Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure

Two years ago, I played Thimbleweed Park through the Limited Run physical release and thoroughly enjoyed it until the ending left a lingering bad taste in my mouth. Recently, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ron Gilbert’s studio, Terrible Toybox, released a short game, Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure, that doubles as a prototype for Ron Gilbert’s new game engine. Since I played the original game, and Delores was free, I decided I may as well play it. For the price, I appreciate what it did and that it didn’t try to be anything bigger, but, like the original game, it’s a little rough.

One year after the events of Thimbleweed Park, Delores has returned home to work as a photojournalist for the Nickel News while on vacation from game development at MmucusFlem. As she explores the town over the course of a few days, she finds that nothing has changed, yet something seems off.

Delores works as a photojournalist while on a break from game development.

Considering Delores is a playable prototype, it’s fitting that the story that is there is rather simple and straightforward. Regardless of how I felt about the original game’s ending, I like that this game stayed consistent with it and addressed some parts of the lore, like Delores’ storyline and the relationship with her family. There are also subtle signs that things are off, like the PillowBear suddenly being popular, along with some visual glitches that hint that something larger is at play. This leads to an ending that opens itself up to a continuation while also at least acknowledging that the murder of the original game still wasn’t solved.

It’s worth noting that there’s no voice acting this time, but since this was made during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s understandable. I also didn’t mind, since the text was more than capable of delivering the story. Plus, I could still hear the characters in my head anyway.

The point-and-click gameplay is similar to the main game, with minimal keyboard interaction for pausing, skipping dialogue or showing/hiding the inventory. Likely as a result of the new engine, the old-school Verb system is streamlined, requiring you to simply right click on an object to see how you can interact with it or drag objects from your inventory onto others for different combinations. This is an improvement I appreciated, as it let me focus more on the actual puzzles.

To complete her job at the Nickel News, Delores has to take 30 photos in sets of five across six days. Each photo has a single relevant clue on what to capture and as each day passes, the clues become increasingly difficult to decipher. Though this difficulty curve felt natural, there were some that tripped me up, like making the connection between a clue about allergies and collecting Specks of Dust, which originally served as nothing more than a jab at pixel hunting.

An example of the sort of clues you'll receive.

I didn’t have many real issues with Delores, but the ones I did have are worth mentioning for anyone looking to jump into this game. The biggest one is that ending each day of work closes the game instead of transitioning to the next day, meaning you’ll have to load the game a total of six times before you can complete it. This gets annoying very quickly for people like me who wanted to play in one sitting, but those who want to complete the game at their own pace may not have as much of an issue.

Although the game is a prototype made entirely of recycled Thimbleweed Park assets, I did notice one screen where some textures didn’t quite make it to the edge (though this corrected itself once I moved away from it and went back). It didn’t affect the enjoyment at all, but this is the space to bring up that kind of thing. Also, the end credits are kind of funny, but the main joke, that the composer made a really long song and Ron Gilbert has to fill in space for a few minutes, goes on a bit too long and overstays its welcome. There’s also a quick overt political reference that, while I didn’t disagree with it, felt out of place against everything else.

Everything is one pixel off on the very left edge.

If you liked Thimbleweed Park, warts and all, there’s no doubt you’ll love Delores. If haven’t played Thimbleweed Park then you could conceivably get a taste of the gameplay through Delores, but if you care about the story, then it won’t leave as much of an impact if haven’t already played the original game, despite the end credits begging you to buy Thimbleweed Park and its merch as though you haven't already.