Psychonauts 2 Story Trailer
This project started off with a Twitter DM from my friend James Spafford (aka "Spaff) who is Double Fine's Director of Marketing and Communications. Previous trailers were made by the documentary crew 2-Player Productions, but they were too busy working on the Psychonauts 2 documentary, so the final trailers had to be done through 3rd parties (if you just want to read about the trailer, skip past the photo of the Raz plush).
Truth be told, what led to this moment started about eleven years ago when I first started going to PAX East and West. This is when I first met Tim Schafer along with my friend AnnaTheRed (an AMAZING plushsmith) who made a Raz plush for Tim Schafer to show her appreciation for Psychonauts. By the way, this plush would years later be the prototype which turned into the official Raz plush! This is also the year we started going to Double Fine's parties which were always a highlight of PAX West to meet fellow fans and game developers (and game developer fans!)
Shortly after that same year, Anna made a Two-Headed Baby Double Fine logo plush for our trip to San Francisco and was then commissioned to make about FIFTY of them for their holiday gift that year. The following year I met Spaff at the Double Fine party (he was working for Media Molecule at the time). Anna she gave them an adorable plush PlayStation Vita case she made to look like Iota from their game Tearaway. We never missed a single Double Fine party and became convention buddies with Spaff and other friends who we saw once or twice a year (depending on the number of conventions we all attended).
I don't share this to mean: "Give people things so they hire you some day." Treating friendships and relationships as transactional is absolutely NOT a good way to live or treat people. I share this to say networking is usually just making friends with people you like and sometimes there's overlap between your friends' skills and opportunities which arise. One day you and your friends are just getting started, and then many years later you might both be doing great work in your respective fields! In this case it meant 10 years after making a new friend, I was in the right spot to have the amazing opportunity to make this story trailer ^_^
My friend Anna is an AMAZING plushsmith!
Setting Goals
I was tasked with making a story trailer to introduce the main plot of the game. The previous trailers announced the game, re-introduced the main character Raz, and showed a lot of cool visuals; this trailer had to show the thrust of what Raz is doing.
First steps before I got my hands on the game were to talk to the Xbox team (led by Hailey Geller) about their creative brief for the trailer. As a big fan of Psychonauts and Double Fine, I didn't need any orientation about the fanbase and appeal of the game, but the core things the trailer had to touch upon were:
Introduce the game to a new audience (and cater to fans)
Cinematic storytelling
Memorable cast of characters & imaginative worlds
Platforming gameplay
Show appeal to tertiary fans of similar media
Show the game is not just for kids.
Even without this brief, I think this is pretty much what I would do. My goal with games like this is to make the game look cinematic and help the player understand what it looks like when they're the one at the controls. This is my way of showing them: "This is what you do, and you'll feel like you're the center of this epic adventure."
Diving deeper into the plot and characters was the next logical step in this campaign given the previous trailers already did a good job of establishing the world and main character.
Psychonauts has a rich story and history. Had I not been familiar I would've likely at least watched a YouTube playthrough of the game, but as a fan I didn't have to do that :P
Breaking it Down
Psychonauts 2 was a game of a size and scope I hadn't typically worked on for my professional work (though in my spare time I've made fan trailers for lengthy AAA games) but my process was still the same; certain tasks just took longer to do.
First task was to play as much of the game as possible. Psychonauts 2 is roughly 15-30 hours long. I had the added benefit of debug options to skip around where necessary, and it wasn't strictly necessary for me to play much of the late game content since I didn't want to spoil parts of the epic finale (more on this later)
After my first round of capture was done, I had about 11 hours of footage. For most projects I break down the footage and sort it over the course of about a week. I was fortunate enough to have quite a lot of time, and in the end sorted through the footage for I'd guess about 2-3 weeks.
Due to the sheer amount of content, my usual categories for both dialogue and visuals were too broad to navigate efficiently. The goal of breaking down visuals and dialogue is to sort what you have to work with into buckets, and if each bucket amounts to a swimming pool, it's time to get more granular.
How big can breakdowns get for a game like this? This sequence is about an hour long and it’s not even everything I selected for potential trailer use.
I sorted the dialogue into these categories:
Exposition for:
Story
Maligula
The mole
The Psychonauts
Gameplay
Enemies
Character dialogue for:
Raz
Rez's Archetype
The Aquatos
Lili
Milla
Sasha
Coach
Hollis
Ford Cruller
The Psychic Six
NPCs
Interjections
Gadgets
Calls to action, action starters
Observations
Segues/Glue
Responses/Riffs
Dialogue urging to keep going
Statements of awe
"Oh no" statements
Villain threats
"Cappers" to end a statement
Dialogue about actions past, present and future
Grandiose statements
Jokes/Gags
The first sorted dialogue selects sequence I have is about 54 minutes long which is a LOT considering every single line is cut down to its essentials with absolutely no dead air in between. As I worked I would make copies of this selects string and try to pare it down to make it more manageable. Or sort it down into other dialogue strings focused on something like exposition for one storyline.
I selected all of these "portal" moments in the game because they look super cool, but unfortunately I didn't get to use any of them.
Visuals were separated into separate sequences, one for cinematic footage, and one for gameplay footage. Within their sub sequences I sorted them out like this (in no particular order other than how they appear in my sequence:
Gameplay Shots
Twisty world shots
Center framed shots
Running
Platforming basics
Rolling on balls
Mental Connections
Grinding on rails
Swinging
Tightropes
Climbing
Floating
Puzzles
Cool gameplay moments
"Portal"-like moments
Obstacles/Hazards
Cinematic Shots
Environmental storytelling
Raz putting on/taking off goggles
Rez's cool looks and poses
Raz in action
Raz's reactions
Raz landing
The Aquato Family
Lili
Coach
Sasha
Milla
Hollis
Ford Cruller
Loboto
Mote of Light
The Psychic Six
NPCs
Brains
Luctopus Casino
Ram it Down
Bob's Bottles
Bad Guys
Water
Maligula
Minions
Combat
Funny/Jokes
This is another great shot I didn’t use because it was used in previous trailers. I was very cognizant of repeating any footage, because I didn’t want to create the perception that there wasn’t much more to show. That would’ve been especially tragic considering there’s SO MUCH GOOD STUFF TO SHOW.
Each of these visuals sequences is about an hour each, which means between visuals and dialogue alone I had three hours of material which was pared down from about 13 hours of footage. In the entire project I have about 15.5 hours of footage total! I sorted and re-sorted my footage in many ways to help me based on how I'd be searching for footage or what section of the trailer I was thinking of. For example, some sequence of visuals and dialogue are re-sorted based on what act of the trailer I think they might fit well in. It also helped to just have shots from the discrete levels in their own sections.
Thoroughly breaking down a game lets me start with a relatively complete picture of what is in the game which I can then navigate and refer back to at a moment's notice. For example, if one line of dialogue a character says isn't quite working either in terms of content or timing, I can go into my breakdown to find all the lines from that character to find an alternative. Same goes for visuals. If I want a cool shot of Raz putting on or removing his goggles, I had an entire montage of just about every shot where he does that.
This also helps for situations if someone on the team says something like: "I like this moment here, but the shot is a little unclear. Do you have something which feels the same but has better composition?" My breakdown lets me find those alternative takes quickly rather than spend hours upon hours going through footage. The very act of breaking down the game also forces me to take a second look at all my footage, and sorting it in my head.
I had about an hour of dialogue selects and two hours of visuals
Exploring the Story
After the breakdown comes time to find the story for the trailer and Psychonauts 2 has A LOT of story! Here is an incomplete list of stories told in the game across 13 levels, all of which could've made an appearance in the trailer:
The Psychonauts are an organization of psychic spies who dive into people's minds to help them out, and go on missions when problems arise.
Raz is finally in the Psychonauts and wants to prove himself
There's an evil psychic named Maligula who unleashed a horrible flood upon Grulovia, the home of Raz.
Maligula's followers are trying to bring her back to life.
There's a mole in the Psychonauts.
The other interns in the Psychonauts both antagonize Raz, but also offer him support in some missions.
Truman Zanatto, current head of the Psychonauts is unconscious after being kidnapped.
Raz's family have come to help him out. Also, their family has been cursed to die in water.
Ford Cruller, original head of the Psychonauts is needed to fight Maligula, but he needs help getting put back together
Each member of the Psychic Six and acting head of the Psychonauts Hollis Forsyth has their own mental baggage they need to sort through (stories x5)
Clearly, there is no possible way to cover all of these stories in just one trailer. Since the original Psychonauts came out about 15 years prior, I knew this trailer should reintroduce the concept of the Psychonauts to new players while showing the central antagonist of the game, Maligula. The other plot points which I had on the table were the mole in the Psychonauts, Ford Cruller's story which ties deeply into the history of the Psychonauts, and Raz's family.
The family and Ford angles I assumed would be of particular interest to fans of the original since they'd expand upon the original game, whereas Maligula and the mole are specific to the plot of the sequel. Raz would of course be in there by default since he's the main character, and while the new characters' stories weave into the central one, their individual stories are too specific to put into the trailer. At best, the side characters would likely have little cameos to flesh out the scope of the game.
Shots like these I didn't really think people would have enough time to read in their entirety, but I thought they’d get the basic idea quickly and get the details on their second read.
Finding the Story
Since I prefer to use in-game dialogue to tell the story in my trailers rather than use voiceover or title cards, I do a deep analysis of my dialogue selects so I know precisely what puzzle pieces are available. To make this easier on me, I reverse engineer each line and assign it a story beat. For example:
"You're not at camp anymore, Raz"
becomes something like: "Raz's challenges are increasing" or "Raz is done with training, it's time for the real thing."
I do this with all the best lines of dialogue I've selected and what I end up with are clear story beats which I can use to make a paper edit of the trailer's story which when can be read out loud so I can determine if the story progression makes sense or if some beats need to be shuffled around. Once the sequence is sound, I take the corresponding lines of dialogue for each story beat and edit them into a sequence in Premiere.
Here is the first version of my paper edit:
—
There’s active gameplay and stuff happening which looks very cinematic. Raz is on his first day on the job when he sees Maligula who has been dead for 20 years. The fate of the world hangs in the balance and there’s only one person they can go to (Ford Cruller)
But Ford isn’t at 100%, he’ll need Raz’s help. When the Psychonauts first started, they got into some weird stuff. Raz says he’s not ready (Hollis agrees). This is some next level stuff, Maligula could come back. Raz’s family is also here too! People could die, and when you die in someone’s head you pee your pants.
There’s a brain that was booby-trapped. There’s a spy working on the inside and Raz doesn’t know who to trust. Raz’s classmates offer him support in the mission. The fate of the world is in Raz’s hands.
—
And here is my first dialogue edit which I sent to Double Fine with placeholder music.
You can see this version has a lot of dialogue which didn't make it into the final trailer. The main problem with this early draft is it's mostly exposition about the past of the Psychonauts with very little focus on the main plot; the plot doesn't come back in until more than halfway through!
After this I made a new version with some very placeholder visuals and also tweaked the dialogue. You can see the plot gets going a bit faster because I cut out Psychonauts backstory, but I also put in story points about Raz's family. Here I'm still very much exploring the story points I can possibly cover.
This version is getting there but the pacing still isn't quite right. Around this time, the release of the trailer was pushed back, which meant we had more time to explore. Spaff put together a group DM with Paul Levering of 2-Player Productions so we could jam on story points. Paul's main comment was Raz's family was dragging down the momentum mid-trailer. To address this, I used them as a comedic button after the title card. I think worked beautifully because this way they serve to say "And on top of all of everything he has to deal with his EMBARRASSING FAMILY!"
Spaff offhandedly wondered if the trailer could finish with Raz reiterating "Today is my first official day on the job" which I was more than happy to do in order to fulfill my longtime trailer editor dream of using that bookended structure I enjoyed from the trailer for Crank. Spaff also reminded me Lili needed to have a good moment in the trailer since she's a key character and a fan favorite.
It was very gratifying to see how much visual polish the game went through during the final stages of production!
There were a handful of other tweaks which really helped the overall structure. The first was swapping out the action oriented cold open with a quieter, ominous story moment. Originally, I made the opening to be the functional "thumb stopper" which shows a mixture of gameplay to hook the audience, but since this is a story trailer I decided showing players they'll learn about the origins of the Psychonauts would hook people, especially fans of the original.
The other tweaks were changing the transition points between the intro and the escalation portions of the trailer. For a long time the intro segue was the "if I can find some bacon" joke which I thought worked pretty well but never sit entirely well with me. Later on, G-Net used that moment for their E3 Psychonauts trailer, which made that an easy thing to find an alternative for. I ended up cutting straight to Raz saying he's ready for anything, to which I contrasted with the "Power of WHALE!" moment from the game which is a great visual accent.
