
Psychonauts 2 - Doolwind
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/psychonauts-2
======
minimaxir
Context: Psychonauts 2 was just announced as a legitimate surprise at The Game
Awards.

Meta-Context: Double Fine has had terrible, terrible luck with crowdfunding
and funds in their previous ventures (there is actually a _documentary_
explicitly about that: [http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/10/broken-ages-
making-of-...](http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/10/broken-ages-making-of-
documentary-may-be-double-fines-most-enduring-legacy/)), which may explain why
they are trying an experimental crowdfunding platform.

~~~
ceratopisan
Your comment makes it sound like the documentary is an expose of
mismanagement. It's not; it was put together on purpose _by Double Fine_ to
show how difficult game development can be, and to show what happens with the
money people pledged... which is a heck of a lot more than I've seen from many
other Kickstarted projects.

~~~
minimaxir
Fair. Edited comment.

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ekianjo
Broken Age (the previous Kickstarter from Double Fine) was an horrible game
(especially the second act - and it was super late and way over budget in the
end) so it hardly proves that direct funding is a good idea in the first
place.

~~~
zurn
[http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/broken-age-act-2/critic-
re...](http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/broken-age-act-2/critic-reviews)

Act 2 scored 90% in IGN, 80% in Edge... I'd like to make an "especially
horrible" game like this some day.

Also I hope they never stop taking risks and I hope gamers will continue to
enable that instead of demanding safe bets.

~~~
ekianjo
Look at actual user reviews. Most people said it was really a poor act 2 after
a good act 1. I dont know what else to tell you.

~~~
zurn
In user reviews there are 35 negative reviews out of 123 ratings. Not
"especially horrible" by any means either.

If you look at the comments on the metacritic "user reviews" page, there are a
lot of people disappointed that the game wasn't sufficiently like the classic
LucasArts point-n-click adventures.

You get the feeling that the most vocal users didn't review the game on its
own merits. It ended up being very casual, which means the target audience
isn't well represented by commenters on gaming web sites.

~~~
ekianjo
Ok I don't think you are giving it a fair summary. Users who did not like it
actually very objectively pointed out that the Act 2 rehashed a lot of the
same sets and characters and did not introduce much new elements in the story
- in other words, it felt rushed and empty following a promising Act 1. Which
it probably was.

~~~
zurn
The positive critic reviews acknowledged these aspects of the game too, but
still gave good reviews if not quite as glowing as Act 1. Eg "While I wish
that Double Fine kept taking me to new and surprising settings, Act 2 makes
the absolute most of each screen of its world. It’s an adventure that I loved
seeing through to the end. "

------
verusfossa
I bought Hack n Slash because it was supposed to be some hackable, easily
moddable adventure game, but it was terrible. To my knowledge, no one really
modded it either. The in-game condition statement crystals were way more
confusing than any if or for statement. Kind of left a bad taste in my mouth.
Their latest games haven't been very good IMHO. Hope they don't destroy
Psychonauts.

------
mninm
Way back when before the Broken Age Kickstarter and before Microsoft bought
Minecraft Notch half-jokingly tweeted an offer to personally fund a sequel to
Psychonaughts. In interviews Tim Schafer (head of Double Fine) mentioned that
that wasn't very realistic as a proper sequel would cost around $13 million.

It's interesting that in the news reports about this latest announcement state
that crowd funding will be used alongside outside private investment.

It makes me wonder if this fig campaign is mainly about generating buzz (for
both fig and Psychonauts 2) and as a way to prove public interest in order to
unlock the aforementioned outside investment.

[http://kotaku.com/5885525/bankrolling-psychonauts-2-was-
just...](http://kotaku.com/5885525/bankrolling-psychonauts-2-was-just-a-semi-
joke-says-notch)

------
superskierpat
Loved the first game, but the Double Fine kickaster has been slightly
controversial, I wonder if this one will be able to get as much support.

------
mark_k
It seems that this time around fig is taking unaccredited investments, which
is interesting.

Double Fine is hit and miss, but at least they are trying to be original, and
they have a good reputation in a pretty shady industry. I'll support them.

------
butz
Let's hope it won't be released in two episodes, like Broken Age.

~~~
ry_ry
Let's hope it's not a huge disappointment like broken age :(

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veb
This is going up like crazy -- 100 sales in a few minutes. Why?

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Tinyyy
Looks cool, but 3.3 million dollars is really a lot!

~~~
minimaxir
$3.3 million was the same final budget for Broken Age, the previous
crowdfunded game. Apparently, it was very obvious that funds ran out mid-
development. (haven't played the game yet)

~~~
MollyR
Yea as much as I'd love a new psychonauts game, I have some trust issues after
kickstarting some money to Broken Age.

~~~
ry_ry
I dunno, I backed broken age and got _months_ of entertainment (such as it is)
from the vlog updates, followed by a beautiful but ultimately flawed game.

Isn't that way Kickstarter is all about? Boundless optimism, unrelenting hype,
followed by an uneasy sense of disappointment?

Full disclosure: I backed ouya too. I even played on it once or twice before
consigning it to The Shelf of Regret, alongside the Atari jaguar and the PIs I
could never be bothered to do anything useful with.

~~~
MollyR
I backed ouya too! I actually enjoyed it a lot as a developer testing my own
prototypes, but definitely not as much as end user though.

I was exceptionally pleased by shovel knight though.
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yachtclubgames/shovel-k...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yachtclubgames/shovel-
knight)

