WEBVTT - Tim Schafer: From Monkey Island to Brutal Legend 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:13.840 stuff works dot com. He there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.599 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer at 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.800 how Stuff Works and I love all things tech and 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:22.840 tech stuff. Listener one asked that I do an episode 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:26.960 covering an important developer and businessman in the video game world. 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.639 He cut his teeth working on games for George Lucas's 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:33.040 video game company, and he went on to create some 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:36.199 of the most innovative, quirky, and beloved games you can 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:40.680 find on store shelves. His name is Tim Schaefer. My 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:43.840 first experience playing a game that Tim Schaefer worked on 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:46.960 was The Curse of Monkey Island, which was the third 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:49.960 game in the Monkey Island series. I had heard of 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:52.520 the previous two games and even played them a little bit, 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.080 and those were ones that Tim Schaefer had worked on 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.440 more extensively, but I didn't own those games at the time. 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.680 But the world of Monkey Isle, with its goofy protagonist 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:06.319 Guy Brush Threepwood, the numerous comedic, pirate radical stereotypes in 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.800 the bizarre puzzles caught my attention and delighted me. But 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.600 for many years I didn't know much about Schaefer, who 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.240 gets a credit for a quote additional design end quote 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.399 on the game. So this episode is all about Schaefer 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:22.759 the game developer and Schaefer the businessman, and we start 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:27.600 in California in nineteen sixty seven. Timothy John Schaefer grew 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.160 up in Sonoma, California. He has four siblings, all of 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.040 whom are older, with a four year gap between him 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.479 and the next youngest. The age gap meant Tim didn't 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:39.840 get the opportunity to play a lot of board games 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.240 his siblings had played. His brother was nine years older 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:45.679 still is in fact nine years older than he is, 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:47.680 and a fifteen year old boy doesn't really want to 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:49.800 sit down and play games with a six year old. 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.320 But luckily for Tim, something came along that made it 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:56.160 easier to play games on your own video games. Tim 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.920 told us Gamer in an interview in that he remembered 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:03.120 visiting arcades with his dad back in the early seventies. 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.560 His earliest memory involving video games was of an arcade 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.920 game called Space Race, which he discovered at a summer 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:14.000 camp called Blair Camp Blue. Space Race was a simple 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.919 two player game in which each player controls a rocket ship. 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:20.680 The screen is divided into two vertical panels side by side, 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.320 and your job is to pilot your spaceship on your 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.880 side from the bottom of the screen to the top. Meanwhile, 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:30.519 obstacles like asteroids would fly across the screen left or right. 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.440 You could only make your rocket move up or down 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:35.400 the screen, and if you got a hit, your rocket 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.240 would reappear at the bottom after a short delay. Getting 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.079 to the top would score a point. Rounds would last 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.200 a certain amount of time variable. According to the arcade 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:48.000 game owner and little Tim Shafer found the game fascinating. 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.640 He soon learned to love other arcade games. His dad 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.000 shared a fascination with the technology and would take Tim 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:58.000 with him to visit various arcades and other places that 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.800 had arcade cabinets. In that same US gamer piece, Shaefer 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:06.200 said that earlier arcade machines that he loved included Night Drive, Atari, 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:11.360 Stunt Cycle, which had a handlebar type controller, and Space Panic. 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.520 Things really changed for Shafer when his family purchased a 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:20.560 Magnavox Odyssey game console. This was the first home video 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:24.400 game console to become commercially available. It officially hit the 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:29.040 market in nineteen seventy two. The Odyssey was pretty limited, 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.480 all right, Well that's an understatement. It could not create sound. 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:37.360 It was monochromatic. It could display four whole elements on 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.280 screen at once. Two of those would be dots or 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:44.240 bars that the players could control using the Odyssey controllers, 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.840 which were little boxes that had dials for user input. 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.280 The third element was a dot that the Odyssey itself 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:53.840 would control, such as the ball in a game of pong. 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.600 So the two dots that the players could control would 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.000 be the paddles, the dot that the computer is controlling 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:03.040 is the ball. And the fourth element it could display 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.920 was a vertical line, and that would serve as different 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.240 things for different games. It could act as the center 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:10.440 line of a game of pong, so it's sort of 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.680 like the net in tennis, or it could serve as 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.200 the edge of a handball court. You had a little 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:18.360 dial that you would use to adjust where the vertical 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:21.080 line was supposed to appear on the screen, and all 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.839 games were really just some sort of variation on pong. Ultimately, 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:29.200 Shaver found the technology really interesting, and he also liked 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.000 the overlays that came with the Odyssey. You would get 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.200 these clear plastic overlays with designs on them, and you 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:37.760 would put those on your TV screen and they would 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.760 stick to it due to static cling, and the overlays 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.719 would create visuals that the odyssey couldn't produce on its own. 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.039 So you might have one that looks like a castle, 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.120 for example, and then you're, I don't know, playing Pong 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:52.920 inside a castle. The magic of video games. A little 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:56.479 bit later, the family purchased an Atari twenty hundred. Shaver 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:58.720 talked about how he would love to play a game 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.280 without even looking at instructions, and that the period of 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.120 confusion he would experience while trying to suss out the 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.599 game was one of his favorite experiences. It would become 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.120 one of the elements of his own game design philosophy, 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.200 to build in elements into games that would require the 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:19.680 player to try different things, to adopt and abandon various 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.919 approaches in order to progress through the game, and to 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:26.680 include consequences for those actions that would be almost as 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.800 entertaining as finding the right solution. So he did something wrong, 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:32.880 you at least knew that you had done something, as 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.960 opposed to just randomly pushing buttons. Schaefer, like many of 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.400 his video game designer appears gradually began to not just 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.360 play games, but also learn how to build code and programs. 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.279 Schaefer's first work was on an Atari eight hundred, the 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.880 home computer that Attari had put out, and that used 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:56.320 the six five oh two assembly language. Not exactly an 0:05:56.360 --> 0:06:01.039 intuitive programming language. Assembly language falls to a category called 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.360 low level programming language. That means it's not that far 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:09.200 off from basic machine code. That's the language that a 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:13.719 computer actually quote unquote understands the problem with machine code 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.480 is that it's not easy for humans to work with, 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.440 so we humans have designed various programming languages to help 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.479 create an abstract way to manipulate information in order to 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.200 make processors do what the programmer wants the processor to do. 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.840 Assembly languages do this, but at a pretty low level, 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.800 something close to the original machine language. Each assembly language 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:40.080 is specific to a particular style of computer architecture, so 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:42.840 you can't poured it over from one type of computer 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:47.719 architecture to another. The literal architecture of the computer will 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.800 not understand that assembly language. Schaefer's interest in computers and 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:56.200 programming stuck with him throughout his childhood, and he graduated 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.080 high school and then was accepted into the university of 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.760 California at Lee and chose computer science as his major. 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:05.800 He would later say that he most enjoyed several of 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:09.080 the classes that were outside the realm of computer science, 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:13.840 such as creative writing, English literature, and anthropology, and while 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.680 he was attending class at the university, he happened to 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.160 see a job opportunity posted at the school's career center. 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.240 The opportunity was to apply to be a playtester for 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.640 Lucasfilm Games, which would later become Lucas Arts and Yes 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.600 it's George Lucas. Longtime fans of Tech Stuff will know 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.720 that we once did a full episode about being a 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:40.200 playtester many many years ago. Playtesters have a job that, 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.800 on first glance, sounds like it would be a lot 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.560 of fun. You play video games for a living, and 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:48.560 better yet, you play games that are so new they 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.600 aren't even available for purchase. You get to play them 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.840 before anyone else does, while it's still being built, and 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.920 you get paid for it. That sounds like a dream job, right. 