keyPush: "e"
keyPull: "d"
keyUse: "c"

There are a lot more options, but most of them are for debugging and have no effect on a release build. If there is something I missed, let me know, I might have forgot it.



Nor Treblig - Apr 01, 2017 at 10:53
Shouldn't it be Ctrl+o for consistency with save/load/win etc.?

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 10:56
Sorry, that's what I meant.

Pedro - Apr 01, 2017 at 10:58
Thanks! How to enable those beautiful walk boxes?

Jeffry Houser - Apr 01, 2017 at 10:58
rightClickSkipsDialog: 1  

And the complaint:

It is pretty half baked; and does not work exactly like the 'period' key.  

The UI problem w/ Skip Dialog was solved in King's Quest 6, about 25 years ago, and consistent in most point and click adventures today.  I do not understand why Thimbleweed park defied genre conventions.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 11:03
No, it doesn't. It only works when the input is off, like in a cut scene, since right click is used to select the default verb.  Sorry, Sierra games are not my convention.

Sushi - Apr 01, 2017 at 15:49
"Sorry, Sierra games are not my convention."
Luckily it's April's Fool day (and we all know how fond Ron is of today)
:D

Nor Treblig - Apr 02, 2017 at 01:41
Oh I see.
Well, April Fool's Day is over and he can now go back to expressing his love about Sierra adventure games >:D

Jeffry Houser - Apr 02, 2017 at 09:04
We aren't talking about Sierra conventions; we're talking and point and click conventions.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of non-Sierra point and click games that use the 'click to skip dialog'.  A few examples: Wadjet Eye [Blackwell], Daedalic [Deponia], Revolution Software [Broken Sword series], King Art Games [Book of Unwritten Tales], Red Thread Games [Dreamfall] just to name a few.  

The lack of this in Thimbleweed park was jarring.

Johnnyfreak - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:02
The point is this: you do not want to skip a single line of TP.

So mouse click or keyboard doesn't affect the game at all.

Nor Treblig - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:34
Exactly :-)
It happened to me several times in other games that I skipped dialog because I accidentally touched the right mouse button.

Btw. you can skip dialog using the keyboard (full stop / period ends a sentence!), that's the Lucas* way since a long time.
Mice often have a lot of buttons (normally at least 3), so someone can just bind his '.'-key to a mouse button and voilà! (note: on XBox controllers the B button skips lines by default)

Jeffry Houser - Apr 02, 2017 at 19:00
I read quicker than I can listen to speech; and almost always click through dialog.

Based on a thread on the steam forums, I am not the only one.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 20:30
As a designer, this completely depresses me. It's like watching a movie on fast forward.

Soong - Apr 03, 2017 at 01:59
I agree with you and it would depress me as well if I had put all this time into writing dialog.  That being said, for some people, beating the game quickly might be more of a reward than playing it.  I never understood that, but I can see how other people might feel that way.

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Apr 03, 2017 at 03:26
What "depresses" me, it's that I am at Part 3 already.
Jokes apart, I'm enjoying every bit and byte of this game.
I have spent about 2 hours reading the books in the Mansion Mansion library, that's part of the fun!
Of course, I listen to every dialog, while reading the italian translation (yes, I wanted to play it in italian, because ore translator has really put so much effort in doing his job).

If the goal of one player is to finish and adventure game like this one as soon as possible, where is the funny part? I can't see any.
It's like a wacky race, where the player is starring Dick Dastardly.

Mister T - Apr 03, 2017 at 12:46
Dang, Zak, you managed to keep from playing it all by the sheer power of your will? I tried to, but I went through the game in two intense sessions. I was just too weak. Or maybe the game was just too good.

Kolzig - Apr 04, 2017 at 00:20
Yes, I've never understood that also, why would people not want to enjoy a game properly that they have bought. What is the idea of trying to complete it as quickly as possible and not understanding the story and the dialog. I don't understand speed gamers, especially if they try to complete the game quickly just in order to get a cheating refund in Steam due to Valve's weird rules.

Amazing game Ron, some small things only have technically bothered me so far, but the game itself is excellent! Thank you so much.

chandl34 - Apr 04, 2017 at 11:28
I like skipping dialog, but only when I've accidentally clicked on the same option three times.

Andrew Hanson - Apr 03, 2017 at 00:27
'.' makes much more sense. it's too easy to accidentally let your finger weigh down the button while you're in dialogue and miss something. but, as someone already pointed out, it's not difficult to assign '.' to 'right-click' for use during conversation if it bothers you that much. but, c'mon. i mean, it's just pure logic to have a period stop a sentence! basic grammar.

Carl Docto - Apr 03, 2017 at 11:25
right click skips dialog is very important to me, because when i'm trial n erroring it is very annoying to hear and wait for the same dialog. it should be set to default on. thank you.

Bon Antza - Apr 01, 2017 at 11:06
Remapping skip dialog to something like 'v' would also kick ass, because then I wouldn't have to move my left arm at all.

And oh yeah:
Mouse scroll for inventory scrolling = 1

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 11:57
I have the mouse wheel scrolling the inventory, but it touched too much code to send out in a quick update.  When we do a major update (maybe in a week), it will make it in.

diskostu - Apr 03, 2017 at 06:44
Hooray! Thanks for listening.

CPA - Apr 01, 2017 at 11:11
Ron, are you happy with the launch numbers? It's still rank 2 regarding steam sales stats.

mefan - Apr 01, 2017 at 11:15
I tried pixel perfect, but I see no difference? What does it make to the game?

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 11:51
It's only noticeable when actors scale. The screen also doesn't scroll as smooth.

mefan - Apr 01, 2017 at 11:57
Ahh! Thank you Ron!

Claudio - Apr 07, 2017 at 15:44
Hi Ron. I was curious about the "perfect pixel" hidden option, but it doesn't work on my MacBook, so I don't know what it does exactly. Is it about keeping the original size of the pseudo-pixels even during the scaling of the actors? in other words a better emulation of what the game would look like on a true low-resolution monitor? If so, I would really love this option since to be honest I don't like very much the scaling of pixels, or the change of "resolution" like in scene of the show at the circus. I feel it as an artifact which brakes a little bit the retro atmosphere... it's just my opinion. Anyway, it's a small imperfection. This is a great game. Nice work!

Tomas - Apr 01, 2017 at 11:52
Is there an option to remove the *bleeping* bleeps?

Nor Treblig - Apr 01, 2017 at 15:07
A DLC is planned at a later point in time containing the unbeeped voice files of Ransome.

Bernd Wachter - Apr 02, 2017 at 11:17
Pushing a fix for making one of the characters playable without getting annoyed as DLC is ridiculous, that should just come as an update. Pretty much the only positive side is that it makes me take breaks when I can't stand it anymore. I'm now muting the sound and skipping through most of the Ransom dialogue, hoping I won't miss anything important because it's so fucking annoying and makes the text hard to read.

Nor Treblig - Apr 02, 2017 at 13:07
The decision to make him beep all the time was all intentional. The DLC will just be a bonus since the voice actor actually used swear words to made the lines feel right.

If you can't stand the beeps, well, you have to deal with it. And muting is the easiest way as you are doing it now.

Andrew Hanson - Apr 03, 2017 at 00:30
it's humor. laugh a little.

Soong - Apr 03, 2017 at 02:02
I'm sorry you don't like Ransome's beeping.  I read similar things in reviews about the sheriff, the coroner, and some other characters with ticks.  However, I thought especially Ransome's beeping was very funny when a whole line was just a beep.  It might actually be funnier to just imagine the swear words.

Joe - Apr 01, 2017 at 11:57
While we're at it, are there any cheat-like debuggy things to put items into my inventory? I'm playing one of the Ransome segments at the moment and my cheese disappeared (if you use it on the refrigerator it just vanishes from the game), which I assume I need to get all the popcorn from the rat. I emailed support but being the weekend I don't expect a response too soon.

Mario F. - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:46
isnt there cheese again in the fridge at the mansion?

Joe - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:57
In Delores's flashback, yes, but you can't get that to Ransome when he becomes a playable dude.

NellyH - Apr 02, 2017 at 07:54
I was wondering about that as well :/
There's also something else. While picking up popcorn for little *beeper*, if you head into the circus there's a rat coming out from a hole, and you can hover over the hole and see the word hole appear, and use that to set the cheese down which I believe helps us get more popcorn from the rat. But once you've picked up the cheese that "hole" disappears and there's no way of interacting with the rat anymore, would that be a bug ?

NellyH - Apr 02, 2017 at 08:18
So....bad news... I had done quite a lot of things but this whole Ransome popcorn business was keeping me stuck in the game, so I went back to a save prior to doing anything with the cheese, and I re did the whole thing, left the cheese down by the rat hole and didnt pick it up, and then I was able to get a bag full of popcorn... so better not mess with this part it seems a little buggy...Unless somebody knows how to get around that

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 10:21
It's a bug. It's been fixed in the Steam patch I'm doing today. The GOG patch won't be up until Monday or Tuesday.

Frostygills - Apr 02, 2017 at 16:47
Thanks NellyH and Ron. I was just about to email in with this exact problem after reading through these comments to see if the cheese and hole issue had been mentioned.  I had to google *blush* what to do here I was was walking round the circus for an hour. Loaded a previous save and did what I had read and it worked.

Any idea when the Xbox patch might be coming out?

Also, To all Terrible Toybox, this is a great game, loving the nostalgia of when I played TSoMI solid for a week as a kid, till I completed it. Omg that was nearly 30 years ago... hoping this game brings you great success to think about a sequel or another just like it.

Thank you Frosty

andreas - Apr 05, 2017 at 07:55
bought the game yesterday on gog.com
still have that problem and last save is hours back)

Nor Treblig - Apr 05, 2017 at 09:38
Download the latest version from GOG. The patch was just released today.

STuFFk - Apr 01, 2017 at 12:00
Prefs.json with invalid json inside.... I'm not proud of you Mr Gilbert.

Bogdan Barbu - Apr 01, 2017 at 19:47
Haha, was just going to say that. Not that it really matters.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 19:59
I really like json (invented by my old Lucasfilm games friend), but there are some stupid parts, and since I'm writing my own parser, I "fixed" them.

lux - Apr 02, 2017 at 05:02
You have to write an O'Reilly book: "JSON - The Stupid Parts".

Miguel - Apr 02, 2017 at 17:43
More on that here... https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/scrolling_rooms

I'm enjoying so much going back and re-reading the technical details and seeing the early concept art now I'm playing the game... :D

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Apr 03, 2017 at 03:37
Oh really? Could you reveal us the last name of your friend?
I guess the first name is Jason :-)

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Apr 03, 2017 at 03:59
Maybe I have found your old friend's name: Douglas Crockford.

Marco Lizza - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:16
Yep, in fact you're guessing right. ;) JSON father is quite a bit famous among the programmers' gotcha... ;)

BattleMage - Apr 05, 2017 at 10:58
You like JSON so much, that the Prefs.json looks more like YAML than JSON? Awesome!

Lukas - Apr 01, 2017 at 12:00
First of all, I’m about four hours into the game, and I love it. It’s amazing! Thanks for making such an amazing adventure game.

On Mac versions of LucasArts adventures, double-clicking worked like right-clicking in Windows (i.e. it picked the secondary action). This doesn’t work in Thimbleweed Park. It’s not a huge problem, since Macs nowadays mostly have a way of triggering right-click in some reasonable way, but it’s something I’m missing.

Something else I’m missing: when double-clicking on scene exit points on the Mac, games like Monkey Island would immediately move you to the corresponding screen (meaning that the walk animation to the edge of the screen would not be shown).

