Psychonauts 2014 discussion (also Rayman 3, apparently)

[Varrok]

The Xbox360-having side. Could be worse, though. Like XboxOne-worse.

[MeechMunchie]

I get that the giant Raz part at the end wasn't the most brilliant thing ever put in a video game, but combat was never all that important to the game. I wouldn't put it down as a fault (for me), but I can see other people being less than impressed with that section. BUT ONLY THAT ONE SMALL SECTION! EVERYTHING ELSE IS PERFECTION AND I'LL HIT YOUR TEETH IF YOU SAY IT ISN'T!!!

If you play Rayman 3, you can come back and gloat at me about how awful the final battle in that game is.

That game is combat-focused, and spends most of its length making fights more and more ridiculous. The platforming, too, starts gently and eventually morphs into an Escherian mass of geometry. The final boss is a shameless Shadow of the Colossus ripoff, and blends these extremes wonderfully.

The final final boss is an on-rails first-person shooter, and that rail is a straight line. That isn't even the same genre: you go from SotC with French sound effect text (Sni! Graak!) to holding down fire and wiggling the analog stick in the space of a second.

Then, to rub it in after you've won, they let you run around the massive, flat, empty battlefield in the game's usual 3rd-person format. There is nothing to do. There is nothing to see. You press a button, and the game ends.

I'll admit, this is worse than a game called Psycho-nauts deciding to ditch psychic powers entirely for its grand finale.

[Havoc]

Apparently I need to get Pshyconauts.

[Nate]

I guess it might the controls: I have it for PC, played it with mouse and keyboard, and switching powers around didn't really feel fluid for me (I'm assuming some of you played it on console, so you probably have a whole different experience of it).

I briefly tried it with keyboard and mouse when the PC demo first came out and it was abysmal. Now I only play it with a controller, even on PC.

[Manco]

Apparently I need to get Pshyconauts.

Is that Sean Connery’s latest game?

[Varrok]

I agree that rail shooter part of Rayman 3 was awful, but it wouldn't be if the controls were better. It was painful to target anything. And of course I couldn't use mouse, despite playing on PC.

Rayman 3 is awesome WONDERFUL!

[Havoc]

Is that Sean Connery’s latest game?

Yesh. Yesh it ish.

[Slog Bait]

My main complaints about Rayman 3 were the final fight, the Longest Shortcut actually bored me after everything that preceded it, Summit Beyond the Clouds was too bright and the music was headache inducing, and the HD version has a lot of graphical glitches that are kind of off-putting in what is otherwise an absolutely beautiful game.

The gameplay and art style and everything tho

Probably the best 3D platformer I have ever played

9/10 would always recommend even with the shit final boss everyone needs to play that shit


Also my friend got me Psychonauts on Steam a couple years ago but my laptop couldn't run it well and now my laptop is practically a hunk of garbage so I don't see me getting to play it any time soon )':

[MeechMunchie]

Fun Fact: Rayman 3 HD is just the PC version ported back to consoles.

[Slog Bait]

Most HD versions are that

I don't recall the PC version having that many graphical glitches though

[Crashpunk]

We talking about Rayman 3 now? Good because I've played very little of Psychonauts.

I adore Rayman 3. The humor, the artstyle, the combat and the characters. Without a doubt my favorite in the series. I really hope they make another 3D Rayman game which isn't just another fucking port.

[OANST]

Sooo, there is a bit of evidence that Psychonauts 2 might be a thing that is happening, which makes me a happy little school boy. Not much evidence, mind you. A cryptic clue about a new project with a picture featuring only people at Double Fine who actually worked on Psychonauts, and the fact that Notch, who wanted to fund the sequel, but wasn't prepared to offer up the amount needed at that time, is now a billionaire.

[Nate]

Sooo, there is a bit of evidence that Psychonauts 2 might be a thing that is happening, which makes me a happy little school boy. Not much evidence, mind you. A cryptic clue about a new project with a picture featuring only people at Double Fine who actually worked on Psychonauts, and the fact that Notch, who wanted to fund the sequel, but wasn't prepared to offer up the amount needed at that time, is now a billionaire.

I hadn't seen that. Can you give a link to the clue?

