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Here’s the last part of our interview with Tim Schafer. It’s been pretty epic so far. Here we go!

Q: As the world opens up beyond the tutorial, can you give examples of some of the missions in there and will there be cool metal stuff to unlock or uncover?

A: The references are woven into it. If you are familiar with metal you’ll see bits and pieces mixed together and placed in the world. Some missions are just Eddie and his ax focusing on combat. On other missions you start building your army and use the dpad to control these guys. Eventually you have such a big army that you have a whole army on the battlefield at once and you get to pick and choose which ones to add to the battle. That’s when it expands to be full out heavy metal warfare.

Q: Are there any plans to add post-content to the game?

A: We’re currently talking about DLC. We want to do stuff that will be fun and that we have time to do. Nothing is concrete yet, but we’d like to expand the world sure.

Q: If Brutal Legends does really well in sales, will there be another one?

A: *laughs* That would be great! I would love that but um, we’ll have to see.

Q: Do you have dreams of making it into an episodic series or a trilogy?

A: There’s a lot of story. When I do a game I usually do a lot of research and backstory. There was a big epic story that we’ve only been able to tell a small part of. I don’t know if episodic is the word but there is definitely more stories to tell in the world of Brutal Legend.

Q: Any original gameplay in multiplayer?

A: It’s a strategic type of battle where you are totally destroying your opponent’s stage. It’s kindof a more complex, not just last minute hacking with an ax. You’re choosing what warriors to add to your army and when you have those warriors you are choosing where they go on the map and then when they capture resources you’re choosing what to do with those resources. Can invest in new units or keep going with headbangers. There’s a lot of depth to it and it’s all about destroying your opponents stage.

Tim Schafer President of Double Fine Productions

Q: What are your thoughts on the recent release of LOOM (on Steam) and LucasArts embracing it’s catalog? Or thoughts on doing a LOOM remake right now?

A: That would be great. I think that would be great for modern players to be able to go back and play those games. I think they are doing it as a “Let’s test the waters”. I’ve heard it was a success so maybe they’ll do more. We’ll see how it goes.

Q: I read that the game originally started as a multiplayer and then you kindof switched to single player. What caused the switch and were there any problems in focusing on single player first?

A: The reason we started with multiplayer is because we knew we wanted to have it. When going into production you have to do the most scariest, hardest thing first. You tackle the hardest problems first cause you don’t want to be doing those as you are right up against your deadline. What do we know the least about? We’ve never done multiplayer, so let’s do that first. Let’s prove that we can make a good multiplayer game.

Q: Is there anything gameplay-wise that will ease casual game players?

A: We have three difficulty modes when you play the game. We have gentle, normal and brutal. We know that the multiplayer game has alot of different mechanics to play the game. We added a video tutorial that you can watch, or the single player game itself is a step by step lesson in how to play multiplayer.

Q: You’ve made very creative games. Do you feel the industry is stifling on creativity and have you ever had to fight to be as creative as you want to?

A: Well thanks, but yeah, but that goes along with if you want to do something interesting or unique you have to be prepared to fight for it. I don’t see a problem with that. If you are going to do what someone else wants you to do then your life is a lot easier, but if you want to do what you want to do then there will always be some fight to it. Once you accept that then I think it’s worth it.

Q: How does working on the game let you have your heavy metal dreams come true?

A: I was 14 in 1981 and the first album I bought was Diary of a Madman by Ozzy Osborn. I still have that album and I got to bring it to the studio and have Ozzy sign it for me and have him tell me all the details of the album. He sat there and told me all about his album covers. If I had made a list when I was 14 years old of people I want to meet it would be a list of people who are in this game.

Q: Strategy games have not historically done well on the console. Was there any concern in adding the strategy element when people may just want the action aspect?

A: Well it is still and action game. There are elements where you are making intelligent choices, but if you play it as just sending your troops forward and then getting in there with your ax it really is an action game. There is some strategy if you want to go deeper. If you jump in there with your ax, you’ll have a good time just playing your guitar or using the double team attack.

Q: How did you decide on the main character being a roadie and not a rock star?

A: I just want to tell a story that has never been told before and I don’t think anyone has ever done a roadie. Roadies have this appeal in that they life out the rockstar’s life in different ways.

Q: Metal is known for over the top, extreme type mentality. What are some things that Eddie can do that is extreme?

SPOILER ALERT!!!
A: He does get to sprout giant, leathery type demonic wings over the battlefield at one point. Of course that won’t be a surprise now because I spoiled that, but if I hadn’t spoiled it, it might be a jaw dropping moment. Other things he does that are over the top, were inspired by Jack Black, like a power slide where you can play a chord and run and slide to hit your enemies.

Q: Out of all the characters you’ve created, do you have a favorite?

A: *laughs* No. I mean I love Eddie. The work Jack did to bring that character to life he really is a special character because he does all the hard work and doesn’t get any of the credit cause he’s a roadie not a rockstar. That kindof appeals to me. You get very attached to characters when you finish a game because you spend alot of time with them.

Q: What are you playing now?

A: Ever since I’ve gotten into the final mode of Brutal Legend, I go home and play Brutal Legend every night. After I put the baby to bed and my wife would leave I would play a few hours of games and then I started feeling stressed out by not playing Brutal Legends every night. Now I’m starting to try and figure that out because I missed some games that I need to check out. Like Fallout 3 I should check out.

Q: What do you think of technology like Natal and are you anxious to use it on a game in the future or maybe a sequel?

A: It’s really interesting. We have been kicking around some ideas for that. I’ve never been really technology driven or new controllers. You always get some ideas, but most of the things I care about are characters and story and you can do that with any controller.

A huge thanks to EA and Tim Schafer for spending the time to talk to us! Brutal Legend will be in retails stores on Rocktober 13th and if you pre-order through GameStop you can get early access to the demo on September 17th, as well as a special in-game guitar inspired by Tenacious D.