Double Fine enjoying fan input on development, says LeBreton

Double Fine lead designer JP LeBreton said the reason he left 2K Marin to join Double Fine, was due to Tim Schafer's ability to hand off creative control to those who work for him.

Speaking with Gamasutra, LeBreton found such an attitude toward games development refreshing, coupled with the fact Double Fine concentrates more on smaller projects instead of major console releases.

"It's just awesome. It's a completely different kind of thing," he said. "Even though he's a big personality creatively, and the things that he works on he's going to be the game director kind of guy who calls all the shots, he was still willing to abdicate some of that control in the interest of broadening the concept of what the company did, and all that kind of stuff."

One of LeBreton's pitches conceptualized during one of Double Fine's famous Amnesia Fortnight sessions was recently picked by fans as the next idea to be prototyped .

LeBreton likened the experience to "fans being your publishers," and when control is handed over to them, developers need to think about their relationships with them "a lot more carefully, or in a much more intricate way than before."

"I'm sure that will prove in the long run to have its own set of advantages and disadvantages, but it also just feels like a much more honest living, where you're not dealing with a middleman in some ways," he continued. "That's interesting. It's more interesting than publisher hegemony, that's for sure.

"Ask me after Double Fine Adventure has come out, and all that, what the final verdict on that will be. But it seems cool."

The full interview with LeBreton and Double Fine colleague Chris Remo can be found on Gamasutra through here.