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:02.600 It's only can be fun at times, but play testing 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:06.560 can also be frustrating and repetitive, particularly if the game 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.000 has design flaws. Play Testers are supposed to look for 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:14.360 bugs and glitches as they play. Are there any game 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:18.760 breaking problems? Are there issues with the game engine? Is 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.559 it possible to get stuck somewhere just because of level 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:25.040 design or some other issue. Is the game's path a 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.840 clear one? Is it playable? Is it fun? It might 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.080 mean playing the same section of the same level dozens 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.840 of times for several hours as you poke and prod 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:38.559 testing a game to make sure it will hold up 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.719 once it's released, and even the best play tester may 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:44.960 overlook something. The goals define as many problems as you 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.040 can before you ship, so you can fix them. Because 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:51.439 once it's out in the wild, you have hopefully thousands 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.559 or millions of people playing your game, and at that scale, 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.000 people are bound to find bugs and glitches, so your 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:00.600 best hope is to weed out the most preval ones 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.240 in an effort to deliver the best game possible. Schaefer 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.120 decided to apply for the position and landed a phone 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:10.360 interview with David Fox, one of the founding members of 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.680 the game company, and it was a bit of a 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:16.800 rocky interview. How well, I'll tell you, But first let's 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:26.760 take a quick break to thank our sponsor. So there's 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.560 Tim Shaefer and he's on the phone with David Fox. 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:33.280 Fox had worked on games like Labyrinth, Zach McCracken and 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:38.840 The Alien Mind Benders, and Rescue on fractal Us, among others. Schaefer, 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:43.559 in an effort to present himself as an enthusiastic potential employee, 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.480 stated that he had really enjoyed playing the Lucas Arts 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:53.040 game ball Blasters, and there was problem number one. Ball 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.839 Blasters was a pirated version of a game released by 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:02.040 Lucas Arts. The official game SAME's name was ball Blazer, 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:06.160 but in nine three, Lucasfilm Games had handed over an 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:11.040 early build of ball Blazer to Atari. After that someone 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.880 had mysteriously pulled the code off the game and uploaded 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:19.160 it to a bulletin board system or BBS. Soon copies 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:21.920 of the game began popping up on other bb s 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.480 s and people were downloading it for free, and it 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.560 was this version that Shaefer had played. The pirated version. 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.280 It's awkward moment Number two happened when Schaefer admitted he 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:38.559 had not played Zack McCracken. That was awkward because David 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:42.800 Fox had actually been the lead on Zach McCracken. Again, 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.200 Schaefer walked out of the interview, or rather hung up 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:50.600 the phone convinced that he had totally blown it. He 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:54.240 had not been prepared, he had admitted to piracy, and 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.880 he may as well have said Star Wars stinks. But 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:00.320 Shaffer decided to at least have a little on with 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.959 his experience. He was invited to send in his resume 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:09.600 and cover letter, and instead he drew up a cartoons 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:14.920 strip slash text adventure style document on paper, so he 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.240 illustrated it, but it was done in the style of 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:21.520 an old text adventure game where he as a character 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:26.000 was trying to land a job at Lucas Film Games, 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:29.679 and through the process he makes all the right decisions 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.560 and he ends up getting the job, and he sent 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:37.120 that to Lucasfilm. Whether Fox was secretly amused by this 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.640 interview or the comic strip gave him insight into Shaffer's character, 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.079 he decided to hire Schaffer for the position to play tester, 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:48.440 and Shaffer's first gig was beta testing Indiana Jones and 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:52.320 The Last Crusade, the action game, but soon he was 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:56.120 tapped by a designer named Ron Gilbert to learn the 0:11:56.160 --> 0:12:00.240 game engine that Lucas Film Games had been using at 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:04.319 that time. The game engine had the name Script Creation 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:11.520 Utility for Maniac Mansion or SCUM, so Schaefer became a scumblet. 