Tim Schafer Explains Why No Sequels to His Classics
By Chris on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 2:49 PM PST In Computer, Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Games, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony
Everyone went wild when rumors started circulating that Tim Schafer and Double Fine were at work on a sequel to Psychonauts, only to find out that no such project was in the works. Psychonauts isn’t the only game his fans would love a sequel to; Grim Fandango instantly springs to mind. So why is it that Schafer hasn’t gotten a move on and produced any sequels?
In an interview with Playboy.com, of all places, Schafer explained that while he’d love to go back and work with his previous characters more, he’s rather work on new projects.
Schafer: I would love to go back and spend time with the characters from any game I’ve worked on, and I would love to make a sequel to any of them. But I also want to make something new. If there were five of me I might make sequels, but there’s always some new idea I want to explore.
Playboy: What if you had the opportunity to farm out a sequel — not farm out in a negative sense, but…
Schafer: Phone it in? Squeeze it out?
Playboy: If you could give the reins to someone you trusted to execute a Psychonauts sequel, where you had basic veto power and could do general shaping…
Schafer: It just all depends on the person. If it was a team that I knew and trusted then, yeah, that would be great. The team that made Monkey Island 3 was not under our control at all. They were really clever, smart guys and they wrote really great dialogue so in that case it worked out great.
You’ve gotta hand it to him – he loves what he does, and he isn’t willing to sell out.
“You’ve gotta hand it to him – he loves what he does, and he isn’t willing to sell out.”
Haha, sure he is. Its just that no one has offered him enough $ yet. Its easy to confuse someone for not being “for sale” when in reality, they’re just very expensive.
Used Cisco, are you… kidding us?
The reason he went off to make his own company based on his game ideas is because he was a nonconformist. That was why his games were so great–they were a good mixup from the norm.