The "Annoying In-jokes" option

I was a huge fan of Thimbleweed Park – I played as much as I possibly could after it came out and really loved the universe and puzzles, but my one serious complaint was the amount of in jokes.

I think this is a very personal thing, but some of the jokes just took me out of the world I’d otherwise been absorbed into. It’s obvious from this topic that many people didn’t feel the same way, and honestly a major point of this kickstarter was to get another game for the fans right?

We can argue about what the default should be until the end of time, but the fact that the option exists is the best of both worlds. Fans or the curious can enable the in jokes, and people who just want to focus on the world and story and leave them off.

The more I played the game and the more I was convinced that they intentionally overdid the adventure-game based jokes simply because one of the narrative goals was to create a dystopian universe that revolved around adventure game design.

I thought that it needed to be felt excessive, otherwise Delores would have not been motivated to ask his uncle:

Like everyone fourth-walls about adventure games?

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dang. All of my remaining save states are from once I’ve opened the door to the pillow factory.

Just start a new game, the only thing you have to do is get out of town. Also:
step 1: die

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Thanks for your work! Glad I turned it back on without hesitating. Still can’t get my head around why this option was added AND made default in the first place. Lots of extra work to make the game less fun.

Unfortunately, your opinion is in the minority. A lot of people (in reviews on on social media) really hated the in-jokes. We got dinged pretty badly in a few reviews.

Adding the option was a fun way to deal with it. As for why it’s off by default? It’s because from this point forward, most of the copies of the game will be sold to non-backers and people who are not hard core adventure fans. These are exactly the people who objected to the in-joke.

Unlike myself, players don’t tend to explore the Options, so many would never find it and turn them off. With the current method, If they find it later and turn it on, it will be like a little easter egg.

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[quote=“RonGilbert, post:47, topic:137”]
Unlike myself, players don’t tend to explore the Options, so many would never find it and turn them off. With the current method, If they find it later and turn it on, it will be like a little easter egg.
[/quote]Does the telemetry tell you this?
For me, clicking on the options menu is pretty much the first thing I do in every game. Often enough, new games start in an unwanted resolution, disable details despite the graphics card is above the recommendation etc… So I can check if every setting makes sense and I can correct them if not.

What tells me this is every *beeping* time I play a game with friends, they a) start the game and never look at options, or b) Get really annoyed at me because the first thing I do is look at the options. I have yet to find a single friend that explores the options.

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I explore the options! But I also read my car manual. I’m sure I’m in the minority.

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I’m a big fan of looking at options, preferences, etc as soon as I get something new. I think I like to change stuff just because I can.

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Nevertheless, the in-joke option is hidden very well. :smile:

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Yep, going through all option menus is the first thing I do and I’ve read the vehicle manual from front to back.

This forum may be one of the only places on this world with such high density of this strange folk.

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For whatever reason, I enjoy reading the manual to a game before actually playing it. (And then maybe go through the in-game option menu, if the instructions reveal anything interesting that I might want to mess with.) Does that count? :slight_smile:

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because the reference to 2017 is mentioned in the OP I have to ask–without getting too political and asking more from just a creative standpoint–was the 2017 female president joke written based on the assumption that Clinton was going to wind up winning? And then it was left in when things turned out as they did?

Because fate has turned that reference into something else, it seems :frowning:

Ron was about to remove the joke! I’m glad he didn’t do it.

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I loved all the inside jokes but then again I’m a nerd

Also: the special editions of monkey island 1 and 2, as well as others like Day of the Tentacle are available in steam for anybody who wants to play it. It’s not like they have to illegally download them somewhere and then run SCUMM or DosBox.

Not for playing on a Mac :cry:

The first thing I do with a game is scroll through ALL the options.

I think it has to do with the fact that in the 90’s I always had either a PC that was too slow for the maximum settings, or a PC that was brand new and the maximum settings weren’t default so I wanted to be sure I got the best experience.

ScummVM provides the best experience. Why would we choose something else?

Exaclty, I browse all the options too, as the first thing, in every game.
That’s how I have discovered the “annoying in-jokes” option, immediately after the game update.

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