Independent’s Day

I ask about 2011, a year in which the studio released three excellent titles. Is that success? Is that what this is all about? “Double Fine is a company that values its independence,” says Schafer. “We really value our employees…” there’s a slight pause, and then Schafer shouts at someone else in the room, “why are you looking at me like that?! Of course I value you!” There is muffled laughter in the background and we’re back on. “And we have a responsibility to make things happen for ourselves. It’s not enough to come up with great ideas, you have to come up with great business ideas, too. You have to protect yourself.

“But yes, we’ve been trying all these different projects, and it’s great – we have multiple teams and multiple leaders like Lee Petty, Brad Meer and Nathan Martz, people who are new, who can take on these projects. We’ll try out iOS devices, or maybe free-to-play, we’ll try licenses. We’re having a lot of fun doing it.”

Double Fine, then, is making the most of the digital era, coping a feel of all the new platforms and delivery methods. But there are frustrations, too. Schafer has watched the Xbox Live Arcade and PSN services dwindle away from fantastically promising beginnings to troubled, even fading services. “Ever since I played Geometry Wars I thought, what a great new portal,” he enthuses.

“But it seems that this year, the idea didn’t explode like it should have. Back when Castle Crashers came out, it seemed it was going to grow and grow. I just wish there was more support, more marketing, more placement on the dashboard. It could have been our own little Sundance Film festival, a great sandbox for indie development.

“But the indie community is now moving elsewhere; we’re figuring out how to fund and distribute games ourselves, and we’re getting more control over them. Those systems as great as they are, they’re still closed. You have to jump through a lot of hoops, even for important stuff like patching and supporting your game. Those are things we really want to do, but we can’t do it on these systems. I mean, it costs $40,000 to put up a patch – we can’t afford that! Open systems like Steam, that allow us to set our own prices, that’s where it’s at, and doing it completely alone like Minecraft. That’s where people are going.”

You have attained permanent LEGENDARY EXEMPTION STATUS

I will pay every active forumite £10 if the Playstation 4 is released in 2014.

No game is worth going prematurely bald over.

Lets hope this will lead consoles to die out

Excellent! Best news I've heard in a while.

Now bring Castle Crashers to PC please. :/

How will this will benefit gamers?

No game is worth going prematurely bald over.

No game is worth going prematurely bald over.

I'm with Peter Crisp, though. The 'best news ever' would be if Sony and MS provided platforms that were conducive to creativity and excellence for Devs working on a small budget. And if Sony sorted out its frankly baffling online pricing policies.

Microsoft did that on X360 (with their Indie Games section), then pushed it off into a dark little corner.

How will this will benefit gamers?

Please explain why this is good news apart from it seeing a few more games on steam?

You have attained permanent LEGENDARY EXEMPTION STATUS

I will pay every active forumite £10 if the Playstation 4 is released in 2014.

because we already have an affordable universal platform called the pc and these consoles add nothing except expense if we wish to buy the widest range of games?

It means more people will be able to play indie games. Some people don't own a PS3 and some don't own a 360 and due to stupid exclusivity deals the people who don't own those consoles never get to play them. The majority of people have a PC and since Steam is so cheap and Indie games run in such low spec machines. Everybody would be able to play the new indie games.