Early Brainstorm
Nov 10, 2015
During last weeks podcast, someone asked how we came up with the idea for Thimbleweed Park. Like all creative processes, it was messy and fought with twists, turns, false starts and really stupid ideas.
When Gary and I decided we should do a Kickstarter to try and rediscover the charm of the old classic point & click adventure games, we didn't have a clue as to what the game or story would be.
So our first step was to brainstorm ideas. Any ideas, no matter how stupid, just get them down and see where they go.
We spent about a week adding to this document...
Once we had all the ideas down, we each picked five we liked. There was a lot of overlap, but none of them felt strong enough to carry the whole game.
That's when I had the idea of taking a few of the ideas we liked and framing them in a larger story, that of the Detectives. Once we beat that idea around a bit and decided it was the right direction, we brainstormed some names for the game...
And then we did some art, wrote some stuff, launched a Kickstarted, did some more stuff, built an adventure game engine and started blogging about it in the desperate hopes that no one realizes we have no idea what we're doing.
Again.
- Ron
Thanks.
Thanks Ron.
Or maybe we really can't handle #31.
I'm kinda partial to #41 personally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sk55fGpf9M
Their fanbase has a horrible reputation, which probably reflects badly on me, but hey, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
10. RISE OF THE HAMSTERS: I like this idea! Thinking of the poor hamster in Maniac Mansion!
13. ODD THOUGHT: Very odd. No non-playable characters. Could open to many endings!
18. LOVE POTION #42 : "The answer of ultimate question of life, universe and everything" !!
19. MONKEY MANSION on MANIAC ISLAND: I bet this idea came from Ron Gilbert!
28. THE WILL: it's original, I can imagine each of you playing the main role...
thanks for sharing this doc with us!
Darn it, we need it to happen.
No... what you're doing seems pretty well thought and structured. I'm really looking forward to the game hat to the feeling when playing it. Monkey Island was one of the best games I've ever played and Thimbleweed Park might bring back even these feelings from the early '90s.
"Haunted Hotel" is really interesting.
:)
Just kidding. Very insightful post as usual!
One question for Ron, Gary and David: When you guys were finalizing your kickstarter pitch for TP and talking about how it was inspired by shows such as the X-Files, Twin Peaks, etc., did you know that both shows were making a comeback with most of the original lead cast returning?
Then the movie "Prisoners" with Jake Gyllenhal and Hugh Jackman from a few years ago was critically acclaimed and hugely commercially successful. It was heavily inspired by Twin Peaks and that must've made Lynch feel really good about doing the show again.
Then when tv executives weren't sure if it would be financially viable, they heard about the crowdfunding kickstarter success of Thimbleweed Park and that sealed the deal for the show's return =)
Hey, I just noticed that Twin Peaks and Thimbleweed Park both share the same initials lol.
Zeitgeist!
That idea about playing ALL the characters in the game is interesting. You could basically be planning puzzles for yourself and then solve them by using entirely different methods.
Stick to ideas that are inspired by stuff before 1993, that's were the last treads of zeitgeist started in the 80's petered out and the hellhole of popculture of today took its beginning.
I think 26 would be interesting. Call it Ocean's Limbo!
a.
Italian only, maybe you can use an online translator, it's worth it.
http://devilmaster.altervista.org/zak2.html
http://www.mckracken.net/
I have downloaded it the day it was published, some months ago, but I haven't finished yet.
After the initial enthusiasm, I slowly stopped playing it. Maybe I'll play later...
It's beautiful, but there is something missing... or maybe, it's just me!
There's really something for everyone in this game and you really don't know where the story is going to go or what to expect and that makes it much more fun to want to progress further and further into the game. I also love that each playable character is important, whereas in Maniac Mansion while there were some minor changes to the game depending on who you chose to play as, it didn't really make that much of a difference.
One thing that I think would be pretty cool is if there is a sequel to TP, to have a "Return to Thimbleweed Park" sequel that takes place in the current year. I'd like to see the same art style used because it's just so good, but the main thing would just be to have the town transformed to what it would look like in 2017 or 2018 or whatever year, or even have it take place around 1998 or something.
The near future tickles the player's imagination, better than the current present!
At least, that was what I felt when I played Zak McKracken as a kid...
THIMBLEWEED MANSION in MONKEY PARK
Besides I think that a successor wouldn't necessarily have to be a sequel of TP since there are really interesting ideas above which would also work standing alone.
The game would obviously have retro graphics (and, preferably, sound).
Since the game is being portrayed as being made in the 80s (again), the gameplay would feature predicted technologies of the "future", the year 2017. Of course, the game would feature flying cars, holograms, VR, robot helpers, and other clichés of near-future-prediction, as seen in movies (and other media) of the 80s (and/or 70s or 90s).
However, the game will feature "future"-alternate versions of celebrities and culture of present day, as prophesized by the game back in the 80s . A "hip" bishop in sunglasses named Frank who longs to be Pope (he's not really cool, but he likes to think he is- he secretly spends a lot of free time writing raps and often moonlights as a DJ. His peers wonder why he is often tired.); a "supreme leader" of a fictitious Asian country, simply named Kong, who is very hell-bent on power and world domination, but is young and child-like with a well-known affinity for American culture (basketball, movies, video games); three daughters of a high-profile criminal lawyer- Kathy, Krissi, and Kate- who have become reality television celebrities; a healthy fast food alternate spokesperson who has been framed of a nasty crime by a rival (not-so-healthy) fast food conglomerate. And, so on.
