Tutorials
Nov 28, 2016
I hate tutorials. I really hate tutorials. Let me just get that out of the way.
OK, now all that said, I just got done adding the tutorial to Thimbleweed Park.
Working on tutorials isn't something that I hate, it's something that actually makes me angry. Tutorials have about as much place in narrative games as they do in a movie. Can you imagine sitting down to watch a film and having pop-ups come on screen to tell you who the protagonist was and when a plot point happened?
Now, the big difference in a movie and a game is, when watching a movie you just sit there. Understanding the movie might affect your enjoyment, but not understanding who the protagonist is doesn't cause the film to stop, or move in slow motion. I will grant you that.
I think the main reason I hate tutorials is they are conditioning players to be un-inquisitive. Modern players often expect to be led through the experience, and it's starting to go beyond just the tutorial, but into the game itself. Some players don't want to explore, they want to be told where to go and what to do. They are being conditioned to do only what they are told to do.
For me, part of the enjoyment of starting a new game is figuring out what I can and cannot do. I enjoy exploring the bounds of the game. I want to feel clever when I figure out a short cut.
The problem Thimbleweed Park (and any point and click adventure) has is that it's complex. Not just in the logic, but the UI.
In the good old days, it would take 20 minutes to install the game from floppy, so to kill some time, we'd read the manual.
Today, players just jump right into the game and a large share of them are immediately frustrated when they don't know exactly what to do (I'm not talking about the puzzles, but what to click on and how).
If you're well versed in the language of adventure games, then it's quite self evident, but if you're new to adventure games, it can be a little unwieldy. Part of the goal of Thimbleweed Park is to convince a large group of people that love narrative games, but don't play point-and-click games, to give Thimbleweed park a shot. If you liked Firewatch or Gone Home, you'll love Thimbleweed Park.
But, Thimbleweed Park is a lot more complex than either of those two games and can be daunting to a new-to-point-and-click player.
For those people, I think we need a tutorial (please understand I can came to this conclusion kicking and screaming).
Since the beginning, the story of Thimbleweed Park started out in this little self-contained area, and we designed the first few puzzles to teach you the basics: opening a door, talking to someone, picking up objects and using them.
While this steps a new player through the basics early on, it's not telling you "how" to do these things and that is where a small, lightweight tutorial comes in. "This is how you open a door" and "this is how you pickup an object and use it".
How to do these thins probably seems obvious to everyone reading this blog, but if you've never played a point-and-click adventure before, it's actually not. You couple this with some players reluctance to just explore the UI and it's going to be tears all around (mostly from me when I have to go get a real job).
The compromise I reached with myself is: the tutorial will only happen in "easy" mode. If you select hard mode and dive right in, we're going to assume you know what you're doing, or you don't mind a good challenge.
I felt dirty for a day, then took a good shower and now I feel fine.
We're hoping to get a chance to test the tutorial out on casual players that have never played a point-and-click adventure. Given the circles we travel in, that's harder than it might sound.
- Ron
The second thing is adapting key bindings to my liking.
Is there a support group for people like me?
That said, I'm glad games these days don't rely on manuals anymore, and instead offer tutorials. Getting a quick pop-up about some mechanic I already know is a tiny chore, but better than bad console ports that just pick 4 weird and random keys on my keyboard and randomly rotate through which of them I'm supposed to press within the next 10 seconds. A modicum of mnemonic value or a useful physical arrangement (e.g. make me memorize WASD for walking and group everything else around those) are all it takes to make a useful PC game control scheme. But even the best tutorial is useless if I come back to play some more one week later and would need the tutorial again to remember which key does what.
http://i.imgur.com/teCisau.png
http://s235.photobucket.com/user/mush1960/media/TriggerMarukeys.jpg.html
https://goo.gl/aZOyLd
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/4fh1nk/japanese_game_developers/
To most people, computers are a dark catacomb full of death traps, and their main job is to avoid tripping any of them.
It's understandable that they retain that attitude when they play games, and are very hesitant to just start trying out things, and clicking anywhere, lest they accidentally break the game.
Oh, and also, at age 8 you probably just started clicking in random places and checked what would happen. If a game makes me do that, I usually don't have the patience anymore these days. I have so many other options for good content these days.
Exactly! Kids love to explore before it is slowly beaten out of us on our journey to adulthood.
