Psychonauts, the enduring platformer about getting into peoples’ psyches to kind out no matter emotional baggage they have strewn about, is 20 years outdated. And to have a good time the milestone, Double Tremendous founder and Psychonauts director Tim Schafer shared a few of his inspirations for the basic.
Earlier than opening Double Tremendous Productions, Schafer was broadly identified for a bunch of LucasArts point-and-click journey video games, akin to Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, however he determined to as a substitute make a third-person, fully-3D platformer after taking part in Tremendous Mario 64, naturally.
“I keep in mind that [Mario 64] was the primary one the place I simply, like, pushed the joystick within the course I needed to go and the character ran that method, and I used to be like: ‘Wait a second,'” the director recalled in a brand new vlog.
“After which, on the time, I performed numerous video games like Closing Fantasy 7,” he added. “Possibly later [The Legend of Zelda] Ocarina of Time. These video games the place you simply drove the character instantly and ran round. And you would nonetheless do issues and have a narrative and solves puzzles and stuff, however I feel that was the second the place I used to be like, ‘I do not suppose I need to make a point-and-click journey anymore. I feel I need to make a console recreation. I need to make a character-driven console recreation that’s simply actually instant and has extra motion, however, , nonetheless has numerous narrative.'”
These early 3D console video games had been “an enormous turning level” for Tim Schafer to “go away behind what I would been doing for the final 10 years and check out one thing new.”
You would be hard-pressed to search out video games that are not not directly influenced by Mario or Zelda or Closing Fantasy, however the Psychonauts group regarded in additional area of interest corners too. Schafer mentioned Psychonauts additionally had “some precise mechanics” from criminally neglected Dreamcast JRPG Skies of Arcadia, particularly with the useful resource that you simply dig up from underneath the bottom.
All the pieces else from horror romp The Struggling and Disney‘s Nightmare Earlier than Christmas to artwork work from Joe Sorren and a Haruki Murakami novel additionally influenced Schafer to a point. Raz’s daddy points particularly might have sprouted from a small scene in 1984’s Dreamscape, whereas his dedication to being one of the best mind-fixer doable got here from Jet Li’s “actually critical” on-screen son in The New Legend of Shaolin, performed by Mo Tse. You’ll be able to take a look at the complete checklist above for the specifics, although, it is all fascinating stuff.
What’s subsequent for Double Tremendous? Nobody is aware of but, however the group mentioned it is engaged on stuff that “might by no means get accepted by a writer.” And, no, that does not embody a Banjo-Kazooie revival.
Try the new video games of 2025 and past to see what’s within the pipeline.
