Since its transformation from a big boxed game developer to a download-centric house with multiple projects going at once, San Francisco-headed independent developer Double Fine has released two games: Costume Quest, late last year, and now Stacking, which puts the player in the persona of a Russian matryoshka nesting doll on an adventure to rescue his siblings.
The game was originally devised in Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight -- a two week game jam in which the developers at the studio broke into teams and worked on small projects, which became the genesis of the studio's new download game focus. It combines the sense of humor of a classic adventure game with new-style gameplay.
In this extensive interview, Lee Petty, the Double Fine art director who lead the Stacking project, and the studio's creative director Tim Schafer discuss the creative process that lead to Stacking.
They also touch upon how download games fit into the current gaming landscape, working with publishers and marketers, and where the title of this article came from.
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.
