It's been less than three months since Xbox kicked Double Fine Productions to the curb as part of the great "streamlining" that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is so excited to see. And just two weeks from today, the studio will release the first game of its post-Xbox existence: It's not what I expected, but it is most definitely a Double Fine game.
Thank You Bus Driver is a driving sim, but not of the sort you'd find in the Bus Simulator series. There are three—and only three—priorities:
- Get To Your Next Stop, no matter what it takes
- Keep the Schedule, because happy riders say thank you
- No Breaking the Rules, and if anyone gets out of line, you give 'em a smack
Over on Bluesky, Double Fine described Thank You Bus Driver as "Crazy Taxi meets Papers, Please!" which sounds like exactly the sort of game the studio would make—this is, after all, the studio that gave us a multiplayer brawling game about pottery.
Clock in, drive the bus, and get passengers to their stops...but SLAP anyone breaking the rules (or throw 'em out the back if they don't behave)! It's Crazy Taxi meets Papers, Please! Launching October 14~ Wishlist THANK YOU BUS DRIVER: doublefine.com/games/thank-you-bus-driver#buynow
— @doublefine.com (@doublefine.com.bsky.social) 2026-09-28T22:00:28.589Z
Thank You Bus Driver doesn't look like a 'big' game, even by Double Fine standards (which I say with the utmost respect), and you may notice that it's being published by something called Double Fine Action Labs. In an interview with GamesBeat earlier this month, Double Fine CEO Tim Schafer said it's a label the studio will use for "experiments," such as the games that come out of the studio's Amnesia Fortnight game jams.
"They're complete games. They're not incomplete. But they're rough and scrappy and small. They're meant to be cheap and played for shorter amounts of time," Schafer said. Using the separate label, he continued, sets expectations at an appropriate level: "This is not Psychonauts 3. This is an experimental thing. We had a lot of fun with it, and we thought it was fun enough to share with people."
To be clear, Thank You Bus Driver is not part of the ongoing Amnesia Fortnite 2026, which will wrap up its very successful Kickstarter (and name a final winner) later this week. And it will be out very soon—on October 14, to be exact. You can wishlist it now on Steam, GOG, and Itch.io.
