Two Participant Productions has surprise-dropped an epilogue for Double Fantastic Psych Odyssey, its prolonged documentary cataloguing the making of Double Fantastic’s Psychonauts 2. The posthumous episode sees the studio conducting key postmortems, reacting to the discharge of the unique documentary, and grappling with the still-simmering tensions captured for the world to see.
The episode is not fully mournful, however in its most trustworthy moments it examines how leaders on the undertaking fostered what was at occasions an unhealthy working surroundings. Many builders appeared to know that working surroundings badly damage morale and drove some away from the studio.
CEO Tim Schafer, his voice usually cracking, describes rewatching a number of moments from late in growth and realizing he’d missed all of the indicators of issues going off observe.
One second specifically stands out: his recognition of what former senior gameplay programmer Anna Kipnis went via earlier than she left Double Fantastic.
Some devs solely understood their peer’s experiences after watching Psych Oddysey
Kipnis left the corporate in 2018, in what Psych Odyssey revealed adopted main disagreements in how growth on Psychonauts 2 was continuing. Schafer mentioned rewatching her departure made him understand the studio had turn out to be a spot the place folks have been afraid to share concepts.
“These conferences have been about folks being shut down and made to really feel embarrassed for citing issues,” he mentioned, alluding to feedback made by former design director Zak McClendon in conferences with Kipnis. “Nobody’s going to pitch the concept that make the sport good after they’re being mocked or being made to really feel dangerous for citing artistic concepts.”
“You’ll be able to see how that sort of strain and concern of public failure brings out [what is] not our greatest selves.”
His reflections transcend Kipnis’ expertise, and canopy many moments that present how gaps in management—from himself and others—created the aforementioned pressure.
It isn’t a straightforward lesson to observe somebody be taught in actual time. In the direction of the top of the episode, Schafer mentioned the corporate has taken steps to keep away from repeating that failure and protect a wholesome tradition—one bodily instance being an organization handbook places the studio’s core values down in writing for brand new hires and longtime staff alike.
A handbook alone cannot make proper what went flawed on Psychonauts 2—however hopefully a brutally clear documentary may help different builders steer away from the harmful shoals that Double Fantastic sailed via.
You’ll be able to watch the epilogue episode within the video above.
