14 DAY TRIAL // After the very public offer of collaboration for Psychonauts 2, it seems that both Tim Schafer and Markus Persson, aka Notch, are now involved in more complex talks about how the project might be realized and how it might cost up to 13 million dollars (9.8 million Euro).
Speaking to Kotaku, Tim Schafer, who is the leader of the studio Double Fine, said, “As soon as I mentioned the amount of money he said, ‘Yeah, I can do that,’. He said he had no idea it would get picked up like this. He said, ‘Sorry for putting you on the spot, I didn’t realize it would go so big,’. I feel like I was being proposed to on the jumbotron at the baseball game.”
The industry veteran mentions that even if the link with Psychonauts 2 does not happen, he would be interested in creating a game with Notch.
He then reports, “He’s been pretty successful. And, when you look into it, it’s a really inspiring story. He’s just a regular guy. He didn’t do anything sleazy to get it. He just made it himself, distributed it himself, it’s a great story.”
Schafer adds that, after the first Psychonauts was shipped, his team was already working on the initial ideas for a sequel, with a number of plot elements specifically planted so that they could be revisited in a second game.
Psychonauts might now be seen as a classic game, but it failed to sell many copies when it launched and the Double Fine team needed to think about other intellectual properties on which to gamble its future.
If the Notch collaboration does not become reality, Double Fine and Tim Schafer can turn to Kickstarter to try and fund the game.
The company has used the crowdfunding platform to get the money it needs to create a new classic style adventure game. It has managed to reach its goal in less than 24 hours, setting records both when it comes to the amount gathered and the amount of time needed to reach it.