Misplaced Pages

#921078

109-568: Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco , California . Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts , Double Fine's first two games – Psychonauts and Brütal Legend – underperformed publishers' expectations despite critical praise. The future of the company was assured when Schafer turned to several in-house prototypes built during

218-588: A database , Voice over IP , or add-in interface software; this is also known as middleware . Examples of this include SpeedTree and Havoc . Independents are software developers which are not owned by (or dependent on) a single publisher. Some of these developers self-publish their games, relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. With

327-480: A sim game set in space, led by designer-programmer JP LeBreton, The White Birch , an ambient platform game (inspired by Ico and Journey ), led by art director Andy Wood, Autonomous , a retro-futuristic sandbox robot game, led by art director Lee Petty, and Black Lake , a fairytale exploration game led by senior artist Levi Ryken. In addition, the purchaser received the initial prototypes of Costume Quest , Happy Song (what would become Once Upon

436-465: A 22 hour documentary on the making of Psychonauts 2 in February 2023 . Double Fine's first completed project was Psychonauts , a multi-platform platform game following Raz (named after Double Fine's animator Razmig Mavlian ), a psychically-gifted boy who breaks into a summer camp for psychic children to try to become part of an elite group of psychic heroes called Psychonauts. Critically praised, it

545-511: A Monster ), and Brazen , a Monster Hunter -style four-player online co-op homage to Ray Harryhausen , which was led by Brad Muir, who was also project lead of Iron Brigade . The development of the prototypes was documented by 2 Player Productions . The Indie Fund announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 that they provided funding for two titles from Double Fine. The first game created with Indie Fund backing

654-452: A culture of "toxic geek masculinity" within the workplace. In addition, the conditions behind crunch time are far more discriminating towards women as this requires them to commit time exclusively to the company or to more personal activities like raising a family. These factors established conditions within some larger development studios where female developers have found themselves discriminated in workplace hiring and promotion, as well as

763-571: A first-party company. As a balance to not being able to release their game for other platforms, second-party developers are usually offered higher royalty rates than third-party developers. These studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with the platform holder, but maintain independence so that upon completion or termination of their contracts, they are able to continue developing games for other publishers if they choose to. For example, while HAL Laboratory initially began developing games on personal computers like

872-410: A fixed period and generally work similar hours as full-time staff members, assisting across all areas of video game development, but as contractors, do not get any benefits such as paid time-off or health care from the employer; they also are typically not credited on games that they work on for this reason. The practice itself is legal and common in other engineering and technology areas, and generally it

981-520: A future title that Gilbert has envisioned. Schafer stated that though they could likely make another large game akin to Psychonauts or Brütal Legend , they would likely keep the smaller teams to continue to work on these smaller titles, due to the gained experience shared by the company. In 2011, the prototyping process was repeated in Double Fine's last private amnesia fortnight. The prototypes produced during this period were Middle Manager Of Justice ,

1090-403: A game on schedule. The complexity of workflow, reliance on third-party deliverables, and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video game creation create difficulty in predicting milestones. The use of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger male-dominated workforce in video games, who have not had the time to establish a family and who were eager to advance within

1199-478: A game set in a storybook land full of inept heroes led by John Bernhelm. One idea, Bad Golf 2 , was not selected as a prototype, but a group of Double Fine fans have started working on developing the title themselves, with the blessing of its conceptor, Patrick Hackett and permission of Double Fine. In April 2017, a third charitable public Amnesia Fortnight was jointly held by Double Fine and Humble Bundle. For Amnesia Fortnight 2017 , two prototypes were chosen from

SECTION 10

#1732883463922

1308-406: A game's profits. Current examples of first-party studios include PlayStation Studios for Sony, and Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Gaming . Second-party developer is a colloquial term often used by gaming enthusiasts and media to describe game studios that take development contracts from platform holders and develop games exclusive to that platform, i.e. a non-owned developer making games for

1417-449: A giant ball pit. Happy Action Theater was the first game to be directed by Tim Schafer since Brütal Legend in 2009, and came about during Once Upon a Monster , finding that his young daughter had difficulty with the Kinect precision and aimed to make a game that required far less precision but was still enjoyable. Its sequel, Kinect Party , featuring even more augmented reality scenarios,

1526-473: A humorous video introducing both the game and Double Fine's program, which was filmed during the week of the 2014 Game Developers Conference in March 2014. For the second title, Last Life by Rocket Science Amusements, Double Fine helped to prepare and present a Kickstarter campaign to help funding the final development of the title. The third title announced under this program was Mountain by David OReilly ,

1635-407: A means to help promote these leads. The remaining staff were split among the four teams, with some later swapping to make sure each team has appropriate resources when needed, such as artists and programmers. Double Fine did not have to lay off any of the staff during this time, and instead were able to hire Ron Gilbert , Schafer's former collaborator at LucasArts, to work on the new titles, as well as

1744-523: A million dollars, becoming the most funded and most backed project ever on Kickstarter until it was surpassed by the Pebble watch in April 2012. The game was developed with Moai, and was released in two parts, Act 1 in early 2014 and Act 2 in April 2015. The game was ultimately named Broken Age . On May 30, 2013, Double Fine started their second crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter. The game, Massive Chalice ,

1853-571: A piece of legislation from the government in parliament to the senate, via a media availability. American television stations and networks especially value press conferences: because today's TV news programs air for hours at a time, or even continuously, assignment editors have a steady appetite for ever-larger quantities of footage. News conferences are often held by politicians ; by sports teams; by celebrities or film studios; by commercial organizations to promote products; by attorneys to promote lawsuits ; and by almost anyone who finds benefit in

1962-437: A position in a medium to large video game company. An experienced game-development employee, depending on their expertise and experience, averaged roughly $ 73,000 in 2007. Indie game developers may only earn between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 a year depending on how financially successful their titles are. In addition to being part of the software industry, game development is also within the entertainment industry; most sectors of

2071-413: A press conference, one or more speakers may make a statement, which may be followed by questions from reporters. Sometimes only questioning occurs; sometimes there is a statement with no questions permitted. A media event at which no statements are made, and no questions allowed, is called a photo op . A government may wish to open their proceedings for the media to witness events, such as the passing of

2180-468: A procedural terrarium that provides an ambient, minimalist, zen-like experience full of secrets and mysteries. In August 2014, Double Fine announced that a fourth game would be released under the program, the multiplayer beat 'em up Gang Beasts by Boneloaf , which launched into Steam Early Access on August 29, 2014. The latest addition to the Double Fine Presents program is GNOG by KO_OP ,

2289-410: A publisher. The development groups for these games were headed by the former leads from Brütal Legend : lead animator Tasha Harris for Costume Quest , lead art director Lee Petty for Stacking , lead designer Brad Muir for Iron Brigade , and lead programmer Nathan Martz for Once Upon a Monster . This was to not only put these teams under people who had been in the industry for a long time, but as

SECTION 20

#1732883463922

2398-647: A puzzle-adventure released in 2016. Following Microsoft's acquisition of Double Fine in June 2019, the fate of the Double Fine Presents publishing label was unclear. Schafer stated in September 2019 that the fate of Double Fine Presents is unclear, but that while they will likely end up stop publishing, they will still likely engage with the community through the Day of the Devs events to support other independent developers. Ooblets changed to

2507-480: A result of a Twitter conversation between Dengler and Schafer in March 2011, where Schafer commented that the cost of bringing Double Fine's games to personal computers would be high. Dengler asked Schafer for a monetary value, though at the time Schafer believed Dengler was joking around and offered a value of around $ 300,000 . As more formal conversations ensued, however, the company worked with Dengler to set an amount, signing an initial deal to bring Psychonauts to

2616-572: A roundtable discussion with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the professional association for developers. Statements made by the IGDA's current executive director Jen MacLean relating to IGDA's activities had been seen by as anti-union, and Game Workers Unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize. In the wake of the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games in September 2018,

2725-1132: A self-publishing model following Double Fine's acquisition, while another, Knights and Bikes , remained under the label. Gang Beasts also turned to self-publishing by June 2020, as it described that Double Fine's publishing was "winding down". Double Fine and iam8bit host an annual free festival, Day of the Devs , in San Francisco with food, drink, and playable demos of unreleased indie games since 2012. First-party developer A developer may specialize in specific game engines or specific video game consoles , or may develop for several systems (including personal computers and mobile devices ). Some focus on porting games from one system to another, or translating games from one language to another. Less commonly, some do software development work in addition to games. Most video game publishers maintain development studios (such as Electronic Arts 's EA Canada , Square Enix 's studios, Activision 's Radical Entertainment , Nintendo EPD and Sony's Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog ). However, since publishing

2834-407: A single publisher; one canceled game may devastate a small developer. Because of this, many small development companies are short-lived. A common exit strategy for a successful video game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, becoming an in-house developer. In-house development teams tend to have more freedom in game design and content than third-party developers. One reason is that since

2943-403: A strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) background for women at the secondary education level, but there are issues with tertiary education such as at colleges and universities, where game development programs tend to reflect the male-dominated demographics of the industry, a factor that may lead women with strong STEM backgrounds to choose other career goals. There

