Happy Holidays From Double Fine!
Hello folks! Harper here on behalf of Double Fine to thank you all for your support their year and wish you a happy holiday season. This is a beefy newsletter! We have some recipes share and other recommendations too but for the moment, I want to just look at the year.
From a fresh new documentary episode to a highly successful year for Day of the Devs and big anniversaries for some of our favorite games, 2024's been a great year with a lot of fun milestones!
Let's start with Double Fine PsychOdyssey! We released an epilogue this year looking back at Psychonauts 2 after release. We're very proud of this game even as the documentary shows that it was a production full of highs and lows. The series won a few more awards this year, from some Telly Awards and Webby honorees, and we're really flattered that folks continue to recognize 2 Player Production's tremendous work. This final episode also contains small teases of our future projects for folks looking to know what's up next for Double Fine. You can watch it on YouTube but we also released a great Blu-ray collection as well. That was a limited edition set but if you're interested in a second run, you can sign up here and let us know. With enough interest, we'll release a fresh set for fans who missed out.
Day of the Devs is a big passion project here at Double Fine. What started as a fun indie-game focused festival has grown into a non-profit charity. This year, we continued our collaborations with Summer Games Fest and The Game Awards, showcasing great games from indie creators around the world. We also had a horror and sci-fi focused event at Fantastic Fest, one of the biggest film festivals in the US. Swing by the Day of the Devs website, which has been revamped, and you can explore a list of pretty much every dang game we've ever featured! Our industry needs smaller creators pursuing their strange and unique visions!
One thing I'm glad about this year is our push to continue showing folks what game development is like behind the scenes. Brütal Legend is now 15 years old and because we have so many folks who stay here at Double Fine, we were able to do a great little retrospective talking about Tim's inspirations and the process of bringing that game to life. On the Psychonauts 2 side of things, programmer Devin Kelly-Sneed gave us a series of articles covering things like how targeting enemies and acrobatics worked in that game. Michael Firman outlined the intense process of animating new stuff for the PsychOdyssey. And while we are sad to say goodbye to our friend Malena (who has decided to try an entirely new field of renovating houses) her frank look back at her time here was a great peek back into some of the studio's earliest days.
Also, we discovered a mysterious hole in the studio's wall! That was weird. Oh yeah! Those dang plushies finally found their homes too, closing off the long Psychonauts 2 campaign. Phew!
Here's a peek at our holiday card, alongside a lovely poem written by Tim. After that, we've included a list of some of our favorite recipes here at Double Fine. This is the stuff that folks bring into the office all the time for events, which makes it feel like a real family event. Feel free to use these during the holidays or any other time. Thank you for the support! We'll see you in 2025!
This holiday season, like many before
I rushed to the front of my favorite store
My most favorite toys, and dolls on display
"But where is the new stuff?" I thought in dismay
They must be at work in a room in the back
So I snuck round the side, to peek in a crack
I found an old air shaft that was just my size
I crawled through the duct work, and to my surprise
I found a bright room with new toys on the shelves.
A room full of magic, and wonder, and ELVES!
The things they were making- not one but a few
Were all so amazing, and awesome, and NEW!
I gasped out of joy, but it came out a shout
The vent opened up, and a hand pulled me out
The elves stopped their labors, and nervously looked
The shopkeeper had me, and my goose was cooked
His beard was all gray but his eyes were blood red
his big belly shook like a bowl full of dread
"You've seen all our secrets so now you must die!"
His logic was solid. I started to cry.
"Oh please let me go sir! I swear I won't tell!"
I swore on my mother, and father as well
I swore using words that a kid shouldn't know
While he was distracted, I kicked him below
He screamed, and dropped me, and I ran past the guard
I ran to my house, and I wrote you this card
Can't say what I saw cuz I swore all those ways
But the things that I saw made me smile for days
We might soon be spinning, and pulled, and shattered
We'll ask if the art we made really mattered
But I saw some things that will help me to cope
Some light in the darkness, a beacon of hope.
Soon there will be great things for you all to see
But if they ask, you didn't hear that from me!
From Our Kitchen... To Yours!
To get everyone settled for holidays, we're sharing the recipes of some of our favorite treats here at Double Fine. These are the things that are fixtures at our movie nights, cookouts, and around the office in general. It's not exactly roast goose and all that! These are things that work well all around the year from summertime to holidays.
To start us off, we have a simple but delicious recipe from our audio guru Camden Stoddard. Whenever these cashews pop up at the office, they get scooped up quickly. I know some of you might not be big on baking so consider this a secret weapon for potlucks and events that anyone can make with only a few modest ingredients!
Camden's Roasted Rosemary Cashews
Ingredients
- 1 lb raw, whole cashews
- 2 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp salt - I use coarse sea or kosher salt
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp butter (or coconut oil for a vegan/ dairy-free option) - You don’t need to melt these in advance because the hot cashews will do it for you!
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread raw cashews evenly on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 10 mins - the nuts will start to turn glossy as the heat releases the oils. Watch carefully at the end because they burn quickly once the oils start releasing.
- While the nuts are roasting, toss the rosemary, salt, brown sugar, and cayenne pepper in a medium mixing bowl, and get your butter/oil measured out and at the ready.
- Spoon the cashews directly into the bowl and add the butter/oil. Cover the butter with hot cashews until completely melted, then toss all ingredients together until well mixed. Allow to cool before storing them in an airtight container.
Justin Honegger: one of the stealth heroes of Double Fine, using his IT skills and tech knowledge to keep servers stable and computers running so that work can be done. He's also a bit of a chocolatier, bringing home-made into the office from time to time.
This is another pretty approachable recipe and the fun part is that you can customize it very easily. From boozy additions to other flavoring twists, this is a really great dessert. Also, I feel like if you're like "I MADE chocolate!" that sounds really impressive? Who do you think you are, Willy Wonka? Well, with this recipe... maybe!
Justin's Peppermint Truffles
Ingredients
- 1 can of coconut cream
- 4 cups dark chocolate chips
- 12 average sized candy canes
- Lorann's peppermint oil
Instructions
- Smash candy canes with a rubber mallet until tiny pieces. Leave some pieces about an inch long
- Boil the cream, letting boil for at least 30 seconds for pasteurization.
- While cream cools, microwave the chocolate to melt it. Do 1 minute, stir, then in 30 second bursts until it's fluid.
- When cream reaches 140°f, Whisk in peppermint pieces and 2-4 drops of oil (depending on your own tastes and how hard you pour it).
- When mixture reaches 120°f, whisk in chocolate (don't just dump in the chocolate then whisk, whisk while pouring it in or the chocolate lumps on the bottom.
- Freeze.
We're getting a bit more complex with this next one. This is a recipe from Elsbeth Larkin, one of our fantastic programmers. Most weeks, she'll bring in new pastries on Monday for everyone to enjoy. Which means she actually has dozens of recipes to share but for this go around, we're settling in on some delicious French toast scones.
This is also easy to modify with additions like extra cinnamon or other toppings! It is a bit more involved of a process though, as you'll need to whip up a glaze as well. These are the kind of treats you make for early morning on a rainy day or some other occasion where you're wrapped in a blanket. Sweet, filling, and rich!
Elsbeth's Pecan French Toast Scones
Scones
- 3 1/2 cups (422g) AP Flour
- 1/2 cup (56g) pecans, finely chopped
1/2 cup (56g) cinnamon baking chips (easier to find in fall & winter) - 4 teaspoons (16g) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 11 tablespoons (156g) unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes or pats
- 1 cup (227g) milk, cold
- 1/3 cup (103g) maple syrup, grade B (dark) preferred
1 teaspoon vanilla extract - 1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring, optional but good
Glaze
- 1 cup (113g) confectioners' sugar
- pinch of table salt
- 1/4 cup (78g) maple syrup, grade B (dark) preferred
- 1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring, optional but good
Scones
- In a large bowl add flour, pecans, cinnamon chips, baking powder & salt.
- Work the butter in until it resembles coarse crumbs, it’s ok if there are still small pieces of butter visible.
- Add the remaining ingredients (milk, maple syrup, and flavorings) to the bowl. Mix until a soft dough forms and most of the flour is hydrated. Try not to over mix as this may make the scones tough.
- Flour your work surface generously (I generally start with about ½ a cup), and scrape the dough out of the mixing bowl onto the parchment or work surface. Divide the dough into three equal pieces.
- Working with one piece at a time, gently pat the dough into a circle about 3/4" thick. Make sure to flour your hands too to help prevent sticking.
- Using a sharp bench knife or rolling pizza wheel, divide each dough circle into eight wedges.
- Gently place the wedges on a lined baking sheet, you may need to cook the scones in 2 batches.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the pan of scones into your refrigerator to chill while your oven is heating, for about 20 to 30 minutes. If there's no room in your fridge, simply let them rest on the counter while your oven preheats. (Refrigerating before baking allows the butter to solidify and gluten to relax a bit. This helps the scones rise and keep their shape more while baking as well as improved texture. Same holds true with cookies & biscuits)
- Bake the scones for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they're golden brown.
