Secret Fawful
Member
Not even a little.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Thimbleweed Park - a Ron Gilbert game |OT| Thirty-scumm years of adventures
- Thread starter Sir_Crocodile
- Start date
Not even a little.
Good writers sometimes write bad books, good directors sometimes make bad movies -- why shouldn't good developers sometimes make bad games? It happens.
Besides, this is the first time he got to make an actual adventure game, which is arguably "his thing", since, I don't know, 2002 or something.
DarkStream
Member
Great game.
Finished it in two sittings, took me 10 hours with consulting hints twice.
Was up all night to finish it.
A few thoughts and questions !!!! BIG TIME SPOILERS !!!! :
Finished it in two sittings, took me 10 hours with consulting hints twice.
Was up all night to finish it.
A few thoughts and questions !!!! BIG TIME SPOILERS !!!! :
- The ending was a bit of a let down. Heavely foreshadowed and too obvious.
- Some characters need fleshing out. I would have enjoyed playing more as Franklin (alive for that matter) and seeing his relationship with Ransom and Chuck develop. Also the extended family. I think there would have been potential for additional twists.
- For that matter, the two Agents are kind of the "plain" ones, story wise, and miss some crucial info. Who was Agent Rays employer, exactly? Is it important that they are Asian (Japanese?) and that they are after the quest dependency chart? Why can they "download" Ray from the game? Is that a statement about games development? I stopped caring about Reyes once the big twist drops in the "Chuck Chamber" - He's like: "Ah. it's all a game - whatever, gotta clear my father's name anyway!". Poor emotional payoff in both cases.
- I did enjoy the finales for Ransom, Delores and Franklin.
- Was expecting more of the pigeon brother sisters - I thought they would be more important. Funny characters though. The whole "sekrit meeting" thing could have been a bigger part of the game.
- Most of the puzzles are fun. A couple were infuriating, like the friggin' safe in chuck's room. I refilled the fingerprint equipment with soot (which I found a very clever puzzle) but then I can't take fingerprints off Chuck's journal? Nope, it has to be the glass from the factory. Trying the journal gave me a nonsensical dialogue ("I need to dust the murder weapon"). I thought my thought process was entirely valid.
Also the puzzle with the radioactive goo.. Was there ANY hint?!
- Who did the actual killing and kidnapping!!!!!?!!! Who is watching the monitor in between chapters? What was Boris doing in Thimbleweed?
- What was the involvement of the Sheriff, Hotel Manager and Coroner? Also, at some point it seemed Reyes landed on the coroners table?! I couldn't pick him for a while and then he just reappeared? The coroner was hiding in the hallway too, when visiting the room during the time Reyes disappears.
- What happened to Willie? I promised him to get him out!
- I enjoyed the voodoo/gypsie witch - Nice Monkey Island vibes.
- One thing that frustrated me big time: Once I got all the "final" items in Chuck's chamber, I tried to resolve Ransom's story first. At this point, the city is pretty empty so it wasn't particularly clear to me to whom I should give the card. I then switched to Dolores and wanted to resolve her arc first. But once I entered the "wireframe", there was no turning back and my auto save got overwritten, making me lose out on resolving the arc of the other people. I was fuming! I know that Chuck says that Delores' ending is "the best" (i.e. final ending), but still! I had to look up the other arcs on YouTube which was sad after being so close....
- Some characters need fleshing out. I would have enjoyed playing more as Franklin (alive for that matter) and seeing his relationship with Ransom and Chuck develop. Also the extended family. I think there would have been potential for additional twists.
- For that matter, the two Agents are kind of the "plain" ones, story wise, and miss some crucial info. Who was Agent Rays employer, exactly? Is it important that they are Asian (Japanese?) and that they are after the quest dependency chart? Why can they "download" Ray from the game? Is that a statement about games development? I stopped caring about Reyes once the big twist drops in the "Chuck Chamber" - He's like: "Ah. it's all a game - whatever, gotta clear my father's name anyway!". Poor emotional payoff in both cases.
- I did enjoy the finales for Ransom, Delores and Franklin.
- Was expecting more of the pigeon brother sisters - I thought they would be more important. Funny characters though. The whole "sekrit meeting" thing could have been a bigger part of the game.
- Most of the puzzles are fun. A couple were infuriating, like the friggin' safe in chuck's room. I refilled the fingerprint equipment with soot (which I found a very clever puzzle) but then I can't take fingerprints off Chuck's journal? Nope, it has to be the glass from the factory. Trying the journal gave me a nonsensical dialogue ("I need to dust the murder weapon"). I thought my thought process was entirely valid.