I watch many of my loved ones sit down and try to pick up games like MI, they figure out how to walk and talk to characters with the UI but then when the blind guys tells them to goto the SCUMM bar to find the pirate leaders they are like "OK, what am I supposed to do now?",
"what would you do in real life? you are a pirate wannabe, in a new place, and you have just been told if you want to be a pirate, go find the pirate leaders at the SCUMM bar"
in real life they when they travel to cities they havent been to before they ask hotel concierge's and what not where to find the best place to each so and so and then explore and find their way there, it just doesnt seem to translate to adventure games for them.
But even then, back in the 80s, there were games that I couldn't figure out as a kid. Because most of the ones on my friends computers were pirated games, we had no manuals, no nothing, and even when the chance to read something about a game presented itself -- fear not -- your buddy will smack that joystick button or spacebar and the stupid wall of text in front of you will vaporize and be replaced with MUSIC and a title screen, or ELSE~ damn these slow Commodore floppy drives!
Curiousity hard-coded, and ready to whack every single key, test all kinds of keyboard combinations, we felt like babies trying to squeeze the squares into the circle-shaped holes so many times, but eventually, we found a fit!
But again, there were those games that we ... never figured out. And revisiting these games as an adult today, shames me greatly. Some of these games I STILL can't figure out. How in the name of crappyplanet do you play Raid over Moscow anyway ... just one example, don't quite remember those very well.
But SCUMM games? The LUCAS Logo burned into my brain forever, all I ever wanted was more of those. More, more and more. Can't get enough. Yes, I know there's Zork and gazillions of fun text adventures that I liked, and those helped me learn and expand my vocabulary in german too. But they weren't as fun as this. Also, for some stupid reason I could never enjoy the Labyrinth, it was kinda weird. Maybe the movie just weirded me out too much. Can you imagine the betrayal I felt every single time one of those games wasn't ported to the CPC? My lovely home computer?
Alas, Ron hasn't called me and said "I'll pay you million bucks for it!".
I must confess I was serious. I looked at your logo, thought "isn't that LucasArts," googled "lucasarts logo," and found the L logo with the golden man. So I thought I'd been mistaken. I didn't think to google Lucas**film**.
I think tutorials change the pace of the game, and don't like them... (unless designed to intentionally break the fourth wall and be funny.) :P
I like tutorials inside the game, even if they break the fourth wall (specially those who break the fourth wall!)
For those who don't know what I'm talking about: imagine a character in a room thinking "I should get out of here...", then, if the required action doesn't happen in a period of time "maybe I should try opening that door".
Then "maybe you should try clicking 'open' and then clicking the door, duh!".
And if still it doesn't happen, animate the cursor, click on "Open" and then on the door and say "See? It wasn't that hard!"
No need to tell you that I like LMGTFY: https://lmgtfy.com/?q=breaking+the+fourth+wall
XD
The only times I found myself admitting I needed a concrete, step-by-step tutorial experience were in games that were so complicated, they almost encouraged people to stay away from them. Some mech games and Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis come to mind. I love CK2, but the fact I had to spend a genuine 100 hours learning how to play the game and what all the terminology meant, through via YouTube player tutorials, is something both exciting (I'm a sucker for being taunted and told to "get better or die"), and something no normal person would do. It's a niche game for a niche market and I suppose it revels in it.
Adventure games aren't like CK2. Invisible tutorials are best, but [insert incoherent, unnecessary, and self-destructive rant about Gen Y and Gen Z here].
People are scared of going outside their comfort zones. I got in trouble enough for that as a child. It's embarrassing that I find myself ridiculing my juniors and seniors for the same thing.
Grumble.
through YouTube*
- Civilization
- Frets on Fire (a free Guitar Hero clone)
I will most certainly play the tutorial of "Thimbleweed Park" (after I completed the hard mode, of course), just out of interest how it looks like.
I started playing Civ I in the nineties with no tutorial, except from those 2-3 advices the game gives you in the very first turns.
I explored it, and made my own way through the tech tree and to reach the supremacy.
But something happened. Whit the new chapters of the game I realized that I tend to apply always my preferred playing schemes, in the last years my play has become less exploring and less fun. And I'm stuck at a certain level, but I can't say way I should try to improve.
That means only one thing: I need a sort of "advanced tutorial". I think no game has such a feature.
Granted, a good chunk of us would remember Freddi Fish better than Threepwood, but adventure games were everywhere. I was sad to not see them around as much anymore when I looked for some in college.
