Double Fine Boss Talks Up a Brutal Legend Sequel: “Never Say Never!”

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We’ve learned (via Kotaku) that a follow-up to Double Fine’s Brutal Legend is still possible.

“Never say never! (but I would also not say anytime soon!),” said Tim Schafer, president of Double Fine. “We had 107 licensed songs in that game, so that was a great example of a game that really needed a big publisher to get made. EA has a whole room full of people who just do that, so they were a big help. But who knows, maybe we could do it ourselves [with a sequel] with indie metal bands?”


Schafer also talked about how the game’s real-time strategy elements might have hindered it’s appeal:

“We definitely had some surprised people when the RTS elements showed up in that game. I do think if we talked about that element more people wouldn’t have been so vocal about it. The frustrating thing is we DID talk about it, just not enough. We had a whole press event about the Stage Battles in that game. I was on G4TV and Morgan Webb said ‘Hey, this is an RTS game!’ We also put out a video that was a mini-tutorial on them before the game came out.

But the demo didn’t have any RTS in it because it was the first level in the game, and that really hurt us. My lead designer tried to warn me about that, but there just wasn’t time to add it. On the flip side, lots of people loved it and it’s still our best-selling game, so there you go.”

Finally, Schafer mentioned what both himself and his team wanted to do with sequel. “I really just wanted to tell more of the story, bring back the faction we cut out, provide more multiplayer modes, and improve all aspects of the combat,” said Schafer. “I also would have added a mode that would allow you to chose either the action or the strategy component for each mission, or play them both like in the first game.”

The news comes after the fact that development on the now-cancelled sequel nearly ruined Double Fine, as they invested the majority of their time, staff, and money on making the game bigger and better than the original. They proceeded with development under the perceived go-ahead from EA, only to later find out they had cancelled the game.

Brutal Legend remains a fond gaming memory in my heart – so I’d love seeing a sequel, despite the original being quite easily the beginning of my tinnitus. Would you guys like to see a Brutal Legend 2? Sound off in the comments below.

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