Psychonauts 2 Fig Funding Surpasses $1 Million in Just 14 Hours

Double Fine Productions created some of the most inventive video games ever including Brutal Legend, Costume Quest and Psychonauts. The studio is headed by Tim Schafer, who originally worked for Lucasarts and crafted masterpieces like Grim Fandandgo and The Secret of Monkey Island. Back in February 2012, Double Fine launched a kickstarter with a goal of $400,000 to cover development costs and a documentary for their latest game, Broken Age. Unbelievably, the project ended up amassing $3.45 million within a month and showcased the viability of large kickstarters. However, the development process wasn’t entirely smooth as the studio required more money to complete the game and even launched the first Act via Steam’s Early Access programme.

Schafer clarified that the studio wasn’t asking for any more money from the public and decided make the game even more spectacular through their own funds. This was a fairly controversial move and some backers believed Double Fine didn’t need any public funding in the first place. On another note, various critics were bemused with how quickly the studio spent their entire kickstarter budget. This raised many questions about Double Fine’s management and the amount of money they were paying employees.

Another example, Spacebase DF-9 was pitched on the basis of receiving regular updates to improve the experience over time. Shockingly, Double Fine ceased production in late 2014, and released a final version. Apparently, this was due to the game’s poor sales and Double Fine believed it wasn’t in their best interest to keep funding the project. Evidently, this made many of the project’s backers angry and felt quite betrayed.

During The Game Awards 2015, Schafer made a huge announcement and unveiled the crowdfunding campaign for Psychonauts 2. Here is the pitch video in full:

In just 14 hours, the project exceeded over $1 million and already well on its way to meet the $3.3 million target. In all honesty, I’m pretty confident this figure is just a baseline and not enough to cover the game’s entire development. It’s definitely going to be partly funded by Double Fine’s own money in combination with the Fig campaign. I’m incredibly excited for Psychonauts 2, but before you rush to back this campaign, just remember the pitfalls of crowdfunding. This is especially important, when you factor in the troubled development of Broken Age which left some people disappointed and Spacebase DF-9.