Psychonauts, the long-lasting 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about getting into peoples’ psyches to kind out no matter emotional baggage they have strewn about, is 20 years outdated.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 High-quality founder and Psychonauts director Tim Schafer shared a few of his inspirations for the traditional.
Earlier than opening Double High-quality Productions, Schafer was broadly recognized 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 do not forget that [Mario 64] was the primary one the place I simply, like, pushed the joystick within the course I wished to go and the character ran that approach, and I used to be like: ‘Wait a second,'” the director recalled in a brand new vlog.
“After which, on the time, I performed a number of video games like Last Fantasy 7,” he added. “Possibly later [The Legend of Zelda] Ocarina of Time. These video games the place you simply drove the character straight and ran round. And you would nonetheless do issues and have a narrative and solves puzzles and stuff, however I believe that was the second the place I used to be like, ‘I do not assume I need to make a point-and-click journey anymore. I believe I need to make a console sport. I need to make a character-driven console sport that’s simply actually speedy and has extra motion, however, you understand, nonetheless has a number of narrative.'”
These early 3D console video games had been “an enormous turning level” for Tim Schafer to “depart behind what I would been doing for the final 10 years and take a look at one thing new.”
You would be hard-pressed to seek out video games that are not not directly influenced by Mario or Zelda or Last Fantasy, however the Psychonauts staff appeared in additional area of interest corners too. Schafer mentioned Psychonauts additionally had “some precise mechanics” from criminally missed Dreamcast JRPG Skies of Arcadia, particularly with the useful resource that you just 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 the most effective mind-fixer attainable got here from Jet Li’s “actually severe” on-screen son in The New Legend of Shaolin, performed by Mo Tse. You’ll be able to try the complete record above for the specifics, although, it is all fascinating stuff.
What’s subsequent for Double High-quality? Nobody is aware of but, however the staff mentioned it is engaged on stuff that “might by no means get accepted by a writer.” And, no, that would not embrace a Banjo-Kazooie revival.
Try the new video games of 2025 and past to see what’s within the pipeline.
