PCA: The Monkey Island maestro has raised over $1 million in online pledges for his new adventure game. But is it a wise investment?
Over 30-year industry veteran and Double Fine CEO Tim Schafer talks to IGN about Xbox and Game Pass, making weirder games, his inspirations, the Psychonauts 2 documentary, improving work culture, his future plans, and the deep importance of making games with and for other human beings.
Come now, MS PR efforts with these personalities is on a whole different level. At least historically.
I dont know this dude, but they got some really feisty characters talking their points. when its too risky for a higher up to be saying it, they let the grunts do the talking points.
These PR characters are not idiots, they are cogs in a machine that is Microsoft PR.
@S2
Tim Schafer is not some "PR character". He's one of the most well-known and respected pioneers in the industry.
Sony has its own blog, podcast, and video series to promote PlayStation. Arguably Sony PR is just better than Microsoft PR.
Great interview and really down to earth guy. I’m interested in watching the documentary they made on the making of Psychonauts 2 .
"MinnMax's Ben Hanson put together Tim Schafer from Double Fine and Hazelight Studios' Josef Fares to talk about Psychonauts 2, It Takes Two, and designing a great platformer in 2021."
This was a great interview. It reminded me a bit of the Devs Play interviews that Double Fine used to do: https://youtu.be/DxUfaZuGQK...
The ramblings of Josef Fares are endlessly entertaining. haha. He basically sounds crazy at the start of every tangent, but by the end of it, it's obvious that he's very talented and really knows what he's talking about.
He has a strong vision for his games - he didn't water down It Takes Two so it could also be played in solo with an AI and lose the need for collaboration, just like people don't want single-player games to be watered down. I would like if more studios took Hazelight's approach to game design: huge amounts of gameplay variation with very distinct levels.
I felt a bit bad for Tim because he talked about the struggle of cartoonish-looking games appealing to older gamers ... whereas Josef talked a lot about the high sales of It Takes Two (3.5m now). lol. Psychonauts 2 is fantastic and deserves higher sales and more recognition.
Double Fine founder and video game industry legend Tim Schafer sits down with Indie By Design's 'Gaming: The Podcast' to talk Psychonauts 2, creativity, writing and to look back at over 20 years of providing us games.
Granted, Monkey Island was a pretty long time ago. Psychnauts is brill tho. Bring on the sequel!
The guy has proven himself as a wonderful developer. Creativity/games in general win out over corporations here. This proves that fans want it.
From a game perspective, I have no doubts he'll create a great game.
From a business perspective, everyone who invested will most likely by his product, so the fanbase is big.
Win-win.
Not that I actually trust people with money, but if I had a choice between Tim and all the current publishers... I think only Good Ole Games/CDProjekt would rank higher than him. Tim makes fun games and doesn't care about mainstream trends in a manner that he'd change to match them and yet still produces quality material. He also makes games he likes, not games that will make a ton of profit. The fact that he wants to go back to his roots, so to speak, is even better considering how his roots have lasted the test of time so far.
So, yeah, with this endeavor, I trust him with the money.
I didn't give Tim Schafer $1 million. I gave Double Fine $15. And considering their history and recent output, yes, I think $15 is a reasonable gamble. To tell the truth, though, I don't really see it as anymore of a gamble than buying a conventionally funded game that I've never played before.
I think the "charitable" portion of the donation process is what's sending some diehard corporate junkies into a tizzy. Charity is what it is. I like Tim Schafer and Double Fine, so I have no problem giving them money to help make their next game, especially if it means they are able to make a game that would otherwise not be made thanks to some shitty publishers.
Edit: BTW I just gotta say, if the actual article was intended as some sort of joke, it wasn't funny...at all.
Definitely. He's one of the most creative guys in the business.