A Study of Tim Schafer

[Sewblon]

What Shafer needs to do is team up with some people who are really good game designers. I think a Mario game that was set in a universe that Shafer creates would be awesome. You know you want to see a Mario game with a good story, and since it's Mario, you can have him do anything and it wouldn't be out of place. Shafer gets criticized on game design and Mario for lack of story or characterization. Sounds like a good fit to me.

That won't work. People who are exceptionally good at what they do don't necessarily work well together, that is why developers form teams with people they know they work with well. And Tim Schafer always comes across as the second-last person in the world who would ever willingly work on any ideas except his own(the last person in the world who would work on any ideas except his own is Suda51.) Finally, so far as I know, either gameplay or story inevitably takes priority over the other.

I know that mad geniuses don't usually work well together, but it would still be cool to see. And as far as the story vs. design conflict goes, you don't always need a deep story, just good characterization. Psychonauts had a rather generic overall story, but the settings and character development were what set it apart. You don't need to devote a lot of time to what's going on, just a little bit of time geared towards helping the audience understand the characters better.

The main problem isn't gameplay VS story though. The main problem is that teams make video games, and you can't replicate group dynamics. The only way for the game you are talking about to exist would be for Tim Schafer and some employees from Nintendo to form an entirely new team, and since you can't replicate group dynamics, no matter how talented the those people are as individuals, they wouldn't necessarily work well together or make anything good in the end. And if the story and gameplay, no matter how good they each are by themselves, don't fit together, the final product will suffer for it.

I thinl the main problem with getting anybody to work with anybody else is getting the money to convince them to do it. Whether Shafer, or anybody else, would work well with another team will go unanswered because you don't want to risk dumping a lot of money into a project that won't turn out well. I'm sure if somebody provided enough money, you could get anybody to work with anybody else. Since nobody's doing that, however, we won't see experimental teams doing crazy projects since developers don't want to lose a bunch of money.

It isn't just money, many people just don't work well together even when they want to. And like you said, mad geniuses don't usually work well together.

 

[beema]

Full Throttle! That's the name! I've been nostalgia-craving that game for a long time but I could never remember the name. Ahh the glorious days of playing game demos my friend's dad brought home on his Windows 3.1 machine.
Interesting to know it's by the same guy.
Even though Yahtzee says it's a pile of crap, I'd still like to play it for nostalgia's sake.
Anybody know where/how I could get it and run it on XP?

 

[Rack]

ScummVM is the answer to your problem Beema.

 

[randommaster]

What Shafer needs to do is team up with some people who are really good game designers. I think a Mario game that was set in a universe that Shafer creates would be awesome. You know you want to see a Mario game with a good story, and since it's Mario, you can have him do anything and it wouldn't be out of place. Shafer gets criticized on game design and Mario for lack of story or characterization. Sounds like a good fit to me.

That won't work. People who are exceptionally good at what they do don't necessarily work well together, that is why developers form teams with people they know they work with well. And Tim Schafer always comes across as the second-last person in the world who would ever willingly work on any ideas except his own(the last person in the world who would work on any ideas except his own is Suda51.) Finally, so far as I know, either gameplay or story inevitably takes priority over the other.

I know that mad geniuses don't usually work well together, but it would still be cool to see. And as far as the story vs. design conflict goes, you don't always need a deep story, just good characterization. Psychonauts had a rather generic overall story, but the settings and character development were what set it apart. You don't need to devote a lot of time to what's going on, just a little bit of time geared towards helping the audience understand the characters better.

The main problem isn't gameplay VS story though. The main problem is that teams make video games, and you can't replicate group dynamics. The only way for the game you are talking about to exist would be for Tim Schafer and some employees from Nintendo to form an entirely new team, and since you can't replicate group dynamics, no matter how talented the those people are as individuals, they wouldn't necessarily work well together or make anything good in the end. And if the story and gameplay, no matter how good they each are by themselves, don't fit together, the final product will suffer for it.

I thinl the main problem with getting anybody to work with anybody else is getting the money to convince them to do it. Whether Shafer, or anybody else, would work well with another team will go unanswered because you don't want to risk dumping a lot of money into a project that won't turn out well. I'm sure if somebody provided enough money, you could get anybody to work with anybody else. Since nobody's doing that, however, we won't see experimental teams doing crazy projects since developers don't want to lose a bunch of money.

It isn't just money, many people just don't work well together even when they want to. And like you said, mad geniuses don't usually work well together.

We'll probably never find out, though. Eeven so, I'd still like to see something that was the result of Miyamoto and Shafer working together.

 

[Razzberry]

The biker fights are skippable in Full Throttle (Left Shift + V), but of course that functionality was as well-documented as half the mechanics in Brutal Legend (that is to say, not at all).

