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Psychonauts 2 Development Thread
- Thread starter Ultimadrago
- Start date
UE4, right? That tech demo they showed a few months back looked absurdly good.
Ultimadrago
Member
Thanks Cecil! Here's the post for everyone just skimming:
Psychonauts 2 Update #3 - Into The Woods We go!
Hello Psychobackers!
Here we are again with another Psychonauts 2 project update, and its a beefy one! Weve been trying to get this update out for quite some time, but every time we were about to publish it another piece of news would come running down the corridor towards us yelling Wait! Hold that elevator! Were coming too! But enoughs enough! Its time to push the close door button, blankly stare at the floor and pretend we cant see anyone else who wants to get on with us. Lets get this elevator moving.
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First floor: Publisher update
Were very happy to announce that Psychonauts 2 will be published by Starbreeze Studios! These guys are developers now turned publishers. Youve probably played one of their games, like the PAYDAY-series that they are maybe most famous for, and also one of our favorite games in recent years, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
Were really excited to be working with a publisher that has such a strong background in development, it makes them a perfect partner in our eyes -- Were confident this will be a great marriage, and that our game babies will be the most handsomest of all time.
What does this mean for you, does anything change? If you cast your minds eye back to our Fig campaign, you may recall some rather attractively made brain shaped charts showing how we were putting together the funding for Psychonauts 2. There would be a portion from our generous backers and Fig investors, a portion from Double Fine, and a portion from an undisclosed publishing partner.
The only change is that the text that said publishing partner can say Starbreeze - now you know where the rest of the money is coming from! Whether you are a regular backer or an investor, youre still entitled to everything you were before.
Ding! Second Floor!
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Second floor: Development updates
As we mentioned, were still not quite into full production yet, but after lots of experimentation and design meetings we know a lot more about the game -- what it should look like, how well build it, how it feels to control Raz, what new moves and powers youll have, and more! Weve been building this all out into a massive schedule that will serve as our road map for production.
A big part of this has been reworking and refining the entire story and getting into more detail, including all the new characters youll meet and what surreal mental landscapes youll visit. That last part especially has involved whittling down hundreds of ideas that wed love to build and its been wonderful to have the time to consider this stuff carefully.
But the team has not been idle while weve been figuring this stuff out. The next big step after our initial proof of concept rebuilding of the Kids Camp from the first game was to build out new areas that we hoped would demonstrate the art direction and vibe of Psychonauts 2, as well as teach us how we might use some of the current-gen tech features that werent available when Double Fine built the first game.
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Third Floor: The Quarry
As we went through early discussions about what was important to Psychonauts, we kept coming back to the idea of open exploration and the cycle of curiosity and discovery that people loved in Whispering Rock -- the childlike feeling of going off the beaten path and discovering hidden places for the first time. We knew that we wouldn't be able to fully capture this with just the Psychonauts Headquarters, so we decided to expand our main hub to include a lot of surrounding wilderness full of mysterious new locations and, well, youll see later.
The Psychonauts HQ is now going to be nestled in a secret location meant to evoke the lush, damp forests of the Pacific Northwest. In addition to the high-tech spy HQ, youll be able to freely explore areas outside the base as well.
For our Art Test, we chose a cross-section of some of types of areas wed expect the player to explore and experimented with construction, decoration, and rendering to discover how we want the real game to look.
Its important to note that this Quarry Map, as we called it, is throwaway work. While we expect Raz will visit places that look a lot like this, the exact layout and construction here isnt meant to ship as part of the game. Its important to do this for early work so we dont lock ourselves into any early decisions we arent quite ready to make. (This is also why the area is much more linear than we expect our game to be.)
Take a look at this short video from 2PP featuring our art team talking about the process of building the Quarry, what we learned, and how we feel about it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjirhAZsZNo
From building out The Quarry we learned some important things, but mainly we learned how to construct the game at a low level.
======
Fourth floor: Art talk
For many modern games, an individual object model can contain a ton of detail in the textures and materials -- complex normal maps, shaders, physically-based materials for lighting, amongst other things too. For Psychonauts 2, we found really leaning on these more modern techniques took away from some of the wonky, hand-crafted feel we expected from the game and lead to a lot of visual clutter.
Instead, weve moved a lot of this detail into the actual 3D geometry of the objects and kept the textures and materials much more abstract and painterly.
One of the more difficult tasks of modernizing Psychonauts was how to achieve a painterly look while using all of the tech available to us in the Unreal Engine. After some trial and error we have found a happy medium between the technology and painterly aesthetic.
