Tim Schafer

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Image:DSC 0714.JPG Tim Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is most noted for his career as a computer game designer. After spending more than ten years at LucasArts, Schafer left the company in January 2000 to start his own company, Double Fine Productions. Most recently, Schafer and his company released a game for the Xbox, PS2, and PC called Psychonauts.

1 Career
2 Games worked on
3 Trivia
4 External links
- 4.1 Interviews

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Career

After graduating from UC Berkeley with a computer science major in 1989, Tim Schafer went to work at LucasArts (then LucasFilm Games). His first job was to playtest the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade action game, followed by some minor contributions to the NES port of Maniac Mansion.

Schafer shares design and programming credit on the pirate-themed adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island with Dave Grossman and Monkey Island series creator Ron Gilbert. Schafer and Grossman often wrote humorous placeholder dialog while scripting the game's interactions. Although originally conceived as a serious game, Gilbert decided to use much of the placeholder material and turn it into a comedy.

The same team created the sequel, Monkey Island II: LeChuck's Revenge. Schafer later co-designed Day of the Tentacle with Dave Grossman, an adventure game visually inspired by wacky cartoon shows such as Looney Tunes.

Schafer's first solo project was Full Throttle. After designing the much-acclaimed Grim Fandango, Schafer worked on an unknown Playstation 2 action/adventure game. It never entered production, as Tim Schafer left LucasArts in January 2000 to found his own game production company Double Fine Productions, where he created Psychonauts.

Tim Schafer's interest as a designer has moved away from conventional adventure games. Full Throttle included racing and fighting elements, while his latest game Psychonauts can be classified as a platform game.

Schafer is highly regarded in the video game industry for his storytelling and comedy writing abilities. His games are generally beloved by critics, but often end up selling few units.

According to PSM, a Playstation 2 magazine, Schafer and his team have begun work on a new game for the Playstation 3. Schafer has confirmed on his company blog that he's working on his next game, though no official announcement regarding the title or its target platforms has been made.

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Games worked on

The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), JVC, LucasArts
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991), LucasArts
Day of the Tentacle (1993), LucasArts
Full Throttle (1995), LucasArts
Grim Fandango (1998), LucasArts
Psychonauts (2005), DoubleFine, Majesco

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Trivia

Tim Schafer's latest game Psychonauts was made available in North America on April 19, 2005. The PS2 version was delayed until June 1, 2005, due to the development company Budcat porting the game instead of Double Fine themselves.
An hour-long episode of Icons on the G4 Network focused on Tim Schafer's career and the final days of the production of Psychonauts. (Original airdate: April 28, 2005).

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