10 Video Games That Owned Themselves

In 2014, Gilbert, having re-announced himself to the mainstream industry with his Double Fine collaboration The Cave, wondered if anybody out there still had an appetite for old-school style point 'n' clicks - and more importantly, if they'd be prepared to fund one.

The answer was yes to both, and the result of the subsequent Kickstarter campaign was Thimbleweed Park, an adventure which sold itself as a long lost Lucasarts gem. Naturally then, to satisfy its backers - or producers, to use a more accurate term - the modern classic was a knowing pixel-hunter, absolutely chock-a-block with references and in-jokes designed to tickle the nostalgia nerves of long-time fans.

Unfortunately, Thimbleweed Park's excruciating faithfulness to an abandoned genre held a mirror up to why adventure games had lost currency in the first place. Abstruse item puzzles and wall-to-wall nods to 'MMucasFlem Games' and exploding hamsters helped make the game inaccessible to newcomers, almost by design. Recognising it was part of the problem it was parodying, a later patch added both gameplay hints, and, for the benefit of the mouse-averse millennials, an option to turn off 'annoying in-jokes'.