{"id":326972,"date":"2025-10-19T00:51:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T00:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T00:51:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T00:51:46","slug":"the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life And Career Of Tim Schafer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" alt=\"\" typeof=\"Image\" class=\"image-style-body-default\" \/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"firstgraph\">Tim Schafer likes <em>Star Wars<\/em>. But as far as he\u2019s concerned, Lucasfilm\u2019s video games were the company\u2019s greatest creative output. In the early \u201980s, George Lucas\u2019 burgeoning computer division explored a few forms of entertainment outside of the movie industry. In 1984, the company released a sci-fi-inspired sports game called Ballblazer as well as a primordial first-person shooter set in space called Rescue on Fractalus! To Schafer, these games were a revelation. The video game industry, on the whole, seemed almost magical.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was there at the beginning,\u201d Schafer says. \u201cI remember my dad bringing home a Magnavox Odyssey, the first home arcade console ever and just being so fascinated with it. Sometimes it feels funny to explain to people why it\u2019s exciting to see things moving on a screen. I\u2019m trying to talk to my daughter about it. She\u2019s grown up with smartphones, and I\u2019m like, \u2018No, you don\u2019t understand. TV was controlled by other people, and then you could make dots move on it!\u2019 It was so fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-1.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> <\/article>\n<p>Schafer quickly became a video game fan. He devoured text adventures such as Zork, The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy, and Scott Adams\u2019 Savage Island series. After his dad brought home a few Atari consoles as well as an Atari Computer, Schafer began experimenting with designing his own games, but he didn\u2019t initially think about pursuing a job in the video game industry. In college, Schafer studied computer science, however, he was most passionate about creative writing. Authors like Kurt Vonnegut (<em>Slaughterhouse-Five<\/em>, <em>Breakfast of Champions<\/em>) were his icons, and he dreamed of being a writer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought I would write short stories and get a job at a database programming [company],\u201d Schafer says. \u201cAll the jobs back then were database programmers \u2026 I loved video games, but, in my head, they were made by companies. I would think of Atari as, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s this big, monolithic building full of scientists and robots and some big, massive brain.\u2019 But I realized later, \u2018Woah, they were just young kids. They were young programmers all by themselves making these games.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<aside>\n<h2><span class=\"tim\">Tim Schafer:<\/span> On Being A Game Writer<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cKurt Vonnegut, his thing was that he wrote short stories when he was starting out working at GE. So, early on I was like, \u2018Okay, I\u2019ll get that database programming job and at night I\u2019ll write short stories.\u2019 I still have never really \u2013 except for [one story in college] \u2013 I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever really finished a short story outside of that. I was like, \u2018Okay, I\u2019ll work on this games job for a while until I become a famous writer like Kurt Vonnegut.\u2019 A couple years into it, I was like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m getting paid to write. This is a writing job. I\u2019m getting paid and I\u2019m writing dialogue and I actually am a professional writer.\u2019 It took me a long time to accept that I was working as a writer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>One day, a friend told Schafer that Lucasfilm Games (rebranded to LucasArts in 1990) was looking for developers who could program and write. Schafer felt that he had unknowingly been preparing for a dream job his entire life. He thought back to the days he spent playing LucasArts games on his Atari, and he knew he didn\u2019t want to pass up this opportunity. He just had to nail the interview.<\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-2.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> <\/article>\n<p>\u201cI had a bad phone interview with David Fox [the designer and programmer behind Rescue on Fractalus! and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders],\u201d Schafer says. \u201cHe was really nice, but he asked me what Lucasfilm Games I had played, and I told him I really liked the games I had played on my Atari 800, like Ballblaster. He was like, \u2018Ballblaster, huh? That\u2019s what Ballblazer was called when it was pirated.\u2019 [laughs] I was like, \u2018Oh, God. He got me there because I had a disc of all their pirated games. Piracy\u2019s bad, kids. Don\u2019t do it. You\u2019ll end up like me and have your own company and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Schafer was convinced he\u2019d blown the initial interview, he wasn\u2019t deterred, and spent several nights crafting a perfect cover letter\/resume. In a cheeky nod to the job he hoped to one day attain, Schafer designed his letter to look like an early-\u201980s graphical adventure game complete with ASCII art depicting the Lucasfilm campus. Interview be damned, Schafer got the job.<\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-3.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> A copy of Schafer\u2019s cover letter to LucasArts, which helped him get the job <\/article>\n<aside>\n<h2><span class=\"tim\">Tim Schafer:<\/span> On Classic Cartoons<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cWe got to meet [renowned Warner Bros. animation director] Chuck Jones because he was a big inspiration on the style of Day of the Tentacle. We met with him because I think we were hoping he would say a blurb for the box \u2013 like some endorsement \u2013 but we never came out and asked him for it, so he never did [laughs] \u2026 It was marketing\u2019s idea. We were just so excited about meeting him, we forgot to ask. But he liked the game. It was nice that Chuck Jones liked it. If you\u2019ve ever seen [the animated cartoon short] Duck Amuck, I feel like Duck Amuck has influenced every game I\u2019ve ever made. It\u2019s Bugs Bunny torturing Daffy Duck with his pen and his eraser and drawing anvils to drop on his head. Warner Bros. cartoons and growing up with surrealism, I think affected a whole generation of creators \u2026 Playing with your perception is something we do in Psychonauts all the time. It\u2019s basic Roadrunner logic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<h2>Life On The Ranch<\/h2>\n<p>After the success of <em>Star Wars<\/em>, George Lucas built Skywalker Ranch near Nicasio, Calif., to function as his personal movie development workshop. The grounds contained an animal barn, outdoor swimming pool, fitness center, vineyard, and gardens full of fruits and vegetables for the onsite gourmet restaurant to use. When Schafer joined Lucasfilm in 1989, the campus also housed a motion picture mixing facility and served as the corporate offices for the studio\u2019s many accountants and lawyers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was amazing!\u201d Schafer says. \u201cI mean, right out of college, to go to work at Skywalker Ranch, you know? This was before <em>Episode 1<\/em> was even imagined, so this was <em>Star Wars<\/em> in the magic times \u2026 there were a lot of celebrities around Skywalker Ranch. Jack Nicholson stopped by. Pearl Jam would record records there. At one point, Michael Jackson was at the Fourth of July picnic. You had to get used to like, \u2018Don\u2019t go up to people. Don\u2019t bother them. Be cool around celebrities.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-4.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> Schafer and his LucasArts family celebrate the release of The Secret of Monkey Island, which is still considered one of the most important adventure games of all time <\/article>\n<p>Lucasfilm\u2019s computer and game division was tucked into the back of the Ranch\u2019s facilities, but Schafer still found it to be a near-idyllic workspace. Over coffee breaks, he could walk out on the balcony and watch deer graze in the field. When he returned to his desk, he and his cohorts would joke around and talk about their favorite computer games. \u201cIt had a really well-funded startup kind of vibe, and then at lunch, you\u2019d walk down to the main house, this beautiful Victorian, where there was gourmet food for $3 a day,\u201d Schafer says.<\/p>\n<p>However, Schafer\u2019s time at the Ranch didn\u2019t last long as some of the higher-ups at Lucasfilm eventually got fed up with the rowdy antics coming from the games team. \u201cThey kicked us out because games people do things that they don\u2019t like at the Ranch, like ordering pizza at midnight and being a little bit rowdier,\u201d Schafer says, laughing.<\/p>\n<p>Schafer and the rest of the LucasArts team moved into the Kerner Complex in San Rafael, Calif. The building was also home to the movie special effects giant Industrial Light &#038; Magic. At the time, ILM was working on films such as <em>The Hunt for Red October<\/em>, <em>Back to the Future Part III<\/em>, and <em>Total Recall<\/em>. The practical effects for many of these films required a lot of model work, and Schafer remembers watching scale figures of World War II bombers exploding outside his office windows.<\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-5.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> Schafer in Die Hard 2 <\/article>\n<p>\u201cFun things would happen,\u201d Schafer says. \u201cThey\u2019d be like, \u2018Hey, anyone wanna be an extra? It pays 50 bucks. You\u2019ll be an extra in <em>Die Hard 2<\/em>.\u2019 We ran out there [at] 11 at night to 3 in the morning and just walked around this field with fake snow. They filmed us walking in different directions and put potato flakes on our shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Schafer\u2019s time at LucasArts was unforgettable, but it wasn\u2019t all fun and games. He had been hired to complete some serious work \u2026 work that also involved a lot of fun and games. As it would turn out, Schafer\u2019s creative output over the next several years would result in some of the most beloved adventure games of all time.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<h2>Tim Schafer: On Development Crunch<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cPeople often ask, \u2018Do you have any regrets?\u2019 And I\u2019ve always said, \u2018No,\u2019 because I\u2019ve really gotten to make everything I wanted to make. But looking back, the thing I regret the most in my career is the crunch modes I participated in and encouraged. When I was younger, we\u2019d just be like, \u2018Oh, we\u2019re working day and night and it\u2019s fun because we\u2019re making Monkey Island, or whatever.\u2019 \u2026 Monkey Island was fun and we loved working on it, so it didn\u2019t really occur to us to complain or be upset about working day and night. And also, I was young, and I didn\u2019t have much of a life. I\u2019d be like, \u2018Okay, I could either work all night or I could go home and watch Mystery Science Theater and eat Chinese food.\u2019 It\u2019s not that big a loss, you know? \u2026 When it\u2019s just yourself, you can throw yourself against the task as hard as you can. Like, \u2018All day and all night, I\u2019m going to push this rock. Ahhh! I\u2019m going to give it my all.\u2019 And then as I got more into a role where I was managing and designing and there were other people doing the gameplay programming stuff, now you\u2019re pushing on a soft person who\u2019s against the rock, so you can squish them and kill them if you push too hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<h2>Monkeying Around<\/h2>\n<p>Before Schafer joined LucasArts, George Lucas had licensed the Star Wars video games to companies like Atari. This meant Lucas\u2019 own employees couldn\u2019t produce games connected to the company\u2019s massive blockbuster franchise. \u201cThey\u2019re like, \u2018You guys have to just make up stuff; we can\u2019t do Star Wars,\u2019\u201d Schafer says. \u201cIt was this golden age of having access to a big chunk of George\u2019s money and just being told to make up stuff from scratch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Star Wars games may have been off the table, but that suited Schafer just fine; he was more excited by the prospect of working on strange, original ideas. As soon as Schafer started, he met a brilliant young designer named Ron Gilbert who was already working on a point-and-click adventure game called Mutiny on Monkey Island \u2013 later retitled The Secret of Monkey Island. Schafer joined the team, spending days researching serious pirate lore and reading books like <em>Treasure Island<\/em> to get into the right headspace. However, when Gilbert asked Schafer to write dialogue for the game, Schafer hesitated. Instead, he wrote a couple of jokes about a three-headed monkey, which got a laugh out of fellow game designer Dave Grossman.<\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-6.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> <\/article>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-7.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> <\/article>\n<p>\u201cI was like, \u2018Later, Ron will come up and he\u2019ll write the real dialogue, which will be serious pirate lore,\u2019\u201d Schafer says. \u201cAnd then Ron came up and he played it, he\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s funny.\u2019 I was like, \u2018I\u2019ll put something serious in there later.\u2019 And he [goes], \u2018No, that\u2019s the dialogue. That\u2019s the dialogue for the game.\u2019 I was like, \u2018You\u2019re gonna leave the three-headed monkey line in there?\u2019 He goes, \u2018Yeah. And you know what? We should get [LucasArts artist] Steve Purcell to draw a three-headed monkey and put it back there.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Are you kidding?\u2019 I was terrified that this raw, silly joke was going in there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI still had that image in my head of the big building full of scientists and robots that made games, like some super smart brain that knows what they\u2019re doing. And then you get in it and you realize everyone\u2019s just like you. People are smarter than you, for sure, but not like a different species of smart. So yeah, I didn\u2019t think the game would be super serious, but I thought it would be, I don\u2019t know, I thought some adult was going to come along and write the real dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later, when the team was designing combat for Monkey Island, Schafer felt like they hit a wall. Early concepts were based on Jordan Mechner\u2019s fighting game Karateka and featured high, low, and medium attacks that players could counter using high, low, and medium blocks. The team even spent time watching several classic Errol Flynn films for inspiration. However, the group never felt like the sword-fighting mechanics were a good fit for their adventure game. Gilbert eventually had the revelation that the dueling mechanic should be based on a war of words where players chose snappy comebacks and insults as a way of attacking their opponent.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<h2>Tim Schafer: On Heavy Metal<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always loved heavy metal. We\u2019d talk in high school about, \u2018What\u2019s the difference between hard rock and heavy metal?\u2019 We were like, \u2018Well, heavy metal is about madness, loneliness, darkness, and insanity. And hard rock is about partying and sex.