Tim Schafer
Encyclopedia
Timothy Schafer is an American computer game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions
in January 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts
. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games Full Throttle, Grim Fandango
, Psychonauts
, and Brütal Legend
, and co-designer of the early classics The Secret of Monkey Island
, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
and Day of the Tentacle
. He is known in the video game industry for his story-telling and comedic writing style.
, Tim Schafer worked at George Lucas
' game production company LucasArts
(then called Lucasfilm Games and located at Skywalker Ranch
). During his application process for the job, he had a somewhat disastrous phone interview in which he mentioned he was a fan of Ballblaster - at which point the interviewer, David Fox, informed him that this was the pirated version of Ballblazer
. He was still permitted to send in his resume and a cover letter, so to make up for the phone interview, he sent in a comic of himself applying for and getting the job at Lucasfilm Games, drawn as a text adventure.
After play testing the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade action game
and assisting with the NES
version of Maniac Mansion
, Schafer was assigned as a writer and programmer to the production of the pirate-themed adventure game
The Secret of Monkey Island
.
According to series creator Ron Gilbert
, Schafer and fellow writer-programmer Dave Grossman were responsible for about two thirds of the game's dialogue. Monkey Island is noted for its humorous story, though it was originally conceived as having a more serious tone; Schafer and Grossman wrote much more humorous placeholder dialog, which persuaded Gilbert to turn it into a comedy. The Secret of Monkey Island became one of the most acclaimed games of its kind. The same team created the sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
.
In his first lead role on a game project, Schafer co-designed (with Dave Grossman) Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle, a time-travel comedy adventure and the sequel of Ron Gilbert's Maniac Mansion. Schafer's first solo project, the biker adventure Full Throttle, was released in 1995. He went on to design the highly acclaimed Grim Fandango
, a noir adventure game
set in the Aztec
afterlife
featuring characters similar to the papier-mâché
skeleton decorations from the Mexican holiday Dia De Los Muertos. Grim Fandango won many awards, including GameSpot
's Game of the Year award of 1998.
Schafer worked on an unannounced PlayStation 2
action-adventure game at LucasArts, but it never entered production. He left the company in January 2000 to found Double Fine Productions
, where he created the platform game
Psychonauts
. The game was first released on Xbox in North America on April 19, 2005. It won much critical acclaim, including a Game of the Year
award from Eurogamer
.
On March 7, 2007, he hosted the annual Game Developers Choice Awards
. He later hosted it again in 2009. To coincide, Double Fine released a free Flash
minigame
entitled Host Master and the Conquest of Humor
, a pastiche of Schafer's LucasArts games in which the player takes on the role of Schafer backstage at the GDC Awards.
In fall 2009, Schafer completed a new game called Brütal Legend
. The game was released on October 13, 2009, on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. In an April 2009 interview on The Jace Hall
Show, Schafer had this to say about Brütal Legend: "For Brütal Legend, I've always seen this overlap between medieval warfare and heavy metal. You see heavy metal singers and they'll have like a brace around their arm and they'll be singing about Orcs. So let's just make a world where that all happens. That all gets put together, the heavy metal, and the rock, and the battling, actually does happen. Let's not flirt around with this; let's just do it."
Schafer announced in July 2010 that EA had canceled the sequel to Brütal Legend. Instead of Brütal Legend 2, Schafer will make four smaller games, including Costume Quest
.
The expression, "a Tim Schafer moment" is used among video game experts and makers to describe an instant of great creativity or genius.
(NES port), tools programmer, SCUMM
(LucasArts) The Secret of Monkey Island
, co-writer, programmer, additional designer (LucasArts) Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
, co-writer, programmer, additional designer (LucasArts) Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle, co-designer, co-producer, co-director, co-writer (LucasArts) Full Throttle, project leader, writer, designer (LucasArts) Grim Fandango
, project leader, writer, designer (LucasArts) Psychonauts
, creative director, co-writer, designer (Double Fine, Majesco) Brütal Legend
, creative director, writer, designer (Double Fine, Electronic Arts) Costume Quest
, creative director, writer (Double Fine, THQ) Stacking
(Double Fine, THQ) Trenched
(Double Fine, Microsoft Studios) Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
(Double Fine, Microsoft Studios)
Double Fine Productions
Double Fine Productions is an American video game developer founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer after his departure from LucasArts. He started Double Fine with Programmers David Dixon and Jonathan Menzies in what was once a clog shop in San Francisco...
in January 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts
LucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...
