Tanukitsune

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

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Things ended badly at Hothead. Now he's leaving DF.

 

Evidence?  I know they decided to make DeathSpank 3 without his knowledge, but my understanding was that he left Hothead on good terms exactly when he wanted to.  I'd imagine he left Double Fine under similar circumstances.

 

I think in both cases Ron had a game he wanted to make and needed the resources of a studio to actually do it.

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Can someone please elaborate on the Breckon-situation. I seem to have missed the PSA.

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Can someone please elaborate on the Breckon-situation. I seem to have missed the PSA.

He got a job at Telltale as a game writer.

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Is the next podcast going to be titled "The Nick Breckon Situation"? Cause it probably should. Actually you might want to google that, there's probably already a ska band with that name...

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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.

 

I'm sure he's very happy there, but I (selfishly) would like to see him at the helm of a larger game again. I don't think he's been a lead on since Voodoo Vince, which I've always heard really good things about. I haven't had the chance to play it because I couldn't really justify going out and getting an original Xbox for it. But I think the characters he's had a hand in creating like Vince (and DeathSpank, to a degree) are the kinds of characters you'd see coming out of a place like Double Fine. Also, I guess I will always have an irrational soft spot for anyone who worked on Total Annihilation. :-)

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He got a job at Telltale as a game writer.

Thanks. Great, congrats Nick! Four-people-podcast then, no?

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I think it's time to retire the "Congrats Nick" and change it to "Congrats Nick" forever.

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Nick sits next to Vanaman at the new office so they'll probably have a competition to each "accidentally" handcuff the other to their desk on Monday afternoons.

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Wait, Nick is back in the bay area? Does that mean we can finally get rid of this Vanaman character that's been guesting for far too long?

 

I miss the old crew.

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Wait, Nick is back in the bay area? Does that mean we can finally get rid of this Vanaman character that's been guesting for far too long?

 

I miss the old crew.

 

F Nick Breckon. Team Vanaman!!!

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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?

It's worth noting that Gilbert didn't work at all for a 10 year period.

From the wikipedia:

Total Annihilation (1997), producer

Penny Arcade Adventures, story and design consultant, Hothead Games (2008)

Tales of Monkey Island (2009–2010), "Visiting Professor of Monkeyology", Telltale Games

DeathSpank (2010), design, Hothead Games

(and the middle two hardly count as steady, or well paying, gigs)

I figured he didn't really have to work, but wanted to after the Humongous buy-out. (That said, I had no idea they sold for that much!) It doesn't seem like Gilbert lives a particularly extravagant lifestyle, so I imagine $38 million, even after taxes, would last quite a while.

Thinking about this now, there's a decade of silence followed by his return to game development. I wonder if there's an interesting story in there? (Or just a lot of WoW)

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Wait, after Humongous.he helped cofound and was creative director at Hulabee, another children's game company with David Grossman helping with design. They have three games to their credit up to 2003. Also I'm pretty sure he left Humongous about 1999/2000. I mean there's still a gap, but wikipedia doesn't have all the info. You should check his Mobygames.

 

Also if I recall, the Deathspank project started late 2005 with the way he looked from the webcomic. It may not have been with Hothead, but I vaguely remember promo images that year.

 

If you look at it that way it's a little over two years tops that he was not involved in making games. That's not too shabby.

 

I also mean to play all these fucking kid's games of his one day, but so far I've only gone through some Pajama Sam and Freddi Fish.

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I find this discussion on the migration patterns of the Grumipius Gilbertus fascinating. I think he just migrates to iOS games for the Spring. :|

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I completely appreciate Gilbert changing environments to find the one that's best suited for his next project: Hothead was the place for Deathspank, DoubleFine for The Cave and now he's going back to indie to wrap upa two-man team project.

I don't see why this is bad.and he seemed to leave his former comanies in perfectly good terms, and that's pretty much excellent.

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I completely appreciate Gilbert changing environments to find the one that's best suited for his next project: Hothead was the place for Deathspank, DoubleFine for The Cave and now he's going back to indie to wrap upa two-man team project.

I don't see why this is bad.and he seemed to leave his former comanies in perfectly good terms, and that's pretty much excellent.

 

Hear, hear. Not sure why there would be conjecture that there was something fishy going on or that he was having trouble at Double Fine. Seems to me like he should enjoy the freedom his achievements have afforded him.

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I heard he had to leave because a blood feud erupted between him and Tim Schafer.

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Guys, if you knew the Secret of Monkey Island, every thing they did would make a lot more sense... But I heard Tim refused to give Putt-Putt a parking space at the studios, which might have mad Ron a bit miffed.

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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's likely to be far more complicated than that. I'd be amazed if they got all that in actual cash, and nothing in shares.

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It's worth noting that Gilbert didn't work at all for a 10 year period.

From the wikipedia:

Total Annihilation (1997), producer

Penny Arcade Adventures, story and design consultant, Hothead Games (2008)

Tales of Monkey Island (2009–2010), "Visiting Professor of Monkeyology", Telltale Games

DeathSpank (2010), design, Hothead Games

(and the middle two hardly count as steady, or well paying, gigs)

I figured he didn't really have to work, but wanted to after the Humongous buy-out. (That said, I had no idea they sold for that much!) It doesn't seem like Gilbert lives a particularly extravagant lifestyle, so I imagine $38 million, even after taxes, would last quite a while.

Thinking about this now, there's a decade of silence followed by his return to game development. I wonder if there's an interesting story in there? (Or just a lot of WoW)

 

It certainly feels like there's an interesting story there. I've never heard him discuss what happened with Shelley Day, for example (I wonder if they were together or just business partners?). 

 

You could well be right, but I seriously doubt they sold their company for $76m in CASH -- usually stocks and shares are part of the deal. It's also interesting that almost everyone from HE left shortly after the acquisition -- which indicates that they weren't bought for the team, but for the properties (otherwise they would have been locked in).

 

It's even stranger that they were free to make a company that directly competed with HE. Again, usually the acquirer will insist on a clause of the sale being that they can't do that for a set period of time.

 

The whole thing smells like an interesting story to me!

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It's likely to be far more complicated than that. I'd be amazed if they got all that in actual cash, and nothing in shares.

Sure. Let's say "wealth" or "spoils" then, rather than money specifically.

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