Always be Closing
Tim struggles to balance his new role as project leader amongst a team of strong personalities.
Duration:
Published: January 20th 2023
Episode Stills Gallery
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Seth Marinello stands at his desk. He wears a pair of headphones. The office lights are bright and shine down on him as he playtests a level.
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Tim Schafer converses with Elijah Wood during a recording session. They sit casually at a desk. Tim is gesturing with his hands as Elijah looks on with a bright grin.
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Tim Schafer poses with Jack Black during a recording session. They stand with arms wrapped around each other as Tim flashes the iconic heavy metal devil hand gesture: his index and pinky finger raised to resemble devil horns.
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An image of a tiny series of yellow Post-it notes arranged into a flip-book where a small figure appears to dance. Gigi Ruggiero holds the paper up to the camera.
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Jack Black sings loudly into a microphone in a recording booth. The image is shot from behind the booth's glass window, scattering reflections over Jack as he belts away like the rock star he is.
Episode Transcript
TIM: Last week I was in Los Angeles
with our pal Jack,
doing some voice recording for Psychonauts.
And it was amazing!
We did Helmut on Monday.
And then, he recorded the song, uh...
on Wednesday.
And Peter McConnell, and Camden, and Paul were on the phone.
And we had a lot of fun.
He is the one who's gotta do the performance, so.
KHRIS: Exactly.
-TIM: Hi. -JACK: How are you?
-TIM: Hi, everybody! -Hey!
TIM: Am I on camera? Hi!
Ooo!
You guys look good.
-JACK: Shall we start rocking? -(Yeah.)
[MUSIC]
TIM: Oh, we had an incredible session in LA with Jack.
He is playing the Brain in a Jar.
And in the game you kind of help bring it back to life
and help it remember who it is.
And it's-- turns out it's Jack Black.
Power!
-Battle of the fucking... -...power bellies!
TIM: But he gets to have a song, which is amazing.
When he agreed to do it, he was like: "I usually sing my own songs."
[CHUCKLING]
I wrote the lyrics.
And then, Peter McConnell wrote the music.
And then, Jack interpreted it in his-- in the character that he was playing.
TIM: ⪠Neither skin nor bone âŞ
⪠Lost... Alone... âŞ
⪠Lost... Alone... âŞ
⪠Just a thought is all I've got âŞ
⪠Now my cover's blown âŞ
Oh, nice!
Meh!
Let's go onto the next, right?
TIM: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it.
JACK: ⪠When my friends pulled me back up âŞ
⪠I started... âŞ
⪠Healing! âŞ
⪠Healing! âŞ
TIM: One other-- just character thing on this--
To me, like, when he is doing this whole bit,
he's got just a huge grin on his face.
Like, he is just super happy about it.
Like, he's been so bummed at the beginning of the song,
but now he is like: "Fuck yeah, I'm me!"
JACK: Right!
JACK: ⪠Healing! âŞ
⪠Healing! âŞ
⪠Now I can... âŞ
⪠Feel out the galaxy! âŞ
⪠And hear the flow of time! âŞ
⪠Been so tense, but now I sense âŞ
⪠A reason to this rhyme âŞ
[TIM AND KHRIS LAUGH]
JACK: ⪠Senses are the magic keys âŞ
⪠To fill the holes I've had âŞ
I actually-- Yeah, I took my eyes off the lyrics,
because, uh... I was playing to the camera.
Let's go again.
⪠Unlocking all my memories âŞ
⪠Which are... âŞ
⪠...NEVER... âŞ
⪠...NEVER... âŞ
⪠...BAD! âŞ
⪠...BAD! âŞ
Oh, that 'bad'!
It's a strange note, because it doesn't go with the harmony.
Mm-hmm.
JACK: It's such a funny word to sing.
⪠...BAD! âŞ
I'd just do it a few more times
and hope that I stumble upon a magic.
⪠...BAD! âŞ
That's a great one!
JACK: No, let me go one more.
[LAUGHTER]
JACK: There is just something about singing 'bad' really loud and long
that is inherently funny to me.
And I'm trying to make it good.
But no matter what it is, it's always bad.
PETER: That was the one actually.
TIM: The whole band Bad Company was based
on the premise of being able to sing that line.
⪠Bad company âŞ
Never ended on bad!
⪠...BAD! âŞ
PETER: I don't know if this is helpful or not.
But I was just kind of thinking of Grace Slick on that line.
Oh! Yeah!
PETER: White Rabbit, and also--
Yeah, yeah, Jefferson Airplane.
⪠One pill makes you stronger âŞ
[LAUGHTER]
⪠And another makes you small âŞ
⪠...BAD! âŞ
[TIM LAUGHS]
Let me just do some different ones that are going to be, uh...
slightly annoying to you.
But I want to try some different things.
-[LAUGHTER] -JACK: Let's hit it again.
⪠...BAD! âŞ
⪠NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER BAD âŞ
[TIM LAUGHS]
⪠NO, NO, NO, NO, NO âŞ
⪠NO, NO, NO, NO, NO âŞ
⪠NO, NO, NO âŞ
⪠NO, NO, NO, NO âŞ
⪠NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO âŞ
⪠NEVER, NEVER BAD âŞ
⪠NEVER BAD âŞ
⪠NEVER BAD âŞ
[TIM LAUGHS]
⪠NO, NEVER, NEVER BAD âŞ
TIM: Why'd you stop? That's--
-You said... -KHRIS: That is so good!
[LAUGHTER]
...where the rest of the song is just going off on how never bad it is.
TIM: I love it.
[MUSIC]
Zak McClendon is no longer the project leader of Psychonauts.
CAMDEN: It's-- it's something that nobody wants to have happen.
GREG: The other conversations are more acquisition-based.
PAUL: So, acquisitions...
GREG: ...somebody swooping in and buying the studio.
I'm just kind of sitting here just because I'm excited to see what happens!
TIM: There is a trade show called E3.
And we are going to show Psychonauts there for the first time kind of ever.
TAZIO: If we execute on Loboto,
and make Loboto as good as we all want it to be,
I think that bodes well for the rest of the project.
NAOKO: ...to put in the E3 build, doesn't add a lot of work for them.
So-- but there is work to be done to finish the level.
TIM: How much-- how much actual real work days and time do we have?
Four weeks.
-Okay. -Well, we have till the 7th.
And this was the meeting about scoping of the demo, right?
-And the rest of the level, and just-- -Okay.
You guys gotta call me when you have these kind of meetings.
-Hmm? -You guys gotta call me.
Hmm?
AMY: I know that there can't be that much more done
for the scope of the level past E3.
However the process for E3 and what we are actually going to put in E3,
that's, like, a very different discussion
to what we want the shipping version to look like.
-Am I wrong? -LISETTE: Mmm...
We don't have time in the schedule to go back to Loboto.
So, essentially, what we do for E3
is kind of what we will end up doing for the shipping version.
AMY: That's the difference I'm anticipating.
Is that I don't think E3 is going to be shipping,
but I like the idea of treating it like it is.
LISETTE: I think we have to treat it like it is.
Andy is going to say that's the last exit.
I mean, we can't work on Loboto for... very much longer.
Like, we've been on this for... months.
[SIGHS]
AARON: It's been crazy having so many people working on Loboto.
I mean, just in the last month we have gotten a lot, a lot of stuff done.
The level is totally different than it was a month ago.
Uh, and it's really inspiring to see how much everyone is able to get done
when we all kind of push together as a group.
I think-- I think, you know, we'll probably be okay,
we'll make it for what we need to get done for E3.
Um, but there is definitely going to be a big push
from the team to make that happen.
PAUL: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
LISETTE: Not for nothing!
The team has done a really good job of coalescing around this.
It's amazing!
-LISETTE: It's amazing. -KEE: It's so good!
KEE: Every single time I play through the thing,
it looks great, it plays great!
LISETTE: But we gotta get to a point
where we can agree on what we are not going to do.
KEE: Yep.
LISETTE: And stick to it.
ANDY: I mean...
Just from a scheduling perspective on this level,
we have four weeks...
to do those things that I listed.
I feel like that's reasonable.
LISETTE: But redesigning areas right now is too risky.
ANDY: And I-- when I hear that someone is even considering that...
LISETTE: Because what that leads to is more cutscenes.
ANDY: Yes, right.
No.
-ANDY: And we can't-- -We can't do that.
ANDY: I mean, the animators did a bang-up, kick-ass job.
NAOKO: We can't keep asking them to work like that for another four weeks!
Like, it's not... nice.
ANDY: Yeah, yep, mm-hmm.
LISETTE: I'd rather just polish what we have.
NAOKO: Yeah, I'm real sorry.
-I don't mean to have a tone. -ANDY: Don't apologize, don't apologize.
[GREG CHUCKLES]
ANDY: It's high time.
I-- I don't have any patience left for this stuff.
I just don't.
I just--
Everyone here--
Everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too,
day in, day out.
So, are you guys ready to tell me what is hard about the cake room?
I don't-- I've missed a lot.
I've heard a lot about the cake room.
It is haunted by a demon.
-AMY: It is haunted. -[LAUGHTER]
-It has gone through many iterations. -It's killed three different team members.
