Thimbleweed Park 2 is real: Ron Gilbert confirms 2028 release, original team, and a private investor

The original team reassembles

Gilbert confirmed that nearly every key member of the original development team is returning :

• Mark Ferrari — art and background painting
• Gary Winnick — co-writer and art director
• David Fox, Octavi Navarro, and Robert Megone — returning in their previous roles
• Plus other contributors from the 2017 original

Gilbert also said he will restart the development blog he ran during the first game's production, promising regular updates for fans .

Why no Kickstarter? Gilbert says crowdfunding is "basically dead"

The original Thimbleweed Park raised $626,250 on Kickstarter in 2014, well above its $375,000 goal . But Gilbert has explicitly ruled out crowdfunding for the sequel. In a December 2025 interview with Ars Technica, he called Kickstarter "basically dead these days as a way of funding games," arguing it has shifted from a development-capital source into more of a marketing tool . He elaborated that the original game cost roughly $1.1 million to make — $600,000 from Kickstarter and $500,000 from private investors he found later — and that even that full amount could not be raised on the platform today .

Instead, Thimbleweed Park 2 is being self-published by Gilbert's studio Terrible Toybox with backing from a single private investor. Gilbert has not named the investor or disclosed the amount .

A funding crisis that nearly prevented the sequel

This funding path was not Gilbert's first choice. In late 2025, he canceled an ambitious top-down RPG project described as a blend of classic Zelda, Diablo, and Thimbleweed Park after failing to secure publisher or investor support . Speaking to Ars Technica, Gilbert said he worked with a team of just three people — including an artist and a designer — for about a year before realizing it was not going to happen. "I simply didn't have the financial resources or time to create a vast open-world game like that," he stated . He described the current publishing landscape as one where "publishers are fixated on analytics" and unwilling to back original mid-tier games, adding that the publisher deals he was offered were "horrible" .

Gilbert's recent timeline

• 2017 — Thimbleweed Park released to critical acclaim. The pixel-art point-and-click murder mystery, inspired by Twin Peaks and The X-Files, starred FBI-like agents Ray and Reyes investigating a dead body found under a bridge .
• 2022 — Return to Monkey Island, Gilbert's long-awaited direct sequel to Monkey Island 2, released via Devolver Digital. It was a separate project from the Thimbleweed Park universe .
• 2025 — Gilbert canceled his unannounced RPG project due to lack of funding and publicly declared that Kickstarter is no longer viable for full game development .
• 2026 — Thimbleweed Park 2 announced with private-investor funding, the full original team, and a planned early 2028 launch .

What the sequel is about

According to the official description, the new murder takes place at the Edmund Mansion, with Agents Ray and Reyes returning as lead investigators — though the description playfully adds "or are they?" . The game is described as "more Thimbleweed Park than ever" and will retain the pixel-art visual style and classic point-and-click format of the original . Console versions have not been confirmed at this early stage, though the original game did eventually release on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, iOS, and Android .

Fans eager to follow development can wishlist Thimbleweed Park 2 on Steam now, with the GOG version confirmed alongside it .