Anyways, these are just some minor details that I kinda got used to during the 90s. Doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of the game in any way. It’s really an amazing experience!

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 12:17
They started doing that in MI3, in MI2 double click didn't do an immediate room exit. I did fast walking as a concession. I really object to teleporting around games unless is in the fiction.

Mario F. - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:48
and thats enough. i dont see the point to rush thru such a nice game.

Miguel R. Fervenza - Apr 05, 2017 at 05:51
It's not teleportation, it's an ellipsis. Literature or films use ellipsis, adventure games have to do it too. If a woman leave her home and then is in the work, nobody thinks that she was teleported. If Ransome is starting to ascend the ladder and you press escape key, you go the top of the antenna, nobody thinks that he was teleported there; it's an ellipsis. So double click to go an immediate room exit, escape key to skip a full conversation, or skip a cut-scene, are all ellipsis that allow the player to avoid parts that already knows. If player doesn't want to use the ellipsis is OK, but the players must have the option.

PS: why only 8 slots to save games (plus autosave)? I like study the genre, and Thimbleweed Park has a lot elements to study, but with only 8 slots I can't return every point of interest. I can do it in Maniac Mansion or Monkey Island, I use dozens of saved games and I'd do it too in Thimbleweed Park if I could. I don't understand the limitation.

Oli - Apr 01, 2017 at 12:02
I like the hotspotCheater option. Thanks for that and - of course - for the marvelous game!

Alexander - Apr 01, 2017 at 12:32
Could you make a switch to enable unpolished menu style?

I would like to have pixelated menus - for my eyes its a style breach - seeing the main menu and its true type font like menu options and at the same time having a pixel radio button.

Thank you!

luc.ant - Apr 02, 2017 at 02:48
That bothers me, too. The same problem exists with scaling actors (when they walk into the distance and become smaller): the scaled actors don't have the same resolution anymore and the pixels become "smaller" compared to the environment. Many indie games with retro-pixel graphics mix low-res graphics with high res UI in this way, but it's inconsistent and jarring from an art-design perspective.

michel - Apr 01, 2017 at 12:34
as far as a certain ghost says to be interested, I struggle to convince him watching a particular tv series. Any (not so straight for obvious reasons) tips?

always me - Apr 01, 2017 at 12:51
solved. i'm a lazy moron.

Darkstorm - Apr 01, 2017 at 12:43
I just completed the game.

First off congratulations for making a game where _every_ puzzle was logical.  I can't say for sure I've ever played a P&C before where that was the case and I've played a lot of them.  Had to take a break for a few hours a couple of times and think about a puzzle, but I never came close to the "use everything on everything point", and the puzzles were satisfyingly difficult.

Came across two tiny issues neither of which really affect anything (and may have been intended):
-When Boris talks to Willie at the beginning of the game, all commands used perform "Talk to"(ironically the only person you use look at on! :)
-When Ransome pushes over the mime in the flashback, the mime frequently says the same thing twice in a row.  I don't think I would have noticed this but for the very rapid frequency the mime moves to the next insult.

Final thoughts were that story was very good and puzzles, as I noted above, were outstanding.
Only negatives were not being able to look at people and get the characters thoughts, and the lack of interaction between the agents and Ransome/Delores in mid game.  I'd have liked some kind of scene where the four decide to help each other in a limited manner to explain why they're "giving" each other all the items.

Really hope this is a success and you do another one, as I've thoroughly enjoyed playing it.

eHenryThripshaw - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:23
Hey Ron!
Just wanted to let yo know that I didn't receive ThimbleMail™ Updates for the last two posts.
Might explain why there are no comments on them yet...

Anyway, good luck with the sales, I hope you sell enough to consider making TWP2!

eHenryThripshaw - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:26
Lots of comments after all! I though it was weird the posts not having comments...
On the main blog page it says 'no comments'...

Uwe - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:28
On my Mac, I have:

~Library/Application Support/

but there is not "Terrible Toybox" folder or similar inside this folder.

Maybe something hidden?

Maybe other locations because of using the Steam version?

Uwe - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:30
Sorry, I did look in "/Library" but had to look in "~/Library", i.e. in my home folder.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:30
Where did you buy it?

COeins - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:41
Since my question in the other thread seemed to have vanished, I'm asking again here. (This one is more fitting anyway)

When I enable pixelPerfect, the playable area is just in a tiny corner of the screen. (See screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ar2u45dalm9f11b/tp_perfectpixel.jpg?dl=0 )

I still hope there might be a setting or something I overlooked to correct this. But it is probably just a case of "might cause issues". If so, I'd be happy to assist in any debugging efforts if required.

Another thing I would like to see in any future version would be the possibility to remap the options key itself. I'm still trying to load/save the game with "F5". All the time :)

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:47
oh, wow. That is odd.  Question: If you delete the windowSize and windowPosition settings, does it return to normal?  It looks like your window is scaled and not full screen? If you run it in full screen is it OK. Quickly tried it on my Mac, and it seems OK. What OS?

COeins - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:57
Neither windowSize nor windowPosition are specified in my config file. I tried both windowFullscreen on and off, made no difference. OS is Win7.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 14:07
Yeah, OK, got it to happen.  No idea right now, I'll have to look into it.

Nor Treblig - Apr 01, 2017 at 15:03
Had the same issue on a Windows 8.1 tablet with non-standard DPI setting, in case this helps.

COeins - Apr 01, 2017 at 15:48
I appreciate you looking into this.

Just for completeness, tried that same thing under Linux. It looks nearly the same, but this time the image is in the bottom left corner. (Otherwise the game runs just fine)

JohnRC - Apr 01, 2017 at 14:14
I'm having the same bug. The window size settings were listed in my config file, but deleting them didn't change anything. I'm on Windows 7 as well.

Janski - Apr 02, 2017 at 16:00
Yeah. This happened. I only tried it in the windowed mode, as Ron states it does not work in fullscreen. When I deleted the windowed config, it returned to normal.

Martin - Apr 06, 2017 at 18:21
I'm having the same bug even with windowFullscreen: 0 & windowSize: "{ 1280, 720 } using macOS.

Please fix this - I like the game but the different sized pixels make me feel pixelsick.

I'll probably better not continue to play as long as the pixelPerfect: 1 ain't working.

alainmcd - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:41
Hi Ron,

A couple of suggestions to improve the controls:
- "Use" as the default action for inventory items, since the alt action is already "look at"
- Hotkey for the map (MMB or M)
- Previos/next character with MB3/MB4
- Numpad keys for inventory items, including Numpad+ and Numpad- to scroll up and down
- Numpad keys for dialog options
The latter two would make it easier to configure the Steam Controller.

Thank you

Alexander - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:47
Bug report: minor :)

Hotel 3rd floor. When moving cursor over rooms it says "Walk to Zimmer 303".. Zimmer being the german expression for room - while I am playing in english text mode"

Great game.. music really annoying in the hotel hall :)

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:49
Yeah, that is because you started in German. Due to the names of those objects being generated at runtime, they become fixed at boot.  It's on my list to fix.

Dr. Zimmer - Apr 01, 2017 at 14:44
I noticed that, too. I thought it was just a new loanword like kindergarten and doppelganger.

Steffen - Apr 01, 2017 at 19:20
Dr. Zimmer thinks Zimmer is a loanword - funny post!  :-)

Mario F. - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:52
saw that too. little translation/language error.

Mario F. - Apr 01, 2017 at 13:58
@RON :
don't forget to supply a free playable demo to steam/gog etc.
i sugest part 1 to part 2 until arriving at Sheriff. That should either hook or loose the player(potential buyer).

Felix - Apr 01, 2017 at 14:04
What about any option for mouse speed? When I launch the game, my cursor moves much slower than it does in normal windows. Is there any way to replicate the mouse/cursor speed I'm used to in normal Windows?

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 14:12
I'm just reading the system mouse. If you're playing full screen, it might appear to move slower, just because the screen appears to be zoomed in.  Or something else is happening.  During all our testing, never got a report of it feeling off. Adding mouse sensitivity is doable, but not a quick fix, so it will have to wait for a major rev, but I'll look at it.

Felix - Apr 01, 2017 at 14:31
Thanks for the response, Ron.

Yes, you're right. When full screen, it feels slower (probably due to the "zoom-effect" you described). When playing native, it feels normal.

Which, I suppose causes another question: are there options to play in a full-screen application, but with the game being native and black bars? I'd like to play the game at native, but without being distracted by the desktop surrounding the game. Kinda kills the immersion.

Asterisk - Apr 01, 2017 at 18:20
I'm playing in fullscreen on a 16:10 monitor (1920x1200) and it's letterboxing just fine.  Running the GOG install on Linux (but launching the executable directly, not using GOG's start script).

JSONLint - Apr 01, 2017 at 14:39
Prefs.json is not a valid JSON file!

yamllint - Apr 03, 2017 at 02:37
Parses fine as YAML, with just a little warning about no document start marker ;)

Grzegorz - Apr 01, 2017 at 14:57
Thank you for the options!

Yes - mapping skip dialog (dot) to "v" would be great (or to backtick for example? "`").

Also I was a bit stunned when saw a todo list in agents' notebooks - I didn't expect such help in "hard" mode - maybe there should be "harder" mode where agents do NOT use notebooks?

Anyway - that's amazing game-a-reno! And shows how one should do proper facial animations in games.

Nor Treblig - Apr 01, 2017 at 15:05
Hm, shouldn't be too hard to break to 'Look At' functionality on those items...
But it's your decision if you look at them anyway :-)

LogicDeLuxe - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:47
It's more like a reminder than a real help. It doesn't tell you how to do things after all. I think this is rather convenient when continuing from a savegame.

Don Silver - Apr 01, 2017 at 15:12
Thanks so much!!

Sharlatan - Apr 01, 2017 at 15:45
Great, thank you very much for this (and all the love, sweat, blood and tears you put into this great game!)!

I hope now that this blog post's done, you'll hurry over to grumpy gamer to release the annual and much anticipated "I hate April 1st!"- post.

Have been refreshing grumpygamer all day ;)

M. Rohles - Apr 01, 2017 at 15:48
Where can I disable character mirroring? :-)

Did anyone else notice that when you walk to the left, the character is just mirrored, so left and right are switched? Have a look at the balloon and sock of Ransome. When you walk to the right, up and down, the sock and balloon are on the left side. When you walk to the left, they are on the right side.
Or is it just like the old days when memory was limited ;-)

Maurizio - Apr 01, 2017 at 17:08
Hey have you seen Rock Paper Shotgun review?

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/31/everything-wrong-with-thimbleweed-park

I guess they played the Easy mode, everyone knows you should only play the hard mode in Ron's adventure games!

I am enjoying the game so far! Not a backer but attended London event and got to meet all you guys, thanks for the dedication in creating this gem!

Rob Noah - Apr 01, 2017 at 17:11
Ron... that was too good. You and the team are simply are a cut above the rest, that was the best adventure game in literally years and years, nobody does it like you guys, heck, I wish there was an adventure game from you guys every year!

It has been far too long... thank you Ron for this gift you have given us.

Alan Shutko - Apr 01, 2017 at 17:27
You are my hero! The key controls were driving me nuts!

Ema - Apr 01, 2017 at 18:00
*BUG REPORTING*

The third time i went up the *beeping* ladder of the *beeping* antenna, the *beeping* clown stopped climbing and started *beeping* walking up the ladder! *beep*!

Pottty - Apr 01, 2017 at 18:04
The keyGiveTo: "y" is the best option for me, the z and y keys are switched on hungarian keyboards.
By the way, great game, I love it so far!

Niels Boehm - Apr 03, 2017 at 02:50
Same for German keyboard layouts (QWERTZ).