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.720 The team was working on a port of Maniac Mansion 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.280 for the Nintendo Entertainment System or in ne S. The 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:24.400 game originally came out for home computers in nine and 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:28.080 featured a point and click interface to navigate through the world, 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:33.720 explore environments, and solve puzzles. The game included many innovative features. 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.720 For example, in the game, you can choose two companions 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:39.920 from a pool of six potentials to help you in 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.319 your missions. Who you choose affects the way you must 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.840 complete the game, and so player choice actually had an 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:50.400 impact on how the game plays out. After working on 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.840 the port, Schaefer got an invitation from Gilbert to work 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.640 on the next project, which was a pirate themed adventure game. 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.000 He would join another up and coming star at Lucas 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:05.200 Art's named David Grossman, and originally the game was meant 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.839 to be a pretty serious homage to Treasure Island. It 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.440 was more or less a straight laced pirate tail, kind 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:16.160 of grim and gritty. Schaefer was brought on as a 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:20.120 programmer and a writer for the project. While building the game, 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:24.760 Schaffer and Grossman started to insert temporary placeholder dialogue just 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:28.200 so that something was there. It wasn't meant to represent 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:32.040 the final game, and their impish sense of humor meant 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:35.000 they threw in a lot of jokes. Pirates who were 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:38.400 meant to be scurvy dogs who inspired fear, and all 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:42.240 who met them transformed into odd ball characters with silly 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:46.320 names and dialogue options. Schaefer's temporary dialogue with such a 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.400 huge hit, so much so that Gilbert actually decided to 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.200 change directions with the game and make it a comedic 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:56.280 action adventure set in the pirate world, and thus The 0:13:56.440 --> 0:14:00.240 Secret of Monkey Island was born. In the game, you 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:02.720 play as guy Brush three Wood, a bit of a 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.559 dweeb who wants to become a pirate. Three woods nemesis 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.880 is the evil pirate Lachuk. There was a series of 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.720 weird adventures, odd puzzles, and lots of jokes. The player 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:18.480 eventually faces down Lachuk and through the power of carbonated beverages, 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:23.080 stands triumphant. The game received good reviews and a positive 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.480 response from players, and so the same creative team got 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.640 together to work on a sequel, The Secret of Monkey 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.760 Island to La Chuck's Revenge. Grossman and Schaefer worked well 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.760 together and impressed the executives at Lucas Arts, so the 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.560 two were given the opportunity to act as project co 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.680 leeds on a new game, a sequel to Maniac Mansion 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.440 called Day of the Tentacle. This was a comedic time 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:52.320 travel adventure and it too received positive response. Schaefer's work 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.080 on the Monkey Island games and Day of the Tentacle 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:58.400 convinced Lucas Arts that he should be allowed to work 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.400 on a project of his very own. Schaefer decided to 0:15:01.440 --> 0:15:03.800 create a game that would incorporate one of his favorite 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:08.360 genres of music, heavy metal. That game was called Full Throttle, 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:13.560 which was released in nineteen and it featured an outlaw 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.280 biker accused of a crime he didn't commit, but still 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:21.240 contained a lot of humor as well. One of Schaefer's trademarks, 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.280 you might say and Schaefer acted as lead developer on 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:27.560 Full Throttle, writing and programming much of the game himself. 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.400 It was one of the earliest games to feature a 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:34.840 fully voiced game script, meaning every line was spoken by 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:38.360 a character in the game, delivered by a voice actor 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.960 up to that point, most games relied heavily on text, 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:47.000 which wasn't nearly as resource intensive and obviously did not 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:50.640 require voice actors. You might spice up a cut scene 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:52.920 or something like that with a little voice acting, but 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.520 it was extremely rare to find a game that included 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:58.280 voice acting all the way through, and the voice actors 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.680 included some folks you'd recognize at least by voice, if 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.760 not by name. Maurice LaMarsh and Tress McNeil both provided 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:09.120 voices for the game, as did the Jedi Master himself, 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:13.600 Mark Hamill. Full Throttle also made use of licensed music, 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.800 something that was new for Lucas Arts. The music came 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.640 from a San Francisco rock band called the Gone Jackals. 