History VideoGame / ThimbleweedPark

* Trope2000: The machines all over Thimbleweed County are named [Whatever][[NameTron Tron]] 3000(TM).

* VerbalTic: The sheriff, coroner and hotel manager all have this: A-reno, a-who and a-boo respectively. This tic is what keeps people from suspecting they're the same person.

* BigHeadMode: All characters have huge heads.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thimbleweed_park_title.jpg]]

Agents Ray and Reyes have been called to investigate the corpse lying face down and beginning to pixelate by Trestle Trail, right off the highway near the tiny town of Thimbleweed Park.

Delores Edmund wants to be a game developer, but if she becomes one, she'll go against her entire family's wishes.

This is not what this game is about.

After an untimely death, a phantom needs to put his last affairs in order so that he might move on to the afterlife.

This is not what this game is about.

Ransome the *bleep* Insult Clown, greatest artist of a generation, has pissed off the wrong person, and now needs to recover mere tatters of his former success.

This is not what this game is about.

Thimbleweed Park is a {{Point And Click| Game}} AdventureGame from 2017 by Creator/RonGilbert, explicitly built to retro TheEighties standards. It follows the stories of five characters as they try to discover the mysteries that lie under a sleepy village well in its way to ghost town.

* DeadlyRotaryFan: There is a [[http://guides.gamepressure.com/thimbleweed_park/gfx/word/352797727.jpg huge spinning fan]] in Chuck's factory which you have to find a way to stop [[spoiler:in order to pass through it and find the secret lab.]]

* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: [[spoiler:Chuck's AI]] set the factory on fire, and [[spoiler:Chuck]] decided to frame the victim of the arson ([[spoiler:Reyes's father]]) for it so [[spoiler:the police wouldn't investigate the AI]].

* FrickinLaserBeams: [[spoiler:AI Chuck]] protects the [=PillowTron=] with a hallway protected by an array of constantly firing laser beams. They appear to emit loud pew-pew sounds but [[spoiler:Chuck]] admits that they're actually completely silent and that he's piping in the sound effects for ambience.

* HairTriggerExplosive: Ransome uses a brick of C-4 explosive and detonates it from the [[spoiler:sparks from his defective prototype candy dispenser.]] In reality, C-4 is an incredibly stable product and requires a specific shock wave in addition to heat to make it explode. On the other hand, the door flops down anticlimatically, so clearly realism was not the intention.

* TheLastDance: When Ransome learns that they are about to shut down [=PillowTron=] 3000 and end their lives as video game characters, his last request is to do one last show, "one last chance to be in the limelight".

* MediumAwareness: Dolores' realization that "We are just characters in a video game".

** Late in the game, Delores is given a balloon animal, with no idea on what to do with it. At least [[spoiler:AI Chuck]] gives her the hint to [[spoiler:look at the Kickstarter video, which involves using the balloon animal on Boris's corpse.]]

* NoSell: Wrapping the pirate hat in aluminum foil makes the PlayerCharacter invulnerable to laser rays. [[spoiler:Chuck, as the AI who set up the lasers,]] calls this character a cheater.
* NostalgiaLevel: The last scenes of Dolores inside the wireframe world which looks like concept art for the game.

* OrphansPlotTrinket: Antonio Reyes has an old, broken pocket watch that belonged to his father, head of security at the pillow factory who then died when its AI burned the place down. He has to repair it, and it serves a plot purposes to open the Pillow Factory's door by tricking the security system.

* TinfoilHat: The conspiracy nuts wear them to "protect against the mind control rays." You can make one yourself with some tinfoil and a pirate hat. [[spoiler:You actually use it to get past some lasers.]]

* YouALLLookFamiliar: The sheriff, coroner and hotel desk clerk all look identical, except for their uniform. The player characters suspect they are all the same person, especially as only one can ever be found at a time.

* PaperthinDisguise: Franklin uses a party mask with glasses and a nose to fool the hotel manager into believing he is somebody else.

* CreatorCareerSelfDeprecation: Delores mentions her dialogues are better written than in this game upon which Natalie replies "I hope so."

** The specks of dust, the severed head, and the eyedrops from the Occult Store have no purpose, other than to get an achievement.

