Game development is a long and arduous process for developers to complete, and this goes double for the long-awaited sequel, Psychonauts 2. As the sequel to the original Psychonauts, the 3D platformer has been in development for quite some time now, and Double Fine has been making steady progress with the game.
Psychonauts 2 started out with a crowdfunded campaign back in 2015 and reached its goals with much fan support, and Double Fine is using everything to make the game as great as possible. Since then, the developer has kept its fans and supporters up-to-date on the game's development progress and delays with various developer updates and videos. Recently, the game's creative director and writer, Tim Schafer, tweeted that he finished writing the final line of dialog for Psychonauts 2 last week, and wanted to briefly celebrate.
While the writing may be nearly complete, there could still be plenty of work to do on the game itself in the following months. This past December, Double Fine released a holiday update where Schafer stated that not only is Psychonauts 2 nearing completion, but Double Fine won't crunch to finish the game's development. This is a common problem shared throughout the gaming industry, and Schafer stated that Double Fine has committed to avoid doing so for this game.
For now, Double Fine will finish working on Psychonauts 2's gameplay at a steady pace to cover all its tracks and polish the game as needed. Schafer pointed out that the game was in the development stage, that it was the last chance to add any new content into the game. He stated that Double Fine would be adding the highly requested post-game state in Psychonauts 2 and that he was still writing it at the time when the update was released.
According to the update, the post-game state will allow players to revisit and continue roaming the psychedelic levels of Psychonauts 2, which wasn't available in the original game. Schafer's tweet signifies that he finished writing for it, and Double Fine is in the process of polishing Psychonauts 2 for release. As part of this stage, the developer will be cutting some things as well, to help the game ship better upon release.
Overall, this is good news for Psychonauts fans as the developer inches closer and closer to completing the sequel in tip-top shape. While Schafer is done writing for the game, Double Fine is still in the process of refining Psychonauts 2 for its 2021 release.
Psychonauts 2 is scheduled to release in 2021 for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.