Tim Schafer Says He Has Sequel Ideas For Every Double Fine Game

[Michael Epstein]

Tim Schafer Says He Has Sequel Ideas For Every Double Fine Game

Tim Schafer has a sequel idea for game Double Fine has ever made. The question is: Will he ever use them?

Double Fine Productions chief Tim Schafer is an idea-man. He comes up with new concepts for games all the time, which is why he's never tried making sequels to games he's already made. Speaking with Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/why-tim-schafer-doesnt-make-a-lot-of-sequels-1328056918], Schafer says that forgoing sequels has never been about a lack of inspiration or desire, but because he always has another new, exciting concept to bring to life:

"Honestly, currently the only reason we haven't done a sequel is we always have some other idea that we want to do," Schafer said. "They wanted me to do a sequel for Full Throttle at [Lucasarts] but I had the idea for Grim [Fandango], and if I'd made the sequel for Full Throttle I wouldn't have made Grim, and so on and so on."

Including projects currently in development, Double Fine has pulled the trigger on 15 game concepts. Of those 15, there's only one sequel in the entire bunch; Kinect Party, the de facto sequel to the studio's Kinect project, Happy Action Theater.

That isn't to say Schafer hasn't considered making a sequel before. Not only has he thought about making it, but Schafer claims to have dreamed up ideas for what he'd want to do with a potential follow-up to each of his studio's games: "Every one of our games is like, 'Oh, now I see how to make that game correctly," he said. "Oh, I have a lot of ideas of how to make those mechanics better,' or whatever." When asked which Double Fine games have garnered the most intense demand for a sequel, Schafer said: "I don't think there's any game I've ever made that [fans] don't ask that, and I see that as a great compliment, as a great, humbling thing."

Despite the precedent, Schafer suggested that Double Fine is more willing to entertain the idea of working on a sequel than it has been in the past. Since 2008, the studio has transitioned from working on large AAA projects one at a time to developing a multiple games at once using smaller teams. With multiple projects going at once, Schafer's main problem with sequels has been solved: Double Fine can work on a new idea and a sequel at the time.

"When it was just me, and it was one game after another, you're making a sequel at the expense of something else," said Schafer. "But now we could have a team make a sequel to one of our games while another team was working on a new property."

At the moment, Double Fine Productions is working on its two Kickstarter-funded projects; Broken Age and Massive Chalice.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/why-tim-schafer-doesnt-make-a-lot-of-sequels-1328056918]

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[CriticalMiss]

I'd love to see more Psychonauts and Costume Quest. Stacking was good too but I'm not sure how a sequel would go besides more of the same.

I'd also like to see a spin-off of Psychonauts that tells shorter stories but with new characters, possibly based around the True Psychic Tales comics from in the game. It could even be a promo thing for a full-on sequel, used to flesh out the Psychonauts universe so that the first half of the game isn't a tutorial of sorts.

 

[lacktheknack]

Two at a time, man. Two at a time. Broken Age is already hitting problems, if I recall.

But then, when those are done, I'd be more than happy to have you try a Psychonauts 2.

 

[MrMisfit]

Sequels to Brutal Legend and Costume Quest are what I would want most.

 

[l3o2828]

If Tim Schafer making sequels means we don't get masterpieces such as Grim Fandango then I'm glad he didn't.

Then again , Psychonauts 2 i would be more than glad to have Tim sacrifice another idea.

 

[LordLundar]

"I've got awesome sequel ideas for EVERY game I've ever been involved in!"

"Shouldn't you work on finishing the games that you've already went massively over budget on first?"

"Umm, err..."

Honestly, he can have all the ideas he wants, but so far he has blown through all the money he's raised which had already dwarfed his initial estimate. He might want to focus on putting a game out first.

 

[Something Amyss]

Honestly, he can have all the ideas he wants, but so far he has blown through all the money he's raised which had already dwarfed his initial estimate. He might want to focus on putting a game out first.

Isn't this more or less his problem in the first place? Too much time dreaming, not enough actualising?

 

[Azaraxzealot]

Brutal Legend deserves it most. It was so marred by executive meddling that it deserves another chance to be the game it wanted to be.

I know many people say "Well PSYCHONAUTS blahblahblah..." But here's the thing, by now Psychonauts is pretty popular, beloved, and has DEFINITELY made more money than it lost back when it first came out.

Brutal Legend? It's still a game that people are divided over, that has obvious signs of "We wanted to do more but couldn't under the circumstances." (like the general clunkiness of the RTS controls, or how the 2nd act zips into the third act to a sudden conclusion).

Not only that, how many games exist today that are made to appeal to Metalheads? We had a bit back when Guitar Hero was popular, but since then it's obvious we're just being given the shaft (Saints Row 4 removing the metal station as an example), so there is a niche that needs filling, and trust me when I say, the Metal community is starved for another game that appeals to them right now.

