BAFTA has announced the recipient of the 2018 Fellowship, to be handed out at the BAFTA Games Awards on Thursday 12th April. Tim Schafer will take the honour in celebration of his decades of work in the industry, from early Lucasarts classics like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle to more recent titles like Broken Age and the upcoming Psychonauts 2.
Other recent achievements of Schafer’s include setting up the crowdfunding platform Fig and a continued fight for equality and diversity within the games industry. His studio, Double Fine, also regularly hosts events called Amnesia Fortnight, where developers are encouraged to explore personal game concepts, with the potential for them to become full projects for the studio.
“Tim Schafer is a true pioneer of game design, who has pushed the boundaries of the medium through his extraordinary talents,” says Amanda Berry OBE, chief executive of BAFTA. “With a career spanning three decades, his diverse body of work includes some of the most iconic and best-loved adventure games, all characterised by his powerful storytelling and distinctive comedic writing style. We are honoured to be presenting him with the BAFTA Fellowship.”
“I am surprised, humbled, and honored to be receiving the BAFTA Fellowship this year,” says 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.”
Nominations for the rest of the BAFTA awards are being announced on March 15th, with tickets going on sale “in the coming weeks”.