Psychonauts 2 announced, crowdfunding started.

What was Tim Schafer's last crowdfunded game, did it do well?
 
What was Tim Schafer's last crowdfunded game, did it do well?

The last one Schafer himself directly worked on was Broken Age. The other Double Fine crowdfunded games have been from other project leads.
 
Anyone giving money to Tim deserves to be ripped off. After broken age fiasco I would be surprised if they hit the goal.
 
Anyone giving money to Tim deserves to be ripped off. After broken age fiasco I would be surprised if they hit the goal.

? Not sure what you're talking about. I Thought BA was a fun game and it was what it was meant to be, an oldschool style adventure game.
 
? Not sure what you're talking about. I Thought BA was a fun game and it was what it was meant to be, an oldschool style adventure game.

It was over a year late and had to be released in two halves to raise additional money to fund development.
 
It was over a year late and had to be released in two halves to raise additional money to fund development.

Games get delayed all the time and that means they cost more money to make. I'm not sure why people seem to believe that crowd funding magically changes the realities of game development and can somehow prevent any problems from cropping up. The estimated development time for Broken Age was for a much smaller 2D adventure game.
 
I wouldn't blame anyone for having misgivings about schafer, but whats important about Doublefine adventure was that it wasn't just a game kickstarter. The actual purpose was to film a documentary on making a game. Thats why the original kickstarter was so small. It was just like "hey were gonna make a tiny game and film what its like", fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective, it blew up. So Tim got oogly eyed and went waaay overboard on budget caused a year delay and the game was split up to get additional funding to finish it. Everybody forgot the documentary in the mix.

So what makes this any different than Star citizen? because thats the immediate simile that comes to mind.

1. You probably never saw it unless you were a backer, but yes there was a documentary. It was once a month, half-hour or so long video detailing what was going on. Not a status update alone but a very moment to moment process doc. People fighting work halting budget meeting misery documentary. If you were a backer you knew every step of the way. There was never any question at any point of where the game stood and honestly for my money the documentary ended up being worth it. It was very sobering.

2. Tim shut it down when it was time to shut it down. I'm trying to find anything on the original campaign but I can't I don't recall any fanciful stretch goals or anything too crazy.

3. It got done, it was late but not in any kind of scary way. There was never any questionable or ongoing financing and it was kind of nice that instead of pushing back the full gaming they gave us a finished part 1 product.

I think its clear Tim has sobered up this time around, but who knows hes had missteps in the past. To each his own. I will likely back it.
 
I wouldn't blame anyone for having misgivings about schafer, but whats important about Doublefine adventure was that it wasn't just a game kickstarter. The actual purpose was to film a documentary on making a game. Thats why the original kickstarter was so small. It was just like "hey were gonna make a tiny game and film what its like", fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective, it blew up. So Tim got oogly eyed and went waaay overboard on budget caused a year delay and the game was split up to get additional funding to finish it. Everybody forgot the documentary in the mix.

So what makes this any different than Star citizen? because thats the immediate simile that comes to mind.

1. You probably never saw it unless you were a backer, but yes there was a documentary. It was once a month, half-hour or so long video detailing what was going on. Not a status update alone but a very moment to moment process doc. People fighting work halting budget meeting misery documentary. If you were a backer you knew every step of the way. There was never any question at any point of where the game stood and honestly for my money the documentary ended up being worth it. It was very sobering.

2. Tim shut it down when it was time to shut it down. I'm trying to find anything on the original campaign but I can't I don't recall any fanciful stretch goals or anything too crazy.

3. It got done, it was late but not in any kind of scary way. There was never any questionable or ongoing financing and it was kind of nice that instead of pushing back the full gaming they gave us a finished part 1 product.

I think its clear Tim has sobered up this time around, but who knows hes had missteps in the past. To each his own. I will likely back it.

They actually released the documentary for free a little bit ago.
 
I wouldn't blame anyone for having misgivings about schafer, but whats important about Doublefine adventure was that it wasn't just a game kickstarter. The actual purpose was to film a documentary on making a game. Thats why the original kickstarter was so small. It was just like "hey were gonna make a tiny game and film what its like", fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective, it blew up. So Tim got oogly eyed and went waaay overboard on budget caused a year delay and the game was split up to get additional funding to finish it. Everybody forgot the documentary in the mix.

That's all good and well, but the reality is that what happened with Broken Age puts a legitimate question mark over Schafer's ability and discipline to not overrun project budgets and timetables when a publisher isn't looking over his shoulder.

