They're Here

By the time I started working at Double Fine—which oh my god is almost five years ago—the astounding Fig campaign that helped make Psychonauts 2 possible was finished. A lot of my work on P2 was actually spent with folks at Microsoft, helping with advertising and making sure we knew how to tell the world about this amazing new game that was coming up. But many folks already knew! They'd donated to make it real in the first place! And from time to time, I'd write out updates telling folks how things were going but also when to expect various backer goodies.

Most of that went off without a hitch. In the case of the art book, that project even grew into something larger than I think anyone expected. There were camping trips and board-game days with Tim, special box sets, and more. But one piece of merch took quite a long time to reach our backers: the Raz and Lili plushies. I'm happy to say that folks have been receiving these throughout the week. Our long quest to bring Psychonauts 2 to life and give our backers cool stuff has come to an end. What a long road!

I'm not gonna jabber about all the reasons these hug-able pals took so long to end up on collector's shelves or in the clutches of happy golden retrievers but I will say that it was an eye-opening experience. The biggest factor was the Covid-19 pandemic itself, which  sent a years-long shock-wave through supply chains. It's hard to understate how the world is still feeling the effects of that to this very moment. But another reason is that we really, really, really, really, really went back and forth on the plushie designs. There's only so many of these and we wanted them perfect. Seriously, you should see the email threads with our artists' feedback. There was an intense vetting process. No detail was too small.

That's all done now! We had some extra plushies that were made available to non-backers but every one of them has been claimed and judging from the tweets and some emails I've gotten, they've started finding their owners. I have a pair in my office and although I'd love to keep them for myself, I think they're gonna make good Christmas gifts for my tiny nephew and niece. They're soft, have bendy arms, and have cool talk boxes. For you collector types, I hope they look good high and safe on a shelf but I also grant folks permission to get messy with these things. Our games are about many things but one of those things is joy and fun. If you wanna do something wild... I dunno, like... geo-caching a plushie... I'm not going to stop you. If the revolution doesn't have dancing, I don't wanna be a part of it! So consider this permission to play with your toys. Have at it!

Either way, this moment marks the end of a journey. From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of everyone here at Double Fine, I want to thank our backers who helped make Psychonauts 2 a real video game that people can play. I want to thank anyone who has played. We're really lucky to make weird games at a time where not everyone is able to do that. We're even more lucky that so many folks keep playing.

Enjoy the plushies! We'll see you eventually for the next big adventure!