The Journey They've Been On
The team pushes closer to Psychonauts 2’s release, fighting to remain true to Double Fine’s values.
Duration:
Published: January 24th 2023
Episode Stills Gallery
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Ray Crook looks into the screen during a remote interview from his home office. He wears thick-rimmed glasses and holds an expression of muted thought.
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Kimberly Brooks, voice actress for Hollis in Psychonauts 2, smiles while recording dialogue during a Zoom call as Tim and Khris Brown look on from their thumbnails on the side of the screen.
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Double Fine employees gather for the annual group photo at the company's late summer picnic. They stand in a green grass park field with the Golden Gate bridge behind them.
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Tim gives a thumbs up to the camera as he records video of himself receiving a vaccine shot while wearing a facemask. His shirt is lime green while his mask is deep black. Parts of his grey beard protrude from the mask.
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Peter McConnell, wearing a facemask adorned with the Hexipal from Broken Age, plays the violin while laying down a music track for Psychonauts 2.
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The TV screen in the Lola meeting room which shows former Double Finer Anna Kipnis grinning while holding up her newborn baby during a Zoom call.
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Team members watch as Community Manager Harper Jay hits the big button that will launch Psychonauts 2 into the world. They sit on the yellow Lola couches as Harper leans down to smack a large yellow button on a fighting game controller.
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Zahra takes a photo with her mobile phone during the company's big launch party for Psychonauts 2. Her hair is a bold pink and helps her stand out from the crowd.
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Tim holds up a glass to toast the team during his speech at the launch party for Psychonauts 2. He stands on stage before a drum set and a guitar. The night has fallen as the party continues.
Episode Transcript
KEE: It's like the season finale where all the storylines come to a close.
SETH: Yeah!
NAOKO: This is, like, the last episode when they are just like:
"All right, we gotta wrap this up really fast.
Here is a lot of...
last minute exposition,
and some really weird relationship conclusions."
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the rest is done, like, in text.
It's like: "This person did this."
And then there is a time skip where everyone just has babies now.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -[NAOKO LAUGHS]
TONY: Or they hear the music playing us off.
-Yeah. -[NAOKO LAUGHS]
[MUSIC]
TIM: This is the first time, I feel like, I ran out into the street and yelled:
"What the hell is happening?"
Feeling a bit secluded.
Is Virginia called?
That's crazy.
We are just going to blank out this whole year,
and just forget all about it.
TIM: Look at that! Oh my god!
That's like the most Psychonautical moment right there.
Yeah. It's only going to get better.
CAMDEN: It's going to be a bitchin' game.
I think this game is going to be really good.
All the parts of the game are playable.
TIM: Andy Alamano left.
We lost our producer.
ANDY: They can do this.
-Humongous jerk. -I love you too, Tim.
[CHUCKLING]
Also, the FDA approved a vaccine today.
Just today.
And next year we are going to ship our game.
TIM: Well, hello, everybody! Hello, all you, leads.
It's nice to see you all.
Uh, I want to start off with some news.
We've had, uh, since Andy left, no Lead Producer on the project.
And that has been how we've been handling it,
because we have a great production team.
And a lot of people on that team helping out,
um, getting us through.
But we have decided that it would be best going forward
if we called upon our own Naoko to be our Lead Producer on Psychonauts 2.
And I, uh-- If that's okay with you, Naoko.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fine. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, I was hoping for a really dramatic refusal,
because that makes for better television.
NAOKO: I know how to do it.
I'm confident about it.
Like, the schedule terrifies me.
But I'm kind of, like...
...you know?
NAOKO: Thank you, guys.
Sorry-- sorry to end with that last slide being a little scary.
But we can do it.
I can't even... read that.
Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.
I didn't say nothing.
-[TIM CHUCKLES] -Okay.
I just got a little bit of inspiration, but I don't know why.
NAOKO: My solution is to be as annoying as possible.
And make Caryl and Tim regret that I'm here,
and give me whatever I want just to make me go away.
TIM: Then, without further ado, Naoko, what were those
totally non-controversial, quick Jira things you wanted to do?
Do you guys just want to throw the P4s and 5s into the backlog
and forget that they exist today?
[NAOKO CHUCKLES]
[GEOFF CHUCKLES]
Yea-he-he-hey! Let's do that!
NAOKO: So, I don't know if...
...I need to be more annoying.
I don't think it's working out yet.
They seem to enjoy me, which is not...
not really what I was going for.
TIM: I know that there is still a lot of work to do.
But, you know, with all the new cutscenes we are looking at,
trying to make them still smaller,
and still be really efficient with all our remaining animation
that we have left to do.
Um, but, I mean, it's great.
Because I just got an idea for, like, five new cutscenes
while we've been having this conversation.
It's really...
-CAMDEN: Excellent. -KEVIN: Cool.
PAUL: We are sort of asking everybody,
just the thoughts and feelings on-- on the current schedule.
And, um, when the game is supposed to come out,
and how much work is left, and, um...
[RAY CHUCKLES]
[MUSIC]
That's a long cutscene to show a hatch.
I don't know if we should say to you, Ray: "Welcome to Tim games."
-But... -Sometimes.
Sometimes we just gotta cut it down.
So, that cutscene is problematic.
And also it's not working for me. Like, it doesn't look right.
It looks like you are coming in as a nose dive.
It's supposed to be the Simpsons intro.
Yeah!
TIM: We are supposed to be emphasizing the fact that he can't turn around
and he can't see behind him.
It undermines the gameplay stuff that happens afterwards.
Look, it's gone!
It's because I listened to your notes, Alex.
Well, there is your problem.
It was really funny, it just ruins the game, that's all.
[ZACH CHUCKLES]
Small thing, it just ruins the game.
[MUSIC]
Sorry I thought you were the mole, Raz!
Let me make it up to you!
[MUSIC]
ZACH: It's great, Miyuki!
Awesome job.
Just-- just that goggles thing.
I feel like we haven't had Animation Weeklys
where, like, scene were marked done.
Yeah, we had not for animation.
So, yeah, we need to play a special little song
when every cutscene is written off as done.
Just three more notes.
Three more years.
-[MIYUKI LAUGHS] -Three more, one per note.
No, it's looking really great.
-Thank you, Miyuki. -Thank you!
RAY: The progress is great. We are making tons of progress.
But there is still a lot to do.
And when they showed-- today they showed the date.
Yeah, it's, like-- a candidate for submission.
And I-- I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.
My gut is like:
"That's... pretty early...
...for what we have left."
You know, like, with our cinematics
that we are still working on, a lot of them are still in layout.
So, those still need to go through the FX pass,
they have to go through lighting pass.
And some of them are-- that's getting done as we go.
But we just still have quite a few of them.
You know, there is-- there is audio that still needs to be done.
You know, if they don't-- if they don't want people crunching,
I'm not really sure how are we going to make it.
I think people's health--
it's definitely very, very important to keep that in mind.
You know, with Psychonauts 1, I think, we--
disregard for health was kind of...
We were younger too, but still...
Uh, I feel like...
...we weren't thinking about that, you know?
And that was-- that was pretty-- kind of actually quite dangerous.
KEE: The other thing I wanted to say that I completely forgot...
Oh! When is Adam back?
ZACH: I believe next week.
-LISETTE: Next week. -RUSTY: He is back next week.
LISETTE: Adam is back. Jared is back this week.
So, all of our--
our new fathers should be back on board soon.
KEE: Okay.
-RUSTY: Part-time. -How soon can their children work?
How soon can the children animate?
[LAUGHTER]
They look gifted.
LISETTE: What country are we in?
That's usually the answer.
Mine! Okay, um...
We had our final recording session with all these characters this week.
It's crazy. Last ever time in the studio with them.
It's awesome.
Ooo!
Here is another new feeling!
A little uncomfortable.
[ELIJAH MAKES A PAIN GRUNT]
[ELIJAH CHUCKLES]
Did that work for you?
Because I have more poses I've been working on.
Is that a vacuum cleaner?
Don't bother.
KHRIS: It's amazing.
Aww!
I don't know how or why I have ever forgotten this,
because I have, like, amazing tagged to your name in my brain.
-Khris! -But to see it then happen again...
Sometimes you need to know when it's time to pass the baton.
That's beautiful.
I always tell Tim,
I'm like: "Tim, all your games are about healing."
He is like: "What? My games are about fun."
I'm like: "All of your games are about healing!"
Because, like, they are so...
[KHRIS SIGHS]
And I could say that, because he is not listening.
They are, um...
It's so beautiful!
And I always want to empower people to... find that.
And so, for them to hear Hollis have this moment
of freedom,
and that it's a strength movement from such a strong character...
It's a really, really beautiful thing that you are giving to people.
Oh, I love it! It's wonderful.
[KHRIS VOCALIZES EXCITEMENT]
What's that? What are you saying about me?
[KHRIS LAUGHS]
What? We are talking about your cilantro breath.
Oh, someone stole my cat while I was gone!
But, uh...
It's going well.
But if you see anything in the game that doesn't work because of dialogue...
Eh.
We'll have to fix it with, uh--
I think I heard Lisette saying there is a lot of extra... VFX time.
So we'll just do it with VFX.
-[RUSTY CHUCKLES] -Okay!
TAZIO: And, I don't know,
I just feel really happy that it worked out that way,
and I got to meet you all.
And I mean, I'm still going to--
Like-- This is, like, a goodbye speech,
but I'm not fucking going anywhere.
-I'm still going to be... -RUSTY: Better not be!
Uh, so...
Uh, eh--
It's fine, you know?
TIM: Please join me in welcoming Tazio and Ebbe to Double Fine.
Where are you, Tazio and Ebbe? Please stand up!
[CLAPPING]
I'm Tazio.
[MUSIC]
TAZIO: I also feel weird that I'm part of that story as well.
It's, like-- that's sort of, like--
That I'm here, I have to sort of, like, pinch myself a little bit.
Because I used to just be, like...
...you know, a fan watching 2 Player documentaries,
and being like: "Oh, these guys are really cool."
Like, a lot of my reasons for being
in that whole part of the world was, like, the office culture,
and, like, being able to go in and be surrounded by Double Fine.
Like, that was, like--
That was basically my whole life.
And, like, taking that away, it's sort of, like...
It didn't feel like there was much in the Bay keeping me there at that point.
And, like, coming from San Francisco,
and, like, where the sun is out and just, like, normal,
into this, like, particularly bad weather
where it was just, like, rain and overcast,
and just so incredibly dark...
That was, like-- It was way too rough for me.
Just sort of, like, mentally.
I just sort of, like-- I kind of shutdown for the weeks.
And, like, slept way too long.
I need to take my D vitamin pills, because goddamn!
Like, Jesus Christ.
I just got my blood numbers. That shit low!
Holy moly!
[PAUL CHUCKLES]
But, yeah, I mean...
PAUL: Do you foresee-- So, are you going to move back, you think?
After this is all over?
I don't know.
I...
Who knows, dude?
What is, like-- like--
What's life going to be in six months?
Like, I don't fucking know.
Like, what does the post-vaccine world look like?
What does post-vaccine Double Fine look like?
What are, like--
[CHUCKLES]
There is just way too many unanswered questions.
And I think, like, I'm at the state
where I can see a couple months into the future,
and then, like, past that it's not just, like, grey,
it's just, like, pitch black.
And I'm fine with it, you know?
It's, like...
I just-- I'm not in a state where I can sort of stress about it.
But it is really important to me that I'm there for the wrap party.
TUCKER: A year.
Soon it's going to be a year from the last time any of us saw anybody.
I just want to have a really big ship party.
Yeah, that would be great.
CARYL: Like, that's-- that's my goal.
CAMDEN: I can't remember who I was talking to.
It was either Zahra or James or somebody.
I told them this months ago, but I said:
"We have to--
We have to commit to finishing this.
If only to see the absolute...
legendary legacy
that the wrap party will be."
CAMDEN: I keep telling everybody the wrap party for this game
is going to be...
legend.
CAMDEN: Like, that alone is just getting me through.
TIM: Okay.
Uh, what's your second question, Kee?
KEE: Is everyone all right?
[TIM CHUCKLES]
How are you doing, Kee?
KEE: Really tired.
It's, like, what?
It's barely out of January.
And oh my goodness, I-- I feel...
...burnt.
Um...
[KEE GRUNTS TIREDLY]
KEE: And I'm just-- I'm just feeling...
-...pretty burnt out. -LISETTE: I actually a 100% agree, Kee.
And I was really kind of thinking about that,
after you said your statement in the leads group,
about why I am just feeling a little burnt out.
And a lot of it has to do with the heavy amount of communication
that we have to do as leads.
And I think a large part of that is that
there are some people on this team who are checked out.
And so, for me, it's the people who are just checked out
and just doing task by task and they don't care.
KEE: As you guys have experienced, like, it's--
Double Fine is a really fun place to work.
I think the environment,
the way that people interact with each other,
kind of the general ambiance of the place,
I think, fosters a lot of creativity.
And when you are missing that, then it's-- it's just really hard to hold onto.
And I think just shipping all these games,
you also know that, like, even when you are kind of working
on a really difficult bug,
you know, you hear people chuckling here and there,
or you see someone--
or, like, you are looking at a bug, you pull someone over,
and you kind of work through it together, like:
"Oh, I can't believe it was that thing!"
Like, you don't have that kind of moment.
And that's really hard.
Especially when things get really stressful.
The communication overhead is incredibly tiring.
And obviously it's hard for everyone,
but it's even harder on leads.
Making sure that that communication happens is, um--
has definitely been a challenge.
TIM: Okay, um...
In general, are there other topics on Kee's question you want to talk about?
I mean, when Lisette mentioned people being checked out and stuff,
it's like: "Of course there is going to be some--
on a five-year project there is going to be a lot of fatigue.
And in quarantine there is going to be a lot of fatigue.
And when the world falls apart there is a lot of fatigue."
It's weird.
It's, like-- it doesn't even feel like a nightmare.
It feels weird.
I think someone-- someone said
the last time they felt like this was during 9/11.
And I feel like it is more like that feeling.
Yes.
TIM: But, um...
I'm also-- there is this part of me that always hopes, like:
"Well, near the end of the project,
when you see the light at the end of the tunnel,
you start to get a little excited in terms of shipping."
Terrified.
And, uh, also excited, because you are like:
"Okay, this is going to happen. This is going to ship."
And, uh, we don't want to miss that jump.
GEOFF: That's, like, one of the things that you get
for having everybody be in the office.
Is that there is sort of this, like, collective excitement
that you have finishing out a game.
And I think that we are missing a lot of that right now.
And I think that's where some of this is coming from.
SETH: Yeah.
[CHUCKLES]
You just get this weird sinking feeling when you look at Jira every morning.
Being like: "Uh...
I feel like we are just falling further and further behind."
BEN: I'm still trying to focus on the tasks that...
seem like the kind of thing that imply work for other people,
to make sure that they have as much time to do them as possible.
Uh, I did a little bit of back-and-forth with Emily on 2D book pages.
TIM: Oh my god! You got some '90s funk metal reference in there.
EMILY: No, Primus-- Primus is Cassie!
-[TIM LAUGHS] -EMILY: Cassie is Primus.
TIM: We all-- we were all into Primus back in the '90s.
It's no big deal.
Oh, how did you get up there? I was wondering.
BEN: Oh, because I-- Yeah, I just jumped from...
JEREMY: The very first time I got to see that page flip animation,
I immediately went backwards, and forwards, and backwards,
because it was just fun to watch.
BEN: The end.
TIM: Beautiful!
So short.
BEN: Uh... yep.
[TIM CHUCKLES]
We can go back and make them longer later.
Thank god there are a million of them!
NAOKO: No, we can't!
No we can't. For the love of god, please no!
SETH: Yeah, we, uh...
We are going to get all the rest of the seven of them done
in the next... day, right?
TIM: And then make-- make them longer with our spare time.
NAOKO: Yeah, some of the stuff that Tim says,
my issue is I can't tell if he is joking or not.
TIM: Sometimes it's just a joke.
And sometimes it's me, like, wanting to raise an issue,
to just make sure people are thinking about it.
That's a joke-- that's my joke for hand.
Joke.
But, um... You never know.
Sometimes I'm just kidding. And sometimes it's very serious.
That's why people hate working with me.
[SIGHS]
I would.
[CHUCKLES]
CARYL: The truth of the matter is we have to cut down the work.
If he is not doing that...
I have had conversations with him... recently
where I've said things like:
"I know that you asked for that two years ago.
I know there were notes for it.
And here are the many reasons why we can't do it now."
KEE: You know, a very close parallel
is how things went on Psychonauts 1.
When we just knew we didn't have enough time.
And then... we just crunched.
It was just crunch, crunch, crunched.
And, um...
I think there is always going to be a temptation to want to do that
just to get things done,
especially when things seem impossible.
NAOKO: You know, and there is the, like:
"Oh, you've never worked on a Tim Schafer game.
This is what working on a Tim Schafer game is like."
And I'm like...
"By this... what do we mean?"
You know?
Because in some ways it's funny.
But, like, at this point, when we have, like, three months left,
I'm like: "It's kind of not funny anymore."
So, like, I can't--
I kind of blame that mindset... on why we are here now.
Which is like: "It's okay if we don't have stuff done yet,
because it's a Tim Schafer game.
Everything comes together at the last minute."
I'm like: "But there is a lot of everything."
You know, we are really just going to get the P1s and the P2s done... at this point.
And we might get some of the P3s.
And none of the P4s or P5s are going to get done.
Unless they are done on accident.
Because someone was there in there and they are just like:
"Oh, I just have to change this..."
I mean, I hope not.
Like, frankly, like, we need them not to do that.
If you have a project that is...
...primarily creatively driven,
it is really hard to do schedules.
Like with Tim--
a Tim game where he is doing a lot of the writing right up till the end,
um, and kind of, you know, using cutscenes and adding new content in
to smooth out areas that aren't necessarily smooth,
um, you know, that is a really hard way to do production.
Like I said, I agree-- let me say,
I want to say I agree with what Kee is saying.
Just because when I was writing all the dialogue
for the last dialogue task,
I had to go like: "Give me all the tasks for Loboto.
Just give me all the tasks for Loboto."
Because some of the lines were definitely P3 lines.
But while I'm in there, my brain is already in that mode.
I can kick out all those lines super fast.
And they'll be better, and they'll be less bug prone,
because I was actually thinking of the entire level in a holistic way
when I worked on that one section.
So, I think it does help, I think, the work if you just--
if you knock out something in one area.
If it doesn't take that much more time.
If it's not, you know-- if it's really a short task you are talking about.
CARYL: Yeah, I guess that's the thing.
It's, like-- it's not always a short task.
And I appreciate about the contact switching,
but I'm telling you, like, if we keep adding on tasks like that...
you know, we are going to miss our date.
LISETTE: It's a lot of content we've got, guys.
[LISETTE LAUGHS]
It's crazy when you--
I mean, you work on it, and you work on it,
you don't even think about it.
And then you realize how much there is.
And you are like: "Good lord."
You realize how much a team of 60 has to support over--
over a very short amount of time.
ZAHRA: But also there is a character channel.
We post all of these over there, if you guys wanted to see them later.
They are all there.
-Great work. -TIM: That's awesome.
Befores and afters.
Thank you.
Yeah, Zahra's done some great work these last few sprints, everybody.
And so has Jared. So, I'm really proud of what they've done.
And it's...
It's a relief to be in the polish phase.
There are, as far as I know, no new characters in Psychonauts 2.
[MUSIC]
Stop thinking, Tim.
[ZAHRA AND RUSTY LAUGH]
LEE: We just added another seven or eight cutscenes though yesterday.
So, I don't know if you saw that.
That doesn't surprise me.
At least it's not 800.
Yeah.
[CHUCKLING]
LISETTE: Um, but then there is an additional eight weeks of work
that don't fit within the deadline.
Um, so, right now we are looking at converting Nick and Jeremy French
over to help with the cutscene lighting.
Um, and then Rusty I've also asked to volunteer to help out with lighting.
TIM: Don't let Rusty say he can't light.
He did it in theater, so he knows how to--
Basically knows how. It's basically the same.
College theater. Unreal. The same.
ZACH: Ray outed him.
He was like: "Rusty can light, you should get him."
Just put the gel on the barn door. Whatever.
Okay, um...
It's a lighting term, Tucker. Don't worry about it.
RUSTY: The funny thing is, I-- So, I have a theater degree.
I was the only person the semester before we graduated
who needed to take the lighting class.
And they just waved that class for me.
They said: "You don't need to take it. You can still graduate."
So I've never actually had a lighting class.
PAUL: Mm.
People just think I have.
Well, and now it's on the documentary!
So, yeah.
-Secret is out. -PAUL: Too late! It's in the game.
RUSTY: But Lee taught--
[RUSTY CHUCKLES]
Lee taught all of us that in one...
like, two-hour meeting or something, so.
Yeah.
PAUL: How happy was Lee about, um, having to--
[RUSTY CLEARS THROAT]
Mm?
LEE: It's funny that-- Okay, so here is the funny thing.
We didn't actually set up the spawn ranges.
And you are like: "Well, why didn't that work?"
Well, I'll tell you, without even looking, why it didn't work.
Because the animators chose to slightly change his position.
-I was going to ask, yeah. -Which means...
...all of your lighting is fucked.
