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

The announcement: "There is no bad news"

Gilbert opened his July 30 blog post with a classic joke. "I have good news and bad news. First the good news. The good news is that we just started production on Thimbleweed Park 2, due out in early 2028," he wrote. "The bad news is there is no bad news. It's all good news" . A Steam page went live immediately for wishlisting, and a GOG version was confirmed alongside Windows, Mac, and Linux builds .

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 .