Tim Schafer offers hints about Psychonauts 2’s story

Tim Schafer, Double Fine boss and creator of games like Grim Fandango and Psychonauts, has had the bits and pieces of a sequel to the latter game floating around in his head for years. With the game having successfully surpassed its funding goal, Schafer took to Reddit to answer questions about his studio and the game. Amongst the questions, Schafer offered some more details about what we can expect in the sequel.

In Psychonauts 2, Raz will finally get to go to Psychonauts headquarters–his lifelong dream. There he can see Sasha and Milla in their natural environment–international espionage. But he finds several things strange about the organization. While Truman Zanotto was missing, several changes to the direction of the organization were made by his second in command. Funding was cut from traditional psychic research and peacekeeping, and redirected to unorthodox, fringe endeavors, including the discredited practice of necromancy. Raz soon uncovers sinister things at work in the shadows of Psychonauts headquarters, including double agents and evils of the past. Raz’s own family history plays a pivotal part in the story, and Raz must confront the roots of the curse placed on his family once and for all. And also deal with this whole “girlfriend” term and what it really means.

Schafer has had a running document of Psychonauts 2 ideas since the release of the original, he said, mapping out new mental worlds and story ideas, and with the crowdfunding in its final hours it looks like we’ll be getting to see what all made the cut. Schafer also said that this sequel takes place “soon after the events of Psychonauts,” with protagonist Raz being “a few hours older.”

Schafer also answered questions about crowdfunding and budget management, as well as the potential futures of past games like Monkey Island and Brutal Legend.

As for Psychonauts 2, the newly-funded game is currently set for release sometime in 2018.