. Schafer is best known as the designer of critically acclaimed games Full Throttle, Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango is a personal computer game in the graphic adventure genre released by LucasArts in 1998 and primarily written by Tim Schafer. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered, static backgrounds...
, Psychonauts
Psychonauts
Psychonauts is a platform video game created by Tim Schafer, developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Majesco. The game was released on April 19, 2005, for the Xbox, April 26 for Microsoft Windows and June 21 for PlayStation 2. It was released on Steam on Oct 11, 2006, as an "Xbox...
, and Brütal Legend
Brütal Legend
Brütal Legend is an action-adventure/real-time strategy game created by Double Fine Productions and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America and Europe...
, and co-designer of the early classics The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island is a graphic adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by the same company after its name was changed to LucasArts. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the Monkey Island series...
, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. It was the second game of the Monkey Island series, following The Secret of Monkey Island, and the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine. It was the first game to use the iMUSE sound...
and Day of the Tentacle
Day of the Tentacle
Day of the Tentacle, also known as Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle, is a 1993 graphic adventure game developed and published by LucasArts. It is the sequel to the 1987 game Maniac Mansion...
. He is known in the video game industry for his story-telling and comedic writing style.
Career
While studying computer science at UC BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, Tim Schafer worked at George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
' game production company LucasArts
LucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...
(then called Lucasfilm Games and located at Skywalker Ranch
Skywalker Ranch
Skywalker Ranch is the name of the workplace of film director and producer George Lucas. It is located in a secluded, but open area near Nicasio, California, in Marin County. The ranch is located on Lucas Valley Road, although Lucas is not related to the road's namesake, who was a...
). During his application process for the job, he had a somewhat disastrous phone interview in which he mentioned he was a fan of Ballblaster - at which point the interviewer, David Fox, informed him that this was the pirated version of Ballblazer
Ballblazer
Ballblazer is a 1984 computer game created by Lucasfilm Games . It was originally released for the Atari 8-bit systems, such as the Atari 800 and the Atari 5200. It was also ported to other popular platforms of the day, such as the Apple II, ZX Spectrum , Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Atari 7800, and...
. He was still permitted to send in his resume and a cover letter, so to make up for the phone interview, he sent in a comic of himself applying for and getting the job at Lucasfilm Games, drawn as a text adventure.
After play testing the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade action game
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (video game)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the title of three different video games released for various video and computer home systems. The format of each particular video game is different, but they loosely follow the film's storyline.-The Action Game:...
and assisting with the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
version of Maniac Mansion
Maniac Mansion
Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It was Lucasfilm's first published video game, and it was initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II. A comedy horror parody of B movies, it follows teenager Dave Miller as he ventures...
, Schafer was assigned as a writer and programmer to the production of the pirate-themed adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island is a graphic adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by the same company after its name was changed to LucasArts. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the Monkey Island series...
.
According to series creator Ron Gilbert
Ron Gilbert
Ron Gilbert is an American computer game designer, programmer, and producer, best known for his work on several classic LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. Gilbert was also co-founder of Humongous Entertainment and its sister company Cavedog...
, Schafer and fellow writer-programmer Dave Grossman were responsible for about two thirds of the game's dialogue. Monkey Island is noted for its humorous story, though it was originally conceived as having a more serious tone; Schafer and Grossman wrote much more humorous placeholder dialog, which persuaded Gilbert to turn it into a comedy. The Secret of Monkey Island became one of the most acclaimed games of its kind. The same team created the sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. It was the second game of the Monkey Island series, following The Secret of Monkey Island, and the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine. It was the first game to use the iMUSE sound...
.
