Setting an adventure game in a town or a city is far from a revolutionary concept. It is also something that can be successfully realized with the combination of a well-drawn map, a few panoramic views, and some wisely selected and properly fleshed out locations. Gabriel Knight’s vibrant New Orleans is a fine example of a believable genre city, whereas Monkey Island’s settlements are an excellent case study on immersive, abstracted, virtual geographies.

Creating an open world city for an adventure game, on the other hand, easily borders on the revolutionary, and yet this is exactly what the ambitious (and quite frankly excellent) Thimbleweed Park by Ron Gilbert, Gary Winnick, David Fox, Mark Ferrari, and Jenn Sandercock set out to achieve. It is as if Maniac Mansion has been expanded to a new scale, and then allowed to spread itself over a modern open world, albeit one filled with interactions for five playable characters. An open world that manages to support pixel-art visuals and puzzle-based gameplay.

Despite being in 2D, and maintaining a side-on perspective, Thimbleweed Park opens-up most of its game world right from the start, and lets players wander around, explore, and fiddle with things (and people). Interestingly, what I first noticed, and what instantly set this small open world apart, is that it felt incredibly vibrant and immersive. Being able to “look at” everything simply brings life and substance to the surroundings, whereas being allowed to push, open, and use things makes the world almost palpable.

Of course, this being both an adventure game and an open world, means it is an incredibly assets-heavy project too. From animation frames to lines of recorded dialogue, and from lighting effects to environmental interactions, I simply have to assume that some corners had to be cut. Impressively this is only very rarely apparent, and only if you look too hard and obsessively click on everything that catches your fancy.

Thimbleweed Park and its environs, Terrible Toybox’s novel open world, is a wonderful, stunningly illustrated place to visit, that will easily distract and immerse you, and let any small omissions fade into the the background. Hopefully, it will also be a game that will inspire adventure developers to try exciting new things with the construction of their settings.

Taking a careful look at the structure of Thimbleweed Park’s own setting would be a good starting place for any such endeavor.

Its world is roughly divided into the main urban area of the town, and its environs. Players start off under a train bridge at the western outskirts of town where a pixelating (oh, no!) body is discovered, and the existence of the major railway infrastructure provides with some initial hints regarding the wider area. Leaving the bridge, players begin their walk down a suitably but not boringly long road that is geographically broken up by a very sensibly placed cemetery. This road leads to the town limits.