New game from Ron Gilbert

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Gunness
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New game from Ron Gilbert

#1 Post by Gunness » Thu Dec 04, 2014 9:52 am

...Thimbleweed Park is on Kickstarter. A new, heavily pixellated 2D point'n'click game. Like they used to make'em.

Image

I love Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island (well, the first two, anyway), and this just tickled my funny bone in all the right places.
Just to start off, the pledge levels are pretty neat:
$5: "A Big Hearty Thanks™ and the inner warmth of knowing you made someone happy. Not as happy as $20, but still happy."
$25: ""I pirated Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island when I was a kid and I feel bad!" This reward tier instantly absolves you of all guilt and includes the Thimbleweed Park game. All subsequent tiers also include guilt absolution."
$2,500: "We’ll recreate your likeness as the dead body from Thimbleweed Park in pixel art then you'll get a super high quality fancy-smancy one of a kind print. You’ll need to provide an appropriate photo (subject to our approval, no real corpses please)."

Well, I did look at the $25 one, and I did pirate Monkey Island, but I bought the sequel *and* MM, so I feel kind of safe selecting the normal, non-absolution tier. Anyway, backed :)

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#2 Post by Gunness » Sat Dec 13, 2014 11:52 am

For anyone still on the fence, David Fox, the writer of Zak McKracken, has also joined the project.
I can't wait to see the finished game :)

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#3 Post by Mr Creosote » Sun Dec 14, 2014 8:54 pm

Looks good, if there were only a sensible means of payment.

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#4 Post by Gunness » Sun Dec 14, 2014 9:52 pm

Both creditcards and Paypal are accepted - if neither of these will do, I'd say you'll have a difficult time buying anything on the net?

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#5 Post by Mr Creosote » Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:40 am

It automatically sent me to Amazon, asking me to create an account. How do I get around this?

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#6 Post by Gunness » Mon Dec 15, 2014 12:37 pm

Well, it's either that or Humble/PayPal - and I know that using PayPal presents certain problems if you'd like a refund. But with Kickstarter, not being able to get a refund is really the nature of the beast:
"Kickstarter doesn't issue refunds as transactions are between backers and creators directly. Creators receive all funds (less fees) soon after their campaign ends. Creators have the ability to refund backers through Amazon Payments (for US projects) and Kickstarter (for non-US projects)."

So unless the creator of the project decides otherwise, you can't get a refund, even if you'd like to. You're taking a leap of faith, and most of the time it goes well, other times... not so well.
But given the history of Ron Gilbert et.al., I'd say we are on fairly safe ground.

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#7 Post by Alex » Mon Dec 15, 2014 5:36 pm

I never played Maniac Mansion because for the c64 it was disk only and in 1987 I was still fiddling with tapes :oops: (and some MSX cartridges but they were very expensive). I did play Monkey Island which was one of the first graphical adventures I played on my PC XT (I skipped the Sierra games) I did play it of course on my Amber monitor (no colours :) ). Nice they have decided to make a new game. Maybe I'll buy a copy (if not for playing it at last should remove the enormous guilt I played a pirated version back then :) ).

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#8 Post by Mr Creosote » Mon Dec 15, 2014 5:43 pm

I feel safe enough concerning the leap of faith in this particular case. I just don't want to create an account with Amazon. What is this other option you're talking about and how do I get there?

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#9 Post by Gunness » Mon Dec 15, 2014 10:04 pm

@Alex: Well, you still have a couple more days to cave in and decide you need this game :D

@Hannes: They set up a Paypal option via Humble. Take a look here: http://thimbleweedpark.com/humble
This should allow for PP as well as payment via that minor Jeff Bezos outfit.

And as they say: "Holy crap is this going to be fun!"

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#10 Post by Mr Creosote » Tue Dec 16, 2014 8:31 am

Gunness wrote:@Alex: Well, you still have a couple more days to cave in and decide you need this game :D
Or you could just buy it when it comes out... It has been known to work in the past, you know ;)

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#11 Post by Gunness » Tue Dec 16, 2014 10:52 am

Yeah, but you'll miss out your chance to get eternal absolution!
Or be recreated as a corpse in the game - you gotta love that one ;)

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#12 Post by df » Sat Dec 27, 2014 1:39 am

glad to see it funded. Ill probably pick it up once its out. I refuse to kickstart any software, too many overpromised failures.
-- Stu / DF --
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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#13 Post by Gunness » Mon Dec 29, 2014 11:16 am

Well, that's the usual crowdfunding issue. I've mainly been backing board games myself, as it is one of my major hobbies. Time and again I can see that the projects that fund easiest share one basic characteristic with the computer game projects: they look great. It's easier to show off something that looks great than something that plays great.

I know that a lot of people got burned on Tim Schaeffer's Double Fine project - though part of the problem seems to be that it received massive funding and he felt an obligation to increase the scope of the game accordingly - but in general I don''t have a problem with backing pc games if they
1) Are made by experienced designers who have a lot of reputation to lose
2) Aren't trying to push any tech barriers and/or are overly ambitious (Elite: Dangerous, I'm looking at you)

Barring any major disasters, I don't see how this game can end up a total train wreck, but you never know :)

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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#14 Post by df » Sat Jan 03, 2015 4:04 pm

ha I have done a few boardgames too, Salmon Run, Great Fire of London, Lost Valley, Conquest of Sperros, and bunch of tabletop RPGs. I avoid botique software (I backed wasteland2/etc, but I am very wary of software backing)
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Re: New game from Ron Gilbert

#15 Post by Mr Creosote » Sun Jan 04, 2015 11:22 am

I somehow find this whole crowdfunding strange. If it is an investment, because I'm basically putting my money at risk, I should really get an according share of the profits afterwards by the laws of capitalism. If, however, it is simply a preorder, because all I get in the end is the finished product anyway, there would be no reason to pay in advance, rather than just placing the order and pay once it ships, as it is common everywhere else.

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