Thimbleweed Park Podcast #38
by Ron Gilbert
Jan 27, 2016
Jan 27, 2016
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- Ron
Neo: What truth?
Boy: There is no Mark.
Neo: There is no Mark?
Boy: Then you'll see, that it is not Mark who creates the art, it is only you.
On question according to the game design, and I really hope it's not too late. I really love to play Freecell lately, so maybe you can do a Freecell reference in TeePee so I love it even more? It would be a really nice mixup like those JRPGs that got mixed up with Bejewled. Think about it, no royalties wanted.
But I laughed my ass off at the idea that it would be Ron on the other side checking the results with his own sucking math skills!
And it does make sense that you would not trust correct answers, as after all a bot can be expected to be perfect at elementary math (even when it is spelled out). So a correct answer means you're a bot, a wrong one means you're human!
It was bothersome to use the NES-gamepad to play Maniac Mansion! It would have been so much easier using a mouse!
And he knew what to do, of course... therefore, for an average skilled Lucas adventure gamer, how could it take to finish the game?
I remember my experience:
1) Maniac Mansion: started, interrupted, resumed, interrupted. After a couple of years: resumed and completed (with help). After more years: completed with all characters and endings.
2) Zak McKracken And The Alien Mindbenders™: started and completed in 3 months without any help.
3) Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade: started and completed in 2 months with a little peek at the hints, in only 2 situations.
4) Loom: started and completed in 2 weeks. This one was more a fantasy story than a puzzle game, I liked it that way.
5) Monkey Island: started, and completed in about one month. With some hints.
6) Monkey Island 2: started and completed in 2 months, together with a friend. We used to exchange our progresses. How fun it was!
... then, the other adventure games were completed when I was no more a student, so... less time to play... they do not count.
I played Zak McKracken And The Alien Mindbenders™ as a teen. I liked it so much that after I had finished the game, I choosed "Zak McKracken" as my nickname. Year after year, my friends (human beings) started to call me Zak. And so on... even on the Internet...
...and last year, I found this blog, and "my" creator, David Fox.
I started to call him by "Mr. David Fox", with utmost respect.
Now I drop "Mr." and call him only by his name, but the respect is always... the greatest!
But that was perfect.
The other games: tried to do the most by myself, but usually needed help in several steps. This never ruined the game to me. On the contrary I began to get nervous/annoyed when I realized to be stuck on one puzzle for more than some hours. For instance: Day of the Tentacle: I completed it by myself in three days, lot of fun, but I lost several hours because there was a bunch of keys I could not find anywhere, until I just closed the door of the sleeping fat man, and found the keys in the back of the door. THAT made me nervous, since it was no puzzle, I just could not find them, they were just hidden in a place I could not find!
Loved these games, guys.
I hope we next move to podcasts which are out of sequence and that reference podcasts that have not happened yet or that are missing from the sequence, etc.
I think that would fit the whole mysterious Thimbleweed Park vibe...
Also in Zak, trying to stay clear of the Caponians, trying not to fall down from outer space, running from the stewardess (sorry, flight attendant): all much more exciting with a clumsy and slow joystick than with a super fast and accurate mouse.
Ah! Good times!
Although the more objective observation is probably that these games were so good that they could withstand the technical limitations of that era.
Hearing now that Gary was also doing a physical work-out to place those pixels with a joystick (and analog magnifying glass-on a CRT screen I assume ??!!) makes the effort you put into these games even more appreciated.
Really: thanks, guys! I can't wait to explore Thimbleweed Park!
Don't you think Stephany Nunneley shifted your words too much towards puzzle solving? Is TP poor in storytelling? I don't expect so. I think you still want a good balance between a well written involving story, and challenging puzzles that make sense. Don't you?
Timbleweed Park seems to have a great potential in his story (we fear what we don't know, like something different from our habits and culture, or just changes even if they led us to be better, an so on...), a fantastic setting with a lot of allusions, while puzzles mean always to me an exercise of "insight" as the ability to use something you have in a way completely new to you, never experienced or thought before, or not in a conventional manner, and also by using your speech and irony, that are substantial characteristic of human beings, and they can remember how to reach a goal and to avoid violence the more we can as a way to solve problems (which to me has always been the "secret" of Monkey Island, or it was the ghost ship of LeChuck, or Disney theme park? or the need and fascination for mistery itself? ahah). And all of this with a lot of fun!