** The items on the roadside leading from the river to the town are completely useless and their only function is to be thrown in the garbage: An Atari cartridge, a circus poster a six-pack cartilage, and an empty can of tuna. [[spoiler:There is also an empty bottle, which is useful.]]

** The items in Delores's fridge serve only as a CallBack to the ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'' fridge. The can of Poopsi serves as an Easter Egg, the rest of the items are useless [[spoiler:except for the hot sauce.]] The items in Delores's bedroom serve no purpose in her flashback, although she can pick them up. [[spoiler:In the present, at the end of the game, however, they are necessary.]]

VIdeoGames:

** [=MMucasFlem=] Games, and the various games they produce, are a reference to LucasFilm Games (later [=LucasArts=]) and their games. In particular, two tools used for creating games with the [=SCUMM=] engine are called MMUCUS and FLEM.

* CharacterNameAlias: There are at least two points in the game where you need to give a pseudonym, and every option is a celebrity from the 1980s or a LucasArts adventure game character, which is simply accepted.

* SelfDeprecation: Delores mentions her dialogues are better written than in this game upon which Natalie replies "I hope so."

* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: Hinted at, with [[spoiler:Agent Ray]] working for a company that wants to get into [=[=PillowTron=]ics=].

* GhostlyGoals: Presumably all ghosts have them. [[spoiler:Franklin's is on his "To do list", and the only one you can achieve in game.]]
* GloryHound: Natalie, the reporter at the Nickel News. She's just looking to get her Pulitzer Prize. [[spoiler:Reyes can give her Chuck's confession to clear his father's name.]]

* JacobMarleyApparel: All the hotel ghosts wear dresses from the time period they died.

* OurGhostsAreDifferent: They can [[GhostlyChill create freezing winds]], [[ShockAndAwe create surges of electricity]], [[IntangibleMan can float through walls]], cause surges of water, [[FlightStrengthHeart and can be heard over telephones, in a fashion]].

* LampshadeHanging: Pretty much everywhere. [[spoiler:Justified given that the people live in an actual computer game.]]

** People mention “cosplay,” a word that didn’t enter the English language until 1993.

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Ransome uses a brick of C-4 explosive and detonates it from the [[spoiler:sparks from his defective prototype candy dispenser.]] In reality, C-4 is an incredibly stable product and requires a specific shock wave in addition to heat to make it explode. On the other hand, the door flops down anticlimatically, so clearly realism was not the intention.

** A St. is blocked off due to a broken vacuum tube on the hydrant. Access down the street is blocked until it is repaired.

* ChekhovsGag: There are 3000 phone numbers, but only 80 people live in the county. The rest are [[BreakingTheFourthWall the backers of the Kickstarter project to fund the game]]. [[spoiler:In the endgame, the characters realize that they're in a videogame, subject to the choices and wishes of those in the "upper world", and a mission to disconnect themselves from us begins.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Delores unplugs the system, either giving the town a peaceful life or ending their loops... only for TheStinger to suggest it's all going to repeat again.]]

* AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler:The AI that Chuck made in his factory gained power and set the building on fire (killing Reyes's father in the process), forced Chuck to secretly rebuild it, and then demanded him to join them in the [=PillowTron=] 3000.]]

* {{Macguffin}}:
** Reyes's pocket watch.
** The strange device Ray gets. She remarks when she looks at it that it will probably be useful near the end of the game. [[spoiler:It opens up the AI storage unit.]]

* PutOnABus: The agents are literally put on two different buses once the murder is solved. They come back not too long after.

* {{Jerkass}}:
** Ray can be pretty blunt and bitchy.
** Boris is quick to proclaim the superiority of European welfare programs in a very insulting manner.
** Lenore is extremely unpleasant to her sister. And to Ray, although she gives as good as she gets.
** Ransome the Insult Clown's entire persona revolves around him being a giant jerkass to everyone.

* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: When first met, the Pigeon Brothers keep telling you "the signals are very strong tonight." This is subverted later, as they admit they're just saying it to screw with the agents.

* NiceGirl: Ricki, the owner of the vacuum tube store. In stark contrast with the rest of the townspeople, she's very helpful and nice to the player. Even Ransome, although she does get frustrated with him.