Psychonauts 2 seemed an impossibility when, after a promising Twitter overture, it turned out that even Notch couldn’t stretch to funding it. But Double Fine have settled on a piecemeal solution: the decade-awaited weird-platforming sequel will pull together over $10m from the studio’s own reserves, an unnamed partner, and crowdfunding.
They hope to make up the latter via a $3.3m campaign on Fig.co, and it’s very nearly there already.
Fancy a spot of oddball? There’s lots of that among the best indie games on PC.
18,149 backers have raised $3,024,396 of Double Fine’s $3.3m goal at the time of writing.
Psychonauts 2 hit $3MM! Thanks to the backers, investors, and people who wore tin foil hats! https://t.co/yAWJckJzvT pic.twitter.com/EK1DYo9YFn
— TimOfLegend (@TimOfLegend) December 28, 2015
Fig, which has an advisory board featuring Schafer, Brian Fargo and Obsidian’s Feargus Urquhart, functions almost identically to Kickstarter – only there’s the option of actual investment, and the prospect of actual money back if the game in question’s a success.
Double Fine have a patchy record in crowdfunding and Early Access, but the Psychonauts 2 team is assembled from the sort of wonderfully inventive personalities the studio seems to attract: artists Scott Campbell, Peter Chan and Nathan Stapley, all familiar to those who’ve watched the Double Fine Adventure documentary, as well as Valve legend and Psychonauts co-writer Erik Wolpaw.
Schafer will lead design, obvs. Are you fond of his first foray into 3D platforming?