The last big tweak was abandoning the "You pee your pants!" joke which didn't work very well as a comedic beat and didn't accent well before the climax transition. I killed two birds with one stone by inserting Lili's "You're right, we do" along with Raz's psychedelic dive into the Ear band mate.
As much as I would love to come out with the perfect story sequence right out of the gate, this is usually how things go. Sending early versions, tweaking things so they feel right, getting in everything the trailer needs and then getting ready to polish it all up.
Here’s a screenshot of all the iterations of the trailer starting from the sparsest outline to the finished polished version!
Visuals
There's an embarrassment of riches in Psychonauts 2 in so many ways, but the visual variety is probably the thing which comes out on top. There are so many levels, and every single one of them has a unique identity; there was simply no way to fit in everything that looks cool in this game. Since this trailer is heavily dialogue driven, that meant there are a lot of shots which simply have to be there to match what is being said, which didn't leave a lot of room for other visuals which fit into the cracks.
I tried to choose the shots which felt the most big in scope. After all, this is a sequel after 15 years and the game itself is a LOT bigger. This meant a lot of wide shots with visual splendor. I also tried to pick shots which even if they were in cutscenes, indicated hints about gameplay. For example, the opening shot features a "psi-card" collectible which you might think I'd take out because it's visually distracting, but I kept it in so people could understand that it's a space they'll play in, not just a cutscene.
I also selected shots with lots of environmental storytelling where it wasn't just a cool place, it was a place you could look at and glean something about the world, the characters or the gameplay. For example, the Hall of Brains shot shows something about the world of Psychonauts, and the device opening up (which is taken from the game's menus) adds some nice visual impact. Of course, as a trailer editor I'm looking for all the scenes where things impact, hit and land for when the trailer needs some nice punch.
There's a LOT of exposition around Ford Cruller and the history of the Psychonauts, but I removed it all because the trailer was already getting bogged down with too many threads.
There are also lots and lots of good hero shots for Raz which I had to take my pick of. Another key focus was to not overlap levels too much. After all, there's so much variety in the game, if there were too many shots in one area it might make people think the game is smaller in scope than it really is.
I was a bit worried about using too much footage from the psychedelic Psi-King's Sensorium level both because it's been heavily featured in previous trailers and because its design is so eye catching it would be obvious to people whenever shots form that level appeared. I think there's a level or two which I didn't feature any shots from at all, so there's still plenty for fans to discover. I did include a handful of shots which are from very late in the game, but I think without context there's not much to signal this fact to potential players.
This gag was cut because it wasn't working, and the fact the characters weren't animated in these scenes made it feel stiff (I still think the joke is funny, though)
Music and Sound
The music gave me quite a bit of trouble, because I was determined to stick to the Psychonauts 2 score by Peter McConnell. His musical collaborations with Tim Schafer are a huge part of the identity of Psychonauts. I felt using even high quality library trailer music wouldn't be true to what Psychonauts is for both new and old fans.
The problem is that music made for games isn't always the best for trailers because it tends to be designed to loop forever. While there were music cues like this in the soundtrack files, there were definitely pieces which had very strong beginning, middle and end. I knew I'd have to stitch together at least a handful of cues for the whole trailer, which has the benefit of taking the burden off of any individual cue, but ADDS the problem of creating a cohesive music track which has good dramatic structure.
Early on, the opening of the trailer was giving me the most trouble because none of the cues felt like a good self contained cold open, and I knew this was a scenario where asking the composer to modify or create something new wouldn't be possible because Psychonauts 2's score is made with a full orchestra! The middle also felt like it was just in a holding pattern rather than building to something bigger.
This is one of the first jokes I used for the button because I thought it was really funny. I also thought the sentiment of "I like to give the fans what they want" would be a good way to end the trailer.
Eventually I found a cue which worked for the middle, and I solved the problem of the opening by changing the first scene to something which required no music. I did ask for one change which is during the intro section explaining Maligula I asked for a version of the cue with the xylophones removes, because they were too peppy and light-hearted, but the underlying parts had a good build to them.
Once the music was in place it was my job to not squander the peaks and accents within the cues. A dynamic piece of music will usually have several sections where one particular phrase, note, instrument or something else really stands out and asserts itself. One of my greatest joys as a trailer editor is to fit dialogue in between these moments, and cut in tentpole visuals into those stand out moments.
This is a shot I cut because it didn't work as well with the big note on the bottom right, and pulling someone away from working on the game to modify this scene wasn't possible.