That's just something that--
in the future, it'd be something to coordinate
with the animation team well ahead of time, and say:
"Please do not do that in cases like this, because..."
I know why they do it.
When they are animating in Maya and they don't see the whole composition,
it adds some interest and keeps the frame a little alive.
And it's worthwhile to do at times for sure.
And what it has done now is it means that I have to redo the lighting.
Every shot.
-Every damn shot. -[LEVI LAUGHS]
Derek speaks!
Yeah, other than that it's just, like--
And then, there is serious performance issues, so.
Basically, whoever is going to sign up for it
is going to be okay with incredibly repetitive,
detail-focused tasks, because...
we basically have to turn on and off, and change lights for every single shot
to get in the fidelity.
-DEREK: Every shot. -LEE: Yeah.
LEE: So, it's basically going through these cutscenes,
bracketing, bracketing, bracketing.
When they tweak, you gotta remove everything.
If they go and change something, you gotta go back to remove...
And there is just--
You know, that's some of the early workflow issues.
I was like: "Well, if we designed this workflow earlier."
SETH: There is so many things in the game.
And there is, like, so many things that are player-facing that are broken.
Sorry, I just opened up QA, and the waterfall is gone.
-So, that's where I'm at right now. -It's gone?!
Like, there is just no waterfall.
And there was last week.
And I don't know where it went.
SETH: Oh, hey-- Hey, Tazio, is the, um...
Is the water in the QA,
the waterfall situation, like, something that's on your radar for this sprint?
TAZIO: Uh, no. What's-- what's up?
Because, like, we need to, you know, make that waterfall, uh...
...look good.
TAZIO: Oh, in the QA!
No, but that seems like a very--
a very legit thing that I should probably push forward.
Lisette just assigned me approximately half a million cutscene tasks.
Uh, approximately fifteen minutes ago.
But it feels like the-- the QA waterfall might take precedence.
NAOKO: So, there is the Brainframe,
intern credits. badge page redesign,
areas page, maps page, and 'Previously On' movie.
So...
That-- no one is just like: "That's crazy."
Not yet?
We could definitely use a little Bagel time.
Just to do the front cover
of the Psychic Tales kind of look and feel.
BAGEL: Mm-hmm.
Fun, fun.
Yeah.
And then it's just going to be ongoing...
thing of signage, and figments, and...
Who is going to be assigned to that?
Out of curiosity.
I have a feeling that is probably going to be
a much larger list than what we anticipate,
so it's probably going to end up being just broken up,
and we'll probably have to get through as many as we can.
It's going to be crazy.
[LISETTE CHUCKLES]
Are we all going to end up doing figments?
I think we are all going to end up doing figments.
And I think we are all going to end up doing Raz--
you know, the CV characters as well.
Oh, yeah, I totally forgot about those things.
Oh my god.
Can we just--
This is just more reason to keep cutting CV.
-GIGI: CV! -[BAGEL CHUCKLES]
LISETTE: I tried. CV is not going anywhere.
GIGI: Yeah, I know.
LISETTE: I tried to cut CV, so we can cut the enemy,
which is the Bad Mood,
which I don't think is, you know, that successful either,
but... he won't let it go.
SARAH: So, that's the idea.
It's just that I've been struggling with putting that together, because, um...
...uh, math is hard.
-LAUREN: Yeah. -[SARAH CHUCKLES]
And, uh...
I think even we were just having troubles with the--
Even transl--
Like, making sure that this directional effect was even correct.
Like, correctly pointing at the...
at the thing.
LAUREN: Yeah, it definitely looks a lot better.
Before it was a little wonky, and...
DAN: Devin's latest changes, uh, got that locked in for us,
as far as the positioning goes.
-SARAH: Yeah. -LAUREN: Cool.
LAUREN: We've been banging on this guy for a really long time.
It was, like, the one enemy--
It was the only enemy that wasn't designed when Anna left, really.
Uh, we knew that it was going to be a flying enemy,
but we didn't really know much else about that.
Like, the way that you fight the Bad Mood is
you have to Clairvoyance into him and find the source of the bad mood.
The feedback I had-- that I was a little confused
when I first brought up CV, and it was aimed towards the camera,
which is where the Bad Mood was,
and so I felt like I should run towards the Bad Mood,
which is probably not a good idea.
So, yeah, that guy is, like...
Oh my gosh.
I...
He's put me in a bad mood sometimes.
It is weird to end up going right under your camera view.
Yeah.
LAUREN: I, basically, sort of took over pushing combat through to ship.
It's been...
sort of tough.
I don't want to say, you know:
"I'm not a combat designer."
Because that feels sort of, like, a cop-out.
And also that I'm sort of just, like...
giving up or allowing myself to make mistakes because:
"I'm not a combat designer."
Like, if I...
You know, I signed up for this,
so that means for this project I am a combat designer.
I see the arrow because I'm looking for it.
But I feel like it's not bold enough.
I wonder if its radius should be, like, one more click in from the other effect.
LAUREN: Coming out of it automatically feels really good.
[MUSIC]
LAUREN: I'm just really fortunate
that I have a really good, like, core combat team.
We should just really quickly check on this, uh...
the failure effect.
Is that helpful looking?
Does this, like, help you realize that the thing is too far away?
The-- the X is interesting to me
just because the scribbled X was very, like, MCon.
SARAH: Yeah, I totally see what you mean.
It actually started in Clone.
So, it's a Clone thing that made its way to MCon,
then it made its way to TK,
and now it's in CV.
So, it's actually just the fail effect for everything now.
Great! Then consistency!
I mean, I could talk to Lisette and maybe come up with, like, a better--
Like, a nicer red X for, you know, TK and all of them.
I mean, it goes so fast also.
And if Lisette is fine with it, then I am fine with it.
EMILY: I think for-- Okay!
So, there was the original Psychonauts that came out in the 2000s.
And, um...
it was very much the vision of Tim,
and Scott, and Peter Chan, and Bagel, and all those people.
And, you know, Scott had,
you know, this vision.
You know, he was the Art Director.
And I think, uh...
Tim is, like, kind of trying to hold on to that, um...
...that vision.
And any person coming in,
who hasn't been here for 25 years or whatever,
it's like: "You are the new person."
Like, I've been here for...
...seventeen thousand years!
I don't even know.
Put-- put thing here.
How many years I've been here.
And I still feel kind of like a new person, you know?
Um, and...
So, Lisette came in kind of, like...
...wanting to: "Let's art direct!"
But Tim kind of still, you know, is like:
"But the Scott C. vision!"
So, there is a little--
There is a little of this.
[LISETTE SIGHS]
You guys have, like, a system.
Like, I'm sure Gigi has figured out, like, a good system of figments.
On, like, a couple layers. Blur one.
Blur a layer.
No, not really.
I looked at, um, Scott's.
I would love to know what fucking brush he is using!
His lines are so wobbly that I'm like: "I don't understand..."
I don't-- I don't get-- I just don't get it!
I don't understand how he is getting such wobbly lines.
You should ask him!
I know he used to draw with a brush pen.
And when his lines--
Just presses it down.
Like, I would watch him draw and he is, like--
He does, like, this sort of thing.
[BAGEL VOCALIZES SCOTT DRAWING]
Oh!
You know what I mean?
It's just, like, a brush pen. It's like...
[BAGEL MAKES MOUTH NOISES]
Yeah, I was thinking it actually was his, like, drawing style.
It's kind of his style. I mean, it's kind of his line style.
GIGI: These are some heavy hitters
at Double Fine, you know.
We literally couldn't have done it...
-...without them, yeah. -...without them, so.
Um...
They are very important to the reason why this project is finished.
And, you know, having their creativity and input is really important.
We just need to get Bagel, like, the old man Bluetooth.
-[EMILY LAUGHS] -Yeah.
I'm, like, so used to having my mic off...
-...that I make all sorts of noises. -"Hey! Huh?"
I know. And then, now my face is really close.
-"What?!" -[EMILY LAUGHS]
"I forgot to tell you..."
[LAUGHTER]
[BAGEL CHUCKLES]
You want some snow? It's fucking snowing here.
What?!
-Check this shit out. -I want to see snow!
What the fuck is snow? I don't know what snow is!
-Wha-a-t! -That's a lot of snow.
Holy seasons! Shit.
BAGEL: A lot of snow right there.
I'm going to go out and get a sandwich in that shit.
Hell, yeah!
Good luck with your snow sandwich.
I know!
-[SPAFF CHUCKLES] -TIM: Oof! That's exciting.
He is working fast!
Oh, man!
-Okay, great, that's awesome! -That was super cool!
Oh, also I noticed
it was Rhombus of Ruin's fourth birthday yesterday.
Yeah! There was fan art. There was Coach fan art.
Happy birthday, GVR!
[SPAFF CHUCKLES]
Ray, and Chad, and Emily, and the team there.
You know, never let them forget the crab sandwich.
Crab sandwich. Or Harold.
You know, they have to--
they have to go back and explore that game somehow.
JANICE: It's been, like, a four-year--
Has it been, like, a four-year project
for people who were here since the beginning, right?
-PAUL: Six. -PAUL: I'd say six.
Six years?!
Wow!
PAUL: Because six years ago...
Yeah, like, Broken Age shipped six years ago.
A little more than six years.
And then Tim started writing-- coming up with ideas, so.
JANICE: Oh, wow! I didn't know it was that long.
PAUL: Yeah, we've been on it for over six years now.
Like, documenting it, so.
[MUSIC]
PAUL: And in that time, uh...
Headlander, Psychonauts VR, and RAD came out.
Plus probably other stuff I'm forgetting about.
Wow.
That's-- the-- I--
I'm a little bit stunned.
Because I didn't think it was that long.
So now I'm just kind of, like...
-...shook. I'm shook. -[PAUL LAUGHS]
JEREMY: Oh, it's been-- It was long.
It was a long journey.
[CHUCKLES]
I'm glad it's, like, coming to an end.
WILL: Uh, Jeremy Natividad has been working in this area.
And, um...
I think this will launch into the boss fight.
And then everything after this is more Janice's territory, I think.
JANICE: Yeah, it's all phase two.
It's frozen in semi-stasis like phase one.
So things are sort of, like, you know, in the middle of being blown apart
by the tidal wave and the dam explosion.
[GEOFF CHUCKLES]
The little cars are hilarious.
JANICE: Yeah, yeah. I think Ebbe did the cars.
They are good places to put the interns,
because we could have their lights turned on,
and then it becomes this really obvious spot to look.
Because they are so small,
and there is so much action in these scenes
that it's nice to have a thing to draw the eye to them.
Yeah, this is looking good!
LISETTE: Amazing.
JANICE: Good team effort.
LISETTE: So, you guys are Beta, right?