Psychonauts got its glory, money, and LARGE, STRONG fanbase, and its niche of "Quirky Action/Adventure Platformer" has been completely filled to the point of overflow with the rise of indie games.

Brutal Legend's niche is a howling ghost town, where big money publishers thought they saw a trend, and then when there wasn't, they just packed up and left, leaving the niche to die. I say it's still ripe for more material, and my Metalhead friends wholeheartedly agree. As it stands we already throw our money at ANY game that even has 1 good Metal song from a good band, we want a game for us, BADLY, because we are sick of being treated as unimportant, second-class citizens in the gaming world. Brutal Legend is already "our" game, but we want more, and are MORE than willing to pay for more.

 

[Robeltu]

Sequels to Brutal Legend and Costume Quest are what I would want most.

Me too, I would pay £50000000000000000000000 for a Brutal Legend 2 ... if I had sufficient funds to pay that much for one

 

[Robeltu]

Brutal Legend deserves it most. It was so marred by executive meddling that it deserves another chance to be the game it wanted to be.

I know many people say "Well PSYCHONAUTS blahblahblah..." But here's the thing, by now Psychonauts is pretty popular, beloved, and has DEFINITELY made more money than it lost back when it first came out.

Brutal Legend? It's still a game that people are divided over, that has obvious signs of "We wanted to do more but couldn't under the circumstances." (like the general clunkiness of the RTS controls, or how the 2nd act zips into the third act to a sudden conclusion).

Not only that, how many games exist today that are made to appeal to Metalheads? We had a bit back when Guitar Hero was popular, but since then it's obvious we're just being given the shaft (Saints Row 4 removing the metal station as an example), so there is a niche that needs filling, and trust me when I say, the Metal community is starved for another game that appeals to them right now.

Psychonauts got its glory, money, and LARGE, STRONG fanbase, and its niche of "Quirky Action/Adventure Platformer" has been completely filled to the point of overflow with the rise of indie games.

Brutal Legend's niche is a howling ghost town, where big money publishers thought they saw a trend, and then when there wasn't, they just packed up and left, leaving the niche to die. I say it's still ripe for more material, and my Metalhead friends wholeheartedly agree. As it stands we already throw our money at ANY game that even has 1 good Metal song from a good band, we want a game for us, BADLY, because we are sick of being treated as unimportant, second-class citizens in the gaming world. Brutal Legend is already "our" game, but we want more, and are MORE than willing to pay for more.

There are lots of games similar to pyschonauts now, I agree with everything you said about Brutal Legend. It is one of my favourite games of all time and if the rumours of more multiplayer content is true I will be incredibly happy

But it really sucks as Schafer said that the game was meant to be 3 times as long but EA cut it short and falsely marketed it as a 100% Hack and slash which caused a lot of bad press for the game.

 

[Lightknight]

Man, they have quite a backlog of title that I'd love a sequel to. As voiced above, I'd be happy to see them as long as it doesn't stifle Tim's legendary ability to churn out new IPs as easily as a chimp flings poop. Except the new IPs are not poop whereas the poop is poop...

 

[Azaraxzealot]

Brutal Legend deserves it most. It was so marred by executive meddling that it deserves another chance to be the game it wanted to be.

I know many people say "Well PSYCHONAUTS blahblahblah..." But here's the thing, by now Psychonauts is pretty popular, beloved, and has DEFINITELY made more money than it lost back when it first came out.

Brutal Legend? It's still a game that people are divided over, that has obvious signs of "We wanted to do more but couldn't under the circumstances." (like the general clunkiness of the RTS controls, or how the 2nd act zips into the third act to a sudden conclusion).

Not only that, how many games exist today that are made to appeal to Metalheads? We had a bit back when Guitar Hero was popular, but since then it's obvious we're just being given the shaft (Saints Row 4 removing the metal station as an example), so there is a niche that needs filling, and trust me when I say, the Metal community is starved for another game that appeals to them right now.

Psychonauts got its glory, money, and LARGE, STRONG fanbase, and its niche of "Quirky Action/Adventure Platformer" has been completely filled to the point of overflow with the rise of indie games.

Brutal Legend's niche is a howling ghost town, where big money publishers thought they saw a trend, and then when there wasn't, they just packed up and left, leaving the niche to die. I say it's still ripe for more material, and my Metalhead friends wholeheartedly agree. As it stands we already throw our money at ANY game that even has 1 good Metal song from a good band, we want a game for us, BADLY, because we are sick of being treated as unimportant, second-class citizens in the gaming world. Brutal Legend is already "our" game, but we want more, and are MORE than willing to pay for more.