\u2019 That\u2019s the big difference. I think about that. Why was I so drawn to the themes in heavy metal, which are always really dark? Everything by Black Sabbath \u2013 all of [bassist and lyricist] Geezer Butler\u2019s lyrics are mostly about the fear of going insane. And that\u2019s had an influence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI was like, \u2018You can\u2019t \u2013 people want to swordfight! They\u2019re gonna be so mad,\u2019\u201d Schafer says. \u201cI was so scared by this crazy idea, and then, of course, it turned out to be that the insult sword fighting is some people\u2019s favorite part of Monkey Island, and it\u2019s this classic thing. That was another example of just how afraid you are sometimes of ideas that don\u2019t fit. Learning to run with them was an important lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After working on The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck\u2019s Revenge, Schafer moved into the role of co-director, alongside Dave Grossman. The two created Day of the Tentacle, a bizarre adventure game about a group of young friends and their time-traveling adventure to stop a sentient, disembodied tentacle from taking over the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI used to talk about Day of the Tentacle as being the last fun game to work on,\u201d Schafer says. \u201cI always liked the games after, but that was the last time it felt easy because we didn\u2019t have 3D and we didn\u2019t do voice \u2026 The brainstorming sessions were so fun because we\u2019d just spend all afternoon in a room eating candy and telling jokes and accidentally designing a couple puzzles a day. Those were really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-8.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> Many of the jokes in Schafer\u2019s early LucasArts adventure games came about as the team goofed off in their office, trying to make each other laugh <\/article>\n<p>Schafer became the lone director on his next project, Full Throttle. LucasArts hoped Full Throttle would revolutionize the adventure game genre, and Schafer had the freedom to craft a more serious story about near-future biker gangs and corporate espionage. Schafer and his team moved into the offices that once housed Pixar and got to work modernizing their traditionally convoluted mechanics into a streamlined point-and-click interface. At one point, Schafer designed an interactive sequence where Full Throttle\u2019s protagonist underwent a peyote-induced hallucination. This sequence was cut from the game, but some of its concepts eventually took shape in the Psychonauts series.<\/p>\n<p>Around this time, Schafer also continued to refine his writing style and prove himself as more than just a humorist. Where The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle were off-the-wall cartoons, games like Full Throttle featured unique, detailed worlds full of compelling characters. Schafer began to understand that he could tell funny stories that still had heart and said something meaningful. Of course, as any artist will tell you, creating anything of value is hard.<\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-9.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> Grim Fandango <\/article>\n<p>\u201cThere are lot of writers that have shot themselves; I think I know why,\u201d Schafer says. \u201cAnd that\u2019s probably something I should learn [to deal with] better, because [writing] can be really isolating \u2026 When you do something creative, it\u2019s one thing to just output your own creative ideas, but to be able to explain them, why you\u2019re doing it \u2013 I\u2019m not even clear why I\u2019m doing half the stuff I\u2019m doing. It\u2019s hard to sit in a room and be like, \u2018I think the reason I\u2019m making this joke here is that three-headed monkeys are funny.\u2019 And what if someone was like, \u2018I think it should be a four-headed monkey!\u2019 Being able to have that conversation is a skill that people have to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Full Throttle, Schafer worked on a film noir-inspired adventure called Grim Fandango, which followed a travel agent for the dead named Manny Calavera on a multi-year journey across the underworld. Like Full Throttle, Schafer hoped to expand the definition of an adventure game. Grim Fandango combined Aztec beliefs of the afterlife with a 1930s Art Deco aesthetic to produce an incredibly striking visual style. The game\u2019s environments were built using a mix of pre-rendered 2D backgrounds and 3D character models, which allowed the team to design new kinds of puzzles that encouraged players to explore the world. When Grim Fandango launched in October 1998, it received rave reviews and a few \u201cGame of the Year\u201d nods. Schafer didn\u2019t know it at the time, but it would be his last project with LucasArts.<\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-10.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> <\/article>\n<h2>Under The Shadow Of Star Wars<\/h2>\n<p>In the mid-\u201990s, the rights to Star Wars games had reverted to LucasArts, and by the turn of the millennium the company was ramping up production on a series of games to support the release of the <em>Star Wars<\/em> prequel films. Schafer watched the tide at Lucasfilm turn from supporting original ideas to focusing on expanding a singular science-fantasy universe. While Full Throttle and Grim Fandango had been critical darlings, their market value couldn\u2019t compete with one of the biggest media franchises on the planet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome people in management really didn\u2019t like the adventure games because they were not huge money-makers,\u201d Schafer says. \u201cEspecially once they started making Star Wars games \u2026 They were like, \u2018Hey, Tim, after Grim, why don\u2019t you just make a PS2 game?\u2019 That was their code for some sort of actiony kind of game. And I kind of wanted to, too. \u2018Yeah, sure. I\u2019ll make a console game. I\u2019ll take all of the things we know from adventure games \u2013 the dialogue and story and characters and stuff \u2013 but it\u2019ll just be easier to use and interact with.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the \u201990s, Schafer played Super Mario 64, Final Fantasy VII, and the original Tomb Raider games. Those experiences awakened an excitement in him to explore fully-realized 3D worlds. Inspired by those titles, he began work on a spy-themed game that was a mix of Stanley Kubrick\u2019s <em>2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em>, the \u201970s spy thriller <em>Three Days of the Condor<\/em>, and the Hong Kong wire-fu movies of Jet Li. Schafer continued to play with the idea of letting players travel deeper into their minds to meditate on objects to progress the story \u2013 circling concepts that would finally see the light of day in Psychonauts years later.<\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-11.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> Schafer has hosted the Game Developers Choice Awards a number of times during his career. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the organization in 2018 <\/article>\n<p>However, after a year of prototyping this space-age spy game, Schafer felt like it was time to move on from the company that had given him a career. He wanted more flexibility over his company culture and the freedom to pursue any project that sparked his imagination. If he\u2019d stayed much longer at LucasArts, he might have been asked to create a Star Wars or Indiana Jones game, which could have been fun, but he didn\u2019t feel like he had the appropriate skills to play in someone else\u2019s world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaking up a world from scratch is one set of skills, and working with someone else\u2019s world is a different set of skills \u2026 Before [<em>Star Wars: Episode I \u2013 The Phantom Menace<\/em>] shipped, licensing was like, \u2018These characters can\u2019t have lightsabers; they\u2019re not Jedi.\u2019 [That team] was like, \u2018What? We made all these characters have lightsabers!\u2019 They ended up having billy clubs or something. At the last minute, they had to turn off the lights on the lightsabers. If I licensed Psychonauts to someone else, I\u2019d be the same way. I\u2019d be like, \u2018That\u2019s a psychic power, you can\u2019t have magic! The difference between psychic powers and magic is rah rah rah rah.\u2019 I\u2019d be exactly the same way because when you make a world you want it to be consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n<article class=\"embedded-entity\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer-12.jpg\" typeof=\"Image\" alt=\"\" \/> Schafer and actor Jack Black during a promotional tour for Double Fine\u2019s Br\u00fctal Legend <\/article>\n<p>In the summer of 2000, Schafer left LucasArts and founded Double Fine Productions which has achieved its own measure of fame over the years. Still, many fans look back with reverence at the work Schafer produced during the first decade of his career. Titles like The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and Grim Fandango are still considered some of the best adventure games of all time. Even so, Schafer recognizes that the most important thing he developed during his time at LucasArts wasn\u2019t an impressive gameography, it was the formative experiences that shaped him into a designer who could lead a team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomething I learned at Lucas was that you don\u2019t really place your bets on ideas, you place your bets on people,\u201d Schafer says. \u201cIt\u2019s not the strength of the game idea that makes the game successful, it\u2019s the people who are going to push it, make it work, and change the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"text-align-center\"><em>This article originally appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/magazine\">Issue 336<\/a> of Game Informer.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/2021\/08\/22\/inside-the-mind-of-tim-schafer\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tim Schafer likes Star Wars. But as far as he\u2019s concerned, Lucasfilm\u2019s video games were the company\u2019s greatest creative output. In the early \u201980s, George Lucas\u2019 burgeoning computer division explored a few forms of entertainment outside of the movie industry. In 1984, the company released a sci-fi-inspired sports game called Ballblazer as well as a primordial first-person shooter set in space called Rescue on Fractalus! To Schafer, these games were a revelation. The video game industry, on the whole, seemed almost magical. \u201cI was there at the beginning,\u201d Schafer says. \u201cI remember my dad bringing home a Magnavox Odyssey, the first home arcade console ever and just being so fascinated with it. Sometimes it feels funny to explain to people why it\u2019s exciting to see&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-life-and-career-of-tim-schafer\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":326973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-informer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Life And Career Of Tim Schafer | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tim Schafer likes Star Wars. But as far as he\u2019s concerned, Lucasfilm\u2019s video games were the company\u2019s greatest creative output. 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