[JEREMY AND JANICE CHUCKLE]
There is-- yeah.
It's-- it's come along really, really far.
Um, there is, obviously, when we are working on it
there is still a million things where we are like:
"Oh, we gotta really fix this. It's awful!"
JEREMY: I mean, there is stuff that, like, I wanted to fix.
But I've kind of-- Like, I've accepted the fact
that, like, we can't fix it anymore.
We are at the point where we just gotta get the game out.
Cool. Jeremy, do you want to--
Do you want to bring up the concession area?
Oh, yeah!
Yeah, sure.
I mean, that's kind of it in here so far.
I'm just kind of going into the shrines right now
and making sure everything is cleaned up in there right now too.
-Cool. -Yep.
Yeah, I mean, I don't--
I really don't have many comments for this.
It looks-- it's looking great.
Like, I wouldn't--
I would not be sad if this went out the door.
I think it looks awesome.
-Cool, sweet. -Yeah, man, it looks great.
How is everybody doing?
Not really. How is everybody doing?
[LAUGHTER]
-It's fine. -I'm nervous about the workload.
But I know how to prioritize, and I know to be like:
"Okay, this is good enough. Move on."
Because I can't--
I can't be, like, you know, fiddling with something indefinitely at this point.
[MUSIC]
LISETTE: I think at this point in the process
we are trying to choose what we are willing to live with.
I always say...
"Games are never finished, they are just abandoned."
And it's just like: "What are we willing to abandon?
And what do we have to finish?"
LISETTE: Um, thanks for hanging in there.
I know we are getting pulled a little bit left and right.
But... I do know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
And so, I think in the next, like, three or four weeks,
we will just start seeing dramatic improvements across the game.
And then it'll just be, like, weird bugs that everybody loves to fix.
But, I think, we are kind of rounding the corner on--
on finishing up, like, the bigger pieces of this game that are missing.
Cool.
[BRANCHES SCRAPE AGAINST THE WINDOW]
[MUSIC]
♪ Mmmmm-ooooh, Super Double Fine ♪
♪ It's time, so get in line ♪
♪ Come on down, it's Double Fine time ♪
♪ Sit down, relax, unwind ♪
♪ These project updates will blow your mind ♪
♪ So, be a trooper ♪
♪ Not a party pooper ♪
♪ Snap out of your stupor ♪
♪ And let's get super ♪
♪ It's Super Double Fine Meeting Time! ♪
[CHEERING]
TIM: Hi, everybody!
[TIM CHUCKLES]
ZACH: You are confusing everyone, Tim.
What do you mean? Why? What are you confused about?
Because the videos you play, it's only in SDF, right?
ZAHRA: That means Monday to me.
-ZAHRA: No Friday. -TUCKER: This is the other meeting, Tim.
-Oh, jeez. -It's actually Monday, everyone.
Oh, yeah... I was so excited about playing that one.
Okay. It was good though, wasn't it?
[TIM LAUGHS]
Well, um...
We do have good news. I'm excited, because--
Uh, I think it's good news.
You know, for a long time on this project we've had a feeling that, um...
We had too much work to do in the amount of time that we have.
And we've been like: "Oh, there is so many tasks that we have to do.
We don't want to-- I don't want to cut stuff.
We don't want to change the quality. And we don't want to crunch the team.
What are we going to do? We are going to..."
And then, out of the blue, Matt Booty mails us,
mails me and Caryl, and is like:
"Hey, you guys, it might be better if Psychonauts came out
in July or August."
And we are like-- And so, of course, I immediately said:
"No way. The team wants it to be done in May, and ship in June."
And Matt said: "I insist, Tim."
And so...
We might be forced to add a couple--
add some time.
PAUL: Do you remember when we said the game was going to launch in 2019?
Oh my god, I don't even--
[JEREMY LAUGHS]
Yeah, holy crap!
TIM: Hey, Camden! How do you feel about the news?
CAMDEN: We are super grateful for extra time,
because we are going to need it.
There is just a lot to do.
Uh, I'm excited the March 19th session
at Skywalker is nailed down for Helmut music.
So, that is going forward.
Uh, we'll be able to film some stuff with Peter, Clint, and Michael,
and, um, kind of get that magic that's happening.
TIM: Did you say Michael? Which Michael?
Michael Land.
-Are you kidding me? -Nope.
Holy cow! They got the entire Monkey Island crew back together.
-That's amazing. -Yep.
PAUL: Uh, getting this recent extension has been
the biggest relief for the audio team... so far.
Because we were just looking at a pretty impossible task
to finish all the content,
um, and the cutscenes.
I mean, even the cutscene team, I think,
was looking at an impossible timeline to get the cutscenes done.
So, at some point, you know,
we have to get in there and do audio when they are done.
LISETTE: But overall things are looking really, really beautiful,
and getting close to shippable.
So, I think that's what we'll share a small playlist of today.
Just nice little details that we've planned many years ago,
based on concepts really coming together.
This is a beautiful concept Emily did years ago
when we first started thinking of Cassie.
And now...
Jeremy Mitchell has taken that full look to final.
So we are really getting the full vision of the writer's room
finally coming together.
Which is really great to see.
Beautiful concept all the way to execution.
And one of the big, big dreams we had is the reverse waterfall in the game.
And some early mock-ups.
Remember when we had the big tree?
Um, and some beautiful revisions that Bagel did
to kind of push that look further.
And now we finally have a working, beautiful,
functioning waterfall in the game.
And I want to thank Tazio, and Sarah, and JP,
and everybody who's been involved in getting this to work.
Got a little bit of lighting tweaks and things to do,
but this is really starting to come together.
It's a really fun, beautiful, discoverable space.
TAZIO: And seeing those pieces come together as a whole is just--
is very satisfying.
Like, it's wild having a deadline that, like, feels feasible.
And, like...
being in that-- in that-- what is, like, the home stretch.
Because, like, it's just been-- it's been just out of reach for so long.
And now that we are finally here, it's, like-- it's sort of--
it's so normal, but at the same time it's also very surreal.
Like, the idea that this is going to be finished.
And, like, that there is a life
on the other side of Psychonauts 2, you know?
Like-- like--
[TAZIO LAUGHS]
Like, I don't know, it's been-- this has been--
I've been on the project for four years,
but it just feels like so much more.
I'm looking forward to being over.
[LAUGHS]
For everyone.
[LAUGHS]
Um, but at the same time, I think, there is a lot to take from it,
a lot to learn about yourself,
if you really embraced, you know, what was happening,
and really kind of-- really looked into yourself
to see what you needed to do to remain happy.
[MUSIC]
PAUL: If you could go back in time
and talk to you from, you know, three years ago...
[PAUL SIGHS]
...is there anything that you would tell yourself about...
...the actual outcome of all this stuff?
Um, do you think you've learned anything from the perspective--
or the amount of time you've spent on this game?
JAMES: Well, I mean, that's such a hard question to answer,
because the thing I would--
you know, the thing I'd want to tell myself is, like:
"Hey, let everyone know that we have three years left.
Not, like... eight months."
Um, because the hardest thing about this project has been the fact that we--
we've had--
we thought we had four months left for, like, three years.
You know what I mean?
Like, we've never known that we have years left on the project.
You know, when I started, I think I probably said it on camera,
like...
I only applied for one job in the industry,
and it was working at Double Fine.
It was a-- It was a dream job.
And... this has not been a dream project.
Um, but I guess the bright side is
there is nothing about my experience in the last four years
that... made me less excited to work with any of my coworkers.
LISETTE: Um, but I think, overall, if you are coming to Double Fine...
...for a fantasy land, you are just going to be disappointed.
It's still a place of business.
It's still a company.
We still make games.
And all the drama and tension that comes with making games...
comes with making games no matter where you are at.
Um, and I think a lot of the people who left were expecting...
Double Fine to be a utopia.
And it's not.
JAMES: You know, I watched the Broken Age documentary
between getting hired and showing up for work.
I probably watched that documentary three times.
And that was probably the reason the project has been just so difficult.
It's because... there was such a cognitive dissonance between, like:
"I love Double Fine.
And here is what I think I know about Double Fine.
And this is not the way my job is.
Like, this is not the way I am interacting with people,
or the way the project is going."
And, you know, uh...
It was-- it was bizarre.
But I--
I really do think that once we go back to making smaller games and...
you know, once people learn from this experience
that we can be...
Double Fine again.
What I thought Double Fine was.
[MUSIC]
NURSE: All right.
Take a deep breath.
There you go.
TIM: Yeah, we got our second shot.
We lucked out.
My wife was cold-calling clinics and finding it, like:
"Do you have any left over?
If you have any left over, just call us up!"
And they were like: "Can you be here at 10 AM?"
And so we... zipped over and got the shot!
PETER: How is everybody doing?
I'm-- I'm half-vaccinated, so I'm doing great.
[PAUL CHUCKLES]
PETER: Hey! I'm half-ass too--
-PETER: I mean, half-vaccinated too. -[PAUL LAUGHS]
Half-assinated. Half-assinated.
PETER: Yeah.
TIM: Also, the project is going to ship soon.
So, a lot of things are opening up.
Not that I don't like being on this project,
but it's been-- it's been a long one.
It's been a long one.
I don't know if you noticed that...
while you were filming us.
CAMDEN: Oh, and by the way, we are being recorded right now.
-Just so you know. -STEVE: Oh, perfect!
[CAMDEN LAUGHS]
Yeah, we are!
Is it really?
Yeah, it's being used for the documentary.
Oh, fantastic! And I'm wearing this hoodie too.
2 Player will have total mercy on us.
Although that line will probably be in the documentary.
PAUL: Our audio team has been
just such a positive thing for me in my life.
And I've been working here for ten years now.
I mean, it wasn't always with this full team.
But, I mean, Malena and Camden, for instance,
I've been working with them for ten years.
And, um, we've been working with Steve for six now.
And we've had Kate for, like, three years now.
And they are all just such great people.
It's, uh...
Yeah, very lucky.
I think that most places, you know, you are...
you are lucky if you liked all your coworkers.
So, pretty lucky at Double Fine that I love all my coworkers.
Like, they are all so great.
Um, especially the audio team.
It's, uh--
Oops, sorry. Getting a phone call.
STEVE: You cheater!
[CAMDEN MAKES AN EFFORT GRUNT]
STEVE: They don't sink?
PAUL: No, they just play, like,
sound effects when you jump on and off of them.
That's from, like, o-o-old Quarry days.
PAUL: Man, six years on a game is a long time to maintain perspective.
It's funny, sometimes you'll--
you'll hear a sound and you'll be like: "Who did that?"
And then you'll look and you'll be like:
"Oh, I did that sound! I was six years old.
I forgot I made that sound."
That being said, that impending feeling
of something going out the door sort of gives you this weird...
um, ability to step outside of yourself a little bit.
