Tim Schafer

Schafer once worked in a record store and later joined LucasArts, where he made the adventure games that shaped his early career and designed Grim Fandango.⁠[1][2]

In 2000 Schafer founded Double Fine Productions in San Francisco’s South of Market district with other LucasArts alumni and friends. The studio’s first game, Psychonauts, was released in 2005, followed by Brütal Legend (2009), inspired by his love of heavy metal, Costume Quest (2010), and Iron Brigade, Stacking and Sesame StreetSesame StreetSesame Street is an American preschool educational television program produced by the nonprofit Sesame Workshop (formerly Children's Television Workshop). It premiered in 1969, is known for its research-based curriculum and its Muppet characters, and has spawned local co-productions in many countries.Open the full entry: Once Upon a Monster (2011).⁠[1]

In 2012 Double Fine ran the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter campaign, which drew 85,000 backers and $3.3 million and changed how the studio was funded; the project became Broken Age, released in 2014. The studio released The Cave and began Day of the Devs in 2013, released a remaster of Grim Fandango in 2014, and followed with Massive Chalice (2015) and Headlander (2016).⁠[1]

On June 3, 2015, Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry (a16z) published the podcast episode “a16z Podcast: Tech Trends Changing Gaming” on its website, featuring Schafer, founder and CEO of Double Fine Productions, Double Fine COO Justin Bailey and Improbable CEO Herman NarulaHerman NarulaHerman Narula is the founder of the British technology company Improbable, which he co-founded with Rob Whitehead in 2012 while studying at the University of Cambridge to build large-scale virtual world and simulation technology; Improbable raised $502 million in a 2017 round led by SoftBank.Open the full entry, hosted by a16z’s Sonal Chokshi. The episode discussed how the gaming industry has been changing in ways both like and unlike the music industry, and how internet-driven crowdfunding, online discovery and direct interaction with fans affect the creative process and the studio model, touching on virtual reality, systems technology and user modding. It was uploaded to the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel on January 1, 2019.⁠[2][3]

At E3 in June 2019 Microsoft announced it was acquiring Double Fine, which became part of Xbox Game Studios, with Schafer remaining CEO and president. He said Microsoft’s studios are “left alone, they do their own thing and stay independent, but are well funded,” and that the team “can just focus on doing our inspired weird games”; Starbreeze, the previous publisher of Psychonauts 2, might not have been able to fully support the game, and the acquisition helped ensure it would be fully polished. The studio released RAD that year.⁠[4][1]

Double Fine marked its 20th anniversary in June 2020 and released Psychonauts 2 in 2021, Keeper in 2025 and Kiln in 2026.⁠[1]

In July 2026 Double Fine left Xbox after seven years as part of Xbox Game Studios and became independent again, retaining its intellectual property and game catalog. Later that month the studio announced 23 layoffs. Schafer said, “Only the survival of our studio would ever make us consider such a painful action.” He added, “Our transition to becoming an independent company also means becoming a size that we can sustain.”⁠[1][5]

Double Fine Productions: Official website: https://www.doublefine.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]

BlueskyBlueskyBluesky is a decentralized social platform built on the AT Protocol; it grew out of an open-protocol project funded by Twitter in 2019 and is now developed and operated by the public benefit corporation Bluesky Social, PBC. It dropped invite-only access and opened to the public in February 2024, and by 2026 had more than 40 million users.Open the full entry: Public account: https://bsky.app/profile/timoflegend.bsky.social (opens in a new window).⁠[1]