Pyschonauts and Costume Quest developer Double Fine Productions wanted to create a game in the public eye—and with their help. To do this it created a campaign on Kickstarter and with amazing speed, the support from fans came through.

Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions have surpassed their goal of a $400,000 goal on Kickstarter with almost $700,000 raised at the time of this writing. Not only that, but a spokesperson from Kickstarter revealed that this project is the fastest-funded in the site’s history. Wow.

Double Fine is going to create a new point-and-click adventure game more akin to Tim Schafer’s roots.

The company wanted to skip the influence of publishers, or investments firms, thus this Kickstarter campaign. This allows Double fine to create the game its way, and release it when it is ready, and not be under pressure from a publisher.

Backers of the project get access to a video documentary series based on creating the game. Also, backers can post thoughts about the game on an exclusive online forum, and gain access to the beta test of the game. These are the low tier prizes that can be awarded for only donating at least $30. More prizes for higher donations are available on its Kickstarter page.

Double Fine Productions announced today that they’re updating the PC version of Psychonauts, and also adding a new companion app for iOS.

“We are really excited,” said Double Fine President Tim Schafer, “to finally be answering fans’ requests for a more difficult Meat Circus.”

He’s joking, of course. (Thankfully.)

The update actually adds Steam achievements, cloud saves and a modified Meat Circus — it’s a little easier, not harder.

“Mostly because I’m getting older and it’s hard for me to press buttons that quickly. Hey, don’t forget to mention the achievements!” Schafer added.

Don’t worry, I did.

Double Fine has also partnered with Dracogen Strategic Investments (not a clan of evil dragons, according to the press release) to bring the game to Mac OS X for the first time — it’s available now on Steam and the Mac App Store as well as other digital retailers starting right now.

Double Fine’s free Psychonauts app for iPhone and iPad allows you to view every Memory Vault along with commentary from Tim Schafer and Scott Campbell. It’s also available now.

If you haven’t played this yet, I’m issuing a directive. Do it. (And it’s only $9.99 on Mac.)

It's a Winter Wonderfuland!

Grubbins On Ice takes place in real-time after the events of the original story; Everett and Lucy are wandering around the neighborhood looking for any evidence of the invasion the adults seem to have conveniently missed, when Lucy is sucked into a vortex to the Grubbins world. Everett freaks out (because he likes Lucy… cute) and enlists Wren and Reynold to help him find his best gal. This time there’s a whole new species of bad guys, and you must go door-to-door collecting candy to fuel the resistance effort with the bad guys you fought from the first game. They’re cool now, don’t worry about it.

As far as gameplay goes, Grubbins On Ice is mostly the same as Costume Quest, though it’s smaller so there is only one world (with many levels), and much less exploring. Fortunately, it’s a “game+” situation, where you’re still equipped with everything you had on you at the end of the first episode. For those of us who beat Costume Quest the day it came out and then put it down until Grubbins On Ice was released, it’s a tad frustrating forgetting simple things like “the French fry costume smells like French fries”, though I do appreciate their effort to incorporate previously acquired skills in the new chapter. I don’t want to give anything away, but the three new costumes (okay, they’re a pirate, vampire, and Yeti) are a lot of fun and great to fight with. The combat is essentially the same, but they finally added commands for the B button, which is nice. The attack attached to the B button is related to certain Battle Stamps, so I don’t know if I just didn’t use proper Battle Stamps in the first game or if it’s a new feature, but it’s quite useful now that I’m aware of it. And bobbing for apples is back, only this time it’s much easier, and they changed it to bobbing for candied eyeballs. Yes, you read that right.

Arrrr... Here be pleasure!

The entire game lasts about 1-3 hours, depending on how you play. Personally, I beat it in around 2 because I got stuck, briefly (remember: the French fry costume smells like French fries). While that may not seem like a substantial amount of play time, it’s available on XBL for a whopping $5. I highly recommend this genius add-on for anyone who enjoyed the first go-round with Wren and Reynold. For Double Fine fans, there’s also a secret Easter egg for their new game, Stacking, which looks fun and amazing. Enjoy!

