KickStarter Psychonauts 2

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They even put the sales breakdown for Psychonauts on the front page of their Figstarter:

Spoiler

The game sold poorly even by 2005 standards, and the vast majority of its business has been done at massive discounts, chiefly through the humble bundle they did. Seems to me like investment is a pretty dodgy proposition. Psychonauts may be a critical darling, but there really doesn't seem to be proven demand for a sequel.

Steam spy estimates ~300K people own Broken Age on Steam, which is bound to include a certain amount of people who got it as a kickstarter reward. While doubtless they sold some copies via the various console, mobile device and DRM free PC stores, I expect steam is their biggest market. Maybe half a million units sold in all? Certainly much less than a million.

OK, Broken age was shit, and maybe this game will be better reviewed, but I don't think that bodes well for the prospect of getting your money back.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

Steam, in general, is not the biggest market. Well... PC in general is not the biggest market. (Steam is the biggest PC market though) This being a platforming action adventure game (which in general has a lot of console appeal) will most likely be sold a shit ton more on console than PC. Console sales usually account for ~70%, while PC may be close to ~30%.

 

[Ovplain]

Fuck Tim Schafer, fuck Psychonauts and fuck Fig!

 

[Keldryn]

Backed.

 

[J_C]

I'm pretty sure you know how i feel guys. I may be a huge Tim Schafer fan, but if you combine that with how big of a fan of Psychonauts I am, you get this:

But fuuuuck! Fig? I didn't want to touch that crap, but oh well, I have a duty to back this.

 

[ArchAngel]

We’re calling upon you to help make this game a reality. And for that, we're asking for $3.3m.“$3.3m?!” you ask bewildered, "that sounds like 2D graphic adventure money! Surely that isn’t enough to make something as grandiose as Psychonauts 2!” Well, you are correct, you’ve seen right through us... are you sure you’re not psychic?

Yes, we do need more than that, as we've previously said we need to raise at leastthe same amount that went into making the original Psychonauts, which had a budget in the $10-13.5m range. In order to do that, we need to gather money from multiple sources.

I don't understand why a simple game like this would cost 10-13 mil $ ?!?!

 

[Morgoth]

Schafer, while a cool and very creative person, is also a notorious fuck up. So I'll wait like a good trooper till this thing actually gets released (hopefully in one piece, not several episodes) and then I'll re-evalue a possible purchase.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I don't understand why a simple game like this would cost 10-13 mil $ ?!?!

checks out.

 

[aratuk]

Even if DF is not leaving money on the table pricing-wise, by cannibalizing, I mean that the people who would have been launch purchasers are instead fig backers and don't count toward fig investment returns.

Oh, yes! My mistake.

 

[AN4RCHID]

So they will need to make at least as much as DFA to even collect the donations.

DFA made 1.5 Million in the first 3 days as the initial bump before trailing off:

It's at 629K now and still rising pretty fast. Not gonna hit Shenmue 3 numbers, but they'll probably make it, unfortunately.

 

[Perkel]

Why does Psychonauts 2 take less money than Broken Age?

More actually. they want 3mln+ for just crowdfunding, Psychonauts isn't their IP so probably they also got deal with IP owners, then there are investors. Notch might not full fund game but dropping 3-4mln as investement shouldn't be a problem for him.

Also FIG idea IS good. There are shitload of people in industry who wouldn't mind dropping 100k or 200k as investment and generally fractured funding is way to go for almost all bigger normal project aside from gaming. Wanna build a bridge ? Then you have funding from several different places so in case of problems investor can take a hit because his individual share wasn't that big.

I mean there is SC which alone is like 100mln now and all of that comes from just crowdfunding.
Game developers in US earn from 60-70k a year to over 100k a year and those are in work position not owning company or being game director.

 

[Perkel]

I don't understand why a simple game like this would cost 10-13 mil $ ?!?!

10-13mln$ is super low ball to almost any game that isn't indie.
Also Psychonauts isn't "simple" game. It featured open world + closed levels + ton of super voice acting that costs a lot.

 

[ArchAngel]

I don't understand why a simple game like this would cost 10-13 mil $ ?!?!

10-13mln$ is super low ball to almost any game that isn't indie.
Also Psychonauts isn't "simple" game. It featured open world + closed levels + ton of super voice acting that costs a lot.

I never played it or care to play it but it is a 3d platformer, still don't understand why it would need almost 3x PoE budget. For VA?

 

[J_C]

Funny things is that if DF wouldn't have tarnished their reputation in the last year, and they had launched this project on Kicksterter, they would be swimming in money. I mean, 5+ millions. Psychonauts has such a cult following, they would easily achieve that. But right now I think they will barely make it, if they make it at all.

 

[talan]

I liked the video and I liked Psychonauts, but I'm not throwing in 50AUD for a game that won't be released for 3 years.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Why the fuck is Fig even needed?

 

[Curious_Tongue]

I tried watching the intro to Psychonauts and got bored out of my mind.

What's the game even like?

 

[Perkel]

I don't understand why a simple game like this would cost 10-13 mil $ ?!?!

10-13mln$ is super low ball to almost any game that isn't indie.
Also Psychonauts isn't "simple" game. It featured open world + closed levels + ton of super voice acting that costs a lot.

I never played it or care to play it but it is a 3d platformer, still don't understand why it would need almost 3x PoE budget. For VA?

3D graphics is biggest part here.

FNV cost something like 15-20mln$ and was made on RPG making engine with heavy use of same assets everywhere.

Psychonauts alone if you count up all levels and hub world has more objects than FNV ever did. All that stuff needs work by artists, moddelers etc. And they can't hide reuse of assets like FNV or F3 did with almost every building, cave, vault or whatever. They also can't use some random character generator since all characters in game are wacky.

Funny things is that if DF wouldn't have tarnished their reputation in the last year, and they had launched this project on Kicksterter, they would be swimming in money. I mean, 5+ millions. Psychonauts has such a cult following, they would easily achieve that. But right now I think they will barely make it, if they make it at all.

P2 backers aren't some random people browsing net. Being on FIG or else doesn't matter as in the end same people will fund game.

 

[aratuk]

If I recall correctly, many of us contributed to Doublefine Adventure at the "Watch Tim Schaffer Take a Shit" reward tier. And if I'm not mistaken, most of us are still waiting, even after he drank all that juice.

 

[Keldryn]

Psychonauts would have had a big art budget, as each level had a pretty distinct visual style (so little reuse between stages) -- and sometimes Raz had a different character model, too.

There was also the fact that they had never made that type of game before, which would have made it take longer and thus be more expensive.

 

[Duraframe300]

Not giving money (Even though I love psychonauts)

 

[Infinitron]

Wow. That came out of nowhere. Or perhaps there were hints we weren't paying attention to because lol Double Fine

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I tried watching the intro to Psychonauts and got bored out of my mind.

What's the game even like?

Shit gameplay, quirky premise, unique art style and few good jokes.

Aka, typical Double Fine game.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Gameplay isn't shit in Psychonauts, more like mediocre. Level design is cool aesthetically and conceptually, but rather boring in practice. You get a whole bunch of cool powers throughout the game, but don't actually get to do much with them. Ironically, I think the game works best when it's less a platformer and more of an adventure game, like in the Milkman Conspiracy level.

 

[spekkio]

Psychonauts was great due to:
- level design (indeed rather aesthetics than great gameplay, like CM wrote),
- writing / humor.

This one is gonna be shit.

I may end up torrenting it 1-2 years after the release.
Giving money to the devs so they can maybe make a game I would like to play... What's the point? Don't we have enough good (and shit) games already?

:edge: