Because, really, the Double Fine email was a pretty long read, so let’s give you a few highlights:
First, Psychonauts 2 will be published by Starbreeze, which I didn’t even know was a publisher. They did develop the rather excellent Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, so hey, how bad can it be?
There are a couple of videos: A throwaway prototype (as we call it in the biz) for what will be a new hub has been released on YouTube…
And who doesn’t want to see our founder and patron saint, James "Spaff" Spafford, on the way to presumably be offed in the woods, while buddying it up with Schafer, talking games?
Topic of conversation: Does Spaff look exactly like he did fifteen odd years ago? (I mean, a few lbs aside.)
Also there's currently a pre-order bonus for Rhombus of Ruin on the PSN - you get the PS2 version of the original as well (I think it's US-only though because the pre-order page doesn't mention that here in Canada).
Call me Squinky
Me too! I'm really glad that they're including a forest area to explore, that and getting to know the other kids in the camp were two of my favourite parts of the 1st game.
It seems like such a small thing now, but one of my favorite things about exploring the world was finding all these weird little places. The graveyard, that old car in that tree, etc. They clearly put a lot of effort into making every little part of the world feel distinct and worth checking out if you're into details like that (which I attribute to its adventure game heritage). All the little secrets, like the changing announcements over the speakers and the message boards, and the kids changing locations and having their little stories, is all just super fun stuff to seek out for me. Double Fine has always been good with stuff like that.
I don't really play many games anymore, and when I do it's often something small and easy to pick up for a short amount of time (or a bit of local multiplayer nonsense with friends), but I'll definitely try to get a weekend all for myself when Psycho 2 releases. Can't wait to pull the high school/college move of wasting entire days on getting lost in a game.
All this pretty footage also makes me very curious to see the new mental worlds. I replayed the first game a while ago, and there's a part in Milla Vodello's level (the disco level all about the levitation ball) where you drop down into this little black and white room, and it later folds away to drop you at the start of the levitation ball race against the other kids. I don't remember if I ever noticed it before, but that was totally meant to be a checkered starting/finish racing flag. With the new tech they could do some honestly amazing stuff like that - spaces being one thing and morphing into something else completely. Really going for this dreamlike world, instead of the relatively static levels of the originals.
I might as well avoid any new footage from now on though. Should be really fun to start playing completely fresh. Managed to do it with Brutal Legend and that paid of a lot for me - a lot of super fun surprises along the way.