Double Fine’s Tim Schafer wants to recreate more classic LucasArts adventure games, but he says that decision is partly “up to Disney” and those games’ “original creators,” PCGamer revealed in a new report.
Last weekend, Schafer met up with PCGamer at London’s EGX Rezzed, where he opened up about why he remastered his classic adventure titles Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, and Day of the Tentacle. While Schafer prefers to create a game and then move on to another project, he also realizes that some of the classic LucasArts titles from the 1990s have “value in going back” and looking at them.
Plus, many of those games are literally impossible to play on current systems, meaning a remaster is necessary to keep the games alive for future generations.
“They were falling apart,” Schafer said to PCGamer. “They weren’t available anymore, they didn’t run so you’d have to pirate them if you wanted to buy some of them. We thought it was time.”
Not just that, but the original material behind those classic LucasArts games is fading away, which means it’s better to remaster a game and create a “definitive version” sooner rather than later.
“The source material was ageing,” Schafer explained. “A lot of it was on tape drives that are crumbling. Some of the team had passed away. While everyone’s still around, let’s make a definitive version of this game. We can get the team back together to comment on it, and gather that art, go to the archives and find what we can find.”
So when it comes to other classic LucasArts games, Double Fine is ready to continue remastering games. But it comes down to Disney and the games’ original creators before Schafer can continue making adventure game remasters.
“We’d love to [return to the back catalog],” Schafer told PCGamer. “And in some ways it’s up to Disney, if they want to do that, obviously, and if the original creators want to be involved. That’s what makes those remasters special, that the original creators came back and were able to say what to improve on, what to leave alone.”
For more insights into remastering LucasArts’ classic adventure games, read through excerpts from PCGamer’s interview with Schafer here.