I pity those with a French AZERTY layout, who need to remap a whopping 4 keys ;)

Screwtape - Apr 01, 2017 at 18:13
A couple of small things:

1. Thanks so much for making Thimbleweed Park! I'm having a great time.

2. I happen to be playing on a 4:3 monitor rather than 16:9. In full-screen, I get black bars at the top and bottom (which is fine, and what I expected) but when I move the cursor into that area it vanishes entirely, When I waggle the mouse to find out where it is, I see no movement in my peripheral vision and I start very slightly panicking until I happen to waggle the cursor back into the play area and I can continue on.

It'd be really nice if the game *always* rendered the cursor, even outside the play area, or if it showed the system cursor when the game cursor was hidden, and vice-versa.

Michel - Apr 01, 2017 at 18:38
done. As long as I loathe metafiction was quite a story. It reminded me a bit of Lobots.

Andreas (tcmsurfer) - Apr 01, 2017 at 19:13
Love Thimbleweed Park! I am only starting to explore this, I barely have time...

However here are two Bug Reports:

Bug #1 (Blog): I always see "No comments" on the latest entries

Bug #2: When I called a number in the phone book and the very page was open, the green arrow next to the name only appears when flipping away and back again.

BTW!!! Check out 8638 and 4513 !!!! Too bad 7906 and 7043 aren't callable.

I however love 3575! She's right above us in the phone book and her message is ..... *interesting* (spoilers) Check it out.

Nor Treblig - Apr 02, 2017 at 01:47
Yep, I've found most of the team there, only Ron was too lazy to record a message :-)
I've also seen/heard Dave Grossman!

Big Red Button - Apr 01, 2017 at 19:27
I remember that you told that the texts were rendered at 720p (except the verbs). I'm using the default preferences and I can confirm this. But, on my machine, everything else is rendered at 1080p (which is the native resolution of my monitor) by using nearest-neighbor interpolation. Therefore, the texts look a bit fuzzy, compared to the rest, due to anti-aliasing.
Why is not everything rendered in the native resolution, so that it would look more crisp? Is this a design decision?
In my opinion, the texts don't look like pixel-art anyway. If you intend to make it look more pixelated, I would recommend to render it at half the native resolution of the display, or maybe at one third of it.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 01, 2017 at 19:37
It should work as you describe.  The final upscale is nearest neighbor.   The front end fonts are bitmap fonts, but they are pre-antialiased. The speech is also a bitmap font, but has no antialiasing. Can you email me a screenshot, so I can see what you're seeing.

Christian - Apr 01, 2017 at 19:33
Something like HideUI (HideInventory + HideVerbs) and HideCursor would be cool to take epic scenic screenshots. Just rollback to defaults after restarting the game. So no one misses their UI and Cursor.

Bogdan Barbu - Apr 01, 2017 at 19:41
Bug report: The last two blog posts report "No comments" although they have plenty.

Ignacio - Apr 01, 2017 at 19:46
Nice post, THANKS!!
But what I really miss is an April Fools' Day post at grumpygamer.com. They were already a tradition!

turricaned - Apr 01, 2017 at 22:55
Oh thank heavens - the lack of key shortcuts was starting to drive me a bit loopy!

For the true oldskool effect:
keyOpen: "o"
keyClose: "c"
keyGiveTo: "g"
keyPickup: "p"
keyLookAt: "l"
keyTalkTo: "t"
keyPush: "s" //"Shove"
keyPull: "y"//"Yank"
keyUse: "u"

turricaned - Apr 02, 2017 at 00:21
Ah - that's the ticket.  *Now* it feels more like home!

Apropos of nothing, my tweet on the subject a couple of hours in was :
"#ThimbleweedPark - How to take a beloved piece of entertainment and modernise it without *beep*ing it up."

(I figure saying so is not so much "embarrassing George" as giving a little friendly advice... ;) )

Nor Treblig - Apr 02, 2017 at 01:45
For "true oldschool effect" you should take a look at Lucasfilm Games video games, not this fancy new LucasArts stuff.
The current defaults in TWP are perfectly fine...

turricaned - Apr 02, 2017 at 02:26
The first one I played was the first Monkey Island (was a little young for the earlier games).  As I recall it was a sort-of halfway house, as it opened with the "LucasFilm Games" logo but had the copyright assigned to LucasArts... Personally I thought the "Shove/Yank" mnemonics were brilliant...

turricaned - Apr 02, 2017 at 00:30
Aaargh!

Almost perfect - is there any way of redefining the "Options" key?  It's currently "o" and I want to set that to "Open" if possible...

Mattias Cedervall - Apr 02, 2017 at 08:08
Ron, why didn't we get a notification via e-mail when you posted Released! and Options and why does it say "No comments" despite the fact we've commented? You forgot to sign this post with "- Ron". I thought that Natalija would point that out as usual... :-)

Ori - Apr 02, 2017 at 08:36
Thanks for those! IMO, dialogWiggle should be off by default - hard to read text when it bounces around.

COeins - Apr 02, 2017 at 09:42
Not sure if I missed something, but I've probably stumbled across a gameplay bug.

[ possibly spoilers ahead ]

After you've entered the 6-digit code into the security fence, the phone system won't accept any 4 digit numbers anymore but also requires you to enter 6 digits. From this point, you simply can't call anyone from the phone book anymore. (I'm not sure in which order you have to make the required calls, but it might as well make the game unsolvable.)

But then again, it might be intentional and I've simply missed a puzzle. But the whole thing seems weird enough...

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 10:24
That's a bug, fixed in todays Steam patch.

badde - Apr 02, 2017 at 12:45
Hi Ron,
is there for gog own patch? Or download thimbleweedpark. com Support? Thanks!

Someone - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:15
Steam and Gog handle patches differend: On Steam the developers can publish a new version. On Gog they have to submit the new version and the Gog team will publish it. This takes a time, so Steam users got new versions faster.

Adrian - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:47
I have the GOG version installed now but I would like to get the latest patch (steam)
If I uninstall the GOG version (keeping the saved files), can I install the Steam version and use these savefiles?

Someone - Apr 02, 2017 at 16:36
That should work. But I would backup the savefiles first. :)

Christian - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:47
I am at the factory fan now and can't call service, the phones in the hotel require 6 digits now. How can I proceed using the gog-version, no patch has been released yet!

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 18:26
We'll be updating GOG today, but they might not work unless you used GOG Galaxy. It will take another for for the installer builds, since GOG has to do that work.

My understanding was the bug only affected backer phone numbers, and that all the game play numbers would still work.  Did you double check the number?

Christian - Apr 03, 2017 at 20:04
Yes, I somehow tried 5532 or something like that and therefore had to enter 2 more digits and thought I was affected. Now I have finished the game and it was really great. Best executed and overdelivered Kickstarter ever and really great puzzles, technology, graphics and story.

Melissa - Apr 06, 2017 at 23:45
Hi Ron, is a patch for the phone bug coming to console? I can't make calls after inputting the gate code on Xbox One.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 07, 2017 at 00:35
Yes, I think the new xbox version passed cert today, so it might take a bit for it to be live, but it should be there with in the next day.  The gate bug doesn't affect any gam play issues, it only stops you from calling backer phone numbers.

Janski - Apr 02, 2017 at 09:43
Thanks, Ron. The right-click skip is very useful (although can be done with ".")  So is the key mapping. I don't know what PixelPerfect does, but will test it out.

Andras Jakab - Apr 02, 2017 at 10:05
Hey Ron! I'd like to ask, if there's any way to hide the commands and inventory (interface)
so i could save screenshots from the game as background or as thumbnails for my streams?
Sorry to bother you. Thanks in advance.

urielz - Apr 02, 2017 at 10:27
Just curious about the patch notes. Did they get posted somewhere? Thanks.

beautiful mind - Apr 02, 2017 at 10:43
Is there a printable version of the phone book? I would like to have a physical copy while I go through the numbers.

Cole Trickle - Apr 02, 2017 at 11:22
Superb game and one of the best endings E!V!E!R!
I expected much and you guys exeeded my expectations!

Brad - Apr 02, 2017 at 13:09
I may have found a bug - I was able to put the tube from the radio phone system into the robot head in Chuck's lab WHILE the 1138 tube was already in it, which made one of the two tubes vanish.

AWESOME game so far!  Monkey Island helped shape my logical thinking as a child and now, close to 40, I feel like a kid again playing this!

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 13:17
Yep, known bug, fixed in the next patch.

Stefano E. - Apr 02, 2017 at 13:31
Probably it has been already mentioned but switching from 1080p to 720p makes the font crisper.

Kevin Drum - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:10
In Delores' journal, should it be possible to have a '?' next to "Find Lawyer in Thimblecon" even after I've gotten him to come to the mansion (after giving him the cancelled check) and done the first two stipulations in the will?  The line just showed up in her journal after calling Brant's number (using Delores).

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:14
It's possible you did stuff out of order (completed the task before it was added), and then it got added. The todo lists were really complex code to write.

Nor Treblig - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:37
Now I feel guilty for trying to avoid this feature at all cost :-)

Kevin Drum - Apr 02, 2017 at 17:19
No worries.  Good to know I'm not missing anything.  I still consider this to be a masterpiece.

Adrian - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:34
Hi

Great work so far, I love it.
I will complain about something that I should not complain about :) And it's not quite a complain, more like a question.
I am using HotspotCheater, but sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. I mean if it works, it will ever work until I restart the game. But sometimes it just does not work when I start the game/load a file, and then there's nothing I can do to fix it.

Right now it is in the "broken" state and no matter what I do, TAB does not work. Any hints?

Don't waste more than 10 seconds with this one, afterall it's just a non-supported option (but when it works, it works quite ok).

Thanks
Adrian

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:36
I tested the hotspot tracker for 10 minutes, so I'm not surprised it's broken. :-) I am surprised that it just doesn't work anymore. I will look at it quickly.

Adrian - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:38
Wow, VERY prompt reply.
Anything you need, I can provide (logs, hw config, etc). We can continue via email.

Thanks!
Adrian

Adrian - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:00
I have also installed the steam version. It sees to be using the exact folder for saves/settings which is good, but the hotspot thing still doesn't work. Oh well, back to pixel hunting, hoped I could take it easy with these old tired eyes ;)

Adrian - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:22
Ron, got it! TAB only works if NumLock is not ON!!
(i think CAPS LOCK must also be disabled but this was not what the latest issue was about)

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:28
Ah... I can just ignore the shift state.

Arto - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:29
Oh, ok. I had an issue with hotspot cheater, but turning caps lock ON fixed the problem. Later the tab key worked with caps lock off.

Arto - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:26
Try the tab key with caps lock on.

Adrian - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:29
Actually I found it only working with CAPSLOCK and NUMLOCK both disabled. Scroll Lock state does not matter :)

Benjamin Clot - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:35
Bug report (but maybe it was already spotted): sometimes the sound gets out in mono (or muffled, I'm not sure) for a sentence then reverts back as stereo.
And this game is awesome.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:41
Yeah, I addressed this in the last blog entry. I have no idea what this. It happens so rarely that I have never seen it (but our testers have a few times). I suspect it's a SDL_Mix issue, as I can't see any way my code could play mono and it doesn't happen to the same lines.

One of my big regrets for this project was not spending the $6000 and licensing FMOD. It would have saved me a lot of time.

Mario F. - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:00
Still better than just having SID

Marco Lizza - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:02
Yep. Happened to myself yesterday evening, too. Non a major concern, but was a bit surprised of the effect.

By the way, GoG updates are planned to be available as soon as Steam ones?

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:32
There will be GOG updates, but they will be delayed by a day or two, since GOG people needs to build the installers. If you're using GOG Galaxy, they might come down immediately. GOG is kind of a mystery to me.