You start to think about it like:
"This is-- This is someone's first time hearing this.
Like, this is someone's first time playing this.
This is going to go out into the world."
[AUDIENCE CHEERS]
PAUL: The audience cheers work really well.
-KATE: Yeah! -CAMDEN: Mm-hmm.
PAUL: I wonder if you can just--
-STEVE: There you go. -CAMDEN: Oh, there you go.
STEVE: Murder!
[KATE CHUCKLES]
CAMDEN: We should just, every now and then,
have an alt line of them going:
[CAMDEN SCREAMS]
PAUL: "I changed my mind!"
STEVE: "I changed my mind! I changed my mind!"
[LAUGHTER]
PAUL: So, we've been inching into that phase over the last few months,
where every level-- we are playing through it,
and we are thinking about it like:
"What if this was someone's first time playing the level?"
STEVE: Is that puking working?
-PAUL: Yep. -CAMDEN: Yep.
STEVE: Do we want to-- do we--
I wish we had him going like:
[STEVE GARGLES]
I really want that!
[CAMDEN GARGLES]
[STEVE GARGLES]
KATE: Yeah, I'm happy that we don't.
Because I was done...
editing all of the puke VO.
[KATE LAUGHS]
[CAMDEN LAUGHS]
PAUL: Um, but, yeah...
It's been, um... It's been great.
I think, uh...
we'll all feel better when it's all done and in the game, and sitting right.
But, um, I've been really happy with how it's all coming together.
TIM: And all this music is coming in!
All this brand new music is coming in.
And when you play the game, you are like:
"Oh, that's right. That's so amazing to hear."
[DRUMS ARE BEING PLAYED]
[MUSIC]
PETER: Michael Land on bass.
Hey!
PETER: Clint Bajakian on guitar.
Let's get started!
TIM: You know, Peter McConnell, our long-time composer.
And also Clint Bajakian who has worked with us for a long time.
And Michael Land.
Michael Land was the original composer for Monkey Island.
That was incredible! I have not heard
the three Monkey Island original musicians playing together for a long time.
And, uh... They were all up at Skywalker Ranch.
[MUSIC]
[PETER LAUGHS]
PETER: Watch out, Clint, you are on film.
[LAUGHTER]
[MUSIC]
PETER: It's just like revisiting your youth.
Michael and Clint and I actually had a plan to start a band in San Francisco.
Mike got out here first
and, uh, got the job at LucasArts,
and, you know, things changed.
So, by the time Clint and I were able to get out here, it was kind of like:
"Well, look what I'm doing here at work. It's pretty interesting."
And, uh...
And, uh, it was very interesting.
[PETER PLAYS THE VIOLIN]
TIM: But they really liked the Grateful Dead.
I was really surprised to hear they liked the Grateful Dead.
I was like: "I thought you guys were really classical-type guys."
They are like: "Yeah, but, man...
Like... five-piece, like, ensemble improvisation music.
Just no one does that anymore."
[MUSIC]
And I just-- I had not really thought about it that way.
But they were able to, in the session, kind of recreate some of that.
And I was just-- it was so exciting to see them do
that thing that I know they love so much.
PETER: That San Francisco sound to me was always
this sort of magical, far-off: "Whoa-ow! What is that?"
You know?
And, uh, you know, just to sort of honor that...
as part of a real game score,
it just-- it couldn't be more poetic, honestly.
I just-- it's kind of amazing that it was able to happen.
TIM: And to have it fit so perfectly in the level
and add exactly what that level needs as far as music goes.
Psychedelic sensory overload.
So good.
Um, you know, I do this playthrough with the team all the time.
And I passed through the game, like, four times now.
And, uh, this pass is the pass where, um, figments have gone in.
If you play the game with figments, it's such a huge difference.
It's such an important part of Psychonauts
to see these little 2D drawings floating around the world.
They really help with the storytelling.
EMILY: Um, mostly I've been doing a bunch of little figments.
And I haven't placed that many,
but I wanted to place this little special thing last night.
So, uh, yeah. Come-- come on, look.
TIM: It's just-- It was a very unique, um...
a unique thing.
So, when you think about all the tiny little unique pieces of art
you get as you play through a level,
and how each one of them helps set the scene and tell a story,
it's really, um-- it's really fun.
Because we have--
We had back then, and we have now, really great 2D artists.
You know, back then with Scott and Bagel, who are still working on the game.
And then, now seeing them done by Emily and Gigi,
it's so, uh-- it's so...
It's kind of magical seeing them come in.
Because you try and make the game good without all that stuff.
And you kind of, like, go: "Okay, we got the basic--
We got it, we got it. It's good."
And then just this-- This just takes you so much farther.
[TIM VOCALIZES SURPRISE]
Was that a rowboat?
Oh, I guess PSI King is still a PSI King.
But I was like: "Is that a reference to the original version of the level?"
Which was a viking boat.
Emily, you weren't on the level when it was that one, were you?
EMILY: I know. But Levi had some beautiful art.
TIM: Yep.
SETH: I tried to reuse that, like, everything lighting up around you...
-SETH: ...prototype, like, three times. -TIM: Oh, yeah.
EMILY: There is some swords and shields too.
TIM: It's, like, the team's collective memory
of the journey they've been on on this game.
And all the things the players won't see,
but they are bringing that forward and, like, making it live in the level.
So, the level now contains all the history
and the psychic scars, if you will, of the past.
And by psychic scars I just mean a viking boat.
[MUSIC]
♪ Unlocking all my memories ♪
What could be cool, um...
If she had, like, a katana?
-Right. That's always cool. -That's exactly what he was going to say.
Yeah, like...
I got it, yep.
But apart from that, I think,
you could maybe just keep her sort of deformed, or sort of, like--
-Yeah. -Yeah.
That might actually look, like, a lot cooler.
JERRY: There is a lot of animation in this game.
There is so much.
So much that it's still being made,
right now, as I'm talking.
[CHUCKLES]
Um, like, the rest of the animators are wrapping up the end of the game stuff.
[ZACH VOCALIZES RAZ ENLARGING]
Is that a Toblerone?
MALIGULA: But there's always room for one more!
Nice! Oh, I like that!
That's really great, Miyuki.
Ship it!
Nice job!
I mean, go ahead and make comments, but: "Ship it!"
Now we'll make a bunch of comments that are...
But all the comments have to be: "Ship it."
Ring the bell. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!
I think I have a bell.
JERRY: Do you want to know what my note--
-What was your note? -JERRY: No? Okay.
Oh, Jerry has a note. We can't, we already shipped it.
-We can't, we shipped it! -JERRY: No, it was this one.
JERRY: It was that slightly wall-eyed thing.
And then the pupil.
This one comes in a lot more than the other one.
Like, the eyes open and then--
It doesn't matter.
I'll stop. I'll shut up. Bye!
It's wonderful. Just let it go.
Just let it go.
TIM: I mean, currently cutscenes
and animation is, like, the longest part of the schedule.
Um, Zach seems really calm about the whole thing.
So, he must know something that we don't know.
Super chill about it.
I am mostly working with Jerry a lot.
Because if I have a change to a cutscene,
like, I'm sneaking in all these changes based on the playtest feedback.
You know, like: "This character has to add the name of their father,
because I forgot to mention that."
Um, and then he-- his head explodes,
and then he fixes it by some super clever method.
And then everything is great, so.
JERRY: Figuring out, like...
"Okay. It's okay if I don't get to that. It's okay if I don't get to that."
...is something I'm kind of, like...
I don't know, just trying to...
I guess be more mindful of, or just be okay with.
You know, asking people like Tim or like Kee:
"How do you reconcile the part where we can't--
we will not hit all of the--
you know, cross all the t's and dot all the i's,
and check every p and q in the game."
Um, and they are kind of like: "Yeah, you know, like, you just--
You figure out your priorities and you triage stuff."
Um, and it sounds like the leads are already doing that,
or will be doing that more regularly with Tim.
As far as the stuff that we need to get done.
You know, the stuff that's--
whether it's game blockers,
or, you know, P1 bugs,
or whatever it is.
PAUL: Um, what about the bug count?
How are we looking?
[TIM SIGHS]
I don't know. It's a producer problem.
It's not something that I think about.
[CHUCKLES]
NAOKO: We have 1736 open P3s.
We have 709 open P2s.
And 47 open P1s.
TIM: Last chance for making them all P1s and do them this week idea.
-Going once... -SETH: If only.
NAOKO: If you want to try that and see how that crashes and burns,
I will go on this ride with you.
NAOKO: Uh, Loboto standing on the table next to Sasha.
-TIM: That's bad. -NAOKO: Standing?!
I don't know why that's a three. That sounds like a two to me.
KEVIN: Yeah, that's really bad. We wouldn't-- we wouldn't ship with that.
TIM: He's done that for a long time.
KEE: Send it to me. I am about to look at that vignette.
KEVIN: All right.
NAOKO: UI displays the wrong icon.
Hollis. The localization of magazine--
KEVIN: Wait, can you--
Sorry, for that Lev tutorial, what is the wrong icon?
Because if it's, like, the wrong power icon, that's one thing.
But if it's the wrong button icon, then--
Yeah, that's a cert fail.
That's a cert fail.
Oh, the entirety of Loboto right now are cert fails,
because of... the way our tutorial system is made.
KEVIN: Yeah. No, that's fine.
But I'm just saying I don't want this to be stuck in three-land
when it's a cert fail.
SETH: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fair.
TIM: You know, tensions are high, but it's been really rewarding
because, you know, we've been watching
these playtests of people playing the game.
PLAYTESTER: Okay, this is recording two.
Hi, I'm back. Playing Psychonauts 2.
MORRIS: Pfft. Forsythe's got it. She's always in control.
PLAYTESTER: I kind of wish that every char--
Like, that's how dialogue worked with most of these characters.
Because right now, yeah, it's, like... camera zooms in, I can't move around.
Oh, hell, yeah!
TIM: Yeah, we've been having a lot of playtesters playing the game.
We watch them in horror.
And then we fix all the things that we see go wrong.
Whoa-ow!
Yeah, I don't know what's going on there.
This game is currently in development.
So, you may encounter some visual bugs as you play--
I figured that was final! That looks trippy.
Oh, now you're in trouble!
Oh, the eyes!
Oh, dear.
Uh, this game is currently in development.
You may experience a number of bugs as you play through it.
[ANNA LAUGHS]
TIM: Tucker, this game--
Just say: "Thank you for your feedback."
TUCKER: Mm-hmm.
TIM: "Thank you for your feedback."
RAZ: Wow. The office of Truman Zanotto,
Grand Head of the Psychonauts...
PLAYTESTER: Oh, wait. She is up here!
Aaa, there is two Lilis!
TIM: Because, like-- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The game totally crashed on that person and they lost all their progress.
