Psychonauts 2: If we imagine it, they will build it

Okay they won’t. But they should.

Psyhonauts 2 as a project has been considered a number of times in the media, these past few years. Most interestingly perhaps, when Notch tweeted Tim Schaefer about wanting to finance it. In the end he backed out because the proposed budget figure of 18 million dollars surprised him. Well, Notch, 18 million dollars is less than 2% of that 1 billion dollars of Microsoft money you got last year. Surely, now you can make good on your promise?

More realistically, Psychonauts 2 might simply get made because Double Fine is in desperate need of a hit after a series of half baked projects, burned fans and so-so reviews. While the original was a commercial failure – partly due to publishing worries – chances are that it’s current ‘cult’ following would ensure better press this time around. That is if they can find those millions of dollars from another tech billionaire nostalgic for old times.

But if we leave all such practical considerations to one side, what would a Psychonauts 2 actually be about? Whom would it feature? What would it play like?

Here’s some wild and rampant speculation while we wait.

Whispering Rock Revisited

I bought a small form factor pc recently to serve as HTPC (home theater pc, or pc wot plays media files) and allround home, web and cloud server. It has integrated graphics. It runs linux. It is in other words not a gaming pc. But I still went ahead and bought a controller with it, installed Steam and picked up a number of indie titles to run on it.

It has turned out surprisingly well. Due in large part to the fact that it has allowed me to reconnect with Double Fine’s 2006 cult classic Psychonauts. I liked Psychonauts before when I rushed through every level to get to the endgame. Now that I have played it at a more leisurely pace, I think that it might just be the best game that I have ever played in terms of world, environment and characters.

The reasoning is fairly simple. You may have heard people talk of games where the fate of the characters mattered to them, beyond merely tactical concerns. Maybe you have felt that way yourself. Me, not so much. Except, that is, for the summer camp of Whispering Rock that is the setting of Psychonauts and the collection of misfits that inhabit it.

GoogleFeud is… harder than you think

GoogleFeud is a simple game about second guessing Google’s autocomplete. As in ‘How will Google suggest ending the following beginning of a search query?’ It’s harder than you might think. I certainly suck at it.

Dovahkiin gets lonely too

Rummaging around an old USB drive I came across some screenshots and text I had created during my rather obsessive 2012 Skyrim playthrough. I remember thinking that the drab, lifeless and gloomy interiors of Skyrim would make for some interesting photo ops. Lots of people were doing glorious ENB-powered exterior high-res shots that made you want to eat the screen; I wanted to take things in a different direction. Apparently I never got very far into this ‘Dovahkiin gets lonely too’ project but I think there was potential in doing Skyrim in a melancholic and pathetic tone. Judge for yourself. (The cute kid in the costume is not part of the collection, just a header image from Flickr with a permissive license).

A CK2 AAR: The House of Koss – Chapter 2 “Will the real Örvar Koss please stand up?”

– Right, so that attempt flunked as well. Any bright ideas?
– We could say it was a dream within a dream…
– Who the fuck do you think you are, Christopher Nolan? Get out of here.
– Amnesia?
– What?! You don’t do amnesia until the third season. At the earliest! Besides, how would that explain the new guy having completely other qualities and faculties?
– Well, he has just clean forgotten his real identity. He was a master spy and he didn’t even know it….ay.
– That’s even dumber. Besides that’s The Long Kiss Goodnight, Mr. Original. Fuck it, we’ll just do a reboot and retcon the shit out of it. And throw in some explosions to take the readers’ mind off of it. Lots of explosions, you hear me! Lots! We’re gonna need them.

A CK2 AAR: The House of Koss – Chapter 1 “Stupid King MacStupidFace”

Örvar wakes slowly. His sleep has been neither deep nor shallow. He just gradually fades from being asleep to being awake. Not much difference there. He has turned forty some weeks back in much the same way, his thirties just giving way as he passes on into middle age. Actually, old age. Outside of the court, most people of his generation are likely dead by now, Örvar reckons.

In here, though, a man can apparently live to eighty and still not have the goddamn decency to just die already. Örvar gives his left slipper a kick as the grinning face of the king hovers in his mind. The wrinkled visage winks at him, coughs and wheezes, as the king has done every morning for the past many years: ‘So Spymaster, you’ve kept me alive yet another day. I thank you humbly.’ The king looks like an insomniac Max von Sydow, part kindly old Lassefar, part Ming the Merciless. Neither part makes Örvar want to punch him in the head any less. Örvar bends to retrieve the slipper under the bed. He has spent almost five years failing miserably at assasinating the senile old codger. To make matters worse the king obviously knows and taunts him. It’s pathetic.

A CK2 AAR: The House of Koss – Introductions

This is my first attempt at writing an AAR (After Action Report), a genre that turns gameplay into prose. AARs come in all shapes and sizes – from epic to terse and everything in between – but this one will lean heavily towards the unpretentious and comedic. It will be cross-posted here and on the Paradox forums if the reception is kind.

This is Örvar, first of the House of Koss. He has a beard, a county and no family. Don’t ask him about that last bit, it gets really awkward. Örvar wants to make a name for himself. In fact he already has: Koss. Before he was made a count, he was just ‘that guy Örvar’. Or – he gets angry just thinking about it – Ööörvar, turning the first syllable into a retching sound. Koss. He likes the sound of it. He’s been trying to turn it into a saying that “Koss is the Boss” – as if to say ‘Koss is our leader and we trust in him’ – but so far it hasn’t caught on.

Bold and Dashing

Gaming in style