There are lots of games similar to pyschonauts now, I agree with everything you said about Brutal Legend. It is one of my favourite games of all time and if the rumours of more multiplayer content is true I will be incredibly happy

But it really sucks as Schafer said that the game was meant to be 3 times as long but EA cut it short and falsely marketed it as a 100% Hack and slash which caused a lot of bad press for the game.

Like I said, deserves a second chance, or at least a "director's cut" sort of thing. It's obvious Double Fine wanted to do more with the universe but who would fund it in an age where Butt-Rock and Dubstep are what all the kids are into now?

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

So it seems that Psychonauts 2 is the most popular choice on this forum. Case closed!
Seriously though, it's definitely my most anticipated title, and it's not like it isn't wide open to a sequel.

 

[Robeltu]

Brutal Legend deserves it most. It was so marred by executive meddling that it deserves another chance to be the game it wanted to be.

I know many people say "Well PSYCHONAUTS blahblahblah..." But here's the thing, by now Psychonauts is pretty popular, beloved, and has DEFINITELY made more money than it lost back when it first came out.

Brutal Legend? It's still a game that people are divided over, that has obvious signs of "We wanted to do more but couldn't under the circumstances." (like the general clunkiness of the RTS controls, or how the 2nd act zips into the third act to a sudden conclusion).

Not only that, how many games exist today that are made to appeal to Metalheads? We had a bit back when Guitar Hero was popular, but since then it's obvious we're just being given the shaft (Saints Row 4 removing the metal station as an example), so there is a niche that needs filling, and trust me when I say, the Metal community is starved for another game that appeals to them right now.

Psychonauts got its glory, money, and LARGE, STRONG fanbase, and its niche of "Quirky Action/Adventure Platformer" has been completely filled to the point of overflow with the rise of indie games.

Brutal Legend's niche is a howling ghost town, where big money publishers thought they saw a trend, and then when there wasn't, they just packed up and left, leaving the niche to die. I say it's still ripe for more material, and my Metalhead friends wholeheartedly agree. As it stands we already throw our money at ANY game that even has 1 good Metal song from a good band, we want a game for us, BADLY, because we are sick of being treated as unimportant, second-class citizens in the gaming world. Brutal Legend is already "our" game, but we want more, and are MORE than willing to pay for more.

There are lots of games similar to pyschonauts now, I agree with everything you said about Brutal Legend. It is one of my favourite games of all time and if the rumours of more multiplayer content is true I will be incredibly happy

But it really sucks as Schafer said that the game was meant to be 3 times as long but EA cut it short and falsely marketed it as a 100% Hack and slash which caused a lot of bad press for the game.

Like I said, deserves a second chance, or at least a "director's cut" sort of thing. It's obvious Double Fine wanted to do more with the universe but who would fund it in an age where Butt-Rock and Dubstep are what all the kids are into now?

Exactly, I'm not sure whether or not Double Fine has the full IP rights to Brutal Legend and I'm not even sure if they have publishing rights to a sequel thanks to EAs IP hording. But if they do have the rights and Broken Age and Massive Chalice are commercially successful (which I can't really imagine them not being) then hopefully they'll get around to making sequels for these games.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Brutal Legend was a little rough around the edges but I feel like its heart was in the right place. Id love to see the kinks ironed out in a sequel. Psychonauts was good enough on its own I think, but hell I'd play a psychonauts 2 if they made it.

 

[Illessa]

Exactly, I'm not sure whether or not Double Fine has the full IP rights to Brutal Legend and I'm not even sure if they have publishing rights to a sequel thanks to EAs IP hording. But if they do have the rights and Broken Age and Massive Chalice are commercially successful (which I can't really imagine them not being) then hopefully they'll get around to making sequels for these games.

Double Fine make a point of doing everything possible to retain their IP. The only game they don't have IP on is Iron Brigade - to hear Schafer tell it Microsoft wouldn't budge and it was that or the game didn't come out at all .

 

[Robeltu]

Exactly, I'm not sure whether or not Double Fine has the full IP rights to Brutal Legend and I'm not even sure if they have publishing rights to a sequel thanks to EAs IP hording. But if they do have the rights and Broken Age and Massive Chalice are commercially successful (which I can't really imagine them not being) then hopefully they'll get around to making sequels for these games.

Double Fine make a point of doing everything possible to retain their IP. The only game they don't have IP on is Iron Brigade - to hear Schafer tell it Microsoft wouldn't budge and it was that or the game didn't come out at all .

I know, they managed to purchase publishing rights for the pc port of brutal legend from EA but I'm not sure how much they managed to get after that. Pretty sure they got the IP to costume quest when THQ collapsed aswell.