Janski - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:55
Happened a few times, yes. The only bug I have encountered so far.

Someone - Apr 02, 2017 at 16:58
I've this problem too - under Windows.

@Ron: Are these problems reported only with/under Windows? Which version of SDL_Mixer do you use? A search with Google pointed me to this:

http://cubeengine.com/forum.php4?action=display_thread&thread_id=859

That seems to be the same problem. There was a panning issue with 8-bit sounds that was patched in version 1.2.7. Have you mentioned your problem in the SDL forum? Here someone reported a similar problem:

https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/sdl-mixer-panning-problems-with-looping-sounds/14031

Do you use looping sounds (with the background music)?  And I would contact the SDL developers too (they are very kind :)).

Someone - Apr 02, 2017 at 17:03
Another idea: Maybe the OGG decoder produces in some cases garbage resp. mono signals? Are you able to analyze the decoded OGG streams before the playback?

Daniel Wolf - Apr 03, 2017 at 04:39
I'm having the same issue, also on Windows. It happens about once per hour with a single line. It sounds as if the dialog comes only from the left speaker.

Someone - Apr 03, 2017 at 06:09
Same here. It seems that the right channel is missing. Have you tried to reproduce it?

entropy - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:38
Hi Ron,

out of interest.
Is there changelog available covering the updates?

xbadc0de - Apr 02, 2017 at 14:54
Hi there,

i reconstructed Chucks last will binary code Delores is holding to ~130 bytes of data, but even XOR'ing with 0x69 won't bring up something "readable". What's the secret behind it :-) I tried both little and big endian encoding ...

Besides, a wonderful game, thanks to you guys for bringing back enjoyable memories and a lot of laughter ...

Steven Don - Apr 02, 2017 at 21:29
Chuck's favourite number was not 0x69. I'm not sure if it varies by playthrough, but on mine it was 31 (which would be 0x1F).

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 21:30
It's random 1-255, so it could be 0x69.

xbadc0de - Apr 03, 2017 at 02:25
Uhm, i was referring to the graphical zeros and ones on the first sheet of the will, the ones visible when Delores takes a look at it before decrypting them on her computer, thus not the puzzle within the game :-).
I took a screenshot of them, reconstructed them and wanted to know if they may contain an easteregg or seckrit message ...

So, is this binary printout just random, or is there some real info inside? Used the time to push those ~130 bytes through all XOR's from 0x01 to 0xff for both LE and BE, but none of them gave direct readable results so far ...

Yeah yeah, consider me being a nerd :-) ...

dada - Apr 02, 2017 at 15:36
Yay!! skipping dialogues works! So far i enjoy the game the game very muchos! Thanks Terrible Toybox!

dada - Apr 02, 2017 at 16:58
and the stupid mistake in my book got corrected! jeez that bothered me quite a bit

Mattias Cedervall - Apr 02, 2017 at 17:40
Who did you contact in order to get your book corrected?! :O

dada - Apr 02, 2017 at 18:46
Didn't contact anyone,  It was a mistake that must have been obvious to English speaking person. In fact it should have been obvious to anyone in any language and i have no clue how do i get these brain farts. I just wasn't sure it was gonna go through any sort of editing.

LogicDeLuxe - Apr 02, 2017 at 16:20
The radio quiz reminded me of the age verification quiz from Larry 1. Was this intended? Some questions were easy, but some are not that likely to be known by Europeans or anywhere else outside the US I guess.

I noticed that I can not minimize the game with alt-tab when in fullscreen. Or going window mode with alt-enter. Why doesn't it honor these Windows conventions?

And will the arcade be available in the next patch?

Johnny Walker - Apr 02, 2017 at 17:19
One more bug (albeit incredibly minor): The birds float behind the Edmund Mansion mansion in the Vista scene.

My big question is: Can we please have more save slots in the future? TP is a huge game and I'm the type of player who loves exploring and replaying parts. 8 + 1 autoplay slot just isn't enough. (Even Monkey 1 gave us infinite slots!)

You could just put Up/Down (or Left/Right) arrows on either side of the "Back" button.

PLEASE consider adding this feature! :)

Thanks.

Johnny Walker - Apr 02, 2017 at 17:24
Also on the Vista scene, the music restarts when you exit your Todo/Journal. Very bizarre.

Johnny Walker - Apr 02, 2017 at 18:06
Hmm. I've noticed a few logic problems with the story. Either I'm not following it perfectly, or it's a mistake in the game.

1. For Franklin's flashback there's a calendar on the wall which lets you know that it's taking place in 1987. Yet Ransom later explains that his downfall happened five years ago... and he was about to do a deal with Franklin while he was "hot", but then Franklin disappeared. This means Franklin's death happened in 1982... not 1987 like it says in the flashback. (This is further compounded by the hotel lobby not changing between the present day and the flashback... lipstick covered glass and all.)

2. Willie comments on Ransom's talent for licensing high quality wallets (a very funny line), but Ransom later says he never got to manufacture any wallets before his downfall, and the one he owns is only a sample.

DZ-Jay - Apr 03, 2017 at 05:30
On #1: The deal with Franklin in 1982 was cancelled back then, Franklin didn't die then, he just stopped dealing with Ransome.  The deal of Franklin happen "a few weeks ago" from the current time in 1987.

On #2: Perhaps Willie knows something more than you expect...

DZ-Jay - Apr 03, 2017 at 05:31
Stupid auto-correct:  On #1 it should say "The death of Franklin happen 'a few weeks ago'..."

Johnny Walker - Apr 03, 2017 at 07:43
Cool. Good to know it makes sense :)

It's confusing though because Ransom complains about Franklin "disappearing".

Dimitri Bitu de Araújo - Apr 02, 2017 at 18:37
audio bug:
sometimes the audio of a character pans to the right or left channel. randomly. just one line of dialog.

Dom - Apr 02, 2017 at 21:11
Dont know if this has already been mentioned here, but i didnt take Agent Ray behind the diner near the trash cans to get abducted, im up to part 6 now and that event doesnt trigger, is the game going to be in an unsolvable state now?

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 21:12
Nope, it's optional.

Bogdan Barbu - Apr 02, 2017 at 22:28
I had Reyes dragged to the sewers and didn't have a dime on me so I had Ray give it to him. I found their conversation a little weird --- why was she giving him a dime so he could call for help instead of getting help herself? :)

Ron Gilbert - Apr 02, 2017 at 22:46
You're controller her... why did you make her give him a dime and not just call for help?

Bogdan Barbu - Apr 02, 2017 at 23:07
Touche :p

Mario F. - Apr 03, 2017 at 05:22
yep, i did that. called wth Ray to get Reyes out of the sewer. much easier.

DZ-Jay - Apr 03, 2017 at 05:34
I did both! I had Ray call from outside using her Cellular Phone, then gave Reyes the dime anyway, since it took me a while to figure that out, and had him call as well.  I didn't know I could have done only one of them.  LOL!

I like how Ray says the same thing as Reyes in the call, but on his behalf: "Help someone! This is Someone's Emergency"

    -dZ.

Big Red Button - Apr 03, 2017 at 18:19
Well, I'm afraid that I'm stuck.
Ray is in the sewer, and doesn't have a dime, but she has the whiskey bottle and the cell phone with her, which has no reception. She also has the tube for the hydrant, so A Streets is still blocked. Reyes only has a nickel. When I play with Reyes, I cannot find any other empty bottle.

That's not a dead end, is it? I am not asking for a hint!! I'd only like to read a "no" as a reply.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 18:33
This is a bug. If you are using Steam, the latest patch fixes it, if you're on GOG, you'll need to wait a day.

Big Red Button - Apr 03, 2017 at 18:36
@ Ron: Thank you very much for this quick reply! I'm on GOG. I'll just wait for the patch. That's okay.

Big Red Button - Apr 05, 2017 at 18:37
@ Ron: I just installed the latest version from GOG. I don't know how the bug is fixed, though. Do I have to restart the game, or is there a way out of the sewer now?

Ron Gilbert - Apr 05, 2017 at 18:55
The dime should respawn on MainStreet or B Street.

Big Red Button - Apr 06, 2017 at 00:12
Thank you very much indeed! It works.

Bogdan Barbu - Apr 03, 2017 at 21:50
I actually thought Ron was making a joke above. I didn't know Ray could call for help and the reason for that is that I had them talk with each other through the manhole and, IIRC, he told her that he needed to call for help but that he has no dime to operate the phone (rather than asking her to get help). So I assumed that was an in-game hint that it's how I'm supposed to solve it.

Bogdan Barbu - Apr 03, 2017 at 21:52
By the way, my phone started having reception at some point but I can't recall doing anything to that end.

Aractus - Apr 03, 2017 at 23:32
@the "optional abduction" comment -

Haha, genius!

Bogdan Barbu - Apr 02, 2017 at 22:04
Finally had time to give it a whirl. A little bit over three hours into the game and everyone's to-do lists are filling up nicely. :) At first I was a little disappointed but I guess it was just the "taking it slow in the beginning" thing you guys mentioned in the podcast cause you've won me over. I still laugh out loud when I remember some of the jokes or lines (such as the "lactose intolerant" one).

Andrew Hanson - Apr 03, 2017 at 00:48
excellent game. truly so fantabulous. this game really does feel like what i remember playing, but also feels brand new and effectively updated to fit the options that faster, more poweful systems offer today. thank you for sticking to your design philosophies. thank you for leaving alone what works and updating what makes sense to change. thank you for making a '.' end a sentence. thank you. i hope this is selling really well for you all. you deserve it. amazing work. good bye.

ne0n - Apr 03, 2017 at 02:50
EXACTLY-a-boo !
This is also how I feel about the game.

Haven't enjoyed a game like that in years. I am addicted to playing it and (not through yet) already afraid of the moment it will be played and over. Will definitely replay it over and over again.

wondering - Apr 03, 2017 at 06:40
Why does Doug exist?

Cole Trickle - Apr 03, 2017 at 07:30
To keep you from entering the Mansion Mansion.

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 10:36
He also takes care of the garden. And the carpet.

Bon Antza - Apr 03, 2017 at 12:02
Who else would do all the diggin' if not Doug?

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 13:36
:-)
To be fair: He seems to be a great DM. I'm sure you find a lot of treasure on his quests.

turricaned - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:21
When it comes down to it, aren't most games designers effectively DMs of one sort or another (usually of the more sadistic strain)? :)

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:02
Yes, I guess they are, they just have to plan a lot more ahead since they cannot directly accompany the players during play.
The sadistic ones must be those Sierra-DMs I've heard about.

turricaned - Apr 03, 2017 at 16:50
Funny you should say that. I can't claim credit for the theory; it came up during a video playthrough of the original System Shock by the original Looking Glass devs and designers (LGS being another ridiculously innovative bunch).  Aside from the official testing team, they said that they'd give each other their levels to play as a fresh pair of eyes - this led to an ever increasing level of vindictiveness as they tried to find ways of getting their friends killed in frustrating (if technically logical) ways.

Jochem - Apr 03, 2017 at 07:20
I love the little call outs to Zak McKracken. That tingeld my nostalgia bone. :)

And, I was surprised you can die in Thimbleweed Park :D

Don - Apr 03, 2017 at 07:47
Hi there, I'm unable to locate the Terrible Toybox directory in Application Support on my Mac. I bought this game in the App store. Is editing the Prefs.json available for me as well? PS I haven't made much progress in solving puzzles yet, but I still like it a lot so far, great job!

Franz - Apr 03, 2017 at 11:01
Same here, bought from App Store and can't seem to locate the savegames. Any hints?

Franz - Apr 03, 2017 at 11:04
Found it:

~/Library/Containers/com.terribletoybox.thimbleweedpark/Data/Library/Application Support/Terrible Toybox

Don - Apr 03, 2017 at 11:27
Yes, thank you Franz!

Maurizio - Apr 03, 2017 at 08:33
Ron, will we have a bilinear filtering option? I like big pixels, but not sharp pixels. More fuzzy => brain imagines details that aren't there.

LogicDeLuxe - Apr 03, 2017 at 08:57
I found a glitch exploit bug (SPOILER ALERT): When you follow Sexy Riker to his room and switch to a character in another room while his door is open, you can wait until he is back at the con and the door is still open. I don't think it is meant that way, since he closes it when you just wait there.

Mario F. - Apr 03, 2017 at 13:05
lol. think again.

Mike - Apr 03, 2017 at 09:09
Hello

I see you guys update minor bugs as we go along, and that you (Ron) mention that you update them on Steam. I don't like Steam too much, I prefer GOG and bought the game on GOG, not on the "GOG Galaxy" gizmo but rather as a mere download.
Does this mean I can never get the updates?

Thanks...
M

Niels Boehm - Apr 03, 2017 at 09:41
(Just a little BTW: I believe what you get over GoG Galaxy and what you download manually is exactly the same.)

I'm sure they will put the updates on GoG eventually (and you can then just download the updated version, if you prefer to abstain from GoG Galaxy).

I'm pretty sure the Steam and the GoG builds are different, as the Steam build needs to include their little Steam DRM dll. That's why they cannot just upload the very same thing to GoG.

urielz - Apr 03, 2017 at 10:00
Minor BUG report: Delores lost some of her inventory items. I found them in her room again, so no big deal. This happened after the latest patch.

DrJ - Apr 03, 2017 at 10:10
Hello, just finished it in hard mode (no spoilers here). Everything's logical. Best game experience in years!
THnX

DrJ - Apr 03, 2017 at 10:21
...not fiddling around with options.

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 10:46
I agree!
But this reminds me to look up information regarding the ink puzzle. I've just guessed that one but I want to fact check it :-)

DrJ - Apr 04, 2017 at 00:30
As long as it's logical within the frame set, that's fine :)

Maurizio - Apr 03, 2017 at 11:55
Everything is so logical that maybe the game could have done fewer hints about what you need to do. I don't remember exactly where, but there are a couple of places where the characters lead you in the right direction too much.

There are also 2 or 3 of very clever puzzles that I solved by chance.

Nina - Apr 03, 2017 at 10:49
Thanks! Trying to make it work!

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Apr 03, 2017 at 12:39
Hi, I'm playing now, but the "O" key doesn't bring the option screen anymore.
Yesterday it worked, today Steam downloaded a Thimbleweed Park update.
The option screen appears correctly if I click on the gear icon on the right side of the screen.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 12:54
Correct, ctrl-O or cmd-O (mac). I made this change so O could be remapped to verbs (Open)

turricaned - Apr 03, 2017 at 13:37
Wow - talk about fast turnaround; thank you sir!

As it turns out, "Open" as a verb is one of the very few in the English language that has very few synonyms (practically none).  I completed the game in the wee hours of this morning using "B" (for breach or broach), but it gave everything a certain Victorian flavour when using it. ;)

I saw a few minor glitches here and there - nothing to write home about, one of the more interesting was when trying to "Pull" a certain "recognisable" painting in the factory with Delores and she responded "It doesn't open, so how can I close it?".  I'm not sure if the verb or the response isn't quite mapped right, and it doesn't harm the gameplay any - but I know you're the kind of folks that have the kind of attention to detail required to add picking up specks of dust to a game, so I figured I'd let you know.

That said, the whole experience was like rediscovering a childhood blankie in the attic and being overjoyed to give it a surreptitious snuggle when no one's looking.  Not that I ever had a blankie.  Nope.  Not at all.

You folks deserve massive kudos and I hope there will be many more where this came from (especially as you have a modern, reusable engine now).

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:01
Or what about 'burst' for 'open'? You don't even have to change your key binding!
And instead of 'pick up' it should be always 'steal' in P'n'C adventures anyway.

Arto - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:25
"trying to "Pull" a certain "recognisable" painting in the factory with Delores and she responded "It doesn't open, so how can I close it?"."

I was wondering about this too :)

Joe - Apr 03, 2017 at 13:44
Isn't it F5 in most SCUMM games? Could that also be an option? I keep habitually pressing it.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 13:53
Here is the problem with F5.  In SCUMM, F5 brought up a menu where you decided if you were going to save or load. In Thimbleweed Park, there are two different menus, one for save and one for load, so if you press F5, which one comes up?  I'm happy to change it if some can come up with a solution that doesn't involve creating new UI. Maybe I'm missing the obvious. Having F5 only bring up only save or only load would be confusing.

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:07
Ctrl+L for Load and Ctrl+S for Save makes more sense I think.

The most confusing thing for users was that you couldn't use ESC to escape from the game (bringing up the main menu) but only escapes from cutscenes (although it's a good thing those two are separated).

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:12
ESC has always be cut-scene override, from MM to MI2 (at least). ESC to bring up options never made sense to be.

turricaned - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:19
I seem to remember (in the Amiga version of MI and MI2 at least) using both mouse buttons to skip cutscenes and (for example) long "walk" animations - which I found very handy when having to cross areas back and forth several times.  Needless to say around the time of my 50th elevator ride I began to wish TWP had something similar.  Not that it massively spoiled my enjoyment at all, however it could be handy to have something similar in future if it could be done...

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:05
TWP having fast walking and a map (with event faster walking) works really well.
The elevator is AFAIK the ONLY thing which takes a little bit long and cannot be skipped. But it allows you to pause, think about the world, and especially listen to elevator music.

LogicDeLuxe - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:44
You could use the map when in the elevator, though.
There is a minor bug when doing this: You still hear the door opening sound when the elevator arrives the target floor, even-though you're in a completely different location.
Another very minor bug, I noticed: When Sexy Riker went back to the elevator and it left the floor, you can walk behind the closed elevator door by clicking on the left floor sign.

turricaned - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:56
@noR:
Appreciated, but MI allowed you to "twin-click" the map too.  Getting around Monkey Island itself was a three-step learning process :

- Click anywhere : Guybrush rows like he's on Quaaludes
- Click edge of the screen/specific targets : Guybrush rows like he's on meth
- Click both mouse buttons after picking a destination : You don't need to watch Guybrush row there

Small beans I know, but I'd have appreciated being able to do something similar when getting four actors out of the "Sekrit" area on the map. :)

Mister T - Apr 04, 2017 at 05:27
Zak McKracken skips the airplane once all puzzles have been solved in there.

kradx - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:48
Or just link F5 with the options menu, too.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:35
That's a good idea.

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:09
ESC is what a lot of games (every genre) use. But it's not that of an issue since the menu in TWP can be accessed using mouse/touch/controller which most casual gamers will find and use anyway.
Everyone curious about hotkeys can look them up in the help and then it doesn't really matter if it's F5, Ctrl+O or something else.

LogicDeLuxe - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:27
On PC that is. The original C64 version couldn't do this, since there is no ESC key.

Also, when no other option than ESC was considered for skipping cut-scenes were considered, why is it possible to assign just any key for that function in the SCUMM scripts? I'm sure it can be done at least in SCUMM V5, since I do exactly that in the Ultimate Talkie Edition when splicing Stan's prices. I made the spliced line a cut-scene on its own and temporarily assign "." to cut-scene override so hitting "." will skip to the end of the spliced sentence instead of just going to the next sample within the sentence. This function is not supported in ScummVM, though, so it only works properly in the original DOS executable.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:39
Not sure I follow what you're saying?  

I've only ever played the Wadjet Eye games on iPad (they are windows only), so I don't know how they handle skipping dialog and cut-scenes, bring up options, etc, on PCs.  I am surprised by the hostility of some people about the ESC not bring up the options, it's the exact opposite of my frustration with other games and ESC bringing up options.

Someone - Apr 03, 2017 at 18:15
@Ron: ESC is used to escape from a program or game. And most users are conditioned to the ESC button. (I tried it first too. :))

Arto - Apr 03, 2017 at 18:30
I can't remember when I would have ended a program with the ESC key. But I was instinctively using it in TWP to escape an animation. E.g. Ransome walking up the ladder.

Someone - Apr 04, 2017 at 05:58
@Arto: Yes, most programs won't quit, but they will give you the opportunity to do so. :) ESC is used in nearly all fullscreen programs to get back to the main menu.

ESC is made to "escape" from something. That could be a cutscene or the whole program. I can't see why ESC shouldn't work to skip a cutscene *and* call the options menu: If a cutscene is running ESC stops it, otherwise ESC opens the menu.

(And as Wikipedia sais: "...the escape key was appropriated by application programmers, most often to mean Stop. This use continues today in Microsoft Windows's use of escape as a shortcut in dialog boxes for No, Quit, Exit, Cancel, or Abort, as well as a common shortcut key for the Stop button in many web browsers."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esc_key)

e - Apr 04, 2017 at 04:55
I'm sorry for picking nits, but I tried to call up the menu using ESC twice during my playthrough. I really don't see how ESC would be a less intuitive choice than ctrl+o, which serves absolutely no function and shouldn't even be in the game, in my opinion. No one will find that combination by experimenting and right now it's also an undocumented feature, isn't it?

I saw David also say somewhere else that ESC can't be used for the menu because it's used for skipping cutscenes, but I don't see any conflict? My intuition says "press ESC for menu", since it has always worked, everywhere, with the notable exception of a few LucasArts games in the '90s... I still remember thinking "why F5?" when saving the game in Zak McKracken, which was my first Lucas gaming experience. On the other hand, I didn't even try to skip cutscenes with ESC, but I did try pressing down both mouse buttons since it used to work, back in the day. But yeah, this is a very minor quibble.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 04, 2017 at 11:27
It's a personal choice. I never ever understood ESC being up a menu. It never made any sense to me. You press ESC to "escape" from a cut-scene.  It makes perfect sense. We can have eSC skip cut-scenes and bring up the options because players spam the ESC to skip something that isn't actually a cut-scene all the times, and it would bring up the options.

LogicDeLuxe - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:13
I think, F5 should bring up the same menu you get when clicking on the gear icon. Then you can click on load or save, just like you would in a SCUMM game.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:17
Yep, mention above. I just added that. Won't be in the next patch, but the one after.

Joe - Apr 04, 2017 at 16:10
Is it not acceptable to have F5 bring up the whole options dialogue instead of going directly to save and/or load? ScummVM at least does that with F5 and I have no issue with that personally. Maybe I'm tainted by the modernness and all the bells and whistles ScummVM has to offer, though.

Also fun quirk with the blog - in replying to this comment I'm seeing a post date from you as Dec 31, 1969. Should we even be talking about SCUMM? You haven't invented it yet and I'm a bit concerned we might cause a paradox if we continue. Or is this all how you got the idea for SCUMM in the first place? Someone needs to make this movie...

Ron Gilbert - Apr 04, 2017 at 16:16
That would require a new dialog, where you choose saving or loading before being able to do either, or turning the save slots into selectable buttons, and then choosing save or load on the selected button. I find this way error prone.  In the next patch F5 will bring up the options and save and load are the first two choices.

Joe - Apr 04, 2017 at 16:45
Not sure why it'd need a new dialogue? It's just doing the same job as O, but rebound to F5, isn't it? We might be on different pages, but if F5 is going in in the next patch exactly like that then that is absolutely fine with me, and my microsecond of frustration experienced when I hit F5 hoping to open the options will be avoided - I also keep hitting O for Open but I've already seen that's being fixed.

