As soon as I discovered Tim Schafer was making a new adventure game and asking for donations to get it made, I instantly donated thirty dollars. Why? Because I grew up playing the games he helped to create.
The first video game I received in my lifetime was the LucasArts Archive Volume One. This box brimmed with gaming goodness: Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max Hit the Road, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. For me as a kid it was like playing cartoons. I couldn't get enough.
In the following years my younger self also received the first three Monkey Island games, but the Schafer co-developed (with Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman) Day of the Tentacle stood as my favorite. It's wacky humor helped to shape the way I perceive and create comedy in my own writing, a fact that my girlfriend understood after only a few minutes of me showing her Day of the Tentacle.
Unfortunately, being the internet-less kid that I was at the time I never heard of Full Throttle or Grim Fandango until they became hard to acquire. Not playing these two classics is one of my great gaming regrets, and it's something LucasArts could rectify if only they would digitally re-release their old catalog (please?).
My ability to get a hold of his work in a timely fashion didn't improve in the 2000's. I purchased both Psychonauts and Brutal Legend long after release for a fraction of their original costs. I was a high school student with no money when Psychonauts dropped and a college student with no money when Brutal Legend hit. None of that stopped me from thoroughly enjoying the same quirky humor I loved as a kid when I finally played these. I loved every minute, even the minutes containing the RTS bits of Brutal Legend.
Recently I've been throwing money Double Fine's way as often as I possibly can. Upon their respective releases I immediately purchased both Costume Quest and Iron Brigade (Trenched) and had a blast with both. I gifted copies of Psychonauts to my friends on Steam. I await the release of Stacking on PC to send even more money in their direction. And then this whole Kickstarter thing happened.
Double Fine isn't the most successful studio; their games have always found this weird place of critical success that hasn't translated into sales, a fact I find disappointing. So imagine my reaction when I discovered that Tim and the folks at Double Fine needed my help creating a game in the style of the first game I ever played and one of my favorite games of all time. I couldn't type my credit card digits fast enough.
It's safe to say without his contributions to gaming that I wouldn't be the person I am today. The entire foundation of my comedic and gaming lifestyle was created by Day of the Tentacle, and I can't wait to see what's next from Tim Schafer and his two million (and growing) dollars.