If this were by anybody other than Mr. Schafer, I'd say it looks like this game is going to fail. The trailer seemed like it was going for C&C Red Alert levels of campy cheese, but didn't reach that lofty goal.

But honestly, after Fandango, Throttle and especially P-nauts, Schafer could show me a trailer of him clipping his nails and I'd have a money order ready for him.

The fire-breathing tiger/dragon thing he was riding DID look like it rocked, fair enough . . .

This is actually going to be rather good. I just have a feeling.

Exactly.

Every PS3 forum is filled with GOW 3/Uncharted 2 threads and not a single one is focused on Schafers next multiplatform masterpiece.
I want this game now and hope that Tim gets the praise he deserves. He makes excellent games which nowadays end up in discount bin in nanoseconds even though they rock. Maybe, just maybe this is for a more mainstream taste with that magic Schafer Touch (TM) still there.

EDIT: I would love to see that Nail Clipping game. Email Tim. Maybe he'll develop something from that idea.

I for one... Can Not wait!

Jack Black and a Tim shafer game.. what's not to like?

Kinda sexy, though, for a big ugly demon.

Jack Black, and a videogame. Can't go wrong. Tsunami Shitstorm!!!

I won't make the same mistake with Psychonauts by buying a Schafer game years after it comes out. Day 1, baby.

I don't know if you stopped by his website before BL was announced, bu DoubleFine put up a few flash games that were almost as absolutely pointless as a nailclipping game -- and yet I enjoyed them in all their awfulness. It takes a special talent to make bad good.

Hmm not as awesome as I originally thought it'd look, but it's Jack Black so I'm giving it the benefit of a doubt!

Amaaaziiiiiing.

Dialogue at the end was just awesome.

Schafer is god.

I think it looks cool. JB seems to be doing a pretty good job with the voice acting as well.

"Jack Black and a Tim shafer game.. what's not to like"
"Jack Black, and a videogame. Can't go wrong. Tsunami Shitstorm!!!"

. . . and Lemmy, and Rob Halford, and apparently a metric buttload of other pure awesomeness . . . and that scares the poo out of me now.

The more I think about it, every single project I can think of that combined masterful individual players under the logical-sounding theory that "if you multiply the number of talented people by X then the result will be X better" always seems to fail miserably.

"We've got Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, and Tom Petty in one Band! How could it not be the best selling album ever?"

"Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsy Russel and Richard Pryor remake one of the greatest and most beloved moveis of all time as a comedy musical!! My god we're geniuses!!"

"Waitaminute -- you got Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty doing a Bob Hope / Bing Crosby style road musical?!? Perfect!!"

"That's right Bob, we have the greatest dance-man in film, Gean freakin' Kelly, and the hottest pop singer in the world to do a musical. Gold I tell you!! Even got a gold-printing name, just listen . . . Xanadu! We'll be rich!!!"

and so forth. I'm starting to scare myself about this now. Schaffer always just wanders in with an amazing gem of greatness and it's just there -- I don't think every other game he's made, worked on or even played combined received this much hype and attention.
I still will buy this without reservation, and even if it suxxors I'll consider the $60 an apology for all the jerks that didn't support P-nauts (I could die happy if the sequel got made) . . . but I'm starting to get a growing feeling that whatever spark of amazing he sems to have won't be able to do its thing with all this surrounding him
ESPECIALLY now that EA are the Godfathers to this baby. Granted, they've acted in a stunningly open-minded and artistically supportive and nurturing manner these last 12 months . . . and I think this was one of the worst performing years they've had, sales-wise. Are they going to lean on him to make changes that make it more homegenized? Can he stick by his art, refusing to make it palatable for everybody . . . and risk another bomb? What did Psychonauts do, 100K in sales? Lots riding on this for him and Double-fine.

Allright, I'm clearly losing my mind over a friggin trailer to an unreleased video game. Time to stop. Sorry for the slow public descent into schitzophrenia.


. . . *sniff* . . . I wanna play Psychonauts 2 . . . we were gonna go be cool agents and everything . . .

I WANT SCHAFERS BABBYS.

/can't add anything else

...

Er, just one?

Don't know this Schafer dude, and I don't care. Looking at his gameography, to ME, it seems like I haven't missed much.

This game, judging by this trailer, won't change that it seems...looks terrible.

This was a bit underwhelming but misleading trailers isn't a new thing for double fine. The psychonauts trailers were pretty terrible aswell. I'm not worried. The art is still spot-on and it has been since day one. Just bring on the demo, or a trailer focusing on the characters come fall 2009. God I can't believe it'll still be a year though, I'll be so old by then!

Yes of course to you, you haven't missed much, because you have NO IDEA what you are missing! He makes possibly the most charming games out of the weirdest concepts ever.

Actually, I looked at what kind of games he makes and exactly your description of his games (charming + weird) reassure me I have not missed anything I'd regret. Just not my cup of tea I guess...and yeah, I can tell all that without even playing the games...I'm just that kind of superhuman...

@ Jato:
If you don't like charming and wierd . . . how about funny? I'm trying to think of any other developer that actually makes games that are laugh-out-loud funny (and not for fart jokes), and nothing close comes to mind. Games like DotT and FT might be too limited by their technological era (point-and-click was Da Bomb back in the day, but so were 2400 baud modems you didn't have to clip the handset to), but Psychonauts you can pick up for 10$ or less at a game store, or download on XBL Marketplace if you have a 360 -- and is a damn funny and inventive platformer.

Probably the best trailer I've seen in terms of trying to touch all the bases:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md_8uDtbffQ

Well, to put it bluntly: If I want to laugh my ass off I'll watch a funny movie or show, comedian whatever. Although some good humour is always welcome, it's not something I look for in games, and is way down the bottom on my priority list. So, it's not enough to pull me in.

I'm sure his games are great and all, but this trailer shows nothing promising at all imo, and no matter how funny it is or the fact that Jack Black (yuck) is featured in it will change that.

Looked ok.... The game will be funny and well written at least.

I think it'l be great :)

cannot wait, psychonauts was one of my faves last gen, and fandango is one of the best pointy-clicky adventures out there. and this looks awesome. it may not hold up well gameplay wise (it's bound to get compared to action games such as DMC and god of war which are hard to compete with) but i think as an overall experience its gonna be great. considering the trailer actually made me laugh its already onto a great start.

To be honest, that didn't look specially cool. Also, I LOVED Grim Fandango, one of my favorite games EVER, but Psychonauts had some poor, boring, repetitive gameplay with nowhere near as cool characters/dialogue/funny-levels as Grim--which mean I thought it was a bad game, and I couldn't play it for more than a couple of hours.

you should have persivered, cos jumping into the crazy milkmans head was pretty much the best level i've ever played in a platformer. characters where awesome as well. if it wasnt for the jak series and ratchet and clank, i'd say it was easily the best 3D platformer out there.

Some of the most legendary developers like Rare, Rockstar and whatever studio Peter Molyneux happens to be in at the time, have made hilariously funny games. But these games have also had rock solid gameplay at their core, and that is what made them legendary. If you discount a game just because it's 'funny' or 'cute' then you're missing out on a whole lot.

I just started to play Psychonauts on PC... What an AWESOME GAME! Such a shame noone bought it. Stupid gamers... buy shit like Gears of Shite and Gears of Shite 2 and miss such amazing gem... dumb.