I've never seen a developer engage like this with people on simple UI before. It's really great, thank you for doing it.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 04, 2017 at 16:55
Sorry, I miss understood you comment above. In the next build, F5 will bring up the Options dialog.

Nor Treblig - Apr 04, 2017 at 17:42
Will Ctrl+O still work? I feel the next support wave coming in :-)

Nor Treblig - Apr 04, 2017 at 17:43
Btw. when replying that date is not initialised, it's actually 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC.

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:37
Oh, OK. Thank you.
I just made a gist through the comments, and probably I skipped the one talking about that change.

Ron, I am filling in a list the bugs I find during my gameplay.
I believe these days are too intense for the team, in terms of workload, so I wait a few more days, then I'll email this list ad support [at] terribletoybox.com.

seth - Apr 03, 2017 at 13:12
######[SPOILER]######

I found a glitch exploit bug (SPOILER ALERT): When you follow Sexy Riker to his room and switch to a character in another room while his door is open, you can wait until he is back at the con and the door is still open. I don't think it is meant that way, since he closes it when you just wait there. <<

Haha! :D Really?! I switched to Ransome because I thought he's the only person who can enter the room, because he doesn't give a *beep*. He did... so.. that's not the official solution? :D

I just finished the game in hard mode, too (17 hours). Most of the puzzles... pure joy! Absolutely awesome and logical (not too easy and not too hard). I didn't need any help except one(!) time. I couldn't find a nickel for the copier, because I threw the bottle away (and because it is possible, I thought this item isn't necessary) and didn't check the respawn area again, because I have already done so.

The story is really interesting and fascinating as far as the end, Characters are great (Ransome the *Beeping* Clown is by far the best :D), amazing atmosphere and sound, the animations and PIXEL BACKGROUNDS... absolutely stunning! Can we have the same style for the the ingame county map, too? Sadly, it doesn't look that great. ^^ I would pay for a DLC County Map TM.

What else... I think the right mouse button should have the same function like ".", and the county map should be in the left upper corner, and not in the inventory.

Other than that... awesome game! Thank you so much, Ron and Terrible Toybox team!! =)

Maurizio - Apr 03, 2017 at 13:19
LOL I guess time or money had run out when it was time to draw the map :)

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 13:33
Regarding map: In contrary to the other backgrounds which are real locations and therefore use photorealistic pixels :-) the map represents an actual drawn map.

Marco Lizza - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:12
Same thing happened to me, also by using Ransome.

I guessed he would be the only one to have the "nerve" to face the vomiting-Riker situation...

... only to find that he can't handle it and, after switching back and forth to ThimbleCon, that Riker left the door open.

My "bug sense" started to tingle as soon as I found the door open.

LogicDeLuxe - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:38
Ransom also refuses to get in when Sexy Riker is still in there. I guess, he went in because Sexy Riker just glitched back to the con.
There is a more reasonable way to get in his room.

LichiMan - Apr 03, 2017 at 13:49
Talking about options... is the "Text Speed" option working for anyone?
I'm always getting the same text speed.

Btw, the game is amazing-a-reno!

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 16:14
Do you have voices enabled? In such case text is always synchronised with voice, text speed setting doesn't matter.

LichiMan - Apr 04, 2017 at 06:51
Your're right.

I'd like it could control the pause between sentences in the voice also, so I can play in English without loose any joke or clue... (Yes, my English is not as good as I would like)

I think I will play the rest of the game with text in Spanish and English voice, and maybe a second round with text also in English.

Thanks.

Marc - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:15
I absolutely loved the game and only had to look up once ("zapping the door" did not give me any feedback so I though it would not work out).

However, I do not understand what happened when Reyes disappeared the second time. I know from the spy cam where (on which table) he ended up, but not why and by whom and why he suddenly reappeared.

Did I miss something?

Arto - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:28
Oh yeah. We saw him on that table, but there never was any explanation for that.

Maurizio - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:45
True. Either Ray or Reyes are abducted randomly, but the meaning is never explained.

Filippo in the bowl - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:45
I wanted to point out another small bug:

after being at the grave of Chuck, on the Franklin's notebook the quest "to speak again with Delores" it is checked in green, but I have not been able to speak with her in the truth ...

Björn - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:51
When can I finally start backing "Thimbleweed Park 2". PLEASE !
Two years of waiting and then finished in two very exciting days. Need more.

Carsten - Apr 03, 2017 at 14:58
What did actually abduct Reyes and kill Boris? Just some shadows in the matrix of the big computer program?

Marc - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:12
Now that we finally have the chainsaw and the fuel in the same game, is there any usable shovel in the game?
What happens to Dougs old shovel when he inherits the new? Could not find it, but surely know where to use it.

Marc - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:18
Or does he just inherit the one that he had before?
Why did not he just start digging on the cemetery since he usually does in anywhere else?

James - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:17
Is there any way to have more copies of the map? Only in the very end every characters has one, but before it is a bit annoying walking through the city when you only have one (outside the city it is fine). I ended up "parking" all my characters in one easy to reach spot and always returned and handed over the map when I wanted to continue with another character.

Arto - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:38
Go to Quickie Pal after you show the first map to Sheriff.

James - Apr 04, 2017 at 14:48
D'oh!
Of course, the Sheriff even mentioned that-a-reno.
Thanks

Adrian - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:41
Umm.. I was able to walk around everywhere with Reyes although the map is with Rey.

James - Apr 04, 2017 at 14:52
You know that you are an outlaw then! :-)
I was referring to the fast-travel option. When you are inside the city it takes quite a while until you are back over the vista.
Outside the city limits you get the map shown and with one click you are back in front of city hall, but the way out again takes forever.

N. Harold Cham - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:25
Here's another one: Use demo: 1 in Prefs.json to play the demo, whohoo!
Still looking for the options to show walking boxes, bring up a debugging console or Squirrel interface... :-D Tried debug, debugger, and debuggerKeys with a value of 1, but no...

N. Harold Cham - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:37
Hmmm, I wonder where someone would enter things like these:

clclear - Clear debug console.
cacallbacks - Dump callbacks.
pprprint var - Prints a variable.
enenter room - Enters a room.
!ex command - Executes valid squirrel.
ththreads - Display current running threads.
acactors - Display all the actors.
halt - Stop execution.
run - Continue running.
step - Step one frame.
trtrace - Turn on/off source level tracing.
help - Show this.

PS. I also wonder whether unbreakable 0x69 XOR encryption might show the way to what's inside the ggpack files.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:43
All of these are used for the debugger, which is not in the release build.

N. Harold Cham - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:51
Thanks, but... a man can dream. *sigh*

Rodney S. Hall - Apr 17, 2017 at 14:43
You were close. It's 0x6D ;-)

Arto - Apr 03, 2017 at 16:00
That was interesting... Used the demo: 1, played it, and couldn't quit the game on my Mac :) The "Quit" was faded out in options, and I couldn't even leave the fullscreen, as it was faded out too. Had to kill the program.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 16:18
This was a mistake and not supported. It should have been disabled.

Arto - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:07
Yeah. But now that I had the chance, I disabled the demo option, but loaded the game from auto-save, which was saved during the demo. That was interesting. Met the Pigeon siblings for the first time at the A street junction after I had visited the A street. And never met the sheriff in Main street, and there was no one in town hall. And there was no way to switch to Agent Ray, who was in sewers. But yeah, this playmode was never meant to be. It was fun to test this though.

Stefano E. - Apr 03, 2017 at 15:51
Either some of you guys are really good, or I am a really bad player. I played 4 hrs in and it's about 1.5 hours that I'm stuck :)

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 20:11
A lot of seasoned adventure players here :-)

But don't worry, a lot of people get stuck sometimes in all different kind of places. For example I got stuck on two Franklin puzzles for a bit.

Stefano E. - Apr 04, 2017 at 13:07
I finally got past where I was stuck :)
Again the puzzle was fairly logical, but it involved a dialogue (sort of) and I was concentrating on the items in my inventory (one was actually very deceiving!). Moving on now :)

Eduardo Quintana - Apr 03, 2017 at 16:20
I just bought the game today and I must say I'm enjoying this game a lot in my touch screen... except for one little thing:
When I swap my finger through the screen looking for clickable items, the character follows my finger all the time, like if I was pressing the left mouse button.
I really miss a touch screen option, where clicking and swaping are different things.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 16:26
That will be true in the mobile versions, this build was not optimized for touch.

If you set:
    holdToMoveDelay: 99999
in your Prefs.json, it will disable it (unless you wait for 99999 seconds).

There might be odd side-effects, that option wasn't tested much.

Eduardo Quintana - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:22
Nice. The character still follows my finger but only on every first swap. That will do the trick. Thanks for highspeed reply. Big fan.

Carl Docto - Apr 03, 2017 at 16:39
May we have the in-game option to take a screenshot with or without the user interface please? An in-game option to record gameplay would be awesome too. thanks!

dada - Apr 03, 2017 at 16:48
I hoped that once the 9 savegame slots are used up, somehow there will be more slots made available. Frankly, as much as i otherwise like the game, i find this immensely *beeped up, 9 slots is just crap.

Ema - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:09
So...... 12 hours of gameplay.....

impressions:

OVERALL FANTASTIC.

So, I will write a wall of text just to say how much the game is fantastic. But let me do some minor nitpicking first, please. Consider it like a microscopic part of the feedback you're getting from us.

1) music: the main tune is catchy. Some other musics are really nice, and atmospheric. But they could have been fare more 80.s....
2) Story continuity: sometimes I feel I'm missing something, and/or the playable character seems to know more than me/to have understood something I don't
3) the map could have been better. I think it's a choice, but I remember MI1 and 2 maps as gorgeous. TWP map is a little disappointing.
4) I agree with everybody said the new fonts and verbs are better. But I simply couldn't stand the sentence on the pointer... after one hour of gameplay, I simply HAD to activate the classic sentence. Sorry.
5) What?!? The devs at Thimblecon don't speak???
6) It would have been nice to let the playable character talk to each other


Ok, now some congratulations:
The crossing and the development of the plots is magistral. Maybe the story won't have the same naive and innocent wit of a Monkey Island, but... It's a mature and complex work.
The puzzles are really very good. Some adventures are simply difficult without being intelligent. This is the opposite: let me explain: I've never, never completed an adventure game without some advice. But usually, when I ask for help, I get disappointed: "Aw, I'd never think of that!/found that particular object" That's bad. In TWP is different. Here you roam and wander, and think. And then, suddenly, you understand. It was so logical!
So, at a first glance one would say TWP is easier.... but, no. It's just logical. And rewarding.
I have to admit that -from this point of view- this is the best adventure I've played so far, followed by the two MIs, and by.... DOTT (sorry).
MM, Zak, the Indys were overall better than DOTT, but DOTT has very good puzzles, which is extremely important. And I'm glad that such an enphasis on that has been put in TWP.

I also have to say that the To Do list is really helpful. It really helps you to stay focused and to reorder your ideas.

I really hope one thing: that, after completing the game, I will discover that there are different ways to achieve the same goals, and maybe there are different goals and/or finals. I always liked that feature of point and click games of the 80's, too bad in the 90's plots and puzzle dependancy charts became much more linear....

Congratulations for the fantastic job, I love you all. Thank you for this. I'm happy like a child.

Cole Trickle - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:50
5) Have you tried to take the puzzle dependency chart? Have you COMPLETELY finished the game?

Arto - Apr 03, 2017 at 18:07
Oh yeah, I for one hadn't tried that. It was nice to hear the voices of these guys from 1987 ;)

Ema - Apr 04, 2017 at 08:24
Thank you, nice easter egg!