So, I like the narrative of the cake room a lot.
Like, the weirdness of him sinking into the cake is awesome.
It does have a huge animation overhead.
And the room itself needs to be completely gutted and redone,
because it's-- it's not a good action path.
LISETTE: From an action-plat standpoint it was very disorienting.
AMY: From a gameplay standpoint it's no good.
TIM: I mean, can it just be simplified?
Like, I don't know if that action path was teaching you much anything,
except for double jump or anything?
Because I mostly just want to keep the cake.
And the smashing of the cake.
And then Loboto falling into the cake.
Is that all the hard parts?
The question is, is it lower priority than the impossible corner?
I just think from a pacing point of view,
I'd rather have the impossible corner, than the cake room.
[GEOFF LAUGHS]
NAOKO: I don't know that you can have either yet.
Yeah, so here is an example
of one of the places where we are currently using portals in Loboto
in order to construct a space
that wouldn't normally be physically possible.
Uh, so, you run inside this little area.
There is going to be a cutscene that's going to kick off,
I'll cancel the cutscene.
Uh, and we are going to keep running here over to the left.
And normally, you'd only be able to turn left, you know, a couple of times.
But we can just keep doing it over, and over,
and over, and over, and over again.
Um, and it's not currently shown in the scene now.
We are going to add art to the scene
that's going to change every time you come through.
We talked about the idea of possibly having,
like, paintings that tell a story that sort of progresses as you go through.
The impossible corner, I just want to say, like,
let's not do that, because it-- it's just so much.
[MUSIC]
Look at all the stuff we already cut.
-Look at that. -[GREG CHUCKLES]
TIM: So much cut stuff.
SETH: Oh my god.
TIM: Wait, we should put all that back in.
[GEOFF LAUGHS]
Put that in, put that in.
SETH: Don't show Tim all these things.
GIGI: These are the concepts for the pyro.
And this is why, like--
This is what I was talking about, like, it's supposed to--
This to me makes way more sense than what's there right now.
And it's-- it seems extremely art heavy.
-SETH: Yeah. -LISETTE: Yep.
SETH: But it is--
This definitely, like, makes it be, like:
"Oh, okay, I get it, like...
I'm going down a hallway."
GEOFF: And this is why I'm talking about, like...
I say you can do one out of three.
I mean, I can only-- there is only so many hours in the day.
Let's run through...
Should we just take a vote?
-And be like: "What are we cutting?" -[TIM LAUGHS]
[GEOFF LAUGHS]
Tim, what do you want? Like, that's--
Let's ask--
LISETTE: Vote for what you are willing to let go.
Because everybody wants to keep everything.
[TIM CHUCKLES]
They all cost a dollar, and we only have one dollar.
-Do we only have one dollar? -We only have a dollar.
We have so much less than a dollar actually.
I thought we had three dollars till E3.
We have-- we owe money.
[CHUCKLING]
TIM: Like, I think if we had, uh...
If it wasn't for E3, I wouldn't be nervous.
But E3 puts this hard, fast deadline on it.
And, um...
So we had to have this stuff done.
So we keep, in some ways, shrinking how much we are going to make
just to make sure that we can make a really good piece of it.
Art-wise it's not a problem.
-LISETTE: Animation-wise. -GEOFF: It's animation and...
Like, emotionally what's your vote?
[TIM LAUGHS]
Let's do, yeah, the low-scope pyro changes and the impossible corner.
I am super on board with that.
[MUSIC]
NAOKO: Can we never talk about the cake room ever again?
Yay!
So happy.
AMY: So, we have cutscenes and transitions coming in.
So, that work becomes one of those red underlines as well.
Because that will be new work coming in,
and verification that it works, and probably tweaking.
So that's another thing that has to be done.
SETH: Yep!
GEOFF: Oh, yeah. No, I know.
SETH: We'll figure it out.
No, we won't! We are figuring it out in this meeting.
-That's what this meeting is for. -I mean, yeah.
We'll figure it out.
ANDY: See, because I'm going to plug all this into Jira,
and then I'm going to make all of you all estimated,
and then I'm going to see how much it's over by.
Oh my god, it's going to be over by a lot.
NAOKO: We've been saying three weeks, but it would be great--
if we think we could do this, we really only have--
AMY: Yeah, we shouldn't fill the three weeks,
because that's just not--
NAOKO: Yeah, we should fill, like, two weeks.
Because we are boned for the next two weeks
no matter what we do.
Yeah.
I mean-- like, I told this story before about, um...
being in my twenties, working on Monkey Island,
and Ron just coming into our door and being like:
"Hey, it's getting to that point
where we gotta start working nights and weekends."
