Double Fine’s Pyschonauts 2 crowdfunding campaign has drawn to a close bagging a cool $3.8 million and punching well above its $3.3 million goal. To celebrate, Tim Schafer and co. launched a celebratory livestream that can still be viewed on Twitch, and an “Art Jam featurette” brainstorming video.
Now we wait. In the meantime, have a swatch at our best upcoming games.
While the featurette suggests the ideas depicted within could just as easy wind up on the cutting room floor, we’re told some of them might stick. It goes without saying, then, there might be spoilers afoot:
Unlike Kickstarter – the platform upon which Double Fine’s Broken Age was funded – Fig campaigns allow for external investment. What this means is that the $3.8 million accrued is but a fraction of Psychonauts 2’s budget, thus the rest will be ponied up by Double Fine themselves and some unknown financiers.
At this stage, Psychonauts 2 is pencilled for release in late 2018. To this end, one Reddit user questioned the Californian developer’s previous “mishandling of several past games resources” during an AMA with Tim Schafer earlier this week. Schafer responded directly, pointing out that going over budget is something he’s always willing to do if it results in a better game, and that most games – “not all of them, but more than you think” – do the same.
“Double Fine is just more honest and transparent about it,” said Schafer. “There are many things that lower the risk of Psychonauts 2 going over budget. It’s a sequel, so the gameplay and IP of the game are already known. We are using the Unreal Engine, so we don’t have to write an engine from scratch. And our team is much more experienced than when we made the first game. But if even after that, if the game has any overages, Double Fine is committed to paying for them ourselves, as we have done in the past.
“We have successfully completed and shipped both of the games we crowdfunded (Broken Age and Massive Chalice) and are very proud of them. The majority of our fans and critics enjoyed them as well. We have put three games through early access – Hack ‘n’ Slash, Massive Chalice, and Spacebase.
“Two of these worked out great, and one of those was a disappointment to many people. We have shipped 17 titles over the last 15 years and overall we have a great track record of shipping great games and being extremely transparent and honest with our community. That is the more lasting reputation of Double Fine, and the reason people can feel confident about Psychonauts 2!”