Brutal Legend: "There was definitely a messaging problem with that game" - Schafer

Double Fine's Tim Schafer has discussed his reluctance to return to big, full priced retail releases, and sheds new light on the mixed messages and jumbled marketing that hindered his metal adventure Brutal Legend.

In an Eurogamer Interview, Schafer discussed Brutal Legend's misleading marketing, "There was definitely a messaging problem with that game. That's one example of how the openness would have helped that game a lot."

"Say we were developing that and sharing our battle system with people before we launched," Schafer explained, "not only would people have known about it, but people would contribute ideas to it and embrace it, and feel like it was their idea instead of this nasty shock."

But describing Brutal Legend as an RTS game was absolutely out of the question in Vivendi's eyes, says Schafer, "Vivendi was like 'No. Absolutely not. We'll never say RTS, ever. Even if someone asks us if it's an RTS we'll say no.'"

When asked about the Brutal Legend demo, which misrepresented the game as an action, hack n' slash title, Schafer explained, "The demo was kind of an accident. The mechanics ramp up slowly over time, so the demo is usually the first mission, so you just don't know those complicated RTS mechanics yet. The reason I went along with it is because it became something different.

"It started as an RTS" Schafer added, "but it evolved over time and it really became different from an RTS game. Like I said after release, if you play it like an RTS game you won't win. You have to play it like this new RTS/action hybrid. So because it became something different I felt it was not correct to call it an RTS anymore."

Will Schafer ever return to big retail releases like Brutal Legend again? He stated, "Yeah, but not at $60 retail."

Thanks Eurogamer.

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