Double Fine senior producer Kevin Johnson tweeted earlier today that the upcoming "Psychonauts 2" was produced "without crunch." Game studio executives are understandably skeptical of claims of "no crunch" - labor is often revealed by the workers, not the people who manage them - but that it is the producer's job to manage the labor schedule, which could be refuted If we knew that, we would not expect Mr. Johnson to raise this issue.

Johnson went on to say that he was "proud to be a part of something so special that was created on the schedule we set" and that he thought the players would enjoy it.

"Psychonauts 2" was officially announced in 2015 and has been in development for some time. Originally slated for a 2019 release, it was postponed twice, first to 2020 and then to August 2021, the current release date.

One of the delays for Psychonauts appears to be due to Microsoft's acquisition of Double Fine in 2019. Founder Tim Schafer said at the time that he was cutting content due to lack of funding, and the acquisition gave the studio the resources it needed to re-add boss fights, etc. The 2020 delay was much quieter, but many studios' schedules and pipelines have been affected by last year's remote work to the shift to a more remote workforce was affected.

If it is true that games are being made without crunch, it is good to see Johnson say so out loud - even if development is not yet finished. Abusing workers is not a necessary part of making a game, and gaining the trust of players by making a game without crunch will encourage other studios to set reasonable expectations and deadlines for their employees.

Psychonauts 2 will be released on Steam and Xbox Game Pass on August 25.