Double Fine founder Tim Schafer to be honored with BAFTA Fellowship

Double Fine founder and celebrated game designer Tim Schafer will be honored with the prestigious BAFTA Fellowship award at the British Academy Games Awards in April this year.

The Fellowship award is the highest accolade awarded by BAFTA, and recognizes an individual's outstanding and exceptional contribution to their industry.

Schafer was a key figure in the creation of LucasArts classics like Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, and The Secret of Monkey Island. 

He continued to shine after leaving LucasArts to form Double Fine, and went on to oversee the development of acclaimed titles including Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, and Broken Age.

He also played a big part in establishing the notion of crowdfunding as a viable financing option for game developers, having led the charge by funding Broken Age through Kickstater, before helping to establish investor-focused crowdfunding alternative, Fig. 

"I am surprised, humbled, and honored to be receiving the BAFTA Fellowship this year," said Schafer. "BAFTA's long-standing support of video games and championing of creativity and strong storytelling in that medium, have had an extremely positive impact and I'm very grateful to be recognized by them with this Fellowship."

Past recipients of the Fellowship include id Software co-founder John Carmack, Valve president and co-founder Gabe Newell, and The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario designer, Shigeru Miyamoto.