It's too easy to return a game to the shop nowadays.
"It ain't beeping rocket science! Open the beeping door, ya beepface!"
I was surprised, since I approach games as I did when I was a kid: don't read anything, explore and figure out yourself. Not to mention that point-and-click are to me the most intuitive of all, since it's just "construct a sentence" or "click the eye icon to examine the object".
However, after one year of complains (except from seasoned point-and-click players, which found the UI intuitive) I had to include a tutorial option. I felt dirty, but still it stopped the complains. Not all complains, there is ALWAYS the player who doesn't even listen to the tutorial and expect the game to play itself, but now everything's better.
I don't like tutorials either......If even a shooter needs 10 minutes of introduction I drop it.
I wonder what's the age of the players who have no clue. As you said, children want to explore...the touch/point/click here and there and at one point (even if it's after hours) they succeed.
Old guys like me (erm...44) remember the 80 games...so.....the ones must be somewhere in between 10 and hmmm 30.
http://www.neocomputer.org/projects/et/#allchanges
I spent days, back in 1984, trying to figure out how to play exactly with Crane's "Ghostbuster" and "Skool Daze". And I still know guys who loved those game despite being incapable to play them.
I thought it was just the inevitable doom of the city. As a kid, it felt like a nice metaphor of future life, where you just gather and gather and gather money and wait for the disaster to leave you broke. Pretty nihilist if you think about it.
So to say, I found out the game had other stages when AVGN made a review of that game in the GB special episode. I really had no idea, and now you tell me there's a way to avoid marshmallow man to destroy everything?
E che cacchio.
And for the first time after many many many tries, two ghostbusters or of three entered the palace going through the gap of the Michelin's man legs.
End of the game.
Magazine reviews served as a "surrogates" for those manuals. I learned that "B" key was to be used to drop a bait from a friend of mine, who bought the aforementioned "Zzap!" issue.
Good times.
Sorry pal. Your current self is just a result of a misunderstanding.
Of course finding a valid and fitting plot subject is not granted...
Now for you, the term "tutorial" seems to be something evil. And I kind of agree - if you think of tutorial as something that is bad designed, that literally teaches players through text only and making it so that it doesn't fit the story/setting and mood of the game. And yes, there are tons of those games with those kind of tutorials.
However I believe, a designers job is to teach players their game in a GOOD way, even if it isn't that complex. But as you said, "...Thimbleweed Park is a lot more complex than either of those two games and can be daunting to a new-to-point-and-click player."
You make the point that in the past, you'd wanted a game to let you explore a game without telling you everything what to do. I think that this didn't change much. People still like to find out things, explore on their own and get rewarded by the feeling by finding something out by themselves.
Just nowadays, there are so many games, that have to be controlled in so many different ways that it's hard to just rely on what you know about "those kind of games". However, people still do that. People expect or want things to work similiar because they don't want to relearn everything. They hate when there's a new update on windows, mac or whatever that makes them re-learn stuff they knew that way for ages. Imagine if suddenly Microsoft would change the "X" button to close a menu to make it minimize it. It would drive people nuts.
Now this might be an exaggeration obviously but I think that this is one of the reasons that nowadays games, if they do things differently in controls and UI than other games, have to explain to players how to interact with them. In a good, invisible way. In a way that doesn't make them feel patronized and also let's them figure out enough on their own, even makes them think on their own. And this is probalby not done by just throwing someone in and telling them "now figure everything out on your own". And I believe that it's quite fair to say that manuals, even if they were useful back then (even I read them sometimes and I am a 90ies kid), are still a boring way of teaching something. Not just in games but also in everyday life circumstances such as a coffee machine, a washing machine or whatever. When did you realy LOVE that you had to read a manual for those so seemingly simple machines? Or when did you enjoy setting up a tv , having to read the manual for it more than actually watching the Tv and while using it's functions? In my case, almost never. And mostly this is often because those things are just designed in a way that expects people to not fail and to perfectly interact with the machine. But failing is a part of the process. Especially in games. I think it's important to always assume that people will make mistakes. All the time.
I think if you are not trying to teach through design (and you can't always teach everybody), then maybe writing a manual doesn't fix that. This manual can be inside the game. In an invisible, enjoyable way, that empowers people to be able to play your game and not telling them literally what to do.
Tutorials are good. If they are designed well. But hey need to be there. In the best case: invisible.
It's also very true what you say for kids. Also sometimes kids seem to have way more "patience" as odd as that may sound. I feel even for myself that I feel like I don't wanna "waste my time" with finding out how to play something because I always feel that I "don't have the time for it". That's also a reason why I don't play MMORPG games or any game that give you something endlessly to do. As I grow older I really appreciate games that are shorter and good.
This wasn't so much of a problem in our youth.
He could be a good tester.
He lives in Italy.
...
Welcome to Italy, Ron! :-D
Also I lived through the first Witcher games, where you are thrown into a melee and don't know what your signs are doing, how you fight or anything. And I know there were some complaints about that too!
Interestingly the "if you don't know, die" idea is one of THE selling points of Dark Souls!
So, telling people what to do vs. "figure it out" is quite diverse and who wants what!
Your example of opening the door is interesting. Yes, some think "why do i have to do that?" but "we" old P+C players know, that is essential for the game! How often did we enter a room and had to close the door to get something, that was behind the door or similar "reactions" (and I hope I didn't spoil a litte quest in TWP ;))
Also totally different game: I have to think about Super Meat Boy. The first few levels are designed to stop the player and that he/she has to learn, what Meat Boy is capable of to advance. It starts out learning, that you can jump on a wall and off to a platform. Then you learn you can jump on a wall repeatietly and reach higher positions. Then there is a gap and if you didn't find the "run" button you will be stuck there. ... and all of that you have to figure out yourself ... at least in my PC-copy; if I see XBOX-players play, they have some "signs", that help you. I'm thinking that came after some complains...
So, long story short: I don't know how you designed the Tutorial. But make it as simple as it gets! Maybe nudge the player in the correct direction, but don't hold hands! You wanted to make a "classic" P+C adventure and not some new "follow this arrow to your destination" game!
In adventure/exploration games you are not constantly being punished until you figure it out. You need to be a much more masochistic player for being able to play the former...
> How often did we enter a room and had to close the door to get something
Those were quite mean puzzles :-)
But did it happen so often? I remember specifically MI2 and DOTT.
The last we had was in Curse of MI, but was useless to say the least.
Finally I get to see another adventure where (probably) the difference is as big as in MI2.
Ahhh, good times, good times!
:) => ;)
An important distiction.
when I started playing point and click, I never needed to have a manual or a tutorial.
It's also a main issue to explore the game - what's possible and what's impossible.
While doing such things sometimes you get in funny situations and that's what these games are made for - to have fun.
I'm looking forward to the release.
When we were demoing our C64 point-and-click adventure at gamescom this (and last) year with ONE stick and ONE button controls, we saw that all kinds of ages from 6 to 70 dealt fine with it, yet people of the same age-span completely failed.
They immediately had their fingers on W,A,S,D. Then after the slight hint to use the Joystick they pushed it, it fell over, they stand confused.
After telling them to take it into their hands about 1/3 managed to hold it with the cable pointing towards them, i.e. wrong orientation.
Some even played like that.
While we were amazed how many people did well and actually stopped to play, controls could not be simple enough for all people to get them intuitively.
I am actually quite happy with it now. My comment was on how to let people know how it works. Not everyone has to like it -or the game- but most seem to appreciate the control scheme now =) Steering a pointer and not the characters is per se not intuitive (certainly not for a joystick these days).
With the cursor from Maniac Mansion it's clear that you control the cursor with the joystick/mouse/whatever. And only the cursor. Through the whole game.
(And we don't talk about the verb interface - there are much "easier" solutions. :-))
However, that is still slightly wrong. You never move the character per stick, merely the pointer. This is the genius standard since MM, fortunately. But I take the point that you don't like it as it was/is :-(
I had the chance to play TWP on the xbox, and once you get into that, it is probably a very unique adventure game experience (speaking of the controller, not specific xbox features). Everything that doesnt require a keyboard during play is good for me, though =)
But you *have* two joystick modes in Caren. And yes, they are easy to describe. But first the handling in the game is more complex (try to explain your whole interface - I bet you can't write it down in two sentences). And second: What counts it's the handling itself. You fiddled two complete differend controlling schemes together. Even I who regulary plays computer games cursed several times. The controlling in Caren is more complicated then it should.
