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No, but you're not far off. Go to their FAQ and scroll down to Where does the name “Double Fine” come from? - apparently Tim thought that the "double fine zone" sign would make great free advertising.

No, but you're not far off. Go to their FAQ and scroll down to Where does the name “Double Fine” come from? - apparently Tim thought that the "double fine zone" sign would make great free advertising.

Tim Schaffer's studio Double Fine is working on Brütal Legend, you may be interested:

http://www.doublefine.com/news.php/projects

Also try Psychonauts. It's free on Gametap until the end of the year, so if you hurry...

Everything he touched turns into gold because it's made by Miyamoto. If others came with the exact same idea as Miyamoto they would be turned down. So even though his advice could be very useful it doesn't mean it'll work.
Besides, Miyamoto was almost crushed by Tim Shafer. He's a fragile little man.

Am I the only one here that feels uneasy about TellTale Games? I guess it's just because their web site makes it seem as if they actually made Grim Fandango and Sam and Max 2 - games that in reality certain members of their team worked on, and one of which was never even finished. It sits uneasy with me, knowing that Tim Schafer, the real creative engine behind Grim Fandango, is out there running his own indie game studio and not padding his resume with every game project he ever worked on. It just feels dishonest.

Honestly. Look at the about pages for TellTale and Double Fine and tell me which company looks like an outfit worth putting your money on. It looks like one is a game company, and the other is a venture capital vacuum.

I agree with the AC above, check out Psychonauts if you love Tim Schaefer. I've gushed about it here on Slashdot before.

I urge you all to buy Psychonauts if you liked those, it is chock full of Tim Schafer goodness! When I heard that it was going to released on consoles, I thought "nah, pass", especially since the previews seemed to pitch it like a platformer. Well, after it won numerous end of year awards for plot, artwork, music, best adventure game, "best game no-one played", game of the year etc on several sites I decided to buy it when it finally was launched for the PC in Europe (a couple of weeks ago).

It is brilliant! I'd say it is 50% adventure game, 50% platformer. All that brilliant scenery in Day of the Tentacle or Sam and Max that you longed to explore, but you couldn't, because it was just 2D? Now you can! First game in ages that had me laughing out loud too, several times.
("Aaah! It's Goggalore!"
"What a magical lady."
"I am a construction worker. These are my tools. Look at that lady - She has rather large breasts.")

There are some fairly complex psychological concepts being dealt with here and there too, once you see past the jokes.

It is not perfect though. I got the "grinding to a halt" bug a few times that some report on AMD64 systems, and the last levels where a bit of a bore when there were long difficult sections you had to get past and no save points. I still think you should buy it though. Best game I played in years.

Majesco didn't make Psychonauts, Double Fine did.

Majesco produced it as in "published/distributed" it.

So I wouldn't worry too much about the loss of creative content to the industry, worry more about smaller studios having one less outlet to get their games out to a wider audience.

I buy myself an Xbox (200$), PS2 (180$), and a GameCube (120$). That costs me $500. A GeForce 6800 GT costs the same amount

You don't need to spend $500 on the latest video card to play current games. You can get a more than capable video card for under $100.

We do have representatives from the real-time strategy crowd and the FPS crowd, but what of the musir rythm games, platformers, party games (Mario Party on a computer would be considerably more constrained!), J-RPGs, etc?

*Rhythm games - How about stepmania?
*J-RPGs - Final Fantasy XI should keep you busy until Phantasy Star goes online.
*Platformers - I recommend the excellent Psychonauts.
*Party games - I wouldn't wish Mario Party on my worst enemy, but when my friends come over we sit down in front of the TV and play a few dozen rounds of Mashed.

I should mention I've never had to patch Super Mario Sunshine. When I bought it in 2002, it worked bug free!

Consoles certainly win out there, I hate patching. Although, if things aren't kept under control, we might see consoles slipping into patch fever.

It IS possible that SOME people take pride in their work and see creating the logo as another form of expression. Just look at the logo for Double Fine, for example. Do you really think THAT went through a focus group? Some people like creating interesting shapes. Some people like putting a brand on their work, especially an appealing brand. Some people like their work to look cool.

I'm not saying that there isn't focus-grouping and market-grabbing done. I'm just saying that it isn't ALL about putting on airs. There are artists out there, if you'd care to look.

I can't think of any developers I want to support. Care to mention the ones you like and for what achievements they should be supported for?

Double Fine would be one. Tim Schafer's latest game company. From the man that brough you Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle, among others.

