Psychonauts 2 Development Hits An Important Milestone

A post by Double Fine Productions founder and Psychonauts 2 director Tim Schafer has revealed that the development of the upcoming Psychonauts sequel has reached a significant milestone. In a recent Tweet, Schafer shared that, also acting as the game's writer, he has finished the entirety of the game's dialogue.

This is, of course, good news for those looking forward to Psychonauts 2, in that it's as much of an indicator as any that the game's development is progressing toward its eventual release. Such a sign is notable since not only has Psychonauts 2 been in production for a good while now, but it's been delayed numerous times, most recently missing a planned 2020 release window.

This may not be bad news, given that all game postponements in the near and possibly far future will be compared to Cyberpunk 2077's multitude of delays. The state in which Cyberpunk 2077 was released famously resulted in a meteoric flop. Another delay or three could potentially have helped its developers at CD Projekt Red avoid a lawsuit at worst or the disappointment of the majority of its customers at the very least.

That said, on the other end of the spectrum are the Duke Nukem Forevers, games that failed in spite of having an ample amount of time for even the most grueling of video game development processes to conclude satisfactorily. So, while continued delays may be worth ensuring that Psychonauts 2 lives up to the success of its predecessor, milestones like the completion of its dialogue are encouraging indicators that fans of the series will not have to wait a Duke Nukem Forever's length of time for its release.

In a response to his initial post, Schafer also shared that during the week of the Tweet, Double Fine would be recording the final lines of dialogue from its team of voice actors. He described this as part of a process that began in 2002, when some of those same performers were recording dialogue for the original Psychonauts.

That includes Nicki Rapp, who performs the voice of Lili, the romantic interest of lead character Raz. In the same post, Schafer shared that the final line of dialogue Rapp recorded was "Bye Raz." This is framed by Schafer such that what is likely a rote send-off in-game symbolized the completion of 20 years of work on Psychonauts in the recording studio, as he described how he "almost lost it" when that was shown to him to be Rapp's final line.

While Double Fine has yet to set a new release date for Psychonauts 2, updates are semi-regularly shared to its crowdfunding page.