 

[gamegod25]

Well I still think Brutal Legend was a good game. Not as good as psychonauts but imo that's mainly because it felt like the last 1/4 was missing from it. And that's certainly possible it was pushed out the door before it was truly ready.

As for QTE I think they are fine, even in cutscenes, if they are done right. Give us good warning they are coming and decent amount of time to press it.

And as always it's interesting to know why he feels the way he does, even if I don't agree.

 

[JustTheBast]

I'm getting a little tried of seeing people who dont grasp the idea that the umlaut is not meant to be spoken.

We know that the umlaut was just intended to be a stylistic embellishment, not meant to be actually pronounced, and so does Yahtzee - but he's a rebel who doesn't play by society's rules, man, so he did it anyway, and now we're just talking about how well he did or didn't pronounce it. Untwist your knickers.

 

[jak1165]

I hate people who love "Indie Games" because it seems like the "in" thing to do. Psychonauts was pretty average. Occasionally, a game is mainstream because....here's a shocker...it actually deserves its merit

 

[The7thMoon]

"Indie Games"
well i still don't know how to feel about that genre, if that title is fair. I liked Brutal Legend, but i was not really in the ballpark for Tims other titles, i think Yahtzee review was fair

 

[Jhales]

Psychonauts was a fun and funny game, but I was never able to beat it because of the annoying cookie troop boss lady. I even had to look up a gamer faq on it, only to discover that the boss had two or three tiers which got insanely difficult each time. And ya, the demo for Brutal Legend does seem to not reflect what the game was really all about, which almost seems to show that they were not sure of the RTS aspect themselves.

 

[carpathic]

A thoughtful review of an interesting career. Though I must say, I will never qualify as a Schaefer fanboy, I have generally enjoyed his game. Strangely though, I will be skipping Brutal Legend, it just doesn't speak to me.

 

[relativelyablebodied]

Brooetal Legend, as Yahtzee seems to call it, seems kind of interesting, but I also don't really care for that sort of game...

 

[somerandomguy76]

If you don't go into a Tim Schafer game looking for laughs and an addictive story than you're missing the point. Not that we shouldn't expect good, or at least competent, gameplay, but the story is obviously at the heart of every Schafer game. And I appreciate that.

Side note: EP is far more entertaining than ZP I think...

 

[meemeesiko]

I didn't really enjoy that article. It's just sounds a bit whiney.

Die in a fire.

A very very hot fire.

Extra Punctuation is incredible. I love his essays and reviews. Moreso than his videos. And this was no exception. If Yahtzee recommends a game, then I buy it. If he says it was a load of shit, I don't.

Yes, I'm a fanboy. Any questions?

And even if you do ave questions, I'm sure I won't respond to them because I'M AN ASS.

 

[aarontg]

I agree that point and click adventure games are nearly done but don't you think something new could be done with it? like maybe having more than one solution to a problem and the way you solve it will change the outcome of the story arcs? I know I just explained how games like fable work but I still think its valid idea in my opion that could at least be tried.

 

[mklnjbh]

I didn't really enjoy that article. It's just sounds a bit whiney.

Die in a fire.

A very very hot fire.

Extra Punctuation is incredible. I love his essays and reviews. Moreso than his videos. And this was no exception. If Yahtzee recommends a game, then I buy it. If he says it was a load of shit, I don't.

Yes, I'm a fanboy. Any questions?

And even if you do ave questions, I'm sure I won't respond to them because I'M AN ASS.

I promised I would stop getting into internet arguments, but...here we go.

Agreed, his essays are much better, I have been a fan of fullyramblomatic since the "Orange box" review when my friend first told me about how awesome Portal is.

His essays have always been better than his videos, and I believe they always will be. (There is only so far you can go with Dick jokes, mr. Croshaw, get used to it.)

That said, being a fanboy does not necessarily mean you are required to love everything, and I determined the tone of this article has an irritating tone; which evidently threw you into a blood thirsty kill-beast. A true fan will be able to back off and find out if their favored artists are good or not, thank you for perpetuating the role of hateful fanboy, you may go fetch your cat-ears.

Good day.


EDIT: I was wrong about one thing- The MOH Airborne review had already come out when my friend forwarded the URL to me.

 

[breadlord]

1st: To properly use umlauts, you just add an "e" and say like it's an american, thus: Bruetal Legend.

2nd: to get umlauts you go into Word, or any typing processor, you hold control ("CRTL"), Shift and the semi colon ";". Then you press your desired key for umlauts. Note: only works on vowels, which includes Y.


So onto the review: He make Grim Fandango? Show's you how much I play old games.

 

[Lady K]

I honestly had no idea who Schafer was until I read he did Psychonauts.

God bless that man.