Lists. We humans love lists. Particularly journalists, and to sub-divide and specialise further, games journalists. If I was being uncharitable, I would say because it's easy copy. But hey, it's generating copy here too and probably worse writing to boot (and they at least have the excuse of people reading it). Self pity and whining kids, don't do it.
ANYWAY to move on; it's frustrating, as I'd like to read some interesting content in this otherwise moribund period that isn't simply looking back - even RPS succumbed (although I think they went off the boil about 12-18 months ago).
So on top of all the past year's lists are the ones dealing with the 12 months ahead. The gift that keeps on giving - as you have to bookend the year, right?
What seems conspicuously absent from all of these (ok, almost all. I confess I haven't looked at everything) is Thimbleweed Park. A simple, point & click adventure game, exactly like all the ones we used to love from yesteryear - but with all the crucial lessons that we've learned (for example not killing the player at every opportunity - I'm looking at you, Ken & Roberta) along with a strong story backbone.
Thimbleweed Park is being headed by none other than Ron Gilbert & Gary Winnick. Ron bloody Gilbert! Fresh out of Double Fine, he put together a team and started knocking one out. Then he got down to writing some code.
For those that aren't aware (and if you play games what on earth have you been doing?), Ron & Gary wrote Maniac Mansion for Lucasfilm Games (latterly Lucasarts). The framework Gilbert created to actually make MM was called SCUMM - Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion - and went on to be used for nearly every later Lucasarts adventure game title. These are some of the best loved games in the genre - Monkey Island et al.
Thimbleweed Park started life as a kickstarter and did well itself, possibly given life by the huge success of Tim Schafer's Broken Age - although not to Broken Age's levels - and is due for release this year. I don't support many games via kickstarter, as it is after all a gamble, with the only few that come to mind that I have backed (mainly via Early Access) being Prison Architect, Satellite Reign, Dirt Rally and Formula Fusion. (If you want an investment with potential return, head over to Gambitious or Schafer's own Fig. Value of your shares can go down as well as up yada yada yada). Thimbleweed Park, though! I had to. I just had to. Even if the early support came to naught, I could deal with it. It's one of the few blogs that I visit regularly, and of late, it's been a weekly click. The game is getting close now, has apparently reached the stage where features, puzzles and content are all largely locked and they're all working feverishly to de-bug and finalise it. May I? Yes, I think I may. SQUEEEEEE! Apologies. Release date roughly Feb/March.
What is it? It's an old-fashioned adventure game that looks really pixel-y. So what, huh? The best thing about this format is that you can't hide behind flashy graphics - the story has to be strong. The game will stand or fall on the quality of the narrative (barring some glaring design faults). Messrs Gilbert and Kinnick have great form. Hmm? The art? Get with the program, pixel art is all the rage.
The game opens with a murder in the small town of Thimbleweed Park, and 2 detectives have been given the case. Outside town, a family are gathering to hear a will from a rich uncle. Meanwhile, a clown has been cursed and can't remove his makeup whilst another character wakes up and realises that he's dead.
Whether you give a shit about this game will depend strongly if you're of a certain age, I suppose. When Monkey Island came out (I never had a computer that could run Maniac) it was on a number of 1.44Mb HD floppies, I forget how many, although I want to say 4. Monkey Island 2 was 8 maybe? 10? Whatever. Breathlessly, I awaited the delivery and put each diskette into my dad's 12MHz 286 (1Mb RAM! 30Mb HDD!) and booted the game. The copy protection was a typically inventive dial-a-pirate code wheel. The game delivered! [For an interesting series on copy protection in game, head on over to The Digital Antiquarian - great blog. Read it all if you have any interest in the history of computer games & games in general. Set aside a few weeks.]
The game was funny, involving, hard (to 15 year old me) and exciting. I'd never seen anything like it, all my previous 'interactive fiction' needs being serviced by Infocom. I was hooked. MI2, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Sam & Max, DotT, Fandango (along with other outfits' efforts, Space Quest, Kings Quest, Gabriel Knight) - etc.
Then there was the drought. Around the mid-nineties, the genre appeared to die a death, and not without reason. Graphics processing was coming on apace, storytelling was advancing and action games were deemed to be more exciting. What are these games that helped in the decline? Well, that would be Doom and Half-Life. No introduction needed (if they do, hand in your gaming card right naow.) As the millennium turned, the main stalwart of the genre, Lucasarts, threw in the towel. Some developers kept on producing, but there were no breakout hits; as the 2000s marched along, digital distribution appeared and saw an upswing in episodic content. Telltale Games was formed by ex-Lucasartisans, bought some rights from Steve Purcell and released Sam & Max Save The World, which did respectably well as an episodic series. Telltale worked hard, and released a number of adventure games until there was a market again! Re-mastered versions of the Lucasarts' classics did reasonably well and then Gilbert clearly thought it was time to re-enter the fray. Am I glad he did.
So that little background story was nowhere near as short as I wanted it to be, but it will hopefully give some indication with the enthusiasm with which I am awaiting Thimbleweed Park.
And it wasn't mentioned in a single list. Tchoh.
