Tim Schafer is a game designer best known for his contributions to the adventure genre. His work often features a unique sense of offbeat humor. Schafer served in creative roles on numerous LucasArts games in the 1990s before departing to form Double Fine Productions.
A couple of those aren't technically Tim Shafer games, per say, but were done under his production company Double Fine or when he was with Lucas Arts just starting out. You could argue Monkey Island is a Ron Gilbert joint... I'm nit picking i guess, as he did work on I think all of them (or had some part in the development anyway, although I don't know how they handle the double fine stuff as when they talk about it it sounds like they are split up into teams... I don't know).
Anyway, my favorite game he worked on is Full Throttle. I still play it form time to time. Such a great game, and has a Saturday morning cartoon feel to it. I remember also being amazed at how gruff the protagonist is. One of the first things you do is a grab a bartender by his nose ring and hold him down on the bar. At the time that seemed crazy to me. I'm weird though as shown by my nitpicking.
The Secret of Monkey Island (along with Loom, Rebel Assault, and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe) came bundled with my 4x CD-ROM in the 90s. I think that's part of the reason that the SNES was my last console until the 360. It really sucked me into PC gaming, although it wasn't my first experience with it, and especially adventure games. I still play it regularly and it's possibly my favorite game of all time.
on a related note, anyone have any idea how to get grim fandango to work on modern pc's?
You can use the Grim Fandango Launcher or ResidualVM. I've heard that the latter might bet he better way to go, but it's been years since I've played the game.
A couple of those aren't technically Tim Shafer games, per say, but were done under his production company Double Fine or when he was with Lucas Arts just starting out.
The list is from here. I weeded out Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade: The Action Game, Maniac Mansion and Haunt; all of which he performed roles which weren't integral to the actual development. I suppose with his Double Fine work (eg. Costume Quest) he might not have been the lead designer, but at very least, he seemed to have still been overseeing those projects.
on a related note, anyone have any idea how to get grim fandango to work on modern pc's?
You can use the Grim Fandango Launcher or ResidualVM. I've heard that the latter might bet he better way to go, but it's been years since I've played the game.
I don't think all the downloadable games are Tim Shafer's games they are made by Double Fine and I'm sure he had some input but he didn't lead the teams.
Grim Fandango. Hands down. I'm still hoping (and waiting) for LucasArts or whoever to port Grim to Steam and make it Windows 7 and Mac Lion compatible.
Was he really actively involved in all of these projects? Many other well-known studio-heads don't always necessarily have a huge impact in the development of all the games their studios produce (see Hideo Kojima at Kojima Productions, Peter Molyneux in his latter years at Lionhead, Cliff Bleszinski before he left Epic Games), to the point that calling some games "their project" simply because they preside the studio developing it may not be entirely fair.
I know that games like Psychonauts and Brutal Legend are Tim Schafer's own creations, and that you can rightly call them "Tim Schafer games", but I'm not so sure that he was such a participating part of the development of Iron Brigade/Trenched or Happy Action Theater, for instance, that the same term is applicable. If I am wrong, and he actively participated in the development of all of these games, then he is even more awesome than I thought.
So, I've only played about half (or maybe even less than that) of these...so I picked Brutal Legend. But, by the results, it looks like I need to do Grim Fandango...thunder bolt and lightning; very, very frightening me!
I've only played Brutal Legend... so Brutal Legend! I'd love to play some of those old school adventure games though but I can't figure out how =/
You can look for the older games on ebay or... well, this is actually the only case where I'd condone piracy (even Tim Schafer kinda said so himself), because there is just no other way to get those games anymore. Not being able to buy Grim alone is almost a crime against gamers.
I've only played Brutal Legend... so Brutal Legend! I'd love to play some of those old school adventure games though but I can't figure out how =/
You can look for the older games on ebay or... well, this is actually the only case where I'd condone piracy (even Tim Schafer kinda said so himself), because there is just no other way to get those games anymore. Not being able to buy Grim alone is almost a crime against gamers.
Yeah I've thought about it, but I've had a lot of trouble getting older pc games like that to run well even when I was willing to pirate.
Anyone know why these games aren't on GoG or steam? There must be some kind of legal nonsense involved right? They aren't just stupid?
Costume Quest, Stacking and Trenched aren't Tim Schafer games.
@BeachThunder said:
@CornBREDX said:
A couple of those aren't technically Tim Shafer games, per say, but were done under his production company Double Fine or when he was with Lucas Arts just starting out.
The list is from here. I weeded out Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade: The Action Game, Maniac Mansion and Haunt; all of which he performed roles which weren't integral to the actual development. I suppose with his Double Fine work (eg. Costume Quest) he might not have been the lead designer, but at very least, he seemed to have still been overseeing those projects.
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