Thimbleweed Park Podcast #18

by Ron Gilbert
Aug 21, 2015

Yet another thrilling episode where we talk about billing all the expenses for my new puppy to the Kickstarter project.

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

- Ron

Mattias Cedervall - Aug 21, 2015 at 20:33

How many hours each day (Saturdays and Sundays as well?) do you spend working on the game?

Ron Gilbert ✓ - Aug 21, 2015 at 20:40

Two. Maybe Three depending on what is on TV.

Mattias Cedervall - Aug 21, 2015 at 21:14

Really? I thought it would be more unless you're joking. Thank you for your reply, Ron! :-)

Ron Gilbert ✓ - Aug 21, 2015 at 21:43

Yes, I'm joking. For Gary, David, Mark and I, this is a full time job. I can't speak for the others, but I work 8 to 10 hours a day and try to take weekends off.

Mattias Cedervall - Aug 21, 2015 at 22:18

I'm glad you try to take the weekends off because it's not good to work too much! Thank you again for your reply, Ron! :-)

Patrik Spacek - Aug 21, 2015 at 20:38

Ron, talking about play testers... I would be very happy to do that... happy to sign NDA etc..

Steve - Aug 21, 2015 at 20:53

What do you mean by "rendering" for the characters?

Ron Gilbert ✓ - Aug 21, 2015 at 21:00

Making them not so flat. Adding lighting, shadows and basic color variation.

7th guest - Aug 21, 2015 at 23:07

hey Ron. I warched "the re-animator" last night, because you said that it was an inspiration to maniac mansion in the post morten you did. But was the talking severed head in that movie also the inspiration for the navigator head in monkey island?

man from earth - Aug 21, 2015 at 23:30

I think that the big headed look really looked the best in the FM Towns version of Zak Mckracken. And how it looked there would fit very well with thimbleweed i think.

Natalija - Aug 22, 2015 at 04:45

Will there be any dead ends in the game?

RCM - Aug 22, 2015 at 05:45

Nope. In the 'Modernizing' post Ron said "Thimbleweed Park will not have the death and dead ends of Maniac Mansion."

from a land down under - Aug 22, 2015 at 06:15

but having a dead end should be a joke somehow. For example a place named that. Or like a "insert disc 22" kind a joke.

do you come - Aug 22, 2015 at 07:48

kind a like in monkey 1 where you couldnt die. Unless you stayed under the water for 10 minutes, not picking up that totem-tree-thingee.

Big Red Button - Aug 22, 2015 at 08:00

Yes, and there was that joke with the rubber tree at the cliff. I liked it. Something similar to the rubber tree joke would be neat.

RCM - Aug 22, 2015 at 08:10

A modern twist on the 'disc 22' joke would be interesting- "Please purchase DLC pack 22 to continue"!

Big Red Button - Aug 22, 2015 at 08:26

I'm sure that a lot of people are allergic to in-game offers. So maybe it should look a bit more obviously like a joke.

RCM - Aug 22, 2015 at 08:35

Very true, considering how many calls LucasArts got over the stump joke when players thought it wasn't a joke!

Natalija - Aug 23, 2015 at 05:22

Yeah, that would be great. I'm so glad that there won't be dead ends like those on Maniac Mansion,I really hate them. But on the other side,deaths on Monkey island were hilarious! Can't wait for the game to start!

DC - Aug 22, 2015 at 08:26

It was my understanding that the ™ trademark symbol is actually specifically for unregistered trademarks, so there's no problem using them wherever you like - the protected symbol is ® for registered trademark, and that's not nearly as fun a symbol anyway...

Arto™ - Aug 22, 2015 at 09:20

That's correct. There is no need to file for the use of ™. It's just a notice to competition that you consider this to be your trademark. If one wants to register the trademark, then one needs to go through legal channels. In United States the ® mark can be used after US Government grants a Federal registration certificate. ™ can be used worldwide, but ® needs to be registered in any respective area.

Paulup - Aug 23, 2015 at 09:21

I love these podcasts... it would have been so cool to have them back in the day for stuff like Monkey Island, to see how it progressed in the same way...

urielz - Aug 24, 2015 at 00:16

As always, interesting to hear the team. Thanks for making these podcasts.

One question about the animations. I think I recall reading something about outsourcing the special case animations? (using Spine?). Is that not going to happen in the end? Will Gary be doing all the animations?