Thimbleweed Park Podcast #48
by Ron Gilbert
Apr 30, 2016
Apr 30, 2016
We talk about PAX, Star Trek conventions and nerd out about rotation attach points, to which Gary says "Psssssspppt".
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- Ron
you expressed your regret that you only came up with CashCards for Zak McKracken and didn't think of the idea for something like an iPhone (or smart phone in general).
But I say you DID invent the whole concept of a stupidifying phone. The only thing someone else did was to take that idea and market it as a "smart" phone. While in reality a "smart" phone is just making its user more "stoopid".
HA!
I rest my case, your honor.
I've updated my script and added the possibility to always open reply links in a new tab. I've also added an UI to easily change those user settings (can be accessed via menu command).
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/17661-thimbleweed-park-blog-fixes
Thank you very much!!
Since your time is better spent working on a game than working on some web site I tried to see what I can do client-side to improve it as much as possible.
Since you've already created a workaround some time ago by sending the page again with a new question but including the entered text (so nothing is lost) it's not really a big deal.
But a concurrency problem with sessions like he mentioned could be the cause: Mind that every time a blog page is requested a question needs to be generated (for the comment form on bottom of the page).
Unfortunately this also means the secret of Monkey Island probably isn't a number ranging 1 to 9 :(
I also like the idea of showing the total of unread comments on the archive page. Would it be possible to show that on the blog's home page, too? I've never used the archives page, but I sometimes visit the home page, scroll down to the line stating the number of comments, and re-visit a post if the comment count has grown significantly since my last visit.
Otherwise: nice job!
I'll add such possibility (so you don't have to stress your mouse with 161 clicks to load all currently existing blog posts, and that's even not including special pages)!
Note: this only affects new (i.e. never visited) posts.
And thanks for the idea with the archive list back then. Now we can easily check all those ancient blog posts with one click/key!
Maybe you should make an update on kickstarter. Not all backers knows or use this blog.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023586/8-Bit-8-Bitish-Graphics
Perhaps this was answered/discuss before, if so sorry for repeating it. But it seems that people with more experienced in these type of games find the game easier and don't get stuck on some of the puzzles as often as perhaps a novice would. With that in mind, have you considered having two gameplay modes? One with less in-game hints for the more experienced people? Would that be too hard/time consuming to implement? Thanks
I'm talking about adventure game puzzles, not weird logic puzzles (like in The Witness). I really dislike that style of puzzle unless it has a real grounding in the story and world.
Had plenty of frustrating moments with Sierra games :D But the last puzzle I got stuck and thought it was a fair one was with The Cave (which I recently bought). I couldn’t figure out how to get the castaway from the boat! Clever puzzle, it was very rewarding. Great game btw, I'm starting my 2nd run with a different set of characters (Anyone out there who hadn’t try it, give it ago, it's well worth it).
Thank you so much for making this game! All the best!
Or an option to just have a monk recount the tale to us in medieval English by candlelight, like back in the 10th century?
Proof: https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/726506662882725888
Note: Phone FAQ wasn't updated yet (https://blog.thimbleweedpark.com/phonefaq)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-7nJjgXtd0
Is it not possible to modify the engine in a way that it is able to detect those areas itself by simply comparing the determined actor sizes? I mean, if there is no variance of the actor scaling, it's clear that the actor's distance doesn't change, so there is obviously a stair or an ascending slope.
Well, you are the professionals, of course, not me. So, you definitely know better than me. Though, just let me quote my own example at this point:
I suppose that the main difficulty is to estimate how fast the actor's distance changes. I don't know which data are available for your algorithm, but as a first approximation you could describe the proportionality between an actor's distance and her/his sprite's scaling factor approximately by using a simple tangent function as follows:
*distance = constant1 / tan(constant2 x scaling_factor)*
*constant1* would just be a linear factor in order to scale the calculated distance.
*constant2* would depend on how large the sprite is displayed on the screen without using any scaling. Anyway constant2 must have a rather small value (for instance 10 degree <-> about 0.17 radian)!
Unfortunately it may be time-consuming to find out the most proper values for the two constants. You would need to get a feeling for their influences first. Actually, it's just trigonometry.
Examples:
If you used the above equation and you got too big results at all distances in the game you would need to *decrease constant1*.
If only the farther distances, which this equation gives you, were too big, you would need to carefully *increase* the value of *constant2* instead.
If you additionally reckon the horizontal tempo of the actor based on the horizontal coordinate, divided by the current scaling factor, you know whether the character is rather running sideward or rather approaching/disappearing.
*GET OFF MY LAWN!*
Looms interface was different than other verb interfaces and I enjoined playing it. But it also alienated some of the existing adventure gamer players because of its simple interface and concentrating more on telling a story without too complex puzzles.
You are right, it really is in many respects similar to Broken Age.
Oh, and I realise now that Loom *did* actually have a single verb interface: "Use staff"
I'm sad that the sequel was never created!
The best version in existence is the FM-Towns version, having only minor changes compared to the EGA version (or maybe do you prefer the (original) EGA version? But I don't think its music was that good).
Here are two interesting articles:
- Comparison EGA (original) vs. FM-Towns (quick read): http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=378995
- Comparison VGA (CD) vs. FM-Towns (holy sh*t...): http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=802320
*But what's really bad is that they don't provide the audio play!! BOO!*
The story telling, the graphics (OK, this one is always very subjective), you control two characters, dialog trees, multi-platform etc., all great!
The downsides (for "real" adventure game fans) are: quite easy puzzles, you have only one verb, some think it's too childish (partly due to the graphics I guess).
One big problem was wrong expectations of some of the original backers, and another one the long time it took to develop the game. (Both things which are now irrevelant for everyone picking up and playing the game now.)
E.g. even if something *matches* high expectations it's often less enjoyable than when something exceeds (possibly lower) expectations.
(Note: This has nothing to do with video games in particular, it applies to everything in life.)
So better stop reading news etc. about Tim Schafer but judge games by themselves and unbiased on whoever made it.
But I do know that it is impossible to work without one and it would be nice to know which date date currently is.
THANKS!
Gary is Fester Shinetop.
Similar to this icon (cassette part only, of course): https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/detail-page/B001S2PKGI-icon5.jpg
Something like this could be recognisable even with low pixel count.
Could you talk (maybe in the next podcast) about why you did this and why now and not earlier?
(This is not meant as a criticism, i have no idea how game developing works)
I just read through the latest non-update comments in the Space Venture Kickstarter page, and was instantly reminded of how strangely and refreshingly unique the Thimbleweed Park project is among its peers. I want to thank you and your team for the hard work in not only ensuring the project sticks to its plan (indeed for having a proper plan at all!), but for also keeping us so abreast of the progress in your weekly posts.
If all Kickstarter campaigns were as well managed and thorough in their plans as Thimbleweed Park, the world would be a much better place. And with that, I also wish for everyone to get a pony for Christmas this year. You're welcome. :)
-dZ.
Arf! Arf! Arf!
The team is adding in additional art and puzzles and features and polish not originally planned either and they want to make sure to release as good of a game as possible instead of rushing it out to meet the original release deadline. I'd much rather have the release date delayed so that Team Thimbleweed has the additional time needed to properly finish up everything that they want to do with the game and make sure that it's really well polished rather than omit a bunch of things or leave certain things about the game as kind of a mess just to meet an arbitrary release deadline.
And I'm just saying this strictly theoretically, but Ron and Gary can be extremely flexible if something happens and they have to go over the budget because whatever the deficit would end up being, it would quickly be erased shortly after the game is released on Steam and Xbox Live from the game sale revenue since the money goes right back to Terrible Toybox Inc., so once the deficit is accounted for everything after that is net profit.
They'll also now have a fully developed game which has value in itself. And they'll have saved a lot of money for future game development by having gone through the process of making the game, building their own game engine and knowing how to be able to do things a lot more efficiently and quickly next time.
So by having to spend more to make Thimbleweed Park better, the better it'll sell and the more successful another kickstarter campaign would end up being for either a sequel to TP or an all new point and click adventure game. It's a good investment as an indie developer with a strong fanbase and it also means that the entire team working on the game will have better future job opportunities so it's a win-win situation for everyone involved; the devs and the gamer community.
And I would be fine with it!
In my opinion, the most important thing is that they're going to use both their engine and their enthusiasm in order to make even more first-class point & click adventure games.
There are soooooooo many advantages to funding a game through kickstarter that if you feel you can raise enough money to fully develop the game that you should absolutely go for it. Yes there are physical rewards to give out but you don't have to go to an outside publisher to look for financing or risk losing the rights to the IP that you are actually creating. Also you are able to hire who you feel is right for the job, design and make changes to the game however you want and release it whenever you want, you don't have to answer to the publisher on all those accounts. If you are an indie developer and can have a hugely successful kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, don't hesitate one bit to go that route instead of either self-funding the game or looking at a publisher for funding. Platinum Games can't release Bayonetta 2 on any other consoles because Nintendo owns the rights to the game since that's what they negotiated for when funding the game for Platinum.
Funny thing is, I pledged for the special edition box of the game, and this will be the version I won't even play. I will pay again for the Ipad and Xbox version of the game.
And thanks for making this game. It's still a 25 year old dream come true.
P.S. as an elementary school child, my friend and I played Maniac Mansion; we found a lot of enjoyment doorbell ditching the mansion! I hope, in Thimbleweed Park, you add small entertainment like this. Also, thank you for recreating my childhood with Thimbleweed Park!
"I'm coming! I'm coming!"