Thimbleweed Park is a wacky X-Files murder mystery packed with dad jokes

Messy hair and a sweater from 1992 were the right choice for my last interview at PAX West, because I got to chat with Ron Gilbert and David Fox of Terrible Toybox, two developers behind some of the best adventure games of my childhood: Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside to name a few. 

They were showing off a new segment of Thimbleweed Park, a new take on classic adventure game design where you investigate a murder in a small town. It's Twin Peaks meets The X-Files meets dad jokes—and I dig it. In the short sequence Gilbert showed me, we were introduced to Dolores, one of the five main characters through a playable flashback. She lives in a huge mansion with her kooky inventor uncle who plans on leaving her his life's work, a huge pillow factory. But Dolores has dreams of working game development, so after getting her favorite videogame magazine in the mail, you help her apply for the job through a series of classic point-and-click puzzles. 

For more, be sure to check out the interview above or the official trailer for Dolores below. 

James Davenport

James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles.