Thimbleweed Park Podcast #5

May 08, 2015

I'm in Seattle for the next few days, and I don't have my amazing World of Warcraft Raiding Headset with me, so I apologize for the sound quality and mic scratching noise. Look, I said I was sorry, so can we just drop this?

You can also subscribe to the Thimbleweed Park Podcast RSS feed if that's 'your thing'.

- Ron

Mattias Cedervall - May 08, 2015 at 15:10

Very nice! :-)

Ron, did you sit or stand up? I can't sleep if I don't know!

David Fox ✓ - May 08, 2015 at 15:32

@Mattias, not sure about Ron, but I was sitting (but my avatar was standing).

Mattias Cedervall - May 08, 2015 at 15:48

Thank you very much for the information, David! :-) I now know what the Fox says. :-) I think I'll sleep good tonight! :-)

fan - May 08, 2015 at 19:26

David prepare to rocket out of your chair when Zak 2 is out next week :)

Vegetaman - May 08, 2015 at 15:48

I didn't read the text from Ron until after I listened to the podcast, and I didn't notice the sound quality or scratching noises. Now I'm not sure if I need to get my ears checked or not.

Still, awesome update. Seems like a lot of things are coming together really early in the project.

Mario - May 08, 2015 at 16:27

Why does Gary always sound like Darth Vader ? somekinda hall fx distortion. i assume its wanted, he has the imagine force.

Mattias Cedervall - May 09, 2015 at 16:40

Because his real name is Darth Grafix.

Fan - May 08, 2015 at 19:24

Just want to point out that ZAK MCKRAKEN 2 is coming out this TUESDAY 12 MAY!!!!!!

Everyone get excited now :)

Mattias Cedervall - May 09, 2015 at 08:28

Unofficial sequel, right? I'm still excited even though I haven't played the first game yet.

Fan - May 09, 2015 at 18:28

Yep unofficial. Production values to rival any high end commercial release though. Hopefully breathes some life back into the Zak franchise.

Tomimt - May 10, 2015 at 10:45

That's unexpect. I had given up the hope for that one to be actually released someday.

Fan - May 11, 2015 at 04:25

Agreed, The release date came as a huge surprise. Seems it's X-Mas come early :)

Christopher Griffin - May 11, 2015 at 12:25

I'm trying to figure out why it's just now coming out, when this YouTube Let's Play video for it was published 3 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJKgmL-9Xo

fan - May 11, 2015 at 20:02

The game used to be only in German, not even English subs. So they decided to do a director's cut with improved graphics and English speech (plus French subs et cetra...)

Ben Henson - May 08, 2015 at 21:45

Listening to you guys about having temporary assets in the game (text, art, sounds, whatever) it makes me wonder what system you use to keep track of what is and is not 'final'. In particular you mention temporary text having a tendency to end up in the final game (I assume you meant this sometime happens unintentionally). I imagine at early stages it's no big deal (everything is temporary) but towards the end of development it could become a real headache if you simply relied on playing the game and noticing what wasn't done yet.

So do you have some kind of spreadsheet that has to be maintained by someone? Or are temporary assets named as such in the code in a way that you can do a search and easily see what still needs attending to? Or some other brilliant solution I cannot conceive of?

David Fox ✓ - May 13, 2015 at 14:58

Not sure if Ron meant intentionally or unintentionally... sometimes temp text ends up being so funny and irreverent that it just has to stay in. It's often what ends up setting the tone for all the text/dialog. But it's possible there's some temp text that ends up there unintentionally because we didn't go back and check every line. Of course, that won't happen in this game :-)

Jammet - May 09, 2015 at 07:47

Thank you for the update Ron, David, Gary!

Ron, you are in Seattle now? :) I've *always* wanted a tree branch from Seattle ;) ! Or a birds nest ...

natalija - May 09, 2015 at 13:04

Don't worry Ron; your voice is better without those headsets...

Adrian - May 10, 2015 at 18:37

Could you add a copy protection to the game? I mean not a real copy protection, something like the code-wheel in monkey island with the option to bypass or turn it off in the options menu for those who dont want that. Maybe on a pdf file so i could print it out and put it somehow together. I would use it....if i could.

Dominik - May 11, 2015 at 05:40

Although I really like the idea I think the problem would be that digital download customers wouldn't have a physical code book/wheel/whatever and I think nobodys likes to browse a PDF file for the codes, so most people would just skip over it.

But perhaps something like the "age verification" quiz of the earlier Larry games would be a nice touch? You have to prove that you are old and grumpy enough to play the game.

Christopher Griffin - May 11, 2015 at 12:27

Yeah, this would be a fun optional feature. Of course, by default, you could just leave it off -- or make some area in the game accessible if you have the decoder wheel. Basically, the idea being that it would just be for fun, and not necessity.

Dominik - May 11, 2015 at 05:44

First I was skeptical but now I really like the podcasts! It's also nice that you manage it to keep them short and precise - not that I would have expected any less from three industry veterans.

What's really weird though: When I hear you guys talk about the progress and scope the game already has it seems much bigger than what I got from the other posts/videos. Only the self-test-video gave a glimpse of what is already in there and what isn't. For example: When Ron said that David often requests features/changes to the engine to make scripting easier/better I thought that I'd really like to see an example of David's scripting genius in action!

So please David: Give us a post about a mechanism or something that you already scripted! Pretty please?