3052-442: A superhero simulation game, Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp , a camp-building game based on Psychonauts , and Brazen , a Monster Hunter-style four-player online co-op game. In November 2012, Double Fine, along with Humble Bundle , announced Amnesia Fortnight 2012 , a charity drive based on the previous Amnesia Fortnight. During this, those that paid a minimum of US$ 1 had the opportunity to vote on 23 concept ideas. After

3161-425: A two-week period known as "Amnesia Fortnight" to expand as smaller titles, all of which were licensed through publishers and met with commercial success. Schafer has since repeated these Amnesia Fortnights, using fan-voting mechanics, to help select and build smaller titles . Double Fine is also credited with driving interest in crowdfunding in video games , having been able to raise more than US$ 3 million for

3270-635: A unique case where nearly all parts of its labor force, including white-collar jobs such as video game development, may engage with labor unions under the Employment Protection Act often through collective bargaining agreements. Developer DICE had reached its union agreements in 2004. Paradox Interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in June 2020 with its own agreements to cover its Swedish employees within two labor unions Unionen and SACO . In Australia, video game developers could join other unions, but

3379-715: Is a strategy video game for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux, directed by Brad Muir. Although Double Fine has experienced success through crowdfunding, the company has not renounced working with publishers. Their crowdfunding success has, however, granted them enough independence to be more selective about the publishers they work with and the types of publishing deals they are willing to accept. Talking to gaming news site Polygon, Schafer explained: "We've changed our relationship with publishers. They used to be our sole source of income. Now that we've been self-publishing, we can kind of pick and choose who we work with and work with publishers that have similar goals that we have...[who] have

Double Fine - Misplaced Pages Continue

3488-435: Is a deformable toy with which the player can interact. My Alien Buddy was released on December 24, 2013. On November 21, 2014, Double Fine announced that due to a publishing deal falling through, that it was forced to cancel an unannounced project and let 12 staff go. As part of a deal with Nordic Games , who gained the publishing rights to Costume Quest and Stacking and the distribution rights to Psychonauts from

3597-473: Is also a significant gap in racial minorities within the video game industry; a 2019 IGDA survey found only 2% of developers considered themselves to be of African descent and 7% Hispanic, while 81% were Caucasian; in contrast, 2018 estimates from the United States Census estimate the U.S. population to be 13% of African descent and 18% Hispanic. In a 2014 and 2015 survey of job positions and salaries,

3706-559: Is called the Two-Headed Baby, frequently abbreviated 2HB, an abbreviation also used for Moai , an integrated development environment . The Double Fine website is also host to seven webcomics , which are created by members of Double Fine's art team and are collectively referred to as the Double Fine Comics . On June 9, 2019, during Microsoft 's press conference at E3 2019 , it was announced that Double Fine had been acquired by

3815-449: Is expected that this is meant to lead into a full-time position, or otherwise the end of the contract. But more recently, its use in the video game industry has been compared to Microsoft 's past use of " permatemp ", contract workers that were continually renewed and treated for all purposes as employees but received no benefits. While Microsoft has waned from the practice, the video game industry has adapted it more frequently. Around 10% of

3924-533: Is generally illegal, companies often target their oldest workers first during layoffs or other periods of reduction. Older developers with experience may find themselves too qualified for the types of positions that other game development companies seek given the salaries and compensations offered. Some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees. Contractors are brought on for

4033-494: Is still their primary activity they are generally described as "publishers" rather than "developers". Developers may be private as well. In the video game industry , a first-party developer is part of a company that manufactures a video game console and develops mainly for it. First-party developers may use the name of the company itself (such as Nintendo ), have a specific division name (such as Sony's Polyphony Digital ) or have been an independent studio before being acquired by

4142-474: Is usually conducted in a casual business environment, with t-shirts and sandals as common work attire. Many workers find this type of environment rewarding and pleasant professionally and personally. However, the industry also requires long working hours from its employees (sometimes to an extent seen as unsustainable). Employee burnout is not uncommon. An entry-level programmer can make, on average, over $ 66,000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining

4251-566: The Amnesia Fortnight 2014 , where local San Francisco independent developers were working alongside Double Fine in their studios during the two-week period, with the intent to help give them exposure through the production process as it was filmed by 2 Player Productions. The idea of Double Fine providing more long-term assistance to these indies arose during this event, forming the basis for this program. According to Double Fine's COO Justin Bailey,

4360-639: The AFL–CIO writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize. In January 2020, Game Workers Unite and the Communications Workers of America established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers, the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), in January 2020. Initial efforts for CODE were aimed to determine what approach to unionization would be best suited for

4469-456: The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), are conducting increasing discussions about the problem; they are concerned that working conditions in the industry cause a significant deterioration in employees' quality of life. Some video game developers and publishers have been accused of the excessive invocation of "crunch time". "Crunch time" is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch

Double Fine - Misplaced Pages Continue

4578-508: The MSX , they became one of the earliest second-party developers for Nintendo, developing exclusively for Nintendo's consoles starting with the Famicom, though they would self-publish their mobile games. A third-party developer may also publish games, or work for a video game publisher to develop a title. Both publisher and developer have considerable input in the game's design and content. However,

4687-517: The Me Too movement and have tried to address the symptoms of these problems industry-wide, the video game industry has yet to have its Me Too-moment, even as late as 2021. There also tends to be pay-related discrimination against women in the industry. According to Gamasutra 's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014, women in the United States made 86 cents for every dollar men made. Game designing women had

4796-453: The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 , and later for Microsoft Windows. During the development of Brütal Legend , a publishing issue arose. Activision, having acquired the rights to the title through its merger with Vivendi Games, decided to drop it and forced Schafer to locate another publisher. During this period, in approximately 2007, Schafer attempted to boost the company's morale by engaging

4905-504: The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal. The voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between SAG-AFTRA and

5014-459: The White House room set aside for the purpose or as informal as the street in front of a crime scene. Hotel conference rooms and courthouses are often used for press conferences. Sometimes such gatherings are recorded for press use and later released on an interview disc . Media day is a special press conference event where rather than holding a conference after an event to field questions about

5123-543: The macOS and to bring Costume Quest and Stacking to Microsoft Windows . Following this initial agreement, a subsequent deal was made with Dracogen for three iOS mobile games, the first of which is Middle Manager of Justice . The game itself is based on another idea from the Amnesia Fortnights, a simulation game with RPG elements that involves managing teams of superheroes and then fighting as those heroes in battles. Dengler's children helped to provide some of

5232-716: The video game industry . He told the Los Angeles Times : "Someone who was part of the co-creation of that world and those characters isn't getting a credit or a nickel for the work they put into it. Maybe we need unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators." Press conference A press conference , also called news conference or press briefing , is a media event in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalists to hear them speak and ask questions. Press conferences are often held by politicians , corporations , non-governmental organizations , and organizers for newsworthy events. In

5341-439: The 25 prototype videos by means of the top public votes. These were The Gods Must Be Hungry and Darwin's Dinner . A multi-player virtual reality party game prototype, I Have No Idea What I'm Doing , was chosen by Tim Schafer. Another, the four-player competitive game, Kiln , was chosen by the Double Fine team members that were working on Amnesia Fortnight. This was done to give the team a bit of control, rather than have all of

5450-446: The IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers. Further, because video game developers typically draw from personal experiences in building game characters, this diversity gap has led to few characters of racial minority to be featured as main characters within video games. Minority developers have also been harassed from external groups due to

5559-474: The acquisition of Activision Blizzard , stated it supported these unionization efforts. After this acquisition, the employees of Bethesda Game Studios , part of Zenimax under Microsoft, unionized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in July 2024. Over 500 employees within Blizzard Entertainment 's World of Warcraft division also unionized with CWA that same month. Sweden presents

SECTION 50

#1732883463922

5668-474: The acquisition. Schafer felt many of Double Fine's games, particularly Psychonauts and its sequel, do not have an aesthetic that people would necessarily pay the full price for, but the subscription approach of Game Pass lowers that barrier and will potentially get more people to try the game. Thus, Schafer felt that being acquired by Microsoft would allow the studio to continue to develop experimental games and allow these projects greater exposure. A month ahead of

5777-572: The advent of digital distribution of inexpensive games on game consoles, it is now possible for indie game developers to forge agreements with console manufacturers for broad distribution of their games. Other indie game developers create game software for a number of video-game publishers on several gaming platforms. In recent years this model has been in decline; larger publishers, such as Electronic Arts and Activision, increasingly turn to internal studios (usually former independent developers acquired for their development needs). Video game development

5886-424: The average will get to vote on a concept idea for a prototype led by Pendleton Ward , the creator of Adventure Time . After the completion of the voting period, Double Fine developed the top voted ideas into game prototypes that were available for those that purchased the bundle. As with Amnesia Fortnight 2012 , 2 Player Productions filmed the production of the prototype, which was available to people who purchased