And me and Dave were like: "Yeah! High five!"
Like... What else are we going to do?
Go home, and eat Chinese food, and watch TV?
Like, uh...
At least that's how I felt, you know, and, um...
And we didn't feel that, you know, exploited at the time.
Because we were so excited to be making games, and...
Until halfway through Monkey 2 when I was like:
"We are making three-fifty an hour, Dave.
Like, we are, like-- we are making--
we are not getting paid for-- this is terrible!"
But we would: "Ha-ha!"
We all laughed, and went back to work on it.
Um, and I just think, we are against crunch mode,
we talk about it publicly, we talk about it with the team,
we've made our assurances.
AMY: And if all of that is in and perfect and amazing,
then we can do the impossible corner?
LISETTE: I am completely against the sustained crunch.
I will not make my team do that.
It's kind of a principle for me at this point in my career.
LISETTE: Just cut it! Just cut it.
That's my vote!
Just kill it. Kill it with fire!
GEOFF: My concern is that...
[LISETTE LAUGHS]
-We got Tim to agree to cut the cake room. -ANDY: Mm-hmm.
One of those things has gotta be in.
We don't know that!
He is not in this room!
Well, no, but he literally said: "I want it."
And then when he leaves, we are like:
"Oh, no, fine, let's get rid of it!"
ANDY: You guys never worked on a game with Tim before.
[GEOFF LAUGHS]
AMY: How long would it take you to hook that up?
SETH: Trying this out would probably take less time than this meeting.
Really?
Like, you could go hook that up, like, real quick?
Because last time you said it would take two days.
Like, for us to actually try different solutions to make it fun, yes.
That's too many days!
If Seth gets-- if Seth takes the minimum amount of time--
TIM: I think, uh...
The thing I believe in is
that you can't just sit around and argue about stuff forever.
You have to just try it one way,
try it the other way,
test it out, you know?
Because sometimes you gotta give something a chance
to be really implemented correctly before you judge it.
[LISETTE SIGHS]
GEOFF: The thing is though...
is it's always going to be a back-and-forth with Tim.
-Yep. -He is very reasonable.
But there are also things that he is very...
passionate about that he wants to get into the level.
So, like, we are going to have to pick and choose battles, and...
Is this one that we want to...
I say we want to cut it, he says he wants it in.
-Let's see how much he actually wants it. -LISETTE: I think he wants to see us try.
GEOFF: Yep, I think that's exactly--
LISETTE: I think he wants to see us try.
So I think we should have Seth do his exercise.
But I think putting animation and art resources on that right now...
Not gonna happen.
-NAOKO: Okay. -GEOFF: Yep.
I need a real painting.
[MUSIC]
TIM: Whoa-ow, it goes the other direction?!
Oh, a paneling!
Although like an S now.
Oh, we didn't even need portals to do that!
TIM: I can't hear what Raz is saying. Is it because it's scratch?
SETH: It's, no-- it's just very quiet.
TIM: Cool!
TIM: I love the dreamy--
-JAMES: Oh, no! -LEVI: Whoa-ow!
[TIM LAUGHS]
BEN: Bad cam!
Obviously that's still being worked on.
LEVI: Yep.
LISETTE: We have to talk about whether we are keeping
the impossible hallway.
Or the impossible corner.
I mean, does anybody feel like: "It's amazing, we need it."
-Or is anyone like: "Eh." -I don't want to handle it like this.
I want to-- I have just seen it for the very first time this time.
I don't want to throw it to a big committee vote right now.
Okay!
TIM: I mean, I've been pushing on this for two reasons.
One is that... that example that we looked at
is exactly the kind of weird dream logic stuff
that we need to have in our levels.
Where it's like: "This feels not like the real world,
this feels really weird to me."
And so if we could achieve that, that would be really cool.
But there is also this, um...
just, like, a process thing that I'm trying to get to where, um...
We often come up with this idea: "Here is a great idea!"
And it takes, like, five steps.
And we'll do, like, two steps into it.
And we are like: "This isn't working."
"Here is another idea."
And then we get two new steps, and we go down that--
And it's like: "Well, that's not working either."
And then it's like: "Let's cut this whole thing.
Because we obviously can't do it."
So I keep asking about it, but I'm not sure...
ANDY: I just want to know how are you guys want to pay for it?
Because all of you are booked for this sprint.
So you are either going to have to work late
or you are going to have to...
take something you were assigned and get rid of it.
Those are the options.
And since, yeah--
And since we are not sure it would pay off, uh...
I mean, I guess I'm convinced that we--
it's not something that we can pull off in the time.
You know?
