Brutal Legend Preview

VideoGamer.com: Have you played Tales of Monkey Island?

TS: I haven't played Tales of Monkey Island yet. I've been in crunch.

VideoGamer.com: Will you play it?

TS: Yeah. I mean Dave Grossman's working on it. He was on the original, and so I'm sure it's going to be good.

VideoGamer.com: I've interviewed Dave about the pressure of continuing a much-loved series like Monkey Island. Brutal Legend is a brand new game. You've worked on sequels before. How do the two types of pressure compare?

TS: You can't start with that kind of pressure. I mean you have your own internal pressure for how your creative process works and that's really where you have to start. Exploring those ideas that make you happy and excited and make you think something could be there if you just thought about it some more and developing those ideas. That's how you work on that kind of stuff. If you imagine too much what people are expecting then you go crazy and you become creatively paralysed, you know? Because you're like, well but this person will like this but then this other kind of person wouldn't like that. You get kind of locked in that and unable to move. So in some ways you just have to be like, well, you're going to make something you like and hopefully other people will like it.

VideoGamer.com: It seems a lot of developers say a similar thing - they almost lock down and create something they want to play first and foremost.

TS: Because then you at least know somebody likes it!

VideoGamer.com: You're going to buy your own game, right?

TS: Well I mean it's true. Sometimes when you try and guess what someone will like, or like what someone has calculated by using a chart what they... like we think people will like this kind of game and it's like a theory, then you might end up with zero people liking the game including yourself. But at least if you make something you like the odds are other people will like it as well, because you are a person [laughs]. You're not an alien! You have the same likes and dislikes that a lot of other people have.

VideoGamer.com: Could we ever see another Psychonauts game?

TS: I would love to make another Psychonauts game. If you have a few million dollars on you, I will make one for you [laughs].

VideoGamer.com: Have you thought about what it would be like?

TS: Yeah. It's a never ending source of ideas because whenever you meet somebody who's interesting, and you think what's inside their mind look like, that could be a level in the game. And that's a game that encompasses all other settings and genres because anything can happen in someone's mind.

VideoGamer.com: So all you need is a publisher willing to pick it up?

TS: In time. You know because that's the thing. I would have liked to have made a sequel to Full Throttle or Grim Fandango or Day of the Tentacle, but just like, then we had this other idea for something else we wanted to make, you know a new game.

VideoGamer.com: You do, huh?

TS: Always. You always have some other new game you want to make and that's always more fun. People ask for sequels but deep down, I think what's better for them is to give them something new. If we had made another Day of the Tentacle game I would never had made Full Throttle, and if I had Full Throttle 2 I never would have made Grim Fandango. People when they like something if you've done it right, they should always ask for a sequel because they liked it and they want more, and that's correct. But that doesn't mean you necessarily should give it to them. I think what they would like more and what the industry would thrive on more is a new idea.

VideoGamer.com: Which is what Brutal Legend is?

TS: Yeah. But I don't know. You know, some day, I guess.

Brutal Legend will launch on October 16 for Xbox 360 and PS3.