Tim Schafer is 20 years old or something! News

We missed this the other day, but we wouldn't want you to miss it too - Double Fine's Tim Schafer has celebrated his 20th anniversary of getting into the games industry by posting up some rejection letters and reminiscing about getting a job at LucasFilm.

The letters are scanned in on the Double Fine website (man, what an egomaniac), starting with his rejection by Atari in March 1989. "Your qualifications have been carefully reviewed," the real Atari once wrote. "However, in relation to our current needs, we are unable to offer you a position."

Things didn't improve much for Schafer when he tried it with Hewlett-Packard (apparently inspired by Kurt Vonnegut's thing about writing at night while working at General Electric), who fobbed him off with a line about tough hiring controls. I use that one when my sister asks to borrow money.

Fortunately LucasFilm eventually saw something in him for the role of Assistant Designer/Programmer, despite Schafer accidentally owning up to videogame piracy in the telephone interview and sending in a cover letter "in the form of a semi-graphic adventure", which is also included on the website post.

So, what advice does Schafer have for people trying to get a job in the games industry these days? "If I can get a job in the games industry, anybody can. (Not at my company of course. I would never hire somebody as unqualified as I was! I'm just lucky finding people smarter than me is so easy.)"

And, in closing: "Don't do what I did. It only worked in the eighties!"

The next game Schafer's involved in is Brutal Legend, which is due out for PS3 and Xbox 360 on 16th October. Check out our recent preview to see what the mad old lunatic's been doing with it.