NAOKO: There is no reason why we couldn't put this somewhere else.
Yes! Tim, I agree that I do want this gag to appear somewhere.
TIM: All right, cool.
Thanks for trying.
Thanks for wiring it up, Seth.
PAUL: I think that they are thinking about the well-being of the team
and what's actually accomplishable,
and maybe Geoff...
takes on too much, but...
TIM: Geoff does, yeah.
[CHUCKLING]
TIM: It's funny, because, I think, some people would be scared,
because he is so, um-- he can be really growly and grouchy,
but no one takes it that seriously.
[TIM LAUGHS]
You can make a supercut of him in meetings going:
"Oh, that was supposed to get done!
I'll do it tonight.
Someone was supposed to do that, but they didn't do it."
[LAUGHS]
He is a really nice guy.
I'll fix the teeth, I don't think anybody heard it.
Thank you.
Mostly fix whatever the hell happened to the pyro hallways.
I just need to redo the work that I did yesterday.
-Oh, no big deal! -[GEOFF LAUGHS]
What the fuck happened?
TIM: He mentions tonight often in his task list.
You are like: "What do you mean 'tonight'?"
You are like: "What?"
You know, we are all working on this level together.
Like, even if you've--
Even if you are happy with your thing,
if someone else is not going to be able to finish,
it's up to us as a team to work together to make sure that happens.
Because it doesn't matter if you've made the most beautiful thing in the world.
If something else fails and we put that in front of a bunch of people,
the whole thing will have fallen down.
So...
It's on us collectively
to put the best thing forward that we possibly can.
PAUL: A lot is riding...
on this Loboto stage... making a big impression.
And... the future of the company.
-What?! -PAUL: Right?
No. No stakes. It's going to be great.
Um...
I mean, it's not like E3 is gonna decide whether we are a company anymore.
PAUL: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
There is other things deciding that right now.
[LAUGHS]
PAUL: What can you say about those things?
Uh... nothing.
So, uh, let's talk about business and stuff.
We have ongoing investment talks
that we have mentioned here before briefly.
They have all made positive progress,
but nothing really, like, that we can nail and talk about.
But, um...
Nail? Yeah, whatever.
It's just-- it's going-- It's going well.
We hope to wrap everything up
and know much more about our future before E3.
Yes, hopefully more to say soon.
E3 is the goal for a lot of this stuff.
So, um, we'll let you guys know when we have more to say.
And this Friday we are going to go--
I'm going to go down with someone from 2 Player maybe?
-ANDY: Oh, that's right. -Someone, that guy.
Record our--
Our old friend Elijah Wood is going to be doing the voice of Gristol for the game.
So we are going to go down there.
Spoilers!
PAUL: He is used to us now.
Yeah! And we are used to his Rice Krispies.
If he doesn't bring Rice Krispies, we'd be mad.
[TIM HUMS]
So, guys, what do you want me...
-...to do for the thing? -Oh! Hey, this guy!
There he is!
Oh, yeah! You sent that to me!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
ELIJAH: So, I just got the-- They only sent me the script this morning.
-So I have not even had a chance to-- -You memorized it?
-[KHRIS LAUGHS] -Barely had a...
I looked at it in the car.
Let me tell you-- I'll tell you the whole thing.
-Tell me the whole thing! -Okay, so!
PAUL: Did you even have to audition him?
Or did you just, like, sign him up?
TIM: During the campaign I told him on Twitter we are doing this.
Like: "Hey, do you want to do a voice?" He is like: "Yeah!"
And then, I was bugging him about this one.
-And so there is a whole level about that. -Oh my god, that's insane!
-So that's a whole different level. -That sounds awesome!
It should be-- it should be really cool.
And it ends with Jack singing a song in the end.
-Oh my god! -And putting the band back together...
...is kind of the structure of that level.
-Wow! -So...
Inside the brain it's Helmut and it's Jack's voice.
And then, outside the brain, once in Nick's body,
it's the same character psychically,
but it's your voice, because you are doing that.
Uh, did you see Flash Gordon?
-ELIJAH: Yes. -The one from 1980.
-It's so awesome! That movie is insane! -KHRIS: It's so good!
So, he is kind of like Prince Vultan.
-Brian Blessed. -ELIJAH: Okay, yep.
-ELIJAH: Oh, stop! -KHRIS: But it's that!
[LAUGHTER]
KHRIS: But it's totally that!
Like, it's larger than life, um...
ELIJAH: Magnanimous.
KHRIS: Yeah, oh my god, so good-natured!
TIM: And this is Helmut's mind.
It's all these crazy psychedelic sketches.
