Psychonauts 2's Tim Schafer And It Takes Two's Josef Fares - MinnMax Interview

[@minnmax]

If you enjoy this discussion, please subscribe to MinnMax's KZbin channel or support us on Patreon to unlock the podcast version of this interview and more! www.patreon.com/minnmax

[@Lafuedo]

I love that at some stage Ben basically abandons the idea of trying to ask any questions and just lets them interview each other. Lesser hosts would try to artificially interject themselves back in to the discussion. Well done :)

[@minnmax]

Ha, that was the goal. I told them before recording to please run with it.

[@Hugop_arts]

Ben has got to be one of the most skilled interviewers out there - not even just within games journalism. What an interview 👌🏻

[@EricShoe]

Seriously, I was thinking the same thing.

[@IanTClark]

I think this might be the GOTY interview in the games industry.

[@yujiawang8637]

I'm from China and have unlocked 100% achievements with both game, one reason I think that ITT is so popular in China is it's super fun watching streamers playing this game, and we Chinese love watching live stream. Also psychonauts 2 losses Chinese market because there's no localization, though some players including me give very high praise to this game in our community, most gamers refuse to play it because it doesn't even have Chinese subtitles.

[@zenith675]

3D Platformers being the video game equivalent of Comedies is such a gem of an idea. Thanks for the interview Ben!!

[@FreshTillDeath56]

This was so fascinating. It Takes Two and Psychonauts 2 were my favorite games of the year, and it's mind melting to witness both directors speaking to each other. Thank you so much!

[@minnmax]

That's great, glad you enjoyed it so much. Tell a friend!

[@dandon1968]

just putting one of these people in an interview would already be great, put them both together and we have the best interview in 2021

[@leorolando1924]

Best gaming content on the internet and it's not even close. This is like the new Giant Bomb for me. Congrats on doing so well, and keep doing cool shit.

[@minnmax]

We're big fans of Giant Bomb, so that means a lot. Thanks so much!

[@Profecy02]

I don't think I've been so willing to listen to an interview about 2 guys that I haven't even played the games of in a long while

[@TheSurreptitiousSquirrelCabal]

What an awesome interview! There's way too few interviews from the video game industry that pick the brains of all these creative minds and give an insight into their thoughts on the whole process. Love this shit. Hoping there will be more of these. The dynamic of having several people at the same time discussing and sharing their thoughts also added a lot to the flow of the conversation. Big up! (Also: Din engelska har blivit så otroligt mycket bättre och uttrycksfull Josef. Ditt haze.)

[@minnmax]

Thanks so much for the comment, glad you found the video! Check out MinnMax's other interviews, you might enjoy them!

[@Greenmembr]

This is one of the best discussions of gaming I’ve heard all year. Ben curated it so elegantly and didn’t interject when the flow and rapport were strong.

[@sincerlyeric6585]

Holy cuss. What a great get Ben. Two of my favorite people in Games talking to one of my favorite Personalities in the Industry.

[@minnmax]

Oh please. Thanks so much for watching, Eric!

[@AlexP-es7ky]

I literally felt a childlike glee when I clicked the video, give it to Minnmax for the best interviews in the business!

[@minnmax]

Heck yeah, that makes us happy to see. Thanks for clicking!

[@ToutanNidigen]

Greetings from China! Just wanna say that we had a lot of fun in these two games.

[@minnmax]

Happy to hear it, thanks for watching!

[@cokezero9254]

In terms of the ITT's mysterious popularity in china: the fact that it is both a family-friendly and a co-op game definitely hits the sweet spot of the Chinese console/pc player base. The most popular video games in china in recent years outside of f2p mobile game are ring fit, animal crossing, overcooked, etc. It's similar to Nintendo's market expansion to casual gamer during NDS era in many ways. Also, proper localisation and pc port also contributed a lot to the sales.

[@mohamedMustafa-yn4uc]

@@antareszr9746 I am waiting to play it with my future significant other. I hope you found someone to play it with.

