Tim Schafer Talks Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster

How does the team responsible for Psychonauts and Brutal Legend wind up making a Sesame Street game for Kinect? In a recent interview, Double Fine's Tim Schafer and Nathan Martz explain the chain of events that led to the muppet-infused project.

In an interview with Gamasutra, Schafer and Martz talk in great detail about the decision to work on a Sesame Street game. The project was the result of a two week brainstorming session that Schafer refers to as the "Amnesia Fortnight" project, during which Double Fine broke down into four teams. Each team was tasked with creating a demo for a new game concept -- Martz's team came up with the idea for a game that involved playing and making music with furry monsters. According to Schafer, the Sesame Street connection was apparent from the beginning. "Nathan's original pitch to the company had a lot of Jim Henson in it," Schafer said. "It referenced Sesame Street and The Muppets and how much they meant to us and how much they were an inspiration for these characters."

Double Fine has been honing the idea for the past three and a half years, and even though the game now features the Sesame Street license, that doesn't mean the title will be missing the studios' signature humor. "...It's tempting when you're writing material for kids, like in this game for younger players, to just play it safe and make it stuff that's kind of bland and non-threatening," Schafer said. "That's what I think people feel with kids' writing. But then you watch the videos of the [Sesame Street] shows, and they're really, really funny. They're satirical -- they don't just make bland shows for kids, they make them actually funny. I think that's important for the kids and especially for the parents who watch them together. We're hoping that this is something parents play with their kids."

The interview covers many other aspects of the projects, including Schafer's first real life encounter with his two favorite Sesame Street characters, Cookie Monster and Snuffleupagus. "Standing there, I could touch the fur on the Cookie Monster that I had seen as a kid, and Snuffleupagus, and you just...it was really meaningful to me to see these things from my childhood. Then I felt this responsibility, just how serious it is to work with the characters, and how important they are."

I'll admit I was skeptical when Double Fine first announced the new project, but reading about Schafer's love of Jim Henson has me excited to see what the studio does with the IP. Be sure to read the entire interview at Gamasutra.