I needed approx. 5 minutes to figure out that I had to use W, A, S, D to move. I tried cursor keys, I tried the mouse, but nothing happend, except that the game started over a few times because the only possible thing to do was to close the door (the shorest possible path to end the game).
I finally figured it out. but maybe that says a lot about my experience with modern games (a.k.a. games after 1992 ;-)).
Now I've bought it too after hearing a more recent interview with him about it again and finding the game in the Humble Store (DRM-free)!
Personally I wouldn't want it to be too long, though. Just the basics.
And maybe the ability to skip it if desired. Particularly if some hardcore adventure gamers want to play through all difficulty levels - you know, just for completion.
But I doubt anyone would be nerdy enough to want to do that.
Cough.
- "Hi Zak, what's there?"
- "Hi little cousin! There is a new game, a game you have never seen before! Its name is... Thimbleweed Park!"
- "Cool! It's a shooting game?"
- "...no."
- "A driving game?"
- "No, No, No... nothing you have seen before. It's an adventure game!"
- "Wooow! I love adventures! Load it!!"
... loading ...
- "Zak, there are some big words on the screen. Can you take them off?"
- "They are verbs, you have to click on them to make a sentence."
- "What? Like I do at school?"
- "... sort of..."
- "Zak, I want to play a game, not make a sort of homeworks! Please load CoD or GTA, thank you..."
- "Wait, don't be disappointed. THERE IS A TUTORIAL TO EXPLAIN YOU how to play!"
- "OH! Like in CoD on my very first mission?"
- "...yes!"
- "Great! Let's play!!"
... continue ...
on a monochrome screen
it made it quite difficult to notice the doormat
nonetheless, I wandered for hours around the house trying to figure out how to break a window or something
until a friend blew my mind by putting the cursor in the right place
#GoodOldDays
#BestGameMemoryEver
We recently released an exploration game (Seasons after Fall, go get it: http://seasonsafterfall.com), with no quest pointers and no map... and got a lot of flack for it. Now I'm not saying we did the best job in the world (there's "good lost" and "bad lost"), and the game is clearly not for everyone, but the "no hand-holding" thing was very much intentional, and a lot of people rejected it outright, in a "why would you even want to not tell me what to do???" knee-jerk reaction.
It's not a hard game either, it's a very forgiving and relaxing experience, the challenge is all in the exploration and the puzzles, not the skills.
And/or, the obvious: make it an option ;)
Kidding aside, I think adding the tutorial to easy mode only is a clever choice.
The Terrible Toybox logo or the Options Menu?
If they figure out how to put the fire out, an extra book appears in the library called "Congratulations you nerd' and some text on how to be a better arsonist.
https://youtu.be/hlBWXf0f91Q?t=3m39s
I could never figure out what I was meant to be doing or how it worked, I still to this day have no idea how the UI works, I'll have to revisit it one day.
If not just come here and ask us :-)
I wouldn't like a tutorial. I want the challenge.
I am going to play it in the hardest mode possible. (I imagine that's how you imagined/designed the game to be played)
But, if adding a tutorial will make more people understand, play and enjoy point and click adventure games and give you enough money to keep making these kind of games for you and for us, then put all the tutorials needed. :)
[ ] cursor visible
Even the "X" is invisible! That's another skill!
(yes, it's marked, as you can probably see)
The normal game is with all the puzzles, then a easier game was created deleting some parts.
This is not what i kickstarted you for! That's total #*§@''&%!
Spend your time on making things harder, funnier, awesomer!
Ron, you really sold your soul for commercial success. I understand you got a dog to feed, but a tutorial... ???
Anyways, i really enjoyed the Lucas Arts Games, happily funded this Project, love the blog and looking forward to finally playing the game.
Keep it up :-)
Beside that, a tutorial could be fun. Especially if Ron is making it. ;)
(Damn typos. :))
The Kickstarter never mentioned that there will be a downloadable demo version of the game for the public (i.e. peasants) to try out (and enjoy)! REFUND!
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/9d/4f/92/9d4f92a61f0051bedd6a6a0707476842.jpg
(it's in italian, but I wanted to show you the page more than the words. But if you want to translate... feel free to do it! :-) )
The translation of "Cazzi tuoi!" seems off though...
Story Mode unlocks once you beat the game.
In Story mode i can select one of the 5 characters auto play the chapter, then select another character for the next chapter.