I don't usually get to do a lot of trailer sound design for game trailers, but for a trailer this cinematic there were a lot of opportunities to add some big hits, rises, whooshes and sweeteners. The game's own sound effects were also of course used for every shot I could.
The final sound mix was done by Michael Cardillo who I've worked with on many trailers at this point. I was really excited to see what he could do with this one because it had a lot more elements than my typical trailer. Sure enough, he hit it out of the park with the luscious and rich sound mix. Most of my notes were about letting the music carry the trailer during the big transitions like when Raz says: "Here goes nothing!" and a handful of moments where the sound effects needed to punch through.
Another thread I cut was the suspicion put on Raz since his family comes from the same country as Maligula.
Capture and Polish
Capturing for Psychonauts 2 was for the most part very smooth. I was super impressed with how quickly I was able to navigate through such a large game, and the speed at which I could do it! I occasionally had to get help from Double Fine in order to skip to the right part of the game where particular story triggers were already activated.
There were so many helpful tools at my disposal like how all the cutscenes had a unique debug code which showed in my first capture pass. I could then dive into the menus, find the code, press a button and have the cutscene play. Since the cutscenes are in-game and not pre-rendered, that occasionally led to bugs where something wasn't properly loaded, but I didn't run into any big problems.
There were already some nice debug camera options built into the game too! I also learned the term "camera interpolation" which is something I've talked about before but never had a word I could give to programmers. Basically, with more camera interpolation, when I move the thumbstick of my controller, the camera will more gradually ease into the movement. With very low or no interpolation, the camera will start moving at full speed almost immediately. Big thanks to Double Fine Programmer Aaron Jacobs for teaching me about interpolation!
On the top left here you can see some debug info which was SUPER useful when I needed to go back into the game later to recapture updated cutscenes.
The game also had the option to connect a second controller so one person controls the camera, and the other person controls Raz. Since I was capturing this on my own I didn't have the opportunity to take much advantage of this, but one of my goals was to use the in-game camera as much as possible because previous trailers used a lot of debug camera angles, and I thought it was time in the marketing campaign to show players what it would really look like when they're playing the game. There were also some controls for focus, depth of field, tilt, field of view and other good stuff like that.
The gameplay shots which took the most iteration were the few combat scenes where I wanted to show a mix of enemies and Raz's abilities. The variety for both is a big improvement to Psychonauts 2's design, so I wanted people to be able to understand how the game pushes you in ways the first one did, and the unique tools at your disposal. There are a handful of "cinematic" shots like an Easter Egg-ish closeup of a log with Ford Cruller's face, and Raz using his Archetype ability. I tried capturing all of these shots for maximum readability by having them nicely composed and distributed across the frame (hopefully I succeeded!)
The very last shot which received some polish was the final shot of Raz saying "Oh no..." Originally, the lighting on his face was kind of blown out, but Lee Petty ended up adjusting the lighting and shadows. I could tell just how much work they had on their plate based on the debates about whether or not it was worth spending the time to fix. In the end, the fact it was the last shot of the trailer, and the relatively small time it would take to fix meant it got approval.
I typically capture using Nvidia Shadowplay which is very easy and convenient to use, especially for its "Replay" feature which lets me press a hotkey to record the previous 30 or so seconds if something cool happens. But due to the very detailed and rich visuals I captured using my Atomos Ninja V which let me capture to Prores which is a very high quality codec, as opposed to Shadowplay which captures to h.264. This meant VERY big files, but I'm sure it was worth it.
This is another button I cut about Raz's family being cursed to die in water. At one point it was in the main body of the trailer because it's a really big thing from Raz's story.
Results
I'm so SO happy with how this trailer came out. Across different channels I think the trailer easily passed half a million views, and the reaction was incredibly gratifying. I was very pleased by how many people said the trailer got them super hyped. I even later saw some comments from people who'd already purchased the game say the trailer made them want to buy it again, haha.
During production I also got some very very nice comments from the Double Fine team about how excited the trailer made them for their own game! Seeing developers excited about their own work is one of the most fun parts of my job, especially considering they've been working on it for many years at that point and look at it every single day.
A HUGE thanks to my friend Spaff, and the rest of the Double Fine team for having me aboard for the ride. This was absolutely a dream come true to work on; I still pinch myself when I remember I had this opportunity!
Here's the final trailer!
