For most of its history, Double Fine has been defined by its diverse array of projects, but that changed somewhat in recent years as the whole studio focused their efforts on Psychonauts 2. That game turned out well, but some might be missing the more free-wheeling Double Fine that might release four or five games in totally different genres in a single year. Well, it sounds like that Double Fine might be back. As part of a year-end wrap up on the crowdfunding site Fig, Double Fine says the studio is now “splitting up into various teams” to work on new experimental projects.
Psychonauts 2 has essentially wrapped up as a project although there will be tweaks and fixes as we move forward. The studio is already splitting up into various teams and starting different projects that we think you’ll enjoy. We like experimentation here at Double Fine. Every game is a chance to explore new ideas, new visual styles or gameplay, emotions, and more. Psychonauts 2 was a chance to revisit and reimagine the classic that launched our studio into the future. It was a long process but we like to think the pay off was pretty great. We stuck the landing.
It’s nice to see Double Fine is still being allowed to stick to their quirky, experimental ways under Microsoft leadership. Sure, we were always promised they’d get to retain their independence, but I felt like there was a chance Microsoft would push Double Fine towards bigger projects like Psychonauts 2 full time.
Psychonauts 2 is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and is playable via backward compatibility on PS5. What would you like to see next from Double Fine? I’m down with whatever weirdness they come up with, although I wouldn’t mind a new Costume Quest.