Review copy provided by the publisher and does not affect the outcome of this review

Yes, it is truly awesome. Since Tim Schafer just can’t tear himself away from playing Brutal Legend, fans are in luck. If Tim says he needs more maps, then the game gets more maps!

“I play Brütal Legend online every night,” said Tim Schafer, President of Double Fine Productions. “And I need more maps! Circle of Tears is named after the crying of my vanquished foes on the battlefield, and Death’s Fjord is obviously a tribute to my Nordic ancestors, and their love of fan geysers and… Well, actually I just thought the name was cool. See you online!”

Everyone who downloads the new maps will also receive a free axe, the Blade of Ormagöden.

On November 3rd, 360 players can pick up the two new maps for 400 Points. November 5th sees them land on the PSN where users can nab them for FREE until November 19th, at which point they go on sale for $4.99.

Tim Schafer and Jack Black rocked the Key Club last week to talk about Brutal Legend. The room full of journalists were probably not prepared for what was going to transpire. Both guys came to the event in a good mood and it was quickly apparent that this wouldn’t be the place for serious questions. Further proven by the journalist who asked about “cock push-ups”. I at least got one semi-serious question in.

The video uses explicit language so watch only if you are not easily offended!!

It’s now Rocktober and Brutal Legend will be out on October 13.

Here is a video of Tim and Jack talking about the “competition”:

AWESOME.

Today at 12pm PST, there is a live broadcast from Double Fine Productions where they will be answering your questions from Facebook and Twitter. They’ll also be giving away “Brutal” prizes and going over spoilers.

Watch the entire event here and hope that Ormagoden is happy so we all don’t get Sine Flu.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you… there is now good reason to be excited. EA released a couple demo codes this past week, to allow a slice of gamers to get a look at the next huge autumn game. I sat down with this beauty and loved every single minute of it.

AWESOME.

It starts with legendary roadie Eddie Riggs. He has constructed a massive stage set for a “metal” band that really puts that title to shame. A series of unfortunate choices later, the band’s stupidity has led to Eddie being crushed under the giant stone stage monster he has created. His blood drips into his (truly metal) belt buckle, which transports him to another world (and also creates a monster that destroys everyone in the band, thank goodness). In this decidedly more Brutal world, he is attacked by evil monks, who he manages to fend off with the help of an axe, and an “axe” (melee and magic weapons, respectively). As luck would have it, he runs into a hot metal chick that helps him navigate the level. There is fighting, driving (he assembles a car, no problem — roadies can build anything, and he’s the best), and it all culminates with a boss battle against a creature that looks quite similar to… well… it seems pretty obvious but I’ll let people draw their own conclusions.

If this sounds like your run-of-the-mill niche game, you’d better find your brain and think again. First of all, the dialog is pure Tim Schafer; for a game so badass you will definitely find the time to laugh that ass off. Music fans will especially get all of the tongue-in-cheek subtlety (it doesn’t even have to be metal music, which I hate), but even if you just appreciate clever dialog you’ll find humor here. Second, Double Fine has taken stale game mechanics and made them interesting again. In order to get the parts to assemble the car, you need to play a series of power-up notes, sort of like a Guitar Hero mini-game. Only one was available at the time, but there was a whole wheel of spaces that I’m really looking forward to earning in the full version. Also, progressing in the level involves smashing through walls with the power of rock, which is 100% more interesting than just walking through a door. And please do not get me started on the absolutely amazing menu screen. I WAS BLOWN AWAY BY THE MENU SCREEN, WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU ABOUT THIS GAME.

If you haven’t given Brutal Legend a thought beyond, “yeah I’ll check it out”, please reconsider. It truly is (if the demo is any indication) THE game to buy in 2009. Who knows, I may end up buying three copies again…

Brutal Legend

EA and Double Fine announced today that those of us with preorders for Brutal Legend at GameStop/EB Games locations will be able to access the demo early. The demo is available now on the PS3 and 360, and in a week or so will be available to everyone.

Brutal Legend will be released Rocktober 13th in North America and Rocktober 16th in Europe.

For more information on the game you can check out the official website or follow along on Twitter.

Brutal Legend logo

It’s getting close to Roctober which means Tim Schafer’s Brutal Legend is almost here. Recently we sat in on a roundtable with Tim to discuss one of the more anticipated games of the year.

