Thimbleweed Park Podcast #58
by Ron Gilbert
Aug 06, 2016
Aug 06, 2016
So amateurish and poorly edited, you know it's authentic.
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- Ron
So, we assume it's 1987. On the other hand, the time for MM and TP could be any of the 365 days in that year!
Hey folks... I suggest you to listen to the podcast until the 'real' end. Big surprise...
...
... uhm, how are you at spoken English with Italian accent? ;-)
David, I also want my 1987 hair back! How about starting a support group for us?
These podcasts are wonderful. Thank you for going the extra mile and making them happen!!
Any objections?
http://www.tentakelvilla.de/mm/maniac-6.jpg
But replaying the game recently I noticed a band poster in green's room which displayed "1986 tour". So the edsel fact cnfused me. Was the poster an error, or just weird Ed had a quite old car in his garage? I decided the game was set in 1987: I had the convinction, back than (true or false), that american car had such heavy duty mechanichs thant can lst many years, and lot of people used to have cars of the sixties as an everyday car. And it made sense for continuity with DOTT, which is obviously set in the nineties.
Btw, from the nineties on, americans stopped to produce american cars: even american brands copied the european models, with smaller and delicate mechanich parts, and full of useless electronics that's only there to have malfunctions some day.
Maybe old engines polluted the air more, but how much polluting is to build and to replace these new, fancy -but- ugly single-use, disposable new cars?
Sorry for the OT, but I have nothing more related to say on the game at the Moment.
Oh, and I like OT's, too.
Big fingers, small smartphone.
http://www.edsel.com/pages/e58cit2h.gif
Have a look at Edna & Harvey (Edna's Escape): At the end (of a linear story) the player has to decide how the game ends. Each ending consists of a "good" and "sad" part. Both possible endings are perfectly balanced.
"The Cave" (maybe you know this game ;)) works similar: Depending on his last choice the player sees one of two endings for each "hero".
But I agree with you: I would like to have one ending. And pleeeeease: No open end. I hate them.
I love multiple endings, but for the right story.
No multiple endings unless very well planned from the beginning.
But not too much linearity.
The only reserve I had regarding MI1 (which remains my favourite) was the linearity. The small variations (the order of the trial, the fact of sinking or not the boat) were just minimal, that only lead to skip some cutscenes (and who wants that?) instead of showing new art and new rooms.
Indy3 had too many dead ends, true. But how smart and satisfied you feel when you have that good intuition that lets you skip such a frustrating part as the zeppelin or the police checks? This gives you the feeling YOU are driving the story, and it's not the storytelling which is driving you. Obviously when you finish the game you can go back and explore the other solutions: new art, new situations, more fun. More longevity.
If everything is too much linear, you don't feel as part of the story: you feel as you are turning the cranck the makes things going on, since you get stuck. But then you solve the puzzle, and the cranck goes on turning. No choiches, just Turning. The difficult thing, for the developers, is to avoid linearity AND dead ends, which is a hard challenge.
dear Ron, if this is not too much a wall of text for you, coul you please tell me what do you think about this matter?
Thank you
Ema
Please, take a look at this page:
http://www.maniacmansionfan.50webs.com/endings.html
I know it had plenty. I have actually played through it a few times to see some of them. However, in my opinion MM had some characteristics which fit well with a multiple ending type of story. I 100% agree with Ron on this.
Coming to MI, I found the choice to introduce this "plot possibilities" to be interesting and always wondered if there was a canon choice (not an a posteriori one based on later sequels).
Ron:
Thank you for answering my question. I know that they do not really constitute a different plot ending, I just called them this way because I didn't really know how to refer to them. Happy to know TP will have them as a bit of freedom adds freshness to the game, and even happier to know it will not have real different plot endings like most RPG do. :)
Kind of wish I had opted for the soundtrack bundle when backing now :D
By the way, this is in no way criticism, just a note to self to save the rest of the surprises for the actual game. ;)
i did not know about those screenshots, but honestly:
On a hot summerday i sometimes thought, this is just like Melee Island!!
Only, instead of pirates there would be japanese tourists with selfie sticks hanging out :)