Walk through this process in an extended forum post by Psychonauts 2 world builder, Geoff Soulis.
click here to read more
=========
Fifth Floor: Into the woods
While building out this art test, we also used it as an excuse to get the whole team together for one of the games industrys most venerable traditions -- the research trip. (This is the part where we all regret putting the Psychonauts HQ in a western US-style forest instead of say, Tahiti.) We all piled into a bus to travel to nearby Henry Cowell State Park for reference photos, a bracing nature hike, and some quality non-work time with our teammates. The fine folks at 2 Player Productions made a short video on it, which contains top-secret and possibly incriminating information about everyones favorite games and earliest gaming memories!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kYNyBvxFe0
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Sixth Floor: Ryan Mattson
If you watch that video, youll see a lot of new people joining our ever-expanding team. Weve got many DF-veterans rolling off of Headlander and other projects, as well as many new people weve been hiring to build out a team for a much larger game than weve made in a while. Oh, hey, heres one one now! Everybody, say hello to Ryan Mattson, our Lead Level Designer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dXBKC9UfwE
Whats next for the team? Well be focusing on finishing up pre-production and launching into our first Actual Real Levels for the game. These levels will need a lot more initial bake time in the initial design or whitebox phase, which means they wont be showable for a while (though we might be persuaded to give you a peek on some in-progress stuff). Later down the road, though, theyll emerge from these cocoons into beautiful butterflies of amazing gameplay and visual art! That means the next update might not be so pretty, but well do our best to keep it interesting!
Let us know what sorts of things youd like to see more of, or less of, in our next update using the comments here, our forums, or just thinking really hard about it well be sure to pick up the signal from Psychonauts HQ.
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Seventh floor: Virtual reality!
For those of you itching for more Psychonauts, weve got goooood news. If you werent aware, theres an entirely new Psychonauts adventure coming out on February 21st for PlayStation VR! Umm thats in two weeks you guys!
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin is a standalone chapter of the Psychonauts saga a mind-bending adventure puzzle game made from the ground up for VR that will chronicle the events between the first Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2. You probably know this by now, but:
Youll once again assume the role of Raz, now a fully fledged member of the Psychonauts. Youll see through his eyes in first person, using his various psychic powers to affect the world, and solve puzzles: the power of Clairvoyance will allow you to see through the eyes of others and explore the environment, while other abilities such as Telekinesis and Pyrokinesis allow you to move things around with the power of your mind or just set them on fire.
The story picks up exactly where it left off at the end of Psychonauts, with Raz, Lili, Sasha, Milla, and Coach Oleander flying off to rescue Truman Zanotto, the Grand Head of the Psychonauts. Their mission takes them straight into the heart of the Rhombus of Ruin a mysterious part of the ocean as deadly as two Bermuda Triangles back to back!
When the rescue party itself is kidnapped and held prisoner in the Rhombus, Raz is immobilized and must use only his psychic powers to reunite his friends, reveal the identity of the mysterious kidnapper, and free Truman before the madness of the Rhombus consumes all their minds!
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin was designed to be as fun for long time fans as it is for people new to the franchise, so if youve never played Psychonauts before (but we know you all have, right?) that wont be a problem.
Its hard to convey what a VR game will be like with just 2D screenshots, so we thought wed try our hand at a fancy 3D screenshot This 3D video clip allows you to pan around 360 degrees and experience the world of Rhombus of Ruin first hand. The video also supports stereoscopic 3D, so it should work on your PSVR, other headsets like Google Cardboard, or just a pair of red/blue 3D glasses!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQCcCEOsF9k
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Eighth Floor: Everybody out for the roof party!
Woohoo we made it! Thanks for reading, watching, and playing! Well be back in a few months with another fact-filled Psychonauts 2 project update. Until then, keep your wits about you, and dont lose your marbles. Oh, keep your eyes peeled for more new about Psychonauts in the Rhombus of ruin real soon! Ciao!
Ultimadrago
Member
Making of Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin
Game is available now! I wouldn't mind hearing some GAF impressions as I'll likely have to just watch it online.
Edit: Decided to add a link to the NeoGAF Review Thread for an easy go-to for online review scores.
Game is available now! I wouldn't mind hearing some GAF impressions as I'll likely have to just watch it online.
Edit: Decided to add a link to the NeoGAF Review Thread for an easy go-to for online review scores.
will looks like it was made in UE4 and they used a DK2 super early in dev. Hopefully when Psychonauts 2 eventually hits PC
Ultimadrago
Member
Update #4 is here!
Psychonauts 2 Update #4 - We're in Full Production!
Hello Backers of the excellent game Psychonauts 2!
Were back and up to our old tricks of inviting ourselves over to dinner at your place so we can spill the Psychonauts beans all over your table, before disappearing once more into the night. Whilst messy and hard to clean up, our beans are coated in mystery, and those who choose to eat them will learn much about what weve been up to. Eat the spilled beans friends, scoop up a handful and cram them into your mouth and all shall be revealed!
Were happy to report that progress on the game is going very well! Were very excited to tell you that we have exited pre-production and entered the full production phase of development. That probably doesnt come as a surprise to you, since we talked about this happening soon in the last update, but its a major transition for both the team and the project to go through. Allow us to explain
As weve covered in previous updates, In pre-production you want to answer all of your major creative questions Whats the shape of the game? What tech are you using? What are the major features? What is your story? What on earth are you even making? Its when you figure out all the big tentpole features that serve as the foundations for the game, and also a time to build out enough stuff to give you an idea of how long it will take to build all the rest of the stuff. Being in Production means weve worked those things out - we now have a whole story framework, we know who all our characters are, and we have a high level overview of all the brains too!
A lot of the core gameplay is made in pre production, and in early production we are still building some systems, but as we get further into production the focus switches more and more to building the content and polishing gameplay.
So for example weve built out all of Razs core moves -- his runs, his jumps, his tightrope walking, and all the other ways he interacts with the environment.. We need those in order to build out levels. Weve also created many of his powers, but we havent yet fully explored all of them , or how they are used in combat. Because these have less of an impact on how levels are laid out, these will be worked on alongside the levels themselves, with a bit of retrofitting and revision along the way as we learn more about how they impact level design. Other aspects of the game that require levels to be further along -- like cinematics -- will be fully made in production.
Pre production is also when we design and test all of our pipelines. These are the overall processes for how we get something into the game from the germ of an idea that someone might pitch at a meeting, all the way through to having a final, approved asset, and all the technology or people that need to be involved along the way.
Now these are in place, and have been tested at least once, we have started to build the actual game. Were getting closer now to our first playable milestone, which some studios call a vertical slice. A vertical slice is the idea that you create a slice of gameplay that touches every layer of the game, and serves as a tiny playable example of what the final game will be like. its like making just one small slice of delicious Victoria Spongecake to serve as an example of what the whole cake will taste like.
Our first milestone is to create a playable level with art that is showable (but probably not quite shippable) quality. A lot of the work weve done before has included art tests that weve shown to you, all of which has be thrown away. But now were making content that will be in the final game, something that has exploration, and combat, and puzzles, and platforming all the things that you will want to be there when you finally play!
For this weve picked our Hub area, the Quarry that surrounds the Psychonauts HQ - well show you more of that in a forthcoming update. Excitingly weve also started on a couple of our brain levels too!
We first build these areas out in what we aptly call whiteboxing. A very plain version of the level is made up from plain, boring looking white boxes (confusingly, our whiteboxes are grey). This allows us to quickly test and iterate on layout and level design. , before moving on to actual art, which is much harder (and more expensive) to change later. Only after weve gotten the level up to a high quality bar in whitebox, are the plain boxes replaced with real 3d Models from the art team, along with textures and lighting, and all the other details that make the game look amazing.
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Razs new look
For Psychonauts 2 Raz will be sporting a new look, designed by original Psychonauts artist Scott C. Its not the new look you might be expecting though!
As you know all too well, Raz came from a family of circus performers, but he did not dress like them. He dreamt of becoming a Psychonaut, and idolized his heroes Sasha Nein and Mia Bordello, so much so that he cobbled together his own Psychonaut outfit, inspired by Sashas look.
At the end of the first Psychonauts (warning: mild, end of first game spoilers ahead) Raz becomes a full member of the Psychonauts, and along with that, gets a nice new uniform, the black turtleneck we see in the final cinematic.
In Rhombus of Ruin hes back in his old clothes again. But for those who paid attention, his nice new uniform can be found neatly folded up in one of the overhead bins on the Psychonauts jet where he stored it, not wanting it to become creased or damaged whilst hes on the rescue mission.
Raz will start Psychonauts 2 in his old outfit again, but a top secret story point will mean he will end up without them, and Sasha Nein will lend him some of his old clothes. They are of course too big for lil Raz, but hes not going to turn down the chance to wear the clothes of his idol! He rolls up the sleeves as best he can, and rocks the outfit as though it was his own.
check out the final new Raz outfit in the Fig Update video above, or get all close and personal with the model on Sketchfab, where we've uploaded the full model for you to look at!
Click through to sketchfab to rotate and zoom around!
================================================================
We are hiring!
The Psychonauts 2 team is now up to nearly 30 people making levels, gameplay, cinematics, and more!! Were still hiring across multiple departments though and will eventually grow up to about 45 people. (This means we are very much hiring for new people - Please apply, and tell your friends to apply too!)
Slacker Backers!
Fig have added the ability for us to accept Slacker Backers, and so we have! Anyone who missed out on the campaign is now able to pledge support to us again, with nearly all of the same rewards available to them too. Tell your friends this too please!
Rhombus of Ruin Physical release - out now!
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin is getting a physical release, and it's out today at Gamestop! Amazon also have it up for pre-order, and will start shipping on Monday. We've also bundled it with a voucher code for the original Psychonauts. This is our first physical game release that's made it into stores in quite some time, how exciting!
And that's the end of another update! We're heading to E3 next week, and will be popping up on various streams to talk about our Double Fine Presents games, and maybe a little bit about Psychonauts too, so keep your eyes peeled for those. Tim will also be chatting with Jack Black on Tuesday evening at 6pm PST as part of E3's new Coliseum show, tune in!
See you next time folks!
CecilRousso
Member
Game seems to be progressing very well.
Ultimadrago
Member
Update #5 has come.
Psychonauts 2 Update #5 - First Playable Milestone
Greetings Psychobackers!
Welcome to another project update for the excellent game Psychonauts 2, work on which youll be glad to know is still going strong. Very strong in fact, as we just completed an important milestone that we call our first playable and wed like you to see it.
Cast your minds back and you'll remember some of the pretty things we've shown before, such as the Whispering Rock remake that our friends at Molasses Flood built. These were just art tests though - they looked nice but werent designed to be part of the full game; they were simple spaces that didnt incorporate any of the tricky platforming and open exploration we want to be be central to Psychonauts 2.
The First Playable is an area of the game that weve built to test our new pipelines and workflows across all departments -- art, animation, tech, design, cinematics, etc. Weve tested all of this a lot during pre-production, but this is our first big attempt to create a fully arted up, fully playable chunk of gameplay with all the systems, art, gameplay, and tech working in the same place. You may see other teams refer to something like this as a Vertical Slice , though we dont use this terminology because it tends to imply a level of polish and completeness that isnt really required at this stage of production.
The Quarry - Concept Art by Emily Johnstone
This doesnt mean that we now have a final area made to shippable quality, theres still a lot of work to be done. It does however represent a fully playable area that has all the things a level of the game should have: elements like player movement, combat, quests, experience, UI all working together with scratch dialogue and audio, some rough visual effects, textures, lighting, even a cut-scene. This means we can iterating on these systems so they can be as good as possible for the final game.
Check out the latest update video to learn more, and get your first glimpse of an area of Psychonauts 2 that will, in some form at least, make it into the final game. You might recognise the area in question, as its based on one of our first pieces of concept art from Peter Chan (below) - the Quarry surrounding the Psychonauts base.
The Quarry - Concept Art by Peter Chan
Also in this update video: Peter McConnell begins to tackle the score, Rustys remarkably great Sasha scratch dialogue, flaming Censors, and GOATS!
How a goat gets made
Now youve watched the update video, youll have realised just how cute the aforementioned Goat is, and you have in all likelihood sworn to make it your bestest friend as soon as possible. All the characters and critters in the game go on a similar journey in order to be made, lets take a look at the inception of your new goat buddy.
Our friend the goat started out as this sketch above by Scott C, which the team offered feedback on and Scott then worked to refine and expand into the second sketch. Once that was done Zahra reforged the goat into a three dimensional model.
Scott offered some arty feedback in the form of some red doodle notes, which Zahra then implemented back into the model.
Next up Zahra put together a texture moodboard, and set about giving the goat a coat of paint (goat 1. below). Another round of feedback from the team comes with a quick paintover from Bagel with some final suggestions (goat 2. below), after which a new texture was created.
Now the goat needs to be given life, sweet life, and so in steps Ray! In order to animate something like a goat, you need to know more about goats than you probably already do. Luckily Ray lives near to a goat farm and so popped over to visit, take some videos and apply what he learned there to his work. (You can see some of that in the update video.) A final round of feedback, and the goat is ready to go into the game!
Every asset big or small goes on a similar journey, with different people adding touches and offering feedback and advice as they go along. Some assets take a relatively quick path, such as a rock or tree or other piece of scenery, whilst others take weeks and weeks and weeks to perfect - such as a main character model. Not every asset comes with a trip to the goat farm, but there are often serendipitous little twists and turns to this process that can serve as inspiration and influence the final result, hopefully for the better!
Backer Rewards
Were getting pretty close to being able to share more details on all of these, what theyll look like and when you can expect to get them. Were not quite there yet though, but weve been working with our partners at iam8bit and Fangamer to design and source everything, and make sure this crop of rewards will be the best it can possibly be!
What we do know is that were probably looking at sending these out in 3 batches. One batch of stuff that doesnt take too long to make (shirts for example), another batch of stuff for the more complex or custom things (like action figures) and a final batch for stuff that requires the game to be complete.
Be on the lookout for surveys from fangamer in your mail - were going to start collecting information like shirt sizes, and mailing addresses really soon!
Psychonauts Vault Viewer
Apple recently updated iOS to a new version that renders some older games and apps unplayable. Quite a few of our things were affected, but we are working to save most of them! Sadly one of the things that will no longer work is the Psychonauts Vault Viewer - a free app we made a while ago that contained all the little Vault Viewer reels from within Psychonauts, along with some commentary from Tim and Scott C.
Instead of letting this content be lost for all time we've turned it into a video edition, watch it below!
That brings us to the end of another Psychonauts 2 update! You'll be hearing from us again before too long though, and remember to look out for those surveys!
Ciao!
Other stuff:
Devs Play - Star Fox
We recently published a special edition of our web series Devs Play to celebrate SNES classic launch day - In this episode we play Star Fox with its Lead Programmer Dylan Cuthbert.=
HellBlazer
Member
Game is looking great so far!
And this thread is eerily quiet...
And this thread is eerily quiet...
do they play Star Fox 2 with him as well?
Ultimadrago
Member
Haha, I wouldn't mind it much. The updates are more the technical details and direct communication for Backers. The common poster is most interested in straight to the juicy bits (like the playable demo today having its own thread).
No, just the original I think.
Ultimadrago
Member
An older update I forgot to mirror to NeoGAF. Update #7 Coming up next!
Update #6 - 12/22/2017
Update #6 - 12/22/2017
Psychonauts 2 Update #6 - The Aquato Family
Festive Greetings Backers!
Welcome to another Psychonauts 2 project update! This update is best enjoyed with a hot cup of cocoa by an open fire, but a can of coke by the heating vent will suffice. At Double Fine we are just about ready to discard our wacom pens for the year and head on home to see our families -- we trust that you are similarly getting ready for the festive break!
Before we go though, we wanted to share some of the exciting things we’ve been up to of late, and as this is the two year anniversary of the campaign launching, we wanted to give more info on all these rewards we’ve been making too! Let’s dive on in!
Rewards!
When we put together the campaign for Psychonauts 2 we dreamed up a big pile of fun things we wanted to make to reward all you wonderful backers with. We’ve spent the last year or so designing all of those and we are very close to kicking off production on the first batch!
We’re planning on dropping these rewards into your laps in three phases;
1. Stuff that we can make now
2. Stuff that we can make now, but that takes a long time for manufacturing
3. Stuff that we need to wait for the game to be finished before we can make.
For the backer shirt we asked Rex Crowle of Knights and Bikes, LittlebigPlanet, and Tearaway fame to create a design for us, and it's a beauty!
Rusty has been working closely with our pals at Fangamer to mock up the Raz minifig, and we've finalised that design too. This will most likely be part of Batch #2, as mini figs take quite a while to get through manufacturing. Here's a render though:
We’ve already sent out surveys to collect addresses and shirt sizes, so if you haven’t seen those please look for mail from Fangamer, and get in touch with them here if you don’t see one - orders@fangamer.com
We’ll be in touch in the new year with more concrete info on when batch #1 will be sent out!
Production update
We have now ramped up into full production mode! We have five full level teams working on the real world locations and brand new mental worlds, as well as our full gameplay team working on powers, platforming, puzzles, and combat.— all kinds of great stuff!
Now we are in full swing, we know a lot more about the size and scope of the game we are going to make, how long it will take us to make it, and the amount of time we need to make it be great. From those projections we know that Psychonauts 2 will not be shipping in 2018, like we originally estimated when we published the Fig campaign two years ago.
We love the game we're making and we want to make sure that Psychonauts 2 is something you’ll love too — a game that carries on the legacy of Psychonauts in a meaningful and special way. We’re making great progress, but we want to make sure the game has the time it needs to shine.
We’re sorry that you’ll have to wait a little longer than we first estimated, but we’re also hopeful that you’ll understand it will mean being able to deliver a better game. We’re really excited about the things we’re making, and we can’t wait to share them with you!
The Aquato Family
In the update video we trace the creation of Raz's family from sketches to in-game characters. I say creation, but of course they were all in the first game inside memory valts.
To bring the Aquato family to life in more detail, Scott took these memory vaults and redrew the whole family in more detail. We also get to learn all of their names!
After lots of tweaks and fun costume changes, the team settled on some designs, and Bagel worked on the coloring. It's important that each character has a recognizable silhouette and set of colours, even at a distance. So Bagel tries to put the minutia aside, and look at the overall shapes, before then filling in the details again.
