Double Fine Productions has been front and center in the gaming news of the world this week. After Minecraft creator Notch said he would give Double Fine founder Tim Schafer money to form Psychonauts 2, Schafer made even bigger headlines with a Kickstarter project to come up with money from fans in order to begin production on an all-new PC adventure game. With the project getting plenty of attention, it’s what Schafer told a fan who still asked about the sequel on Twitter that should also be in the limelight as well.
With Double Fine’s adventure game completely funded in just eight hours, the game is still building up cash. One fan tweetedSchafer, asking him, “Your kickstarter project still has 32 days on it. How much would you need to raise to turn your project into Psychonauts 2?” Surprisingly enough, Schafer replied with an estimate of $20 million. The most interesting concept? This could actually become reality.
Now, don’t guarantee that if the project raises the cash, this means the studio will go to work on a sequel. After the $400,000 goal was met this week, Schafer replied that what the rest of the money will go to is in order to “make the game and documentary better. Additional money means it can appear on more platforms, be translated into more languages, have more music and voice, and an original soundtrack for the documentary, and more!”
However, if fans are able to go beyond the $20 million price range in the next month (which is how long the Kickstarter project will last for), it could be that we’ll very much see a Psychonauts 2. But, a lot of fans will have to get involved. With nearly 48,000 backers on the project already, the total has grossed a cool $1,682,000+ in less than a week. It’s a possibility that fans could reach the projected deadline, if the money keeps at a certain rate.
This is all in pure speculation, of course. Obviously, Double Fine will work on the adventure game first, meaning even if fans were to raise the money, we won’t see a Psychonauts 2 for some time, if it does come to fruition. But one of the biggest things to take away from this is that the Kickstarter project has given fans of games a voice in controlling the type of entertainment they want to see. If fans start contributing money, and leaving comments on the Kickstarter page that reads “This is for Psychonauts 2″, the outcry from fans who have been wanting a sequel for some time could morph the long thought dream into a fully tangible title within a year’s time.
What do you think? Will a Psychonauts sequel come to a reality due to fans’ demand and donations through this project? Or, is it just another pipe dream that will never become true?