[Mr. Bungle]

Never did finish this game. Some of the game mechanics in the later levels annoyed me, and I found the framerate was kinda bad on the 360 port. Still, it was charming and creative as hell and I did enjoy most of the worlds.

Maybe someday I'll try again. Most definitely if they do end up creating a sequel.

[OANST]

I hadn't seen that. Can you give a link to the clue?

https://twitter.com/asifsiddiky/stat...264000/photo/1

[DarkHoodness]

If they're doing a Psychonauts 2, let's hope they finish it and don't call it a day after completing only 30% of it. Backers of SpaceBase DF-9 are angry with Double Fine 'cause they feel the final release probably won't live up to the games' hype or £19/$30 price tag, especially when only a small amount of the features that they publicly discussed on their dev plan were/will be implemented.

If they did this because they're re-assigning people for a bigger project like a second Psychonauts game, lets hope the reputation hit they'll take from this will be worth it. I find it disappointing that they're making blunders like this these days 'cause their older titles were really amazing, and I get the feeling they ought to know what they're doing by now.

[OANST]

When Hack N Slash left Early Access it got an entirely new act added unto it. I see no reason to expect that they don't have quite a bit left to add before it becomes a full release, and they have not even given a date for full release yet.

At the same time, you have to keep in mind that these Amnesia Fortnight projects are being led by untested leads. So, the argument that they should have lots of experience maybe doesn't work completely. If it's led by Tim Schafer it's going to be amazing, but also way, way, way over budget. If it's led by Brad Muir it's going to be amazing, and on budget.

Edit: Whoops. I should have read the link first. The only other thing that I could add is that all of those future updates were listed as possible updates, and it was stated very clearly in the beginning that many of them would likely never make it into the game.

Also, this seems like more proof that they are heading towards development of a full AAA game, since they are trying to wrap up development on their smaller projects.

[Xavier]

Sorry to disapoint you but they are just going to work on Psychonauts HD

[OANST]

Fuck!

Where did you hear that? I'm not finding that anywhere.

And Eric Wolpaw is now tweeting about Psychonauts 2. That seems huge to me.

[Xavier]

Troll just got trolled

[OANST]

You have a dick face.

Plus rep, asshole.

[Varrok]

Yarr, since what roundabouts ye ole scurvy dog Xavier be trollin' yer maties?

[DarkHoodness]

Tim Schafer comments on SpaceBase DF-9's development. It's an insight into how DoubleFine does things, and the pitfalls of game creation.

[MeechMunchie]

Also:

"J.P.", Spacebase project lead, on 1.0

When we started Spacebase a year and a half ago, we knew that its continued development past Alpha 1 would be contingent on things partly or wholly outside our control. Spacebase had a strong launch in October of last year and while sales remained steady for a while afterwards, earlier this year it became clear that we would have to work towards wrapping up development. As project lead I can honestly tell you that we’ve done everything we could to keep making the game the best it can be. We pulled out all the stops we could for Alpha 6 and we’re proud of the depth it has added to the game. I believe the Goals and Tutorial Mode we’re adding for 1.0 are also a large missing piece that will lend the game greater unity and direction. We were careful not to make promises about anything on the old dev plan page, even as we hoped we’d someday get to implement all of it and more. Again this came down to time and resources, factors beyond my control.

To everyone who has supported Spacebase since or after its genesis in Amnesia Fortnight 2012, to everyone who has provided feedback, and voiced constructive criticism or even disappointment: you have my deepest thanks. With the dev time we have left we’re going to do the best we can to create something worthy of all that. This didn’t end up being a decade-in-development odyssey, but I hope you’ve enjoyed the process and find the end result fun to play.

And I guess we may as well paste this here for convenience.

Tim Schafer answers common questions about v1.0

Hi everybody. I want to apologize for the delayed response from me on recent announcement of Spacebase v1.0. Most of Double Fine’s publishing staff and I are currently attending Fantastic Arcade in Austin, TX, and have been trying our best to keep up with the situation via our phones while we’re on the road. But now that I finally have time to sit down with a laptop, I’d like to answer some representative questions we’ve seen on these forums.

Here’s the first question!