The Behemoth would be another one. An indy-game developer trying to make it in an increasingly competitive market. Alien Hominid rocks.

Note that both websites have shops where you can buy directly from the developer so that distributors and publishers don't get their cut. These are just two companies out of many I'd support (and have).

Note that you can order stuff directly from both com

I loved Beyond Good and Evil. The Zelda series also qualifies as action/adventure.

I really miss the old Sierra/Lucasarts games though.

I actually still play them. Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle, Space Quest, The Dig, etc. etc.

Have you checked out Psychonauts? It's by Tim Shafer's studio, Double Fine, and is very much a hybrid platformer/adventure. It's available for Xbox, PS2, and PC. (Tim Shafer was the director of Full Throttle and Grim Fandango.)

(Full disclosure: I'm one of the game's developers.)

But much as I loathe the XBox and much as I prefer a more cerebral, more demanding gaming experience....

A little excessive there aren't you? Or have you only looked at highlight clips of games available for the XBox?

You are implying that the XBox doesn't currently deliver a more cerebral, more demanding game experience than Halo. That isn't the sum of the system, there are a ton of great games out there.

Halo is to FPS games what Final Fantasy 7 was to RPGs. A accessable, big success that provides the first taste of a gaming genre to the masses. Just because FF7 was on the Playstation didn't mean that all of its RPGs (or all of its games) were poorly written and shallow. The same holds true for the XBox.

If I can learn to love the XBox (raised on Infocom, Atari, Origin, Nintendo, Apogee, iD, and Lucasarts), anyone can. I didn't play it at all until late last year and have been quite impressive with what I've found. More and more my GC gathers dust (except for Resident Evil 4). My desktop hasn't been a game platform since Myst IV.

Plug for an awesome game: Play Psychonauts. Tim Schafer is the best creative genius in gaming today. If you haven't, play Grim Fandango on the PC (or ScummVM...someday?).

Psychonauts is well worth buying. I, er, 'acquired' the game a few days ago and decided to actually buy it earlier today. You can buy it (semi) direct from the developers as well, via their online store. You can even get it signed.

Amusingly enough, I also own Beyond Good and Evil and both Startropics games. I wish more gamers were like me. Then maybe we wouldn't see so many lame games like Project Snowblind or Wrestlemania 21.

I also have hope that Erik will be writing more updates for the DoubleFine news page.

Microsoft have second parties such as DoubleFine too. Psychonauts is the best thing the x-box has going for it, and may just convince me to buy one.

Also, Tim Schafer, the Grim Fandango / DOTT / Full Throttle guy, who set up DoubleFine Productions and is working on Psychonauts for the X-box, which looks promising.

Dave Grossman, who also worked on DOTT and helped with the dialogue alongside Schafer and Gilbert on the first two Monkey island games is apparently a children's author, I think - I'm not sure. He definitely writes poetry and has a website here or there.

Also, Tim Schafer likes episodic gaming.

(Personally, episodic games would make me as happy as a million rats dying, but opposite-style. That might have to do with how repetitive, and filler-filled I think most games are, or it might just be that a short attention span was the reason I liked ICO so much. ;)

It's not a rumor at all... Tim Schafer is busy with his own company now. Disclaimer: I work there.

I have pretty high hopes for Sam and Max 2, since Steve Purcell is involved.

The creators of all those games have left lucasarts a long time ago. Steve Purcell's involved with LucasArts' new Sam and Max game; however, Tim Schafer (having started his own company) has nothing to do with Full Throttle 2. Guess which game looks cool and which one looks crappy.

It doesn't really make sense to blame (or praise) LucasArts for games done by other development houses. They supply the IP, but in the end the designer is responsible for making a game fun.

Disclaimer: I work for Tim.

[shameless plug]
Tim Schafer, the man behind Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and co-man behind Day of the Tentacle, has formed his own company: Double Fine. We're working on a 3d adventure/platformer called Psychonauts for the Xbox, which is about running through other peoples' minds. Good stuff.

> (first, this is old news people. I saw concept drawings of this @ E3)

You're sure those weren't from the now defunct infinite machine who were recently working on a new Sam & Max title?

And Tim Shafer is now heading up his own game company, Double Fine Productions, which is working on the impressive Psychonauts, which is sadly only scheduled to be released for X-Box.

And did Shafer really work all that much on Sam & Max? For some reason I think his involvement was minimal (though I can't verify this). And as long as Purcell is involved, it should be great!