It should be easy to reprogram your auto tester program to only select each required item to progress through the game
No, I'm very specifically not doing that. The tutorial is for beginners and I want to be blunt and get it out of the way. Doing clever tutorials can affect the mood and feel of the game. Thimbleweed Park starts out with a very dark mood and I don't want wreck that with fourth walling or the such. This tutorial will feel like a tutorial, but I think that's what beginners need.
We are not teaching players how to solve adventure game puzzle, we are teaching them out to select OPEN and select DOOR. Yes, it seems silly, but it's sad how much that is needed. Once we get people past that, the puzzle solving is natural.
Keep in mind, it won't happen in hard mode.
We plan on doing a lot of tutorial testing.
This is assuming they actually want to do an optional tutorial. "Smart" people don't do this. They just start the game and then write complaint letters/mails/tweets or even professional game reviews about how bad the UI is.
Having that said: I wouldn't call the easy mode in TWP "easy", but "normal" because of what I said above and also to avoid needing to mention the tutorial.
https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/805272295740567552
In a world that elects Trump as POTUS and opts to Brexit, we have to understand there are people who need to be shown how to OPEN the DOOR. Sad. Really.
Mind you, those copies weren't even really my own. I didn't own a Commodore 64. Nor an Amiga. Or an Atari. And it would be quite a while longer before I could step up from my lowly Amstrad CPC 464, to a 286 with VGA and a Sound Blaster! It would be years until then!
So what did I do? I played a foreign language old school "complex" graphics adventure game on my friends Commodore, in their basement after BEGGING them and HUMILIATING myself endlessly, to be allowed to play! And after half an hour or so, my friends lost patience with the games and just wanted to play something else.
And I resumed BEGGING them and HUMILIATING myself more and more hoping to be able to continue playing.
Did I mention I begged and begged?
God damn, those were strange times.
And today, I play the games as long as I want. They still don't give a damn about those games. At least most of them do. One of them may have one day shown me Monkey Island for the first time, on their almighty Amiga 500, but you know what? I still love that game today. To them it was just a thing to show off. And here I am, back for seconds. Backing the next game. And the game after that, no doubt. Because I've always been an adventure gamer.
I wonder if instead of tutoring people on exactly what to do in a game they could just be told how they need to think in order to not get completely stuck? Maybe people wouldn't have the patience for it.
Some people are just dumb, I mean, some people are not doing what the programmer want them to do. Which is inexcusable.
Especially since there are a lot of casual gamers (e.g. on mobile platforms) which would potentially enjoy such type of game. If the controls makes it a burden to get into the game for some of these then there should be a tutorial.
(and I'm definitely not a fan of dumbing down controls)
The TWP team have seen people playing the game. I'm pretty sure they have evidence of some struggling getting into it.
It got very simple controls (single touch/click interface).
I remember it only hints the use of the inventory the first time you get an item.
But then on the other side: Many fans of the adventure game genre complained about the dumbed down controls (single verb).
Most of those "proper" adventure games which had a very simplified UI often still used two verbs.
E.g. Sam & Max seasons from Telltale Games used left and right click for action verb (use/pick-up/talk-to/...) and look-at verb.
(Which already need to be explained somewhere or I bet you will find someone who tries to play the game without ever finding out you can look at objects.)
The Dig: I don't remember exactly how the interface works but I think you also have at least two verbs: action and examine (via inventory item or hotkey).
It's been some time, I really should go and replay The Dig...
The thing is, that as soon you have a second verb there need to be a way to switch between those verbs.
In the past it was easy when you could just assume the presence of a mouse (left click, right click), but since today you want to have games work on touchscreens too (especially for mobiles and tablets) the player needs know how to do it.
TWP actually makes it easy because of its old school verb interface everything is on the screen.
But apparently it's still not easy enough for some (although I can't think of designing an interface more obvious than that).
Btw. somehow I have forgotten the interface from The Dig. It seems quite awkward to me now.
- was the beginning of voice recording a good one?
- are you planning a new trailer any soon?
Thank you
The bad news: You can have mouse, keyboard, game controller and/or touchscreen on PC so it's the same work anyways :p
Is this the case with thimbleweed or the differences from easy to hard are really subtle?
Can we enjoy the two gameplays or playing easy will kill the fun in hard mode?
I am imaging the whole story, starting from what has been granted to see, and it ends up to be fantastic.
Multiple endings (at least in my mind)
Delores will marry Ransome, and they both will have many clowndren, beautiful and smiling.