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:23.880 Gameplay was in a two D playing field and featured 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.840 the point and click interface adventure gamers were used to it. 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.640 Will also had a pie menu, which is a circular 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.680 pop up that lets you pick different interaction options when 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:37.400 you interact with some sort of object or character. For example, 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.240 he might be able to pick up, push taste, or 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.680 talk to something by selecting different options on this pop 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:46.760 up menu, and you're highlighting a specific object or character. 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.000 In addition to the adventure portions of the game. There 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.880 were action sequences in which you'd try to fight off 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:56.240 rival bikers while writing on your motorcycle. That created a 0:16:56.240 --> 0:17:00.480 certain arcade element in Full Throttle. The game received generally 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.640 positive reviews, though by any measure it was a pretty 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:07.199 short game, requiring only about four hours to complete, and 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.960 that's if you're not even rushing. After Full Throttle, Schaefer 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:14.400 created a game that I think is a real masterpiece, 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:17.840 not just for Schaefer but for video games in general. 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:22.119 I really think it's something special. It's called Grim Fandango. 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.240 It's another point and click adventure game, and it came 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:31.120 out in Grim Fandango. Unlike the other adventure games in LucasArts, 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:35.159 did not use the Scum engine. Instead, Shaffer's team developed 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:37.760 a new game engine called grim E and a scripting 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:41.199 language called Lua. Actually they didn't develop Lua, but they 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.840 used it. Rather than pointing and clicking to move your 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.240 character around, you could use keyboard controls to move about 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.800 the environment in a tank like control scheme, meaning you 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:53.800 could use certain keys that would allow you to pivot 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.639 left or pivot right, and other keys would make you 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:00.680 walk forward or backward. The game's setting was the Land 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:04.080 of the Dead, inspired by the folklore of Mexico with 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:08.080 a strong film noir motif. The player takes control of 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:12.119 a Department of Death employee named Manny Calavera, who must 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.560 investigate a mystery that suggests there's some high level corruption 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.440 going on in the world of death. The game is quirky, 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.680 it is challenging, and it's filled with tons of nods 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:28.040 to classic film noir cinema like Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon. 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.720 It received critical acclaim and in TWI it was the 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:36.640 subject of a remastered edition, which has updated controls, graphics, 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.479 and a commentary track featuring Tim Shaefer and other members 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:43.160 of the development team. And if you haven't tried it out, 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:45.720 I recommend giving it a go. It can be a 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:49.480 little frustrating at times, but that's Schaefer's style to present 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:52.480 the player with a tricky situation that requires a lot 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:55.040 of adaptation to figure out how to get out of it. 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:59.040 In fact, Shaefer has talked at length about the tragedy 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:03.240 of creating computer tutorials for every single game. He said 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:05.560 a lot of fun he had as a player was 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:07.919 learning how the game worked and how you interacted with it. 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.399 And trying to figure out ways to solve puzzles, but 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:13.640 that a lot of games these days kind of spell 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.400 everything out, giving you step by step instructions on what 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.560 you need to do in order to get through a section. 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.040 He says, well, where's the fun in that? If I 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.040 walk up to a puzzle and then the computer says, hey, 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.200 why don't you try picking up this thing and using 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:29.600 it with that thing? It takes the joy of that 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.800 discovery away from me. So Shaefer goes with an approach 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:37.040 where he specifically tries to design games that are a 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:42.199 little confusing, but intriguingly confusing, not frustratingly. So that's his 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:46.960 goal at any rate. However, after Grim Vandango went gold 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.359 and got tons of critical acclaim, he found himself in 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:53.720 a bit of a tricky situation. And I'll explain more 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.600 in just a second, but first let's take another quick 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:08.119 break to thank our sponsor. Schaefer's next project that Lucas Arts, 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.120 never saw the light of day. It was a project 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.560 meant for the PlayStation two, but never really emerged from 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:17.160 early development. I don't even have a name for this 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:19.679 game or what it was supposed to be about. It 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:22.320 really didn't get very far at all. But around that 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.920 same time, there was a shift in LucasArts away from 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:29.159 the adventure style games that Schaefer had really cut his 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:33.080 teeth on, and Schaefer himself wanted to try something new 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.320 and develop his own company with his own identity and culture. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.000 He had worked for Lucas Arts for a decade and 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:41.600 so he thought, maybe it's time to strike out on 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:44.520 my own, and so Schaefer, along with a few other 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:48.840 LucasArts employees, left to found a new game studio called 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:53.520 Double Fine Productions in June two thousand. The first game 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.280 to come out of Double Fine was Psycho Knots a 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.040 few years later, and that's a platforming game in which 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:03.240 you play as as a psychically gifted young boy who 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:07.879 infiltrates a special summer camp for kids with superpowers, and 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:10.560 the real purpose of the camp is to train kids 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:14.080 to become special agents called Psycho Knots, which is a 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.040 job that Raz would really like to have. He discovers 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:19.960 there's something hinky going on at the camp and the 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:23.960 story unfolds from there and again it received really great reviews, 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:28.399 but sadly sales were a little lackluster. The next title, 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:33.000 from Double Fine and Schaefer was Brutal Legend, and Brutal 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.480 has a really good name for the process of what 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:38.920 the company went through in trying to bring this game 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:42.520 to life. A Brutal Legend is a real time strategy 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:46.280 action adventure game that had a heavy metal soundtrack, an 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:50.959 extensive one. Schaefer wanted to combine elements of fantasy and 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:54.680 heavy metal, largely because a lot of heavy metal albums 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:59.600 feature artwork that's inspired by fantasy genre. Just look at 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.040 any Ally Hatchett album cover and you'll know what I'm 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.480 talking about. And there were even tons of songs in 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.880 heavy metal that dealt with fantasy concepts. As Schaefer said, 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:12.000 there's heavy metal songs about fighting orcs. Why can't we 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:14.560 bring these two things together in a video game? So 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:17.320 he thought they were a really great match. And if 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:20.520 you want to talk soundtracks, Brutal Legend has got to 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.000 be up there. I mean, the game has more than 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:28.240 a hundred licensed heavy metal tracks from bands like Motorhead, 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:33.600 Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Kiss, among others. The protagonist 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:36.639 of the game is voiced by Jack Black of Tenacious D, 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:39.720 and there's even a Tenacious D song on the soundtrack 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:42.400 as well, and there's even a track from the cartoon 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:47.120 death metal band Death Clock in there. His company developed 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:49.840 the game, but they found it difficult to get a 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:53.800 publisher too many companies had misgivings about the real time 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:58.800 strategy elements. Originally, Sierra Entertainment, which was part of Vivendi 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:02.200 Games at that time, was going to publish Brutal Legend, 0:23:02.680 --> 0:23:07.399 but then Activision acquired Vivendi and Activision backed out of 0:23:07.400 --> 0:23:12.320 the agreement. According to Activision CEO Robert Kotick, dropping the 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:16.400 game was not done just on a whim, but rather 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:20.840 because the team was falling behind on deadlines. They were 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:24.000 missing those deadlines and he felt that the game didn't 0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:26.199 look like it was going to be any good. So 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:28.600 I guess there was nothing personal. It was just business. 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:31.680 But the story goes that Double Find didn't find out 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:35.320 about their game being dropped by Activision until they saw 0:23:35.359 --> 0:23:39.400 a press release for upcoming titles from Activision that failed 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:42.840 to have Brutal Legend on it, and that's how they 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:45.280 found out their game was not going to be published. 0:23:45.920 --> 0:23:48.680 Schaefer was not allowed to talk about the status of 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:51.719 the game while his team looked for another publisher. They 0:23:51.760 --> 0:23:55.320 eventually found one, an Electronic Arts or e A, but 0:23:55.400 --> 0:23:59.120 then Activision sued Double Fine, saying that the company had 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:02.600