And he's having a bit of a dig at Monkey Island fans too.
It all started out pretty normal. Just a beloved game dev promoting his game on social media.
Know a Monkey Island fan that hasn't heard of Thimbleweed Park? Please tell them about it. The number we've failed to reach is staggering. pic.twitter.com/w3KDiyceSP
— Ron Gilbert (@grumpygamer) October 9, 2017
As the tweet indicates, Thimbleweed Park hasn't reached the number of old school Monkey Island fans as the team had hoped.
In replies to the original tweets, the developer stated that marketing has been the problem. He believes only about 10% of Monkey Island fans have bought the game.
Based on our sales an MI sales, it's more like 10%.
— Ron Gilbert (@grumpygamer) October 9, 2017
Signal boosting is great and one of the great advantages of social media. So is its ability to allow discussion. In this case — the frustration a creator feels after working really hard on something and having a large potential market base miss it. That's entire fair and valid.
You're a huge MI fan, but you don't follow me?
— Ron Gilbert (@grumpygamer) October 9, 2017
But you don't follow the person that created him?
— Ron Gilbert (@grumpygamer) October 9, 2017
This seems a tad harsh, however.
I played as him and you don't follow me!
— Hannah (@occasionallycow) October 9, 2017
Touché, Hannah.
A few other interesting replies...
Never said sales were bad.
— Ron Gilbert (@grumpygamer) October 9, 2017
It's not x-files. Not even close.
— Ron Gilbert (@grumpygamer) October 9, 2017
Thimbleweed Park is out on Xbox One, PS4, Switch, PC, iOS and from today, Android.
Comments
I always felt he was aiming at the Maniac Mansion fanbase. If he wants Monkey Island fans to convert then he needs to add more rubber chickens with pulleys.
That's mostly why I haven't bought it. I liked Maniac Mansion, but I didn't love it.
I'm also not convinced that Ron was responsible for me loving Monkey Island. I think it was the combination of talent, including Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Of the 3, I think TS has had the most success in his "solo" outings.
Ron's delivered things like "DeathSpank" and "The Cave", which I didn't love. So I'll grab Thimbleweed eventually, but it's not the top of my list.
I am a huge fan of monkey island (1-3. 4 was terrible and the telltale one was mediocre)
I kickstarted thimbleweed park for PC as soon as i heard about it and got the signed boxed edition.
I also bought it on xbox.
I do feel however that it really does look like x-files the game lol.
I love the mental blinkers on Ron, here. He appears genuinely baffled that people distinguish between enjoying a creative work and appreciating its creators. Why would someone be a massive fan of Monkey Island but not follow Ron Gilbert on twitter?!
Dude. Ender's Game was apparently great, but a lot of those fans can probably agree that Orson Scott Card is human waste, a homophobic piece of trash not worth spitting on if he was on fire. But he wrote a decent book, apparently!
Similarly, a creator isn't always going to swing and hit. I love Firefly, but... Dollhouse? Agents of Shield? C'mon, man.
Monkey Island is a cherished part of my childhood, but Ron Gilbert? Fuck if 10yr old me knew who that was, while quoting lines about selling fine leather jackets. And c'mon, Ron. Even if I HAD started following you because of Monkey Island 1-3, I probably would've STOPPED following after Deathspank. Or Monkey Island 4.
Yep. His idea that if you liked a what, 25yr old game that he worked on, so you have to follow him on Twitter and buy his game is pretty funny. Sounds like old Ron is living in a bit of a bubble to me.
Monkey Island was great but so were the 90s. Everyone's moved on since then.
Ron Gilbert has always been pretty damn abrasive, but I do love his games and Thimbleweed is genuinely great. (Doesn't mean I'm going to follow him on Twitter, though. :P)
It's totally on my wishlist because it does indeed look interesting.
Dollhouse was rad tho :P
Yep! I mean, Anna's Quest seems to have sold around 60-70k copies and yet I have like, 800 twitter followers? Not really realistic to expect fans to connect directors to projects, just doesn't happen most of the time
Ron was not involved in Monkey Island 4 :)
It shows :D
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