Also the puzzle with the radioactive goo.. Was there ANY hint?!
- Who did the actual killing and kidnapping!!!!!?!!! Who is watching the monitor in between chapters? What was Boris doing in Thimbleweed?
- What was the involvement of the Sheriff, Hotel Manager and Coroner? Also, at some point it seemed Reyes landed on the coroners table?! I couldn't pick him for a while and then he just reappeared? The coroner was hiding in the hallway too, when visiting the room during the time Reyes disappears.
- What happened to Willie? I promised him to get him out!
- I enjoyed the voodoo/gypsie witch - Nice Monkey Island vibes.
- One thing that frustrated me big time: Once I got all the "final" items in Chuck's chamber, I tried to resolve Ransom's story first. At this point, the city is pretty empty so it wasn't particularly clear to me to whom I should give the card. I then switched to Dolores and wanted to resolve her arc first. But once I entered the "wireframe", there was no turning back and my auto save got overwritten, making me lose out on resolving the arc of the other people. I was fuming! I know that Chuck says that Delores' ending is "the best" (i.e. final ending), but still! I had to look up the other arcs on YouTube which was sad after being so close....
Dandy Lyin
Member
Because it wasn't a point and click adventure game.
D
Deleted member 30609
Unconfirmed Member
jesus, duckroll
Sir_Crocodile
Member
The people walking through the forest.
-sentient tron and later chucktron
-Meeting Franklin for the new plushies
-Meeting Franklin for the new plushies
If we're talking bad Ron Gilbert games, look at Deathspank.
I really liked the Cave, but you shouldn't look at it as an adventure game in the spirit of Monkey Island. Or a platformer like Mario. It's neither of those things - as a multiplayer adventure game (something I've wanted to be explored for years now) it was pretty amazing, even with its flaws. Basically the same thing what Uru Myst tried to do, although more successfully.
I can see it being less fun if you're playing it single player, or especially if you wanted it to be Monkey Island. But judging it for what it tried to be it was a ton of fun, with the right people. I would have loved to see that explored further, with a sequel maybe ironing out some of the bad stuff like the repetition.
Huh, I loved DeathSpank. I didn't like the sequel as much and never played the third game, but the second one is worth playing just for this sequence:
ALL ABOARD
Brerlappin
Member
Currnetly sitting at 97% positive reviews on Steam. This makes me incredibly happy 
Ive had Nier Automata, Dark Souls 3 DLC, and Breath of the Wild on CEMU waiting for me all weekend, but all i want to play, and all i keep thinking about, is TWP. This fucking game man. It really does feel like a lost Lucasarts game. All it needs is a big box physical version complete with hint book disguised as a newspaper to make it complete
Ive had Nier Automata, Dark Souls 3 DLC, and Breath of the Wild on CEMU waiting for me all weekend, but all i want to play, and all i keep thinking about, is TWP. This fucking game man. It really does feel like a lost Lucasarts game. All it needs is a big box physical version complete with hint book disguised as a newspaper to make it complete
i mean if you actually think about it i'm fairly sure you could get to the answer to that question by yourself
couldn't agree more
This is the only puzzle I had trouble with -- I probably spent hours on it.
I found it pretty clear what you need to do. The electric fence and secret meeting were on the pizza flyer. The electric fence mention is a pretty clear hint to the drained battery puzzle and you see the pizza guy sneaking around in the woods. Every time you go there they make a point of having a random person come and splash the puddle. I even figured out the goo pretty quickly. My problem was needing the random trophy from Delores's room that isn't used anywhere else. It was probably the last place I looked for a container. After going in circles looking for something to hold the goo, I had convinced myself that I must need to solve Chuck's safe first or something so then I wasted time trying to find his fingerprints
This happened to me too, I was really confused because he just comes back at some point and it is never mentioned.
I wouldn't know, because of this bs:
especially after the lecture at the start of the game on how you don't need to bother saving because they're better than sierra and co.
A Switch version isn't guaranteed. Right now the only confirmed platforms are the ones it released on (Xbox One, Win, Mac, Linux), and iOS and Android coming later this year. A Win 10 store version will be out soon, making it a Windows Play Anywhere game. Hopefully it'll come to other platforms too, but nothing's for sure.
(I do PR for this game. A lot of people have interpreted "Xbox has a 3 month console exclusive" as "other console versions are coming in 3 months," which isn't the case.)
