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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Industry veterans Brandon Dillon and Richard Foge have launched a new studio called 2weeks to rapidly create experimental projects for the open web.

Dillon previously spent over six years at Oculus, most recently as the company's product management director. Prior to that he served as the technical director on Grim Fandango Remastered and product lead on Hack 'n' Slash at Double Fine.

Foge spent four years at Possibility Space, which was shuttered by co-founder Jeff Strain earlier this year. He also worked at State of Decay developer Undead Labs for almost a decade as design director.

The pair explained their core development pillars are rapid prototyping, experimentation, and transparency. "Our goal is to whip up small, experimental prototypes at lightning speed and ship them straight to you on the open web," they added in a press release.

"Why the web? Because we want to get games in your hands fast. No app installations. No high-end devices required–just pure gaming joy for everyone as quick as we can serve it up."

Dillon and Foge say it's an approach that will let them test "wild" ideas that don't work in a traditional model and share them with players much earlier. They'll also be able so solicit direct feedback so they can quickly improve their experimental platter.

Several studios founded by industry veterans dedicated to shipping smaller games faster have surfaced in 2024. These include companies like Barnyard Games, which are prioritizing development on user generated content platforms like Unreal Engine for Fortnite.

2weeks' debut release is strategic title called Homestretch Bet that combines the "thrill of horse racing with the strategy of Texas Hold 'Em." Players must bet on their favorite horse based on their stats and the luck of the draw as the race unfolds.

The studio intends to keep fan in the loop by way of newsletter that will roll out regularly. Those eager to see 2weeks' development philosophy in action can try Homestretch Bet right here.

Double Fine and Undead Labs vets launch experimental web game studio

'Our goal is to whip up small, experimental prototypes at lightning speed.'

www.gamedeveloper.com

 

[POKEYCLYDE]

Sounds cool in theory. Kind of like a small studio doing game jams in perpetuity. I don't know how they'll find success, but hopefully some cool ideas come out of this.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Doublefine already does the Amnesia Fortnight every year or two.
Saw that during the Psychonauts 2 documentary. That it was fun.
I hoped that all the studios under one banner would get together for something similar, like an Olympic teams. Have regular gamers try out the results for fun and voting. Many ideas might make it into real games or levels in current games.

 

[SportsFan581]

Interesting idea. Maybe they will land on some unique concepts that will get picked up by more traditional studios.

 

[CamHostage]

Doublefine already does the Amnesia Fortnight every year or two.
Saw that during the Psychonauts 2 documentary. That it was fun.

Do they still though? I feel like I haven't heard the name DoubleFine since the launch of Psychonauts 2 (it's certainly not a game that comes up in those "What is Studiox up to right now?" posts complaining that not enough games are coming out,) they used to have an indie publishing side and they did weird midrange stuff like Stacking and Headlander in between big projects, but I never hear about their experimental testing exercises anymore.

Seems like it stopped in 2019. (It's kind of another COVID casualty, but DoubleFine was already having trouble running it before that and had let it go dormant for a long time once before.)

Amnesia Fortnight

Once every year or so, Double Fine drops everything and spends two weeks feverishly pitching and developing brand-new prototypes, in a process we call…

www.doublefine.com

Hopefully this new project sparks new wild stuff out of them. (I don't have a lot of opinion about what Undead Labs is capable of outside of State of Decay but the more the merrier.)

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

Do they still though? I feel like I haven't heard the name DoubleFine since the launch of Psychonauts 2 (it's certainly not a game that comes up in those "What is Studiox up to right now?" posts complaining that not enough games are coming out,) they used to have an indie publishing side and they did weird midrange stuff like Stacking and Headlander in between big projects, but I never hear about their experimental testing exercises anymore.

Seems like it stopped in 2019. (It's kind of another COVID casualty, but DoubleFine was already having trouble running it before that and had let it go dormant for a long time once before.)

Amnesia Fortnight

Once every year or so, Double Fine drops everything and spends two weeks feverishly pitching and developing brand-new prototypes, in a process we call…

www.doublefine.com

Hopefully this new project sparks new wild stuff out of them. (I don't have a lot of opinion about what Undead Labs is capable of outside of State of Decay but the more the merrier.)

Yeah it's the Microsoft acquisition. 2019 is when they were purchased, and MS is even shown in the documentary being a bit skeptical about Fortnite and their other open-ended projects.

Who knows what DoubleFine is making now... thanks to being under the worst possible company MS, they are very quiet and nothing like they used to be online.

 

[DR3AM]

Hope the games run on Adobe Flash

 

[CamHostage]

Yeah it's the Microsoft acquisition. 2019 is when they were purchased, and MS is even shown in the documentary being a bit skeptical about Fortnite and their other open-ended projects.

Who knows what DoubleFine is making now... thanks to being under the worst possible company MS, they are very quiet and nothing like they used to be online.

Sure, it's hard to operate small portions of a business when you are a big business operating under a massive business. But hopefully 2weeks is the start of DoubleFine getting back in the lab to explode some beakers and see what happens.

We do know a tiny bit about the next DoubleFine project, they've been recruiting for a mainstream ("AAA", although that desigantion doesn't mean what gamers think it means) project built in Unreal Engine.

Xbox Game Studios' Double Fine developer (Psychonauts 2) working on new AAA videogame developed in Unreal Engine 5

Double Fine, from Xbox Game Studios is working on a AAA videogame since 2020 at least. Now a new job opening just let us see that this new project is being developed in Unreal Engine 5 https://apply.workable.com/double-fine-production/j/E824971F7F/ Description Double Fine is looking for a...

www.neogaf.com