I haven't finished the game yet, I'm working on it.

Ema - Apr 04, 2017 at 17:17
Ok, now I finished it.

CAUTION, SPOILER:

I took the chart while David Fox was on duty. Is it everytime the same?

Nor Treblig - Apr 04, 2017 at 17:45
Well, they sound different :-)
You just have to re-enter the room and they will swap places.

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 20:23
ad 3 Map:
Sorry, that's what you have to use. Only official maps are allowed. Everything else would be against the law-a-reno.

ad 4 UI:
I've played with different kind of configurations. Here's my verdict:
- Sentence line ON/OFF works both for me; But I've settled with ON since sometimes dialog and cursor text overlap which can be a little annoying.
- Old / new verbs: I think both have it charms, I have no favourite.
- Old / new font: Both are OK. I first thought old (C64) could be much too wide, but I've now settled with this font since I can read it a little bit better (not sure why, maybe the other one is slightly too narrow/crammed)

Ema - Apr 04, 2017 at 07:34
3)
you're just a slave of the system-a-boo!

4) Agree. That's the main reason why I changed to classic sentence.

MF - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:32
Is there a way to enter the Thimbleweed Park Arcade ? The doors are locked and nobody is inside...
In the Launch Trailer after 1:37 you can see Dolores opening the doors of the arcade, but it seems not possible by now ?

https://vimeo.com/210346524?t=1m37s

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:41
We closed it off. Since we didn't have time to get the arcade games working (it will come in a rev), we decided to lock the doors because players were getting distracted trying to get the machines working.

Demetris Thoupis - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:44
Actually you can cheat in the wireframe and enter!

Christian - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:48
How does one do that?

Demetris Thoupis - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:55
During the wireframe sequence you can enter most of the wireframe rooms. Some nice easter eggs too here and there!

Demetris Thoupis - Apr 03, 2017 at 17:32
Ron I would be very interested seeing some spoiler patch notes about what will or has been patched since release. Perhaps you can put it in great SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER link since clearly it will contain information about puzzles!
Thanks
Demetris

sthx - Apr 03, 2017 at 18:34
new steam update... now mouse wheel scrolling is possible! thanks ron! =) can i reverse the scrolling direction somehow?

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 18:36
ok, maybe next update.

sthx - Apr 03, 2017 at 18:56
You're amazing.

BaM - Apr 04, 2017 at 04:53
Wow. That was fast... thanks a lot!

Miguel - Apr 03, 2017 at 18:51
Bug? Pretty much at the end (or so I think), Ray says "I don't want to waste the powder on that. I need to dust the murder weapon"... I reckon the second bit doesn't make much sense at this point.

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 20:00
Just removing "I need to dust the murder weapon" would be a fix not requiring different voice lines.

One small dialog bug I'd like seeing fixed is when the coroner once said "... right-a-reno." (it was too early to be intentional). Maybe the end could be just cut off not needing a different/new voice line.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 20:01
It's intentional.

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 20:15
Oh, OK. Thought it was too early to be that, just having met him (and that other guy).

Btw. that "scare" in the same room was great if you know what I am talking about :D (first time seeing it in my peripheral vision I thought I've imagined something)
Who's idea was that?

Big Red Button - Apr 03, 2017 at 19:06
Up to now, I really have enjoyed the game!

By the way, I would suggest to disable the controls while the psycho music is played and the red eyes are glowing, because I accidentally clicked on the eyes at the same time, so the thrilling effect was completely impaired by Rays very relaxed comment on the violin. It would have been much better if she commented it only afterwards.

Big Red Button - Apr 03, 2017 at 19:12
Also, when I tried to give the empty bottle to Sandy, her name wasn't displayed in the sentence line, as if I had clicked on nothing.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 19:18
She isn't a give-able character, so she won't show up if you scan over her.  It's a quick clue that you shouldn't even try. We had it so it would say a default line, but then players just endlessly try and give people stuff they will never accept.  We found that if the game responds with an in-game message or dialog, people think it's a puzzle to make it happen. That why you see some places (like this one), where it just doesn't work.  Players stop treating it like a puzzle.

Big Red Button - Apr 03, 2017 at 19:57
I see. That's a good idea. Thank you for this explanation!

Johnny Walker - Apr 03, 2017 at 19:07
The last patch seem to have stopped the 'O' keyboard shortcut from working...  :(

Also when can we have more save slots? :)

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 19:09
ctrl-O now, so you can remaps the O key. I'm looking at more save slots, but that will be for a major rev, since in will involve new UI

Johnny Walker - Apr 03, 2017 at 19:22
Ah. CTRL-O, cool thanks.

Also, with the extra save slots UI, couldn't you just stick an arrow on either side of the "Back" button? The arrows would take you forward or backwards through pages of Saves/Loads? (I guess it's still more substantial than the minor bug fixes you're doing now.)

Anyways. I'm still loving TP. Can't believe how huge it is... and I still have to play it on Hard once I'm done.

Bogdan Barbu - Apr 03, 2017 at 22:00
I don't know whether the engine can handle things in parallel, especially when it comes to conversations but, if it can, I have a suggestion: The elevator probably shouldn't wait for Franklin and Clara to talk before moving again. (Although I can rationalize a bit and find a workable explanation if my assumption about what's going on in the town is correct --- perhaps some"one" is too busy listening in. Not sure if that made sense, I'll find out later. Still haven't reached the top floor yet, even if I'm off-duty. :)

Ron Gilbert - Apr 03, 2017 at 22:10
The engine can, but the elevator is already a pit of bugs.  There is this trade off between players wanting things to work realistically, but always wanting things to cut all the crappy realistic stuff out, so you end up with very complex code. We spend countless hours debugging that elevator. I was close to saying "just make it a cut-scene!"

In a perfect world, you are completely right. I wish I made games in a perfect world.

Mario F. - Apr 04, 2017 at 05:46
@RON: The elevator background is the only thing i hate in the game. i tell you why: it's the only room where you only see a part of the fullscreen, black bars left and right. i know what you want to achieve, thats a small room. but i rather would like to have a nice designed left-right-extension background. it feels that you don't had time to design it completely.

Johnny Walker - Apr 04, 2017 at 06:39
It's just like the elevator in Monkey 2 (and other similar room in other LucasArts games). I think it works perfectly being a "small room" and is exactly as intended.

Kevin Drum - Apr 03, 2017 at 22:32
No bugs; just wanted to say thanks after having just finished the game. :)  I also gifted the game to a couple friends on Steam.

Adam - Apr 03, 2017 at 22:56
Seeing lots of updates come in through Steam - have you posted a change log anywhere?

Orcan Ogetbil - Apr 03, 2017 at 23:00
I noticed two minor bugs (Linux, GOG build). Probably not too important but for the record:

1- This happens when you have more than 8 items in your inventory. Let's say you have 10 items and you see items 1 through 8 on screen. You push the down arrow once. Now you see items 5-10 and the down arrow disappears. However you can still click where the down arrow was and the inventory will scroll down, showing you only the items 9-10.

2- This happened to me a few times under different character combinations. I found the following method to reproduce: Have Ray and Reyes ready in the hotel lobby where the elevator door is in sight. Have Deloris come by the elevator from 3rd floor or above to the lobby. Exit the elevator. As soon as the lobby appears and before elevator door closes, switch to Ray and enter the elevator, go to floor 3. Click outside. Immediately switch to Reyes. Delores is now invisible at the elevator door in the lobby.

Stoibs - Apr 03, 2017 at 23:04
Hey, just tried using some of the custom binds at the top now that o has been changed (I want to make the verb shortcuts back to the way we had them in the lucas arts day, O for open, P for pickup etc.)

I just sort of copied what was written there into the Prefs.json file and it mostly worked, however now I can't change characters with the number keys anymore, I figure those 'keyselect' binds have something to do with it?

Does anyone have a full list of the commands including swapping of party members and opening the options menu that we can use for these custom binds?

Ron Gilbert - Apr 04, 2017 at 00:02
Make sure "smart quotes" didn't get inserted instead of plain quotes.

Stoibs - Apr 04, 2017 at 02:25
I just copied what was written here in the blog, and changed the relevant verb hotkeys to my preferred ones.
That worked for the verbs but character swap with the number keys stopped working.

Is  keySelect1 through 5 the right command to switch characters?

Nor Treblig - Apr 04, 2017 at 02:34
Do you want to change those bindings? If not then just remove those lines from your config to use default.

Stoibs - Apr 04, 2017 at 06:24
Hmm, strange. That was one of the first things I tried and it still wasn't working.

I actually just validated the steam files and started this process over again+ deleted those line a second time and it seems to be working now :)

Ron Gilbert - Apr 04, 2017 at 11:20
Remapping any key to a number key is broken right now.  If you want to go back to the default character selection keys, remove the entry.  I tested remapping the select keys to other keys, but never tested remapping them to other number keys. Patch coming tomorrow for it.

Bogdan Barbu - Apr 03, 2017 at 23:12
Okay, I started playing again tonight. I solved the murder and the detectives left town. Did they leave for good? I had the mushroom on me but didn't take it to lady Morena. Did I miss out on some content? Are they coming back? Was that just another way to solve the case? Are they coming back so I can find out more about what's been going on? Oh, the questions. :D

Bogdan Barbu - Apr 03, 2017 at 23:17
Ahaha, thank god for the autosave.

Nor Treblig - Apr 03, 2017 at 23:44
She is a jerk, right? :-)

Bastian - Apr 04, 2017 at 02:29
Not sure if this is a bug or works as intended, but I found this a bit confusing:

(SPOILERS)

One of the items on Franklin's todo list is "Talk to Delores again". When Franklin tries to talks to her (her not being able to hear him or answer, so only Franklin speaks), this gets checked as done. I found this confusing, since you can ask Xavier about using the crystal to talk to Delores one more time, while your todo list claims you have already archived this. I think it would make more sense to keep this list point unchecked.

I was considering restarting the game over this "bug", when I was stuck for a couple of hours, needlessly wondering wether the game became unsolvable due to it preventing something from happening, hehe.

e - Apr 04, 2017 at 04:23
I found this confusing too. Felt more like a bug than intended behaviour. Made me question whether the crystal can even be used or of it's just another red herring.

Bogdan Barbu - Apr 04, 2017 at 06:35
I don't have a warrant for adventure game red herrings.

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Apr 04, 2017 at 10:01
Does the text speed option work?

I have both Voice and Text on, but even if I slide the text speed to the far left (slower text, I suppose)  it seems to have no effect during the game. I mean: after a character has finished his sentence, immediately starts to say the next sentence.

I expected to be a pause between sentences, long proportionally to the "text speed" value.

Nor Treblig - Apr 04, 2017 at 11:07
Text speed setting is (currently) ignored when voices are enabled.

Stefano E. - Apr 04, 2017 at 13:12
Do you guys know if this chart it includes backers? http://steamspy.com/app/569860

It lists almost 23,000 owners. I really want this game to sell a lot!
I gave it a 10/10 on Metacritic and I raised the average user rating by .1

:-)

bobdeniro - Apr 04, 2017 at 13:14
A quick question [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER]


I am in part 3, normal mode, and agent Reyes has just visited the Mansion mansion activating Delores, who out of the blue has to 'collect 56 more specks of dust' in her to-do list.
If I am not mistaken that task was not in her to-do list in her backstory scene, so
1) is it right for her to have to do that without any explanation as to why, or
2) have I missed something, or
3) is that a (minor) bug?

