Over at PAX West, a thing which was going on last week, Double Fine was on hand to show off Psychonauts 2. Judging by this preview on Shacknews, Double Fine was giving the same demo they were giving back at E3, resulting in said preview offering exactly zilch in the new information department.
But despite the fact that Shacknews has let all of you down in a very personal way, PAX West wasn't a washout. That's because those stalkers at Destructoid chased Tim all around the expo until he "consented" to be interviewed at length. With a gun pressed against his cheek, Tim talks about all sorts of juicy stuff, like the fact the Microsoft acquisition is still an ongoing affair, the unclear fate of Double Fine's publishing arm, hints about the studio's post-Psychonauts 2 project, and how he really feels about virtual reality, now that the cameras are off and Rhombus of Ruin is Old News. And then there's this observation:
I love the Switch, and a lot of people at Double Fine are huge Nintendo fans and I think we always have been and will be. Early on in my career, Super Mario 64 was obviously very influential for me. And it always felt weird that I feel like I just cannot sell a game in Japan. Japanese games people would come to visit at LucasArts and they would look at Grim Fandango and they'd be like "Are these characters done?" One of them actually said that. I was like "Yeah, that's the final art," and he was like "They don't have skin." I always thought that we had very Japanese sensibility in our love of design and love of character. But, I guess our taste and aesthetic are more American than I realized. Some day we'll have a game that Japanese people will like.
Why do you resist Tim, Japan? Why have you not read the full interview, everyone else?
Source: Destructoid
Kroms
That's funny. As someone whose entire experience of the US comes from books, movies, American friends, etc., I've always found Double Fine *especially* to be very American, very West Coast. Even "Costume Quest" felt that way.
That's fascinating, especially given that I think CQ would be considered a kind of quintessential mashup of East Coast/Midwestern Halloween culture. The carnival and corn maze, combined with the country-fried neighborhood celebrations... you do see some of that in the Pacific Northwest, but it always "read" as a lovely cherry-picking of the holiday at large.
Of course, that said: I can't quantify *why* a game like Headlander does feel like it's embedded in American West Coast culture, but it is absolutely that.
Great interview. I've not been keeping up with Double Fine and now there's suddenly a whole slew of interesting stuff to play. Lucky me.