Tim Schafer: publishers aren’t “evil”

Tim Schafer might have opted to go with public funding for his latest project, the otherwise untitled Double Fine Adventure, but that doesn’t mean he’s down on publishers.

Of course, he’d have to say that in case his game tanks and the fans don’t want to give him any money again, and he doesn’t have much choice about working with a publisher again.

“Publishers do their business in a way that works for them,” he told HookshotInc. “They’re risking millions of dollars so they’ve got to mitigate that risk – and sometimes that means removing risky ideas from games.

“The thing is, Double Fine is all about coming up with new, unproven and really creative ideas. It’s a constant battle for us to get those ideas to go through the system, that long spanking machine of people who have to sign off on your idea. They’re not evil, they’re just trying to protect themselves.

“But the indie community is now moving elsewhere; we’re figuring out how to fund and distribute games ourselves, and we’re getting more control over them. Those systems [like Xbox LIVE and PSN] as great as they are, they’re still closed. You have to jump through a lot of hoops, even for important stuff like patching and supporting your game,” he added. “Those are things we really want to do, but we can’t do it on these systems.”

Double Fine Adventure has already raised close on $2 million in just four days.