psychonauts

Psycho-pedia Is Like Wikipedia, Only For Psychonauts

3:00PM Luke Plunkett | Remember that ominous “COMING SOON” scare we had with Psychonauts a few months back? Well it just came! While it wasn’t, of course, a new Psychonauts game, it’s probably the next best thing. More »

Portal Devs Reveal The GLaDOS That Never Was, Inspiration Behind Weighted Companion Cube

6:00PM Michael McWhertor | Kim Swift and Erik Wolpaw, two of the key developers on Portal, gave GDC attendees a behind the scenes look at The Orange Box hit, focusing on the process of integrating narrative and design. The two also showed early and, by their own admission, failed, version’s of the game’s final boss fight with GLaDOS, the talkative, ever present artificial intelligence. They highlighted three attempts at making a successful boss battle, driving home the fact that ample playtesting brought them to the incinerator battle they ultimately settled on. More »

Tim Schafer Prefers New Games To Sequels (We’d Like Both, Thanks)

10:20PM Luke Plunkett | The internet got a little excited a while back over Psychonauts. Can you blame us? It’s like saying Eddie didn’t die, and the Cruisers are reforming for a world tour. The world is also holding its collective breath for more Full Throttle, more Day of the Tentacle, more Grim Fandango…shit, more of anything Schafer’s done. Thing is, the guy prefers new stuff. He even says so in an interview with Playboy. Playboy: Does that mean we’re not going to see a Grim Fandango 8? Schafer: I’ve toyed with that because I love those characters and that world. I would love to go back and spend time with the characters from any game I’ve worked on, and I would love to make a sequel to any of them. But I also want to make something new. If there were five of me I might make sequels, but there’s always some new idea I want to explore. Playboy: What if you had the opportunity to farm out a sequel — not farm out in a negative sense, but… Schafer: Phone it in? Squeeze it out? Playboy: If you could give the reins to someone you trusted to execute a Psychonauts sequel, where you had basic veto power and could do general shaping… Schafer: It just all depends on the person. If it was a team that I knew and trusted then, yeah, that would be great. The team that made Monkey Island 3 was not under our control at all. They were really clever, smart guys and they wrote really great dialogue so in that case it worked out great. You know, the sad thing is, dude’s got a point. I can already picture Christmas 2010, we’re all a little older, a little balder, and we’re sitting around complaining about how badly we want a Brutal Legend sequel, and Schafer’s all “nope, time for something new”, and the cycle just repeats itself until we’re all dead/have lost interest. Write the Lightning [Playboy, via Game|Life] More »

Psychonauts Sequel Not Happening (Tear)

9:00AM Mark Wilson | Despite how we may have gotten your hopes up about Tim Schafer’s potential exciting new Psychonauts project, according to the man himself, Double Fine is not ready to announce a new Psychonauts project…yet. Man, who knew how much excitement a little darkness could bring? The truth is we are just putting together a new page about “The Excellent Game Psychonauts”. We’re not announcing any new games or anything. Sorry if we confused anybody! Mr. Schafer, a storyteller as powerful as yourself should understand the mystique of darkness. You could put a donut in silhouette and half the Internet would be speculating glazed or powdered. Psychonauts Sequel Rumors Shot Down [nextgen] More »

Anyone For More Psychonauts?

12:20PM Luke Plunkett | You may have noticed, we’re a little excited about Brütal Legend. So excited, in fact, I was trawling Double-Fine’s site today for scraps, and came across this. On the site’s “Projects” page, two games are listed. One is Brutal Legend. The other is…oh, just some kind of Psychonauts project. An announcement on which is COMING SOON. What could it be? A Psychonauts sequel, perhaps? Oh, don’t go getting ahead of yourself, that road leads to naught but heartache and despair. Our money’s on a Wii port of the original, based off these comments by Tim Schafer on the company’s FAQ: Why didn’t you make Psychonauts for the GameCube? Do you hate Nintendo? And if that’s true, what’s your address, because I’m coming over to kill you right now. I’m going to show you my Pokemans, and it will be the last thing you ever see. Settle down, fanboy. No one loves Nintendo more than me (well, maybe this guy). Most of my all time favourite games are Nintendo games. I have touched Shigeru Miyamoto with my bare hands!!! (He was very soft and pleasant.) Double Fine would love to make something for Nintendo’s fine machine, but it’s not up to us. It’s the publisher’s money, so they get to decide what platform to invest in. In other words, IT’S NOT OUR FAULT! I personally would have loved to make Psychonauts for the Game Cube. (Well, not literally me personally. I would have loved to tell someone else to make it, and I would have loved to watch them do it, and I would have loved yelling, “Faster! Faster!” as they worked.) I really hope we get a chance to make a game for the Wii some day. Why don’t you spam your favourite publisher with mail right now and ask them to send us money to make a Wii game? (And a little extra money for a pool table?) Encouraging, no? We’ve contacted Double-Fine to ask what’s up, will let you know if they’re interested in telling us about this project a little sooner. Double-Fine Projects More »

Majesco Titles On GameTap

2:20AM Mike Fahey | Every week I am feeling a bit better about that $US0.99 GameTap free trial that I keep forgetting to cancel. Not only will they have Clive Barker’s Jericho for the only price worth paying for it (free), but now they’ve signed a deal to provide Majesco games to lazy folk like me that never got around to stopping the service. If I had actually gone through with ending it only to have Psychonauts suddenly become available I would have kicked myself so hard. BloodRayne 1 & 2 and Jaws: Unleashed I could give or take, but mmmm Psychonauts. “Given the limited shelf space and relatively quick turn of titles at retail nowadays, we consider GameTap to be a valuable vehicle that can help extend the video game lifecycle,” said Ken Gold, vice president of Marketing, Majesco. That’s the truth. I’ve been using the service lately to fill in a few gaps in my gaming portfolio. If you haven’t experienced the joy of Psychonauts, now would be an excellent time. More »

Double Fine Readying Jack Black Attack?

8:20AM Michael McWhertor | International House Of Mojo, a site primarily focused on LucasArts, Double Fine and Telltale Games coverage, recently ran a rumour on Tim Schafer and Double Fine’s unannounced next game. Dubbed Brutal Legend, the game allegedly stars actor and musician Jack Black as a roadie who dies, is banished to Hell and claw his way to Rock ‘N Roll Heaven. The game is rumoured to be revealed at next week’s Games Convention in Leipzig, where Schafer will be keynoting on creativity. Of course, this is all rumour, as IHOM has since retracted its story, but it should be noted that Black has recently been spotted sporting the above pictured Whispering Rock Spring Summer Camp t-shirt from Double Fine’s previous effort Psychonauts. Double Fine’s new game – Brutal Legend? [Google Cached IHOM via NeoGAF] More »