-TIM: He is just, like-- he evolves... -ELIJAH: Oh my god, that's so cool.
he gets body parts as you progress in the level.
And then, in Helmut's--
ELIJAH: You guys, you get to make this for a living.
-TIM: It's fun! -ELIJAH: How exciting is it!
TIM: This is the band you put back together.
-ELIJAH: What?! -TIM: All the senses.
TIM: You bring the senses back together.
Oh, that's so cool!
Nose blowing a horn.
That's rad.
Is that an ear drum? Nice.
TIM: Hey, we are not above that.
[LAUGHTER]
ELIJAH: Pretty cool!
KHRIS: Oh my goodness!
[TIM CHUCKLES]
ELIJAH: Oh, this is amazing, you guys!
This-- this is insane!
KHRIS: He is such a pro, I love him.
I am aware of the position of my body in space and time,
and space is aware of me!
ELIJAH: Is that the vibe that we are going for?
Everyone is crying with joy in here.
KHRIS: Why do I bother to talk ever?
Because you are, like, a perfect creature from space.
-[ELIJAH LAUGHS] -Oh my god!
ELIJAH: Okay! These lines are really fun.
Cats... are food.
But... so are we!
Cats are food.
But so are we.
-KHRIS: Oh, shit! -TIM: I loved it!
Oh, fish in a fish, fish, fish of fish heads.
Yeah, saying that she is really mad.
Gemini Christmas!
Okay! May I please hear the last five waveforms of 42.
Sorry, I touched the wrong button.
"We are going to listen to playback."
I said that because Camden says that.
[ELIJAH HUMS]
Oh, yeah! Oh my god! How was Milla?!
I loved it! It was great.
-She was very excited and stuff, so. -I'm so pleased!
-Very bubbly and stuff. -Oh, good.
Camden sent me a mail and he is like: "Tim is amazing!"
And I'm like: "I know!"
TIM: I just said all the things you said.
"How are you doing in there?
It's been an hour. Are you thirsty? Are you hungry?"
Like, I have all these Khris Brown-isms.
"That was great! Moving on. Hold on, I gotta log."
[KHRIS LAUGHS]
And then randomly ask the engineer what take it is?
"Was that 78 A and B?"
[KHRIS LAUGHS]
"And can you play me the second waveform on the last tape?"
[KHRIS LAUGHS]
Oh, I've been in this room a lot, Khris Brown, with you.
May I-- may I please hear the last round of waveforms?
[ELIJAH VOCALIZES MUFFLED SPEECH]
[KHRIS LAUGHS]
-Perfect! -He is doing it!
Thank you so much! So, we'll break.
We are done with Nick, that was amazing!
And there is a smoothie in here for you.
No way! Cool!
[TIM EXHALES]
I have so much fangirling to do at you, you don't even know!
-Oh, really? -Yes!
Did something happen?
You exist is what happened!
-Yay! -Yes.
That was awesome!
TIM: We needed an actor of his caliber to pull this off.
It's great roles for both Jack and Elijah.
JACK: ⪠When my friends pulled me back up âŞ
⪠I started... âŞ
ELIJAH: Oh my god!
-JACK: ⪠Healing! ⪠-ELIJAH: This is great!
TIM: So, this is for the documentary...
-TIM: ...about Psychonauts 2, yeah. -ELIJAH: Right.
-ELIJAH: He is the best. -KHRIS: Wait, have you guys met?
KHRIS: I'm, like, wait--
We've met, but we've never worked...
-...on anything together. -KHRIS: Like, hung out?
Or hung out, no!
TIM: We'll have to have a Psychonauts wrap party.
-And you guys can... -Yeah!
When is the wrap? When are you guys wrapping?
Well, that's a great question!
That's a very topical question around the office.
[TIM LAUGHS]
And I want to-- I want to say one thing before we start.
-Can I say something? -GEOFF: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Everyone is doing such a great job
about making sure we get this responsibly done on schedule and stuff.
But there are so many things in flux with the schedule.
Mm-hmm!
As we know, the schedule is not currently funded to the end of the schedule.
I'll keep working on that money problem.
Me and Greg are working on the money problem,
until we have enough money to do everything correctly,
getting the game done correctly.
Because if we had to cut down to the amount of money we had,
we'd have to be, like, done--
We'd have to ship the game, like...
really soon-- like, next week.
Yeah, we don't have forever to make the game,
but it's not, like, um...
We have to solve the problem.
Uh, and we have to solve the problem well anyway.
So we... are not trying to trim it down to--
I don't even know what the current--
how much time is allocated to work on this level to the end right now.
JAMES: Three weeks.
-Three weeks? -NAOKO: That's not true.