“How about an ACTUAL explanation of what happened behind the scenes?”

We started Spacebase with an open ended-production plan, hoping that it would find similar success (and therefore funding) to the alpha-funded games that inspired it. Some of its early sales numbers indicated this might be the case, but slowly things changed, and it became clear that this was looking like a year and a half of production instead of five or so. With each Alpha release there was the hope that things would change, but they didn't. We put every dime we made from Spacebase back into Spacebase, and then we put in some more. Obviously, spending more money than we were making isn’t something we can afford to do forever. So, as much as we tried to put off the decision, we finally had to change gears and put Spacebase into finishing mode and plan for version 1.0.

“What happened to the devplan? What happened to the beta stage? How can ANY game go from Alpha 6 to a “finished” 1.0?”

In traditional development, “Beta” refers to a time when no new features are added but bugs are fixed. Things are different in early access where the game is in players’ hands at an earlier state, so the team has been fixing bugs all along as features are added. In the remaining dev time, there will be both bug fixes and new features so it’s true--calling it “beta” is a little inaccurate. But the amount of time fixing bugs is comparable to that of a traditionally-developed game.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to silently pull the plug?”

We are not silently pulling the plug. We are announcing our finishing features and v1.0 plan. I know it's not a lot of advance notice, but we're still here telling you our plan instead of vanishing quietly in the night.

“If you were going to end development, why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

One of the biggest lessons we have learned in this, our first early access title, is about communication. There should have been more communication to the players about the state of the game, and we apologize for that. But for us, it was never clear whether development was going to end because we always hoped that the next update would turn it around and allow us to extend development. So I suppose, ultimately, the answer was we always had hope we weren’t going to end it, until the end.

“Why put the game on sale (while internally knowing that development of the game was stopping)?”

Frequent sales are part of the Steam marketplace. We’ve had multiple sales throughout the game’s early access period in attempts to create a bigger audience for the game. As for the version of the game that people bought in this most recent sale, we are still working on it, fixing bugs and adding the final features to make the 1.0 version of Spacebase a fun and complete game.

I understand that the recent announcement was a disappointment. It was for you, and it was for us. We wanted to keep working on Spacebase for years. But Spacebase spends more money than it brings in, and that’s just not something we can afford to do any more. Set up against the expectation of the game being in development as long as Prison Architect or Dwarf Fortress, it’s hard not to find fault in the game by comparison. But we continued to sell the game, and will continue to sell the game, because we feel that based solely on its own merits, Spacebase DF9 is still a fun, clever, hilarious, beautiful and complete game.

It’s hard for me to see JP and his team get eviscerated on these forums, after I’ve watched them put their blood, sweat, and tears into Spacebase for the last year and a half. Telling you that they are hard-working and talented developers who toiled in good faith to create this unique work of entertainment probably isn’t going to change your minds about how you feel about this game. But I hope you might at least consider that no one is more disappointed than them that they will not be able to work on this game for years and years to come for reasons mostly out of their control.

We have stumbled awkwardly through some new territory with this game, and in terms of early access communication we fell short. But we are still proud of the game in the end, and are happy to have it on the roster of Double Fine titles. I hope you are able to reserve judgment on version 1.0 until it comes out, and then enjoy it for the unique and entertaining experience that it is.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for playing Spacebase.

-Tim

__________________

Now I'm dead meat.

My Art Thread· Design Democracy

[Auriel]

I played it years ago and my memory is fairly fuzzy but I remember enough to know I am excited about a new release.

[Nate]

Yesterday I met someone who had played Psychonauts, enjoyed it, but wasn't completely obsessed to the point that I could mention character names or quotes and he'd get the reference. I didn't know such a creature could exist.

[Shade667]

Ive never played a Double fine game and Rayman 3 is great.

[Phylum]

Sometimes when you have nothing to contribute not posting is also an option.

[OANST]

Yesterday I met someone who had played Psychonauts, enjoyed it, but wasn't completely obsessed to the point that I could mention character names or quotes and he'd get the reference. I didn't know such a creature could exist.

That's weeeeiiiiiiiird......

[Mr. Bungle]

I never finished Psychonauts. Maybe one day.