Develop 2010: The creator of Brütal Legend and godfather of gaming humour confirms four new titles.
Tim Schafer, president & CEO of Double Fine and creator of Brütal Legend, encouraged developers to trust in their teams at his keynote address on the last day of the Develop conference in Brighton.
“You don’t make your bets on ideas – ideas are cheap,” he said, “You make your bets on people, and that’s where you’re rewarded.”
The former LucasArts designer who formulated Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, also revealed that four new titles are in development at his independent studio. This switch to multi-title development has been trying, but Schafer welcomes the added “creative diversity” and financial safety they now have.
“When you have multiple publishers it just fits into a healthier balance,” he said, as developers benefit from multiple revenues streams and have a greater chance of landing a hit title.
“I feel that as long as you make a good game you should get the chance to make another,” said Schafer, who has grown tired of working on single projects in “unstable” publisher relationships and now wishes to return to shorter development cycles.
The idea for these four titles (two downloadable, two retail) originated from some experimental projects the company tried in the middle of making Brütal Legend. “This energy just took over,” said Schafer. When their publisher declined to fund development of a Brütal Legend sequel, something he admitted could have put the company out of business, he decided they should return to these smaller projects and develop the best ones in parallel. All four games were signed within a month.
“We have, as a company, found our way through this challenge… there’s a lot of opportunities for the team now,” he said.
When asked if Double Fine would consider self-publishing their games, he replied: “The second we have some extra money we’d love to.”
Schafer is also known for creating Psychonauts, a psychic adventure game he got the idea for thinking back to his time studying the psychology of dreams: “There’s a thrill to making games, showing people something they haven’t seen before.”
Aaron Lee
Photo: Bastion
Tags: brutal legend, develop, developers, double fine, psychonauts, tim schafer
