Tim Schafer to receive BAFTA Fellowship

Double Fine founder Tim Schafer has been named as the latest recipient of BAFTA's most prestigious honour, the BAFTA Fellowship.

The BAFTA Fellowship is awarded to those working in film, television or games. Previous recipients from the games industry include id Software founder John Carmack, Valve founder Gabe Newell, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and Rockstar Games.

Schafer is in illustrious company, then, and BAFTA CEO Amanda Berry OBE hailed Double Fine's founder as, "a true pioneer of game design, who has pushed the boundaries of the medium through his extraordinary talents."

Schafer was a key figure of what many regard as the golden age of adventure games, with titles like The Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. He was also integral to establishing crowdfunding as a valid source of capital for game developers, first through Kickstarter and then equity crowdfunding with Fig.

"I am surprised, humbled, and honored to be receiving the BAFTA Fellowship this year," Schafer said in a statement. "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."

Schafer will receive the Fellowship as part of the British Academy Games Awards on April 12, 2018.