There's a new episode of Double Fine's Psychonauts 2 documentary
Double Fine's PsychOdyssey is a 32-part documentary series which charts the creation of 2021 platformer Psychonauts 2, from initial brainstorming sessions to its final release. Or it was - now it's 33 parts, as a new 94-minute episode was just released which looks back at the game, its reception, and the release of the documentary itself.
If you have any interest in video game development at all, you owe it to yourself to watch the documentary from the beginning. Even if you don't care about development or video games, I think it would be compelling to watch a team of sincere, talented people collaborate to make something complicated and joyful. Its to Double Fine's great credit that the documentary frankly depicts several of the things that went wrong on the project, too, from staff disagreements, departures, crunch, and much more.
This latest episode looks back on those challenges with the benefit of hindsight, first through a series of post-mortem meetings held at Double Fine after Psychonauts 2's release, and then through the lens of the documentary's release. That includes discussion of some of the doc's most dramatic moments, such as the fallout (and fallings out) that followed the hiring and eventual departure of Psychonauts 2's original project lead.
Double Fine haven't announced a new game in the three years since Psychonauts 2 was released, and there's some discussion of what might be next from the now Microsoft-owned studio. In broad strokes: a return to smaller games, and a doubling-down on being weird, with the ambition of making the weirdest games on Game Pass.
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