Ron Gilbert leaving Double Fine, but staying in game biz

Ron Gilbert is like a bird. He needs to be set free. The designer of The Cave has announced that he's leaving Double Fine Productions, "now that The Cave is done and unleashed."

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Ron Gilbert is like a bird. He needs to be set free. The designer of The Cave has announced that he's leaving Double Fine Productions, "now that The Cave is done and unleashed."

Unlike some other high profile departures as of late, Gilbert plans on staying in the industry, saying that "it's time for me to move on from Double Fine and plot my next move," and that there are "so many games left to be designed."

"I want to thank all the amazing people at Double Fine for all their hard work on The Cave. It was a true pleasure to work with every one of them over the past two years. So much fun. I will miss them all. And of course to Tim for creating the opportunity to come there and make The Cave," Gilbert said on his official blog. Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert had previously collaborated on Monkey Island 2 and Day of the Tentacle.

Leaving a studio after the completion of a game is becoming Gilbert's MO. Before joining Double Fine, Gilbert left Hothead after finishing DeathSpank with the studio. Less than three years later, Gilbert finds himself looking for yet another team to join.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    March 11, 2013 9:15 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Ron Gilbert leaving Double Fine, but staying in game biz.

    Ron Gilbert is like a bird. He needs to be set free. The designer of The Cave has announced that he's leaving Double Fine Productions, "now that The Cave is done and unleashed."

    • reply
      March 11, 2013 9:37 PM

      its a shame, i would have liked his expertise on the doublefine adventure. unfortunately the things he released were games i had expectations for that ultimately ended up not really catching my interest.

      deathspank sounded awesome as he talked about it for years and then it was released it console only, by the time it came for pc the novelty and my interest were flat-lining.

      the cave looks neat, but the reviews and impressions posted online were less positive than i would have liked for a day one purchase. i will check it out in a sale, probably.

      i think his work is also kinda representative for doublefine as a company, they are hedging their bets with stuff like middlemanager of justice which is not what i want from that company but if it pays the bills i guess i can wait for the kickstarter financed adventure.

      anything that allows them to maybe one day make psychonauts2 is also a good thing. hopefully they don't crash and burn before that, i like the company.

      • reply
        March 12, 2013 6:42 AM

        I agree. But, IIRC, when he came aboard he (and Tim) said that it was on a provisional/single project basis anyways.

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          March 12, 2013 7:23 AM

          Yeah, before that didn't he just rent an office/desk from them for his projects?

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      March 11, 2013 10:36 PM

      I genuinely wish Ron the best of luck. His recent record of 'hit-it-and-quit-it' that he's shown with development studios leads me to assume that he's having difficulty finding... whatever it is that would make him happy.

      Eh. I do think that leaving Doublefine (provided that Tim hadn't been pissing in Ron's cornflakes) is a bad move. It genuinely seems like the best studio I know of for him. :/

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      March 11, 2013 10:37 PM

      I thought he was helping with the doublefine adventure game?

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        March 12, 2013 3:24 AM

        No, he was not involved as far as I understand.

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          March 12, 2013 4:53 AM

          He assisted some I think, but wasn't really a member of the team.

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            March 12, 2013 7:08 AM

            But Tim said in the kickstarter pitch video that he would help!!!

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              March 12, 2013 7:43 AM

              Yeah, he was an advisor for the team or something along those lines. He helped but it probably didn't make much sense to have 2 game designers on such a small team.

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      March 12, 2013 3:07 AM

      Shame to her that Ronzo is leaving, but off to new adventures I suppose.

      I will excitedly wait for Gilbert's next move. You make it, I'll pay and play it. I just hope he will stay out of mobile games development and will make real games instead for PC and maybe consoles.

      I had hopes he would be more still involved in the DFA project, but seems his time is now done.

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      March 12, 2013 4:20 AM

      That's too bad.

    • reply
      March 12, 2013 1:18 PM

      That's a shame. The Cave didn't really feel completed to me, like it would have been awesome with full character dialogue and voices, and not just the narrator. Oh well.

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