I was not a backer because I didn’t find out until after it was funded and in development. I kinda… took a break from gaming news for a long time. It has some very opinionated, scary people lurking and I’m too old to fight with people on the internet.
My husband told me about this “funny, pixel game that looks like the ones you loved to play” one day and showed me the trailer. Within seconds, I was going, “Whaaaaaaaa Ron GibbglibbbGILBERT oh boy oh boy oh boy!” And when I finally calmed down, I explained how he was so awesome and Maniac Mansion was the best ever, and oh man old adventure games were my life! And so on…
Basically, I’ve always loved adventure games and anything made by him is at the top of my list. Also hi! I’m new!
Sometimes I think that following the project from the beginning deprived me of special moments like the big surprise that you experienced. It must have been really electrifying.
I just tend to google things like Monkey Island and Ron Gilbert every now and again. I had heard a while ago that there was a game in development but when I googled just yesterday I saw it was complete and finally after all these years it was the kind of game I really wanted.
Not a “modern twist” on the great games of old, just a new great game of old. Could hardly believe it.
Downloaded it on Steam immediately and have experienced true happiness playing it so far. Well done to all involved.
I probably heard about it first on the Grumpy Gamer blog.
I haven’t played video games regularly in almost 20 years, but because of my love for Maniac Mansion and then discovering Monkey Island a few years back, I liked to follow Ron and read behind the scenes stories. I’m in a place with video games where I don’t have much interest in playing them for more than five minutes, but I will spend a fair amount of time reading about the development and creative processes for the games that I was playing decades ago.
So, yeah. I read about it on the blog, checked out the crowdfunding dealy and dove right in.
I’m not sure… I think I found Ron Gilbert’s twitter and blog some weeks or months before the project was announced and the kickstarter started.
But it’s also possible that kickstarter recommended Thimbleweed Park to me…
Nevertheless I backed at the $25 while the kickstarter was active, but stocked up to the phonebook level after the kickstarter, because I knew I would never forgive me for not being a part of this awesome game!
(This had the psychological advantage of having to pay only $25 two times with several months inbetween! )
I also think that the entertainment I got only from reading the devblog and listening to the podcasts was worth way more than what I paid…
I discovered it in November 2014, through a Facebook post, then by reading some game magazines online.
But I didn’t immediately realize that it was a fund raising campaign: I thought that the game was ready!
Then I joined Kickstarter… and followed everything of the project.
After you’ll finish the game, it might be interesting also to check the development blog, treating it as an historical document of how the original project/idea evolved into the final result.
For me it was literally days after the game had been funded. I´d been checking out the grumpy gamer blog on very rare occasion since the mid 00s but lost a bit of interest when I found out that DeathSpank wasn´t an old school adventure game (yeah, stupid me). I have no idea where I learnt about the Cave but I got that one the year it came out. After a while I checked the blog again in late 2014 and learnt that what I had been waiting for since at least 2007 (which was I think at a time when I first started to feel really nostalgic about those old games) had been funded and would came out in 18 months! Well here we are a lot later and all I got is this stupid T-Shirt…I mean great adventure game!
I’m finding myself in a similar situation, unfortunately. My attention span in games has become quite short in the last years and I usually play adventure games in short sessions. The only game that motivated me to invest longer play sessions was Thimbleweed Park, mainly because I felt that it was somewhat linked to the old Lucas adventure games and especially to Monkey Island.
As you, reading articles about the creative process of games sucks me in.
I think the kids who grew up playing Monkey Island etc are largely at a place in their lives where they don’t have time to play a lot of games. I’m 37 now and I have a wife, 4 year old son and a daughter due to arrive imminently. Job, mortgage, built a house in the last few years etc etc.
For me I mostly need “pick up and play” when I have 10 minutes. I’m reduced to the occasional game of FIFA soccer. But I’m motivated to make time for Thimbleweed Park. I look forward to my next session. I take my MacBook on the train. I play in bed late when my wife is already asleep etc etc.
I would do the same for more of these games. To me there is nothing quite like them.
)
