The Psychonauts developer is making a kids game based on the Sesame Street license.
By Chris Pereira
Since the decision came from a publisher to not proceed with a sequel to
Brutal Legend, Double Fine has been focusing on smaller projects like
Costume Quest and Stacking. Its next game is much different than either
of those two; rather than come up with another new IP, Double Fine is
teaming up with Warner Bros to produce a new Sesame Street game titled
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster for Kinect.
"It's great to be working with Warner Bros., especially on a game like
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, which brings together so many things
we all care about," said Double Fine CEO Tim Schafer. "Sesame Street
had a profound effect on me, and many members of the Double Fine team,
when we were children. So did video games. Now many of us are parents
and we want to share with our kids the great experiences we had, but
also the completely new ones made possible by cutting-edge technology
like Kinect for Xbox 360. So it's a labor of love on many levels."
The game is described as a "truly original interactive experience" that
tells the story of players joining classic Sesame Street characters to
explore the titular storybook Once Upon a Monster. Players will interact
with the game through activities like dancing, jumping, and flying.
Warner Bros. announced last month that it would be producing a Sesame
Street game that would use motion controls.
A licensed game like this is a first for Double Fine, a company that's
probably best known for Psychonauts. The game will also be aimed at a
much different demographic than previous titles, so it should be
interesting to see how it turns out. It was not specified if this would
be a retail or downloadable title. When announcing that it had four
titles in the works last July, Schafer stated that some would be
downloadable and others would be retail -- this could very well end up
falling in the latter category when it's released this fall.
