Double Fine Will Always Be One Of Video Games' Most Interesting Developers

I’ve always admired Double Fine’s willingness to go its own way. Its fans would do truly awful things for sequels to Psychonauts or Brutal Legend, while I’m still holding out hope that we’ll one day see Stacking 2 make an appearance. But this hasn’t always been the easy road, as studio founder Tim Schafer has mentioned time and time again, the stress that accompanies not only pitching your projects as money runs out, but the struggles that come when working with traditional publishers.

Although I have to imagine that final point has changed somewhat in recent years now that Double Fine is owned by Microsoft and part of Xbox Game Studios, it has still managed to maintain a fiercely independent spirit in both the persona it presents online and the things it loves to make. Take the upcoming Keeper, for example, a narrative adventure told without words in which you take control of a living lighthouse, making an ambitious journey across a strange land. A cute little bird will join you on this journey as well, but from first glance alone, it’s hard to imagine being made by any other studio.

Set to launch next week, I’m excited to see how Keeper continues the journey of Double Fine as not just a video game developer, but a storyteller for the entire medium.

I Wish All Studios Shared The Transparency Of Double Fine

For the past few weeks, I’ve been rewatching Psychodyssey, a 20+ hour documentary series produced by Double Fine’s 2-Player Productions that chronicles the creation of Psychonauts 2 over the course of several years. Beginning after the release of Broken Age and the start of its ambitious Fig campaign and ending after the game’s release during the pandemic, it’s a startlingly honest depiction of video game development you can’t find anywhere else. You get to know members of the team as they confront new challenges, learn to empathise with other departments, and work together to create a game in extraordinary circumstances.

If you haven’t watched this documentary, I cannot recommend it enough. Even if you know nothing or have little interest in video game development, there is so much to be learned in its presentation of the creative process as a dream sequel, for many, it becomes a labour of blood, sweat, and tears. But also love, because that’s what pushes the project forward.

Double Fine has always ensured to make its production process known to as many of its fans as possible, with this practice dating all the way back to the original Psychonauts. I remember watching the Broken Age documentary back in secondary school, as it helped further ignite my passion to pursue a career in this industry.

Oh, how foolish I was. Jokes aside, there is so much value to everything that Double Fine puts out, and as October rolls around, it is turning back the clock to show us never-before-seen peeks at Brutal Legend.

Brutal Legend Used To Look A Lot Like Psychonauts

Known as Rocktober, this month will seemingly feature several Brutal Legend surprises from Double Fine — starting with the first public release of its publisher pitch video. It would end up being published by Electronic Arts and launched on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC in October 2009 to decent reviews and lacklustre sales.

A sequel was in development following its arrival, but was eventually cancelled by EA and almost sank Double Fine entirely. Only by pivoting to a smaller variety of games like Costume Quest, Stacking, and Iron Brigade was it able to stay afloat. Over the years, Schafer has talked about a potential sequel to Brutal Legend several times, but right now, it seems nothing is in the works. He says so in the above video.

This pitch video has me wondering what other solid gold there is waiting in the vaults. Considering that Double Fine has already shown us so much over the years, it comes as a bit of a surprise.

What fascinated me most about the pitch video is how drastically different it appears to the finished product, while still maintaining its signature rebellious tone and atmosphere. There is something undeniably dreamlike about how the pitch video opens with a tree made out of tyres, only for a random character to chop it down to reveal the sick wheels their ride winds up sporting. An early version of protagonist Eddie Riggs soon appears on a nearby ridge as a corral of rad combat cars appear behind him. Soon after, the heavens open, and he pulls out a guitar to deliver the sickest riffs imaginable.

In microcosm, this is the experience that Brutal Legend hoped to deliver, and it was created in 2005/6 shortly after the completion of Psychonauts as Double Fine tried to find a home for its next project. You can picture exploring this twisted open world with exhaust fumes filling your nostrils before stopping to do battle with evil demons as the land’s raddest roadie. This pitch video was years before the involvement of Jack Black or the wider development of its world and characters, but you can already see Brutal Legend beginning to take shape.

It’s been several years — perhaps even a decade — since I last played Brutal Legend, but this video is bringing it all rushing back like only a few days have passed. Double Fine is so good at cementing the player in a specific time and place and making them care, something last seen in Psychonauts 2, and hopefully next with Keeper in just a few days' time.