"[Brütal Legend 2] was kind of a done deal so we were working designing that and then we got some bad news," said Schafer. "We got a phone call from the publisher and it was like 'Actually we're not going to do the sequel' and I was like 'Oh. That's interesting.' So that was not what I expected. Apparently when they said it's a done deal they meant there's no deal and we're done."

Double Fine fell back on eight small two-week prototypes it had created during Brütal Legend development downtime, four of which have been picked up--spread across multiple publishers. By using the Brütal Legend engine and being focused, according to Schafer, each project feels like "a really tiny slice of a 'triple-A' game."

While Schafer would not say much on the projects, he did reveal that he himself will be writing dialogue while Brütal Legend's art director Lee Petty, lead programmer Nathan Marks, lead animator Tasha Harris and designer Brad Muir are each heading a project.

"Some of the games are downloadable, and some of the games will be retail," Schafer said. "Some of these games we're working will come out this year," he said, before quickly jumping back to add "I didn't announce they were shipping. That wasn't shipping. It's interesting to notice when people write things down."