I am personally torn because on the one hand I loved Psychonauts, but on the other I don't particularly trust Schafer all that much not to screw it up.
 
He was posting about his beer parties out of crowd funding. Unprofessional and untrustworthy. Also broken age was below average game.
 
God I really want Psychonauts 2 to happen. I just don't know about crowdfunding it. I'll certainly buy it when it is released. First game was so good. Oh the dark dark humor too.
 
Games get delayed all the time and that means they cost more money to make. I'm not sure why people seem to believe that crowd funding magically changes the realities of game development and can somehow prevent any problems from cropping up. The estimated development time for Broken Age was for a much smaller 2D adventure game.

The problem is, they way over funded Broken Age and couldn't make the game they promised without releasing half a game to raise enough cash to fulfill their obligations.

I'm not opposed to games being delayed because they need to time to finish or polish or cleanup. What I don't like is seeing a kickstarter get a pile of cash and the project losing focus of what they promised which is what Broken Age did.

Don't get me wrong, I like the game, it's fun, I'm glad to have played it. But between that and SpaceBase DF-9 (which I did not back, just followed with interest), I will be happy to buy Psychonauts when it comes out, but I don't have a lot of faith in Double Fine kickstarter / early access.
 
Interesting option to invest. High risk for sure, but as part of aproperly balanced strategy could be fun. :)
 
While I would absolutely love to see a Psychonauts sequel, I'm not trusting Tim Schafer with any of my money.
 
I'm in at the $69 level. The first game is one of my family's favorite!
 
I'll back it. Psychonauts is one of the most played games in my household. Still gets played to this day. I also don't hold anything against TS. Shit happens. Things get late sometimes.
 
To everyone complaining about broken promises:

So, what's gonna happen? No one can say for sure! But here's my promise to you: either the game will be great, or it'll be a spectacular failure caught on camera for everyone to see.

from the original Double Fine Adventure pitch video:
https://youtu.be/AdXvZgIV1Q0?t=20s
 
Well I'll be. Hopefully it won't be a disappointment like so many other more recent Double Fine releases.
 
So Double Fine Productions was acquired by Microsoft and made part of Xbox Game Studios in June last year, for anyone who didn't know.

https://venturebeat.com/2019/06/09/microsoft-adds-double-fine-to-its-xbox-game-studios-stable/

With that acquisition, will initial Fig investors receive any benefits that were supposed to be included with that contract?

Anyway, Tim Schaefer revealed today that they were working on cutting out all the boss fights from Psychonauts 2 due to budget shortfalls prior to Microsoft swooping in. I guess project and budget mismanagement is still part of Schaefer's MO.

https://www.ign.com/articles/psychonauts-2-double-fine-xbox-game-studios-acqusition
https://archive.vn/Q7OM9

Psychonauts 2 has a presumptive release date of sometime this year.
 
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I doubt any of the fig "investors" will ever see a dime. They had so many clauses in it to get out of paying people anything already, and I am sure with the sale, that nullifies them having to pay anything out to anyone.
 
Great... now what only available in the Windows store on PC if at all? Fucking wonderful. My kids and I who own five copies of the original, and have been chomping for the sequel since before it was announced probably won’t even play it now. Because I will not buy it through the MS shop.
 
I doubt any of the fig "investors" will ever see a dime. They had so many clauses in it to get out of paying people anything already, and I am sure with the sale, that nullifies them having to pay anything out to anyone.

We'll see how they handle stuff for backers, but the people who actually invested money expecting a financial return on that investment got paid.


Great... now what only available in the Windows store on PC if at all? Fucking wonderful. My kids and I who own five copies of the original, and have been chomping for the sequel since before it was announced probably won’t even play it now. Because I will not buy it through the MS shop.

MS releases games on Steam.
 
MS releases games on Steam.

You’re right, I have seen an uptick lately. I kinda spaced that. Not really into most of what they put on there. (Halos for example) I guess it does sound like it will at least be good for the project itself. We’ll see how it goes. I still feel like I should complain about MS a little though. :p
 
Psychonauts 2 Action Trailer // Summer 2021

Psychonauts 2 releases on August 25th and will be free for Game Pass subscribers...

 
I nearly forgot this game was in the works, hadn't given it a thought in over a year! Just watched the last few episodes of their devlogs on youtube. Pretty revealing stuff. Hoping for the best for them and the fans (I've yet to play the first one, although it's on my list)
 
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https://opencritic.com/game/7404/psychonauts-2
 
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