Q: Is the demo single player or multiplayer too?
A: It’s the single player demo and it shows the beginning of the game. Showing the basic mechanics and giving you a taste of what you’ll be doing in the game. The first few minutes of the game from Eddie waking up in the age of metal and the accident that takes him back in time and shows how Eddie first comes upon his Ax and how he puts together his hot rod, Duece. You meet Ophelia who is a major character in the story and you do your first double team attack with her. You get to fight a little uh boss monster.

Q: The soundtrack you and EA are putting out is pretty impressive. How did that come about and was that a goal you had when creating the game?

A: First I had a list of my favorite albums and songs. When Emily Ridgeway, our music director came along, she had to score the entire game. There are all these different areas that went beyond even my metal tastes. Went into more black metal and more industrial metal areas, so it needed alot more expertise there. She actually consulted our local Infinite Records store owner, who is intense encyclopedic metal head he knows all the different genres. So we all worked together to come up with a list that covered all the bases. Helped make sure there was something representing every sub-genre of metal and almost every country and all these different areas to show the breadth of what metal has to offer and I think it turned out really good.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about how the visual aesthetic of heavy metal and heavy metal culture influenced the design design making process for the game?

A: One of the important things when you are doing a fantasy world is to like have a set of rules that you can define to make it seem consistent and real. Heavy Metal even though it doesn’t have any sort of rules, it has one set of rules is what looks awesome on an album cover. Can we mix mid-evil combat with a modern tank or some lasers? Yeah if it looks awesome, because Iron Maiden did that on some covers and it worked out great. There is this crazy aesthetic that only makes sense in the world of heavy metal covers. What I like about it is that it’s unrestrained creativity. It’s just someone not worrying about whether if something is going to far or being offensive or weird or gross. Every time we do a piece of concept art or looked at screenshots of the game we tried to think could this be a cover of a heavy metal album? If it could then it could be in the game. That led to some things that I’ve never done before in a game. I haven’t really had bloody ax combat in a game but that is part of being true to the genre.

Q: Were the challenges that came in the design and development process in creating something so stark and unique?

A: It’s different but it’s stuff I’ve been working with for a long time. In all the games I love demons that drove hot rods. What’s new is really multiplayer. That was kindof a challenge so we started with that first when we started working on the game four years ago. We got that part working well before we moved on to the story and the characters.

Brutal Legend Spider Queen

A: Scott Campbell is our character designer who drew many many versions of Doviculus before we had one that we liked. At first he had a gold mask and he went through all these different variations. (Inspired by Tim Curry’s character in Legend and Vincent D’onofrio The Cell)

Q: Can you give us any insight why (Ronnie James) Dio was replaced by Tim Curry?

A: I think when you see the part and you listen to the voice you’ll see that no one else could have played the part better than Tim. He was alot of fun in the studio.

Q: Do you feel that switching publishers in mid-development was a risky move?

A: Well, it’s always risky to switch publishers, I would advise people not to do it if they can avoid it. *laughs* It turned out to be for the best. EA partners have been really excited the game as it is without changing the music or the game play.

Q: Is there a jukebox mode where you can just play the music from the game?

A: When you drive around in your car you can open up the playlist and you can actually shuffle it around, you can sort it in different ways, turn off songs and turn off whole genres. When you drive around the game you’ll find what is called buried metal, where you can unlock new music that will add to the playlist.

This concludes the first part of the interview. The interview will continue over the weekend where we talk Psyconauts, working with Jack Black and the future of Brutal Legend.

Brutal Legend

EA and Double Fine finally talked about the last area of the game that hasn’t been spoken about, multiplayer. Some of the press got a hands-on recently but since we didn’t, I can only tell you some details about multiplayer and not how it plays.

Multiplayer will act like a real time strategy. Gamers will build an army to send to battle, but they will also be participating in the battle as well. There are three forces players can select from: Ironheade, The Tainted Coil and The Drowning Doom. Within each unit there are different roles to choose from. Each role has different strengths. There are seven maps that will be playable.

Here are some screenshots that show off some of the multiplayer action: