Game devs praise Psychonauts 2 documentary for showing how hard game development really is

gamesradar.com:

Earlier this month, Double Fine released PsychOdyssey, a 32-episode, 22-hour documentary series on the making of Psychonauts 2. Now that the world has actually had time to watch most of it, game devs are lauding the series as the absolute best insight you'll get into how hard making games actually is.

Double Fine started chronicling its production process back in 2012 when the game that would eventually be known as Broken Age hit Kickstarter. The studio worked with 2 Player Productions to produce a lengthy episodic documentary chronicling the making of that game, and 2 Player essentially became Double Fine's in-house documentarian group.

Now, Double Fine and 2 Player have released the full run of episodes chronicling the production of Psychonauts 2 with PsychOdyssey (opens in new tab), and the results are absolutely incredible. The presentation feels so candid and honest that, even when it feels a bit voyeuristic to watch ordinary people do their jobs, it's absolutely enthralling. You don't know heartbreak until you watch a newly hired level designer have an idea gently shot down by Tim Schafer.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this moment from the new Double Fine Psychonauts 2 doc. pic.twitter.com/I7NixkNrbqFebruary 14, 2023

The documentary doesn't shy away from the hard parts, even those bits you might expect to be swept aside for corporate or legal reasons. Take this bit from the time of Microsoft's buyout of Double Fine, where Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty gives some (arguably unsatisfactory) answers about moonlighting to concerned employees.

Huge shout-out to 2 Player Productions and to Tim Schafer for protecting the PsychOdyssey documentary. There are unbelievable glimpses into what it's like to sell