Double Fine announced a sequel to the critical acclaimed platform video game Psychonauts at The Game Awards last night.
The company said that it has launched a crowd funding campaign for Psychonauts 2, allowing pledgers to become investors.
Double Fine is looking to raise $3.3 million from fans and is using the crowdfunding platform Fig, which was launched by former Double Fine COO Jonathan Bailey in August.
The rest of the budget will be contributed by Double Fine and outside investors. According to Polygon, there is a secret investor, not “traditionally a publisher,” but assumed to be giving the studio a significant amount of money for the development of the game.
Double Fine said: “We’ve put together a collection of crowdfunding rewards we think Psychonauts fans will be really excited about! In addition to that we’re also excited to be the first crowdfunding campaign in history that is also able to allow investment from both accredited and unaccredited investors. That means you can choose rewards, or you can invest for a return of the profits.”
Psychonauts 2 is planned for release in 2018 and will be created with Unreal Engine 4.
Double Fine Creative Director Tim Schafer told IGN in an interview that Unreal 4 “allows us to focus on the game instead of the tech. We can focus on art and gameplay, and have Raz running around on day one.”
He added: “We’re in early pre-production, I’ve got my document with a backlog of ideas, backstory, and the extended story for Psychonauts that’s always been an idea in a sequel. We’ve had an art jam and figured out locations, but it’s still in the early design phase.”