Indies, eh? They’re not simply builders lately. Since 2014, Double Fine have printed a wildly numerous vary of indies below the Double Fine Presents label. Their newest, charming Cornish journey Knights And Bikes undoubtedly has that recognisably Double Fine quirkiness, however they’ve additionally pushed some correctly bizarre little curiosities like Kids and Mountain.
But Double Fine are with the massive canine now. The subsequent factor Double Fine Presents current might properly be their very own winding down.
Double Fine huge boss Tim Schafer told Destructoid that Double Fine Presents won’t be lengthy for this world. With the studio’s new home under Microsoft, it doesn’t fairly make sense to be doing their very own publishing below one other writer.
“How Double Fine Presents will evolve is kind of an unknown,” Schafer stated. “It doesn’t make sense to do exactly the kind of publishing stuff if we can’t do it– like if the platforms are limited. From a business sense, I don’t know if it structurally makes sense to have a publisher within [another publisher]. It’s a complicated issue.”
Running a publishing enterprise below the glare of the tech big might carry an entire host of recent considerations. If Double Fine’s personal games are quickly to be Microsoft unique, would that lock Presents-published initiatives to Xbox and the Windows Store?
So stacking publishers is unquestionably fairly daft, sure. But Double Fine Presents wasn’t nearly making some money on the aspect publishing quirky indies. There had been some correctly unusual and tiny issues pushed below the label, games that will battle to discover a residence elsewhere. Schafer hopes to proceed the spirit of the publishing effort by constructing on issues like Day of the Devs.
It won’t be the identical as getting them on retailer cabinets, however Double Fine and Iam8bit’s annual San Francisco indie showcase places 70-80 relatively-unknown titles in entrance of public eyes.
“It’s a great way to approach that same mission, and we can still do that without officially putting our name on it and taking a share of the revenue. We don’t have to do that anymore.”
Beyond this month’s Knights and Bikes, Double Fine Presents had been additionally behind Samurai Gunn 2. The slash ’em up sequel nonetheless hasn’t made its approach to PC, regardless of plans to hit Steam this year.
Nothing’s sure proper now, and there’s each probability Double Fine might discover a new spin for the quirkier aspect of its enterprise. Fingers crossed.