Finally the characters come together with a full color pass, and are then sent off to Rusty to be made into models, and then onwards to the animation team to bring them to life. You'll see them in much better detail in the update video!
Happy Holidays!
From everyone at Double Fine Productions, we wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas, a Bonanza Kwanzaa, a Happy New Year, or simply a wonderful winter break!
Last edited:
Ultimadrago
Member
Update #7 - 4/20/2018
Psychonauts 2 Update #7 - The Team
Greetings Psychobackers!
We’re back with another glimpse inside the Psychonauts 2 development machine, where between the whirring cogs and high-tech circuitry we can spy a game being put together brick by brick. In this life-changing update: Level teams, Scott C paintings, other rewards, plus: sign up for a chance to come camping with us!
Psychonauts 2 is now squarely in the midsts of development, with lots of progress being made in all sorts of exciting directions, but progress that is very hard to show a lot of without spoilers being rained down upon you. That’s why in this update, instead of focusing directly on the game’s progress we’ve decided to take a look at the team itself, specifically at one of our level teams and the work they do.
We have four level teams in total, each one comprised of a designer, an artist, a world builder, and a shared programmer. Check out our update video below to learn more and meet Will, Ben and Emily, the core of one of our level teams.
Who wants to come camping with us?
The highest possible reward tier available on our campaign included a trip to "Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp" with the Psychonauts 2 team.
We know lots you would have loved to support us so generously if you had the means, and many of you stretched your budgets to help us get this project off the ground. We wish we could take every single one of our backers with us on this trip, but alas there is no campground large enough, and besides then we’d have no money left to make a game with!
However, we've worked out that we could bring a handful of extra folks with us than we are, and so we'd like to offer a couple of places on our camping trip to backers from other tiers.
To be eligible you simply need to be:
If that sounds like you, then simply enter your name and email address(please use the same one as your fig account!) into the hat using the form below. We’ll pull names completely at random to pick our lucky winners. Get your submissions in by April 26th!
- able to get to Santa Cruz, California on the August 11-12 weekend by your own means
- already a backer
- be over 18 OR be able to bring a parent/guardian with you.
Click here to be teleported to the entry form
Rewards Update
Shirts!
Those who backed at a high enough level for backer shirts should have received a mail asking which color you’d prefer -- green or purple. If you haven't seen that, then please get in touch with Fan Gamer asap as those are about to hit the printing press. If we don’t hear from you, then you’ll get a green one. These are now no longer available to upgrade to, sorry folks.
The Whispering Rock shirts will be ordered soon too! We had to get the actual garments specially made as no one stocks the precise color combination ringer shirts that we need, and that slowed down the production of these a bit more than we’d have liked. More news on those soon!
Art Prints
Three art prints have now been completed by their respective artists, and Fan Gamer are currently working with each of them to produce high quality prints. We’ve already shared two of them with you, and now we’re excited to show you the third!
Our best buddy Scott C flew over from New York a month or so ago to work amongst us in the Double Fine studio and create this ridiculously great painting. It features the full Psychonauts Team, all in their new outfits, with a bonus new never-seen-before Psychonaut who you can learn more about in the update video above.
One lucky backer will receive the original of this, once we are happy with the prints.
It’s not too late to change your pledge to get a print of the above, along with the other ones too, simply contact Fig Support if you’d like to do so. You can watch a timelapse of Scott painting this whole thing below, it’s pretty mesmerizing!
Other Rewards
There are various other things that are close to being ready but still need some final tweaking on the designs before we make them. This includes the viewmaster reels, messenger backpack, luggage tags, Lili Plush and lapel pin. Hopefully we’ll be able to show you some of those in the next update!
Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin is out now for VIVE and Oculus!
Today is the 13th anniversary of Psychonauts, and we've lined up a special Birthday surprise!
We're very happy to announce that our PlayStation VR adventure, Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, is now also available for VIVE and Oculus! It's available right now from Steam and the Oculus store, with a 20% discount.
*ResetERA won't allow more than two pieces of media in one post, but the Launch Trailer for Rhombus belongs here*
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Ultimadrago
Member
Psychonauts 2 Update #8 - Psychic Powers
Greetings Psycho-backers!
It’s been a little while since we last spoke, but rest assured we’ve been heads down working hard on Psychonauts 2! The team is now hovering around 40 people, we are full steam ahead on content creation, and the game is really coming together! We recently completed a milestone that we dubbed a “Narrative Pilot”, which meant building an area that was fully scripted and voiced, with dialogue and jokes and animation and all the things that give us a slice of gameplay that feels like a fully completed game.
The aim of this was to give us the confidence that we are not only making a good game, but a good Psychonauts game. We just completed a studio-wide playthrough and review session of that area to gather feedback on it, and the reaction has been fantastic! We can’t wait to show you all this stuff, but we’re not quite there yet. Don’t fret though, because we still have plenty for you to feast your eyes on!
In this update we wanted to take you on a deeper dive into the world of Raz’s Psychic Powers. Naturally Raz has already received extensive psychic training, so you’ll begin the game with many of the psychic abilities that he learned to harness at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. For those returning powers, the team has focused on making sure that each PSI ability is fun and useful, and on finding a visual style that feels uniquely “psychic.” Classic powers like Telekinesis, PSI Blast, and Pyrokinesis have been totally reworked and you’ll notice lots of improvements from the first game!
As for the new powers we’re adding this game… well, more on that in an upcoming update.
Dive on into the latest 2 Player Productions project update to meet Amy Price, our mighty Programmer of Powers, and learn about the journey she’s been on to get them working juuuuuust right.
Rewards!
We just got back from our very own Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, one of those reward tiers that sounds like a great idea at the time you put your campaign together, but then later realize means you need to do a whole lot of work to fulfil it. We ended up using it as an excuse to lure the whole team out into the woods for a bit of R&R, and it was an incredibly great time - we only wish way more of you could have joined us there!
We’ll share more about what went on at camp in the next update, but for now let’s find out how all these amazing treats we promised you at the start of this whole adventure are coming along!
Prints & Posters
A large number of these are on their way to Peter, Scott and Bagel to be signed, whilst the rest are run off on the printers. We have some of the final blacklight posters here in the studio though and they are amazing! Here’s one glowing on the wall of our Black Velvetopia meeting room.
Whispering Rock Shirts
We might have mentioned this before, but these shirts were a little more complicated than we first thought as we couldn’t find the correct style of shirt to print on, and so we ended up having to get the garments specially made for them. They have been made and are being printed right now!
Backer Shirts
These are in the print queue behind the Whispering Rock ones.
Luggage Tag, Viewmaster Reels, Lapel Pin, Backpack and Lili Plush
Fangamer are awaiting production samples from the factory for most of these things, or they are going through various stages of design to solve tricky problems, but once we have more visuals and info on those we’ll be sure to share more! This stuff is going to be in the secondary postage drop, which will be waiting on the one item we think is going to take the longest anyway...
The Raz Figurine
We’re especially excited for this one, and are working hard with Fangamer to make sure he comes out just right! Making a minifig turns out takes a lot longer than you might think, especially with all the back and forth sending of prototypes. We thought you’d like to see our progress, and get a little insight on how these things even get made!
To get things going Psychonauts Character Modeller, Dave “Rusty” Russell, provided a posed 3D model and pantone color sheet to Fangamer, who then sent us a huuuuge list of things to change; certain grooves that need to be deeper, or bits that need to be thicker in order to print a real life version of the in-game model successfully.
Fangamer then took our work, set that up for the factory and sent it off. The factory made a first attempt at a 3D printed prototype, hand painted it and sent it back for approval. Here’s the first prototype:
Lookin’ good! But definitely in need of some extra love. Rusty provided a set of feedback, including new pantone colors and advice on various aspects - like how we wanted glossy paint on his goggles, and how to paint his face so he didn’t look like a zombie. We also noticed that he was leaning forward a bit too much making his face hard to see, and so made a change to the 3D model... In working this out we also snapped the model's leg off, oops!
A few months (yes, months!) later and we had another prototype, and it is waaaay better!
Some aspects were still not quite right, mostly tweaks though - some color changes, and still some confusion about what should and should not be glossy. No 3D model changes needed this time at least.
Rusty put together another round of feedback, new pantones, etc, and we sent that all back to the factory via Fangamer.
So that’s where we are now; we're waiting on a third prototype that we’re very hopeful will be the last one, so we can get Raz into production and onto your shelves as soon as possible! You can see that this figure has come along in leaps and bounds, so hopefully the next one will be even better, and it's already the best Raz figurine of all time!
The Big Question
The Big Question on everyone's lips is “when are you going to ship all this stuff to me?? I need it now, give it to me you monsters!” to which the answer is the all-too-often-said and always-frustrating-to-hear “soon”
On previous crowdfunding campaigns we spent way too much of our funds on postage, and so with this one we are trying to ship things in as few boxes as possible. We’re currently hoping we’ll be able to get two shipments out, the first one of which would be shirts, posters and maaaaybe a few of the other things if they appear in time. With those things all mid-printing now we’re ever so hopeful that our first shipment will genuinely be “soon” So watch this space.
That brings us to the close of another Psychonauts 2 Project update, but with more and more progress happening here in the background we are getting really excited about being able to show even more of this game to you in the near future. Until then PSI-Cadets, farewell!
