The International House of Mojo

Razputin.net have recently interviewed Tim Schafer, esteemed creator of Psychonauts. Here?s a quote:

"I don?t think genres matter. I think quality matters. It doesn?t matter what type of game you?re making, what specific collection of formal rules you are following, what label people put on your game. All that matters is whether it?s a good game or not."

Amen to that, sister. You can check out the whole interview here, and be sure to keep checking Razputin.net over the next few weeks, as they?ve got more cool stuff planned.

Want to get a taste of Tim Schafer's new game Psychonauts? The PC demo is now available for download! It's a whopping 468 megs, but their download site is pretty fast. The demo includes a look at sliver of Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, and the inside of camp counselor Coach Oleander's mind. Where can you get it?

• Fileshack (Registration required)
• Gamespot (Registration required)
• FileRush (No registration, but BitTorrent is required)
• 3DGamers (No registration, http or BitTorrent available)
• FilePlanet (Bluh.)
• Gamers Hell (No registration, http download)
• Games Domain (No registration, http download)

The demo is about 470 megs. Also, for the curious, the full PC version of the game will be shipping on 5 CD's.

... because Psychonauts is totally done.
(Except for the PS2 version but don't ruin this for him)

You should congratulate them, via the Double Fine Info Line.

From this recent press release, it sounds like Majesco will be going all out when it comes to marketing Psychonauts to the masses. Considering terms like "multimillion dollar" and "comprehensive publicity campaign" are being bandied about throughout the release, it sounds like they might be serious about actually selling copies of the game.<:MORENEWS:>

According to the press release, across the US we should be seeing a "humorous national TV campaign," print advertising in national mass-market and gaming magazines, a "two week national radio campaign in the top 10 markets," continued appearances in that college game tour thing, and a bunch more stuff, including placement of Psychonauts in those in-store demo Xboxen for the month of May.

Of course, the Psychoportals team challenge and sweepstakes is going to begin as well, with possible Psychonauts related events occurring in different participating cities across the US. In addition to the Psychoportals action, the press release mentions "Psychonauts street teams" in the cities as well, so watch out for roving packs of local hipsters sporting oversize welding goggles, or something? Surely it will be cool whatever it is.

Considering many fans like to cite a perceived lack of marketing push from LucasArts as one of the reasons Grim Fandango didn't sell super well with the gaming mainstream (whether that's real or not), this huge rollout from Majesco should help put those worries to rest this time around.

In a recent press release largely concerned with Psychonauts' marketing rollout, Majesco also confirmed on the down-low that the PlayStation2 port of the excellent game has slipped to "late spring." Though the Xbox and PC ports are still set to go on April 19th, all three versions were originally announced to launch on that date.

Some subscribers to Official Xbox Magazine are starting to receive the May issue (it hits US newsstands around April 15th).

The May issue of Official Xbox Magazine is notable for two reasons: 1) They review the excellent game Psychonauts and rate it a super impressive 9.5! Woot. Oh, and 2) the May issue of OXM contains a playable demo of Psychonauts on the coverdisc. So, get ready for that!

The actual challenge might first start on April 16th, but you can already sign up today for The Ultimate Brain Tumbler Sweepstakes. And yes, that's what PsychoPortals is all about.

It looks like this is for Americans only, where the participants will have to align themselves to one out of ten cities. Each city represents a team, and the team-members will work together to solve ten puzzles. The team that finishes the challenge first will get entries to the sweepstake for all its members.

Apparently something presumably related to Psychonauts will happen at some time or another in the selected cities. So keep an eye out on Psycho Portals for psycho fun.

Apparently, this month's issue of the Official Playstation Magazine includes a PS2 demo of the Excellent Sawfish Psychonauts. Fans of this console should really check it out! I'm guessing that the demo will cover the introduction to Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, as well as the Basic Braining level, but who knows! The existence of this demo is unverified right now, but probably true; we just heard about it from some guy. Also allegedly on the OPM disk is a demo for the Star Wars: Episode III game. Sawfish?

Update: It appears that there's only a demo video of Psychonauts in OPM, nothing playable. Sorry everyone!

