Psychonauts 2!

[Comrade]

It's surprising notch isn't the mystery investor for part of this, he's actually heard of this game and even offered to make it happen a few years ago.

https://twitter.com/notch/status/672730205165887488

Psychonauts 2!! I'm not an investor because I don't have the nerves for that, but I will be plucking the juicest Fig reward!

[jon_cybernet]

https://twitter.com/notch/status/672730205165887488

Jesus, you'd think if anyone could afford to take a punt on something it'd be him.

[Mortis]

Can't go risking that billion dollar lifestyle can he.

[HarryBizzle]

Complete lack of self awareness.

[mushashi]

notch could have afforded to take the risk purely from some of the interest on his money for a year, he didn't need to risk the initial capital if that was what he was worried about. Talk about mo money, mo problems. He didn't seem to be so mentally scared a few years ago to take a punt.

Listening to some discussion on this topic, it would seem most game investors take the view that any investment they make in game dev is unlikely to generate a return which would put most people off from doing it for that reason, even very rich ones it would seem. He could have least expected to not have lost it all if he had decided to front the money needed for this game, with the primary reward being the satisfaction of making a sequel he wanted happen.

[Dig Dug]

MFW Notch says he is scared to invest.

[robotattack]

[Retroid]

This Notch except he never gets off the sofa.

[b00dles]

I only realised from reading the latest Torment update on kickstarter that Brian Fargo is some sort of board member of FIG. I wonder if they got burned by kickstarter somehow with their pitches, or he just realised that this could be a good scheme to get in on himself.

Good to see it got funded though, I'm still slightly skeptical if I'm honest but I backed it at a good amount because I do want it to be good and as it's a known sequel, they can't realistically change it too much for fear of real backlash.

[mushashi]

All the game dev founders of Fig said they want to put their future crowd funding titles on the platform. Gives them better terms and options than going via Kickstarter and all the board members are from known, famous established indies so it should work out for them.

[FozZ]

Sorry, didn't do a great job of keeping this thread updated due to xmas and general life, but as has been pointed out above, Physchonauts 2 recently reached its funding goal!

22,335BACKERS

$3,524,698RAISED

OF $3,300,000 GOAL

TOTAL RAISED

$3,524K

INVESTMENTS

$1,738K

REWARDS

$1,786K

There's 1 day left to back the project.

[b00dles]

Does Fig require more 'realistic' targets or does anyone think they were low-balling as they (possibly) did with broken Age and only just clearing the target isn't possibly that good? Aside from some last minute spikes, I can't imagine it's going to jump to 4.5 or 5 mil in any hurry.

Although 3 may have been enough as it is...

[BruceBruce]

3.3 million was the portion of funding they still required. I think they have other backers to fund the remaining 10 million.

[b00dles]

I see.

I didn't think that would be the whole value of the game somehow. Good that it has enough overall though. I didn't realise they were making a Playstation VR psychonauts game either, could be quite interesting.

Presumably good marketing for this too, as it's apparently an in-between 1 & 2 game. Although what kind of VR game or experience I've no idea, lots of potential within the psychonauts inside a brain shenanigans though.

[Lorfarius]

What happened to their last Kickstarter, the graphic adventure? Did it all go wrong?

[Mortis]

It went over time and over budget but it got released and I certainly got my £20 or whatever it was worth of KS money worth from it. The documentary that accompanied it was worth the money alone and might have been better than the game in the end.

[Keyboard Koala]

What happened to their last Kickstarter, the graphic adventure? Did it all go wrong?

You mean Broken Age ?

[Sie]

It went over time and over budget but it got released and I certainly got my £20 or whatever it was worth of KS money worth from it. The documentary that accompanied it was worth the money alone and might have been better than the game in the end.

I still haven't watched the documentary but I was very disappointed by the game. Still no sign of my physical special edition either. It's soured me greatly on the idea of backing these things for large amounts.

[Mortis]

Sorry you've lost out on it but watch the documentary - it's actually a great insight into the problems of developing a game.

Personally I never back to any large amount though, at most I'll pay the price of a copy of the game so usually £30 or so. Never to the amount I'd feel cheated if I lost money on it.

Luckily all the KS games I've backed have been released so far and some are actual classics (FTL, Grim Dawn and Pillers of Eternity). Hopefully the couple that I'm waiting on finishing (Torment - Tides of Numenera and Yooka Laylee) are as good.

[b00dles]

I've done pretty well out of kickstarter tbh, although I do think that if anything, the broken age one was possibly the 'worst' in regards to the fact I don't think it was actually a very good point n click by the end of it.