These are the ones I liked the most:
--"Everyone Hates a Clown" - I love everything about this, how it would create some really interesting and odd locations to explore and it sounds like it could have the spooky/horror vibe of The Dig, but with comedic elements too..
--"Monkey Mansion/Maniac Island" - This also sounds great, lots of room for bizarre happenings, interesting characters, etc.
--"Space Party Aliens" - really depends where this one goes, but it could make for some incredible locations and planets and alieny things.
I also quite liked "Pie Wars", "Back to School Time", and "The Will", all of which could be hilarious, though they don't seem to have as much scope as the ones above.
I'm not so keen on ones like the film students, the making people happy game, the love potion game, or the trailer park game - they seem a bit restrained in how they're set in a "normal" world pretty much... I kinda want adventure games to transport me to more bizarre places like a pirate world or a world run by tentacles or a Twin Peaks-esque world, etc.
The zombie game, heist game, and superheroes game all sound ok, but a little bit... generic, maybe? I feel like adventure games can really push the boundaries more storywise, so I wouldn't really want to see ones that fall back on those kinds of ideas.
Haunted Hotel sounds like an idea that's interesting initially, but would run out of steam as an idea if the whole game revolved around it. It feels kinda "small" as a game idea... kinda the same with Bummer Down Under a bit, it feels like it would be limited in a way to just things that could occur underground (though maybe I'm wrong about Bummer Down Under, maybe it would have loads of crazy stuff in it).
Cryptozoology and Abnormal Real Estate seem a mix of interesting stuff (mythological creatures, ghosts) and kinda uninteresting (running from tabloid guys, selling real estate).
Rise of the Hamsters sounds a bit too Day of the Tentacle-ish so would maybe come off a bit of a rehash? Could be good though.
Odd Thought to me sounds like it would be too complex... I think once you get past a certain number of characters, it's kinda diminishing returns of "this is interestingly deep" to "this is too confusing/complicated". Same with Tuna Head Hamsters, seems like a lot of variables, but I guess some people do really dig that kind of variation.
It sounds like you nailed the combination of things with Thimbleweed Park, though I would still really like to see the clown game, maybe as a spin-off of Thimbleweed Park...
could you maybe write a post about walking implementation? I would really appreciate it ;)
I remember some posts about what you are asking, written in the first months of 2015.
Try to search in the blog's archive, near the month of march. I remember it was also published a video about walking areas.
So the big question is: Will there be a jump button in Thimbleweed Park, at last for the Xbox version?
1 1980's Russian Spy Game
1 Great Heist Game
and
1 Maniac Island Game
Thank You
I would like #1 and #19 and yes i must admit i would like to see a protoype of
zombiMall.
Why are we so obsessed with the zombie genre? Hm....
Thanks for the list and insight into the brainstorming Ron.
I had a story that had been baking in my head for many years (decades) "The Ghost Drop" (working title). Finally I started to document what is going to be a graphic adventure, which is something like an exorcism to get it out of from head to paper (script, characters, locations, puzzles, ...). Actually right now it's still a small document initiating the traits of the story to see if it sounds just as well out of the head as it sounded inside, you know ... and it did not seem to look too bad, really.
And then, randomly I got to this post today and, while I was having a lot of fun reading those ideas, suddenly bam! I get to number 21 and my jaw has dropped. I should have recorded as my eyes have been opened more and more as I read. I could not believe it ... There are so many coincidences between Haunted Hotel and The Ghost Drop that I have entered into shock XD.
I assure you, I have had to tell my partner more than twice so that he could believe me, since he has been listening to occasional snippets of that idea from time to time. It's crazy!
In short, that's life. When I can recover from the shock, I will throw the idea to the recycle bin and start another. Obviously it's stupid to continue working on it when the incredible Ron Gilbert and Gary Winninck have published something so clearly similar.
It will always have to be taken as a great honor to have been beaten by two of my great idols.
Excuse me for all this text, but there are times when you need to vent and this was one of them :)
As I begin to work on the next thing I will at least have time to enjoy Thimbleweed Park. XD XD XD
But ideas are worthless anyway. Everyone can come up with good ideas, and there is also nothing wrong in using ideas of others.
Just remember: http://www.ajbubb.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/f85aa3194c07df540cf0b54c9436e42a.jpg
Btw. such themed adventure game still sounds nice, I would wanna play it!
On my project there isn't animal posessions, but yes a ghost (main character) who "wake up" in a hotel (castle reconverted to hotel in present) but he don't know that is a ghost (at begining). There are humans (hotel guests and employees) and you cannot interact directly with them (yes with objects and perhaps some little possesion), other "paranormal creatures" (no ghost some of them) and you can interact with them, time switch between present and past to discover how you died.
Many, many years ago, the story began in my head with the ghost being awakened by a leak and his intention to repair it to continue his eternal rest (hence the working title The Ghost Drop), and currently this remains as a Macguffin for the rest of the history.
Did I say something about the werewolf doing things like launching fraudulent video game crowdfunding campaigns to buy some good steaks?