Double Fine documentary's bittersweet epilogue highlights need for safe workplaces

Two Player Productions has surprise-dropped an epilogue for Double Fine Psych Odyssey, its lengthy documentary cataloguing the making of Double Fine's Psychonauts 2. The posthumous episode sees the studio conducting key postmortems, reacting to the release of the original documentary, and grappling with the still-simmering tensions captured for the world to see.

The episode isn't completely mournful, but in its most honest moments it examines how leaders on the project fostered what was at times an unhealthy working environment. Many developers seemed to understand that working environment badly hurt morale and drove some away from the studio.

CEO Tim Schafer, his voice often cracking, describes rewatching several moments from late in development and realizing he'd missed all the signs of things going off track.

One moment in particular stands out: his recognition of what former senior gameplay programmer Anna Kipnis went through before she left Double Fine.

Some devs only understood their peers' experiences after watching Psych Odyssey

Kipnis left the company in 2018, in what Psych Odyssey revealed followed major disagreements in how development on Psychonauts 2 was proceeding. Schafer said rewatching her departure made him realize the studio had become a place where people were afraid to share ideas.

Related:Classic Postmortem: The development of the original Psychonauts was a fraught experience

"Those meetings were about people being shut down and made to feel embarrassed for bringing up things," he said, alluding to comments made by former design director Zak McClendon in meetings with Kipnis. "No one's going to pitch the idea that make the game good when they're being mocked or being made to feel bad for bringing up creative ideas."

"You can see how that kind of pressure and fear of public failure brings out [what is] not our best selves."

His reflections go beyond Kipnis' experience, and cover many moments that show how gaps in leadership—from himself and others—created the aforementioned tension.

It's not an easy lesson to watch someone learn in real time. Towards the end of the episode, Schafer said the company has taken steps to avoid repeating that failure and preserve a healthy culture—one physical example being a company handbook puts the studio's core values down in writing for new hires and longtime employees alike.

A handbook alone can't make right what went wrong on Psychonauts 2—but hopefully a brutally transparent documentary can help other developers steer away from the dangerous shoals that Double Fine sailed through.

You can watch the epilogue episode in the video above.

Related:Psychonauts 2's cooking show level serves inspiration for all aspiring devs