Ultimadrago
Member
The Rewards are coming!
We’re really excited to inform you that the first batch of physical rewards is about to head your way!
This collection of fun things will include the Merit Badge Set, the Backer shirts designed by Rex Crowle, the red / yellow replica Whispering Rock shirts, and the three Art Prints from Peter Chan, Bagel and Scott. C (plus the actual pieces of art will go out to the three new owners of those!)
If you are one of the lucky backers expecting these rewards then here are some things you’ll want to know:
Once you get your rewards we’d love to see you wearing or displaying them, so please send us piccies either below in the comments, or on twitter! (@doublefine)
- FanGamer will be emailing you today to verify your addresses, and you’ll be able to change yours via the link in that email.
- Shipping will begin on Weds October 17th, please change your address before then!
- We are only shipping the shirts, art prints, and merit badge sets - if you are not expecting those then you do not need to confirm your address yet!
- No email? Have questions? Please contact orders@fangamer.com!
Here are some photos from the Fangamer warehouse:
The three shirts in all their glory!
... and the three prints in their glory!
Specially made whispering rock shirts are ready to... rock!
Mountains of backer shirts fill the aisles, Thimbleweed Park making a guest appearance in the background
Thanks so much for being so patient waiting for these. We really hope you enjoy them, and look forward to seeing your own photos once they are in your hands!
We'll be back really soon with another bonus update about our trip into the woods to Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, until then, farewell!
Ultimadrago
Member
Psychonauts 2 · Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp
A neat mini-video that Double Fine took with the backers that were awarded the Whispering Rock Summer Camp perk! Most going paid $10,000 to have it included. Some were gifted or had slots opened up for a free random selection.
A neat mini-video that Double Fine took with the backers that were awarded the Whispering Rock Summer Camp perk! Most going paid $10,000 to have it included. Some were gifted or had slots opened up for a free random selection.
Ultimadrago
Member
It seems Zac McClendon, who has been working on with Double Fine on Psychonauts 2 as Lead Designer since February 2016 has now left the company for further ventures.Greetings once more Psychobackers,
Before we all head off for a much needed Festive break, we wanted to finish up the year by sharing some Psychonauts 2 progress with you all, along with some greetings of the season.
By now you have all probably seen one of the biggest things we’ve been up to of late… OUR TRAILER which we surprised launched at The Game Awards a week or so ago! If you haven’t seen it yet (or maybe even if you have) then stop whatever you’re doing and hit play below then we can talk some more afterwards.
Yayyy! We hope you enjoyed watching that as much as we enjoyed sharing it! One of the things you might notice straight away, from the thumbnail even, is that we have a sharp new logo
It's hard to take something so well known and beloved and adjust it, but we felt that our old logo needed a little pizazz for a modern era. We looked to our very talented friend and long-time collaborator Cory Schmitz, and working closely with art teams here we think he found the perfect balance between the old and the new for us - thanks Cory!
It was a lot of work to put that trailer together, especially because the game itself is about to enter a whole new phase of development, which meant lots going on at the same time!
“A new phase of development?” you say with a collective gasp “That sounds exciting!” — and you’d be right - it is! We're about to dive into Alpha, which in theory means we are done inventing things and now it's all about making and polishing the things we've been inventing this whole time.
If you’d like to find out more about that and see how this trailer came together, then dive straight on into this update video from 2 Player Productions! You’ll meet Geoff and Lisette, learn about Strike Teams, and see some rather fetching Christmas sweaters.
Rewards
Those of you with shirts and prints should now all have them hanging on your walls and adorning your bodies, or at least know that they are on their way to you. It's been really amazing to see all the pictures of you enjoying your rewards on twitter (keep on sending those in please!) and we've even seen some of the shirts in the wild too!
(Thanks Twinimation!)
If you haven’t heard anything yet then please contact orders@fangamer.com and they will fix you right up.
Raz figurine
In the video update you’ll have glimpsed the Raz Figurine in all its splendid beauty. Good news then: we have approved the sculpt, coloring and packaging, and he is now ready to go into manufacturing, and that means it won’t be too long before they end up in your hands - hooray!
The remaining rewards are still in progress, but they also won’t be too far from being yours - more news on those next year!
Happy Holidays!
We don’t really have seasons here, not like some places do anyway, so as the sunny and slightly foggy days turn to slightly less sunny, slightly more foggy days, It’s time for us to close the studio down for a week or so and take some time out with our families. We hope you get to do the same!
2019 will be very exciting for us all, and you can be sure to expect lots more of these updates, more rewards, but mainly - you’ll get to play Psychonauts 2! Until next time - Please have extremely Happy Holidays, and an amazing New Year!
See you in 2019, love from everyone at Double Fine xxx
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