Tim Schafer is a video game designer, programmer and writer who spent a decade working at LucasArts before founding his own game studio, Double Fine Productions.   Schafer began his career at LucasArts in 1989, his first assignment was to implement the port of Maniac Mansion to the Nintendo Entertainment System and get familiar with LucasArts’ game engine SCUMM.

In 1990 Ron Gilbert was working on an approved concept known at the time as Mutiny on Monkey Island.  In order to flush out the story and characters, Gilbert brought Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman onto the project as writers.  Gilbert’s vision was for the story to have a comedic tone and felt that Schafer and Grossman’s personalities were a perfect fit for the game.

The game ultimately became the pirate-themed adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island.  The game released in October 1990 to critical acclaim and spawned four sequels, the first of which released the following year in 1991.  The Secret of Monkey Island was Schafer’s writing debut and due to the game’s success Schafer was assign to the sequel “Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge”.

LucasArts were confident in Schafer’s ability after his involvement with The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge and assigned him to lead his own projects.  Over the next couple of years Schafer would design Day of the Tentacle, a time-travel comedy adventure and the sequel to Maniac Mansion, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango.

After the completion of Grim Fandango Schafer parted ways with LucasArts to found his own game development studio, Double Fine Productions in July 2000.   Double Fine’s first projects were Psychonauts and Brütal Legend, both massive undertakings for the small development studio.   Psychonauts released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC and Brütal Legend released in 2009 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. 

After the completion of Brütal Legend the development studio shifted focus to develop smaller initiatives in order to diversify their portfolio.  The studio was able to acquire the rights to remaster some of the early LucasArts adventure games, including Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle.  While continuing to develop smaller projects the studio remastered the three classic titles releasing Grim Fandango Remastered in 2015, Day of the Tentacle Remastered in 2016 and Full Throttle Remastered in 2017.  

As the President and CEO of Double Fine, Schafer has proven that he is able to adapt his company based on market demand, shifts in the gaming industry and financial uncertainties.  Along with his executive responsibilities he continues to act as the studio’s creative director and writer for the Psychonauts series.  Schafer is a popular personality in the video game industry and has hosted numerous award shows and conducted developer interviews at video game developer conferences.  In 2018 Schafer was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from Game Developers Choice Awards and received a BAFTA Fellowship at the British Academy Games Awards for his contributions in the video game industry.