In his first lead role on a game project, Schafer co-designed (with Dave Grossman) Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle, a time-travel comedy adventure and the sequel of Ron Gilbert's Maniac Mansion. Schafer's first solo project, the biker adventure Full Throttle, was released in 1995. He went on to design the highly acclaimed Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango is a personal computer game in the graphic adventure genre released by LucasArts in 1998 and primarily written by Tim Schafer. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered, static backgrounds...
, a noir adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
set in the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
featuring characters similar to the papier-mâché
Papier-mâché
Papier-mâché , alternatively, paper-mache, is a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp, sometimes reinforced with textiles, bound with an adhesive, such as glue, starch, or wallpaper paste....
skeleton decorations from the Mexican holiday Dia De Los Muertos. Grim Fandango won many awards, including GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
's Game of the Year award of 1998.
Schafer worked on an unannounced PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
action-adventure game at LucasArts, but it never entered production. He left the company in January 2000 to found Double Fine Productions
Double Fine Productions
Double Fine Productions is an American video game developer founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer after his departure from LucasArts. He started Double Fine with Programmers David Dixon and Jonathan Menzies in what was once a clog shop in San Francisco...
, where he created the platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
Psychonauts
Psychonauts
Psychonauts is a platform video game created by Tim Schafer, developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Majesco. The game was released on April 19, 2005, for the Xbox, April 26 for Microsoft Windows and June 21 for PlayStation 2. It was released on Steam on Oct 11, 2006, as an "Xbox...
. The game was first released on Xbox in North America on April 19, 2005. It won much critical acclaim, including a Game of the Year
Game of the Year
Game of the Year is a title awarded by various magazines, websites, and shows to a deserving game. Many are only for PC or console video games...
award from Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
.
On March 7, 2007, he hosted the annual Game Developers Choice Awards
Game Developers Choice Awards
The Game Developers Choice Awards are annually presented by the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games.Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards, which were presented from 1997 to 1999.The 2009 award presentation was...
. He later hosted it again in 2009. To coincide, Double Fine released a free Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
entitled Host Master and the Conquest of Humor
Host Master and the Conquest of Humor
Host Master and the Conquest of Humor is a free Flash adventure game, written by Klint Honeychurch and game developer Tim Schafer, with gameplay and art by Honeychurch and music by Bert Chang...
, a pastiche of Schafer's LucasArts games in which the player takes on the role of Schafer backstage at the GDC Awards.
In fall 2009, Schafer completed a new game called Brütal Legend
Brütal Legend
Brütal Legend is an action-adventure/real-time strategy game created by Double Fine Productions and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America and Europe...
. The game was released on October 13, 2009, on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. In an April 2009 interview on The Jace Hall
Jace Hall
Jason "Jace" Hall is an American film, television and video game producer, best known for being founder and Chief Executive Officer of Monolith Productions Inc and President of...
Show, Schafer had this to say about Brütal Legend: "For Brütal Legend, I've always seen this overlap between medieval warfare and heavy metal. You see heavy metal singers and they'll have like a brace around their arm and they'll be singing about Orcs. So let's just make a world where that all happens. That all gets put together, the heavy metal, and the rock, and the battling, actually does happen. Let's not flirt around with this; let's just do it."
Schafer announced in July 2010 that EA had canceled the sequel to Brütal Legend. Instead of Brütal Legend 2, Schafer will make four smaller games, including Costume Quest
Costume Quest
Costume Quest is an adventure role-playing video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ. In the game, the player controls a child that is trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween night when they encounter a monster that kidnaps the sibling...
.
The expression, "a Tim Schafer moment" is used among video game experts and makers to describe an instant of great creativity or genius.
Recognition
- The press first previewed Psychonauts at the E3 trade show of 2002, where it won the Game Critics Award for Best Original Game.
- An hour-long episode of IconsIcons (TV series)Icons was a documentary TV show on G4 that originally focused on significant people, companies, products, history, and milestones in world of video games. It was relaunched in 2006 and focused entirely on pop culture. It was cancelled soon afterwards....
on the G4 NetworkG4 (TV channel)G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
documented the last week of Psychonauts production and explored Tim Schafer's career. (Original airdate: April 28, 2005). - At the 20062006 in video gaming-Events:* January 26, 2006 -- Nintendo announces its newly redesigned handheld, the Nintendo DS Lite. The new model is lighter, smaller, has configurable brightness and features an improved user interface.* January 26, 2006 -- Konami Corp...