- Remove them from the oven, wait a couple of minutes, then carefully transfer them to a cooling rack.
- When the scones are cool, drizzle them with the glaze. If you wanna be a little fancy add a sprinkle of cinnamon on top.
Glaze
- Combine all of the glaze ingredients, stirring until smooth.
For our last recipe, we're gonna shy away from sweet treats for something else. When I told folks at the studio I was gathering recipes, so many people told me to talk to Kee Chi. While he's normally programming up a storm and worrying about bugs and glitches, Kee's also one of the grillmasters at our picnics. The ribs! I need to tell the world about the ribs! More specifically, the galbi he makes for many of our different functions. It's a favorite and it's been around almost as long as the studio itself. So! I'm gonna let Kee tell us a little bit about this one in his own words.
Otherwise, enjoy your holidays. Take it away, Kee!
At DF we have an annual picnic out at Chrissy Field. It is a beautiful place in San Francisco and a tradition we’ve had over 19 years! (The first one was in 2005). It’s my favorite DF activity as it is very chill, scenic, you get to chat with the wonderful folks at DF, and it involves one of my favorite activities in the world, which is burning, I mean grilling meat over hot fire. Standing around the grill, chatting with your colleagues while you hear the sizzle of the meat as the smell implants itself into your clothes and your hair is something I look forward to every year.
The event is a potluck and folks bring some amazing foods. I really wanted to contribute by bringing a dish that is beloved from my native country of South Korea, and that is Galbi, which basically translates to ribs. These are marinated short ribs with a sweet and savory marinade bursting with umami that is a staple of Korean BBQs everywhere.
But oh recipe reader, I must confess to a dark secret I’ve held onto for a while. This particular dish was not home made…but…purchased pre-marinaded from the Korean Market. Folks came by to give me kudos for the delicious meat. And I didn’t tell them straight away that it was from the market, and after a while, I missed the window to confess. And now I do this via the internet and my conscience is just a bit lighter!
Afterwards I vowed to make the recipe my own, to earn those kudos, so I asked my mother for her Galbi recipe. And she told me the critical components.
- The meat: sliced short ribs
- The salty: soy sauce
- The sweet: sugar
- The umami: onions, green onions, garlic, sesame oil.
But when I asked her HOW much to put it, she told me to just put it enough for it to taste right. But…but how can I intuit the amount? My programmer brain couldn’t process doing this without the exact instructions! I attempted….and failed. It tasted…wrong. So I marinated the meat, but with a cheating shortcut. Store bought marinade. My charade continued.
In the ensuing years, I did make my own marinade and brought them to the picnic, and they were good, and folks enjoyed them, and I kept on refining it, until I found this recipe. The Galbi from Cote steakhouse was some of the best Galbi I’ve tasted. So when I found the recipe for it, I had to try it. And it was just right! I could go to the picnic with my head held high! And now I will share it with you. I’ve adjusted the recipe a bit from David Shim’s.
Kee's World-Famous Galbi
Ingredients
2 cups soy sauce
- 2 cups lemon-lime soda. (It can be sprite, 7-up. I prefer Chilsung cider which is a Korean soda. The original recipe calls for water or dashi.)
- 1 cup mirin
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 Korean pear
- 1 medium onion, 1/2 peeled and roughly chopped and ½ sliced into rounds
- 5 to 7 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 thumb nail-sized piece of ginger
- 2 to 3 pounds short ribs ( It needs to be thin.)
- 1/3 cup sesame oil
- In a bowl, combine the soy, soda, mirin, sugar, and sesame oil. (The original recipe calls for the sesame oil to be mainly applied to the grill. But I like it mixed into the marinade, it definitely adds more umami. Make sure you taste it! If you like marinades to be a bit on the sweeter side, stick to what’s here. I’d start with maybe ½ cup sugar first, give it a taste, and then add another ½ cup to taste).
- In a blender, combine the pear, the chopped 1/2 onion, garlic and ginger. Blend until smooth. Pour the purée over the short ribs and massage it into the meat with your hands. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 mins.
- Then pour the soy mixture over the short ribs and massage it into the meat. Add the ½ onion that was sliced into rounds. Cover with plastic and marinate for 3 to 4 hours. (I usually like to marinade overnight).
- Now it’s ready to grill! The beauty of this dish is that because the meat is thin you don’t have to worry about fully cooking the meat before the marinade burns. It cooks pretty quickly! Cook on one side until you get the desired amount of caramelization and flip. Ideally the grill is hot enough to char the meat nicely.
- Enjoy!
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