Tim Schafer Isn’t Trying To ‘Vilify’ Publishers


Tim Shafer’s Double Fine Adventure game, and its approach to Kickstarter funding has really put a proverbial cat amongst the pigeons, and by pigeons we mean publishers! In a great interview with Hookshot Inc, Schafer explains he isn’t necessarily against the traditional publisher system — but it’s difficult when they won’t fund the games he wants to make!

“I’ve pitched to publishers before, said Schafer. “When I showed them games like Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, they’d say, ‘your pitch is very… creative.’

“I knew we wouldn’t get an adventure funded. But I started to wonder how many fans there were out there. I thought, instead of me just saying ‘this is impossible’ let’s give those fans a shot at putting their money where their mouth is.”

Despite having issues with publishers not being receptive to new creative ideas, he understands the need for publishers to manage risk.

“I’m not trying to vilify them,” he claimed. “Publishers do their business in a way that works for them. They’re risking millions of dollars so they’ve got to mitigate that risk – and sometimes that means removing risky ideas from games.

“The thing is, Double Fine is all about coming up with new, unproven and really creative ideas. It’s a constant battle for us to get those ideas to go through the system, that long spanking machine of people who have to sign off on you. They’re not evil, they’re just trying to protect themselves.”

It really is a top notch interview, at a time when Tim Schafer may be the most important man in the games industry right now. It’s well worth heading over to Hookshot Inc for the full interview.

Interview: Schafer’s Millions [Hookshot Inc]


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


15 responses to “Tim Schafer Isn’t Trying To ‘Vilify’ Publishers”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *