Reactions: Tim Schafer and Double Fine working on 4 “indie-style” games
First off, if you want to know what that awesome picture is all about, go read this lovely article at Kotaku. But onto the news! At the recent Develop 2010 Conference, legendary game developer Tim Schafer had a few words to say. Of interest to us, the man behind Grim Fandango and Psychonauts talked about how EA decided not to go ahead with a sequel to last year’s heavy-metal adventure Brutal Legend, and in turn, Double Fine decided to move away from AAA games and into smaller, “indie-style” games.
Schafer confirmed that his studio currently has four games in development and that after shopping them around to various publishers, each new title has a deal in place. The creative visionary and all around funny man didn’t have much to say about the new projects other than saying that splitting off into smaller teams allowed the studio to experiment with different genres, licenses, and demographics (such as kids’ titles), giving them “more chances at having a hit game.” Schafer also confirmed that a good portion of Brutal Legend vets are heading up the new projects, two of which “will focus on both retro and innovative new gameplay mechanics”. No release dates have been announced, but Double Fine’s head honcho did hint that we may see some of the new properties later this year, in both retail and digital outlets.
My take on all of this? I think it’s fantastic news. Tim Schafer made his name in this industry on small development teams that made small games before he moved onto bigger things. Most of his bigger things have been just as unique and endearing as his older work, but publishers haven’t always felt the same way. Hopefully this new “indie” approach will give Double Fine a better shot at finding success with their creative properties. And hopefully the lack of a major publisher’s omnipotent presence will allow for even more creativity from the Double Fine team. Plus, it could mean cheaper games for us.
Author: Cody
4 Comments to Reactions: Tim Schafer and Double Fine working on 4 “indie-style” games
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http://www.insanebear.com/3078/reactions-1st-episode-of-rayman-origins-coming-this-christmas/
As a side note, if we consider this news alongside Ubisoft’s new initiative for smaller development teams using the UBIart Framework, could there be a trend of smaller development teams arising within the industry? I think it would be a very healthy experiment. The key is finding a way to put these small teams on 3D, AAA games, which Ubisoft’s new tools aim to do.
I mean, as a publisher, I’m sure Ubisoft is sick of paying over 100 people to work on Assassin’s Creed. As gamers, it’s becoming more and more difficult to find games with a singular creative vision, like so many older classics. That means the games we pay for today tend to have less distinct personality because of the mass production development style they undergo. I think everybody could benefit from smaller dev teams.
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Hey, remember when people used to comment on the site? Yeah, those were good times.
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I guess I’ll just link awesome stories to myself.
http://kotaku.com/5591038/sony-patents-alternative-to-split+screen-multiplayer
That simply sound brilliant.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3180459
I hate reporting on Kojima stuff because it always involves months of tedious rumor and speculation until we get the facts, and even those are often misconstrued. But yeah, supposedly he’s working on an adventure game. If so, that’s cool. His earlier work always interested me, and this is right up that alley.
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Well, it looks like you comment on your own stuff.
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