But they were having fun until that happened.
And so, if we can just fix that problem, then that's all we have to do.
The scary things to me about a game are, like,
you know, fun.
"Is it fun? Do people like it? You know, is it..."
All these, like: "Is it creative enough?"
Having those, you know--
feeling like-- having those things locked down,
and then: "Oh, it's just a bunch of bugs?
Oh, okay.
We know how to do this."
I don't know, I mean, it's--
I mean, overall, things are as they should be.
I mean, I've got 160 issues on me right now.
Down from 260.
Oh, yeah, that was-- That's great!
Yeah, uh...
But, I mean, it's--
They are all really simple bugs.
It's like: "Shit is floating.
This thing is not touching the ground. LODs are bad."
Like, all of those are good bugs.
TIM: Let me put it this way. The skies behind Kee's head
have been sunny for a while.
Mostly sunny.
You watch.
The bad meetings Kee has got
a raging storm going on behind him the whole time.
It's like a little mood ring.
But lately it's been clear skies.
Semi-clear skies.
Haven't you noticed that in meetings?
The storm.
You can tell-- you can totally tell Kee's mood
from what background he is using.
GEOFF: ...possible, but also, fucking...
-There is only so much we can do. -Yep.
But lately it's been clearing up.
KEE: Can I ask a quick question about the playtest?
-Kee, you had your time. -No.
You had your time, Kee.
Yeah, playtest question. Kee.
How-- How friendly are these testers?
Are you worried they are too friendly?
A little bit. A little bit.
Um, I mean, I think some of them are really big fans
of the studio and the game.
[MUSIC]
In the playtests, universally, people felt that it was Psychonautical.
Like it was Psychonauts.
It felt like the characters and the story were, um...
...were all there.
Like, in addition to the bugs and a lot of people saying they like it,
you know, they have, like--
like, several paragraphs of just, like, critical feedback.
TIM: Yeah, there were-- Well, there were a couple of things
that, um, people were really confused about,
that I thought were really obvious.
And then, right before the dialogue deadline,
I snuck in a whole bunch of dialogue explaining all these things.
So, it's going to hopefully seem like we planned everything
from the very beginning to be perfect.
But it was, like, um...
Some last minute holes got fixed.
PAUL: How do you feel like you did this time around?
On the writing?
Best yet!
I hope we didn't make it too sad,
but those parts, I think, really felt emotionally, uh...
...meaningful to me.
[MUSIC]
Tim's done writing, y'all.
Ooo!
I don't believe it!
Maybe he said riding.
Like a horse.
Writhing?
Yeah, he is-- he is not writhing anymore.
He will be writhing in pain if he writes any more.
MALENA: You know, we've got so many things
that even if we have forgotten something,
I'm pretty sure we can cobble together
using what we already have.
Yep.
SETH: Yep.
TIM: The last script. We are going to have the last script--
the last session with Richard Horvitz coming up, like, the 19th.
And that's the end.
We'll just give the story document to Richard.
He'll read it.
And then we can take any fact from the story
and have it blurted out as he is walking between rooms.
SARAH: It can be a one-sided conversation
with, like, a crab sandwich or something.
He just explains everything
that has happened in the game.
"Hey, crab sandwich, are you confused? Let me tell you what's going on so far.
Lucy used to be my..." Anyway.
RICHARD: This is intense.
Because I said to Kristen yesterday, I said: "It's interesting--"
Because I go in, and I'm, like-- and, like, sleep.
I, like, sleep like a log.
I said: "When you think about it,
it's like you are doing, like, a monologue for four hours."
-You know? -Oh, yeah.
Three in a row and it's, like--
I'm, like, exhausted by the end of our sessions.
It's, like, super heavy. That's why we have to talk about poop.
-Because it keeps things even. -We have to. We have to.
It's a necessity.
[KHRIS LAUGHS]
It's a poop necessity. A simple poop necessity.
♪ You got to bear down as you poop ♪
-♪ You got the poop necessity ♪ -No. Release.
-No? Oh, sorry, Paul. -Don't bear down.
Don't bear down, you are right!
You are right! Don't bear down!
Relax the colon!
Yeah!
♪ Let it flow! Let it flow! ♪
♪ Let it flow! Let it flow! ♪ -[KHRIS LAUGHS]
♪ Let it splash upon your toes! ♪
-Ew. -[KHRIS LAUGHS]
Oh my goodness!
TIM: Uh, Richard and Khris and I have been working together
for 20 years or so.
And so-- but it's--
He is just really funny.
And, um...
It starts, like--
Every couple lines you'll make a-- there'll be a joke.
So, you got this huge snowball of callbacks to previous jokes,
so by the end of the session you are just speaking
in this language of weird, localized, recent in-jokes
that you are all going to forget after the session.
And it makes no sense to anybody else.
And it sounds really dirty.
♪ Me and you and a dog named Boo ♪
Those were the bestiality songs of the '70s.
-Oh, yeah. -They were not as popular.
PAUL: You don't remember Afternoon Doglight?
No.
That's good. That's a good one.
That is a good one. Why don't I remember that one?
Afternoon-- No! I've never said that.
TIM: Afternoon Doglight.
-[KHRIS LAUGHS] -Afternoon-- Afternoon Doglight!
-Wow! -♪ Slow ride! ♪
-[KHRIS LAUGHS] -♪ Mm, mm ♪
PAUL: You don't remember all this?
No.
[TIM LAUGHS SILENTLY]
What happens in the VO booth, stays in the VO booth.
You are making that up!
Kind of had to be there.
RICHARD: I hope Ford dismantles this thing.
Or... Bob turns it into a planter.
Amazing!
Hurray!
No!
[RICHARD VOCALIZES SADNESS]
No, it's going to be good!
TIM: It was very emotional.
But we'll work with him again on another project, so.
Um, and who knows?
Never say never.
MALENA: And I'm-- I have actually gotten all of my tears out already
that this is the last time for Raz.
Like, I'm having an emotional time dealing with the--
-Like, accepting. -TIM: Well, we are going to get, um...
When we get, um, Microsoft to make a Smash Bros. type game
with Master Chief, and Raz, and Eddie Riggs, and stuff.
So, we'll be, like--
You know, he'll be making cameos and that kind of stuff.
Okay! Okay, good.
[MALENA LAUGHS]
[MUSIC]
ZACH: Seth, do you know if this was, like, a conditional meeting
or is it happening for sure?
Well, it's not happening, because Jira is not really up.
ZACH: Oh, I see.
TUCKER: Uh, Tim, this isn't triage.
Triage got canceled.
What?! What happened? I clicked on this meeting, like--
-Is Jira still having problems? -Jira is still down.
KEE: This is good.
GEOFF: I mean, this is when you wanted it to happen, right?
I'm just going to keep writing notes like this, incoherently,
and crossing them off.
Oh my god, all my boards are gone too.
Like, the boards tab is completely missing.
Yeah, everything is jacked in Jira right now, so.
Goodbye, Seth.
Yeah, that's--
I'm lighting a cutscene. That's what I'm doing right now.
On fire?
-All right, bye! -See you, guys.
[MUSIC]
GEOFF: Yeah.
[KEE LAUGHS]
NAOKO: Stop it!
Wow!
[KEE LAUGHS]
GEOFF: Yeah, it's, uh...
[KEE LAUGHS]
We are experiencing a magic moment in the development of this game.
And then we are like: "I don't-- I don't know."
[KEE LAUGHS]
Well, the good news is I got my maniacal Kee emoji.
-Yeah. -[KEVIN LAUGHS]
TIM: Hi, everybody. Sorry, I was coming back
from a doctor's appointment.
Did I miss anything exciting in this leads meeting?
Besides you guys plotting to erase the entire Perforce directory.
No, we don't have to. It's doing it on its own.
Oh, and the building burned down.
TIM: Have you ever-- Well, no one cares about that anymore.
Let's all relax. Stressing out our computers.
SETH: It's so stressful!
Watching the bug count go up
There is no way to make it go down!
They are only bugs if you give them power, Seth.
Just ignore them.
[KEE LAUGHS]
SETH: Take your heartburn medicine now.
KEE: I remember at a certain point I saw TUMS at multiple people's desks,
I'm like: "Why is that?"
And after a while: "Oh..."
TIM: Why don't they just hold a Diet Coke to their neck
like everybody else.
-KEE: Listen! -[TIM LAUGHS]
That was the-- That was a Capri-Sun.
TIM: What?! You switched?
[KEE CHUCKLES]
NAOKO: Oh, motherfuck!
Um...
Uh, this one is open!
Quarry. Raz goes into rock.
TIM: Hard to see a kid getting into rock these days.
[TIM CHUCKLES]
Did you guys hear that? Did you guys hear that joke?
Am I muted?
-[TIM SIGHS] -[KEE CHUCKLES]
[MUSIC]
NAOKO: What'd you say? I'm sorry.
-TIM: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. -GEOFF: It was good. It was good.
TIM: I said nothing.
It's probably just collision on that rock.
[GEOFF SIGHS]
GEOFF: Yeah.
We'll have to put something there, so he...
This is the place where we can put Dogen's skeleton.
TIM: Brilliant.
[GEOFF LAUGHS]
TUCKER: Hey! Hey, none of that!
TIM: Uh-oh.
Get out of here. Come on, Raz.
Raz! You can do it!
SETH: Another lobster trap.
TIM: Oh, is that what you call them?
SETH: What Geoff calls them.
TIM: That's good. Lobster trap.
NAOKO: Support beam under stairs have no collision in the Think Tank.
GEOFF: Oh, that seems bad.
Oh!
No, that's fine.
[LAUGHTER]
Oh, brother!
[LAUGHTER]
Put a rock down there, Geoff!
Put a big rock down there!
TIM: You guys, how cool is it?
Like, these are backers, right?
Think of all these people.
Think of all these people who have given us money...
-TIM: ...five years ago. -CARYL: Look at all these people...
CARYL: ...that have been waiting six years.
TIM: Yeah, think about how angry all these people are.
[LAUGHTER]
TIM: Sorry!
Look, it's going to be really soon!
CARYL: Sorry! Sorry, people with Ms.
TIM: We are trying to make it good. We are trying to make it good, Ms.
I want to see the ending,
because it's gotta say: "Thanks for playing."
Hm.
You know...
I would never add anything to the project at this point.
But I feel like that should be a scripted cutscene.
Like, a bigger deal--
Whatever, okay.
TIM: I don't want to come off as, like:
"Oh, failure is not an option!"
But we really do, like-- Like, it's gotta be good,
so we keep working on it.
Like, somehow a Regret dies under a figment,
and that that transfers the burnt state to the figment.
I can't-- I haven't reproduced it yet.
But that's my current operating theory.