Broken Sword 5 and Tales of Unwritten tales 2 were much better games imho. Thimbleweed Park by Ron Gilbert looks far more like the old school point n click that people thought Broken Age was going to be. I do wonder if they were a bit stuck by how much they ended up getting, so thought they should make it look more modern but then somehow, that ended up with the quite frankly a bit odd situation whereby Act 2 was all in exactly the same 'rooms' as Act 1 was, which seemed a bit of a gyp when they came out episodically. Although I'm sure that was due to being over budget and so on.

I'd have preferred shitty art, no swanky V/O's (Elijah Wood etc couldn't have been cheap) and just MOAR in the way of rooms and puzzles. It's a tricky juggling act though and I think those kickstarters that have a clearer goal or a work in progress, do a bit better, as you have more of an idea what it is that you're buying into, rather than just an idea.

Xenonauts, Satellite Reign and the Shadowrun's have all been other ones I'm glad to have backed, the only one that I never received anything from was for a novelty controller for android systems which I thankfully only backed for about a tenner but that went down the toilet completely.

Torment looks like it's going to be great and Beyond the Gates (a civ-a like) is slightly in limbo and apparently only out maybe at the end of the year but the comms have been good and I've still got faith in the team.

[BabelRich]

I'd have preferred shitty art, no swanky V/O's (Elijah Wood etc couldn't have been cheap) and just MOAR in the way of rooms and puzzles. It's a tricky juggling act though and I think those kickstarters that have a clearer goal or a work in progress, do a bit better, as you have more of an idea what it is that you're buying into, rather than just an idea.

I don't disagree with your points but I'm sure I read that Elijah Wood wanted to be involved that much that he worked for Equity minimum. They literally couldn't have paid him any less in that case.

[b00dles]

I'm pretty sure it was the same for Jack Black too, I just meant it as a more general point in regards to them perhaps having a certain amount of cash that made them perhaps chop and change a little bit in terms of direction and art style. I got that impression from what I'd seen of the documentary but it might have just been misunderstanding on my part.

[FozZ]

AMA with Tim. The most interesting thing for me is that they're moving to UE4 for this project so they have a capable engine from the off

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/40i8ej

Sounds like they're far more prepared going in compared to Broken Age, where they were basically starting from scratch in terms of story and design. Tim's been working on / updating the story/design docs for Psychonauts 2 since the original shipped.

Here's the archived stream that was done as the campaign came to a close (first half hour is one of the senior artists doing some Raz sketches), final total of $3,829,024

http://www.twitch.tv/doublefine/v/35071122

They've announced that the PS2 version of the original Psychonauts is going to be made backwards compatible on PS4 with additional features (presumably through the emulator/wrapper that a few other games have used).

[BabelRich]

I'm pretty sure it was the same for Jack Black too, I just meant it as a more general point in regards to them perhaps having a certain amount of cash that made them perhaps chop and change a little bit in terms of direction and art style. I got that impression from what I'd seen of the documentary but it might have just been misunderstanding on my part.

Oh absolutely, as I say I totally agree with you points, just wanted to get that out there.

I haven't watched all the documentary, though I fully intend to someday. I wonder if they considered going proper old school and not have voice actors and more importantly what the fan reaction would have been.

[Blu3Flame]

I wonder if they considered going proper old school and not have voice actors and more importantly what the fan reaction would have been.

The plan with the amount they were originally asking was for a short very traditional title using an existing adventure game engine. Things went awry when they far exceeded that goal and the scope of the project changed.

[b00dles]

It's a tricky one because although they would have been derided if they made a really pixellated game using SCUMM considering the amount of money they had, it was a bit of a shame that there wasn't more ground work for them to continue from. I do like the art style they used in the end but personally, I love the point n click/ adventure game mechanic and would have been more than happy with a really long game with loads of puzzles and characters, or even some clever Tentacle style time travel/ changing environment type puzzles and/or branching storylines/ different endings rather than an essentially 'short' game that looked nice.

But again, difficult to please the amount of backers considering no one really knew what they were backing and I'm sure some people wanted or expected a 'modern' adventure game (which I don't even think Broken Age is necessarily).

I've said it before and I'll say it again but Broken Sword 5 and book of unwritten tales 2 are better traditional adventure games than Broken Age, no contest.

Either way, I'm incredibly glad they did it because it spawned those other kickstarters and a bit of a resurgence in the genre, which makes me very happy indeed.

[Vin]

They've announced that the PS2 version of the original Psychonauts is going to be made backwards compatible on PS4 with additional features (presumably through the emulator/wrapper that a few other games have used).

Minus the screen tearing hopefully because the port itself was tragic.

[JamesGoblin]

To my shame, I just discovered that Tim made Grim fandango o,O

PS based on reactions elsewhere, I expected to see much more of "he'll never see my money again!". A pleasant surprise.

[JohnnyRyall]

Some early footage of the game engine (skip to 2:20):

 

 

Looks wonderful!

 

I've a sudden urge to replay Psychonauts 1.

[Revival]