Nor Treblig - Apr 04, 2017 at 13:53
There aren't any specks of dust in flashbacks.
The specks of dust ToDo entry is added to all characters and is a countdown to a total of 75 collected specks of dust (achievement).
I guess the ToDo entry gets added when you have collected a certain amount of dusssst (i.e. it's your fault for starting this cleanup operation) (but maybe it was also triggered by a story event).

bobdeniro - Apr 04, 2017 at 14:05
Thanks!
I like your theory about being my (any other player's) fault to start this cleaning mega-op  without really needing to :)

Ron Gilbert - Apr 04, 2017 at 13:31
SteamSpy is reporting installs, so it doesn't know if they were bought or given.  It also doesn't know the price, so often you see huge numbers for games that did rock-bottom sales.  It's also just wrong by up to 50% on most games, based on my own experience and talking to friends.  Thimbleweed park also has 40K people who have put it on their wish lists, just waiting for a sale... which isn't going to happen for a very long time.

Nor Treblig - Apr 04, 2017 at 13:47
"just waiting for a sale... which isn't going to happen for a very long time"
+1

Stefano E. - Apr 04, 2017 at 13:49
Thanks for the clarification! I really hope those 40K would be buyers will become buyers in the next few weeks. I'm doing my best to promote the game among my friends!

Big Red Button - Apr 04, 2017 at 14:39
At least, it's currently the most "popular" game on GOG.
Hopefully, I'll be able to convince some of my friends!
By the way, in my opinion, we (the backers) ought to purchase it, too, in addition to our backer keys. At least I will.

miguelbaptista - Apr 05, 2017 at 15:41
In my case, Its in my gog Wishlist not waiting for a resale, just waiting for me to get 20€ at the end of the month... Not every cashflow is created equal.

Hope it keeps selling well!! "Word of review" is still a thing I think.

Davanita - Apr 04, 2017 at 14:17
I just finished the game.
What can I say?
Thank you, Ron.

Max - Apr 04, 2017 at 14:37
This game is so wonderful - I can't get enough right now. However, I think I've stumbled on a bug or a dead-end and I was hoping to check if I really do need to start again. I gave my dime to Willie (with no effect) but now I need it to operate the photocopier. Willie keeps saying 'where's my dime gone' (or words to that effect) suggesting the dime is elsewhere but it just doesn't seem to be anywhere to be found. Am I stuck in a dead-end?

Marc - Apr 04, 2017 at 14:42
Dont worry, Willie already lost the dime again and you will find it somewhere on the street. However, the photo copier only takes nickles in the first place ... :-)

Max - Apr 04, 2017 at 15:18
Ah, thank you so much! I should have had more faith in the makers of the game!

COeins - Apr 04, 2017 at 15:48
As a non-American the difference between nickles and dimes is really not self-explanatory. Took me a while to figure out, good thing they also have numbers on them..

Brian Small - Apr 04, 2017 at 19:20
Interesting.  Are you from an English-speaking area (just not the US), and playing the game in English?  Or are you playing in another language, and the translation didn't occur for nickel and dime?

Bastian - Apr 04, 2017 at 14:43
No worries. I made the same "mistake". The photocopier only takes nickels, so the dime is completely useless for solving this puzzle. :)

Max - Apr 04, 2017 at 15:20
Thank you so much for the help with this. I've never been so delighted to be completely stuck in a video game!

Ema - Apr 04, 2017 at 17:19
Just completed the game.

What to say?

THANK YOU ALL.

I don't have any other words.
Tomorrow I'll call my brother and sister and I'll give 'em one copy of the game each, as a present. They'll love it.

N. Harold Cham - Apr 04, 2017 at 18:07
I poked around in the game and found some stuff (see the link for a small writeup). I guess the times of unbreakable XOR encryption are over, then?

PS. Though I did poke around in the game, I poked around with respect and compassion and I hope that Terrible Toybox is ok with it.

Dor hajaj - Apr 05, 2017 at 07:01
I only reached the delores throw back ,but i wanted to say that i really enjoy the game and thank you for making it happen. Feeling like a teen again.

Mario F. - Apr 05, 2017 at 08:11
i hope you released Willie at the end sequence. ;-) . He still is in jail. poor boy.

Marco Lizza - Apr 05, 2017 at 11:36
> He still is in jail. poor boy.

To be precise, he's not do the "Matrix" being rebooted. ;)

Mario F. - Apr 05, 2017 at 16:24
And because of the final shut down not important anyway.

Sushi - Apr 05, 2017 at 08:54
Hi Ron,

skipping dialog doesn't work on an AZERTY keyboard, as it involves using the shift key. But also the period on the numeric (num lock controlled) doesn't seem to work
The first patch says you can now also remap the skip dialog button, which I could use to avoid the shift-detection, but no succes so far.
Should that be keySkip =";" or keySkipDialog= ";" ?
Switching to US keyboard layout works (off course), but isn't very convenient.

(sorry if it has been answered before, but I try to non read comments any more to avoid spoilers)

Nor Treblig - Apr 05, 2017 at 09:41
Try keySkipText. Also try to bind it to letters only.

Ron Gilbert - Apr 05, 2017 at 11:23
You can remap the skip dialog key in version .859. Which is only on Steam right now.

Nor Treblig - Apr 05, 2017 at 12:27
I've checked the current GOG version (which was released today), it's version .858 but the executable contains keySkipText (not tested).

Shizu - Apr 05, 2017 at 11:38
Ok, I'm stuck and I don't know if it's due to a bug or because I'm doing something wrong. I got 8 as Chuck's lucky number and when I try to input it in the computer I select that the number is smaller than 100 and that's a even number, then I select that the end number is 8 but I have no way to select 0 as the first number. What should I do? Am I doing something wrong?

Ron Gilbert - Apr 05, 2017 at 11:45
First and last are both 8... This was confusing some people, so in the latest path, his number will always be at least 2 digits.

Shizu - Apr 05, 2017 at 11:50
Thank you so much! I finally did it.

Aractus - Apr 05, 2017 at 14:05
Ron, I have a small suggestion. Although firstly thanks for these options - I changed the backing alpha to 0, and the verbs to classic mapping (I was a bit surprised you didn't do it like that to start with). I just installed the new version through GOG, and love that you brought F5 back!

My suggestion is that when you "overhaul the UI" you display the keyboard mapping in the help menu - at the moment it only displays "controller mapping".

alone1982 - Apr 05, 2017 at 17:18
Hi, i got the GOG Version. Is there a Patch-Update or do i habe to Download the whole Game again? Thanks in advance! Yours, Al.

Aractus - Apr 06, 2017 at 01:14
You download the whole game again and install over the existing installation.

RufUsul - Apr 05, 2017 at 17:38
Hi Ron!

Regarding Prefs.json: Looks like you're writing '\n\r' instead of '\r\n' as newline on Windows.
Works but looks ugly in most editors ;-)

Regards
RufUsul

Marc - Apr 06, 2017 at 09:20
Hi TWP-Crew!

Any option in the prefs-file to disable logging or to change the loglevel or the path, the log-file is written to?

Reason: I managed to make a symbolic link for the save-folder-path to my Apple iCloud-Drive. But as the logfile is also permanently written to that location, I have neverending Cloud-Synchronisation. I would like to minimize this.

Thanks!

Best regards and please do another Episode oder Game like that!

Marc

Nor Treblig - Apr 06, 2017 at 09:36
You can just restrict write access to the log file.

Kai - Apr 06, 2017 at 12:23
Great game, just finished it!

Thank you Ron for making such a great game again after all those years. You instantly put me back to my childhood. Thanks also to your team.

PS: I wonder why I cannot call Gronkh in the game. Has it to do with you visiting him? ;-) Or are there bugs in the phone book? I see some names are there twice...

Ron Gilbert - Apr 06, 2017 at 12:26
He didn't record a VM message. What names do you see twice?

Kai - Apr 06, 2017 at 13:02
"Ernst Krogtoft" is shown twice. I think there was one other I cannot currently spot in the E section of the phone book. Of course, maybe he just backed twice, or that person is indeed two with the same name (tho, that is a pretty rare name, I guess).

I wondered just that maybe by duplicating one name, the voicemails may have moved one slot and other names gone missing by that...

PS: What a pity he recorded no VM. After finishing the game myself I'm now watching his "Let's Play" and I understood he's missing it, too. I stumbled across the kickstarter project on his profile and instantly backed myself because I just loved your games in my childhood, and I was hoping he recorded a VM.

PPS: As a native German speaker (tho, I played in English without subtitles), the trampoline puzzle is a little hard to get. Even the German text line says "Spotter" which isn't really a common word for the solution to the puzzle.

Daniel - Apr 09, 2017 at 18:22
Yes, in his Let's Play, Gronkh tells that he was surprised, because he actually got a confirmation that his voice-mail message had been delivered successfully. He is hoping for a patch now. I think that such a patch would be feasible, once the team is done with the first three bug levels.
Though maybe Gronkh's Let's Play TWP series would be completed before. It's a pity, because it would have been funny if he had been able to call himself.

Dave - Apr 06, 2017 at 20:15
Oh gosh, I can't find the number to call from the sewers. I looked up the name written on the wall in the phone book but it doesn't exist. :(

Nor Treblig - Apr 06, 2017 at 21:23
Now that's strange. Maybe post a screenshot?

Martin - Apr 07, 2017 at 05:39
Does anyone know whether the savePath setting (alternate location for save files) works with the gog installation? Here, on Linux, it seems to be ignored.

Antonio - Apr 16, 2017 at 11:05
Same problem here!

Nor Treblig - Apr 16, 2017 at 12:56
The option is actually called 'saveGamePath'!

Antonio - Apr 16, 2017 at 15:02
Great Nor! This fixes the issue for me.

Martin - Apr 20, 2017 at 10:28
That's it. Thanks, Nor!

Brian Ruff - Apr 07, 2017 at 18:55
Found a possible bug. Audio drops down to very low level for some spoken lines.

Big Red Button - Apr 07, 2017 at 20:09
To my knowledge, this bug is known, but it's most likely a bug in the sound system. For this reason, it cannot be fixed by the team without a huge amount of work.
I can confirm this bug. But, it happens very rarely. And, if it happens, you still can read the subtitle.

lh - Apr 08, 2017 at 11:19
Is it possible to switch between window and full screen with "option-f" ("f" for fullscreen) on a Mac?

Ron Gilbert - Apr 08, 2017 at 11:59
There is no key that will switch window mods, you have to do it via the options menu.

lh - Apr 08, 2017 at 12:06
Yes I know that. But it is cumbersome. Nevertheless: good work Ron, has become a good game!

Dominik - Apr 08, 2017 at 14:37
Hello are the writers of the Books in the Credit?☺

Knightsaab - Apr 09, 2017 at 06:44
Thank you for this great game. I really feel back in the late 80's :)

Thaddeus Sharpe - Apr 10, 2017 at 14:25
I'm on steam, windows 10 & only want to try pixel perfect mode. Can someone guide me through step by step?

Amber - Apr 22, 2017 at 00:23
Bug? I read through the comments here, hope no one has asked already but: my dime is down in the sewers, both Ray and Reyes are above ground- how do I copy the map if I don't have a dime?

Nor Treblig - Apr 22, 2017 at 01:26
A dime (10c) is not what you need.

James - May 01, 2017 at 22:44
Are the dialogue lines keyboard-accessible at all?  I do wish that 1-5 could be used to select dialogue lines instead of switching between characters.

One of these days in a SCUMM-style adventuer game, I'd like to see "Talk to X" make the player character say, "I don't have anything else to say to X" instead of showing a dialogue menu with a single "Goodbye" choice.  It's silly to make the player go through unnecessary interaction (and possibly additional lines of dialogue).

Also, on a few occasions I've unwittingly pressed the Caps Lock key, and the keyboard shortcuts don't work if Caps Lock is on.