OLIVER: I mean, on the high level, the way I see...
...this phase of the project specifically,
where it's more, like, about--
you know, you get bugs and you need to fix them.
It's, like, you spend ninety percent of the time investigating.
Like, just researching what is actually happening.
And often when you know what's happening,
the actual fix is pretty easy.
And so, what it comes down to is just
a lot of, like, detective work.
I did it!
You figured it out, Dan?
DAN: You were right.
I had to get a doubt to run over the figment.
And then when I lit the doubt on fire, it swapped the figment's material.
But what hell?!
The fire propagation system is causing things
that aren't supposed to burn to burn.
DAN: Genius idea, Tazio!
TAZIO: No, I mean, I think, like,
to a large extent, the big questions have been solved.
That's at least the way-- the way we feel about it.
But at the same time...
there are some wild cutscenes in there that are going to require some--
still some new ideas.
So, it's, like--
And I feel like every day is, like-- is a new problem and a new little thing.
But the scale of-- Like, so--
It's broken into a bunch of smaller problems,
I guess is what I'm trying to say, I guess.
It's less sort of, like, these big huge monsters.
Like, it's no longer a T. Rex,
but it's just velociraptors running around, right?
And there is a lot of them.
But-- but, yeah. No, they are not--
They are not nearly as big or scary as they once were, I feel like.
[BERT PLAYS ON A SYNTHESIZER]
VIC: So classy. It's like I'm at church.
Oh, my.
BEN: Church of dinosaurs?
Uh, yes, the one true faith in which I strongly believe.
GIGI: Uh-h! No, you-- You can't stop at the best part!
Oh, he's gotta take a sip of water. Take that sip!
Yeah, yeah, you gotta--
-There you go! Woo! -Yeah!
NICK: That is one big pile of shit.
[BAGEL CHUCKLES]
I sing this song to my dog whenever he walks in the room.
BAGEL: What are the lyrics?
Dinosaurs?
♪ Dinosaurs ♪
GIGI: That's it.
[BAGEL CHUCKLES]
BAGEL: ♪ Fucking Jurassic fucking Park! ♪
♪ And fucking dinosaurs! ♪
Oh, yeah!
TAZIO: Uh, I don't know.
I guess I've been talking to Clam too much.
I don't why these-- where are these dinosaur analogies are coming from.
PAUL: I mean, people have called out
that you are, like, one of the...
bug finding superstars.
He is so very good at finding where to break the game.
I think it just comes with, you know, having worked on the game so long.
And as an animator I have to test a lot of his movements and interactions.
And so, I kind of know some tricks already.
Because, like, on our other projects I don't remember having this much fun...
[CLAM LAUGHS]
...like, going around and just looking at something and being like:
"Yeah, I think I can go over there.
And if I hop on this rock that looks like I can stand on it,
I could definitely get up there."
That's how I found some of them--
the worst ones where you can, uh, jump out of the world and see..
a lot of crazy things.
Clam's been finding some really good ones.
Like, just his ability to get out of the level.
Like in the Tia bottle where he was just jumping
on, like, the walls and stuff to, like, bypass whole sections.
Like, we had to put collision walls up all around the area
just to, like, make sure that it couldn't happen anymore.
And he kept finding-- he found more ways to get out.
CLAM: And finding a lot of them. And I'm still finding some.
Um, even though we are giving the--
the cert build to Microsoft soon.
So...
I think it'll just be:
"As long as it doesn't break the game too bad."
[MUSIC]
[AARON LAUGHS]
Just the tone of that voice is so just ominous.
Okay, um...
Okay! So, which machines--
Which machines are fried?
Or which machines do we know are fried?
AARON H.: Uh, Sodium is definitely not starting up.
AARON J.: Do we have Oxygen?
Is Oxygen running?
-[KEE LAUGHS] -AARON J.: I know.
AARON J.: The most important ones,
to make sure that we have any sort of infrastructure at all,
would be Oxygen, which does our Editor builds,
and Helium, which does most of our heavy content builds,
things like lighting builds.
Fingers crossed it's just the UPS that is broken,
and not, like, a whole bunch of fried machines.
-AARON J.: That would be great. -AARON H.: Yes.
AARON J.: Welcome, Paul...
to this madness.
KEE: You know, what you don't need to happen,
right when you are closing out a game,
is for all of your build servers to literally melt down.
AARON H.: Man, what a day!
Yep, Oxygen's power supply is fried.
That's unfortunate. Okay.
AARON H.: Yeah.
Um...
So, you try to boot the machine,
and just-- and just nothing?
AARON H.: There is nothing.
All the servers are throwing a huge error and beeping.
Saying: "Power supply lost. Power supply lost. Power supply lost."
AARON J: Uh, okay.
[BEEPING SOUNDS]
Okay.
But, you know, I think stuff like that happens,
you first go to panic.
[AARON SIGHS]
AARON H.: Going to have to be methodical, and just see what the damage is.
-Okay. -Okay.
AARON H.: My concern right now is that if--
So, I have the hard drive for Oxygen in my hand.
I'm plugging it into an identical box.
And I'm...
...hoping...
...that whatever the hell happened didn't burn out everything.
CARYL: Mm-hmm.
But you first go to surprise.
AARON H.: But I've never encountered anything close to this,
so... there is that.
Then you laugh a little.
[LAUGHTER]
-EVAN: Okay. -AARON H.: Yeah.
Like, this is what I said before.
It wouldn't be, like, a major milestone day,
if there wasn't some sort of horrible, catastrophic failure.
It's the way the universe works.
AARON H.: Seriously. It couldn't be any worse, could it?
[MUSIC]
I mean, it could be.
Don't say that. Yeah, I was, like--
Yeah. It could totally be worse.
KEE: And then you have a bit of panic.
And then you get to, like: "Okay. Well, how do we recover from this?"
I am more than happy to go drive down, buy us some power supplies,
and drive them to the office.
Like, I can do that.
If that would be-- if that would help get things taken care of more quickly.
Um...
AARON H.: It would, uh...
Do you know what wattage we need?
AARON H.: It's worth mentioning that I also have the stomach flu.
That's probably something worth mentioning.
Aw-w.
[AARON LAUGHS]
AARON H.: So, uh, if you do, stay away from me.
I could-- I could bring them, put them at the door and leave.
I could-- we can figure something out.
[MUSIC]
AARON J.: I think it was sixteen machines in total
that ended up having their power supplies fried.
And we were super, super lucky that it was just power supplies,
because those are easy to swap.
No data was lost.
TIM: So, anyone know, like, how bad the server thing was yesterday?
As far as people getting work done.
I saw him walking out of the building yesterday,
holding an armful of power supplies.
So, were you there when all the stuff went down?
Yeah! Yeah.
I mean, it was pretty funny--
It was pretty lucky that Aaron was in town.
And, uh, he could just walk into the server room
and say: "All of our power supplies are fried."
AARON J.: Worst case scenario we would have probably lost,
like, a week or two of time.
The problem is that we are in the stage of production
where losing a week or two is pretty devastating,
because we only have a couple of weeks left.
So, it would have been a pretty substantial percentage
of our remaining time.
And that time is an important time,
because we are doing things like fixing major bugs,
making sure that the game is stable,
making sure that things run smoothly.
PAUL: Have you ever had so much crazy stuff happen
over the course of a single project.
[TIM LAUGHS]
Yes.
Every time.
[TIM LAUGHS]
KEE: Yeah, we've been-- We've been through it on this one.
[KEE LAUGHS]
Oof.
Ooh, boy.
And so, this is a little bit-- I talked about it with Kee earlier.
Sorry, Kee, putting you on the spot.
There is a little bit of new information.
So, I just want to talk about a little bit--
uh, about... next week,
and when the first submission builds are due.
I talked to Vic.
And all the builds are due on next Friday.
Not this one, but next one.
And, I mean, looking at the bug list,
there is still a fair amount of those.
Obviously, we are going to slow down
what actually goes into the build next week.
So, just in case that makes any difference in the--
The reason why I bring it up here is just in case it makes any difference
in how tasks are prioritized.
Like, anything that's even remotely risky,
if we want to do it this week,
and not-- and not next week.
TIM: Do a bunch of risky stuff this week.
Sounds great.
KEE: Let's not do anything risky.
TIM: Oliver...
I don't even have any risky ideas, but I'll come up with some risky ideas.
Kee sounds like he is crying.
[TIM CHUCKLES]
Um, okay, yes. Thank you for watching that.
TIM: Anyone noticed that Coach's eyes are different colors?
[MUSIC]
It's not a bug, it's a...
ZACH: It's a feature.
TIM: He is related to David Bowie, yep.
Raz got permanently stuck in Gale animation.
This is one of those ones I feel like has happened periodically.
-Yep. -Is it permanent?
Oh, he is still in it!
-Yeah. -I don't know...
Stuff around here makes me nervous.
Touching... this stuff--
Someone has to tell me
how this is going to be fixed definitively before, um--
I know that doesn't look great,
but it also doesn't block the game.
Why don't you sit on it, Kee, and...
Nature will take care of it! Yes.
[KEE LAUGHS]
TUCKER: QAEX. Logs spawn burnt Yeti cave sign.
ZACH: That's the one.
[CHUCKLING]
LISETTE: Yeah, that's pretty bad.
[LISETTE CHUCKLES]
-It's so good. -So good.
LISETTE: It's a new crafting mechanic we cannot support.
[LAUGHTER]
I love that.
TUCKER: I think people would love finding it.
But if you guys say patch X, I'll leave it there.
TIM: Everyone is fixing so many bugs every day.
It's so crazy to see all the check-ins.
Kee, if you have anything you wanted us to know
from the engineering department.
How are you guys holding up?
What color is the sky in your world?
Yeah, it's pretty good.
It's pretty-- I mean, it's not, like--
I wouldn't go on a picnic, but...
-It's pleasant. -Don't have to wear a poncho.
Yeah.
KEE: I do really appreciate that folks are a lot, um--
are very, like, mindful of each bug's kind of relevance
in the whole scope of the game.
Otherwise, chasing down every single one of these
would cause so many other bugs when you try to fix them.
TIM: Taking that, uh, very seriously,
so that we don't destabilize the build, and so the build is more stable.
And as we come into a landing it feels--
It probably still feels really chaotic for Naoko,
but for me it feels a lot less chaotic than I'm used to.
Oh, you guys, want to see something really funny?
Before you go.
Please, can I show you something very funny?
Let's check this out!
Oh, my...
What are we-- what are we looking at? And what's funny about it?
-Oh, it's the old schedule? -This is our old schedule!
Hey, everybody, we submitted a month ago.
What a bunch of junk we would have shipped.
We would have shipped so many lobsters!
Not just the lobsters.
-Oh, all lobsters! -Oh my god!
[TIM LAUGHS]
Thank you, Matt Booty!
TIM: In the old days it would have led to crunch mode,
I think, is what would have been the answer.
But here we got, um... more time.
And, you know, Kee and Naoko are pushing for, you know, a real rational approach
to, um... how many tasks we are doing.
And I have done it long enough to know that...
probably we are so nitpicky
that 99% of people won't even notice that thing
that we are spending a half hour talking about
whether we should fix it or not, so.
But it's great to be at that point
where you are nitpicking just the teeny-tiniest things...
to see if you want to actually do something about it.
TONY: It could be waved, it could be, uh...
...known shippable, you know, all that stuff.
And that's just something we have to accept.
And it's pretty easy to accept, if we find out...
it's not something a normal user would run into.
VIC: Ultimately, when the player gets it,
the player interprets it the way they are going to interpret it.
Like any creative work.
Like, when I'm done with it...
I just let it go, and it's not mine anymore.
I made it, and now it's out in the world.
And let the audience decide what it is,
and how good it is,
and whether it has any perceived flaws, you know?
So-- so, yeah. I'm fine with that.
CLAM: This is, like, the ultimate test of learning to let go.
Like: "Let it go. It's okay."
And at the end of the day,
you can, like, maintain your composure,
and not, like...
[CHUCKLES]
...freak out, but...
...it is the ultimate test, for sure.
MALENA: And there is Tucker!
Happy six years, Tucker!
-I can't believe. -Hello.
Six years I've been lucky enough to know you.
I-- I don't understand how more than half of a decade...
has passed already.
I know! Especially because, like, you are only twelve.
So, that would mean you started working for us when you were six.
Like, half my life pretty much.
Or, like, two and a half Wills at this point.
It is crazy.
LISETTE: How is cert looking, everybody?
Certainly.
-Coming close! -Certain.
-Feeling certain! -Yep.
Just got out of, uh... first cert check-in meeting.
Seems-- seems like it's on track.
Seems like not--
Surprisingly not, like, everything is... on fire,
or, like, terrifying like previous games I felt on.
-So. -[GEOFF CHUCKLES]
Seems, like, five-- five, six years is a decent amount of time to get ready for--
It's only slightly on fire.
[TUCKER CHUCKLES]
It's, like, the regular amount of flame.
I mean, we've already had actually on fire,
so I think slightly on fire is just fine.
PAUL: The road to launch feels kind of anticlimactic.
I think we are all just tired.
We just want it to be done, so.
I mean, there is not really a big bang of, like, excitement as it's finishing.
It's just, like--
Just, like: "Get it out.
Make sure it doesn't break, please."
KEE: So, my hope is that, you know,
we are at a place where we could just kind of leave the build alone
through Wednesday and Thursday.
And then we submit on Friday.
[MUSIC]
KEE: Yeah? Yeah!
TIM: Great!
Sounds fantastic.
KEE: It's a weird mix of emotions.
You have, um...
...relief.
Wait, let me check the bug channel again.
Okay, you have relief...
that things are going--
[KEE LAUGHS]
that things are going, um, smoothly for submission.
And, um, just even typing out Release Candidate
felt like such a weird thing.
Because, you know, it's been a long road.
And we've been doing this for a long time,
and it's been-- it's been really hard.
And just calling something as being the thing that we are 'done' is...
It was-- it was-- it was oddly...
Um, just...
That was the most triumphant thing I felt in typing out two words before.
OLIVER: I can't believe that we are going to ship.
Like, it seemed, like, you know...
impossible and surreal for such a long time
that this would happen.
But here we are. And I think the game is in a good shape.
VIC: Just getting those final build updates in order.
Getting marketing in order.
Working with Spaff, James Spafford,
and everyone here who is on the publishing team,
to kind of, like, line up our marketing efforts
and help them out with that.
TIM: Uh, James Spafford!
What's going on in the world of communications and community?
SPAFF: Hello!
Excitingly, this is our press preview week this week.
Um, as of this morning,
a whole bunch of press were able to access the game and start playing it.
Which is kind of crazy, I've been thinking about that.
This is the first time anyone has played this game
that isn't us or our, you know, close friends from testing.
Normally, we'd be taking these games to shows
and having all kinds of preview events.
But here we are, um, only a month before,
people are finally playing.
It's an exciting moment.
SESSLER: The original was a monumental moment in gaming history
as it's frequently heralded
as one of the last, great, big budget platformers
in an era that was previously dense with them.
INDOVINA: That's a lot to live up to.
And thankfully, from five hours of hands-on time
with the preview version of the game,
I can tell you this,
that it is bolstering with Double Fine's signature creativity.
SANCHEZ: Like other Double Fine games, Psychonauts 2 has a great sense of humor.
And though the first hit at heart's strings every now and then,
Psychonauts 2 seems like it's aiming right for them.
SESSLER: Simply put, the game does a great job
of cultivating all the best parts of why the 2005 game was a cult hit,
and then builds on it.
Each mental world is carefully crafted to be an experience
as unique as the brain you are poking around in.
That encourages you to explore every nook and cranny
for figments, mental vaults, and more,
to give you some insight into why someone is the way they are.
TIM: Yeah, it is-- it's a nice period now where, um...
we got our first batch of press.
And it all seemed really genuinely very positive.
And it's-- it's not that we thought, uh, it was going to be bad.
But it was nerve-racking, you know. You work on a game that's, um...
this long in development, you don't--
you know, you don't keep laughing at all the same jokes.
And you are like: "What's in there? I don't know what's in there."
You just-- it's hard to-- It's hard to know.
And then you see it through someone else's eyes,
and you are like: "Oh, there is a lot. There is a lot in there."
And I just can't stop thinking about, like:
"God, this is so huge compared to everything they've made
since Brütal Legend, which was 2009."
It's just crazy to see, like, that entire team take a huge swing.
And just to have this new experience that is:
"Oh, here is just a mountain of great Tim Schafer writing."
Like, what a luxury that we get to enjoy this.
We will miss this someday!
But, like, oh my god, there is so much in here!
It's-- it's incredible.
And I know it took a lot of effort from a lot of folks to make it happen.
Like, it's not all just luck and miracles here.
And I know there is a lot of...
hard effort, blood, sweat and tears that went into getting us here.
ASIF: I don't know it's, uh--
It's-- it's really wild.
Like, I just can't, uh...
It's, you know-- I think it's doubly weird for me too,
because everything on this is so new to me, right?
Like, it's the first game I've ever worked on.
And, uh...
I think everyone, you know, always says
that it's a miracle that any game comes out, as it is.
So, I'm really glad that this game is coming out,
after we put all this time into it.
Um...
And, yeah, I think...
My biggest takeaway is that
when I play it now, I really do feel like...
it is a worthy successor to the first game.
And that everything that the people who love the first game...
um, like, everything they love about that is present in this game.
RAY: Because I was worried.
I was really worried. I'm not as worried anymore.
I was really worried, you know. And I may have mentioned this.
RAY: There is a lot of people with a lot of fond memories of the game.
And, uh-- And they want to have those--
They want that... again.
And it's very-- I think that's really hard to, um...
...give people.
And you think about some of them--
some of those people were just kids that played--
like, really young kids that played it.
And now they are adults.
Uh...
I think it's going to fit very well with that audience, so.
I'm pretty excited for people to see it.
I'm excited for me to be able to play, to sit down and play the whole thing.
KEE: The other thing that's just really fascinating
about being here for so long,
is just seeing so many different people.
Um...
I think the studio has a lot of people
that have stuck around for a really long time.
And I think that is unique to other places.
So, not only do I feel like I've made
some kind of lifelong connections with people,
but what you also end up having when we bring on new folks,
because, I think, the studio fosters a certain kind of environment
that brings in people with similar goals,
and similar creative drives, and all of that kind of stuff,
so it kind of feels like bringing in new people to your family.
I mean, I know you really shouldn't call, like, your work colleagues your family.
But this is about as close as it feels.
Especially knowing some of these people for a very, very long time.
PAUL: Didn’t you have an anniversary lately?
Uh-- oh, yeah! I think it's this month.
Eleven years now.
[CHUCKLES]
And, like, to be at one place for this long is great, I think.
I think it's awesome.
It also doesn't even feel like eleven years.
But I think it's just because, like...
the projects are fun.
Like, I think, like, the projects are fun.
And, like, when I first started, like, they were--
Like, I was doing maybe, like, a project a year.
A new project a year or two-- every year or two.
And... that's, like--
That's, like, the fun stuff.
When, like, you get to do different things.
That's why this one was kind of tough.
Because it's been, like, the same thing for six years.
And I think that's a-- that's a really good point.
Like...
Product-wise, you know,
consumer-wise, it is a thing that you play for a little bit,
and then you have memories of it, but then you move on.
But this is the product of the last five years of our lives!
Of all our collective shared experiences together.
And... knowing that those five years culminated in this thing, it's--
Yeah, it's more about the making of it than-- than what we've created.
And I think it is just--
It's a bonus that what we created is something that we feel is-- is great.
TIM: It feels like a very, um...
...a solid landing.
See, if you delay your game enough, it's always on time.
JACK: Yeah!
I just hope people like it.
I'm not afraid of people playing it.
That's a good position to be in when you are shipping a game.
Not afraid of people playing it.
PAUL: And then there is going to be a launch party.
Which is also the same day the game comes out.
-Yeah, that's-- that's new too. -PAUL: Seems emotionally--
PAUL: Emotionally complex potentially.
It's, yeah-- I was just, like--
Yeah, when I heard about that and, like, Spaff talking
about how, like, they have a lot of work to do that day, so.
I mean, they figured it out, right? Yeah.
Hopefully-- hopefully, it's fine.
TIM: James Spafford Spaffington!
HARPER: He is right there!
SPAFF: What, what?
TIM: Hey, Bagel! Wow, you guys are having a party there today!
TUCKER: Pretty much!
This is the biggest SDF in, like, two and a half years.
MONICA: Find Anna, because she has the bebe!
Aw-w!
-BAGEL: Anna! -Aw-w!
-MONICA: So cute! -TUCKER: Aw-w, she is so cute!
BAGEL: Wow, you guys have a baby!
-TUCKER: Yeah! -BAGEL: That's awesome.
BAGEL: It's very HD.
It's, like, very good quality.
-[MONICA LAUGHS] -BAGEL: Where are you guys at?
BAGEL: No, no! Not the baby.
LEVI: You got an HD baby?!
HARPER: Yellow button?
SPAFF: It will be, yeah.
HARPER: Blue button deletes everything?
SPAFF: Yeah, that deletes the entire-- every build of the game from existence.
HARPER: Every build of the game explodes
and the microchip in everybody's COVID vaccine goes off.
SPAFF: It blows up, yeah.
It's the perfect ending too to this wonderful tale.