Brutal Legend Remains Double Fine's Best-Selling Game, Schafer Talks Possible Sequel

As part of Kotaku's latest Kotaku Asks feature, Double Fine president Tim Schafer fielded all manner of questions about his unique independent company. As you might have guessed, Double Fine's 2009's metal music-themed action game Brutal Legend came up a lot. But Schafer didn't shy away from responding to questions about the game, which remains Double Fine's best-selling title to date.

Below are some of the most interesting things Schafer said about Brutal Legend. Be sure to read the full Kotaku Asks feature for tons more insight about Double Fine straight from Schafer.

Some history: Brutal Legend 2 was canceled back in 2010. But since then, Schafer has time and again talked about wanting to return to the franchise someday, possibly even with Jack Black, who voiced Brutal Legend hero Eddie Riggs. If not a full-on sequel, Schafer has said he's interested in releasing Brutal Legend DLC focused around Lionwhyte, the leader of the fictitious Hair Metal Militia, who was voiced by Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford.

One more piece of context to consider is that the original Brutal Legend cost around $25 million; Schafer previously said raising that much money--or more--for a sequel "might be tricky." With that out of the way, below are Schafer's Brutal Legend responses from Kotaku Asks.

How Brutal Legend's RTS Elements Might Have Hurt the Game

"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. :)" [Source]

Brutal Legend Licensing Issues, How EA Helped, and What Might Come Next:

"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?" [Source]

Brutal Legend 2?

"Never say never! (But I would also not say Anytime Soon!)" [Source]

What Schafer Wanted to Do With the Canceled Brutal Legend 2

"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. 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." [Source]

Would Double Fine Ever Make Another AAA Game?

"We never close any doors. We could very well do a game like that again. The industry shifts all around every year so you never know what might happen or what we might be doing. We just try to stay nimble so we can survive, no matter what the environment becomes." [Source]