My favorite puzzle in this game was most definitely
If you were able to finish that without hints, this one should be a breeze.
Maybe.
picking up the 'out of order' sign to make the stairs operational again.
If you were able to finish that without hints, this one should be a breeze.
Maybe.
OnionPowder
Member
I'm like 2 hoursish in and I'm loving it. Really the return to form that I was hoping for with Broken Age.
Just finished it myself and mostly agree with you. I quite enjoyed the game but there were definitely some plot threads left unresolved with the murders being the most egregious. I guess you are supposed to assume it is all the game/AI doing it?
Adding to my thoughts, there are some other frustrating design elements like Franklin being available for seemingly no reason (beyond the 1 phone call) for the last stretch of the game. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to deal with Xavier/get the crystal ball only for it to be a simple conversation choice in the end. As there are many parts where you have to utilise multiple characters and the game expects you to do so, aspects like this are a bit confusing. Also, not sure about others but I was able to read the hint book (used in the factory) prior to using the red gel so I never thought the gel was necessary. When I tried to prompt "fizz scumm" it naturally never happened until you use the red gel. A few of these kinds of examples spoil the game a bit for me but overall I did really enjoy it and found lots of the puzzles/areas to be strong.
I took 15.5 hours
Adding to my thoughts, there are some other frustrating design elements like Franklin being available for seemingly no reason (beyond the 1 phone call) for the last stretch of the game. I spent a long time trying to figure out how to deal with Xavier/get the crystal ball only for it to be a simple conversation choice in the end. As there are many parts where you have to utilise multiple characters and the game expects you to do so, aspects like this are a bit confusing. Also, not sure about others but I was able to read the hint book (used in the factory) prior to using the red gel so I never thought the gel was necessary. When I tried to prompt "fizz scumm" it naturally never happened until you use the red gel. A few of these kinds of examples spoil the game a bit for me but overall I did really enjoy it and found lots of the puzzles/areas to be strong.
I took 15.5 hours
Sir_Crocodile
Member
I actually found this to be one of the easier puzzles as
I looked at the trophy at the beginning of the game and it stuck in my mind as she mentioned it was made of pewter with a bit of titanium, which my mind instantly thought "at some point I'm going to have to melt down the pewter and free the titanium. So when I saw the waste I thought "I need a strong container -> metal is strong -> pewter trophy"
The real tough puzzle for me was turning the cake into ice cream cake. That was SUPER satisfying when I figured it out. I love when a puzzle is super tough and takes me ages but the solution makes perfect sense.
The real tough puzzle for me was turning the cake into ice cream cake. That was SUPER satisfying when I figured it out. I love when a puzzle is super tough and takes me ages but the solution makes perfect sense.
I figured this one out on accident just by trying different things on it.
I-Scream Cake
oh man, really? That was an almost instant solution for me.
I was like, wait a minute, i could freeze the water with his breath, maybe i should try with it the cake... OH THIS IS COOL
Such a great game.
I played in casual mode and finished it up last night. It was fairly easy, with only a couple puzzles that had me confused for longer than I'd like to admit. Anyway, reading through only a handful of the spoilers from the rest of you (playing on hard), it seems like hard mode is pretty intense, but I'll give it a shot. Any of you who try casual mode after finishing hard mode are going to laugh about how absurdly easy it is in comparison.
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
This is literally the kind of game I had in mind when Tim announced the adventure game Kickstarter. Broken Age ended up being too fluffy, dumbed down and pandering to a wide audience. This is the game we've been waiting for though.
OnionPowder
Member
Makes me a bit sad, because Broken Age with these mechanics and puzzle designs could have been one of the GOAT. The story and setting was great, it just need that true adventure game feeling that was promised.
DarkStream
Member
-
Yeah, I mean the trope of the "always-samey-looking-area-with-one-route" was obvious. I even had the trophy, but for the life of me I couldn't connect the dots between trophy - goo - puddle. I guess I also was too "rational" to use the goo on the puddle (i.e. killing people!) before remembering what kind of game this is. I guess the tone of the game gets more serious (?) around the factory and I therefore didn't think in a "goofy" way about this.
-
Yeah, that was weird. Also the coroner hiding in the staircase in the room was creepy. Only could trigger him twice, peeking from behind the wall. But that was it.
-
Had the same thought. FIîrst they proclaim "No manual saving needed" and then this happens.....
The perfect Dark
Banned
What are the chances Gilbert makes another Monkey Island game with the exact same style and engine? Who owns the license?
DarkStream
Member
Have fun, it's an excellent game.
Wow, it's Emily. This is a blast from the past. I haven't seen you around online since I was a very active member in the early days of the Telltale forums, when it was still a very close-knit community in the early Bone/Sam & Max days (until around Monkey Island I think), when Telltale was still relatively small and the devs/writers and the community would often talk very indepth about all the design decisions in those games. Very fun times.
Great to see you're working with Ron now. Sorry if this was a weird post!
Sir_Crocodile
Member
The halcyon days of Sam and Max shot glasses
8-Bit Sunset
Banned
Unfortunately Disney (blergh) own the license!
Maybe seeing as they own Pirates of the Caribbean as well it might seem confusing to new players.... I don't know. Still Tim managed to get the license for DOTT (with a lot of help from Sony I presume) so you never know.
I think Ron is still trying however:
http://www.geek.com/games/disney-has-stopped-making-games-so-ron-gilbert-asks-them-to-sell-him-the-monkey-island-ip-1656070/
I really liked Broken Age but it never felt like a (not to put to fine a point on it ) true return of point and click.
Thimbleweed Park checks all the right boxes, and my goodness if I am not hungry nay ravenous for more.
Also I must mention that the atmosphere is really great in this game too and although Ron gets all the praise, I have to give my thanks to Gary Winnick and the rest of the team in equal amounts too.
FOV would you be able to shed any light on the situation with Monkey Island? Is there any way Ron, Tim, Gary and even some extra help from Sony or anyone could feasibly attain it back?
Unfortunately Disney (blergh) own the license!
Maybe seeing as they own Pirates of the Caribbean as well it might seem confusing to new players.... I don't know. Still Tim managed to get the license for DOTT (with a lot of help from Sony I presume) so you never know.
I think Ron is still trying however:
http://www.geek.com/games/disney-has-stopped-making-games-so-ron-gilbert-asks-them-to-sell-him-the-monkey-island-ip-1656070/
I really liked Broken Age but it never felt like a not to put to fine a point on it true return of point and click. Thimbleweed Park checks all the right boxes, and my goodness if I am not hungry nay ravenous for more.
Also I must mention that the atmosphere is really great in this game too and although Ron gets all the praise, I have to give my thanks to Gary Winnick in equal amounts too.
Double Fine doesn't own the license to Dott or any of their remade games. With the financial backing of Sony, they only have a temporary license to do those specific remakes, but they don't fully own the games. Disney still owns all those IP's (ever since they bought Lucasfilm/Lucasarts).
As for Ron and Monkey 3, well.....
He's been talking about it for years. And he talks big. And he says he'll only make a sequel if he would fully own the license. But he's not working on getting the license, I can tell you that much. All he does is Tweet/Blog about it. Disney owns it, and they're not going to sell. Disney never sells their licenses, that's just their policy. This is well known, and Ron knows this. He talked about it himself in the past. It was the same with Lucasarts back in the day.
The most likely route (if it is going to happen) right now would be if, after the Full Throttle Remake, Sony and Double Fine together would decide that their next project is going to be a Monkey Island sequel, with Ron working together with Double Fine again. Double Fine and Sony already have the relation with Disney going, and that's a start - it took years for them to get to that point. But Ron is never going to fully own the rights, and even if Disney was willing to sell (they aren't, they simply never do), one man just couldn't afford it in a million years.
Honestly, the way Ron has talked about his supposed Monkey Island 3 game in the past has bummed me out a bit. Don't get me wrong, I'd really like to see him explore that game and I don't particularly mind it not taking the later games into account (although the only way to get me really excited is to get Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer as the writers again - those two guys did the vast majority of the writing on the first two games and contributed a lot to its charm). But I also remember people like Chuck Jordan (one of the writers on Curse) just getting continually bummed out on Twitter about how Ron downplayed the later Monkey Island games, about how he was asked to return for every sequel and chose not to do it - which is perfectly fine, perfectly his choice, but a lot of the people from those later games have spoken out about how Ron downplays their contributions to the franchise, giving the idea that those sequels matter very little and how one day he's going to make the REAL Monkey Island 3, even though, by his own admission, he set requirements for that will never be met (full ownership).
And funnily enough he always starts talking about that idea just when he has a new game coming out.
Don't get me wrong, I think he's a talented designer, a nice guy, and I'd love to see his take on Monkey Island again (along with the rest of the gang), but his Monkey Island teasing over the last 10/15 years has gotten a bit old frankly. Tweets like the one you quoted mean nothing. It's what he's been doing for years now to get the fanbase all riled up.
** The only exception of adventure game IP's owned by Disney is Sam & Max. Because Sam & Max was a comic before it was a game, Steve Purcell has always owned the Sam & Max IP (which is what made the cartoon series and the Telltale games possible). The rights to Hit the Road specifically are owned by Disney though, so a remake of that would need to go through them. But any company can make a new Sam & Max game as long as Steve Purcell is willing to cooperate with them.
8-Bit Sunset
Banned
Agreed!
I would actually want this more than Half Life 3 but especially if the old team were on board together.
That's kind of why I though that having Tim (and therefore Sony connections) there might be the slightest of chances that it could happen.
I'm clutching at straws here but I'm also guessing that an online petition would have little to no affect either . There has to be something that we could all collectively do to get someone to notice.
Ron lightly touched on it in this interview from last July:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voJvtZ3jnL4
I would actually want this more than Half Life 3 but especially if the old team were on board together.
That's kind of why I though that having Tim (and therefore Sony connections) there might be the slightest of chances that it could happen.
I'm clutching at straws here but I'm also guessing that an online petition would have little to no affect either
. There has to be something that we could all collectively do to get someone to notice.Ron lightly touched on it in this interview from last July:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voJvtZ3jnL4
The perfect Dark
Banned
Oh god ....not Disney....noooooooo......whyyyyyyyy
Actually...a pirate P&C adventure game made by Gilbert and Double Fine with Jack Sparrow as the main character could work. I'd buy it.
Actually...a pirate P&C adventure game made by Gilbert and Double Fine with Jack Sparrow as the main character could work. I'd buy it.
Agreed!
I would actually want this more than Half Life 3 but especially if the old team were on board together.
That's kind of why I though that having Tim (and therefore Sony connections) there might be the slightest of chances that it could happen.
I'm clutching at straws here but I'm also guessing that an online petition would have little to no affect either
Ron lightly touched on it in this interview from last July:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voJvtZ3jnL4
Yeah I don't really believe an online petition would do anything.
The bright side is that Double Fine definitely knows people would want it. And Tim Schafer has already said he'd love to work on any of the adventure games as long as the original creators were willing to be involved, as he didn't want to take ownership over someone else's baby (although this was about remakes specifically, not sequels).
I have no idea how the DF remakes sold, but the big thing to consider is that a new game in a series is a significantly larger investment than a remake, which might make Sony hesitant.
I think it was Jake Rodkin (who worked on Tales of Monkey Island) who once talked about how the remake of Monkey 1 releasing around the same time as Tales of Monkey Island was something of a mix between a curse and a blessing - it got a lot of attention to the franchise in one go, but the remake of Monkey 1 sold a lot, and Tales (and the later remake of 2) did far, far worse sales-wise, which at that time meant that Telltale didn't create another series of episodes (which was the original plan, as evidenced by the cliffhangers in that game and confirmed by some of the devs) and Lucasarts not starting on a Monkey 3 remake. The giant hype at the time was mostly absorbed by that first remake, and the other releases couldn't quite keep up.
Hopefully the DF remakes are doing better, but I honestly have no idea.
speaking of disney (and copyright wars in general) would that part of the game not cause trouble? or is it technically an "homage"?
endgame spoiler gif:
https://media.giphy.com/media/fBGoV72Q0mrEk/giphy.gif
endgame spoiler gif:
https://media.giphy.com/media/fBGoV72Q0mrEk/giphy.gif
huh, what's not spoiled?
spoiler tags on images don't work on mobile.
the gif (edit: forget it lol)
oh that's cool then, i already finished it but i was worried somebody else could see that
ok, made it a link instead.
mekakitsune
Neo Member
any hints about the jumpers in the factory how to solve that puzzle?
Dsyndrome
Member
Just beat it, didn't need hints until near the end of the game, specifically for
Had a great time, wish the ending was a little more than it was. Totally want to play more.
the radioactive waste in the puddle... wtf. I kept trying to make ink with the water using soot and finding some gas. Also the battery because I couldn't get to Lock #4, kept trying to find a way to get Franklin to zap the damn thing... no, it has to be the electric fence.
Had a great time, wish the ending was a little more than it was. Totally want to play more.
Sir_Crocodile
Member
?
Ron had always talked well of mi3, the only vaguely negative thing he said was that it's not the kind of game he would have made, which is unsurprising as the tone is totally different to mi1/2.
I'm not sure what you want him to say about mi4 given that it's garbage, and tales is about half a good game, with only act 3 coming close to the quality of mi 1/2/3.
Also do you have a link to where Ron said he barely wrote anything in the monkey island games, as that's very surprising to me.
I got the
sticky tape from the mail already. I also got the packager from the clown from the mail as well. Got the ash. I cant see anything else at the mail anymore
I'm not saying he talked negatively about it, I'm saying it bummed me out how the writers and designers of other games (namely Monkey Island 3) also started getting annoyed about Ron's constant insistence on the REAL Monkey Island 3. It's fine that Ron wants his own game in his own style, but Ron played up the idea of a real Monkey Island 3 he's never going to make over the last 10 years so much that there has definitely been a part of fandom that increasingly has grown to believe the actual, real, existing Monkey Island doesn't count as much. Check out Chuck Jordan's Twitter and blog, he's talked about it better than I can. ''Canon" or not, there was still a lot of hard work on that game. And he was originally invited to make it himself, he just chose not to. I can sympathize with Chuck Jordan's criticism of Gilbert's attitude when he says "look, you were given the chance, you declined and said it was okay to do it, we did the best we could, and the last 10 years you've spend promising people that if you'll ever make a Monkey Island it'll be the real Monkey Island 3, even though you know you'll never own the full rights and you'll never have to prove you can make that game again. In the meantime, all you hear about Monkey Island these days is the story of how Ron Gilbert is getting the rights to Monkey Island back to make his sequel to replace the fake sequels, which isn't true.'
I find it a bit disrespectful to his colleagues after a while. Ron somehow built this idea that there's more story after 2's cliffhanger, another game he never got to built (even though Lucasarts often gave him the option to come back to build 'his' game, he always willingly declined). Dave Grossman already cleared it up that, yes, the cliffhanger was a joke more than anything. A couple of over-the-top twists, a bit of Empire Strikes Back in there. The point that it's so weird is the joke. The only reason Elaine's 'hopefully LeChuck didn't put some sort of SPELL over Guybrush...' was only there to make sure there was still room to make a sequel if they wanted to, but at that time they weren't planning to. It's entirely possible Ron thought up some more story later, but at the time they didn't have a design document or story ready and it wasn't meant to be a trilogy. That entire idea of 'the real Monkey 3' is something that came after the fact. Like I said, whenever Ron started gaining a presence on the internet really, 10, 15 years ago.
I'm not saying Ron barely wrote anything. He was the lead designer. He came up with the main story, most puzzles and oversaw development.
Tim and Dave wrote the majority of the dialogue. This is no secret, it's what their job was. Also note the famous story about how they would write funny stand in dialogue, mostly to crack each other up, thinking it would be replaced with the 'real' dialogue later, but Ron later seeing it and saying 'no, this is funny, let's keep it and do it all like this'. You can pretty much tell which sections were written by Grossman and which by Schafer by looking at the writing styles. They set out much of what we now know as the Monkey Island comedy style (and this is also very noticeable when looking at their later games - just compare Tim and Dave's later writing and Ron's later solo writing).
Again, none of this is a secret and it's well known. Also I'm pretty sure we've had this exact discussion already in the past. Check out the Monkey 2 commentary/documentary on the disc version and the Mixnmojo Secret History if you want to know more. I wasn't even trying to downplay Ron's role in Monkey and try to claim that he did no writing or thought up no jokes at all (he obviously did), all I'm saying is that Tim and Dave were just as important for establishing the with and magic of those games. Which is why, if we're ever going to get another Ron Monkey Island game, I'd love the entire team to get together again. Just like, on the off-chance there will ever be a sequel to DOTT, I'd want both Grossman and Schafer to be involved, not just one of the two. Just like, on a possible new Monkey, I'd love it for Peter McConnell to be there, and Peter Chan, and whoever from the old days they can get.
^Mind you, I didn't want to go down this road in a thread about his new game. I really do like the guy and I think he's a good designer. It's mostly his attitude to the Monkey Island thing that annoys me. I'm not the only one who started noticing that he always starts teasing this Monkey 3 thing that'll never happen just as one of his new games is releasing (like that tweet above). But this thread isn't about that, and I'm sorry for writing these long posts (it's a weakness) so I won't go on. Especially since we've talked about it more than enough already perhaps.
Thimbleweed Park everybody, it's a good one! What about that Ransome huh?