#Tim Schafer

[walmaker-artist]

Boyd's house - Day of the Tentacle style (part 2)

[violentlycookingcartoons]

Hello! Can you draw some of the campers from Psychonauts? Your choice :)

Here some small children

[mvfm-25]

" A psychic adventure from the mind of Tim Schafer! As if the voices in your head weren't enough... " PLAY Magazine n42 - June, 2005.

[pedroam-bang]

Grim Fandango (1998)

[sleepyjuniper]

Okay another thing I really like about Psychonauts is the nature of its dialogue options. I collected some screenshots from a video of Pn2 dialogue options to demonstrate this, but it's present in Pn1 as well. And if I had gifs of these exact scenes I'd use them, but alas.

Basically, the dialogue options you're given are literally Raz's thoughts. The paths his brain is branching out towards. These are multiple different things he's thinking about in the moment, and you are just picking the one he decides to verbalize. Which means, a fully conceptualized thought in his head sometimes comes out differently when put into words, because he's literally changing how he wants to word it in real time. Changing his mind about what he actually wants to say.

So, here's my favorite example. (Sidenote: In the first playthrough I watched of this, you could actually see the player debate whether or not to choose this option and it was really funny. They ultimately chose to see what would happen.)

So, you can see that this is a subject he wants to address, and in his head, he knows how he would word it. However, once you choose that option...

He loses his confidence and chickens out. This is an unusual structure for video game dialogue. Your protagonist is not usually unpredictable; what you select is simply what they'll say. In this way, the game keeps you guessing on what to expect. It feels less rigid and scripted. I mean, Raz is literally going off script.

Here's another example because this happens the most when he's talking to Lili and I find it really adorable

You can really see into Raz's inner workings with these dialogue options. It's a deeper look into his thoughts, his character. You can tell he thinks alot about the moment he and Lili had back at the summer camp, but isn't as confident when it comes to actually voicing those thoughts. It makes him feel more human and relatable in a way I can't perfectly describe.

I also just really like how the dynamics shifted and evolved between Pn1 and Pn2. The way Raz matures and his demeanor changes reflects the real life experiences that the Double Fine team collected over the 10+ years between development cycles, and even during development.

The way Raz and Lili's relationship is portrayed is more in line with modern expectations, and I don't think that's a bad thing. Tim Schafer has always strived for portraying his characters and story respectfully, and he only improved with the extra time between projects.

Anyway, bonus dialogue:

Absolute goober

[cat-mermaid]

Psychonauts - The Milkman Conspiracy

[lunaghost13]

Cosplayed as my wife again 💖

[cuterefaction]

Palate cleanser whilst I work on finishing off the trektober catchup - a 5 minute sketch of Laverne from Day of the Tentacle.

[skruttet]

of COURSE the creator of psychonauts has a kickass moomin book collection

[a-m-w-worlds]

Grim Fandango: Art Style

Grim's art style is actually really interesting!/gen It stands out in multiple ways, but mostly in the character designs.

Made at a time when 3D models in games were still very blocky, Grim managed to use this limitation to its advantage. The character designs are heavily inspired by Mexican folk art.

The skeleton characters were modeled after calacas, colorfully exaggerated figures of skeletons made from wood, clay, or, as far as I can tell, whatever other material you can think of. Calacas tend to be highly stylized, with more exaggerated shapes and proportions than real skeletons. They notably translate very well to animation such as in Book of Life, Coco, and Monster High, and Grim Fandango is no exception. Their simpler, more distinctive shapes can actually be captured really well with Grim's blockier, less refined models.

Mariachis in Grim Fandango.

Real mariachi calaca figures.

The same goes for a lot of the monsters, which seemed to be inspired by alebrije figures. (If you've never heard of alebrijes, check out this article! They're super cool!/gen)

Monsters from the Sea of Lament in Grim Fandango.

Image from the alebrijes Wikipedia page.

One of the cats from the Cat Tracks in Rubacava.

An alebrije from this article.

Alebrijes rely on striking and dramatic shapes and vibrant colors, meaning that, like the calacas, they mesh surprisingly well with early 3D graphics.

Now, according to the developer commentary in the remastered version of the game, the demons and some of the vehicles, Glottis and the Bone Wagon in particular, were inspired by the work of the cartoonist Ed Roth. (His Wikipedia page here if you're interested!) I wasn't familiar with Ed Roth prior to playing Grim, but after looking up his work, yeah, I see the influence!

Glottis and the Bone Wagon.

An Ed Roth piece.

Grim's models and textures aren't nearly as detailed, but the spirit is there!

All-in-all, just like with everything else, Grim Fandango's art style bursting with charm and personality that more than make up for its outdated graphics!

Link to the complete review!

[walmaker-artist]

The Milkman Conspiracy - Day of the Tentacle Style.

[violentlycookingcartoons]

RAZPUTIN RAZPUTIN RAZPUTIN RAZPUTIN RAZPUTIN RAZPUTIN RAZPUTIN RAZPUTIN

You get 8 Razputin sketches

[mvfm-25]

" Open your mind! "

Play Magazine - April, 2005

[pedroam-bang]

Grim Fandango (1998)

[mjackson97-blog1]

Grim fandango but in the land of the living.

[cat-mermaid]

i don't think theres been a more powerful form of exposition in gaming (or even any other form of media) than Psychonauts's memory vaults

you get around 8-ish slides, each viewed in silence, hand drawn linework in a black/white and grey tint, that fucking come for your life

and the genius of them is that you get to flip back and forth, see a fucked up panel, flip back to the previous one, go OH SHIT and then flip forward to the end and go OH FUCK. You control the speed at which you view them, you get to pause for as long as you want and just take in everything and really let it fucking sink in

AND DAMN that absolutely raw ass line work, holy shit, it goes so hard. In every expression, every pose, so much has to be conveyed in each fucking panel and fuck me does it ever

the Psychonauts memory vaults can tell you in a few fucking drawings what other games will dedicate hours of exposition to and godammit i wish more people in the industry were taking notes