March 27, 2012 Update: Tim Schafer's movement down a position is solely the responsibility of Kickstarter's growing success in proving it's not just a one-trick, Double Fine-fed pony.
Why He's Powerful
Current founder of Double Fine Productions, Tim Schafer, gained recognition for his time at LucasArts, where he contributed to fan favorites such as Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. When Schafer left LucasArts to start projects of his own at newly-founded Double Fine Productions, he brought his legacy with him to new creations.
The new team is well-known for projects like the uniquely creative Psychonauts, Brutal Legend and Costume Quest. An overwhelming fan clamor for Tim Schafer's popular adventure games inspired the team to look to Kickstarter to fund a new one. This is a break in the traditional procedure of game development in which developers have to center their projects around the needs of a publisher. And, look at that... they broke Kickstater records, busting their $400,000 30-day goal in well under 24 hours. They're up to $2 million and counting.
Schafer also had the one and only Notch, of Minecraft fame suggest publicly that he'd help Double Fine fund a much-asked-for Psychonauts 2. Notch isn't promising it's going to happen, but, for a few days, Schafer and Notch had the gaming world abuzz that these two fan-favorite developers could make a dream project a reality.
On top of this, Schafer is one of the few game developers capable of making gamers laugh at his games. Intentionally.
That's scary power.