Source: GodzillaX8

It looks like something has already popped up on Psychoportals.com, that mysterious domain name we told you about earlier. "Registration begins April 5th!" the site proudly announces, so presumably we should all visit again on that date to be in with a chance to win that "fabulous entertainment system." Whether the site will be anything more than a competition hub remains to be seen, but we?ll keep you posted.

Bonus Update: The episode has aired, and you can check it as a re-run all this week here.

A developer working on Midway's Area 51 game is on for the first third of the show, but following that we are treated to some brief video from Tuesday's Psychonauts launch party featuring quick interviews with Scott Campbell, a director at Majesco, and Tim Schafer's dad! Following that Tim appears, and (after the Gamespot guys try to shame him with a story about a short story he wrote in college and never showed his mom) starts talking Psychonauts.

During the Q&A session, Tim also addresses the fan responses to his scandalous remark in a recent magazine interview that graphics killed adventure games, relates elements of Psychonauts to Jordan Mechner's classic adventure game The Last Express, and admits that he doesn't yet own a PSP. Check it out.<:MORENEWS:>

Update: Tim Schafer will be making a guest appearance on tonight's On the Spot, Gamespot's weekly online TV show thing! You can watch the show live (it starts in about 3 hours, 50 minutes) and if you're a Gamespot Complete member, you can harass Tim with your questions during the show through a handy form they provide.

Old News: Will Psychonauts be making a repeat appearance on Gamespot's live weekly "On the Spot" show tonight? Nobody knows! But, artwork from the game does appear in the banner ad Gamespot is using to promote tonight's show, and they generally cycle those ads out every week to reflect the upcoming show's content.

Maybe we'll get a demo of a previously unseen area? Maybe we'll get a glimpse of the PC port? Maybe we'll see some embarassing booze-addled footage from Tuesday night's Psychonauts launch party? Or maybe Psychonauts won't even be featured in tonight's episode. Check it out here live, about 5 hours from now!

Psychonauts and Tim Schafer were previously featured on On the Spot about a month and a half ago, if you missed it. Schafer chatted it up with the Gamespot guys and gave a decently lengthy demo of some early levels. Scroll through the archives on the On the Spot page down to 2/17/05 to watch the rerun.

Keep an eye on www.psychoportals.com. Something might be appearing there eventually. Maybe? Metallus found the URL on a piece of glossy magazine paper at a party last night, and thinks it might be important.

1up.com has a new preview up of everyone's favorite upcoming game, Psychonauts. Their preview is a bit different from the others because in addition to playing the game, the 1up guys got a chance to sit down with Tim Schafer and chat it up for a bit.

While it does talk about the gameplay a bit, the end result is the article winds up being more a "the true history of Psychonauts" than anything else.

"We wanted it to be a sort of self-tuning game where players who are talented at combat and physical stuff can clear some of the trickier action-oriented puzzles through skill alone. But people like me, without super reflexes, might find it more fun to wander around the camp, looking under the trees and up on rocks, finding things -- the pirate scope, the glass eye, and such, finishing the scavenger hunt, and therefore powering up to get past the puzzles."

Check out the rest of the preview over at 1up.com.

Yes, already! Majesco has mailed out the third issue of their Psychonauts newsletter, "The Bootcamp Bulletin." This issue talks about an "interactive" Psychonauts print ad campaign Majesco is running, the tshirt preorder deal at Gamestop, Psychonauts' appearance on that college game tour thing, but most importantly: first magazine reviews!

Psychonauts will be gracing the cover of this month's Play Magazine, featuring an 8 page mega-review culminating in the game getting a 9 out of 10. The game has also been reviewed by Playboy of all things, who give it 4 out of 4, and Blender magazine also gives it 4 out of 4, calling it a condender for game of the year!

Not too many heavyweight game mags in that early mix, but still, very promising signs on the review front! If you want to receive these newsletters yourself instead of reading about them here, I'm sure Majesco would love it if you would stop by Psychonauts.com and subscribe for yourself!

