All locations from the new Thimbleweed Park trailer (and more)

Retronator Games Watchlist

Ron Gilbert being Ron Gilbert.

Let’s talk Thimbleweed Park.

Let’s talk Ron Gilbert (a.k.a. the Monkey Island Guy). Let’s talk Gary Winnick (a.k.a. the first artist at LucasArts). Let’s talk Ron and Gary (a.k.a. the masterminds behind the first point-and-click adventure Maniac Mansion).

About two years ago, in November 2014, Ron and Gary ran a Kickstarter campaign for a new classic graphic adventure, a spiritual successor to Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island.

What could go wrong? Nothing. They raised over half a million and went on to start the production of my most anticipated game (now that No Man’s Sky is out of the picture)—if not for being an adventure game, for having a delightfully old-school, yet modern take on pixel art. It doesn’t make Thimbleweek Park look exactly like games did back then, but rather how we remember them. Young imagination took us a long way.

Outside the Diner in Thimbleweed Park.

With artists on board such as Mark Ferrari (a.k.a the color cycling guy) and Octavi Navarro (a.k.a. the Pixels Huh guy, the first artist to be featured in this very magazine), I could just stare at the art of the game and be happy. That’s exactly what we’ll do here.

That Mark Ferrari dithered sky.

The new Delores trailer is all you need to see to know if this is a game for you or not. Actually, I should have had you at Monkey Island or Maniac Mansion. But if you’re too young to remember those, let me show you a world of handcrafted pixels, dead people humor, ghost mysteries and creepy clowns.

There’s so much going on in there that I decided to dissect it down to all locations being shown. Those one second scenes need to be enjoyed for longer than that.

(Yes, these are video screencaps of doubtful quality. Yes, it’s not the standard I usually adhere to. Yes, I have no shame in this case. Enjoy.)

Presumably Main Street.

The dead body location.

Creepy cemetery.

An old factory just after sunset.

A bus station and a guy puking behind a bar.

A beautiful Mark Ferrari landscape with added mpeg artifacts.

Two places where you will definitely trespass at one point or another.

Scenes with a clown.

Scenes with books and stairs.

The Edmund Hotel with more stairs.

A foyer with even more stairs. (They like stairs it seems.)

Creepy hotel rooms (presumably).

Newsroom and a convention.

An angry CEO and a restaurant with ghosts.

Ghosts in elevators and labs.

Creepy boiler room and creepy cult offering place.

Finally, either a morgue or a Frankenstein lab.

Wow. Just wow. I am squealing like a little piglet with joy.

To close off (and make pixels happy with some square, sharp edges), here are some more, official screenshots to get you in the mood of that 9-verb, inventory adventuring.

For a good time definitely call Edna (possible reference to Edna Edison from Maniac Mansion).

Diners make for good investigations.

Those same stairs in HD quality.

More of that clown Ransom.

USPS logo in mighty pixel art form.

If you’re beaming with anticipation, well, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer, till start of 2017 when the game comes out.

In the mean time, the development blog and podcast are great places to join for the last stretch of the road.

Good luck wrapping it up guys!

As always, thank you for reading. My own journey reached a milestone these days: I’ve finished my Master’s degree in Education. This means I’m on the verge of going full time with Retronator— developing my own adventure game Pixel Art Academy and writing more articles like this. A new feature once a week wouldn’t be that bad, right?
—Retro

P.S.: Clicking the heart below helps spread pixel art and Thimbleweed Park love to others. Thank you! ❤