Schafer returns to crowd-funding for Psychonauts sequel

Double Fine's Tim Schafer is returning to crowd-funding, putting out a request for $3.3 million in order to build a sequel to fondly-remembered platformer Psychonauts.

Double Fine is no stranger to crowd-funding, but its successes have been tainted: the company raised $3.3 million on a $400,000 goal to produce Double Fine Adventure, the game that would become Broken Age, only to announce that it wasn't enough and only half the game would be released. Likewise, the company's management sim Spacebase DF-9 was abandoned in 2014 with a partly-finished 1.0 release following the company's decision to cease all development on the title despite having been sold via Steam's Early Access platform with the promise it would be developed into an engaging feature-length title.

Having tried Kickstarter and Steam Early Access, Schafer is now turning to lesser-known crowd-funding service Fig for funds to produce a sequel to Psychonauts. Unlike previous platforms, Fig allows for two funding methods: the usual "give money, possibly get a copy of the game and/or additional rewards if development succeeds" of Kickstarter and the like, plus an investment system which offers backers a cut of the game's revenue - 0.0037 per cent to $13.33 million in adjusted gross revenue, dropping to 0.0015 per cent thereafter - for each $500 invested.

Despite a somewhat chequered past record, Schafer's campaign is off to a flying start: he has raised nearly $770,000 with 34 days left on the clock, but having set the bar as high as Broken Age's, which was one of the most well-funded campaigns in history, there's no guarantee the funds Schafer seeks will be reached - and, like Kickstarter, Fig only takes the money if the goal is hit before the end of the campaign.

More information is available on the campaign page, while Schafer's promotional video is reproduced below.