Famed Studio Is Officially Making a Comeback After Xbox Layoffs
Overview & Key Takeaways
After splitting from Xbox, Double Fine is holding a new game jam where Kickstarter backers can vote on the studio's next game.
Shortly after its tumultuous departure from Microsoft, Psychonauts developer Double Fine has announced what it’s working on next. The studio revealed a Kickstarter campaign for the next edition of its long-running game jam series, Amnesia Fortnight. Company CEO Tim Schafer delivered the news on the Kinda Funny podcast.
The “Amnesia Fortnight 2026 - Indie Reboot: A Double Fine Productions Game Jam, Documentary and Kickstarter Campaign” begins on Aug. 31 and will run through September. Those who back the game jam will get to choose which game ideas are made into four new prototypes, at which point they'll vote for which prototypes are made into a "real (small) game." 2 Player Productions, which previously worked with Double Fine for the acclaimed Psychodyssey documentary, will film the event for a new doc.
Double Fine first streamed one of its two-week game jams in 2012, then again in 2014, 2017, and 2019. In the past, the team has made prototypes from these game jams available on Humble. Some of the studio's titles, like Costume Quest, Spacebase DK-9, and Headlander, originated from these game jams, while others have inspired segments of games, like the Compton’s Cookout level in Psychonauts 2.
Last month, Double Fine was caught up in Xbox’s massive wave of layoffs and divestments, as the team became independent from Microsoft. Shortly after, Double Fine laid off 23 of its approximately 90 staff members. “Only the survival of our studio would ever make us consider such a painful action,” Schafer said in a statement announcing the bad news.
Double Fine has developed a long list of beloved games since its founding in 2000, including both Psychonauts games, Brutal Legend, Iron Brigade, and more. Before Xbox Game Studios acquired it in 2019, the team helped drive the popularity of crowdfunding in video games after successful Kickstarter campaigns for Broken Age and Psychonauts 2.
