Complete list of Thimbleweed type games (only 20)

Yeah, before I do that, I want to see what the fuss is about. 1st person with no walking, I am curious.

Hmm, I watched some screenies, I assume you can click in the scene. If that’s the case they meet the requirements.
Never seen that kind of games before i think.
I will think about whether to include them or make a new requirement of 3rd person view. TWP for example is not always 3rd person view, you are 1st person when you operate things like factory timers or phone.

This game (Elvira) has more than 6 verbs and is 2d. But I am not sure if it can be called adventure game or RPG.

I think it sorta would fall in sort of same category as the Legend games, with the interface anyway. But yes it also seems to be an action/RPG game at the same time.

Elvira and Waxworks (same concept) are certainly not adventure games. I love how they look and they have cool stories but I get lost after few minutes, just like in every early 1st person RPG game due to how it’s presented (there’s no fluid movement). Same thing with Dungeon Master, Ishar etc. It’s always walking around in some labyrinth and killing monsters.

Legend games are a very different thing - it’s pure adventure just like MI. But there are more games like that with verbs from other companies. For example Plan 9 From Outer Space and Déjà Vu.

1 Like

Well, that´s how dungeon crawlers used to be like. But I admit I also never had the patience to seriously commit to finishing Elvira. Usually I just went to places to watch the death scenes. To impress friends I´d just go to the stable watch the guy turn into the wolf and get ripped apart.

1 Like

They are easier to implement.
Although I’m not sure if all of them should be strictly called 1st person, but maybe “3rd person with invisible character” :slight_smile:

You’ve already listed Mission Supernova and Andromedas Erbe which fall into this category (no moving characters in 3rd person view, but also not strictly 1st person view).

You are right. I regret that now, I have narrowed the requirements now. Although same UI, I feel now its another sub-niche of games and should not be in the list then.

[quote=“Nor_Treblig, post:47, topic:943”]
You’ve already listed Mission Supernova and Andromedas Erbe which fall into this category (no moving characters in 3rd person view, but also not strictly 1st person view).
[/quote]However, the navigation is different to those typical RPG’s of the 80’s. The game shows you the available directions at the bottom, similar to a text adventure which typically tells you the available directions you can move to. Also, the available views are very limited, just like in a typical graphics adventure, unlike those RPG navigations where you can look in 4 directions at almost any point.

Supernova&Co definitely belongs on the list!

Deja Vu! How I liked that game.

why the requirement that the verbs must be visible on screen? if you click the room object and those 6 verbs popup, in theory I don’t imagine a difference in gameplay or in feel or anything. (it’s only an accident that there is no such game ?)

Hard to put the finger on, I think right-clicking and getting a menu, context aware or not, removes some immediacy from the interface, that I really liked in Maniac Mansion type games. Am I alone in thinking that?

I watched some Lets play on YouTube of them. It seems very static when there is no moving character, which I think removes some of the Maniac Mansion game-play magic. I will consider it though. Could also make a second page with a list of those kind of games…

I don’t see much difference, it’s a slightly different presentation of the UI. Both are verb interfaces under the hood, but the same is of course true with interface using text vs. icons (e.g. StS 1 vs StS 2).

It seems to be a personal preference of yours, but I don’t see much difference and would play all of them. Story, puzzles and art are more important to me.

Yes, having moving characters is often nicer (unless they are really bad animated). But this would be also secondary to me.

That’s true. This is a disadvantage indeed. The verbs interface is not perfect, but coins aren’t either.

When Curse of MI was released in 1997, I was disappointed about the differences to the previous MI games, such as the absence of verbs. I appreciated verbs interfaces, because they provide a wide choice, they make the game feel more complex, I was used to verbs, and I thought “Never change a winning team!” But, the coin interface turned out to work well. For this reason, I just allocate the UI question to the developers. Verbs are nice for certain reasons, but coins are also fine… except full-screen inventories!!

Yes, but the list is not just a list of Point’n’Click games, that would be a very long list. Its a list of games similar to Maniac Mansion, interface included.

There are many places you can go to get a list of good PNC games, complete lists of LucasArts games etc. I made the list for people who specific is interested in finding games, that has the maniac mansion interface. May that be out of preference or nostalgia reason. Since they are hard to find, since the market is flooded with PNC games that does not have that interface.

I can see a usefulness in a list with games with high verb count.
But e.g. differentiating between written verbs and icons sounds very(/too?) specific to me.

Normally (at least after playing some time) an UI should never attract attention, you just use it and it should never be in your way.
E.g. when playing TWP I liked the look of both verb styles, classic and new. I played alternating with both, but in the end it didn’t really matter since I was concentrating on the actual game.

Simon the Sorcerer is a concrete example, since both games are of course very similar in style.
Have you played both of them and did you see a different experience due to the user interface?

Personally, I’m reading this thread (and trying to contribute to it) for what I perceive it to be: a game. :slight_smile:

@toVerbOrNot has fixed some personal criteria and I find it funny to remember/search for adventure games that have the characteristics that the OP has defined.

I wouldn’t consider these games intrinsically similar to Thimbleweed Park only because they share a textual verb interface and I wouldn’t adventure into the slippy floor of defining what “similar” means. Nonetheless, this doesn’t make this little search activity less entertaining, especially because I never suspected that the games with such UI were way fewer than I had imagined.

(Other forums publish “community games” to test the knowledge of their users. When the Thimbleweed Park forum will be a bit bigger and more active, it might be fun to try other similar “games”. :slight_smile: )

I have taken a closer look at those games. To my surprise I must admit its the sequel I have played, didn’t recognize anything from the first. But the start cut-scene from the sequel started bring back memories. I remember it as being a good game.

I guess once you get playing you might forget about the interface, but I do prefer text verbs over icons. Maybe due to my first PNC game I completed was Zak, and nostalgia makes me biased.

The verbs on screen UI just works. Some of the magic is tied up in it and I will never understand why, over the years, developers have been so utterly determined to move away from it.

1 Like