Exploring the influence of Walt Disney on the theme-park-like world of Psychonauts 2. This one begins with a throwaway line from Lili that casually reveals the design philosophy of Psychonauts as a whole. To truly get it, we need to go back to the days that Tim Schafer, the writer of Psychonauts, worked for Ron Gilbert on the Monkey Island games. W…

Exploring the strange and arcane lore of Lies of P, starting with the word ‘apple’. With alchemy at its heart, this video covers a multitude of topics, including the devil, Paracelsus, the wonderful world of Oz, Gnosticism, the Bible, Greek myths, greed, ancient meteorite worship, Blade Runner, and Pinocchio (of course). Beginning with the word ‘ap…

My honest thoughts on Lies of P, in relation to goats, mountains, and Italian aperitifs. After completing Lies of P, at long last, I started to question whether I actually enjoyed doing so. A complete novice to the Soulslike genre, I muddled through the boss fights, mostly with the help of explosive throwables and bait in the form of a battle Spect…

Exploring the world of immersive audio gaming with The Vale: Shadow of the Crown. The Vale places you in the shoes of blind princess Alex. Your father is dead. Your brother has been crowned the new king. Meanwhile, you are being whisked away to a small keep in the Borderlands, on the outskirts of the kingdom. That is until your caravan is attacked …

Exploring the links between Lies of P and The Adventures of Pinocchio, as well as that one forgotten film adaptation that currently sits at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. When developing a new Soulslike game, South Korean developer Neowiz Games wanted to make sure it had widespread appeal. For the setting, the art team focused on the concept of “Gotham Par…

Exploring the Gothic (and Belle Époque) architecture of Lies of P, while ignoring the killer puppets. When designing the Paris-like city of Krat in Lies of P, the arts team were asked to focus on the concept of “Gotham Paris”. Whether “Gotham” is a mistranslation of “Gothic” is up to debate. But the point is the designers were asked to steep the ga…

This second part starts on the edge of a cliff. From there it takes a deep dive into the mid-life crisis, exploring topics as vast as Frankenstein, brain-machine technology, and wayward orphans.Long-lost fathers, cliff-edge tussles, and Holy Grails are common features of the hero’s journey. These can be found in much of Hollywood’s output, from The…

In the late forties Joseph Campbell laid out the mythic pattern that underlies every story ever told. George Lucas discovered it in the seventies while writing Star Wars. And Tim Schafer likely studied it while writing adventure games for LucasArts. This first part explores the Hero's Journey in Psychonauts, in connection to Star Wars, Indiana Jone…

Investigating mysteries in the dark spy world of Psychonauts. Mind control experiments, secret detention camps, high-ranking spies, and suspected moles. These are just some of the covert cases to have inspired the dark spy world of Psychonauts. The GPC, or Geodesic Psychoisolation Chambers, have always seemed shady. There's a good reason for that. …

Exploring the strange and curious history of typing games, from the late seventies to the modern day. Take a leisurely tour of this offbeat, yet surprisingly profitable, gaming genre. It begins in the late seventies with the work of freelance writer (and programmer) Dick Ainsworth, who was commissioned by Bally to make an “educational” game for the…