OK, let's go to sleep :-)
Let's have a whole new fantastic game, at least!
The release of Thimbleweed Park is approaching...
But let us now look forward to 2017. A big year for video games since it will be the release year of TWP.
And maybe also TWP:TCE (Thimbleweed Park™: The Configurator Edition).
And in regards to the topic at hand - how gaming, nay, how the gaming INDUSTRY as changed the mindset of 90% of all players is so sad... it really makes me sad. First it was angry - then it was frustration, then sadness.
Also because it fits to a world where stupidy and superficiality spread out like a bushfire.
But let´s not become too pessimistic or psychologic ;)
With the invention of crowd-funding, A new spark of hope has been set aflame that ambitious games won´t die!
And that is a good thing :)
when a medium evolves the products get more lush and expensive to produce, while the price more or less stays fixed. A game like an 80s arcade game could be sold in an app store for a few cents, when at that time it did cost about as much as a mid priced game on Steam today. While it was more complicated to program, there were a handful of people involved, opposed to today's teams of 20-200 people.
This is only possible by selling more units. This means making the content as accessible as possible to convince people to play it. This is also why franchises get more valuable especially with video games: people already know the content. If it worked before, they are sure it will work again.
It is less dumbing down but more finding the lowest common denominator. It is the flawed assumption of the designer to assume this would need a watered down experience, when in reality it is mainly about making it easy for people to access the game.
I won't lie to you: while I spent ages in the 90s to wrap my brain around how a game works, I want to jump in and play immediatly these days. But that does not mean that I like if layers are added after that point and the game gets complexer.
My guess is also that this kind of ramping up complexity is just too difficult to balance, especially with the glossy perfectioned surfaces of today's games. At the same time the industry, unlike the movie industry of the 90s, completely failed to make those complexities clear. Only the recent trend of Early Access and Kickstarter allowed an insight into how difficult it is to make the right decisions in the middle of the process and what work follows from that.
So it is less a thing of stupidity but pop culture as such.
It's great to have insight in projects when backing on Kickstarter&Co, and you also see that a lot of people/backers never knew how much work (time and money) even simple games can be.
Regarding price I want to add that this didn't really stay the same. Only triple A titles can still afford those prices. Indie titles are cheaper from the start and are very quickly put on all different kind of sales (also look at mobile game prices...).
The competition is big and visibility is a problem today. If you as a player get stuck in a game or it doesn't capture you enough it's easy to just drop it and move on to another one.
♦Load Game (only if there is already a game to load)
♦New easy Game
♦New hard Game
♦never-ever-played-a-classic-point&click-adventure-game-tutorial
Does not kill the mood if you select it befor the game, nobody needs to go through a tutorial, but everybody can do it.
I personally hate it if I´m forced to play and go through a tutorial like in so many games. I like to find out stuff. But I also like to have the opportunity to play or see a tutorial if I think I´m to stupid to find out everything by myself.
Or you include some animations while loading the game. Of course this Game will have to load a lot of content :)
I assume it comes after a New Game menu entry.
(now it can't be unseen, MWAHAHAHA)
The first scene in TWP already did that for a long time (like teaching you to pick up objects, giving objects to another character, switching character, using one inventory item with another inventory item).
Still it seems like the very basics (OMG so many buttons on a controller!) was a problem for some.
Breathe in, breathe out, repeat.
http://www.wikihow.com/Breathe
I am certain that all people around me will like my sighing while exhaling!
- Top 100 Anticipated Games 2017 (rank #81) : https://www.igdb.com/top-100/anticipated
- 8 less known Xbox One games with potential that are coming for 2017 (rank #1) : http://www.lifeisxbox.eu/2016/11/28/eight-less-known-xbox-one-games-with-potential-that-are-coming-for-2017-part-1/
(btw. on first glance this list is for 2017 or later... or never; Star Citizen: 2017? LOL)
Now I wonder: Is this a question which needs to be answered in the tutorial?
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1jFUJHdbpeU/hqdefault.jpg
Am I wrong?
Not sure about the Steam version though.
The current builds used by testers do collect a lot of telemetry data but it's not even sure if the release version will contain this at all.
If only i had a Click and Swipe adventure from Terrible Toybox on my phone to pass the time..
PS: Excited to hear the voice for Ransome The Clown is good!
It's a 3-in-a-row game, but with piratesque adventure inside.
