Tim Schafer is one of the most influential video game directors of all time, having worked on beloved point-and-click adventure games such as The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango. Schafer is also known for founding video game developer Double Fine Productions, which was bought out by Microsoft in 2019. As Microsoft has shown a recent interest in reviving developer Rare’s old IP with titles such as this year’s Battletoads and the upcoming Perfect Dark, many have looked towards Double Fine as possible candidates for developing a Banjo-Kazooie sequel or reboot. However, in a recent IGN podcast, studio founder Tim Schafer denied these rumors.
Double Fine Productions was founded in 2000 after Tim Schafer left LucasArts, following the studio’s shift away from developing adventure games. Five years after its founding, Double Fine released Psychonauts, which was originally intended to be an Xbox console exclusive, yet later ended up launching on PC and PlayStation 2. The studio has since gone on to develop titles such as Brutal Legend and Broken Age, and remasters of Schafer’s LucasArts titles. The studio is currently developing Psychonauts 2, which is the result of a successful Fig crowdfunding campaign and Microsoft’s acquisition in 2019.
With Double Fine’s status as an imaginative, creative developer, many fans began to speculate after its acquisition that Double Fine could be a likely candidate to develop a remake or sequel to Rare’s iconic Banjo-Kazooie franchise. Besides an appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the franchise has laid dormant since 2007’s Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, which many criticised as a major departure from the Nintendo 64 3D platformers.
In an interview with IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey as part of Podcast Unlocked, when discussing developing titles within Microsoft’s portfolio, Schafer commented “It’s an interesting thing to think about but I think that would be a bad use of Double Fine. Our whole thing is making stuff up.” Discussing the possibility of Double Fine developing a new Banjo-Kazooie, Schafer states “I think it’s nice that people think about us when they think about that game because I think it’s definitely inspiring and I really like that game. If they think of Double Fine when they think of brightly colored platformers it’s great they think about us, but we’ll make something new that people like just as much.”
Schafer has been very open about the development cycles of Double Fine’s games in the past, commissioning multiple documentaries chronicling the development of games such as Broken Age, Grim Fandango Remastered, and Psychonauts 2. He has also been very open about the struggles Double Fine Productions has had to endure in order to see its creative vision through to fruition.
All of this makes it understandable why Schafer would be against the studio making a game within another developer’s franchise. Especially since Psychonauts 2 is only the second sequel the studio has made in its 20 year history, with the other being Costume Quest 2. Schafer has claimed many times in the past that the reason for Microsoft’s acquisition of the studio was to ensure the studio’s financial and creative freedom, given the studio has had to crowdfund multiple titles in the past due to lack of publisher interest in its titles.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply