Erik Wolpaw?

[MM]

I noticed that he isn't mentioned as a writer anymore. Does anyone know what's up with that?

There definitely were news about him leaving Valve to work on P2.

[lordgizka]

Presumably got yeeted out of the project for being too opinionated for Timmy. I don't like the story in 2 at all, btw, timeline is all broken and many things don't make sense. Oh, and Raz is suddenly a massive ♥♥♥♥♥.
Народ там все бузит, что русского нету? Мы там хорошо засрали метакритик, хех.

[wwm0nkey]

No clue, he was being borrowed from valve when he was still there, then he left valve to work on Psychonauts 2 from 2017 to 2019. So a lot of his work would still be in the game

[lordgizka]

Originally posted by wwm0nkey:

So a lot of his work would still be in the game

No way, he would be credited as a writer otherwise. It's only Tim though, so the reasonable assumption is that he tossed all of Erik's work out. It's not uncommon with Americans nowadays. Remember the Bloodlines 2 writer? All his work was tossed out, too.

[Runic Tunic]

Hard to say, though he's definitely not credited, as you said. According to some stuff online it seems he went back to Valve in 2019. But nothing indicates he was kicked or left work on Psychonauts 2 either.

I'd imagine we'll hear more about Wolpaw's absence as time goes by. That being said, I can think of two possible scenarios:

1) Wolpaw still worked on Psychonauts 2, but he had little to nothing to do with the main game, and was working on something else related to the game (perhaps future DLC/Expansions).

2) There were issues in putting in Wolpaw's work. Perhaps it was due to disagreements in the direction of writing, perhaps it was miscommunication or conflict with scheduling, etc.

The latter option is most likely. Sometimes stuff gets dropped due to issues in scheduling, sometimes it's differences in vision. Since there's been no drama or leaked info about a fallout between Erik and Tim, I'd assume it was a mutual decision, regardless.

Either that, or they prioritized professionalism over personal opinions.

[Elaine Marley]

I saw his name in the credits, I think in the Special Thanks section. It was never said that he left Valve to work on Psy2, although I did wonder about that at the time. Runic Tunic is probably right.

[Runic Tunic]

Originally posted by Elaine Marley:

I saw his name in the credits, I think in the Special Thanks section. It was never said that he left Valve to work on Psy2, although I did wonder about that at the time. Runic Tunic is probably right.

Ah so he was credited. That's good to know.

[Elaine Marley]

He was interviewed a few months ago, maybe you can check if he said anything about Psychonauts 2 there: https://interactive.libsyn.com/portal-half-life-alyx-writer-erik-wolpaw

[lordgizka]

Originally posted by Elaine Marley:

I saw his name in the credits, I think in the Special Thanks section. It was never said that he left Valve to work on Psy2, although I did wonder about that at the time. Runic Tunic is probably right.

There is a quote of his right here, on a slidy thing. It implies he did work on the game.
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/psychonauts-2/updates/858
Anyway, whatever drama happened, it happened a while ago, and Tim did things his way. And he dropped the ball bad, far as I'm concerned. The rest of the game is really good, too, so it sucks even more.

[Elaine Marley]

Originally posted by lordgizka:

There is a quote of his right here, on a slidy thing. It implies he did work on the game.
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/psychonauts-2/updates/858

Wolpaw was meant to work on the game at first, he was in the initial campaign launch video. But then I guess he didn't! I guess to work at Valve. He wrote Half-Life: Alyx, which came out last year, so it would have overlapped with Psychonauts 2. And then he left Valve, I'm guessing because Valve doesn't seem interested in making more games.

Tim has done good work both in collaboration and on his own before, but I think I prefer his alone work, it tends to be more heartfelt, whereas his collabs (Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Psychonauts) have been more focused on humour.

[Runic Tunic]

Originally posted by lordgizka:

Originally posted by Elaine Marley:

I saw his name in the credits, I think in the Special Thanks section. It was never said that he left Valve to work on Psy2, although I did wonder about that at the time. Runic Tunic is probably right.

There is a quote of his right here, on a slidy thing. It implies he did work on the game.
https://www.fig.co/campaigns/psychonauts-2/updates/858
Anyway, whatever drama happened, it happened a while ago, and Tim did things his way. And he dropped the ball bad, far as I'm concerned. The rest of the game is really good, too, so it sucks even more.

Personally I thought the game was fine. Like I said, since there's clearly no bad blood or outright statement that he left, and the fact he's credited, I'm getting more of an impression that work schedules were conflicted and he was relegated to an advisor in some way rather than a writer.

Either way, it happens. The game still well written IMO, has all it's quirkiness and they got a laugh from me quite a few times throughout.

[Elaine Marley]

Wolpaw confirmed that he didn't write for the game at all because of scheduling:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PsychonautsGame/comments/pdfd2u/erik_wolpaw_confirms_he_didnt_end_up_writing_for/

[wwm0nkey]

Originally posted by Elaine Marley:

Wolpaw confirmed that he didn't write for the game at all because of scheduling:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PsychonautsGame/comments/pdfd2u/erik_wolpaw_confirms_he_didnt_end_up_writing_for/

Well that sucks, but at least nothing bad

[Gorlom[Swe]]

Guys. You know Wolpaw is credited as writer on Rhombus of Ruin, right?

[Runic Tunic]

Originally posted by GorlomSwe:

Guys. You know Wolpaw is credited as writer on Rhombus of Ruin, right?

Considering this is about Psychonauts 2, and not Rhombus of Ruin, plus the fact Rhombus came out roughly 4 years ago, Wolpaw working on Rhombus doesn't really mean anything.

It's totally possible he had time to write Rhombus, but wasn't able to work on Psychonauts 2. Which seems to be the case from what Elaine Marley posted.

[Gorlom[Swe]]

Originally posted by Runic Tunic:

Originally posted by GorlomSwe:

Guys. You know Wolpaw is credited as writer on Rhombus of Ruin, right?

Considering this is about Psychonauts 2, and not Rhombus of Ruin, plus the fact Rhombus came out roughly 4 years ago, Wolpaw working on Rhombus doesn't really mean anything.

It's totally possible he had time to write Rhombus, but wasn't able to work on Psychonauts 2. Which seems to be the case from what Elaine Marley posted.

It was released april 2018, which seems to loosley fit with what wwwm0nkey wrote earlier, that he joined up with DF in 2017 and back to valve in 2019.

As rhombus is technically the second Psychonauts game there could be some confusion in the terms. Which is what I was trying to imply. Now I haven't read any of the links in this thread so I don't know the specific wording and could be completley wrong in my assumptions.