Back in December of this year, the highly praised, Bay Area based developing team, Double Fine, dropped the mother of all news at the 2015 Video Game Awards: official crowdfunding for Psychonauts 2. Since that time, fans and previous players fled to their wallets and made generous donations to the game.
Released back in 2005, Psychonauts put us in the shoes of Raz, a fiery young psychic who aspires to become a “Psychonaut,” a spy able to infiltrate others’ minds.
Every brain that you meet, every person that you meet, you can wonder about what’s going on inside their mind.
While initial sales for the first Psychonauts did not go over well (in part due to bad publishing, and also due to the odd gaming turnover of that time) psychonauts won the hearts of many with sales on Steam. Since then, the games built up a strong and faithful fan base, as well as accumulating critical acclaim. Why? Partially due to the strongly reminiscent feel that this action adventure adopted, reminding many of ye nostalgic click-and-point PC games. Partially because it is a game that reflects the infinite fun and mystery found inside a person’s mind. To quote comedian Louis CK, “the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly…”
But mostly, Psychonauts was just a delight to play, and it is unspringing that fans are hungry for more.
A combination of great gameplay, music, and story, the first Psychonauts‘ ending lent itself well to the possibility of a sequel. Many are excited for the new adventures that await, as well as shedding some light on unsolved mysteries.
“We always wanted to make more of Psychonauts because there is a story there that is much bigger than the first game. We hint at that in elements of Raz’s backstory and the story of his family, how they have this curse to die in water,” Schafer told the good folks at Kotaku. “We kind of dropped that as a throwaway line in Psychonauts. But we want to explore it in a second game, along with more different minds.” And after small, consecutive successful sales with Costume Quest and Stacking, Double Fine decided to redirect their focus to Psychonauts 2.
Today, on January 6th, having reached their gargantuan goal of $3.3 million dollars (nearly the same budget Dr. Evil might demand as ransom), it looks like we are finally getting Psychonauts 2.
Having previously left us clutching tragically to a cliffhanger, Double Fine is looking to carry the game’s momentum forward. According to the developer’s’ Fig:
In Psychonauts 2, Raz realizes his dream and visits Psychonauts Headquarters. However, when he gets there, he finds it’s not the perfect place he expected and quickly realizes that the Psychonauts need him more than he needs them.
Revisiting the world of Psychonauts through the familiar eyes of Raz, players are promised “new mental worlds” to explore, along with new characters, new challenges to untangle, and new psychic abilities! Schafer also promises to bring together the same fantastic team that brought us the first.
The game will be made available for Windows, OSX, and Linux, with Double Fine giving fans further option to buy different tiers of both Psychonauts 1 & 2 with varying benefits.
After reaching their goal, Double Fine uploaded a short video thanking their contributors.
While it has been a long and arduous road, it appears that Double Fine’s, Schafer’s, fans’ effort are finally paying off. Psychonauts 2 is currently projecting a release date of 2018!