Double Fine

Double Fine was founded by former LucasArts developer Tim Schafer, together with some colleagues from LucasArts, in July 2000. In the years prior, LucasArts had started to shift development away from adventure games into more action-oriented ones as part of the general trend in the gaming industry. Schafer, who had just finished producing the adventure game Grim Fandango, a title which met with critical praise but was a commercial disappointment, saw others leaving LucasArts and was unsure of his own position there. He was approached by colleagues suggesting they launch their own studio to develop their own titles. Schafer departed LucasArts in January 2000, co-founding Double Fine later that year.

Schafer started Double Fine with programmers David Dixon and Jonathan Menzies in what was once a clog shop in San Francisco. After several months of working on the demo for what would become Psychonauts, a mixture of personnel from the Grim Fandango development team and other new employees were slowly added to begin production.

After the implementation of Amnesia Fortnights in 2011 as a means to find new titles to publish, the company is split into a number of teams with about 15 people each. Each team has the capabilities of fully developing a small game on its own, but for its larger titles, like Psychonauts 2, the company temporarily merges two or more of these teams, and with the option of unmerging the teams once the project is finished.

The company remains situated in San Francisco. The name "Double Fine" is a play on a sign on the Golden Gate Bridge that used to display "double fine zone" to warn motorists that fines on that stretch of road were double normal rates. Double Fine's logo and mascot is called the Two-Headed Baby, frequently abbreviated 2HB, an abbreviation also used for Moai, an integrated development environment. The Double Fine website is also host to seven webcomics, which are created by members of Double Fine's art team and are collectively referred to as the Double Fine Comics.

On June 9, 2019, during Microsoft's press conference at E3 2019, it was announced that Double Fine had been acquired by the company and was becoming part of Xbox Game Studios. According to Schafer, through the acquisition, Double Fine would be able to retain its independent nature but would not have to struggle with finding publishers for its games, a problem it has had in its past. Schafer spoke to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, a games subscription service for Microsoft Windows and Xbox users, as one favorable aspect of the acquisition. Schafer felt many of Double Fine's games, particularly Psychonauts and its sequel, do not have an aesthetic that people would necessarily pay the full price for, but the subscription approach of Game Pass lowers that barrier and would potentially get more people to try the game. Thus, Schafer felt that being acquired by Microsoft would allow the studio to continue to develop experimental games and allow these projects greater exposure. A month ahead of the release of Psychonauts 2, in July 2021, Schafer stated he was happy with Microsoft's handling of Double Fine; he called the acquisition a "limited integration" with Double Fine retaining all control on the creative elements while leaving the financial issues up to Microsoft to manage, and left the studio able to focus their creative skills on finishing the game without feeling any budgetary crunch. Double Fine and 2 Player Productions released PsychOdyssey, a 22-hour documentary on the making of Psychonauts 2 in February 2023.

Schafer said in August 2025 that the studio is presently working on original intellectual properties, such as Keeper, which has Lee Petty as its lead developer, and had no current plans for releasing sequels such as Psychonauts 3 or Brutal Legend 2 despite requests from players for these.

Double Fine submitted its petition to unionize within the CWA (Communications Workers of America) on May 7, 2026.

In June 2026, Jason Schreier of Bloomberg News reported that multiple studios at Xbox Game Studios, including Double Fine, were in negotiations for independent buyouts and separation from the division to avoid being shuttered. The studio laid off 23 out of around 90 employees in July 2026 following this transition, with Schafer saying "Only the survival of our studio would ever make us consider such a painful action. Our transition to becoming an independent company also means becoming a size that we can sustain."

Double Fine Presents

Double Fine announced in March 2014 that it would begin publishing indie games under the moniker Double Fine Presents. Using that program, Double Fine makes its publishing capabilities and offices available for other independent developers to help them finish their work by funding, publishing, and promoting it. The idea came about during the Amnesia Fortnight 2014, where local San Francisco independent developers were working alongside Double Fine in its studios during the two-week period, with the intent to help give them exposure through the production process as it was filmed by 2 Player Productions. The idea of Double Fine providing more long-term assistance to these indies arose during this event, forming the basis for this program. According to Double Fine's COO Justin Bailey, the goal of this approach is to "help indies build their own community and empower them with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed on their own", providing them assistance "customized to what indies need without also creating a certain codependence" that other publishing means require.

The first such game created in this fashion is Escape Goat 2, the sequel to Escape Goat, by MagicalTimeBean. This included a humorous video introducing both the game and Double Fine's program, which was filmed during the week of the 2014 Game Developers Conference in March 2014. For the second title, Last Life by Rocket Science Amusements, Double Fine helped to prepare and present a Kickstarter campaign to help funding the final development of the title. The third title announced under this program was Mountain by David OReilly, a procedural terrarium that provides an ambient, minimalist, zen-like experience full of secrets and mysteries. In August 2014, Double Fine announced that a fourth game would be released under the program, the multiplayer beat 'em up Gang Beasts by Boneloaf, which launched into Steam Early Access on August 29, 2014. The latest addition to the Double Fine Presents program is GNOG by KO_OP, a puzzle-adventure released in 2016.

Following Microsoft's acquisition of Double Fine in June 2019, the fate of the Double Fine Presents publishing label was unclear. Schafer stated in September 2019 that the fate of Double Fine Presents is unclear, but that while they would likely end up stop publishing, they would still likely engage with the community through the Day of the Devs events to support other independent developers. Ooblets changed to a self-publishing model following Double Fine's acquisition, while another, Knights and Bikes, remained under the label. Gang Beasts also turned to self-publishing by June 2020, as it described that Double Fine's publishing was "winding down".

Double Fine Comics

Double Fine Comics is a webcomics collective supported by Double Fine Productions. Each comic varies in style and tone, but they all reflect the eclectic humor found in the Double-Fine produced game Psychonauts. The webcomics were published in Adobe Flash format on the company website under the heading 'Comics'.

Double Fine Action Comics

Scott Campbell (also known as Scott C.) created a comic called Double Fine Action Comics. It follows the adventures of Two-Headed Baby (the Double Fine Productions logo), a strongman, and a knight. Other characters, such as two astronauts named Captain and Thompson, have been introduced as the comic has progressed. Many characters such as a mummy, a frogman and a naked ogre have been briefly featured, usually during a quest or some other type of adventure. At the top of most strips is a small, usually completely unrelated drawing. These small drawings sometimes have a title, such as "Mysterious Happiness!". The strip celebrated its 400th comic in December 2006. In August 2011, Scott implied the end of the comic with the deflation of 2HB and the solemn acceptance of both Knight and Strongman. The comic was resurrected in May 2012, before it returned to hiatus status a few months later.

In 2008, the first 300 comics were combined into a trade paperback called Double Fine Action Comics by Scott C (Volume 1). This volume includes a foreword by Tim Schafer.