5995-457: The bundle, as well as on a Blu-ray, along with the prototypes on a DVD, for those who paid a minimum of $ 35 . The four pitches that were made into prototypes for Amnesia Fortnight 2014 were Dear Leader , an emergent narrative game led by Anna Kipnis, Little Pink Best Buds , a game about little pink creatures who want to be your friend led by Pendleton Ward, Mnemonic , a surreal, first-person noir adventure led by Derek Brand, and Steed ,

6104-575: The capabilities of fully developing a small game on its own, but for their larger titles, like Psychonauts 2 , the company temporarily merges two or more of these teams, and with the option of unmerging the teams once the project is finished. The company remains situated in San Francisco . The name "Double Fine" is a play on a sign on the Golden Gate Bridge that used to display "double fine zone" to warn motorists that fines on that stretch of road were double normal rates. Double Fine's logo and mascot

6213-576: The choices be as a result of online voting. In addition, three fan pitches for prototypes were included in Amnesia Fortnight 2017 . All three fan pitches, Pongball , The Lost Dev Team , and Amnesia Adventure , were developed into prototypes. The top pick, Pongball , was included in the Amnesia Fortnight 2017 prototype downloads, and the fans were mentored by Double Fine developers. Double Fine has received financial investment from Steven Dengler's investment company Dracogen. The investment started as

6322-431: The closest equity, making 96 cents for every dollar men made in the same job, while audio professional women had the largest gap, making 68% of what men in the same position made. Increasing the representation of women in the video game industry required breaking a feedback loop of the apparent lack of female representation in the production of video games and in the content of video games. Efforts have been made to provide

6431-406: The company and was becoming part of Xbox Game Studios . According to Schafer, through the acquisition, Double Fine will be able to retain its independent nature but will not have to struggle with finding publishers for its games, a problem it has had in its past. Schafer spoke to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass , a games subscription service for Microsoft Windows and Xbox users, as one favorable aspect of

6540-589: The company on amiable terms to pursue other game development opportunities. At PAX Prime 2013 , it was revealed that Double Fine had a game in development that would be released as free downloadable content for The Playroom , the augmented reality mini-game compilation that utilizes the PlayStation Camera on PlayStation 4 . Titled My Alien Buddy , it built on their experience on augmented reality that they gained while making Double Fine Happy Action Theater and Kinect Party for Microsoft. The alien buddy

6649-450: The company to realize the ability of self-publishing, and believes they would be able to self-publish a triple-A title with Dracogen's financial assistance. In February 2012, Double Fine and 2 Player Productions announced a crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter , initially codenamed Double Fine Adventure . It aimed to create a new adventure game featuring art by Double Fine's in-house artist Nathan Stapley . The Kickstarter effort

SECTION 60

#1732883463922

6758-400: The completion of the voting period, Double Fine developed the top five voted ideas into game prototypes that were available for those that purchased the bundle. The prototypes were (in order of receiving the most votes): Hack 'n' Slash , a The Legend of Zelda -inspired action-adventure, where players need to hack to solve puzzles, led by senior programmer Brandon Dillon, Spacebase DF-9 ,

6867-416: The console manufacturer (such as Rare or Naughty Dog ). Whether by purchasing an independent studio or by founding a new team, the acquisition of a first-party developer involves a huge financial investment on the part of the console manufacturer, which is wasted if the developer fails to produce a hit game on time. However, using first-party developers saves the cost of having to make royalty payments on

6976-503: The console. This established the use of licensing fees as a model for third-party development that persists into the present. The licensing fee approach was further enforced by Nintendo when it decided to allow other third-party developers to make games for the Famicom console, setting a 30% licensing fee that covered game cartridge manufacturing costs and development fees. The 30% licensing fee for third-party developers has also persisted to

7085-444: The developer if the game is not meeting expectations. When each milestone is completed (and accepted), the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties . Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. Generally, however, third-party developers tend to be small, close-knit teams. Third-party game development is a volatile sector, since small developers may depend on income from

7194-417: The developers are the publisher's employees, their interests align with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense. Activision in 1979 became the first third-party video game developer. When four Atari, Inc. programmers left the company following its sale to Warner Communications , partially over

7303-458: The development of Broken Age , at the time one of the largest projects funded by Kickstarter , and more than US$ 3 million for the development of Psychonauts 2 . The company continued to build on its independent developer status and has promoted efforts to help other, smaller independent developers through its clout, including becoming a video game publisher for these titles. Double Fine has also been able to acquire rights to remaster some of

7412-823: The drawings of superheroes for the game. Middle Manager of Justice was released for iOS in December 2012, and the Android version was released on August 14, 2013. Dropchord , a motion-based rhythm puzzle game for macOS, Microsoft Windows, iOS and Android, was as well financed by Dracogen. It was a launch title for the Leap Motion Airspace app store when the Leap Motion controller was released on July 22, 2013. As of 2012, Dengler has invested about one million dollars into Double Fine, which Schafer said has "paid off for both sides". Schafer has said that Dengler's funding has allowed

7521-537: The earlier LucasArts adventure games, including Grim Fandango , Day of the Tentacle , and Full Throttle . Microsoft purchased the studio in June 2019 after previously taking over Psychonauts 2 's publishing. Double Fine was founded by former LucasArts developer Tim Schafer , together with some colleagues from LucasArts, in July 2000. In the years prior, LucasArts had started to shift development away from adventure games into more action-oriented ones as part of

7630-467: The entertainment industry (such as films and television ) require long working hours and dedication from their employees, such as willingness to relocate and/or required to develop games that do not appeal to their personal taste. The creative rewards of work in the entertainment business attracts labor to the industry, creating a competitive labor market that demands a high level of commitment and performance from employees. Industry communities, such as

7739-401: The films Chungking Express and Fallen Angels . Schafer noted these were some of the director's more famous films. Schafer eventually signed a publishing deal with Electronic Arts for Brütal Legend. These Amnesia Fortnight periods proved fortuitous, as Schafer considers these to have kept the company viable. Upon completion of Brütal Legend , Double Fine started work on its sequel but

7848-571: The first half of 2014. An additional prototype from the 2012 Amnesia Fortnight, Autonomous , was released as an expanded full free release for the Leap Motion controller on November 18, 2013. In February 2014, Double Fine, and the Humble Bundle group began another charity drive titled Amnesia Fortnight 2014 . During this drive, those that paid a minimum of $ 1 had the opportunity to vote on 29 concept ideas. In addition, those that paid more than

7957-506: The first video game-specific union, Game Workers Unite Australia, was formed in December 2021 under Professionals Australia to become active in 2022. In Canada, in a historic move, video game workers in Edmonton unanimously voted to unionize for the first time in June 2022. In January 2023, after not being credited in The Last of Us HBO adaptation, Bruce Straley called for unionization of

8066-478: The free publicity afforded by media coverage. Some people, including many police chiefs, hold press conferences reluctantly in order to avoid dealing with reporters individually. A press conference is often announced by sending an advisory or news release to assignment editors , preferably well in advance. Sometimes they are held spontaneously when several reporters gather around a newsmaker. News conferences can be held just about anywhere, in settings as formal as

8175-404: The gaming industry, while a 2017 IGDA survey found that the female demographic in game development had risen to about 20%. Taking into account that a 2017 ESA survey found 41% of video game players were female, this represented a significant gender gap in game development. The male-dominated industry, most who have grown up playing video games and are part of the video game culture , can create

8284-535: The general trend in the gaming industry. Schafer, who had just finished producing the adventure game Grim Fandango , a title met with critical praise but was a commercial disappointment, saw others leaving LucasArts and was unsure of his own position there. He was approached by colleagues suggesting they launch their own studio to develop their own titles. Schafer departed LucasArts in January 2000, co-founding Double Fine later that year. Schafer started Double Fine with programmers David Dixon and Jonathan Menzies in what

8393-428: The goal of this approach is to "help indies build their own community and empower them with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed on their own", providing them assistance "customized to what indies need without also creating a certain codependence" that other publishing means require. The first such game created in this fashion is Escape Goat 2 , the sequel to Escape Goat , by MagicalTimeBean . This included

8502-452: The industry by working long hours. Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. The use of crunch time as a workplace standard gained attention first in 2004, when Erin Hoffman exposed

8611-431: The lack of respect that the new management gave to programmers, they used their knowledge of how Atari VCS game cartridges were programmed to create their own games for the system, founding Activision in 1979 to sell these. Atari took legal action to try to block the sale of these games, but the companies ultimately settled, with Activision agreeing to pay a portion of their sales as a license fee to Atari for developing for

8720-464: The mascot. The story follows Eddie as he is transported to a fantasy world in which demons have enslaved humanity. Tim Schafer has credited the inspiration for the game to the lore, fantasy themes, and epic Norse mythology of heavy metal music found in both its lyrical content and its album art. Brütal Legend was published by Electronic Arts and was released in North America on October 13, 2009 for

8829-551: The movement again called out for the industry to unionize. The movement argued that Telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go, having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior, and left them without pensions or health-care options; it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs, as to get around failure to notify required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 preceding layoffs. The situation

8938-448: The nature of the video game culture. The industry also is recognized to have an ageism issue, discriminating against the hiring and retention of older developers. A 2016 IGDA survey found only 3% of developers were over 50 years old, while at least two-thirds were between 20 and 34; these numbers show a far lower average age compared to the U.S. national average of about 41.9 that same year. While discrimination by age in hiring practices

9047-529: The news, there have typically been followup discussions towards the potential to form a union. A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. A similar survey of over 4,000 game developers run by the Game Developers Conference in early 2019 found that 47% of respondents felt the video game industry should unionize. In 2016, voice actors in

9156-531: The potential market for similar titles. Schafer and his team selected the best four, and began shopping the games to various publishers, and successfully worked publishing details with these. Two of these games, Costume Quest and Stacking , were picked up by THQ and released digitally on the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network storefronts. Both games were considered successful and THQ expressed interest in helping Double Fine produce similar titles. Iron Brigade

9265-694: The present, being a de facto rate used for most digital storefronts for third-party developers to offer their games on the platform. In recent years, larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house", they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner (with their own culture and work practices). For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999), which merged with Infinity Ward in 2014; Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005). All these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition,

9374-414: The primary differences being exclusivity and financial details. Publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget (or missing deadlines) than third-party developers. A developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software, usually providing an external software tool which helps organize (or use) information for the primary software product. Such tools may be

9483-429: The publisher's wishes generally override those of the developer. Work for hire studios solely execute the publishers vision. The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time. By updating its milestones, the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct

9592-415: The publishers. While this had some effects on a few games within the industry, it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize. A grassroots movement, Game Workers Unite , was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers. The group came to the forefront during the March 2018 Game Developers Conference by holding

9701-471: The release of Psychonauts 2 , in July 2021, Schafer stated he was happy with Microsoft's handling of Double Fine; he called the acquisition a "limited integration" with Double Fine retaining all control on the creative elements while leaving the financial issues up to Microsoft to manage, and left the studio able to focus their creative skills on finishing the game without feeling any budgetary crunch. Double Fine and 2 Player Productions released PsychOdyssey ,

9810-572: The same kind of mission and believe in the same kind of things we believe in." In February 2012, the casual video game, Double Fine Happy Action Theater , was published for the Xbox 360 Kinect through the Xbox Live Arcade by Microsoft Game Studios. The title is less a game and more an interactive toy, in which the Kinect is used to create augmented video on the players' screen, putting the players into scenarios such as walking through lava or playing in

9919-568: The takeover of THQ after their bankruptcy, Double Fine took over all publishing rights, while Nordic Games retained and restarted distributing retail copies of all three titles for Microsoft Windows and macOS in early 2014. Double Fine announced in March 2014 that it would begin publishing indie games under the moniker Double Fine Presents. Using that program, Double Fine makes its publishing capabilities and offices available for other independent developers to help them finish their work by funding, publishing, and promoting it. The idea came about during

10028-545: The target of sexual harassment. This can be coupled from similar harassment from external groups, such as during the 2014 Gamergate controversy . Major investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that went unchecked by management, as well as discrimination by employers, have been brought up against Riot Games , Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard in the late 2010s and early 2020s, alongside smaller studios and individual developers. However, while other entertainment industries have had similar exposure through

10137-443: The team in an "Amnesia Fortnight". For a two-week period, the employees were split into four groups, told to forget their current work on Brütal Legend (hence the "Amnesia"), and tasked to develop a game prototype for review by the other groups. The four ideas were successfully made into playable prototypes. The four prototypes produced were Custodians Of The Clock , Happy Song , Love Puzzle , and Tiny Personal Ninja . The process

10246-484: The toxic nature of the video game culture. This racial diversity issue has similar ties to the gender one, and similar methods to result both have been suggested, such as improving grade school education, developing games that appeal beyond the white, male gamer stereotype, and identifying toxic behavior in both video game workplaces and online communities that perpetuate discrimination against gender and race. In regards to LGBT and other gender or sexual orientations,

10355-487: The use of crunch time at Electronic Arts , a situation known as the "EA Spouses" case. A similar "Rockstar Spouses" case gained further attention in 2010 over working conditions at Rockstar San Diego . Since then, there has generally been negative perception of crunch time from most of the industry as well as from its consumers and other media. Game development had generally been a predominately male workforce. In 1989, according to Variety , women constituted only 3% of

10464-504: The video game industry typically shares the same demographics as with the larger population based on a 2005 IGDA survey. Those in the LGBT community do not find workplace issues with their identity, though work to improve the representation of LGBT themes within video games in the same manner as with racial minorities. However, LGBT developers have also come under the same type of harassment from external groups like women and racial minorities due to

