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Gilbert leaves Double Fine, which makes me grumpy...

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I had no idea Ron Gilbert was only going to stay with Double Fine until The Cave was finished... 

 

He should totally join WadjetEye just to have all game dev Gilberts under one roof, it would also be kinda funny.

 

I just hope he's joking about match 3 game he says he's going to make. :(

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Don't think he's joking about the Match-3 game, but I think it sounds kind of hilarious. The world needs more musical games, match-3 or not.

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Wouldn't that just be Lumines? Unless the game actually sang when you matched three, which would be hilarious.

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He's not joking--his previous non-DF game was also a casual iOS game, The Big Big Castle. Ron does a lot of mobile gaming and enjoys very small-scale development where it's just him and his artist Clayton, with whom he has been collaborating ever since the Cavedog days.

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Yeah! Big Big Castle was pretty nice.

I'm hoping it's an actual Musical game with singing. That'd be amazing.

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Whoa, I totally missed that game, I'll have to check it out. I also hope it has actual singing... I want them to sing acapella when you get a big combo!

 

PS: A game with FLOOOOOOATING Princeses in it? TV's Kyle much know of it ASAP!

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He's not joking--his previous non-DF game was also a casual iOS game, The Big Big Castle. Ron does a lot of mobile gaming and enjoys very small-scale development where it's just him and his artist Clayton, with whom he has been collaborating ever since the Cavedog days.

 

Secretly I had been hoping things would work in the opposite direction and that he'd be able to talk Clayton into joining Double Fine. He's a talented artist. Not that Double Fine is lacking in that department, but it would have been awesome to see what Ron and Clayton could do with Double Fine's help. Still, I'm excited to see what they come up with next.

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Secretly I had been hoping things would work in the opposite direction and that he'd be able to talk Clayton into joining Double Fine. He's a talented artist. Not that Double Fine is lacking in that department, but it would have been awesome to see what Ron and Clayton could do with Double Fine's help. Still, I'm excited to see what they come up with next.

Clayton is a senior designer at Microsoft! I think he's got a pretty sweet setup where he has a really stable (probably much better paying than DF could ever be) day job, while getting to do his indie-scale stuff on his own time with Ron.

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So Chris, care to comment on Nick Breckon's arrival at Double Fine? Was there idle plotting going on? Hmm... thumbs reference aside, "idle plotting" is a weird phrase.

 

I can totally see the appeal of a mobile os project in that context. I'm not sure how long production of The Cave took, but it's nice to have the option to take a break after something like that rather than just launch into another long term commitment.

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So Chris, care to comment on Nick Breckon's arrival at Double Fine? Was there idle plotting going on? Hmm... thumbs reference aside, "idle plotting" is a weird phrase.

 

I can totally see the appeal of a mobile os project in that context. I'm not sure how long production of The Cave took, but it's nice to have the option to take a break after something like that rather than just launch into another long term commitment.

If your implication is that there is somehow any connection between Nick's new job and Ron leaving DF, I can comment that there isn't!

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Intimidation and extortion confirmed! Congrats Nick, you really did it this time.

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If your implication is that there is somehow any connection between Nick's new job and Ron leaving DF, I can comment that there isn't!

Ha! I knew it! Of course you would deny it!

 

Joking aside, very happy for him and I'm sure you guys are thrilled to have back in northern California. Now, I'm a podcast and a half behind, but can we expect him to return to the gang or is that a question for another day?

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Nick Breckon joined Double Fine? Is the world ready for this?

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I'm looking forward to 'Congrats Nick: the Nick Breckon simulator' at the next amnesia fortnight.

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Nick's looking forward to 'Congrats Nick: the Nick Breckon stimulator', he bought off eBay

sex+machine.jpg

(Not surprisingly you'll find some crazy shit when you google image search sex machine)

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I'm glad they fired him due to the poor sales result of The Cave.

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Clayton is a senior designer at Microsoft! I think he's got a pretty sweet setup where he has a really stable (probably much better paying than DF could ever be) day job, while getting to do his indie-scale stuff on his own time with Ron.

 

What about Ron? The guy seems to bounce around from company to company. Things ended badly at Hothead. Now he's leaving DF. The Cave was an awesome game -- I hope it finds an audience eventually. And I hope Ron has some financial stability...?

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What about Ron? The guy seems to bounce around from company to company. Things ended badly at Hothead. Now he's leaving DF. The Cave was an awesome game -- I hope it finds an audience eventually. And I hope Ron has some financial stability...?

As far as I'm aware, Ron made a LOT of money in the sale of Humongous Entertainment. He's doing fine. I'm saying that not officially as a DF employee, because obviously we have no direct insight into his finances, just as someone who has been generally aware of his movements over the years.

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As far as I'm aware, Ron made a LOT of money in the sale of Humongous Entertainment. He's doing fine. I'm saying that not officially as a DF employee, because obviously we have no direct insight into his finances, just as someone who has been generally aware of his movements over the years.

 

Hmm. I'm not sure about that. Humongous Entertainment was sold to GT Interactive for $76 million, yes, but Gilbert's co-founder, Shelley Day, was later jailed for trying to fraudulently get a loan for $1.5 million. (If she'd actually gotten $38 million from the sale of HE, I think she probably just would have used her own money :-/ ) Did Ron ever talk about that stuff?

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Hmm. I'm not sure about that. Humongous Entertainment was sold to GT Interactive for $76 million, yes, but Gilbert's co-founder, Shelley Day, was later jailed for trying to fraudulently get a loan for $1.5 million. (If she'd actually gotten $38 million from the sale of HE, I think she probably just would have used her own money :-/ ) Did Ron ever talk about that stuff?

I don't know, but people who have made tons of money very frequently run into extreme financial problems because of their own mismanagement. The money from the sale had to go somewhere, and where else would it have gone besides to those who owned the company?

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I don't know, but people who have made tons of money very frequently run into extreme financial problems because of their own mismanagement. The money from the sale had to go somewhere, and where else would it have gone besides to those who owned the company?

It could also be that Ron Gilbert had a larger stake in the company. Just because two people start a company together doesn't necessarily mean they have equal equity in the company. 

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