In what seems to be his main job the past month, Tim Schafer talks to GameSpot about storytelling in gaming, and how it doesn't seem to envolve with the pace of technological advances. An excerpt:

People seem to be against story in games. But that's because they are usually terrible. Gamers really haven't been exposed to that many great stories, or even semi-decent writing I think.

Check it out over at GameSpot. There's even a little video tribute in there.

The design has been revealed for the promotional tie-dyed Psychonauts t-shirt being given out by GameStop when you pre-order the game from them. Yeah, it looks awesome. Remember that EBGames is giving out a deck of Psychonauts black velvet-style playing cards when you pre-order it there, so the choice is yours. Check out the t-shirt design though!

Gamespot has posted some impressions of GDC's Thursday panel called "Why Isn't the Game Industry Making Interactive Stories?" which included contributions from Tim Schafer, as well as Warren Spector and Neil Young (no relation, I assume). A small excerpt:

Schafer discussed his desire to see video games incorporate other types of story genres. "There's more to life than science fiction and fantasy," he stated, adding, "[there are] so many other places to seal from." Instead, Schafer suggested that game designers draw directly from their own personal life experiences.

You can read the whole enchilada over at Gamespot.

The second issue of psychonauts.com's Bootcamp Bulletin email newsletter arrived earlier today. Hopefully by now you've all signed up with the site to receive your own, but just in case, we've once again archived the letter here. ... Contained within:<:MORENEWS:>

Demo news: the Psychonauts Xbox demo will finally make its appearance in the May issue of Official Xbox Magazine. The "May" issue should hit the store shelves in mid-April, just a few days before the game's release!

New movies: Honestly I recommend you avoid these, at least the Edgar Telgee and Sasha Nein ones, if you're looking to avoid learning too much about the characters for spoiler reasons, but new in the Gray Matter section are three gameplay videos.

National promotion: Whaa? "The Psycho-Portal Challenge is Coming." A national promotion, apparently. So get ready for that! "We have mountains of Psychonauts stuff we want to give you."

Insanity: If you want to get mentioned on psychonauts.com, or in your local newspaper (possibly under the "police calls" section), Majesco wants to see you do whatever you can out in public to promote the Excellent Game. "Tell all of your friends, post fliers around the neighborhood and stand on the corner naked wearing nothing but a sandwich board that instructs everyone to "Pre-order Psychonauts RIGHT NOW!" Please send us pictures and we'll post them for the Dirty Little Secrets section of our web site (but only if the ESRB will let us)."

Other stuff: More press clippings, news on the strategy guide, and use of the word "peepers" await those who actually read the newsletter.

So, be sure to subscribe to get future Bulletins, and for now check out number 2 right here at Mojo.

If you for some reason should be stopping by E3 this year, you might want to check out some of their conferences and workshops, as there are some interesting stuff going on.

Example; Tim Schafer will be on the "Developing Better Characters, Better Stories: How a Game Character's Emotion, Passion, and Intelligence Makes the Game Experience Real" panel. Other noteworthy panelists include people from Bungie (Halo) and Valve (Half-Life).

Representatives from LucasArts's marketing department will also be on hand, talking about "Identify and Understand the New Consumer of Digital Entertainment: Adapt to the Latest Rules of Fun or Get Left Behind" and "Smart Marketing: How an Intelligent Approach to Research can Boost your Bottom Line".

GameStop has apparently upped the ante at the card table of Psychonauts Collectible Thingamabobs? (and mixed metaphors). Persons who pre-order there will get a Psychonauts tie-dyed shirt with delivery (while supplies last, of course). I guess there's nothing left to do but to let the trinket wars commence! Will you choose the shirts, the playing cards, or will you wait to see what other online stores offer? Go on, debate it.

If you're one of the lucky and upwardly-mobile persons who gets to attend the Game Developers Conference this week, be sure to stop by the Nvidia or Creative Labs booths for a chance to play the PC version of Psychonauts! It makes me smile that the game is getting shown off by big-timey video card-type hardware(ey) companies, but anyway. The Nvidia booth where the 'Nauts demo is occurring is number 410; the Creative booth that is doing essentially the same thing is #920, so go check one/both of them out, or else!