10573-678: The video game industry. Whereas some video game employees believe they should follow the craft-based model used by SAG-AFTRA which would unionize based on job function, others feel an industry-wide union, regardless of job position, would be better. Starting in 2021, several smaller game studios in the United States began efforts to unionize. These mostly involved teams doing quality assurance rather than developers. These studios included three QA studios under Blizzard Entertainment : Raven Software , Blizzard Albany , and Proletariat; and Zenimax Media 's QA team. Microsoft , which had previously acquired Zenimax and announced plans to acquire Blizzard via

10682-504: The workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor. Similar to other tech industries, video game developers are typically not unionized . This is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production, the lack of distinction between management and employees in the white-collar area, and the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out. However, when situations related to crunch time become prevalent in

10791-660: Was argued to be "exploitive", as Telltale had been known to force its employees to frequently work under "crunch time" to deliver its games. By the end of 2018, a United Kingdom trade union, Game Workers Unite UK, an affiliate of the Game Workers Unite movement, had been legally established. Following Activision Blizzard 's financial report for the previous quarter in February 2019, the company said that they would be laying off around 775 employees (about 8% of their workforce) despite having record profits for that quarter. Further calls for unionization came from this news, including

10900-495: Was once a clog shop in San Francisco . After several months of working on the demo for what would become Psychonauts , a mixture of personnel from the Grim Fandango development team and other new employees were slowly added to begin production. After the implementation of Amnesia Fortnights in 2011 as a means to find new titles to publish, the company is split into a number of teams with about 15 people each. Each team has

11009-461: Was prototyped between 2008 and 2009 as Custodians Of The Clock , and was originally released as Trenched before the title was changed due to trademark issues. It was developed as an Xbox Live Arcade game in association with Microsoft Game Studios , and similarly received positive praise from journalists. A fourth game, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster , expanded from the Happy Song prototype,

11118-516: Was published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in association with the Sesame Workshop for the Xbox 360 using the Kinect controller. Though it initially was not a licensed title, Schafer and his team found it to be an ideal fit for their first licensed-property game. The four unused ideas may be used for a game in the future, according to Schafer, but believes some of them may be unsellable to

11227-511: Was published by Microsoft Game Studios in December 2012. On February 22, 2012, Double Fine filed a trademark for the name "The Cave", later confirming that this was not related to the Double Fine Adventure project. In May 2012, it was revealed that The Cave was the title of an adventure and platform game developed by Ron Gilbert during his tenure at Double Fine. It was published by Sega in January 2013. Gilbert subsequently left

11336-501: Was released for Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 2 and Xbox . Despite its acclaim, however, it did not sell well initially. Double Fine's second project was Brütal Legend , a hybrid real time strategy , action-adventure game following a heavy metal roadie named Eddie Riggs, whose name is derived from both Eddie the Head , the Iron Maiden mascot, and Derek Riggs, the artist who created

11445-468: Was released to the community. Largely due to backlash from the abrupt end of development, Spacebase DF-9 has more negative user reviews on the Steam store than positive. The other game partially funded with Indie Fund backing was revealed on December 10, 2013 to be Hack 'n' Slash , another full commercial version of an Amnesia Fortnight 2012 prototype. Hack 'n' Slash was released through Steam Early Access in

11554-410: Was repeated later near the end of Brütal Legend , providing an additional two prototypes. The prototypes produced were Costume Quest and Stacking . Schafer credits the concept of the Amnesia Fortnights to film director Wong Kar-Wai . During the long, three-year filming of Ashes of Time , Wong had taken some of his actors and film crew to Hong Kong to shoot footage for fun, ultimately resulting in

11663-431: Was revealed on October 15, 2013 to be Spacebase DF-9 , a fleshed out commercial version of one of the Amnesia Fortnight 2012 prototypes. The game was released as an alpha version on Steam Early Access, and was developed with user feedback received during the early access release period. Development was canceled at version "Alpha 6e" with the next patch released as the finished game. This release did include source code that

11772-417: Was started because the adventure genre has been perceived as niche and commercially risky. The project aimed to collect $ 300,000 for the game's development and $ 100,000 for the filming of the game's development by 2 Player to be released alongside the game. The project reached its $ 400,000 funding goal in under nine hours of the month-long drive. Within 24 hours, Double Fine Adventure had raised more than

11881-420: Was told to stop development shortly after as Electronic Arts decided against publishing it. With no other publishing deals lined up at the time, Schafer turned back to the eight game ideas developed from Amnesia Fortnight, believing they could be developed further into short, complete games. Schafer also looked at the success of smaller focused games like Geometry Wars on the various download services, realizing

#921078