[@ParvParkhiya]

Ben, you are killing it. So awesome to have this interview exist. Thank you

[@minnmax]

Thanks so much, Parv. Tell a friend!

[@TheRealNoobSauceG7]

This was such a fun and great interview! Love both games and Tim Schafer and Josef Fares seem like two awesome dudes! Could have listened to these two for hours!

[@Dukefazon]

Josef just took the microphone out of Ben's hand and ran with it :) This was a fun listen, thank you!

[@jacksonarnold27]

Would LOVE more stuff like this, the devs interviewing devs series on GI was one of my favorites PS also bring back memory card archaeology

[@minnmax]

Thanks for remembering that stuff! We'd love to bring back Memory Card Archaeology, but we'd need Game Informer's full vault of every game ever made.

[@palico004]

Very intelligent interview, Josef is enthusiastic and vibrant and Tim is humble and gracious. I loved how they respected each other and how you were able to get multiple questions out and bounce between them, felt like a natural conversation that flowed with each person's opinion being given time. Great questions too, More of this!

[@stevepetrovich1169]

Great interview! Good on you Ben for just sitting back and letting them talk.

[@jjak1991]

To me, after playing It Takes Two I want an experience like that again but if the two characters bounce around different movie genres and tropes. With Josef Fares's passion for movies, humor, and mechanics I think that would be a killer game. ITT was my GOTY. P2 was also awesome.

[@aboredburrito5010]

Awesome interview, smiling the whole way through

[@DerUserX]

MinnMax keeps delivering, we keep winning.

[@minnmax]

We keep delivering because the community keeps fueling us!

[@gooseberry7222]

MinnMax has done it again! Wow! That’s why I keep supporting you guys monthly, no one brings me content like this!

[@minnmax]

Awww, thanks so much! We hope you enjoy the benefits over on Patreon!

[@boluke2340]

Freaking AMAZING interview. Love those guys.

[@minnmax]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!

[@SecretHieroglyphs]

Imo the two most creative games of the year by two of the most prolific directors of the year! Great interview Ben! Confidence and poise to moderate a convo between two industry titans so elequantly! Truely the best at ur craft!

[@minnmax]

Awww, thanks! Tell a friend!

[@Crashme222]

This was awesome! Josef really is a genuine guy

[@johnathaned]

Damn Ben so cool you got this together!

[@minnmax]

Thank you, we think it's cool that people support MinnMax in general!

[@luigicantisani3192]

Seeing these two game creators interacting is a blast! Let's start a petition for having a game co-directed by them! Can you imagine the best of Hazelight (obsession for variation and mechanics) combined with the best of Double Fine (insane writing and art direction). I wanna it now! Please guys, collaborate!

[@kmall87]

Damn this was very enjoyable and insightful. Love to hear developers be themselves and even more when they talk to each other. When two down to earth developers get to chatting, we get to hear things about game development we would otherwise NEVER hear from the big games. I just discovered this channel and I must say, I am an fan

[@minnmax]

Thanks so much, glad you found us!

[@samfincher45]

Love these interviews so much, thanks MinnMax!

[@MartinRyleOShea]

This was a fantastic discussion. Please continue more content like this

[@dietzhong792]

As many may know, live streamers had solid impact on the popularity of co-op games like PUB-G or Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. The popularity in China could be the reason that the game is supprisingly suitable for streamers and streamers really need a new high-quality co-op game at that time; In other words, perfect timing and high-quality.

[@sakicq7]

中国本来就有很庞大的游戏市场 直播只是一部分原因

[@mjohnson5796]

The beginning of this interview, when they are talking about game development time, is so painful after watching the Psychonauts 2 documentary 😅

[@Squall2020]

This was an outstanding conversation. Well done Ben.

[@djl3485]

This needs more views. Great interviews with and between two greats of the industry.

[@minnmax]

Any help sharing is appreciated.

[@djl3485]

@@minnmax Already done!

[@SweDownhill]

The two best games of 2021 IMHO. Great to see a discussion between the two brains behind them 😍😃

[@nadirbaitsaleem7270]

I love Josef Fares's directing style!

