It's not that Schafer's made so many games that he has to be on every list (like the Final Fantasy games). It's just that his games are so diverse and bizarre that they usually stand out enough to make somebody's list of "Gaming's Greatest/Worst [Insert Noun Here]." This week, he makes GamesRadar's list of "18 awesome games that died at retail" not once, but twice!

Psychonauts to me is the obligatory Schafer game everyone includes on their list. But thanfully Grim Fandango made the cut this time. Of all Schafer's works, it's still my favorite so far.

It'll be interesting to see whether or not Brütal Legend qualifies as a great game that dies at retail. Currently, it's got a Metacritic score of 84, but the jury's still out on how well it's selling...

18 awesome games that died at retail [GamesRadar]

The Double Fine Productions founder tells MTV Multiplayer that even though sales of last-gen effort Psychonauts didn't quite line up with its critical reception, things are cool. And that's important.

"Fans worry too much about sales, to tell you the truth," Schafer tells MTV. "As long as you make a cool game, publishers want to talk to you." The cool as a cucumber creator behind beloved fare like Grim Fandango and Full Throttle also seems unconcerned about Brütal Legend's chances at retail.

Schafer says Double Fine's upcoming open-world action game has the benefit being simply more "commercial," stuffing Hollywood talent, foxy chicks, and molten guitar licks into a tasty package. So don't fret, don't fuss, dear gamer. Just buy Brütal Legend when you get the chance.

Tim Schafer: Gamers Worry Too Much About Sales [MTV Multiplayer]

Double Fine have opened the Psycho-pedia, a comprehensive encyclopaedia of anything and everything to do with Psychonauts. Campers, mental worlds, game art, concept art, it's got the lot.

It's still a work-in-progress at the moment, but if that bothers you, give complaining about it a rest and contribute to the thing instead.

Psycho-Pedia [Double Fine, via Offworld]

Since Portal is essentially a first person puzzle game, the team initially thought it would simply end on what they thought was appropriate, a puzzle more complex than anything the player had seen before. That solution, they said, was a pain.

Their first proper boss fight attempt, when GLaDOS was just a translucent shimmery cube, was the "Giant Laser" battle. Players had to direct lasers back at GLaDOS to destroy it. It wasn't fun and the lasers were just too difficult to aim.

Boss battle attempt number two, their "Mortal Kombat" stab, was full of intensity. Missing flying, turrets spawning, an out of place firefight than belied Portal's slower paced, cerebral gameplay. It also sucked, according to Wolpaw.

Attempt number three was a chase sequence. But the pacing was horrible and there was no opportunity to communicate to the player.

Around this time, Wolpaw said the Half-Life 2 Episode Two guys excitedly said to the Portal team "Our final battle is gonna have 100 Striders, you're going to get to drive a car and fight dozens of mini-Striders. It's gonna be awesome! What are you guys gonna do?"

With a tiny team on Portal, they simply couldn't match a boss battle that epic, and they ultimately created the time limited incinerator set piece as the final fight.

The Portal team's limited resources also forced them to "trim the narrative fat" elsewhere. Swift talked about a proposed scene involving "The Rat Man" the fellow escaped test subject whose writing and sketches appear in the game's later levels.

As far as Portal's other co-star, the Weighted Companion Cube, its origins lie in addressing player frustration with finishing the "box marathon" level that features the lovable crate. Wolpaw said that he was inspired to give the Cube a little personality by what he'd been reading in de-classified government interrogation manuals. "They're great," he said, pointing to findings that people in isolation become emotionally attached to inanimate objects.

Wolpaw had advice for those trying to write a "funny" game—"God help you." He related his previous experience with Psychonauts, on which he was one of the game's writers. Upon name dropping the cult favorite, Wolpaw was met with a huge round of applause. "More people just clapped than bought the game," he joked.

"Hearing macho tough guy dialogue is annoying enough, but hearing the same joke fifty times, a couple of which may actually be funny can be much worse," Wolpaw said. He called the playtesting of Psychonauts "psychological torture", his comedic script met with silence when being pumped out of 40 monitors in the QA section at Double Fine Productions.

When the two had wrapped up their session, taking questions from the audience, the discussion quickly moved to plans for Portal 2. Swift and Wolpaw mostly dodged the question, with the latter saying "I'm just trying to bask in the moment... without people bugging me about it."

Xbox Originals Manuals and Controller layouts (and free themes and picture packs) [Microsoft]

Their free games section just added Tim Schafer's awesome brain-trip, Psychonauts, so you can play it on the PC without their monthly subscription. Lest we forget, the description:

Some kids dream of running away to join the circus. Raz grew up in the circus, and dreams of joining an elite force of psychic special agents — the Psychonauts. Having snuck into the secret training facilities (a summer camp), Raz must now hone his abilities to eliminate an even greater threat. If you're looking for 3D platforming action with a dark sense of humor, Psychonauts is your game.

(Image is from the fan-based Psychonauts 'most excellent comic' project.)

Psychonauts page [GameTap]

I'm sure that Microsoft—and many third parties—would love to add these options to older Xbox re-releases. The cash revenue from achievement whores could make even Psychonauts finally turn a healthy profit.

Will Xbox Originals have Achievements? [Microsoft]

But he does say:

Who doesn't want to make Xbox Live Arcade games? It's like when you see a Great Dane taking a giant shit and then you see a poodle taking a little Tootsie Roll shit. The poodle is so cute, but at the end of the day you're still picking up shit.

Best. Analogy. Ever. ?.

There's plenty more in the way of Schafer quality goodness at the Gamasutra's coverage of the 2007 IGDA Leadership Forum session.

IGDA Forum: Tim Schafer Gets (More) Creative [Gamasutra]

Also, our new press release has mentioned that Psychonauts is coming to XBLA as a classic Xbox download with the fall update. Score. Here's the full press release:

As Xbox LIVE Turns Five, Microsoft Announces Next Wave of Social Fun

Xbox LIVE membership soars past 8 million mark, Microsoft unveils new download service for Xbox games direct to your living room beginning Dec. 4.

REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 13, 2007 — On Nov. 15, Microsoft Corp. will celebrate the fifth anniversary of Xbox LIVE. In addition, the company notes that the latest membership figures show more than 8 million members are now actively engaged in the largest social entertainment network on TV. Xbox LIVE has grown from a small community of gamers in two countries, playing a handful of games online with their friends, to a worldwide social entertainment network offering online access to gaming, music, movies and TV shows. As friends across 26 countries and nine languages have connected on Xbox LIVE, it is their feedback and active participation that has guided the service to become what Wired magazine recently called "the king of the online arena." As a gesture of thanks to the gaming community, all 8 million members will have the opportunity to download a free Xbox LIVE Arcade game,* available for downloading between 12:01 a.m. PST on Nov. 15 and 11:59 p.m. PST on Nov. 16.** In addition to this, every active member who joined the service in 2002 will receive 500 free Microsoft Points.

Starting on Dec. 4, all Xbox LIVE members will receive a free system update with a host of new features and enhancements. Included in this update will be the launch of Xbox Originals, which, for the first time, will enable consumers to download and own full Xbox games, such as "Halo," "Psychonauts," "Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge" and "Fable," among others, directly to their Xbox 360. This new service will launch with an array of blockbuster titles spanning the most popular genres from action-adventure to classic role-playing games.

With no disc necessary, and at just 1,200 Microsoft Points per game, Xbox LIVE members can easily rediscover these hit titles, or check out a game they missed the first time around. This launch lineup is only the beginning, as Xbox 360 owners can expect to see a growing catalog of Xbox games to download and own over the coming year.

"In just five short years, Xbox LIVE has revolutionized the way friends and family have fun in the living room," said John Schappert, corporate vice president of LIVE, software and services at Microsoft. "On its fifth birthday, Xbox LIVE truly is the place for hanging out with friends and enjoying downloadable TV shows, movies, videos, game add-ons and now downloadable Xbox games on demand."

More information can be found online about the downloadable games available on Xbox LIVE, the evolution of Xbox LIVE or the Xbox LIVE is 5IVE member rewards at http://www.xbox.com.

Double Fine Halloween Competition! [Double Fine Action Forums]
[Thanks, A.H..]

Haha. Nooooo. There's no new Psychonauts game in the works right now, but I'm glad some people got excited by the idea. I know *I* got excited.

"Given the limited shelf space and relatively quick turn of titles at retail nowadays, we consider GameTap to be a valuable vehicle that can help extend the video game lifecycle," said Ken Gold, vice president of Marketing, Majesco.

Majesco and GameTap Partner on New Digital Distribution Deal

Top titles now featured on leading broadband gaming network

EDISON, N.J. - Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games and digital entertainment products for the mass market, announced today that several popular titles from its catalog, including Psychonauts, BloodRayne 1 & 2, and JAWS™ Unleashed are now available for subscription play and digital download on GameTap, the first-of-its-kind broadband entertainment network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.). The new agreement includes that Majesco titles will also be made available on GameTap's recently launched ad-supported game play website.

