Tim Schafer

Tim Schafer, born in California in 1967, is widely regarded as one of gaming's greatest writers, a designer whose imagination runs to the strange, the funny and the unexpectedly tender. He got his start at LucasArts during the golden age of the graphic adventure, first as a co-designer on the Monkey Island games alongside Ron Gilbert.

He soon proved a singular voice of his own. Day of the Tentacle (1993), a time-traveling cartoon farce, remains one of the wittiest games ever written. Full Throttle (1995) sent a biker gang through a hard-boiled road movie. And Grim Fandango (1998), his masterpiece, reimagined the land of the dead as a film-noir art-deco fantasia drawn from Mexican folklore, a game of astonishing style, warmth and literary confidence that is routinely named among the finest ever made.

In 2000 Schafer founded Double Fine Productions, where his knack for high-concept whimsy continued. Psychonauts (2005) sent a young psychic cadet leaping into the surreal mental landscapes of troubled characters, a platformer celebrated for its inventiveness and emotional depth that earned a long-awaited sequel. Brütal Legend (2009) built an action game around a loving, hilarious tribute to heavy metal.

Schafer also helped reshape how games get funded. Double Fine's 2012 crowdfunding campaign for a new adventure game shattered expectations and helped ignite the modern crowdfunding movement, giving independent and mid-sized developers a new path outside the publisher system. The studio has since become a champion of quirky, personal projects.

His legacy is the game as a vehicle for genuine comedy and genuine feeling. In an industry often preoccupied with spectacle and combat, Schafer insisted that character, humor and heart mattered most, and his worlds, populated by lovable oddballs and sharp, human dialogue, showed that interactive stories could be a true home for wit and pathos alike.