I need to figure out how much work...
you guys want to do in there.
Right, right, right.
So we can tell you a very scary date
of how much money we would like you to find.
TIM: Yeah, yeah.
JAMES: Anyway, if we get time...
I hope Microsoft buys us.
Or Google. They are doing their thing.
I have my opinions.
We have our top men working on this.
[LISETTE CHUCKLES]
I like Double Fine the way it is though.
Right.
We-- we--
We will see.
Awesome! All right.
Well, let's talk about Psychonauts 2!
What's happening in the world of Psychonauts 2?
Trying to finish an E3 demo.
-Are you guys working on an E3 demo? -Yeah, we are.
That's a fun idea.
There is a lot of cutscenes in our E3 demo.
-Oh, gross. -Yep.
[LAUGHTER]
-ANDY: Right. -TIM: No one likes those!
ANDY: Yeah, so we are trying to import them and reimport them.
And then, uh... get the lighting done on them.
And make sure they all trigger everything properly.
TIM: I've heard they are very good.
ANDY: Yes, they are looking--
Actually, I played through it this morning, right when I got in.
I was like: "Wow! There are a whole bunch of new scenes in the game today."
And they are-- they are pretty good.
PAUL: So, if Loboto is the first time the game is going to be fun in that sense.
-TIM: Mm-hmm. -PAUL: Um...
PAUL: Do we have time to make the rest of the levels fun?
Applying the lessons that we learned in Loboto.
[TIM CHUCKLES]
TIM: Um, that's a great-- It's a great question.
Like, if...
Do we have the time to spend this much time
on every level in the game?
Because we are really putting, like, everybody on Loboto.
Well, part of that, it's because-- it's unnaturally slow,
because a lot of these things had just never been done before.
Like, we never put this kind of level of polish into a scripted cutscene.
GEOFF: We should also try to get this stuff done as soon as possible,
so Levi has time to actually light.
LEVI: Yeah, my biggest outstanding is the transitions with Loboto.
So whenever those are ready for me, just tell me.
BEN: Well, we've done-- We've done transition cutscenes before.
We know what the things we tripped over last time were.
So, if we are making-- if we are tripping over things,
hopefully it's new stuff this time.
-LISETTE: Right. -NAOKO: Oh, boy!
LISETTE: It's... time to start tripping.
-BEN: Yeah. -SETH: Yep.
[LISETTE CHUCKLES]
[MUSIC]
SAMMY: There is some fog pop there.
[MUSIC]
Please have a good weekend.
Get some rest.
We are still not done.
-Yep. -[LISETTE LAUGHS]
[MUSIC]
AARON: Coach is in the wrong outfit still!
KEE: Yeah, who has the bug for that?
-[JAMES LAUGHS] -LEVI: That chair! I love it!
SETH: We need to do a pass
on everyone's outfits in the transition cutscenes.
There is a pop-- there is a pop at the end of that cutscene.
Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!
[JAMES LAUGHS]
SETH: Oh, really?
[MUSIC]
LEVI: This is why I've taken up drinking coffee...
and beer.
[MUSIC]
AARON: Actually work, please.
Yay!
No more pop! Finally.
KEE: Nice!
JAMES: Cool!
[AARON EXHALES]
Yay! It doesn't float anymore.
TIM: Why aren't the cabinets flashing?
[CHUCKLING]
Did you guys not read the script?
SETH: I might be able to make that come back.
[LAUGHTER]
AARON: Can we get some more flicker on those cabinets, please?
I'm glad we can laugh.
[LAUGHTER]
There is a lot of pops in this cutscene.
KEE: Yep, it's the same-- it's the--
What did he just do there?
Raz just kind of go--
slide at the end of that cutscene.
Did you just see Raz slide like that?
-Yes! -Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
'Yep,' says Kee.
-AARON: Another major pop there too. -Yep.
Whenever you want to--
Whenever you enter a bug in Jira and you click it,
I want to hear Kee say: "Yep."
[LAUGHTER]
Ew, there is teeth in the sink?
Oh, that's gross!
RAZ: Milla, the mission is falling apart!
We've lost control of Loboto!
TIM: She is like...
[LAUGHTER]
"Do I look like I give a fuck?"
[LAUGHTER]
GEOFF: So long, asshole!
TIM: Tell it to someone who cares!
I'm Audi 5000.
[LAUGHTER]
ANDY: Wow, what a bitch!
[LAUGHTER]
SETH: Ship it!
[LAUGHTER]
(That was a bug, Naoko!)
PAUL: Still a lot of work to do.
It's not that much.
[CHUCKLING]
We, uh... you know,
just have to, like, cross-- you know,
do a lighting pass on everything, and it's all done... mostly.
