RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Indie Ron Gilbert Thimbleweed Park Thimbleweed Park 2
2017's Thimbleweed Park is the kind of game that rarely gets made today. Heck, it was the kind of game that rarely got made a decade ago. But the point-and-click adventure game from Monkey Island creator and legendary game developer Ron Gilbert was a hit, and now, a decade later, he's making a sequel, but without crowdfunding or a publisher. Instead, he has a new, simpler solution: He got a rich guy to cover the budget.
As explained in a new interview with Bloomberg , Gilbert, who has been making games for around 40 years, said that while he hasn't always had bad experiences with publishers, the terms of most of the deals haven't been great, and in recent years have only gotten worse.
“I don’t mind the publisher earning back their money,” Gilbert told Bloomberg . “It’s just that once they have earned back their money and become whole, they still want the majority of the money. Or there are really goofy terms, like you don’t make anything unless it’s a major hit. I always felt that was unfair.”
After a long run at LucasArts, helping creating iconic games like Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island, Gilbert left and started making his own games via a few different companies. In 2014, he and his current studio, Terrible Toybox, raised over $600,000 on Kickstarter and developed Thimbleweed Park. It was a retro-inspired graphic point-and-click adventure, and when it launched in 2017, fans and critics loved it. The game has apparently sold over 300,000 copies.
In recent years, Gilbert has felt the urge to make a sequel. But to make a game, you need money. Gilbert decided against using Kickstarter again and said in a blog post in January that publishers were interested, but none of the deals they were offering were great. That's when a friend reached out and said they knew a wealthy person outside of the game industry who was a big fan of Thimbleweed Park and wanted to fund the sequel. Gilbert wasn't convinced.
“This is not the first time this has happened,” the famous designer told the outlet. “I said, ‘OK, fine, give me his email.’” And after chatting with the guy, who is currently remaining anonymous, Gilbert discovered he was serious. So he put together a budget and plan for Thimbleweed Park 2, one he says was "very realistic," and asked for just over a million dollars to fund development for two years. He wanted to ensure that this time, the devs working on the game got paid properly.
The rich investor liked the plan, and the two agreed to a deal that Gilbert says was better than any terms he got from publishers, and now Thimbleweed Park 2 is in development and will arrive in early 2028. But is there an audience for this kind of game in 2026? According to Gilbert, yes.
“We’re almost ten years from release [of the original], and that game still sells,” said Gilbert. “That tells me that there is an audience for that game and games like this.”
So there we go. That's how we can save the video game industry: Get rich people who like a specific genre or franchise to flip the bill on future games. There's no way this can go poorly for anyone involved. Joking aside, I'm happy Gilbert is getting to make another adventure game, and I hope it turns out great when Thimbleweed Park 2 launches in 2028.
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