Tim Schafer encourages developers to treat difficult issues with respect and consideration.
Psychonauts 2 hit the market last August 25th with an action adventure and platforms that made us fall in love. Among its virtues, the new Double Fine game by Tim Schafer, shone for knowing how to pose a number of scenarios that represented the minds of different individuals, with different problems and peculiarities.
You must consider the impact of your art and how it will be interpretedTim schaferThe game treats these issues with great respect and naturalness, without being frivolous but without falling into taboos. Tim Schafer spoke about this at the International Gaming Summit on Mental Health. Gamesindustry has published the talk of the creative and in it, focuses on how developers tend to avoid certain themes that they consider difficult and brings the experience of how they approached them.
Tim Schafer spoke about how he approached this second installment compared to the first, and acknowledged that despite being happy with the result of the first game, many of the issues that were well covered, it was by accident, unlike this second installment where became aware of the need to correctly address the representation of mental health.
There are some deliberate differences between the first and second installments, such as the fact that Raz assaulted the minds of individuals in the first game, whether they wanted them or not, while in the second title, awareness was raised about the violation that this entailed and consent of the individual is first obtained, except in cases of extreme emergency. Schafer wanted these previous conversations between the characters, before introducing us into their minds, normalize the need to seek therapy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU-aR0QHR4
Subscribe to the 3DJuegos channel on YouTube
Schafer also confessed that consulted the non-profit organization Take This for advice on how to handle these sensitive issues. It seemed to him that despite the good intentions of the team, the lack of information and the bubbles that form in the teams, they favor overlooking certain problems and external consultants can serve to raise red flags at some points that could have been passed by high.
Don’t avoid difficult topics, just try to approach them with great respect and consideration.Tim schaferThe creative talked about how we protect ourselves by our own mind, telling ourselves that we are good people and that good intentions guide us, justifying with them any damage that we can do with our games, while we put the focus of the problem on who we are. has offended by it. Schafer explained that this is just an apprenticeship that people have to go through, understanding that the intentions are not as important as the impact of the words. “You must consider the impact that your art has and how it is going to be interpreted, that is the only way to make better art and don’t hurt people“, Schafer sentenced.
Ultimately Schafer turned to the rest of the developers in the hope that they would accept the work involved. deal with mental health issues correctly, rather than avoiding them. “Don’t avoid difficult topics, just try to approach them with great respect and consideration,” Schafer recommended. From the words of Tim Schafer and his team, Psychonauts 2 appears to have featured a very respectful development both in the topics addressed and in the working days of Double Fine.
More about: Psychonauts 2 and Tim Schafer.