LEVI: I may have seen a nonsensical seamline
in the carpet flyover in the intro
that's never been there.
-Is that the opening cutscene? -Yes.
TIM: Watch it again, what?
Levi just brought up...
a seam... on the carpet in the opening cutscene.
I saw it.
-Do you want to play it? -Run it, play it.
RAZ: The Psychonauts rescued Truman--
You are crazy, Levi. I don't see it!
RAZ: There's no way Loboto was working alone.
Today, we are on a mission...
Oh my god! Oh my god!
-Ugh! -Just throw the whole thing out!
[LAUGHTER]
[LAUGHTER]
ANDY: Okay.
I think it's a post-E3 thing.
ANDY: Okay, so at this point,
Kee, you should be the only one checking stuff in.
Yep, yep.
This concludes our dailies.
-Thank you, everybody! -[CHEERING]
PAUL: Do you feel like it's feeling like Psychonauts?
I mean, uh...
The mirrors in development of the first project
and the second project are so close, it's so weird.
Um...
The things that were good and bad about the first project,
are good and bad about this one.
And, um...
The feeling of the team, and the morale, the ups and downs,
like, everything is very similar to the first game... you know?
I feel like-- I thought we were going to be...
a totally different company...
um...
doing the second the game than we were on the first game.
But in some weird way, it's like this weird fairy tale
where we got reset back to who we were.
And had to, like, relearn a bunch of stuff along the way.
PAUL: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
A grim fairy tale.
PAUL: New engine, new people.
Always be closing.
GIGI: What are those, Tim?!
-Gigi... -[LAUGHTER]
What are all these papers that I found on the printer?
[LAUGHTER]
There is hundreds of these!
This is an entire tree-worth of morale corral posters you printed.
I'm going to send you a picture of the tree that died because of you.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
GREG: Hello, hello.
-LISETTE: Hello. -GREG: How is it going?
LISETTE: I'm judging by your calm--
[GREG LAUGHS]
LISETTE: ...that it's going to be a good meeting.
GREG: Yep, it's going to be a good meeting.
LISETTE: I have a feeling.
[GREG LAUGHS]
JAMES: I'm just imagining this is, like,
the most fucked up meeting to close the studio.
[GEOFF LAUGHS]
JAMES: He is just, like, really fucking with us.
TIM: Uh...
Is everybody here?
CARYL: There are some seats.
TIM: There are some seats right here.
Unless you are afraid to commit to this meeting.
[LAUGHTER]
TIM: Jeremy?
-TIM: Jeremy, come on here. -I got a thing.
-TIM: What? -I have a thing.
In, like, five minutes I gotta go!
TIM: Okay!
Sorry, I have to read stuff off my phone,
just because I couldn't print anything with our printer.
But it's fine.
[LAUGHTER]
[MUSIC]
TIM: Um...
Okay, so, I am making some announcements here.
And they are very, very sensitive and secret.
And so, I please want everyone to understand
that we can't share this information with anybody, uh, for the time being.
Until... Sunday?
Sunday.
Things are going to be announced on Sunday.
Uh, what's going to be announced is that we have signed
a letter of intent with Microsoft to acquire Double Fine.
So, Double Fine will be becoming part of Xbox Game Studios.
And what does this mean for us, and you, and everybody?
And why did it happen? And what's going to happen?
[MUSIC]
Yeah, wait, who is calling me?
Who dares to call me?
-Hello? -RACHAEL: Aloha!
I mean in an interview.
Oh, here, here.
This is my wife, Rachael. She is calling me to...
brag about how she is going to go to Hawaii without me.
RACHAEL: Aloha!
-Yeah. -[RACHAEL LAUGHS]
Do you want to be in the documentary?
RACHAEL: Yes.
Okay, what do you-- what do you--
Do you have a question for Rachael?
What do you think about crunch mode?
Do you think game developers should work in crunch mode to finish projects?
RACHAEL: Yes!
[TIM CHUCKLES]
RACHAEL: Get it done!
Wait! Don't you mind if I come home late?
-And you don't see me all day? -RACHAEL: Oh.
[RACHAEL CHUCKLES]
RACHAEL: No.
No, but you gotta get it done.
You can work at home.
-[PAUL LAUGHS] -All right, right.
Okay, thanks for your input.
Don't you think my daughter will miss me?
RACHAEL: Yes.
[RACHAEL CHUCKLES]
Okay, great, okay.
RACHAEL: Oh my goodness, it's day in Hawaii!
I need to book a place.
Okay, I gotta go! I'll talk to you later.
-RACHAEL: Okay, bye! -Bye!