And most of all... it's made by Ron Gilbert, with music composed by Steve Kirk. Two names also involved in Thimbleweed Park!
I'm currently addicted to it ;-D
On the other hand, with that ship and power at +250%, the game starts to be too much easy: every level can be finished in 50 moves or so.
But I like it anyway, I just want to see the end :-D
You just THINK we care about the game. We REALLY just want to hear you blather on about how stressed you are about a fictitious requirement (game).
So, we should just be patient, and maybe. ..the next podcast will contain many 'audio' surprises!
The only usable things that pop into my mind are a couple of funny stories, like when Mark acidentally (or not?) stole some money he got for the TWP merchandise.
I usually listen to the podcast at midnight (between Saturday and Sunday), because of different time zones, but I am not able to sleep until the end of the podcast. And I mean... the VERY end... :-)
If Ron knew how much time we regularly spend on this blog he would perhaps get a guilty conscience. So, let's welcome the current quiet here. :-)
I can tell you dozens of minutes. Each day.
The character could turn into the camera and say "I see you're trying to use a rubber chicken with a pulley on a rope.... but don't you think you should get up and walk around a bit first"?
If nothing else, it could be easy to add, (just mimic back whatever the user's trying to do), and be good for a joke. Plus it could generate some media interest.
https://xkcd.com/927/
Maybe I missed this info in some podcast, but... are there any (un)official news of the date of delivery?
Some fan said january, some other said march. But I don't remember reading anything from the staff.
Thank you
Ema
This blog has been immensely awesome, you could charge more for it (it is more work on your part) for the next project. Be sure to add the reward level of Ron bringing the alpha to a bar near you. I'm sure I couldn't afford that one, but some could. Possibly groups of fans could group together. North Dallas anyone?
If you made a separate topic for folks here to brainstorm project ideas, that would be awesome too.
(As funny as it may sound, it is really important to me. Work and family took almost all my chances to play computer games. Therefore, I need to reserve the time.)
Thank you in advance!
Also, there is a good six months of work after the game ships with port, maintenance, etc. It also depends on how well the game does. If it doesn't do well, then we won't be doing another. Making these games is beyond expensive.
It'll do well.
It would be very disappointing if the game didn’t do well – for us, but especially for you guys. However, I can’t help you more than with what I already gave. Let’s just hope the best, OK?
Hello Mr. Ron Filbert, I have never played a click n' point adventure video screen game before, so please send me, a complete novice, a copy of your electronic toy game for testing.
And, of course, a big thank you !!
Just 2 years ago, the Kickstarter campaign of this project was going to finish. Two years are a long time, but now is passed, in a blink of an eye.
Here we are, "sit down here in a room, praying for a yes", like an italian singer sings, waiting for the most awaited adventure game since the '90s.
All the team worked as we expected, and kept us constantly up-to-date during the development phase, listening at us for improvements, jokes, needs. That is the "Big Whoop" of the adventure games, I really think we could not have any better than this.
Proud to be part of this adventure!!
I want to whisper you a little secret...
... now the site is closed, but still alive... try to browse www.883network.com ... sssssh!!
I am glad to see you put a tutorial in the game, if only to help sales - I'd rather see a successful game here, because while I love Telltale and the much needed shot in the arm it gave adventure gaming, it is blurring the lines between the traditional point and click and interactive movie with each new release.
One of the core reasons I support independent developers, is because I fear that we may lose "games" to limited interactive movies sequences someday. Maybe it will be fine, and I'll enjoy them more than gaming - but I'm very leery to the idea. While I liked playing Space Ace on occasion and the like, I don't want that to be it.
Greetings from Argentina!
Bye!
Congratulations!
I remember that, when I was a kid, my own expectations were highly dependent on theirs.
Per quel che ne so, si stanno muovendo adesso. Cominciano ora a scrivere che sta per uscire una nuova avventura, ecc.
Tuttavia, leggo solo sui quotidiani online. Appena apparirà su The Games Machine o qualche altra rivista del settore, allora sarà un trionfo.
[Italian mode OFF]
Hi, in a scale from 0 to 100, I feel the hype level is 40, by now, based on articles published on the web.
CHECK ONE:
OPTION 1: "I want it all! All the puzzles! All the work!"
OPTION 2: "I've never played an adventure game before. I'm scared!"
Where have I seen something like that before? Hmmm…