Tim Schafer

Schafer is not only known for his comedic writing, but his ability to tell a story, and with games such as Full Throttle and Grim Fandango for their great use of story telling and development of characters. Grim Fandango is Schafer's most noted work for it's dark and brilliant noir-like story telling of corruption and deceit in the Land of the Dead starring a Grim Reaper/Salesman Richard "Rick" Blane-like character named Manuel "Manny" Calavera.

When Schafer left Lucasarts to start Doublefine, Schafer's writing style was not only recognizable to many, but he began to have a distinct art style. With the games Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, the exaggeration of characters and over use of facial expressions (at it's best) became Schafer's game style. Example to that is when characters Raz from Psychonauts and Eddie Riggs from Brutal Legend have a wide range of emotions, most of which rely on body gestures and eye expressions.

Name: Tim Schafer
Notable creations and work: Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brutal Legend
Born: July 26, 1967

Biographical Summary

Born in Sonoma California in July 26, 1967, Tim Schafer studied at UC Berkley for a degree in Computer Science after a day in his life when his father brings a Magnavox Odyssey, causing Schafer at a young age o want to pursue computer science, but after finding computer science becoming slightly boring, and creative writing relevant to his interests, Schafer left in hopes of pursuing creative writing.

After attempting, and unfortunately, being rejected from HP, Schafer applied to Lucasarts (back then Lucasfilms Games) who were searching for writers and programers: a perfect description for Schafer. When his phone interview failed, he sent his application to Lucasarts with his own twist of sending a comic of him being hired in a form of a text adventure. Needless to say, Schafer was hired and worked for them for eight years, making hit games such as The Secret of Monkey Island and Lechuck's Revenge, Day of the Tentacle, and Grim Fandango.

After the release of Grim Fandango, Tim Schafer left Lucasarts to start his own company, Doublefine with the debuting game of the company, Psychonauts.

Work

Tim Schafer programmed many games during his time in Lucasarts, but what made him as a Game Developer was his unique style of work which was use of dialog. During the production of The Secret of Monkey Island, Ron Gilbert, Creator and one of the developers, stated in an interview that that two thirds of the dialog written in the game, was based on the jokes tossed between Schafer and co-programmer Dave Grossman. It was only obvious that the humor of dialog returned in Monkey Island's sequel Lechuck's Revenge. Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle is another game that had Schafer's comedic writing with it's never ending obscurity.