"Given the limited shelf space and relatively quick turn of titles at retail nowadays, we consider GameTap to be a valuable vehicle that can help extend the video game lifecycle," said Ken Gold, vice president of Marketing, Majesco.

Along with the critically-acclaimed Psychonauts from Double Fine Productions that is currently available for subscription play and online purchase, BloodRayne 1 & 2 are also prominently featured as part of GameTap's 'Bloodsucker Summer,' an original content program that the 900+ game service utilizes to bring both newer and older titles from their massive library to the attention of their subscribers.

GameTap is also inviting fans to 'Hit the Beach' today by offering the best-selling JAWS™ Unleashed to their Gold Level members for the first time.

"Majesco's wide range of quality games are a great addition to our current product catalog," said Ricardo Sanchez, GameTap's vice president of content and creative director. "Psychonauts is consistently one of our top titles and we've had a great response to the recent launch of BloodRayne on our service."

Psychonauts is a unique, third-person psychic odyssey from the mind of Tim Schafer that received numerous accolades and awards, including the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award for Best Screenplay.

JAWS™ Unleashed adapts the landmark film into a unique interactive experience that lets you play as one of Nature's most powerful and fearsome creatures, the Great White Shark.

BloodRayne is an original action-horror franchise starring the super-sexy, super-lethal, supernatural heroine Rayne.

The game is rumored to be revealed at next week's Games Convention in Leipzig, where Schafer will be keynoting on creativity. Of course, this is all rumor, as IHOM has since retracted its story, but it should be noted that Black has recently been spotted sporting the above pictured Whispering Rock Spring Summer Camp t-shirt from Double Fine's previous effort Psychonauts.

Double Fine's new game - Brutal Legend? [Google Cached IHOM via NeoGAF]

According to one Cheapassgamer, Microsoft updated their Xbox 360 backward compatability list on the official site, only to retract these games moments later. Did someone hit publish a little too soon? Included in the list of newly supported titles were fan favorites like Shenmue II, Dead or Alive Ultimate, and the Double Fine Studios cult bomb Psychonauts.

Xbox community team member and Gamerscoreblogger Chris Paladino posted to excited forum members "We haven't made any announcements on this subject yet. Please hold off on freaking at this point in time. ;)". Not exactly a denial.

Sadly, those of us still holding on to their original Xboxes for games like Jet Set Radio Future, Otogi and Panzer Dragoon Orta will have to hold on a little longer.

Hit the jump for the list of alleged games due to hit for the next BC udpated. Michael McWhertor

December 2006 Backwards Compatiblity Update (Coming Soon/Not Active Yet) [CAG forums]

* Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* Burnout 3: Takedown (Updated)
* Dead Or Alive Ultimate
* Destroy All Humans!
* Dynasty Warriors 4
* Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick
* Indigo Prophecy
* Family Guy
* Far Cry: Instincts
* Incredibles
* I-Ninja
* Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
* Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
* MotoGP
* MX Unleashed
* Open Season
* Pariah
* Psychonauts
* Rainbow Six: Lockdown
* Rapala Pro Fishing
* Scarface
* Shark Tale
* Shenmue II
* Splinter Cell: Double Agent
* The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
* Ultimate Spider-Man
* Wakeboarding Unleashed: Featuring Sean Murray
* Whacked!
* Winback 2: Project Poseidon
* Xiaolin Showdown

After being forced to endure excruciating games like SiN: Emergence and Bloodrayne, Steam has finally added a half-decent game which, I must admit, I never quite learned to love, but at least don't actively loathe, again like Bloodrayne: Psychonauts. Also, congratulations on reading the longest sentence in the history of Kotaku!

For just a cool $20 (only $10 more than Amazon's retail price!), you can download Tim Schaffer and Erik Wolpaw's game about psychic weirdos at a government summer camp, fighting a deranged scientist who wants to suck out their brains. God, I wonder why I didn't like Psychonauts again... Florian Eckhardt

Psychonauts [Steam]

Psychonauts was a game that, despite my best intentions, I never quite learned to love. But good news for Psychonauts fans: the classic-for-everyone-but-me Doublefine title is going to get some more exposure, thanks to Steam. We're sure the influence of Erik Wolpaw of Valve, previously Doublefine, previously Gamespot, previously Old Man Murray helped that along. Florian Eckhardt

Psychonauts C oming to Steam [Next Generation]

The last Xbox 360 backwards compatibility came and went, and there was much gnashing of teeth. "Where's Psychonauts?" asked the Internet's vast constabulary of fans of a game I've never been smart enough to appreciate. A yellowish loogie was perceived to arc from Microsoft's puckered lips into Tim Schaffer's face.

But don't fret: Psychonauts is coming. Alan Stuart of the Backwards Compatibility team told Aeropause that it's being worked on... nay, is imminent.

We worked on Psychonauts and it was almost ready to ship, but it didn't make the deadline. We continue to work on all games.

So we should see it in the next update, right, Alan? Florian Eckhardt

Backwards Compat: Psychonauts Almost Done [Aeropause]

Tim Schafer seems smart. Like, really smart. I am extremely impressed with the very simple, very true little bombs he drops over and over in this recorded lecture from GDC 2004.

Yeah, it's long. But for anyone interested in creating any sort of fictional experience, be it games, movies, books or Crecente/Bashcraft slashfic (we call it Bashfic), this will be a valuable hour and five minutes for you.

A very few of the many points Schafer makes about creating good characters:

• Characters should be wish fulfillment. This doesn't mean they can't be goofy, or nerdy, or losers. There are lots of ways to make characters that are fun to play. Guybrush might not be a badass, but he always has a comeback.
• Create supporting NPCs as you would the ideal road trip buddies. Making them annoying, offputting, needlessly stupid or generally hateful and then sticking the player with them through the whole game is just sadistic.
• Write the PC as you would a character in a movie, a character that a good actor would jump at playing.

More after the jumpasaur.

• Backstory. Making up pasts for every single one of your characters, big ones or not, makes it insanely easy to imbue them with neat little traits by pulling from the past you've created.
• Steal stuff, but steal it right. Steal stuff from life, especially. From your own life, from your friends', from crazy things hobos tell you on the street. And steal stuff from other fiction, but don't steal the surface junk. Steal what makes good things good. So if you're stealing from GTA, stealing the hookers and mobsters and violence is missing the point. Steal the fun, the open-ended gameplay, the facetious attitudes.

I'm taking better notes on this speech than I ever did on anything in the history of my school career, so I'll stop. Just give it a listen; even if you aren't a creator this will give you a whole new way to look at and appreciate games. Eliza Gauger

Listen to the lecture here, and subscribe to the Gamasutra podcast [Gamasutra]

Psychonauts fans were recently called to arms when creator Tim Shaffer created an online petition demanding a backwards compatibility patch on the 360 for his game. A few days later we have news that wonder of wonders, it worked, and a Psychonauts patch is on the way. The report is from a highly dubious source, as CVG recognizes:

According to a poster on the IGN Forums (yes, we know, but surely they can't all be frauds, right?) going by the name of Alan Stuart and claiming to be an 'Emulation Ninja' deep in the heart of Microsoft, that update is on its way: "I actually, really, truly am one of the developers on the backwards compatibility team. No foolin", Stuart wrote, "Rest assured, we are working on Psychonauts."

However, the next patch is almost certainly a long way off, seeing as they just released one a short time ago. I am pleased, regardless. Less about Psychonauts specifically, and more about a corporation paying attention to direct consumer input. It's good to be noticed, you know? Yeah, you know. Eliza Gauger

Full article here [Computer and Video Games]

I didn't like Psychonauts. That admission alone will cause some of you to wrongfully vilify me as some sort of monster. I'm not a monster. I tried to love it, I wanted to love it! I played two hours of Psychonauts, then quit: the game's quirky humor, much lauded by the same internet that finds Something Awful funny, was lost on me as I stared at the screen, my lips compressed into a grim, humorless line. Upon being forced to fight some stupid tank that I couldn't figure out how to beat, I quit in disgust and went out to beat a baby to death with a bag full of kittens.

Nevertheless, I know a lot of people love it, and are dismayed that Psychonauts can not be played in backwards compatibility mode on the 360. Tim Schaffer is too! And he wants you to help fight back!

I want you to get up. I want you to walk over to your window right now. I want you to open your window up, and then I want you to stick your head out, and then I want you to take in a nice breath of fresh air, and then I want you to close that window and walk back to your computer and click on this link and send Microsoft a heartfelt message. Something to the effect of, "I am a 9-year-old boy in the hospital, dying of consumption, and my last wish is to play Psychonauts on my XBOX 360!" (Please, try to make up your own disease.)

Remember to follow politically correct protocol when you're picking your disease! Trust me on this: you don't want to get the National Down Syndrome Congress on your back. Florian Eckhardt

Psychonauts on the XBox 360 [Double Fine]