The Kickstarter Starter
By John Walker on November 20th, 2012.
Yesterday you’ll likely have noticed that Tim Schafer and Double Fine launched a new approach to a Humble Bundle, encouraging people to pay what they want for the chance to vote on what four prototypes the team would develop during their next Amnesia Fortnight. We then brought you his thoughts on why they were doing this, and what impact such things have on the studio. In the second part of our chat, we discuss how Schafer’s time is split between the Double Fine Adventure and running such a busy studio, the effect his project had on the Kickstarter phenomenon, why he thinks you make more money without DRM, and Schafer’s belief in what he calls the “good faith” of gamers.
Read the rest of this entry »
Amnesia Fortnight, Double-Fine, feature, Humble Bundle, interview, Tim-Schafer, tsi.
Unprototypical
By John Walker on November 19th, 2012.
As we just mentioned, Double Fine have launched a unique Humble Bundle to let people vote from 23 game pitches to decide four that will go on to be made into prototypes. I spoke to Tim Schafer earlier this evening to ask how this came about, and how such a thing will influence the company. In this first half of the interview we talk about the Bundle, what makes a Double Fine game, and why they’re so keen to show these early stages of game development.
Read the rest of this entry »
Amnesia Fortnight, Double-Fine, feature, Humble Bundle, interview, Tim-Schafer, tsi.
Fawning nostalgia
By John Walker on February 28th, 2012.
In the second part of our interview with Double Fine‘s Tim Schafer (the first part is here), we get to talking about the nature of the adventure game, and reflect on some of Schafer’s defining classics from the 90s, Day Of The Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, to consider what lessons they offer for today, the reasons for avoiding 3D altogether, and I almost trick him into making a sequel to Day Of The Tentacle.
Read the rest of this entry »
day of the tentacle, Double-Fine, feature, full throttle, grim fandango, interview, Psychonauts, Tim-Schafer, tsi.
Adventures In The Unknown
By John Walker on February 27th, 2012.
Industry legend Tim “Industry Legend” Schafer has been at the front of gaming news for the last couple of weeks. After the twitterstorm that followed Notch’s somewhat speculative offer to fund Psychonauts 2 came the record-breaking Kickstarter project, that saw Schafer’s company, Double Fine, raise over $2 million in a fortnight. I spoke to him over the weekend to find out how the process has been, what the intentions are for a new 2D adventure, to reflect on the classic adventures of the 90s, and to see if there were any other dream projects he has left. In the first part of this two-part interview we discuss the reactions to the Kickstarter, the role dads play in playing adventures, and where things are with Psychonauts 2. Tomorrow we’ll go into the lessons learned from Schafer’s previous adventures, memories of Day Of The Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, and how that will affect design today.
Read the rest of this entry »
adventure, Double-Fine, feature, interview, Kickstarter, Psychonauts, Psychonauts 2, Tim-Schafer, tsi.
