'I'm working on other stuff': Double Fine chief Tim Schafer squashes hopes for Psychonauts 3 any time soon

Psychonauts fans who were hoping for a sequel announcement at Gamescom are in for some disappointment. Double Fine development chief Tim Schafer all but confirmed the studio is not planning to work on Psychonauts 3, let alone a Brütal Legend sequel, any time soon.

During an interview with IGN at Gamescom this week, Schafer explained that Double Fine's focus right now is on original IP, stating, "I'm working on other stuff."

He didn't say exactly what that "stuff" was but added that, "The studio is doing multiple projects right now and they're all original IPs, because we did Psychonauts 2 and that will hold us for sequels for a while."

This isn't the first time Schafer has shut down Psychonauts 3 hopes over the past few years. The PsychOdyssey documentary series released last year revealed how much time and effort went into making Psychonauts 2, and revealed some of the devs' reluctance to do that again for a third entry in the series. So, maybe it isn't surprising that Double Fine wants to focus on smaller projects for the foreseeable future, however disappointing that might be to Psychonauts fans.

We already know what at least one of those new projects is: Keeper, which is set to release on October 17. It's a surreal, at times unsettling puzzle game where you play as a walking lighthouse with a bird buddy named Twig. Schafer described it as "a weird, but chill experience" in his Gamescom interview with IGN and noted that the game doesn't have any dialogue.

"It's come a long way to make, even though it's not a long gameplay experience. It's, we estimate, about six to eight hours of gameplay," Schafer explained, adding, "But it is within that time a very deep and high-fidelity, kind of AAA experience."

Keeper is available to wishlist on Steam and will also launch on Xbox. It might not be Psychonauts 3, but it shares a similar surreal, otherworldly art style, so it might be worth checking out for Psychonauts fans, especially since it doesn't look like we're getting another sequel from Double Fine any time soon.