Game Developers Choice AwardsGame Developers Choice AwardsThe Game Developers Choice Awards are annually presented by the Game Developers Conference for outstanding game developers and games.Introduced in 2001, the Game Developers Choice Awards were preceded by the Spotlight Awards, which were presented from 1997 to 1999.The 2009 award presentation was...
, Tim Schafer and Erik WolpawErik WolpawErik Wolpaw is an American videogame writer. Erik along with Chet Faliszek were the two writers behind the now-defunct Old Man Murray video game commentary web site. As of 2011, he works for Valve Software in Seattle...
won the award for Best Writing for Psychonauts. Tim Schafer and Double Fine Executive Producer & COO Caroline Esmurdoc also won the award for Best New Studio. - In October 2006, Tim Schafer received a BAFTABritish Academy of Film and Television ArtsThe British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
video game Best Screenplay award for Psychonauts.
Games
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game, tester (LucasArts) Maniac MansionManiac Mansion
Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It was Lucasfilm's first published video game, and it was initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II. A comedy horror parody of B movies, it follows teenager Dave Miller as he ventures...
(NES port), tools programmer, SCUMM
SCUMM
Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion is a scripting language developed at LucasArts to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion....
(LucasArts) The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island is a graphic adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by the same company after its name was changed to LucasArts. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the Monkey Island series...
, co-writer, programmer, additional designer (LucasArts) Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. It was the second game of the Monkey Island series, following The Secret of Monkey Island, and the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine. It was the first game to use the iMUSE sound...
, co-writer, programmer, additional designer (LucasArts) Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle, co-designer, co-producer, co-director, co-writer (LucasArts) Full Throttle, project leader, writer, designer (LucasArts) Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango is a personal computer game in the graphic adventure genre released by LucasArts in 1998 and primarily written by Tim Schafer. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered, static backgrounds...
, project leader, writer, designer (LucasArts) Psychonauts
Psychonauts
Psychonauts is a platform video game created by Tim Schafer, developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Majesco. The game was released on April 19, 2005, for the Xbox, April 26 for Microsoft Windows and June 21 for PlayStation 2. It was released on Steam on Oct 11, 2006, as an "Xbox...
, creative director, co-writer, designer (Double Fine, Majesco) Brütal Legend
Brütal Legend
Brütal Legend is an action-adventure/real-time strategy game created by Double Fine Productions and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America and Europe...
, creative director, writer, designer (Double Fine, Electronic Arts) Costume Quest
Costume Quest
Costume Quest is an adventure role-playing video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ. In the game, the player controls a child that is trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween night when they encounter a monster that kidnaps the sibling...
, creative director, writer (Double Fine, THQ) Stacking
Stacking (video game)
Stacking is an adventure/puzzle video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by THQ; like Double Fine's previous Costume Quest, it is a smaller title created during the development period of Brütal Legend, and was released in February 2011 for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation...
(Double Fine, THQ) Trenched
Trenched
Iron Brigade, formerly titled Trenched, is a video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Microsoft Studios as a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade title on the Xbox 360...
(Double Fine, Microsoft Studios) Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster is a video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in conjunction with Sesame Workshop...
(Double Fine, Microsoft Studios)
External links
- Tim Schafer's company weblog
- What does the game industry have against innovation? (a news feature centered on Psychonauts, with comments from Schafer)
- "Tim Schafer on Taking Risks" (D.I.C.E. Summit 2005)
- "Tim Schafer on Memorable Character Design" (GDCGame Developers ConferenceThe Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
2004, audio recording) - Tim Schafer on the Monkey Island Wiki
- Trip to Double Fine from The International House of Mojo
- Return to Double Fine from The International House of Mojo
Interviews
- Millennium Gaming: 20 Gaming Visionaries Usher In The Next Millennium of Gaming at GameSpotGameSpotGameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
(1999) - A Conversation with Tim Schafer by Celia Pearce at GameStudies (2003)
- Rebel With a Cause: Traveling through the mind of Tim Schafer at 1UP.com1UP.com1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
(2006)