Double Fine Productions

Double Fine Productions is a US-based development studio for computer games. It was founded in 2000 by Tim Schafer ( Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango ).

Company History

The company was founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer after his retirement as a designer at LucasArts in January. The name of the studio was derived from a traffic panel on the Golden Gate Bridge, which pointed to the so-called " Double Fine Zone", ie, an area in which the violation of the maximum requirements with a twice as high penalty (English fine) than normal is occupied.

The first published title of the studio was the Psychonauts, published in 2005, an action-adventure about the character Raz, which can penetrate into the minds of other people and there experienced bizarre adventure. The game received high critical acclaim, Double Fine was honored for this item among others, in 2006 as part of the Game Developers Choice Awards for Best Newcomer studio, could financially convince not. The development of a second large-scale project, the action-adventure Brütal Legend begun immediately after Psychonauts, was problematic. After the original publishing partner Vivendi Universal Games Activision Blizzard stopped its support for the title after its merger with Activision, the project threatened to shut down. Although Double Fine found in Electronic Arts for a new partner, but the resulting legal dispute between Activision Blizzard and EA was settled in October 2009, shortly before the game's release. The game concept of Brütal Legend built heavily on stereotypes of the music genres Rock / Heavy Metal and was marketed among other things, with the support of the actor and rock musician Jack Black. Also, this title received mostly good reviews, despite remained around 1.4 million copies sold (as of February 2011) but also among the sales expectations. A sequel to the game was lack of funding discarded.

Following is Double Fine transferred mainly to smaller productions, which were mainly distributed by download. It was the results of a process, the studio manager Schafer 2007, during the development of Brütal Legend signs to remain and which he called Amnesia Fortnight ( German about: two weeks of memory loss ) designated. Schafer told his team for two weeks in four groups, each with the task of designing the demo of a finished game concept within this time. This experiment should give its developers at this time, especially a brief respite from the development process of their major project. As the continuation of Brütal Legend, however, smashed, Schafer could (~ 1-2 million dollars ) secure with the results of this experiment quickly the new commission and the survival of the studio with the help of these comparatively cheap productions. Between 2010 and 2012 appeared as the result of the game Costume Quest, Stacking, Iron Brigade, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster. Costume Quest, Stacking and Iron Brigade used here developed by Double Fine for Brütal Legend himself buddha Engine, named after the working title of the action adventure. The engine was designed with a focus on multi-platform development, after the company lost as Microsoft Publisher for Psychonauts and the game had to be adjusted at short notice and with considerable expenditure on additional platforms.

This was followed by works such as Double Fine Happy Action Theater for Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect gesture control. In September 2010, also became known that Schafer's longtime designer colleague and former supervisor at LucasArt, Ron Gilbert (Monkey Iceland ), will join the team. Under the direction of Gilbert's developing the game The Cave, a genre mix of adventure and platformer, was initiated.

In February, Double Fine announced its intention to develop a new graphic adventure. However, since no publisher could be found, the team had to rely on the financial support of their fans. About the online platform Kickstarter.com, the Studio will be asked for the provision of the necessary development capital of $ 400,000 through crowdfunding. The project with the working title Double Fine Adventure has been funded successfully in March 2012 and received a surprise around 3.3 million U.S. dollars in cash commitments. It was by far the highest funded project to date and drew a number of imitators from the games industry by itself.

Games

  • Psychonauts (2005)
  • Epic Saga: Extreme Fighter ( 2007)
  • My Game About Me: Olympic Challenge (2008)
  • Tasha 's Game (2008)
  • Host Master and the Conquest of Humor (2009)
  • Brütal Legend ( 2009)
  • Costume Quest (2010)
  • Stacking (2011)
  • Iron Brigade (2011)
  • Sesame Street - Once Upon a Monster ( 2011)
  • Double Fine Happy Action Theater (2012 )
  • Middle Manager of Justice (2012 )
  • Kinect Party (2012 )
  • The Cave (2013 )
  • Broken Age (2013 )
  • Space Base DF -9 ( alpha) (2013 )

Awards

Corporate Awards:

  • Game Developers Choice Awards (2006): Best new development studio
  • Official Xbox Magazine ( 2011): Developer of the Year

For Psychonauts (excerpt):

  • Game Critics Awards (E3 2002): Best game after an original idea
  • British Academy Video Games Awards ( BAFTA 2006): Best Screenplay
  • Game Developers Choice Awards (2006): Best Screenplay
  • Various Magazine Awards ( Game of the Year, or the like, see Psychonauts )

For Brütal Legend:

  • Interactive Achievement Awards ( 2010): Strategy game / simulation of the Year, Best Soundtrack
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