[@Hugop_arts]

48mins that went by in a flash. What an amazing content!!

[@minnmax]

Great to hear!

[@masterblaster831]

This was so great, such awesome guys

[@ne90316]

The two people who were responsible for 2 of my favorite games this year. Loved it!

[@oimrqs1691]

Please do more of these!

[@robhiro]

Amazing panel/interview! I love these 2

[@rickywinterborn]

epic interview! cool that minnmax can pull in the biggest names in the game industry

[@ARIXANDRE]

Wow l. I gotta watch this. Keighley, put MinnMax in the voting panel for the TGAs!

[@torunkusu]

Wow it’s too late for me to watch this over here in Sweden (Team Josef) but I’m gonna plug this into my ear socket first chance I get tomorrow morning! What a great friggin’ interview combo!

[@sknight567]

This is massive, great job as always Ben!

[@minnmax]

Thanks so much for watching, Chada!

[@QStorm321]

This was awesome, thank you.

[@minnmax]

Thank YOU!

[@FxUznilo]

What a treat!

[@n00b_ninja]

this was an amazing interview!

[@minnmax]

Thanks! Glad you found it!

[@oimrqs1691]

Amazing stuff.

[@JayPeaFenn]

Great stuff Ben 👍

[@siestaface]

Wow wow wow im cant think rn. Ben is the goat

[@jacobself1920]

Incredible get

[@Hamerparsa]

Bravo hanson dude . Bravo 👏🏻 i tip my hat to you sir

[@minnmax]

And we tip our hat back to you. thanks for watching!

[@dougiehockeym8071]

Another great minnmax get! Take this video to the moon!

[@minnmax]

Here's hoping. Thanks so much!

[@desmondmiles8441]

For me and my buddy, A Way Out already sold us It Takes Two back in 2017. I met him online 10 years ago, we both like games, espeically coop games. Minecraft, Valheim, Forest, 7 days to die, Ark, Sea of thieves, Borderlands, L4D, Destiny.... Well, you name it, and we've probably played it together. He can't speak any English, so if there's a game we wanted to play and it doesn't have Chinese localization, I would translate it to him during gameplay, I did for Divinity: Original Sin 2 (actually participated in translating the game not so long after), I did for A Way Out (also translated for a coummunity Chinese localization mod), I did for Wasteland 3 and it was the best 60hrs I've spent last year. As for A way out, at first we were just curious about what kind of game some guy says F*** Oscar would make, turns out a game built for coop gameplay exculsively is fun! Who would've thought, right?

[@charoleawood]

I just want to say that New Super Lucky's Tale is also on Game Pass and is also a really excellent, approachable platformer

[@filipwax]

Had my eye on it, how is the story and characters? 😊 would have to buy it since I'm on pc but these two games made me feel like paying more platformers

[@charoleawood]

@@filipwax The story and characters are cute and approachable. It is very light on story, however, focusing much more on the platforming through stages. There are overworld maps an you'll be unlocking new stages Banjo-Kazooie style. There are also a LOT of stages with an excellent amount of variety to them.

[@charoleawood]

@@filipwax You should also know that there are significant differences between "Super Lucky's Tale" and "New Super Lucky's Tale" --- the "New" one is an enhanced version that fixes some things and adds camera control to the right stick, that's the one I recommend.

[@KamasamaK]

31:55 I think Joseph was looking for post-mortem.

[@josephstanichar5434]

22:58 May and Cody open up the relationship in It Takes Three lmao

[@palico004]

Tim was cagey but at 11:05 he reveals his next game is a platformer in unreal engine instead of Unity. Dope. But there are multiple projects in the work at DF so it could change.

[@wolf1nsoul]

Two legends ❤️

[@NickelCanvas]

Exquisite content. Thank you.

[@vishaldeepak2538]

Two great games

[@minnmax]

Heck yes.

[@pkstarstorm8856]

I wish Tim Schafer was my dad

[@minnmax]

Same.

[@eppie899]

What an excellent get.

[@MargaritoTrevino]

This was great

[@issac-xk4ks]

Today psyconaute 2 updated Chinese subtitles!!!! Let's go!

[@charoleawood]

37:27 There are other weird Microsoft published games, Blinx is pretty damn weird and Sea of Thieves is SUPER weird and how about D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die --- some weird stuff they've published at Microsoft.

[@ethanhuang13]

Great interview, great games. Both are my personal 2021 GotY (hard to decide which one is better). Also, Psychonauts 2 really needs Chinese localization.

[@SmorgasLord]

wow!!

[@smileytheprogamer3041]

Guys psychonauts 2 and it takes two has great graphics and best plataforms

[@RomnysGonzalez]

The 2 best games of 2021

[@a.m.o8122]

I wish this wouldn't end

[@PhoenixWrightfan101]

This video makes me want to increase my patreon contribution....

[@minnmax]

Thank you?

[@PhoenixWrightfan101]

@@minnmax (I'll do it once I get home from work lol)

[@chodi.foster]

I wish you would've asked Tim Schafer what they were thinking when they designed many of the obtuse puzzles from Broken Age lol.

[@christopherleblanc7458]

Imagine Tim and Josef leading a game at rare

[@usedfuzzbox]

Two of the b Two of the best games of the year, great stuff MinnMax :D

[@minnmax]

We agree. Thanks for watching!

[@wileyo3533]

Put this on minnmaxxs 2 dollar patreon tier podcast feed plz

[@nekokna]

Tims schaffer is a great guy!

[@LonelyGamr]

Good job Ben

[@minnmax]

Good job, Robert.

[@Windytune]

Awesome!!!!

[@nadirbaitsaleem7270]

14:50 Big flex 😳

[@thecandlemaker1329]

It Takes Two looks like such a fun game, but I'm never going to be able to play it because I don't have friends who play videogames. Huge shame.

[@greenfirecats303]

Admittedly Double Fine games have a very colorful art style, but to think of them as "kid's games" just by the look? Heck, even the look is decidedly NOT "kids", it's idiosyncratic and weird, in a great way :)

[@wood5495]

Tim looks like the guy from SNL.

[@MiharuSuzuki]

I am a simple Chinese gamer. I see good shit. I paid. I see good shit with good localization. I paid faster.

[@MiharuSuzuki]

@@zerstreubar Not for sure. imo ITT is fun, smart, and full of suprise. In other words, it is good for streaming. Many Chinese gamers like watching streamers play games on their broadcast channels. I guess this would be a great way to advertise the game.

[@vitolu6727]

@@zerstreubar Streaming is the most important marketing platform for video games in China. Lots of Chinese streamers have received millions of views on the streaming of ITT.

[@kylelucien7632]

1, The couple friendly genre that invites female players like animal crossing can go trending in China much more easier because there is just very few games that guys can play girls; 2, Lots Chinese streamer were playing ITT when it came out, streaming is a gigantic thing in China, it's even bigger than Twitch, so it got populate suddenly. The leason for game developers aims at China: 1, Make family or couple friendly games with a focus on social elements, 2, Engage Chinese social media and streaming, full localization with voices and subtitles is the must do first thing first

[@cynicshminic]

Two gaming auteurs

[@MegaPieru3000]

Hazelight is under EA isn't it? It's not independent.

[@charoleawood]

The studio is independent, their games thus far have all been published by EA and as such are EA property

[@cxz9808]

psychonauts 2 without Chinese subtitles is disappointing, and the comments on xgp are complaining about this

[@jacksonarnold27]

What a get!

[@scorpiodream4260]

特地来看眼冒精光hhh

[@zhaf]

There are a lot (and I mean A LOT) of couples with marriage problems in China. Maybe that’s why? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@jzilla1234]

😕 psychonauts wasn't even that good. Felt like an outdated relic from the past. It takes two though was fantastic and refreshing gameplaywise, the plot and voice acting was a little hammy