Thimbleweed Park, the well received and fan favorite adventure game that launched last year, ended up selling more on the Switch than on any other console, according to a breakdown provided by its developer. Sales on Nintendo were more than on any other storefront, though once you take sales of Steam and GoG together, the PC version still comes out ahead, with the Switch in second place.

What’s even more interesting, however (and in fact has been termed “perplexing” by developer Ron Gilbert) is that sales were lower on PS4 than on any other system. Not just consoles, the PS4 version sold lower than even the mobile versions of the game. This trend is even more puzzling when you consider that the bulk of sales for the game have come from Europe, which is commonly considered “PlayStation Land”, as a nod to PlayStation’s market dominance in the region.

More than anything, however, the takeaway is that the PC (obviously) and Switch are the most vibrant and healthy markets for indie game developers at the moment. Thimbleweed Park is out now on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android. You can see a graph of the breakdown of sales for yourself below

In a blog post, he said, “Now that The Cave is done and unleashed on an unsuspecting world (ok, we did do a bunch of PR, so it wasn’t exactly unsuspecting), it’s time for me to move on from Double Fine and plot my next move.

“I want to thank all the amazing people at Double Fine for all their hard work on The Cave. It was a true pleasure to work with every one of them over the past two years. So much fun. I will miss them all. And of course to Tim for creating the opportunity to come there and make The Cave.”

Gilbert won’t be off the radar completely though. He’s currently working with DeathSpank co-creator Clayton Kauzlaric on Scurvy Scallywags in The Voyage to Discover the Ultimate Sea Shanty: A Musical Match-3 Pirate RPG for iOS.

Source: GIBiz

So what happens when you mix Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert together to make a game? You get a side-scrolling platformer with plenty of humorous narrative and puzzle solving called The Cave. The Cave is a nice break from other games that have been coming out for the past few months. If your in a mood for humorous, interesting quirky characters, a lot of puzzle solving and you enjoy side-scrollers then this is the game for you.

At the beginning of the game you are introduced to 7 different stereotypical characters. There is the Knight, Scientist, Time-Traveler, Adventure Girl, Twins, Hillbilly and the Monk. The Cave has general levels that you play-through regardless of the combination of the 3 characters you choose. However, each character also has their own personal story levels, with new puzzles and content.

For example the castle level is a level that is only available to the Knight. This is where the Knight gets his own personal story, his goal is too make the princess fall in love with him and prove the king that his daughter loves him by providing the king with an amulet that she gives you as a sign of her love.  There are different puzzles that you have to go through in order to achieve this goal.

The addition of these character-specific levels is great because not only are you playing through the general cave levels, but you also exploring new personal stories and puzzles. This adds more content to the game and the levels themselves are actually really unique, fun and don’t feel tacked on.

The puzzles in The Cave are not too hard or easy, which is a good thing in my book. They’re fun to figure out, some may take more time to figure out than others. Also, each character gets a special ability that no other characters can which makes the puzzle aspect more interesting, especially in the character-specific levels. My personal favorite is the “Mine” level, where you are tasked with figuring out how to get the mining carts back to the miner so you can keep on moving to explore the cave. The miner asks you to retrieve 3 different carts, 1 with food, gold and the last one being an empty cart, each cart is it’s own puzzle that involves multiple characters to work together.

The entire game can be played via co-op with up to a total of 3 players online, each player controlling different character. This game me the feeling of Trine, Trine was a beautiful looking side-scroller, with a lot of puzzle elements and actual combat. However, Trine was best played with other players, The Cave co-op is online which makes things a lot easier. Playing The Cave with other players makes things go a lot faster, since you don’t have to switch different characters anymore while playing solo to try to solve a specific puzzle by positioning the character in a proper area.

However, the game does have some technical issues when I was playing it on the PS3. There are some areas where you have to swim underwater to get to another spot, when your character goes underwater the framerate starts to dip down very noticeably. The game is not even that amazing looking, or heavy on the graphical side, I absolutely do not understand how a game like this can have any framerate loss whatsoever.

I personally think this is unacceptable, this is a side-scrolling platforming game that looks nowhere near as good as other side-scrolling platforming games and it has framerate issues in a lot of the parts throughout the game. While this is not a deal-breaker I still think this should not be happening, especially this late in the console generation.

The Cave overall is a good addition, it has different characters to play with, each character having a “good” and “bad” endings, good puzzles and a great style. I highly recommend this game to anyone that enjoys platforming and puzzles that contains multiple play-throughs. However, if you’re looking for a eye candy side-scroller your not going to find it here, but you will find a enjoyable, humorous and fun co-op experience.

The game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3.

The Cave, directed by legendary designer Ron Gilbert of Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island fame, features seven playable characters that can be used to form teams of three. These three then combine their abilities to solve the mystery of The Cave, so to speak.

Of course, The Cave is more than that as the individuals exploring it “learn something about themselves and who they might become”, while fighting against the darkness that gnaws them from within. The game will utilize a Metroidvania style of exploratory play, puzzle solving and item collection for its mechanics.

The Cave has already been released worldwide for PSN and the Nintendo eShop. Releases for Steam and Xbox Live Arcade will occur on January 23rd.

PSN and Steam charges for the game will be $14.99/€12.99/£9.99 with Xbox Live Arcade charging 1200 Microsoft Points. And worry not, fellow Nintendo adventurers, as a Wii U release date and pricing are expected to be announced soon.

As perhaps the most winning combination in video games, The Cave sees Ron Gilbert teaming with Double Fine Productions, of Psychonauts and Brütal Legend fame, for an adventure wherein players assemble teams of three from 7 characters to tackle the mysteries and depths of The Cave. Each character has their own personality type and abilities which will affect their respective and combined outcomes when all is said and done.