Film noir, art deco and the Mexican Day Of The Dead: these eclectic influences coalesced in the riot of colour and character that is Grim Fandango. The fact that director Tim Schafer was given creative freedom to run with such a wild collation of concepts was testament to the success of his previous game Full Throttle. That cinematic biker gang adventure sold well enough for LucasArts to encourage Tim to keep pursuing the kinds of creative whims that had shaped standout point-and-click titles such as Day Of The Tentacle.
This time around however, Schafer had his eye on how other contemporary releases were pushing forward into new realms of 3D graphics. A new action game called BioForge was a particular influence with its polygonal characters moving around static, pre-rendered backgrounds. It was something Tim thought could work perfectly for a modern adventure.
