Have you ever wanted to be a game developer who is also an amateur photojournalist in a funny, surreal small town where someone has been murdered? Classic adventure game designer Ron Gilbert has released a free standalone version of his 2017 "wacky X-Files murder mystery full of dad jokes," Thimbleweed Park. The short game focuses on Delores, a character from the original game, and takes place one year after the first game. free on Steam.

The twist here is that the game is made entirely from assets from the first game, and like many, it is free because Ron Gilbert was bored and made the game in a room with only a computer. Perhaps "Delores" began as a prototype for Gilbert's new adventure game engine and grew from there. It is not a sequel to "Thimbleweed Park," and it probably lacks all the details that would make it a commercially viable game," the game's description says. It states.

Reviews at the time of its release gave it a score of 84 and liked it a lot. Andy Kelley said at the time, and I bet he would say the same now, "The game harks back to the past, but doesn't rest on it, and manages to capture the essence of classic adventure while avoiding some of the frustrations that cause it. It is remarkably consistent. That is why I said what I did.

You can find Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure free on Steam and Epic.